New York Times White House correspondent Glenn Thrush talks about the latest news from the Trump administration, including how a number of Republicans are approaching a call for an independent investigation into the administration's ties to Russia.

"Trump is trashing their whole agenda, there's genuine anger," said Thrush. "There’s nothing that Senators or members of the House hate more than being brought down by a scandal." 

John Chaneski, co-host of TriviaNYC's QNA podcast, as well as a puzzle guru on NPR's "Ask Me Another,” stumps listeners – and Brian – with some ‘on this day in history’ trivia.

Nina Martin, a ProPublica reporter covering gender and sexuality, and Renee Montagne, a special correspondent for NPR's Morning Edition, discuss their story about the surprisingly high rate of maternal mortality in the United States.

"We have a very fragmented healthcare system," said Martin. "We don’t pay attention to patients from beginning to end."

Do you know someone who died or nearly died after childbirth? Share their story or your story to help keep reporting this story by emailing [email protected] or [email protected].

Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse (R), the former president of Midland University in Fremont, NE and the author of The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis — and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance (St. Martin's Press, 2017), argues that what he calls "extended adolescence" is bad for America's civic society, and offers advice for becoming an adult.

Karen Tumulty, national political correspondent for The Washington Post, discusses the latest in national political news, including how much of the White House is turning in on itself.

"I do think what we are seeing is almost 'The Empire Strikes Back,'" said Tumulty. "There is a lot of leaking going on out of the Trump White House itself where everyone seems to be completely stressed out and also feeling very insecure about their own positions these days."

Brooke Gladstone, host and managing editor of WNYC's On the Media and the author of The Trouble With Reality: A Rumination on Moral Panic in Our Time  (Workman Publishing Company, 2017), talks about fake news, post-truth, and why reality itself has become a hotly contested issue of our time. 

“It isn’t like there are two bubbles in this country,” says Brooke. “I think there are as many bubbles as there are individuals. They are bespoke, hand crafted.”

The remedy for reality is not so simple. "Fact checking alone won’t stop Trump," Brooke says, "We are wired to lie to ourselves to keep our worlds consistent." 

Gail Collins says Trump did not do anything illegal when he described highly classified material about a ISIS plot to Russian officials at an Oval Office meeting last week. Instead, she says, he violated “espionage etiquette,” revealing information without the permission of the ally who provided it.

“This is not surprising at all,” Gail reflects, “when you think about the great ongoing narrative: this man cannot shut up.”

But when Gail Collins sits down to write her opinion column for The New York Times she tries not to concern herself with the President's latest scandal. "I worry more about the people he put into power [...]  the most anti-choice, anti-woman anti-birth control people he could find." 

"You've got to divide this stuff up between the things we have to live with," Gail says referring to the President's erratic demeanor, "and things we've got to fight," like keeping healthcare accessible to women.  

Paul Wagenseil, cyber editor at Tom's Guide, discusses the latest WannaCry Ransomware attack and offers advice.

"This is a cyber criminal effort, entirely for financial gain," said Wagenseil. "You pay [the ransom to release your data] to a BitCoin address, no one knows where that address is."

Wagenseil says that hospitals and small businesses will be the most vulnerable to the attack, since they don't always have the capacity to update their security systems. So, what can you do?

Keep your system updated with the latest patch level and have a certain awareness of fishing attacks. 

Robert Pearl, physician, executive director and CEO of The Permanente Medical Group and the author of Mistreated: Why We Think We're Getting Good Health Care — And Why We're Usually Wrong  (PublicAffairs, 2017), talks about American healthcare and says the hunt for newer, better cures ignores the biggest problems.

Tobin Low, co-host of the WNYC podcast Nancy, and David Gebel, who does admin work for Radiolab at The Takeaway at WNYC, talk about WNYC's new(ish) podcast Nancy, and the latest episode, which looks at living with HIV/AIDS then and now.