According to the Centers for Disease Control, The Delta variant of COVID-19 is now the dominant strain in the U.S. Studies suggest the approved vaccines protect against it. However, the Biden administration is working to find new strategies to reach the vaccine-hesitant, as America appears to be reaching its vaccine ceiling among adults.

After testing positive for marijuana during the U.S. trials, Sha'Carri Richardson's name has been left off the U.S. track and field team roster, ending any chance she had at going to the Olympics in Tokyo this summer.

Meanwhile, the president of Haiti, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his home this week. The nation's first lady was also wounded during the attack.

President Biden announced that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan is complete 'for all intents and purposes" and that the country's "mission" in Afghanistan would be concluded by Aug. 31.

And Japan has declared a state of emergency due to rising COVID-19 case numbers ahead of the Tokyo Olympics.

We cover all these headlines and more during the News Roundup.

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Michael Pollan's latest work looks at your mind on plants — specifically, three psychoactive plants.

In the follow-up to his 2018 bestseller, How to Change Your Mind — What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence, he says it wasn't just coal that fueled the Industrial Revolution, but caffeine.

Alongside opium and mescaline, caffeine features prominently in his new book, "This Is Your Mind on Plants."

He talks to us about a new wave of interest in the psychedelic drug revolution; its complexities, cultural significance, and how these mind-bending substances change how we see ourselves and each other.

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Trejo has become one of Hollywood's go-to badasses and bad guys. He's got over 380 acting credits to his name.

Growing up, he was in and out of the most notorious prisons in California, enmeshed in crime and struggling with substance use.

Now he's written about those life experiences in his new memoir, Trejo: My Life of Crime, Redemption, and Hollywood.

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Building wealth has never been easy, and the racial wealth gap makes that obvious. As recently as 2016, the median wealth of a white household was $171,000 dollars. That's eight times the median $20,600 of Hispanic households. For Black households? Just $17,000, according to Pew Research Center.

So what needs to change? And what should people keep in mind as they try to build wealth for future generations?

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The blues grew out of the Black experience in the American South. It generated jazz, R&B, rock and roll, rap – virtually every piece of modern music.

We're spotlighting blues recordings selected by the Library of Congress for preservation in the National Recording Registry. These recordings have been chosen for their historic, aesthetic or cultural importance to American society.

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In the midst of a historic heatwave, President Joe Biden met with governors in affected states, cabinet officials, and private sector partners about the droughts and wildfires. The administration also announced it will move to increase pay for federal firefighters.

The year-long effort to pass a bipartisan police reform bill in Congress is in jeopardy after the Fraternal Order of Police released a statement warning lawmakers that the work towards an agreeable bill was threatened by "demagoguery and scare tactics."

And Missouri has seen a spike in COVID-19 cases likely driven by the Delta variant.

Meanwhile, President Biden directed airstrikes against Iran-backed militia groups in the Iraq-Syria border region. The move sends a clear message amid talks with Tehran over the Iran nuclear deal.

In the global fight against COVID-19, World Health Organization officials have urged fully-vaccinated people across the globe to continue wearing masks to protect themselves against the Delta variant of the virus. Russia, meanwhile, has reported the most confirmed cases within its borders in a single day since the pandemic began.

We discuss all this and more during the News Roundup.

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In 2015, Aziah "Zola" Wells fired off a thread of 148 tweets. It was later known by its hashtag — #TheStory— and went viral.

The thread has now been adapted into a feature film from director Janicza Bravo and screenwriter Jeremy O. Harris, best known for his hit off-Broadway production, "Slave Play."

But getting it from the very small screen — to the very BIG screen — was a saga all its own.

We discuss the saga and more with Aziah "Zola" King and Jeremy O Harris.

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Doomsday prepping is no longer a fringe obsession. The survivalist movement is evolving.

While prepping has its roots in American individualism and self-reliance, it's also big business. Prepping companies like Judy sell survival kits (known by preppers as "bug out bags").

Between 2017 and 2025, Allied Research Marketing projects that the global market for "incident and emergency management" will jump in value from $75.5 billion to $423 billion.

What's behind the growing popularity of the prepper movement? And is the community built on an ethos of "survival of the fittest" accessible to all?

We cover all this and more.

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Last week, the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan found 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school, just one month after more than 200 unmarked graves were found at another school in British Columbia.

For generations, indigenous children in the United States and Canada were forcibly sent to boarding schools to assimilate. Exactly what happened at those schools is still being uncovered.

What do we know about what happened at these schools? And what will this investigation mean for the indigenous communities directly impacted?

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As a young scouser in Liverpool, in the 80's, Roger Bennett dreamed of one day living in the U.S.

He's made that dream a reality. Bennet is now a naturalized American citizen. His new book, "Reborn in the USA," is a love letter to his chosen country. He's also the co-host of the popular Men in Blazers podcast.

We talk with Bennett, about what drew him to the land of the free and what he thinks about the America he lives in today.

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