Make Me Smart

We asked you all for some dispatches from your Election Day, so we’re playing a few of our favorites for this quick episode. We’ll hear from election judges, first-time voters and comfort-foodies, and later we’ll talk about some music that’s keeping Molly Wood inspired on a stressful day. Wishing you all the best! See you tomorrow.

As always, for a list of everything we talked about today, check out makemesmart.org.

Tomorrow is Halloween, and one of us is in costume. Today we’ll look at some new research on the (minimal) SARS-CoV-2 viral load carried on fun-sized candy packaging. Good news: The results look promising for trick-or-treating tomorrow. But first, we need to talk about facts, the election and bias in the media — which might be more frightening than Halloween right now.

Sometimes those “make me smile” stories are actually kinda sad. We’ve featured a few like that on the show recently. There are also those stories that might seem sad or frustrating, but if you squint a little they’re pretty inspiring. Take, for instance, the great lengths to which some Americans have gone to fight voter suppression and make themselves heard this election season. That’s what we’re talking about today. Plus: the third wave of coronavirus cases and Amazon’s colossal quarterly report.

Whatever you call it, this weekend we’ll “fall back” to standard time, and it will suddenly feel like it gets dark very early. One listener wants to know: What if we didn’t? We’re tackling that question and many more from you all on this Whadda Ya Wanna Know Wednesday. Also on the docket: air travel, polling data and commercial real estate.

As always, you can find links to everything we talked about today at makemesmart.org.

The average age of a member of Congress is 58, and the most influential lawmakers are much older. No matter who wins the election next week, the White House will be occupied by the oldest sitting U.S. president. There’s a word for “rule by elders”: gerontocracy. One reason we’re in one is that more than half of registered voters are over 50. On today’s show, Tufts University youth voter researcher Abby Kiesa breaks down the data, tells us why it’s historically so hard to get young people to vote and busts a few myths, like that young people are a liberal monolith.

We’re talking about two recent pieces in The Wall Street Journal: one describing a worldwide “pandemic fatigue,” the other arguing that it’s finally time for the United States to adopt a nationwide mask mandate. Today, we’ll take the temperature, so to speak, of the American pandemic response as October turns into November. Plus: Puppies and SNL.

For a list of everything we talked about today, check out makemesmart.org.

Look: It’s Friday, we’re having beers and talking about the news. Much like Kai’s prospective RV trip, this episode covers a lot of ground. We’ll talk about the latest early voting numbers, Bay Area property taxes and get a crash course in why direct democracy is — and this is the poli sci term — “stupid.” All that and much more on this super-sized episode. Have a great weekend everybody!

As always, you can find links to all the stories we talked about at makemesmart.org. Thanks to everyone who joined us for the livestream! Subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss the next one.

Update (Oct. 26, 2020): This episode misidentifies Sheila Krumholz, executive director at the Center for Responsive Politics.

Iowa has never had a statewide mask mandate, and it lifted its few restrictions earlier than a lot of other states. But economic recovery has been slow, suggesting that this downturn is due more to individual choices than the lockdowns put in place by blue states, as some Republicans have suggested. Today, we’ll talk about a case study around Iowa in The New York Times. Plus: Elon Musk, infosec and Kiss.

As always, you can find a list of everything we talked about on our episode page at makemesmart.org. And don’t forget about our weekly happy hour episode live on YouTube tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. Pacific time, 6:30 p.m. Eastern! Subscribe to you don’t miss out.

Is a Biden win already priced in? One of our listeners wants to know — and if you’re not sure what that means, there’s an explainer on our smart speaker skill. Today we’ll talk about the markets, the economy and this election. Plus, more listener questions about Twitter, the lottery and virtual reality. Oh, and a little Quibi talk.

As always, you can find links to everything we talked about today on our episode page at makemesmart.org.

Dark money is a bipartisan issue. When the Supreme Court handed down the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission verdict more than a decade ago, conservatives were primarily benefitting from a system that allowed organizations with undisclosed donors to pour money into races. Now, although dark money spending this election is down overall, liberal organizations are spending more. On today’s show, Center for Responsive Politics Executive Director Sheila Krumholz walks us through how dark money is working in this election and why she’s optimistic the courts will take another pass at campaign finance law.