Coronavirus Is Here and Spreading. Now We Should Focus on Slowing It Down. (0:30)

Guest: Michael Mina, MD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Immunology, Harvard University

After weeks of travel restrictions and quarantines, the coronavirus is still spreading. In fact, experts now think the virus has been circulating in Washington State for weeks – but we’re only now realizing it, after seven people in that state have died. At least a dozen states have now reported cases of COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.  Why did the plan to contain coronavirus fail? And just how worried should you and I be?

Meth Is Staging a Comeback in the US (20:14)

Guest: Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, Philanthropy, and Medical Humanities and Health Studies at Indiana University.

Coronavirus is commanding the attention of public health officials right now, but drug overdose deaths also remain a pressing concern. Opioid fatalities have begun to level off, nationwide, but deaths from methamphetamine use are now rising rapidly in many states. Wasn’t meth a problem of the 90s? Why is it making a comeback?

Using Brainwaves to Prescribe Antidepressants (34:06)

Guest: Dr. Amit Etkin, Professor of Psychiatry and Behavior Sciences, Stanford University

One in eight Americans are currently taking an antidepressant, so they can relate to the trial-and-error process of getting that prescription. Treating depression and anxiety involves a lot of guesswork – you start with one medicine, try it for six weeks and see how it works, then try another if it’s not doing the trick. The process is agonizing for everyone involved. Stanford University psychiatry researcher Amit Etkin is hoping a simple scan of a patient’s brain might offer a shortcut to pinpointing the right antidepressant.

Death of the Department Store? (50:44)

Guest: Barbara Kahn, Professor of Marketing, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Author of “The Shopping Revolution: How Successful Retailers Win Customers in an Era of Endless Disruption”

Department store Macy’s recently announced a pretty big nail in the coffin. It will be closing a fifth of its stores over the next three years and laying off about 2,000 corporate employees. This comes as no surprise – the whole department store industry is struggling to stay afloat. And these big stores are anchors for shopping malls, so if they die, will they drag malls down with them, too?

State of Court Rulings Place Trump Asylum Policies in Turmoil (1:03:44)

Guest: Kari Hong, Associate Professor, Boston College Law School

A series of court rulings in the last several days have shaken up US asylum policy. A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that people seeking asylum in the US cannot be sent back to Mexico to wait for their hearing. But then those judges pressed pause on their ruling to let the Trump Administration challenge it. The same court on Friday also ruled that people who get caught sneaking across the US border must still be allowed to request asylum.

After Slavery Was Abolished in America, It Continued Under a Different Name: Convict Leasing (1:20:42)

Guest: Talitha LeFlouria, PhD, Associate Professor, African and African-American Studies, University of Virginia, Author Of “Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South”

Slavery was abolished in the United States with the ratification of the 13th Amendment some 155 years ago. But it’s a myth that slavery actually ended then, says Talitha LeFlouria. “Chained in Silence” recounts the history of a form of slavery that continued into the 1900s in America under a system known as “convict leasing.”