Short Wave

Public health needs continue to stymie lawmakers' hopes for an immediate economic reopening. The nation's top health experts appeared — virtually — before a Senate committee today and provided updates on coronavirus testing and the state of the outbreak.

This episode: campaign correspondent Asma Khalid, White House correspondent Ayesha Rascoe, and science correspondent Richard Harris.

Connect:
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.
Email the show at [email protected].
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

When Markus Buehler heard about the coronavirus, he wanted to know what it sounded like. Today on the show, Maddie speaks with Short Wave reporter Emily Kwong about how Markus Buehler, a composer and engineering professor at MIT, developed a method for making music out of proteins, and how music can potentially help us hear what we have trouble seeing at the nanoscale level.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

After coming into contact with a White House staff member who tested positive for the coronavirus, Anthony Fauci and two other top officials from the White House taskforce are self-quarantining.

And the special election in California's 25th congressional district illustrates the challenges social distancing will pose to congressional campaigns ahead of the general election.

This episode: campaign correspondent Asma Khalid, congressional correspondent Susan Davis, White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez, and KPCC reporter Libby Denkmann.

Connect:
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.
Email the show at [email protected].
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

There's a difference between diagnostic, antibody, and antigen tests. All provide different levels of reliability and speed.

NPR health correspondent Rob Stein breaks down the differences and explains why public health officials are especially hopeful about antigen testing.

Find out how your state is doing on overall testing.

Email the show at [email protected].

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

After months of wrangling following the Russia probe, prosecutors will not go ahead with the case against Michael Flynn based on the former national security adviser's false statements to the FBI. And U.S. employers shed a record number of jobs in April, as the unemployment rate climbed to the highest since the Great Depression.

This episode: campaign correspondent Asma Khalid, political reporter Danielle Kurtzleben, justice correspondent Ryan Lucas, and national political correspondent Mara Liasson.

Connect:
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.
Email the show at [email protected].
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

Reports of so-called 'murder hornets' have been all over the news this week. (Even though they were first spotted in the United States late last year.) We talk with entomologist Samuel Ramsey who explains how much of a threat the Asian giant hornet could be to honeybees throughout the country. And, he shares his own encounter fighting these insects while researching bees in Thailand.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

The Supreme Court resumed oral arguments this week after a lengthy hiatus because of the pandemic. The high court heard arguments via teleconference, a process that was (mostly) without hiccups. Remote arguments continue next week.

This episode: White House correspondent Tamara Keith, congressional correspondent Kelsey Snell, and chief legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.

Connect:
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.
Email the show at [email protected].
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

With a lot of us stuck at home, trying to physically distance from each other, one part of daily life has largely disappeared: bumping into strangers. On today's show, Maddie talks with Yowei Shaw, a reporter from NPR's Invisibilia, about the surprising benefits of stranger interactions. And Short Wave tries out QuarantineChat, a workaround to our current strangerless existence.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

As new confirmed cases decline in the state, Michigan has extended its stay-at-home order until May 15th. Texas is moving quickly toward reopening, and while the state's outbreak is comparatively less severe, it isn't tapering off. That has led some public health experts to worry that lifting restrictions could mean a spike in cases.

This episode: campaign correspondent Asma Khalid, WKAR reporter Abigail Censky, KUT reporter Ashley Lopez.

Connect:
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Podcast here.
Email the show at [email protected].
Join the NPR Politics Podcast Facebook Group.
Subscribe to the NPR Politics Newsletter.
Find and support your local public radio station

Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

NPR Privacy Policy

The Trump administration has advanced the theory the coronavirus began as a lab accident, but scientists who research bat-borne coronaviruses disagree. Speaking with NPR, ten virologists and epidemiologists say the far more likely culprit is zoonotic spillover⁠—transmission of the virus between animals and humans in nature. We explain how zoonotic spillover works and why it's more plausible than a lab accident.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy