When Will We Have a COVID-19 Vaccine and How Will We Know It’s Safe? (0:33)

Guest: William A. Petri, Jr., Wade Hampton Frost Professor of Epidemiology, Professor of Medicine, Pathology, Microbiology, Immunology & Cancer Biology, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Virginia School of Medicine

During the debate on Tuesday night, President Trump said a vaccine is weeks away. That’s very good news and certainly attention-grabbing. Here is the latest update on the status of a COVID-19 vaccine.

 

A Teenaged Memoir of Surviving Genocide and the Dangers of Hate (20:12)

Guest: Amra Sabic-El-Rayess, Associate Professor of Practice, Teacher's College, Columbia University, Author of “The Cat I Never Named”

For three years as a teenager, Amra Sabic-El-Rayess lived under the constant threat of bombs, sniper fire and starvation. This was in the early 1990s. Her hometown in Bosnia and Herzegovina was under siege by Serbs intent on wiping out Bosnian Muslims like her. Amra Sabic-El-Rayess survived, in part thanks to a stray cat that attached itself to her family at the start of the conflict. “The Cat I Never Named” is the title of Amra Sabic-El-Rayess new memoir for young adults about her life during the Bosnian War.

 

Robocalls During the Pandemic (38:56)

Guest: Will Maxson, Assistant Director, Division of Marketing, Federal Trade Commission

Here’s a small silver lining to the pandemic: robocalls dropped off dramatically in the first several months of global lockdowns. They’re starting to tick back up again, though.

 

Railroad Tycoons and the Creation of Big Business in America (52:48)

Guest: Michael Hiltzik, Pulitzer Prize-winning Journalist, Los Angeles Times, Author of “Iron Empires: Robber Barons, Railroads and the Making of Modern America”

The completion of the transcontinental railroad 150 years ago changed America’s culture and economy. But the rail industry was also a pretty big disaster in those first couple of decades–deeply in debt, poorly maintained and rife with corruption. There were hundreds of shorter lines crisscrossing the country that were in cutthroat competition with each other. It was chaotic and terrible for rail travelers, as well as for the US economy. But then, somehow, they coalesced into America’s first mega corporation. The railway tycoons of the early 1900s created the big business playbook still used today–especially by tech leaders like Jeff Bezos at Amazon and Mark Zuckerberg at Facebook.

 

PBS at 50 Years Old (1:33:08)

Guest: Paula Kerger, President and CEO, PBS

PBS turns 50 this year. It gave us Mr. Rogers, Sesame Street, Julia Child and Ken Burns. But with Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, Amazon and Apple all flooding us with new viewing options, not to mention the traditional network and cable channels that have been at it forever, what exactly is the value of PBS in 2020?