The Daily Dive

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Coming out of the Great Resignation and the tight labor market, some employers are saying that it’s finally getting a little easier to hire.  Especially when we look at the hospitality and healthcare industries, employers are having a better time at recruiting and getting people to accept offers.  Uber, which has rebounded with drivers, said they think inflationary pressures motivated more people to drive for the platform.  Chip Cutter, workplace reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how inflation could be bringing more people to the workforce and causing less turnover.

Next, an interesting story about how a mother and her daughter are facing criminal charges after the daughter had an abortion in Nebraska.  In this case police obtained their Facebook messages through a search warrant.  In Nebraska, 20 weeks is the limit to have an abortion, and the teen at the time had it some weeks after. The pair contracted with another man to bury the body after the baby came out stillborn.  Jason Koebler, editor in chief at Motherboard, joins us for how this case highlights how tech companies could be enlisted by law enforcement to prosecute these cases.

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U.S. inflation has eased slightly to 8.5% down from its 40-year high of 9.1%.  Some of the gains have been made up with falling energy and gas prices, but grocery prices are still as concern as they are up 13% from last year.  The Fed has been managing the inflation crisis with adjustments to the key interest rate and meets next month to evaluate.  Gwynn Guilford, economics reporter at the WSJ, joins us for what to know about the latest inflation numbers.

Next, the labor market remains tight despite recession fears and the U.S. added 528,000 jobs in July driven mostly by travel and hospitality sectors.  On the other hand, the tech sector has been dealing with cuts and business is booming for layoff specialists.  These are companies that help businesses with identifying who to layoff, make sure they receive the right amount of severance, and day-of communication plans.  Maxwell Strachan, features writer and editor at Motherboard, joins us for what to know.

Finally, the Covid pandemic has changed just about every aspect of Americans’ health, and it has mostly been for the worse.  As people missed health screenings, abandoned routines, and went through isolation we saw a range of other chronic diseases worsen.  Overall death rates of heart disease and stroke rose, drug overdose deaths and alcohol abuse rose, and even mental health took a hit.  Brianna Abbot, health reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

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In this time of high inflation and recession fears the country continues to add more jobs driven by gains in the travel and hospitality industries.  Restaurants, bars and hotels keep hiring people, but they still don’t have enough as pent-up demand for those services remains high. Allison Pohle, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how many of these industries have recovered almost all of their pre-pandemic jobs.

Next, Amazon recently held an event where they debuted some improvements in their text-to-speech technology and had and AI mimic the voice of someone’s dead grandmother.  What’s amazing is that it’s becoming easier to create these artificially generated voices to sound like anyone and in this case, they only needed about 60 seconds of audio rather than 60 hours.  Adam Bluestein, contributor to Fast Company, joins us for how this is just the beginning for voice cloning.

Finally, craft beer lovers beware!  Brewers are facing a shortage of carbon dioxide and it could cause delays in production.  Breweries rely on CO2 for putting bubbles in the beer itself, but also along the production process to move the beer through lines and purge oxygen from tanks.  Emily Heil, food reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for the latest challenge for craft brewers.

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We are seeing an increase in food insecurity around the country and this time around it is not due to a wave of people losing jobs, rather high inflation has been hitting Americans hard, leading many to seek out help from food banks.  Lora Kelley, business reporter at the NY Times, joins us for how the food banks themselves are struggling to meet demand as they see decreasing donations and increased costs due to paying more for transportation and acquiring food. 

Next, despite fears of a recession and record-high inflation, pent-up demand for travel and fun are leading people to Las Vegas.  After sheltering for most of the pandemic, older consumers are returning to the Strip, international travelers are also back, and work and fan conventions are filling up the calendar.  Katherine Sayre, gambling reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how people are feeling lucky as Vegas is still booming.

Finally, American’s urge to spend has not stopped even as prices have increased, and they are whipping out their credit cards and charging it.  There has been a shift in buying physical goods and home items during the pandemic to spending on experiences like travel and entertainment and it’s raising the amount of credit card debt.  Javier David, managing editor for business and markets at Axios, joins us for what to know about soaring credit card debt.

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Senate Democrats have passed the Inflation Reduction Act with a 51-50 vote, Vice President Kamala Harris cast the tie-breaking vote.  Democrats say the bill will combat climate change, reduce health care costs, reduce the deficit, and raise taxes on big corporations.  The bill now moves on to the House before it hits Biden’s desk, but the bill also delivers another big win for the president.  Despite some wins however polls still show that Americans are worried about the economy and Biden’s approvals remain low.  Julia Manchester, national political reporter at The Hill, joins us for what to know.

Next, some streaming stars are learning the hard way what the price of online fame can be.  Stars on the video game streaming platform Twitch invite viewers into their homes to hangout, interact with fans and they can gain big followings pretty quickly, but they also have to deal with stalkers and harassment.  While it’s not new that celebrities have had to deal with these difficulties from fans, the intimacy that the streaming relationship allows for just amps it up.  Kellen Browning, tech reporter at the NY Times, joins us for how content creators and streamers are now hoping that platforms put a greater emphasis on personal security.

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This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a compilation of some of the most compelling stories of the week.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The U.S. has officially declared the monkeypox outbreak a national health emergency.  This is in addition to various states already declaring their own emergencies.  The designation frees up funds to ramp up vaccination efforts, testing, education, and outreach.  In the meantime, many monkeypox patients feel there is a lack of guidance and have been reporting excruciating pain.  Dominique Mosbergen, medical science reporter at the WSJ, joins us for what to know.

Next, researchers at Yale University have used a new system they created called OrganEx to restore cells in some organs of pigs that had just died.  When blood is no longer pumping through organs the cells begin to die, but with this system, it restored circulation and even repaired some of the damaged cells.  Evan Bush, science reporter at NBC News, joins us for this breakthrough and the ethical questions raised about how medicine defines death.

Finally, Polio is back in the U.S. after being eliminated in 1979.  There was a recent case in an unvaccinated 20-year-old in Rockland County, New York.  What makes this case interesting is that it came from a vaccine derived strain, meaning that it mutated from an oral vaccine that had small amounts of the live virus.  Miranda Dixon-Luinenburg, joins us for this latest case and how it affects the global eradication efforts.

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