The loneliness pandemic/Betraying “essential workers”
We have something a bit different today. Two episodes from our extraordinary colleagues at Today, Explained, both of them close to my heart. The first is an episode that I worked with them on, and ap...
20 Apr 202047min
Why Bernie Sanders lost and how progressives can still win
The Democratic presidential primary is over. Joe Biden is the presumptive nominee heading into the fall. And this week, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren endorsed their former competitor. On the lef...
16 Apr 20201h 39min
Scott Gottlieb on how, and when, to end social distancing
When will social distancing end? When will life return to “normal”? And what will it take to get there? Scott Gottlieb is a physician and public health expert who served as Donald Trump’s first FDA c...
13 Apr 202047min
Toby Ord on existential risk, Donald Trump, and thinking in probabilities
Oxford philosopher Toby Ord spent the early part of his career spearheading the effective altruism movement, founding Giving What We Can, and focusing his attention primarily on issue areas like globa...
9 Apr 20201h 24min
Elizabeth Warren has a plan for this, too
In January, Sen. Elizabeth Warren was the first presidential candidate to release a plan for combatting coronavirus. In March, she released a second plan. Days later, with the scale of economic damage...
6 Apr 202050min
What social solidarity demands of us in a pandemic
There is no doubt that social distancing is the best way to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But the efficacy of social distancing (or really any other public health measure) relies on something mu...
2 Apr 20201h 5min
Coronavirus has pushed US-China relations to their worst point since Mao
The COVID-19 pandemic is a grim reminder that the worst really can happen. Tail risk is real risk. Political leaders fumble, miscalculate, and bluster into avoidable disaster. And even as we try to de...
30 Mar 202059min
Is the cure worse than the disease?
"We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself!" That was President Donald Trump, this week, explaining why he was thinking about lifting coronavirus guidelines earlier than public-health ex...
26 Mar 20201h 4min
