The Daily Dive

The election this year is will also mark the end of an era for the media and things will change no matter what. The media has revolved around the president for the last 4 years and the pandemic has advanced the new landscape digitally by years. There will be a wave of retirements in places like the LA Times, Washington Post, and even the NY Times. Battles over free speech and censorship will also continue when it comes to big social media platforms. Ben Smith, media columnist at the NY Times, joins us for how the media will be changing after the election.

Next, examining the mortality rate in more than 500 U.S. jails, Reuters found that in about two thirds of cases, inmates died while in lockup before they had a chance to be convicted in court. Most of these inmates died while waiting for quality healthcare. These jails are run by county sheriffs or local police and have little federal oversight and a rising share of them have contracted out their healthcare to private companies. Peter Eisler, national affairs correspondent at Reuters, joins us more.

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Election Day is here and we are all eager for the polls to close and get quick results for the big question… who wins the presidency? But this year there is a record number of people voting early by mail, and counting all those could take some time. One of the most crucial numbers to follow might be votes not yet counted. Mark Niquette, politics reporter at Bloomberg News, joins us for a new statistic that the AP is using to see how far off we are from a result.

Next, President Trumps has called on his supporters to watch out for fraud and volunteer to become poll watchers. So far in early voting, that army of watchers didn’t really materialized, in part, because poll watching seems to be an extremely boring job. Still, as some are concerned about voter intimidation, it is something to watch out for as the day develops. Jessica Huseman, lead reporter for ProPublica’s Electionland project, joins us for more.

Finally, as the pandemic began and lockdowns were in place, there were tons of stories of pets being adopted and a boon for the pet-care industry. Now, as the pandemic wears on and we see job losses and reduced wages, we are seeing a growing number of people having to surrender their pets to shelters or sanctuaries. Brent Schrotenboer, reporter at USA Today, tells how it’s getting tougher for some to care for their pets.

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Final push before Election Day and President Trump is still looking to big rallies to turn out his base, while Joe Biden leads in national polls. Over 93 million people have already voted early and the focus is going to be on the states' ability to count millions of mail-in ballots in quick enough fashion to get a result. Ginger Gibson, deputy Washington digital editor at NBC News, joins us for what to look out for as election night approaches.

Next, still getting tons of emails and texts with calls to vote from people and organizations you don't know anything about? There is a whole voter data economy, where candidates, parties, and nonprofits collect, buy. and use a ton of information to target you. In some cases they have over 3,000 data points such as income, debt, family, ethnicity and so much more that is used to send you online ads, mailers, and those pesky texts. Geoffrey Fowler, tech columnist at the Washington Post, tells us how they get all your information.

Finally, one of the numbers that public health experts have not been able to get a handle on, is exactly how many people have recovered from COVID-19. There is no agreed upon standard definition for a coronavirus recovery, so each state counts it a different way and some don't even track the number at all. Sarah Toy, health and science reporter at the WSJ, joins us for joins us for how many people we think have recovered and why experts think that number is way off.

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

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

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National polls continue to show Joe Biden in the lead over President Trump, but there has been this lingering skepticism about the polls since the 2016 election, weren’t they wrong last time? Chis Kahn, polling editor at Reuters, joins us for what’s different and why there’s more reason to trust them. Polls are doing a better job of reading Trump’s base, there are fewer undecided voters, and there is a bigger focus on state polls.

Next, a study out of Britain this week said that people with detectable antibodies for the coronavirus fell by about 27% over a period of three months over the summer, calling in to question how long immunity lasts. But health experts say this is not a cause to worry, antibodies tend to wane over time naturally. Apoorva Mandavilli, reporter at the NY Times, joins us for what to know about this antibody study.

Finally, it’s important not to lose sight of our mental health during the pandemic and as daylight saving time ends, the nights get longer and winter approaches, there could be a collision of pandemic depression and seasonal depression. Experts say it’s time to lay the groundwork to help avoid it getting the best of you. Chelsea Cirruzzo, contributor to the Washington Post, joins us for more.

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Keith Raniere, the founder of NXIVM, which has been referred to as a sex cult by some, was sentenced to 120 years in prison for sex trafficking and fraud on Tuesday. Women in a secretive sect of NXIVM were said to be forced into sex with Raniere and also branded with his initials. Pilar Melendez, reporter for the Daily Beast, was in the courtroom for his sentencing and tells us how it went down.

Next, as cases of coronavirus surge and hospitalizations also increase, hospitals have to walk a delicate line on whether to cancel elective and non-essential surgeries again. When these surgeries were cancelled early in the pandemic, hospitals lost out on a lot of revenue and patients had to postpone procedures like knee and hip replacements among other things. Melanie Evans, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how hospitals are better prepared to keep these surgeries going.

Finally, the story of Hunter Biden’s emails and business dealings has failed to gain big traction aside from some conservative outlets. The focus has shifted to suppression of the story by the mainstream media and less on the content of the emails and salacious pictures found on the laptop. Tina Nguyen, White House reporter at Politico, joins us for more.

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COVID-19 vaccine trials are currently underway and we hope to hear news soon about how safe they are, but what is it like participating in one of those trials? Beyond that, what is it like participating with your whole family. Jackie Hajdenberg, investigative reporter with Columbia Journalism Investigations, is currently enrolled in the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine trial with both her parents, her sister, teenage brother, and 80 year-old grandma. Jackie joins us to tell us how it’s going so far and why she feels the people shouldn’t worry at the safety of these trials.

Next, one of the biggest storylines of the 2020 election is all of the early voting and mail-in voting. The numbers are changing constantly, but we are already at half of the total turnout for 2016. This means that most likely the majority of ballots will be cast before Election Day for the first time in history and that there might be some delays in getting results as things are counted. Amy Gardner, national political reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for what to know about the early voting surge.

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Cool space news as a study has confirmed that NASA has discovered water on the sunny parts of the Moon and not just in cold, shadowed areas. The water is not in puddles or icy patches, but rather in it is embedded in glass created during impacts on the moon, so the next step is to figure out how to mine this water. Miriam Kramer, space reporter at Axios, joins us to talk about Moon water.

Next, we are one week out from Election Day! Tens of millions of people have already voted and Joe Biden continues to lead in the polls. Still, this race is not over and President Trump is keeping up his heavy campaign schedule hitting multiple battleground states and the Senate could also be in play for Democrats. Brett Samuels, White House reporter at the Hill, joins us for what the candidates strategies are for the final week.

Finally, looking ahead to Thanksgiving… there could be a glut of big turkeys this year. Farmers had to try and predict the demand and processing schedule for the bird during a pandemic and fear that there might not be enough small turkeys. Driving the worry, family gatherings could be smaller and people may be looking for protein alternatives. Laura Reiley, business of food reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for too many fat turkeys. 

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More coronavirus has infiltrated the Whit House. Marc Short, chief of staff for Vice President Mike Pence and other key staffers around him have tested positive for COVID-19. Despite these new infections Pence will continue his campaign schedule as he and his wife have tested negative. We will also take a look at some key races that could help Democrats flip control of the Senate if they win. Ginger Gibson, deputy Washington digital editor for NBC News, joins us the latest leading up to election day.

Next, as we prepare for a vaccine to be approved, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies are ramping up their security and storing coronavirus vaccines in undisclosed locations, deploying GPS trackers to monitor shipments, and even setting up fake shipments with dummy trucks to throw criminals off. The Department of Health and Human Services is even arranging for U.S. Marshals to accompany shipments. Jared Hopkins, Pharma reporter at the WSJ, joins us for the tight vaccine security.

Finally, there has been a huge effort by daycare workers to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and it's paying off. A study of more than 57,000 childcare providers found that those who continued working through the pandemic weren't more likely to catch coronavirus than those that were out of work. Extra precautions such as cleaning surfaces daily, extra hand washing for kids, and keeping them in smaller and seperate groups helped limit the spread. Kate Baggaley, contributor to Popular Science, joins us for more.

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