The scale of the COVID-19 pandemic is unprecedented but history is often a helpful guide. Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services for the Obama administration, and Andy Card, Secretary of the Department of Transportation for President George H.W. Bush and White House Chief of Staff for President George W. Bush, describe what it's like to govern during a crisis. Plus, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and Executive Director of the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense Dr. Asha George chronicle the political challenges to preparedness.

A handful of rural states are without statewide stay-at-home orders and Arkansas is one of them. Marco McClendon is the Mayor of West Memphis, Arkansas, a town located just across the Mississippi River from downtown Memphis, Tennessee. Mayor McClendon shares the measures he's implementing in his town to contain COVID-19.

This week, Senator Bernie Sanders ended his bid for the Democratic nomination. Ruby Cramer has been covering the Sanders campaign for BuzzFeed News. She shares what his legacy might look like and which factors contributed to his shift from frontrunner to dropout. 

Check out our ongoing coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic here. Check out our local leader series here.