AirTalk

At the beginning of the pandemic toilet paper and bread flew off the shelves, but it wasn’t just your basic essentials. Fitness equipment was also hard to come by as people throughout the country turned to at-home or virtual work outs. According to the Washington Post, fitness equipment revenue more than doubled from March to October. 

This week, Los Angeles County began easing restrictions allowing gyms and fitness centers to operate indoors at 10% capacity. Pools and additional amenities like saunas and locker rooms remain closed. Facilities have stepped up precautions like adding more sanitizing stations, temperature checks and distancing equipment. But will it be enough to coax members back? Today on AirTalk, we discuss the slow reopening of fitness centers following an incredibly tough year. We also want to hear from listeners. Have you redefined your fitness routine throughout the pandemic? Do you prefer the community atmosphere of a gym or working out at home? Are you planning to return to your gym now that things are starting to reopen? Why or why not? Join the conversation by calling 866-893-5722 or comment below. 

GUEST:

Francesca Schuler, CEO of In-Shape, a group of health clubs based in and operating throughout California, she’s also an advisory board member for the California Fitness Alliance, which represents fitness workers throughout the state; she tweets @InShapeCEO

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with UCLA’s Dr. David Eisenmann. 

Topics today include:

Continuing to follow Los Angeles County’s reopening

Moderna begins testing COVID vaccine on young children

CA vaccine supply increases, but still well below provider level

St. Patty’s Day celebration safety

Op-ed: Long COVID isn’t rare, it’s a health crisis

Op-ed: One year later, we still don’t have a plan to prevent the next pandemic

GUEST:

David Eisenman, M.D., professor of medicine and public health at UCLA, director of the university's Center for Public Health and Disasters,and an associate natural scientist at RAND Corporation

Of the many sporting and other events that have fallen victim to the coronavirus pandemic since it began in earnest about a year ago, one of the first was the beloved NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. Office bracket pools were left high and dry, Vegas missed out on one of its most lucrative weekends of the year and sports fans were robbed of the opportunity to watch Cinderella teams from mid-major conferences go dancing in March against some of the top talent in college basketball.

This year, the Madness has returned, albeit with some additional safety protocols in place. Most notably, the entire tournament will take place in Indianapolis this year as opposed to holding games for each round in various cities across the country. The field of 68 was chosen on Sunday and Gonzaga University enters the tournament as the top overall seed at 26-0, looking to become the first team since Bob Knight’s Indiana Hoosiers in 1976 to win the tournament and finish the season with a perfect record. But nothing is certain when it comes to March Madness, and there are plenty of other juggernauts like Michigan, Illinois, Baylor, Iowa and Ohio State who are also in the mix. And that’s to say nothing of dark horses like Winthrop, Liberty and Colgate, all of whom are being talked about as potential upset contenders. Southern California has four teams represented -- 6-seed USC, 11-seed UCLA, who must win their play-in game with Michigan State to earn a first round matchup with BYU, 12-seed UCSB, who are a sleeper favorite to win their first round matchup against 5-seed Creighton, and 6-seed San Diego State.

Today on AirTalk, we’ll hear about how the city of Indianapolis is preparing to host the entire tournament, what the city and NCAA are doing to ensure player and fan safety, and of course we’ll take a look at the teams in the tournament and share some tips on how to make your bracket a winner this year.

 GUESTS:

Shari Rudavsky, health and medicine reporter for The Indianapolis Star following the city’s preparations for the 2021 NCAA Tournament; she tweets @srudavsky

Myron Medcalf, national college basketball reporter for ESPN; he tweets @MedcalfByESPN

NextDoor, the neighborhood app that is intended to operate like a coffee shop bulletin, has fostered a community that can occasionally be less than neighborly.

User complaints began to surface surrounding the nationwide George Floyd protests last summer that content moderators were deleting posts discussing racial injustice and support for the Black Lives Matter movement.

In response, Nextdoor improved its AI systems to identify racism, removed certain features, and offered new unconscious bias training for leads, or unpaid content moderators who live in the communities registered on the app. Despite its efforts, the surge in active daily users spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic has forced Nextdoor to deal with racism, discrimination, and misinformation that its platform is often riddled with.

With vaccination rollouts in full swing, Nextdoor is a source for many on scheduling appointments and other related information. Yet, many are worried that the app is not equipped to handle these issues at the hyperlocal level. Today, we discuss changes that Nextdoor has made to address these issues and where they are still prevailing. What has your experience been using Nextdoor? Call and tell us about it at 866-893-5722.

We reached out to NextDoor. They responded with this statement:

Our purpose at Nextdoor is to cultivate a kinder world where neighbors can rely on one another, where all feel welcome.  As a community building platform, we explicitly prohibit racism, discrimination, or hate speech of any kind and take this issue extraordinarily seriously. Our Anti-racism taskforce, working with outside bias and social justice experts and academics, has been hard at work updating community guidelines, building products, and putting diversity at the fore, adding to our Boards and employee base.  

 

In an effort to ensure neighborhoods on Nextdoor reflect the diversity of neighborhoods in real life, we have taken several important steps:

Strengthened our community guidelines to more succinctly define the values of the community we want to build together at Nextdoor.

Rolled out our Neighbor Pledge globally, which defines the behaviors that are expected and the values of the communities we are helping to build. Accepting the pledge is required to use Nextdoor. 

Improved community moderation by launching a supplement to our Neighborhood Leads program with a new “community reviewer” role. Since then, we have added over 100k Community Reviewers. 

In partnership with The New Quo, Nextdoor has launched an online course specifically for Neighborhood Leads and Community Reviewers that provides tools on inclusive moderation and anti-bias education. 

Guests:

Arielle Pardes, senior writer at WIRED; she tweets @pardesoteric

Will Payne, assistant professor in geographic information science at Rutgers University who researches spacial data and urban inequality; he tweets @willbpayne

Ralinda Harvery Smith, freelance writer based in Santa Monica and Nextdoor user; last summer she wrote the LA Times Op-Ed “I’m the Black person Nextdoor, trying to sort the site’s value from its ugliness”; she tweets @ralinda

As more people get shots of the COVID-19 vaccine in their arms, more parts of society and the economy can potentially open. But amid a massive vaccine rollout with lots of people making their case for why they should be at the front of the line, how will local and state officials keep track of who has been vaccinated, and what potential ethical issues could arise from giving out this kind of documentation?

Today on AirTalk, we’ll talk with the CEO of a company that is working with Los Angeles County to provide digital vaccine records, sometimes called “passports” to county residents, and we’ll look at some of the ethical concerns that may arise with opening certain parts of society to those who have been vaccinated.

Guests:

Ramin Bastani, CEO of Healthvana, a Los Angeles-based company that provides patient platforms to healthcare providers; Healthvana has partnered with Los Angeles County to provide residents with digital vaccine records

Nicole Hassoun, visiting scholar at the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies at Cornell University, professor of philosophy at Binghamton University and author of  “Global Health Impact: Extending Access to Essential Medicines” (Oxford University Press, 2012); her recent piece in Scientific American is “How to Make ‘Immunity Passports’ More Ethical”; she tweets @kikseven2

After 94 years serving the Boyle Heights community, the historic Sears store on the corner of Olympic Boulevard and Soto Street is holding its final sale.

What will happen to the building remains unclear— the company that owns Sears, Transformco, has not indicated whether a new renter has been found. The Boyle Heights Sears building still houses the department store on the ground floor, while the rest of the building sits largely empty. For the surrounding community, the loss of the Sears is both historical and practical; the store has long been a cornerstone for Latinos living in Boyle Heights, and is one of the only big-box stores in the area. But its closure is not particularly surprising, as in-store retail has declined in recent decades and developers began eyeing the property years ago. Izek Shomof, a Los Angeles-based developer, purchased the Sears building in 2013 as part of a project consisting of residential units, offices, restaurants and workspaces. The project has not advanced, however, and the residential idea has been scrapped. For community members wanting to keep gentrification at bay, redevelopment plans have raised concerns about rising prices and displacement in Boyle Heights. 

Today on AirTalk, we’re learning more about the history and local significance of the Boyle Heights Sears store and other community retail touchstones. Did you grow up going to the Boyle Heights Sears, or another store that served as a community hub? What do these store closures mean to you? Give us a call at 866-893-5722.

Guest:

Michael Lisicky, retail writer and contributor to many outlets including Forbes.com, where he authored the recent piece, “A 94-Year-Old Sears Store Has Never Given Up On A Los Angeles Neighborhood, But That May Soon Change”

Today on AirTalk, we break down the latest COVID-19 headlines. Also on the show, we learn more about COVID-19 vaccine passports, discuss racism in the Nextdoor app and talk about the closing of the 90-year-old Boyle Heights Sears location.

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center.

Topics today include:

California has opened up vaccine eligibility and it’s relying on the honor system 

Should we be worried about the Astrazeneca vaccine?

Did virus variants evolve in people with weakened immune systems?

A listener wrote to us saying she was experiencing vaccine guilt 

6 feet distance is the wisdom, but can kids at schools be seated closer together?

According to the DOH, three vaccinated people in Hawaii tested positive for COVID

Americans are pretty great at getting their second vaccine dose

LA County has partnered with Healthvana to create vaccine passports - what are the ethics and also how are other countries negotiating similar passport systems?

Guest:

Peter Chin-Hong, M.D., infectious disease specialist and professor of medicine at the UCSF Medical Center; he tweets @PCH_SF

Today on AirTalk, we learn the latest on COVID-19 headlines and Los Angeles' guidelines for reopening. We also talk about the Oscar's list of nominations that was released this morning.

During the pandemic, many have struggled with the feeling that their days are blurring together as seasonal markers and annual events remind us that time is indeed still passing, even if we aren’t keeping track of it.

The World Health Organization reported that the pandemic has affected normal activities, routines, and schedules in most parts of the world. With a lack of routine and separation between work and home, it is understandable that the monotony of quarantine muddles our ability to concentrate and stay organized.

What events have made you double-check your calendar this year? Call us at 866-893-5722 and share your story about losing track of time.