In the interview, Roxanne Khamsi, a science writer and contributor to WIRED, joins Mike to talk about Covid-19 social distancing, mask policies, lockdown, and preparedness in the U.S. and Canada. As America approaches the start of the holidays, Khamsi shares some new data—based off of individuals isolated on offshore oil drilling rigs—that provides some guidance on testing twice and how it may help shorten the 14-day quarantine period.
The outgoing president's antics consume attention that should be focused on the raging pandemic, while President-elect Biden looks to make progress on climate change, immigration, student debt, and other issues. Then Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha talks to Jon Favreau about how the party can improve its performance among Latino voters.
2020 Election Superstar Steve Kornacki joins our podcast today to discuss the fascinating and unprecedented political situation now facing Joe Biden—with what is likely to be a Republican Senate and a teeny-tiny Democratic majority in the House. How can he govern? Also, John complains about Nate Silver. Give a listen. Source
Ireland itself is a main character in Kevin Barry's new short story collection, That Old Country Music. He brings the western regions to life in stories set firmly in Ireland's present day but with an ancient, magical past lingering in the background. A pregnant teenager waits for her robber boyfriend, a factory worker falls for a Polish waitress, and a police officer seeks a known criminal, in stories set amidst wild and flourishing countryside.
The concrete walls and tower blocks of Peckham in south London are not often the subject of poetry. For his debut collection, Poor, Caleb Femi pays tribute to the streets that shaped him as a child. He brings to life the schoolboys, rappers, artists, pastors and gentrifying neighbours of Peckham, an area where it is possible to walk two and a half miles through an estate of 1,444 homes without a single step on the ground.
Daisy Johnson became the youngest ever Booker Prize nominee with her debut novel, Everything Under, and quickly established herself as a master of creepy locations. Her new novel, Sisters, is a gothic tale set on lonely Yorkshire moors, while her short story series The Hotel, available now on BBC Sounds, looks at the unsettling, waterlogged Norfolk Fens, a place where dead bodies float back up to the surface.
Andy talks about what should be happening with the presidential transition right now in terms of managing the pandemic. Former Trump VA Secretary David Shulkin provides expertise on how a typical transition goes — and the cost of President Trump’s refusal to concede. David was there for the Obama-Trump transition and details how he sees today's norm-shattering process playing out. The saving grace, as Andy points out, is that President-Elect Biden knows his way around the White House blindfolded.
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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 The Shulkin Blog, where David shares news insights about COVID-19: https://shulkinblog.com/
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On the Gist, Democrats seeing compromise as a defeat.
In the interview, political commentator Jess McIntosh talks with Mike about the fight within the Democratic party about whose messaging matters. They discuss the merits of centrist and progressive language, how important it is to have members of Congress who are further left than Biden, and why Republicans villainize Democrats regardless of the language they use. McIntosh is co-host of Signal Boost on Sirius XM.
What is driving the political world’s fixation with the president even as he has largely ceded the spotlight to his rival? Is it Trump’s still menacing but largely banal self-affirmations on Twitter, or is Joe Biden just such an unenthusiastic prospect for the left that they are milking the final weeks of the Trump era for all they are worth?
On the Gist, more of Trump’s inner circle test positive for Covid-19.
In the interview, writer and urban policy specialist Diana Lind is here to talk about her new book Brave New Home: Our Future in Smarter, Simpler, Happier Housing. She and Mike discuss how the single-family home arose in the U.S. as a part of the American dream, if it’s really making us any happier to live that way, and what sorts of legal roadblocks currently prevent a variety of housing options from proliferating across the country.
Donald Trump and Republican leaders are still refusing to acknowledge that Joe Biden won, the Trump campaign strategy to steal the election is failing, and a purge at the Pentagon raises concerns. Then Stacey Abrams talks to Dan about how Democrats can win in Georgia and all over the country.
