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There’s plenty to be learned from past pandemics. They tend to follow a dramatic arc: denial, blame, and mass mobilization. So far, the coronavirus tracks with some contagions of the past—but can history tell anything about where we’re headed?
Guest: David S. Jones, professor of the culture of medicine at Harvard University.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic worsens, the United States might have to figure out how to hold an election in a time of social distancing. Will local, state and federal officials be able coordinate in time to transform our election infrastructure?
Guest: Nate Persily, Stanford University Law Professor
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To understand where the country is right now in battling this pandemic you have to confront some pretty grim statistics. Roughly one in three Americans are under some kind of orders to stay at home. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surpassed 33,000. And a nearly $2 trillion dollar coronavirus rescue package is hanging in the Senate’s balance. With many Americans and health care workers needing immediate assistance, will lawmakers respond?
Guest: Jim Newell, Slate’s senior politics writer.
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Google has spent the last decade trying to find a foothold in the health care industry. Now they’re partnering with the federal government to build a website that will seek to address the crisis.
Can Google be trusted with our medical data?
Guest: Mason Marks, law professor at Gonzaga University School of Law and an affiliated fellow at Yale Law School's Information Society Project.
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Many Americans still can’t imagine how the coronavirus pandemic will upend their lives. In northern Italy, no imagination is needed. Coffins pile up in churches and cemeteries as funeral gatherings remain banned. Hospitals are overwhelmed. And those who die from COVID-19 die alone.
Guest: Greta Privitera, an Italian journalist on her fourth week of lockdown in Milan.
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As the novel coronavirus spreads sickness and anxiety around the U.S., it’s tempting to point fingers at government agencies that seemed wholly unequipped for the crisis. And, to be clear, Washington was not prepared. But here’s what decision makers can be doing right now to figure out what comes next.
Guest: Beth Cameron, vice president for global biological policy and programs at the Nuclear Threat Initiative.
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When Senator Elizabeth Warren announced the end of her presidential campaign, she was asked about the role of sexism in the race. Warren didn’t venture an answer, promising she’d have more to say later. In the meantime, we have some thoughts.
Guest: Rebecca Traister, writer for New York Magazine and author of Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger.
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In the face of the coronavirus outbreak, U.S. political leaders are moving faster than they have in years. But it still might not be fast enough.
Guest: Jordan Weissmann, Slate’s senior business and economics correspondent.
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Open or closed? Across the country, state governors and mayors are asking themselves that question: Are we safer staying open, or are we safer closing down?
Over the weekend, more cities and states ordered shutdowns to temper the spread of COVID-19. But we’re dealing with a threat we haven’t seen before. How are we supposed to make decisions when we’re lacking basic information about how this coronavirus works?
Guest: Jeremy Faust, an emergency medicine physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
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Dahlia Lithwick is joined by Professor Michele Goodwin, Chancellor’s Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Biotechnology and Global Health Policy at the University of California Irvine School of Law. Professor Goodwin unpacks the oral arguments in this term’s big reproductive health case, June Medical Services, and delves into the history of racism and civil-rights trampling in the name of public health.
For plus members, Mark Joseph Stern joins Dahlia with what to expect from a SCOTUS closed to the public, the Obamacare case, and which record was met at the Supreme Court this week.
Podcast production by Sara Burningham.
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