Swing State

Rich countries, poor counties, China or America: who funds whom, who allies with whom? Are we heading to a Cold War with China or a new multi-polar world? Will the Eurozone survive and with whom will post-Brexit Britain choose to align? Is Europe's stability vulnerable as Italy and Spain fall under economic stress? Historian and journalist Dominic Green dives deep with us on what happens when it is every nation for themselves.

Voting rights in America have long been fraught but this 2020 Presidential election risks dramatic turns if people cannot vote. We sit down with journalist Ari Berman who is knee-deep in reporting on voting rights and ballot casting and we arrive at some pretty dramatic and plausible scenarios: Half of voters wanting to vote by mail in states where they need a witness, a printer, a legitimate reason where COVID may not count, a mosh pit of states contesting their elections with the Supreme Court? How nuts could it get? Berman lays out the case for why states must get ready NOW.

How are we all doing four-weeks in? Tom and Heidi take to the couch with Cambridge psychotherapist Jill Forney to unpack isolation, virtual living, massive uncertainty, job and financial stress and this new normal. How long can this go on? What will tomorrow look like? It's a mental and physical game of survival and Jill Forney shrinks us through it!

Where's the relief money? Derek Thompson of The Atlantic has been writing brilliantly on how Denmark is moving radically at light speed to save its economy - and America is not. He brings ideas on a better way. Plus we dive into his latest reporting on coronavirus "test and trace" solutions from authoritarian China to less invasive versions in Singapore and Germany. But will skeptical Americans buy in? Derek Thompson says we have to mount a real collective effort from states to business to the federal government and launch fast. If we build a Covid-19 surveillance machine, can we dissolve it once we have a vaccine? Listen in.

Heidi and Tom head into a freewheeling conversation with MIT Futurist and optimist Andy McAfee. As co-founder and co-director of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy at the MIT Sloan School of Management, Andy studies how digital technologies are changing the world. Even Andy, sees the gravity of this moment. Heidi pushes hard on the big tech companies responsibility to step up, give back, and help lead in this crisis. Tom thinks it's going to have to be government – reborn, revitalized, and very differently led than right now if we want a successful recovery. We dive in on how this moment is reshaping us as a society and economy. It's all for the voters to decide, next.

We turn to doctors on the frontline in two of our nation's top medical cities, San Francisco and Boston. Dr. Anita Demas gives it to us straight on how to deal with it when you are sick and Dr. Anna Cervantes-Arslanian, one of five critical care directors running Covid-19 response for the Boston Medical's ICU team, asks us all to stay in for the sake of the health care workers. These doctors took an oath to save lives and by doing so today risking their own. We hear it in their voices as mothers, doctors, generals on the frontline.

Tom Ashbrook and Heidi Legg team up to bring you a new podcast with voices across America in a sudden Swing State of mind. Life and death, a crashing economy, and the way we live has been upended. Our first interview with historian Heather Cox Richardson, whose daily Letters From An American has over 500,000 readers each morning, helps us to understand this moment in time and offers us a deep sweeping historical context. Professor of History at Boston College, where she teaches courses on the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians, Richardson has authored five books that each chronicle a major movement like the one we are living. We hope you will follow us on Twitter @PodState and on iTunes as we bring you relevant voices that will help us all grasp this new era.