The Daily Dive

QAnon has gripped the fascination of many people in the country. People have been hanging on every cryptic post that Q would send to message boards and while many of the conspiracies and predictions of President Trump staying in power, mass arrests of politicians, and Satanists pulling the strings of the deep state have not come true, Q’s followers still persist. And what if one of those followers were in your family? For our first story, we will speak to Albert Samaha, investigative journalist and deputy editor at BuzzFeed News, about his struggles to get his own mother to stop believing in QAnon.

Next, good news as we may soon have another vaccine available to us. AstraZeneca and its partner, Oxford University, have released information about their clinical trials in the U.S. and found their vaccine is safe and prevents 79% of symptomatic cases of Covid-19. It also reduced severe cases and hospitalizations by 100%. There has been recent concern of blood clots associated with the vaccine in Europe, but the trials showed that no cases of that in the U.S. Karen Weintraub, health reporter at USA Today, joins us for more.

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The crisis at the southern border continues as the Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, defended the actions of the administration. He made clear that the border is closed, but the message is unlikely to reach the migrants headed their way to the U.S. There are currently over 5,000 unaccompanied minors at the border and overcrowding is becoming an issue. In other political news, Republican Attorneys General are suing the Biden administration on a range of issues and there were a number of protests and vigils over the weekend as people were calling for an end to anti-Asian violence. Ginger Gibson, deputy Washington digital editor at NBC News, joins us for more.

Next, since December and increasingly in recent weeks we have seen mass abductions of students and teachers in Nigeria. Kidnappings for ransom have become a very lucrative industry there and comes almost seven years after the abductions of 276 girls which sparked the #BringBackOurGirls campaign on social media. While many quickly showed support online to find these girls, the rescue effort tooks years to pay off, and many girls are still missing. Drew Hinshaw, reporter at the WSJ and co-author of the new book "Bring Back Our Girls," joins us for how that social media campaign changed everything for years to come.

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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.

They’ve been hiding underground for 17 years and very soon the swarm will hit multiple states. The Brood X cicadas will be all over the place beginning in late April or early May. While they might pose an inconvenience as they come out in the billions, they are a crucial part of the ecosystem. Dr. Sebastian Alejandro Echeverri, scientist and contributor to NBC News, joins us for what to expect and why you don’t want to mow your lawn when they come out.

Next, Moderna announced this week that they will begin testing their Covid vaccine on children aged 6 months to 11 years. This is the next piece of the puzzle to widen the mass vaccination campaign beyond adults. If all goes well, health officials believe that junior high and high school students could get their shots in the fall and elementary school students early next year. Peter Loftus, healthcare reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

Finally, the pandemic has created a housing boom, but it’s different from the last time. Residential home prices are hitting highs that we haven’t seen since 2006. The big winners are people who already own homes because they can take advantage of lower mortgage rates, but on the other side, competition is stiff because of low supply. Nicole Friedman, reporter at the WSJ, joins us to talk about the crazy housing market.

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The fear among Asian-Americans is real. We have been seeing an uptick in Anti-Asian racist incidents and according to one report, there were 3,800 incidents this past year during the pandemic, mostly against women. These can include everything from shunning people, using slurs, or even physical attacks. Experts see two trends emerging, one is incidents of racism related to the pandemic, and the second is violence against elderly Asians. Kimmy Yam, reporter at NBC News and writer for NBC Asian America, joins us for more.

Next, the fight for his political life has officially begun for California Gov. Gavin Newsom. On Wednesday, proponents of a recall effort submitted over 2 million signatures to be verified, only 1.5 million signatures are needed. Newsom has already begun a press tour to defend his handling of the state’s pandemic response, and get ready for more ads flooding the state. Newsom is pinning the recall effort on Trump supporters and opportunists, while the other side wants to keep it all about Newsom’s closures of businesses. David Siders, national political correspondent at Politico, joins us for what to expect next in this recall.

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Which vaccine are you getting? For now, the experts are clear that the best vaccine to get is the first one that is available to you. But if you had your choice as supply goes up, which would you get? There are concerns about side effects, effectiveness, and immunity and those differences are small, but they do exist. Elizabeth Weise, national correspondent at USA Today, joins us for what to know about the available vaccines.

Next, the White House is planning a wide-reaching campaign at getting those that are skeptical of the vaccines on board. It will be targeting young people, people of color, and conservatives. A recent focus group shows that to target some GOP voters, it will be best to keep politics out of it and provide as much information as possible so they can make informed decisions. Dan Diamond, national health reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for how to win over some vaccine skeptics.

Finally, in a good sign of a recovering economy, the hotel industry is starting to regain some footing after its worst year ever. Americans are getting the itch to travel again and there are some good indicators for the leisure and hospitality industry. They are hiring again, getting advanced bookings, and seeing stock shares rise. Peter Grant, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for what we hope is a hotel rebound.

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News out of the Vatican made clear the Catholic Church's stance on same-sex marriages. The Church will not bless these unions despite how stable or positive the relationships are. This news comes at a time when more Americans are identifying as LGBTQ and less are identifying as religious. The Vatican also said that God does not and cannot bless sin, but people should still be welcomed with respect and sensitivity. Bill Chappell, reporter at NPR, joins us for more.

Next, two men have been arrested and charged in the assault on police office Brian Sicknick during the Capitol riots on Jan. 6. The two men were charged with assaulting three officers with an unknown chemical spray, which could have been bear spray. Julian Khater and George Tanios were seen on video at the riots spraying police and were caught when tipsters notified the FBI. Peter Hermann, reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for the latest charges related to the Capitol siege.

Finally, there are a lot of questions about vaccine passports and when they might be available in the U.S. These could be paper or digital documents that show you are fully vaccinated or recently tested negative for coronavirus and may allow you to travel internationally more freely, or avoid local quarantines. Dr. John Torres, senior medical contributor to NBC News, joins us for how the U.S. is still far from laying any groundwork to get these vaccine passports implemented.

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President Biden has a growing border crisis on his hands as we are seeing huge numbers of migrant children coming to the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration has dispatched FEMA to help with transferring these unaccompanied minors from the custody of Border Protection to the care of Health and Human Services. There is also action in the Senate to try and reform the filibuster into a talking filibuster, in the hopes that bills on voting rights and gun control can be passed and NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues to face more calls to resign. Ginger Gibson, deputy Washington digital editor at NBC news, joins us to break it all down.

Next, as more states start to open up and vaccine distribution continues to grow, many are looking at who did what right during the pandemic. Two states that are often compared for how different an approach they each took are California and Florida. Gov. Newsom in CA if facing a recall effort for his handling of the pandemic, while Gov. Ron DeSantis is being praised in some conservative circles for his handling. California has a better death rate, but higher unemployment. Florida has more kids in school, but is facing a budget shortfall. Soumya Karlamangla, health reporter at the LA Times, joins us for who handled COVID-19 better.

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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.