AirTalk

The pandemic has changed the nature of all work, including that of hospital chaplains, who’ve experienced a very difficult year while providing counseling and support to patients and their families. 

We sit down with Reverend Rudy Rubio, Chaplain at MLK Community Health Foundation to discuss his professional and personal experiences in the last year.

Guest:

Reverend Rudy Rubio, MLK Community Healthcare Chaplain; head of Reformed Church of Los Angeles in Lynwood, CA

Los Angeles city leaders received good news yesterday following the passage of the federal stimulus bill, which will allocate $1.35 billion to the city.

Mayor Eric Garcetti said he was “ecstatic” about the bill, which he anticipates will allow the city to pay off debts, cover COVID-19 expenses and potentially provide money to help struggling workers and businesses. President Biden is expected to sign the bill Friday, freeing up the aid for Los Angeles as well as for the state of California, which is slated to receive $42.6 billion ($26 billion for the state government). The money comes at a crucial time for the city, which has asked city workers to take unpaid days off and tapped a significant amount of LA’s reserves. The stimulus bill also includes checks for individuals, which could help provide a small economic boost for Angelenos.

Today on AirTalk, we’re learning more about the stimulus bill’s allocation for Los Angeles and what the money will mean for the city’s economic recovery. Questions? Give us a call at 866-893-5722.

Guests: 

Monica Rodriguez, Los Angeles city councilmember for the Seventh Council District, which includes the neighborhoods of Pacoima, Mission Hills, Sunland-Tujunga and Sylmar

Maria Salinas, president and CEO of LA Area Chamber of Commerce; she tweets @salinas_ms

April Verrett, president of Service Employees International Union Local 15 (SEIU Local 2015), California’s largest union representing over 400,000 home care and nursing home workers throughout California

In the past two weeks, the number of unaccompanied children being held at the border has tripled, with many being held in Customs and Border Protection custody for longer than the 72-hour limit prescribed by law.

According to reporting in the New Yorker, the Biden team tried to prepare for the arrival of minors in the fall, but then-President Donald Trump’s political appointees at H.H.S. and D.H.S. refused to meet with them, deliberately sabotaging their ability to plan ahead.

An array of factors including natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic have led thousands stranded in northern Mexico as they await their hearings and instructions from the administration. In the meantime, immigrants-rights advocates plan to monitor facility conditions and the pace at which unaccompanied children are moved into the care of family sponsors.

John Burnett and Jonathan Ryan join us from their posts near the border to discuss why unaccompanied minors are arriving en masse and what options the government has moving forward. Questions? Call us at (866) 893-5722.

Guests:

John Burnett, NPR southwest correspondent based in Austin, Texas

Jonathan Ryan, CEO of RAICES Texas, a nonprofit that provides free and low-cost legal services for immigrants; he tweets @jonathandryan

Today on AirTalk, we breakdown Los Angeles Unified's reopening deal with United Teachers Los Angeles. Also on the show, we discuss the impact remote work has had on the autistic community; talk about the rise of sports trading cards and NBA Top Shot; and more.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials have reached a long-awaited agreement with leaders of the district’s teachers’ union to resume on-campus instruction.

The deal with United Teachers Los Angeles was unveiled Tuesday evening.

One key condition for allowing students to return? The vaccination of staff. Under the deal, all school staff will have time to receive both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine -- and wait the recommended two weeks to gain full immunity -- before students return.

Four of California’s five largest school districts have already announced plans to resume on-campus instruction -- including neighboring Long Beach Unified, as well as Fresno, Elk Grove and San Diego Unified (though the exact date of San Diego’s reopening may still be in flux).

UTLA leadership and members have said they would “resist” any move to return to campuses while L.A. County remains in the state’s most-restrictive purple tier, before a comprehensive safety agreement was in place, or before all staff were fully vaccinated.

LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner -- who himself has criticized hasty moves toward reopening -- has also called for the vaccination of staff as a precondition for opening schools.

Now, L.A. County’s exit from the purple tier is imminent. Yesterday, UTLA said the two sides were “close to a tentative agreement” on safety protocols.

Plus, Beutner recently announced that Gov. Gavin Newsom had secured some 25,000 COVID-19 vaccinations for LAUSD -- enough to vaccinate all staff in LAUSD elementary schools.

With files from LAist

We reached out to UTLA and LAUSD, but they were not available to comment at the time of this broadcast.

Guest:

Kyle Stokes, KPCC/LAist education reporter covering K-12 and the Los Angeles Unified School District; he tweets @kystokes

The style of social interactions inherent to many offices and workplaces can be difficult to navigate for some people on the autism spectrum.

That’s part of the reason why, when offices shifted to remote work last year, they became more hospitable to neurodivergence. While many disabled people and disability advocates have pushed for remote work options for years, it only became normalized when workplaces that could move online were forced to with the COVID-19 pandemic. While employees with autism or ADHD may have struggled in office environments designed for neurotypical people (with distractions, social pressures, ambient noises and other stimuli), working from home allows people to create environments more conducive to the best way they work. Working collaboratively online can also allow people to take more time to think and process their responses, an opportunity not necessarily allowed for in a room full of people. Additionally, with advances in workplace technology, opportunities to work from home are more feasible than ever for the long-term.

Are you an autistic person that has found benefits in working fully remote? What has the experience been like for you? We want to hear from you! Give us a call at 866-893-5722.

Guests:

Alexandra Samuel, technology researcher and writer for the Wall Street Journal, and author of the recent piece “Remote Work Could Revolutionize Jobs for Autistic People”; her upcoming book is "Remote, Inc: How To Thrive At Work...Wherever You Are" is out in April; she tweets @awsamuel

Crystal Lee, clinical psychologist specializing in adult autism and ADHD at L.A. Concierge Psychologist, a local private practice; @DrCrystalLee

It was in the late 19th century that sports trading cards became a thing, being these neat paper collectibles you got with a pack of gum or tobacco. Despite these rarities likely being worth a fortune nowadays, it seems hard to believe that most folks back then knew how popular these cards would later become. But, it’s a piece of paper with an athlete and short biography attached to it—how valuable could it actually be?

Despite reservations some people may have held, it eventually became widely understood that sports trading cards held value, whether it be sentimental or monetary. Nowadays there has been a new sports memorabilia item that has jumped in popularity in a similar fashion—NBA Top Shot. The online company, which has been backed by the NBA, has built a blockchain service that allows people to buy virtual packs containing “moments” that can be kept and sold in their site’s marketplace. NBA Top Shot’s growth has become meteoric since it first started in 2019, having processed more than $250 million in sales in February alone. This all the while sports trading cards are growing in interest once again and selling for similar exorbitant prices.

Today on AirTalk, we discuss the rise and appeal of NBA Top Shot while also looking at the resurgence of sports trading cards. Are you a collector of sports trading cards or of NBA Top Shots’s moments? What got you into collecting? Join the conversation by calling us at 866-893-5722.

Guests: 

DeMarco Williams, senior writer at SLAM Magazine; he tweets @demarcowill

Michael Provenzale, production manager for Heritage Auction, a multinational auction house that collects memorabilia and other valuable objects

Pop quiz: what job used to require that applicants speak two languages, have a college degree and the political savvy of a career diplomat, be between 5’3” and 5’9” tall, between 105 and 140 pounds and under 26-years-old at the time of hire?

If you answered flight attendant (or stewardess, as they were called then) for Pan Am between 1966 and 1975, you’re correct!

In her new book, “Come Fly The World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am,” author Julia Cooke tells the real-life stories of former stewardesses who flew the friendly skies with Pan America World Airways and how they (sometimes unexpectedly) found themselves entwined in the making of history. 

Today on AirTalk, author Julia Cooke and former Pan Am flight attendant Tori Werner join Larry on AirTalk to discuss the book and look back on the jet age when Pan Am was at the height of its popularity.

Guests:

Julia Cooke, journalist, travel writer and author of  “Come Fly the World: The Jet-Age Story of the Women of Pan Am” (Houghton Mifflin, March 2021); she tweets @juliaccooke 

Tori Werner, former Pan Am stewardess and one of several featured in the book; she spent 20 years flying with the airline

California Gov. Newsom sought to rally a state worn down after a year of coronavirus lockdowns, record wildfires and unfathomable sickness and death, urging the nearly 40 million residents to “dream of brighter days ahead” while acknowledging his own mistakes that have put his political future on the line.

Newsom made no new major policy announcements. Instead, he focused mostly on actions he believes have positioned the state for a robust recovery and the blunt calls from him to be recalled.

Congress sped toward final approval Wednesday of a landmark $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, as President Joe Biden and Democrats neared a major triumph for the party’s priorities and showcased the unity they’ll need to forge future victories.

For Biden and Democrats, the bill is essentially a canvas on which they've painted their core beliefs - that government programs can be a benefit, not a bane, to millions of people and that spending huge sums on such efforts can be a cure, not a curse. The measure so closely tracks Democrats' priorities that several rank it with the top achievements of their careers, and despite their slender congressional majorities there was never real suspense over its fate.

With files from the Associated Press

Guests:

Libby Denkmann, senior politics reporter for KPCC; she tweets @libdenk

Kelsey Snell, Congressional correspondent for NPR; she tweets @kelsey_snell

In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, we speak with Dr. Richard Riggs from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.  

Today’s topics include:

How has the PPE supply chain evolved? 

As case numbers go down, how is medical worker burn out? 

Biden announces deal for additional Johnson & Johnson vaccines

Vaccines in the works to target multiple variants 

Study: UK variant has higher death rate 

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could neutralize Brazil variant 

How far is Calif. from a post-pandemic “normal?”

Guest:

Richard Riggs, M.D., senior vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center