Joe Biden has promised to tap a woman for his VP pick. But allegations against him by a former staffer are creating a difficult situation for those hoping to share the ticket.

On today's show, Rebecca Traister, writer-at-large for New York Magazine and the author of, most recently, Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger (Simon & Schuster, 2018), talks about Biden, his yet-to-be-selected VP candidate and the known unknowns of Tara Reade's claims.

Congress is hammering out the details of COVID Relief/Stimulus 4.0. Representative Hakeem Jeffries (D NY-8th, Brooklyn and Queens) updates us on those talks, the meatpackers who could strike over a Trump order to keep working, and the latest national political news.

This is an unprecedented election year in a lot of ways, but that doesn't mean history can't be a good teacher. Today, we look at how Biden is squaring up against Trump for the election in November, and the sexual assault allegations that could haunt him on the trail. On today's show, Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University, CNN political analyst, co-host of the podcast Politics and Polls, and author of the forthcoming Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party (Penguin Press, 2020) , offers historical context for the current crisis and the upcoming election.

If widespread testing is the first step toward getting control over this pandemic, then the second step is contact tracing. But a virus that can spread without symptoms poses special challenges. With sexually transmitted infections, the list of potential contacts is finite, and mostly knowable. With COVID-19, that list would include people who visited the supermarket at the same time as you, people who have touched your building's doorknob. So the teams of contact tracing investigators being amassed around the country have their work cut out for them.

On today's show, David Harvey, executive director of the National Coalition of STD Directors (NCSD), talks about what tracing entails, why it's important and how it's been used to abate the damage of other diseases like HIV, Zika and Ebola.

As New York City announces the results of their first phase of antibody testing, and plans for future phases. So what do we know now, and what's left to learn?

On today's show, Apoorva Mandavilli, science journalist, frequent contributor to the New York Times, and the 2019 winner of the Victor Cohn Prize for Excellence in Medical Reporting, talks about New York State's preliminary antibody test results and what they may mean for the future of the COVID-19 epidemic and lockdown. 

Rather than giving assistance to state, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he'd prefer to make states whole by letting them declare bankruptcy. On today's show, Sen. Chris Murphy (D CT), member of the Foreign Relations committee and author of the forthcoming book The Violence Inside Us: A Brief History of an Ongoing American Tragedy (Random House, 2020), discusses the latest relief package, Connecticut's plans for reopening, the need to support the WHO, and Mitch McConnell's statements on states hard hit by the pandemic to declaring bankruptcy, rather than receive federal relief.

President Trump says that he wants to halt parts of the immigration system in response to COVID-19, leaving many in limbo, including those who were on their way to obtaining green cards. On today's show, Sayu Bhojwani, founder and president of New American Leaders and the author of People Like Us: The New Wave of Candidates Knocking at Democracy’s Door  (The New Press, 2018) talks about the president's latest return to immigration as a central issue, and reflects on stories of uncertainty from listeners in the immigrant community.

Gyms. Bowling alleys. Tattoo parlors and piercing shops. Barbers and hair and nail salons. Masseuses. If you live in Georgia, some of those establishments could be open for business as early as this Friday. But those tracking COVID-19 say that the Peach State has yet to hit its peak infection rate. As Governor Kemp hastens to reopen, residents of Atlanta are worried about what the consequences will be for the state's biggest city. On today's show, Gregg Gonsalves, co-director of the Global Health Justice Partnership and an assistant professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health and contributing writer to The Nation, discusses the state of testing, the re-opening of Georgia, and why the federal and state governments need to work together.

As the infection, hospitalization and death rates begin to plateau in hard-hit New York City, pandemic-adjacent issues -- food security, unemployment and right-wing protests against social distancing measures -- come into clearer focus. On today's show, Tom Suozzi, U.S. Representative for NY's 3rd District, an area that includes parts of Long Island and Queens, NY, and member of the House Committee on Ways and Means, talks about the federal response, the politics of pandemic and the need for a widespread testing regime.

On today's show, Rep. Max Rose represents a swing district in NYC. Today, he talks about his work responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, both in Congress and on National Guard duty.