The nation has found itself up against what we hope is a massive, once-in-a-century public health emergency. And compared to other developed nations, we’ve failed on several fronts. Tom Frieden directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from 2009-2017 and began his tenure facing the H1N1 pandemic. He talks with host Krys Boyd about the current response to COVID-19 and what America needs to do to prepare for future global outbreaks. This conversation is part of this year’s virtual Texas Tribune Festival.

Inside our individual worlds we’re asking, “when will this all end?” The answer, at least when it comes to the actual universe, is give or take a couple billion years. North Carolina State University theoretical astrophysicist Katie Mack joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the math, science and mystery that allows space to predict our demise back here on Earth. Her book is “The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking).”

To chart the seasons, look to tree leaves. To understand the past, look inside to the tree’s rings. Valerie Trouet, associate professor in the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about what we can learn by looking inside tree trunks – everything from the science of climate change to momentous occasions in human history. Her book is called “Tree Story: The History of the World Written in Rings.”

In the work from home, shelter-in-place era, why would anyone put on a pair of heels or knot a tie? Dana Thomas joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how the pandemic is reshaping our shopping habits and forcing the fashion industry to figure out how to survive on selling baggy tees. Her book “Fashionopolis: The Price of Fast Fashion and the Future of Clothes” is newly out in paperback.

The truth is out there…but when it comes to alien hunters, no one can agree on where to find it. Stephen Rodrick, senior writer for Rolling Stone, joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the love of the chase to find the unexplainable from his article “How UFO culture took over America.”

Some people applaud her work as a first lady, senator and secretary of state while others focus on Benghazi and her e-mails. Michael D’Antonio joins host Krys Boyd to talk about his research into how one woman, identifiable by her first name only, became a symbolic cudgel for modern politics. His new book is “The Hunting of Hillary: The Forty-Year Campaign to Destroy Hillary Clinton.”

The nomination speeches have been given, pundits have weighed in, now it’s time for voters to make the choice. Washington Post’s national political reporter and Washington Week moderator Robert Costa joins host Krys Boyd to talk about the Biden and Trump campaign strategies to woo voters ahead of Election Day.

It’s hard to be a rough-and-tumble girl in a world where pink and princesses equals feminine and everything else is boy stuff. Journalist Lisa Selin Davis joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how tomboys have pushed our ideas about gender conformity, which she writes about in “Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different.”

From the plow to the pill, the newest invention to hit the market has always carried the power to revolutionize women’s lives. Harvard Business School professor Debora L. Spar joins host Krys Boyd to talk about how technological advancement has reshaped the nuclear family. Her book is “Work, Mate, Marry, Love: How Machines Shape Our Human Destiny.”

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.” The words of President Abraham Lincoln still ring true…even as movements to dissolve the union are still very much alive. Richard Kreitner, contributing writer to The Nation, joins host Krys Boyd to look at past and present attempts to dissolve the United States. His book is “Break It Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union.”