Social Distance

Listen: Who Gets the Next Shot?

A bioethics expert on the moral questions facing our vaccine rollouts.

• 6:00 AM ET

Listen: Coronavirus Mutations

How bad are the new COVID-19 variants, really?

• January 15, 2021

Listen: How Badly Is Vaccination Going?

We’re behind, but that may change quickly.

• January 8, 2021

Listen: The Vaccine Is Here! What Now?

We’re very relieved, but now entering the strange time of vaccine purgatory.

• December 18, 2020

Listen: Americans Are Going Hungry

How could we let people go so long without help?

• December 14, 2020

Listen: Misinformation Mailbag

How do you talk with a loved one who believes pandemic conspiracy theories?

• December 6, 2020

Listen: How to Cancel Thanksgiving

Because you should.

• November 20, 2020

Listen: A 90 Percent Effective Vaccine

The lead principal investigator of the Pfizer vaccine trial explains the news that it’s 90 percent effective.

• November 13, 2020

Listen: The Virus Is Peaking, but Help Is Going Away

Americans now face a third wave of the coronavirus. New lockdowns may soon follow—this time, without economic support.

• October 26, 2020

Listen: Is COVID-19 a Preexisting Condition?

What could happen if we lose the Affordable Care Act during the pandemic

• October 16, 2020

Listen: The Bizarre, Inconsistent Story of Trump’s Illness

What did the president know and when did he know it?

• October 8, 2020

Listen: College Football Needs to Follow Science, Not Money

As colleges send athletes back on the field, we’re learning more about how COVID-19 could have serious and long-lasting impacts on hearts in even the healthiest among us.

• September 30, 2020

Listen: How Bad Will Winter Get?

Your cold-month questions, answered

• September 25, 2020

Listen: Fires Outside, Virus Inside

How wildfires make the virus more dangerous

• September 17, 2020

Listen: Is Faster Better?

We want vaccines. We want rapid tests. But when is fast too fast?

• September 12, 2020

Herd Immunity Is Not a Strategy

What the term actually means, and what it doesn’t

• James Hamblin
• September 2, 2020

Listen: Plasma and Immunity

A COVID-19 survivor asks questions about her immunity and donating plasma.

• August 31, 2020

Listen: The Comedy and Tragedy of Virtual Live Events

When events went online, they lost something indescribable. But did some of them gain something new?

• August 21, 2020

Listen: Millennials Are Buying ‘COVID Cars’

How the pandemic is changing how we move—and could alter cities permanently

• August 17, 2020

Listen: This Episode Has Not Been Peer-Reviewed

Is the pandemic changing science?

• August 8, 2020