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Featured at Slate.com | Mary C. Curtis

The Pandemic Lessons We’ve Forgotten: A long summer COVID surge—and outbreaks of mpox and bird flu—have mostly been met with a shrug

Rather than coming out of the pandemic with a new toolkit of public health measures or even personal habits, the response to this summer’s long wave of COVID infections has mostly been to continue with business as usual. But business as usual seems inadequate with mpox and bird flu crises on the horizon.

Guest: Apoorva Mandavilli, science and global health reporter at the New York Times.

Should Parents Face Charges for Kids’ Crimes? Prosecuting parents seems like another way to treat a symptom and ignore the disease.

After the school shooting in Georgia last week, charges were brought against the 14-year-old alleged gunman—and also against his father. Who’s really responsible?

Guest: Josie Duffy Rice, journalist focused on prosecutors, prisons, and other criminal justice issues and host of What A Day.

Who—and Why—Israelis Are Protesting Can a general strike and mass protests sway Netanyahu’s government—or will it just double down?

Will the deaths of six hostages mark a turning point in how Israelis view the war in Gaza—and how Netanyahu’s government is conducting it?

Guest: Yair Rosenberg, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of its newsletter Deep Shtetl

Could Arlington Cost Trump Military Votes? We’ve reached that stage where the candidates try to prove they’re the ones who truly love the military.

How much do military voters and their families care about Trump attempting a campaign stop at Arlington National Cemetery?

Guest: Leo Shane III, deputy editor for the Military Times.

The Olympics Meet the Culture Wars: Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting have been pulled into the long, ugly history of sports sex testing

How Imane Khelif and Lin Yu-Ting—two women boxers fighting in the gender category they were assigned at birth—became the targets of trans panic and subject to another round of “but is she woman enough?” at the Olympics.

Guest: Rose Eveleth, reporter and host of the podcast Tested, from NPR and CBC.

Why It Had to Be Walz: What is the Minnesota governor bringing to the ticket?

How Minnesota Governor Tim Walz slipped past VP-favorite Josh Shapiro and joined Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket.

Guest: Guest: David Faris, associate professor of political science at Roosevelt University and author of The Kids Are All Left and It’s Time to Fight Dirty.

Olympic Gymnastics is Back. But Is It Better? The problem has always been bigger than Larry Nassar.

How physical and emotional abuse from coaches still persists in American gymnastics.

Guest: Molly Henseley Clancy, sports writer for the Washington Post.

The DEI Smear Against Kamala Harris: New candidate, same old playbook.

Calling Kamala Harris a “DEI hire” is both sexist and racist, and despite the GOP leadership’s pleading, it has quickly emerged as a favored line of attack from the right.

Guest: Dr. Brittney Cooper, professor of gender studies and Africana studies at Rutgers University

After the Trump Assassination Attempt

Former president Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt Saturday during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. While the gunman has been identified, law enforcement have not offered a potential motivation for the attack. The incident comes at a time of heightened political violence, when more Americans think such acts are justifiable.

Guests: Isaac Arnsdorf, national political reporter for The Washington Post, and David Graham, staff writer at The Atlantic.

What’s Biden Doing With the Border? To beat Trump, must Biden imitate him?

Joe Biden’s new executive order severely limits migrants from seeking asylum at the border. It’s a far cry from his campaign rhetoric and the New York Times called it the most restrictive immigration policy issued by any modern Democrat. What is he trying to accomplish?

Guest: Jonathan Blitzer, staff writer for the New Yorker and author of “Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here: The United States, Central America and the Making of a Crisis.”