Marketplace All-in-One

Many in the science community and fans of space and science in general are awaiting the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope, scheduled for Christmas Day. NASA and other space agencies have been working on this mission for more than two decades. So, what can we expect from Webb? Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Adam Riess, a professor of astronomy and physics at Johns Hopkins University and a winner of the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics.

Before the pandemic, roughly a quarter of schools in the United States didn’t employ a school nurse at all, and less than half employed nurses full time. Now, many of those nurses are adding contract tracing and COVID-19 testing to their already lengthy list of duties to keep kids healthy. These stressors are pushing some school nurses to their breaking point and highlight the issue of understaffing, which can be detrimental in communities where the school nurse’s office may be the only access to health care some students have. Also on today’s program: Americans are returning to their pre-COVID saving habits, airlines are pushing for reduced CDC quarantine guidelines and some indie musicians are turning to indie revenue streams.

Current treatments for the disease have to be administered at a hospital or clinic, but this new pill can be taken at home. The U.S has spent billions to secure doses of the drug in advance, but questions remain. What about countries that can’t afford to spend that much? Will they have access? We look into the software vulnerability that has companies shaken. Diane Swonk joins us for our daily look at the markets on a data-heavy day.

A new report from the U.K.-based nonprofit advocacy group Worker Info Exchange outlines the serious drawbacks of app-based automated management for gig workers. Among them: mistaken firings, racially biased facial recognition technology and a lack of transparency about how worker data is used. We spoke to James Farrar, the founder and director of Worker Info Exchange, about the human toll of machine management. We look into how President Biden’s pause on federal student loan payments for another three months could affect borrowers.

From the BBC World Service: The U.S. chipmaker had published a message to suppliers over human rights concerns in Xinjiang. China denies any wrongdoing. But how did an industry memo become so amplified on Chinese social media? Plus, America eases restrictions on humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan after a U.N. Security Council vote to allow more aid into the Taliban-controlled country. And, South Korea wants to cash in on the potential of the metaverse.

Sharing medical records between doctors and hospitals can be pretty difficult. That’s because there’s no universal digital system in the United States for sharing those records. Several companies are trying to change that. The tech giant Oracle recently acquired Cerner, an electronic medical records company, for about $28.3 billion. Oracle says this move will make it easier for medical professionals to access patient information from the cloud, which could help lower health care costs and improve patient outcomes. For more on what this deal will mean for patients and the pandemic, Marketplace’s Kimberly Adams speaks with Julia Adler-Milstein, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, where she researches electronic health records.

It won’t appear as an additional tax or fee on a receipt, but if you’re single in the U.S., you’re paying more than your married peers. That’s because policies and programs, from Social Security to the tax code, were written when it was assumed that Americans would get and stay married. Today, we’ll hear from journalist Anne Helen Petersen about how your relationship status can dictate your economic outlook and whether policies are likely to change with the changing population. Plus: Consumer confidence creeps up despite omicron, a historically Black college gives students a generous gift with no strings attached, and how hard-to-find COVID tests illustrate the challenges of relying on a private industry during a public health crisis.

The Personal Consumption Expenditures index is the other significant indicator of inflation, and it carries a few differences from the Consumer Price Index. As the name infers, the PCE takes natural changes of habit into account. Concerns over omicron have led to several big-name companies bailing out of the Consumer Electronics Show, one of tech’s biggest events. Susan Schmidt of Aviva Investors is here to talk about the markets with us.

Workers have voted to accept the latest contract offer from the company. The strike had been closely watched to see how the workers fare amid a tight labor market. But, there are lessons to be learned as the strike ends. We look into President Biden’s pledge to make 500 million COVID at-home test kits available to the public. Nurses from other countries have become a major force in the fight against COVID in the United States, and a survey suggests that they may be less likely to walk away from their jobs.

From the BBC World Service: Reduced natural gas supplies from Russia are adding to Europe’s energy supply challenges. Plus, ticket sellers for Spain’s nearly $3 billion dollar El Gordo lottery plan to protest against what they say are low commission rates. And, government workers in Zimbabwe are being paid bonuses in U.S. dollars as the Zimbabwe dollar falls in value.