Category: 3-SometimeCommentary

If you didn’t catch this Best of In the Bubble episode the first time around, you are in for a treat! And even if you've heard it already, go ahead and give it another listen. If there is one expert Andy could talk with about coronavirus and how we are really doing, it is epidemiologist Larry Brilliant. Larry, who helped eradicate smallpox and is hard at work on coronavirus, grades our performance on a scientific, sociological, and political basis. He also shares everything that science knows, and doesn't know, about the way the novel coronavirus is transmitted and infects us. Larry doesn’t mince words about political leadership or the CDC. 

Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.

Follow Larry Brilliant on Twitter @larrybrilliant.

In the Bubble is supported in part by listeners like you. Become a member, get exclusive bonus content, ask Andy questions, and get discounted merch at https://www.lemonadamedia.com/inthebubble/ 

Support the show by checking out our sponsors!

• Livinguard masks have the potential to deactivate COVID-19 based on the testing they have conducted from leading universities such as the University of Arizona and the Free University in Berlin, Germany. Go to shop.livinguard.com and use the code BUBBLE10 for 10% off.

Check out these resources from today’s episode: 

• Check out the latest information on the Oxford vaccine, as mentioned in this week’s Zach Fact: https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/20/study-provides-first-glimpse-of-efficacy-of-oxford-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine/
• Here is more information if you are Interested in volunteering for a COVID-19 prevention clinical study: https://www.coronaviruspreventionnetwork.org/clinical-study-volunteer/
• Watch Larry Brilliant’s 2006 TED Talk here: https://www.ted.com/talks/larry_brilliant_my_wish_help_me_stop_pandemics/transcript?language=en
• Read more about how chronic fatigue syndrome may hold keys to understanding post-Covid syndrome: https://www.statnews.com/2020/07/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-keys-understanding-post-covid-syndrome/

To follow along with a transcript and/or take notes for friends and family, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/in-the-bubble shortly after the air date.

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On the Gist, Fauci guess-timates. And, today in Remembrances of Things Trump: dead ducks and poisoned undies. 

In the interview, Harvard professor Michael McCormick is here to tell Mike about the worst year in recorded history. According to him, it’s 536 A.D., a year when a volcanic eruption blocked out the sun, a bubonic plague that recurred every few decades began, and Ireland was without bread for four years. He and Mike discuss how we’re able to pinpoint so precisely the date of these events, how it affected humanity, and that sometimes the history lesson is things can always get worse. McCormick is the Frances Goelet Professor of Medieval History at Harvard University.

In the spiel, if our ancestors got through, so can we.

Email us at thegist@slate.com

Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder, Margaret Kelley, and Cheyna Roth.

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Andy counts down his top 10 moments of the year, including a look inside an emergency room COVID-19 unit, our “Safe or Not Safe?” toolkit, and Andy’s all-time favorite clip of Zach. We’ll revisit some of our favorite In the Bubble guests like Kumail Nanjiani, Kara Swisher, and Ed Yong. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You may even break out in song. Either way, it’s an episode you won’t want to miss. 

Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.

In the Bubble is supported in part by listeners like you. Become a member, get exclusive bonus content, ask Andy questions, and get discounted merch at https://www.lemonadamedia.com/inthebubble/ 

Support the show by checking out our sponsors!

• Livinguard masks have the potential to deactivate COVID-19 based on the testing they have conducted from leading universities such as the University of Arizona and the Free University in Berlin, Germany. Go to shop.livinguard.com and use the code BUBBLE10 for 10% off.

Check out these resources from today’s episode: 

• Pre-order Andy’s book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response, here: www.preventablebook.com 

To follow along with a transcript and/or take notes for friends and family, go to www.lemonadamedia.com/show/in-the-bubble shortly after the air date.

Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia. For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Paris Marx is joined by Mathew Lawrence and Thomas Hanna to discuss the problems with platforms, why antitrust alone is not enough to fix them, and how we can encourage the creation of democratic platforms that serve the public good.

Mathew Lawrence is the founder and director of Common Wealth. He’s also the co-author of “Planet on Fire: A Manifesto for the Age of Environmental Breakdown.” Preorder it now from Verso Books and follow him on Twitter as @DantonsHead.

Thomas Hanna is the research director at The Next System Project. He’s the author of “Our Common Wealth: The Return of Public Ownership in the United States.” Follow him on Twitter as @ThomasMHanna.

Tech Won’t Save Us offers a critical perspective on tech, its worldview, and wider society with the goal of inspiring people to demand better tech and a better world. Follow the podcast (@techwontsaveus) and host Paris Marx (@parismarx) on Twitter, and support the show on Patreon.

Find out more about Harbinger Media Network at harbingermedianetwork.com.

Also mentioned in this episode:

• Mathew and Thomas wrote a new report with Nils Peters called “A Common Platform: Reimagining Data and Platforms.”
• Eric Levitz wrote about how venture capitalists are like US central planners.
• Dan Hind wrote a previous report called “The British Digital Cooperative.”

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On the Gist, sorting out how undemocratic of our democracy is.

In the interview, the Atlantic’s James Fallows contends that while 2020 has been bad, 1968 was actually quite worse. The Vietnam War was raging, young men were being drafted, and in 1968 the North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces launched their Tet Offensive. Not to mention, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated. Fallows and Mike discuss how the assassinations compounded on the stress of the war, how shooting targets have shifted from politicians to schools, and compare the civil unrest of 1968 with 2020. Fallows’ piece in the Atlantic is “Is This the Worst Year in Modern American History?”

In the spiel, we’re not getting those $2,000 checks...which leads to a Remembrances of Things Trump where the president likes a certain phrase about talking and action. 

Email us at thegist@slate.com

Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder, Margaret Kelley, and Cheyna Roth.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

Editor’s note: This episode mistakenly identifies Martin Luther King Jr. as having been assassinated “when he was in his early 40s.” King died at the age of 39 on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

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On the Gist, we’re experiencing some loner white terrorist burnout.

In the interview, we’re talking rural Republicans. Ross Benes gives us insight to Nebraska’s Republican party, and how they can help to understand Republicans everywhere. He talks about where Democrats are going wrong outside the cities, the difference between an old fashioned Republican and a Trump Toadie, and what makes rural voters tick—sometimes despite their own best interests. Benes is a journalist and analyst at eMarketer, and the author of Rural Rebellion: How Nebraska Became a Republican Stronghold.

In the spiel, remembering what Trump said he’d do for the Carrier plant.

Email us at thegist@slate.com

Podcast production by Daniel Schroeder, Margaret Kelley, and Cheyna Roth.

Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

HNY from the heart of Times Square!

0:00 – This week, we welcome JoAnn Lum, the director of NMASS (the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops), a “multi-trade, multi-ethnic workers center” located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan.

Though COVID-19 has recently shone a light on horrifying working conditions in healthcare, nursing homes, restaurants, and delivery, JoAnn describes how “essential workers” have faced steadily worsening prospects for decades, and relays her members’ disappointment in the government response.

She also talks about how immigration law has been used to divide workers, and explains NMASS’s “Ain’t I a Woman” campaign, which is challenging the 24-hour workday for home care attendants. (Tammy wrote about this around-the-clock work for Businessweek two years ago [a sobering read!].)

Unsurprisingly, the pandemic has only exacerbated the urgency of NMASS’s organizing. Learn more and contribute here!

34:30 – In the second half, we discuss a bundle of listener questions about “diversity:” employment initiatives, diversity statements, even children’s books! How do we navigate between “good” and “bad” versions of diversity? What are the right categories to describe them? 

Thanks to Adriana, Amy, and Helen for the excellent questions!

Keep your queries and comments coming! We’d love more recorded audio bits, too, which you can send by email: timetosaygoodbyepod@gmail.com. On Twitter, we’re doomscrolling at @TTSGpod.

Finally, pass the podcast onto your friends!