The delta variant raises new challenges for the Biden administration: Will they change their approach to masking? What steps can they take to combat vaccine disinformation and get more Americans vaccinated? And is the economy at risk of another meltdown?

• Vaccine hesitancy at home, desperation abroad
• The mystery of the pandemic’s origins(and what it means for Biden)
• White House officials debate masking push as covid infections spike

How does NASA fit in when billionaires fly to space? What are Biden’s plans for the space agency and how much of Trump’s initiatives does he plan to continue? And, ultimately, why should the government still invest in space exploration at all?
Related episodes and reading

• As China’s space ambitions grow, NASA tells Congress it needs more money to compete
• Everything you need to know about going to space

On this episode, Post Reports host Martine Powers talks to two Post reporters who reported on chaos in the early days of the pandemic including details about how sick President Trump was and his proposal to send infected Americans to Guantánamo.

• Inside the extraordinary effort to save Trump from covid-19
• Trump and science: An erosion of our institutions, in public and behind the scenes
• The president’s desperate push to reopen America

As Americans celebrates the country's founding, we examine the presidency. How is a president’s leadership measured over time, and how do cultural moments change our historical perception? We offer insight from C-SPAN's Presidential Historians Survey. 

• 'The Framers would not recognize the modern presidency.’
• Promises made. Promises kept?
• C-SPAN’s Presidential Historians Survey 2021

The Biden administration is supporting a bill that would end the sentencing disparity in crack and powder cocaine offenses. But that disparity exists largely because of bills President Biden spearheaded in 80s and 90s. How much has Biden evolved?

• How an early Biden crime bill created the sentencing disparity for crack and cocaine trafficking
• Biden administration endorses bill to end disparity in drug sentencing between crack and powder cocaine
• Menthol cigarettes kill more Black Americans. Should Biden ban them?

President Biden promised a government where“public servants serve all Americans, not themselves or narrow special interests.” But one set of brothers pose a challenge to Biden's efforts to return to transparency and accountability in government. 
Related reading and episodes

• Lobbyist brother of top Biden adviser poses challenge to president’s ethics promises

Not the'normal' Washington Biden promised

Can Biden rally the world’s democracies to meet today's challenges? And what might this trip reveal about the Biden foreign policy doctrine? On this episode, White House reporter Anne Gearan weighs in from Europe, as she travels with President Biden.Related reading and episodes

• Biden’s personal diplomacy to be tested on his first trip abroad
• Opinion: Joe Biden: My trip to Europe is about America rallying the world’s democracies
• Biden, Boris Johnson release updated Atlantic Charter after first meeting

What are the geopolitical implications of the intelligence community"redoubling its efforts" to identify the pandemic's origins? And what are the political challenges for President Biden in acknowledging a theory once touted by the Trump administration?

• Vaccine hesitancy at home, desperation abroad
• Coronavirus‘lab leak’ theory jumps from mocked to maybe as Biden orders intelligence review
• Timeline: How the Wuhan lab-leak theory suddenly became credible

Discrimination is built into the American housing crisis. We examine the limits of President Biden's power to fix it, in this second episode in our occasional series about the policy challenges that President Biden faces during his first year in office.

• Promises made. Promises kept?
• How Biden stimulus bill will target homelessness
• Marcia Fudge confirmed as first Black woman to lead HUD in more than 40 years

Are the divisions within the Republican party causing real problems for Biden’s goals? And if he’s forced to move his agenda forward with only the help of his own party, how might Democratic factions and party discord make that more difficult?
Related reading and episodes

• Promises made. Promises kept?
• As Biden faces a struggle to hold the Senate, Democrats’ divisions resurface
• The fight over Liz Cheney and Donald Trump is just beginning