Wed, Mar 25, 2020
How can science speed up vaccine development for COVID-19? Steven Johnson speaks with Dr. Bruce Gellin, President of Global Immunization at the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington D.C.. Dr. Gellin is also a former director of the National Vaccine Program at the Department of Health and Human Services, and he led the creation of HHS's first pandemic influenza preparedness and response plan.
Mon, Mar 30, 2020
Civilization needs cities. The population density of cities has always been key to driving new ideas, new collaborations, and new social movements. But today, as the coronavirus spreads, that density is creating danger. Steven talks with Richard Florida, a bestselling author on cities and urban rebirth, about how cities can protect their way of life, and how they can come out of this crisis even stronger than before.
Mon, Apr 6, 2020
Reading the forecast models that track and predict the spread of the coronavirus can feel like a glimpse into the future. And epidemiologists - the scientists behind these models - have suddenly become the most important figures in this fight. Dr. Tara Smith, an epidemiologist and professor at the Kent State University College of Public Health, talks with Steven about what most people misunderstand about these models, whether there's an end in sight for social distancing, and why the public health sector is our "invisible shield."
Mon, Apr 13, 2020
Where are new cases being detected? How many beds are available in local hospitals? What's the growth rate of ICU admissions? These are some of the most urgent questions in the world right now, and they're being answered by data pioneers like Dr. John Brownstein, the Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children's Hospital. Dr. Brownstein talks to host Steven Johnson about his new crowdsourced website, CovidNearYou.org, and how public health data doesn't just track deaths, but helps prevent them.
Mon, Apr 20, 2020
Let's face it: People are worried about their kids. How can people protect their mental health? Should the normal rules around screen time still apply? What will school look like come September? This week, Steven talks with Anya Kamenetz, an education correspondent for NPR and author of the book The Art of Screen Time, to find some answers.
Mon, Apr 27, 2020
When health care workers began running out of protective equipment, makers around the world powered up their 3D printers and got to work. This week, Steven talks to journalist Clive Thompson about the maker movement, an informal network of sewers, tinkerers, and engineers whose ingenuity is bridging supply gaps and increasing the pace of technological innovation, sometimes in a very retro way.
Mon, May 4, 2020
If the world really want to reopen the economy, the governments need to do more than just flatten the curve. In the words of Dr. Jim Kim, the former president of the World Bank, the world needs to "start coming down the mountain." And to do that, Dr. Kim says there is only one valid solution: "contact tracing," one of the most low-tech and labor-intensive weapons in our public health arsenal. Steven talks to Dr. Kim about how he convinced Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to invest in contact tracing when other governors wouldn't even return his calls, and why contact tracing is the best way to contain the spread of Covid-19.
Mon, May 11, 2020
Communication and cooperation across society are as important as they've ever been. This week, Steven talks with Andy Slavitt, the former Medicare and Medicaid chief, who has emerged as one of the most effective communicators during this crisis. Andy and Steven how to find trustworthy news sources, discuss the future of healthcare, and how to make the most of your child's senior year in isolation.
Mon, May 18, 2020
While the U.S. has countless WWI memorials, it has almost none dedicated to the 1918 flu pandemic. But the pandemic claimed six times as many American lives as WWI. Steven talks to historian Nancy Bristow, author of American Pandemic: The Lost Worlds of the 1918 Influenza Epidemic, about the blind spot in America's collective memory. Why did we forget 1918's pandemic? And how well will future generations remember this one?
Mon, May 25, 2020
According to the World Health Organization, the world not just in the midst of a pandemic. The world is living through an "infodemic," where misinformation is more readily available than facts. Steven talks to Joan Donovan, who studies misinformation in her role as the Director of the Technology and Social Change Research Project at Harvard Kennedy's Shorenstein Center. Joan shares how conspiracy theories spread and how each of us can practice good information hygiene. It's not as easy as wearing a mask - but it's close.
Tue, Jun 2, 2020
These days, watches don't just tell time. Smartwatches like Apple Watch and Fitbit measure your heart rate, count your steps, and track your sleep schedule. According to Dr. Michael Snyder, they can also tell you when you're getting sick - and potentially spot Covid-19 before you're even symptomatic. Steven talks to Dr. Snyder, who runs the Center for Genomics and Personalized Medicine at Stanford, about his new study on whether wearables can predict the onset of Covid-19. What has the study learned so far, and what else can your wearables be trained to detect?
Mon, Jun 8, 2020
There's a saying in public health circles: "When white America sneezes, black America gets pneumonia." When the coronavirus hit, health care experts knew that black Americans would be the hardest hit. But the numbers were still shocking. Black people make up 12.7% of the U.S. population but have so far made up 22% of its Covid-19-related deaths.Steven talks to reporter Linda Villarosa about the reasons behind those numbers, and her quest to give them a human face in her New York Times Magazine article, "A Terrible Price: The Deadly Racial Disparities of Covid-19 in America." Along the way, she offers hope that the world might be able to turn this current crisis into a call for action.
Mon, Jun 15, 2020
Most CEOs hated the idea of employees working from home. But when the coronavirus hit, they didn't have a choice. They sent their white-collar workers home before they'd even learned how to mute themselves on Zoom. What happened next surprised everyone. Productivity shot through the roof. Now, companies don't know whether they should bring workers back to the office, even if they can do it safely. Steven invited Clive Thompson, fresh off his piece for The New York Times Magazine about remote work, to talk through this rapid culture shift. What, exactly, makes remote work so productive? What do peple lose when they work in isolation? What new technology will emerge from this moment? And how many of us will ever voluntarily do the 9-to-5 again?
Mon, Jun 29, 2020
Back in March, the NBA pressed pause on its 2019-20 season. Now, the league wants to pick up where it left off - but with Covid-19 rates on the rise, it's not going to be easy. This week, Kavitha Davidson, host of The Lead, walks the audience through the NBA's plan to move 16 teams into a "bubble" at the Disney World Resort. What rules will players have to follow? And will the risks to players' health be worth it?
Mon, Jul 6, 2020
When National Geographic science editor Nsikan Akpan began researching his latest article on the coronavirus, he asked every scientist he talked to the same question: Has the U.S. already lost? Every scientist said no - but the world needs a better game plan. Nsikan tells Steven what people have been getting wrong - and what the new game plan should look like.
Mon, Jul 27, 2020
Back-to-school season is here, but students across the country aren't going anywhere. Anya Kamenetz, NPR's education correspondent, returns to the show to shed light on the greatest educational crisis of our time. How can the world safely reopen schools? And what can the country learn from countries that have tried - and failed?
Mon, Aug 17, 2020
The coronavirus has put our lives on pause, but it's kicked the science behind vaccines into hyperdrive. Science writer Carl Zimmer walks Steven through some of the radical new approaches to making vaccines - and gives his best-case/worst-case scenarios for when a vaccine will be ready. Also: we get answers, kind of, about what's up with Russia. And Steven drops a Taylor Swift reference.
Mon, Sep 7, 2020
There are few people who have thought more about pandemics than epidemiologist Larry Brilliant. He worked with the World Health Organization to eradicate smallpox. He's fought polio and blindness in India. And, in his 2006 TED Prize talk, he warned the audience that a pandemic was coming "within your children or your grandchildren's lifetime." He was right. What he couldn't predict, though, was how mismanaged our response would be - and how quickly we'd set aside the lessons we learned defeating smallpox. As Larry tells Steven, "We have to work together - and we're not doing it so far."