News and Happenings

Andy speaks with former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch about how she anticipates the Russian invasion of Ukraine playing out and why the fight for democracy can take decades. She explains how her parents’ experience fleeing totalitarian regimes in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany led her to join the U.S. Foreign Service, and relives her painful role as a key witness in the 2020 impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump in which she testified that the President pressured the State Department to remove her based on what she called unfounded and false claims.

Andy talks with Dr. Peter Marks about the FDA’s authorization of a fourth round of vaccines for those 50 and older. As the director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research at the Food and Drug Administration, Marks is the man most responsible for our vaccines and the speed at which they were developed. Andy gets the inside scoop from him to help answer questions from listeners about boosters, such as: Who should get another shot? Should you mix and match? And when will we see vaccines for kids under 5?

When he wasn’t busy taming electricity and being a Founding Father of the United States, Benjamin Franklin was encouraging inoculations to combat the smallpox pandemic of the 18th century. Franklin bitterly regretted not inoculating his 4-year-old son, Francis, who died from smallpox when an outbreak hit Philadelphia in 1736. Andy talks to filmmaker Ken Burns, whose new PBS documentary on the founding father comes out April 4, about Franklin’s role during the smallpox pandemic, how he balanced his libertarian views with scientific and public health reasoning, and whether Franklin would support a COVID-19 vaccine mandate if alive today.

While states like Texas and Florida target LGBTQ+ youth and families, Andy digs into the top issues affecting our nation’s health with Admiral Rachel Levine, a pediatrician currently serving as Assistant Secretary for Health. Dr. Levine, who is the nation’s first openly transgender four-star officer, discusses her commitment to finding solutions to improve youth mental health, the opioid epidemic, and health equity. She and Andy also reflect on the profound difference one supportive adult can make for an LGBTQ+ young person.

Andy tackles the pressing need for more COVID funding with two guests who are fighting to make it happen: outgoing White House Coronavirus Coordinator Jeff Zients and former COVID Transition Team member Dr. Zeke Emanuel. What will happen if the U.S. can’t afford to pay for a fourth round of vaccines? And what is holding Congress up? Zeke and Andy also discuss the plan Zeke is spearheading for the next phase of the pandemic, and Andy puts Zeke through a lightning round where he asks him about variant-specific vaccines, the potential return of mask mandates, how best to use oral antivirals like Paxlovid, and much more.

Andy brings Harvard epidemiologist Bill Hanage back to discuss what the US can expect to see with the new Omicron subvariant BA.2. How will our bump compare to what we’re seeing in Europe? And how will people navigate it with the nationwide relaxation of vaccine and mask mandates? Plus, they revisit some of their previous conversation about the original strain of Omicron from six weeks ago to see how well their predictions held up.

Andy begins by talking about the rise in COVID cases around the world and what that could mean for us here in America. Then, listen in as Andy and Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna have a wide-ranging conversation about the war in Ukraine, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, and what it takes to build bridges both across the aisle and within one’s own party. Ro explains his views on how far the U.S. should go to defend Ukraine, what it means to be a “progressive capitalist,” and how we can achieve dignity in a digital age.

Andy gets to the bottom of Vladimir Putin’s escalating nuclear threats with U.S. Senator Tim Kaine and Hans Kristensen, Director of the Nuclear Information Project with the Federation of American Scientists. Plus, Senator Kaine details his personal two-year-long struggle with long COVID and his new bill, the Comprehensive Access to Resources and Education (CARE) for Long COVID Act.

As mask mandates and vaccine requirements go away and life starts to look similar to the way it did in February 2020, Andy talks with world-renowned virologist David Ho, who says his career has been defined by two pandemics: HIV/AIDS and COVID-19. David tells Andy what he makes of people relaxing their precautions, how long he thinks COVID will remain problematic for us as a society, and what future vaccines and therapies could look like. Plus, David recounts his decades researching HIV/AIDS, which led to him being named TIME Magazine’s Person of the Year in 1996.

As Russia cracks down on the truth about the war in Ukraine, Andy connects with Jim Sciutto, CNN’s Chief National Security Correspondent, on the ground in Lviv. Jim tells Andy about some of the Ukrainians he’s spoken with: a member of parliament, a law student-turned-volunteer medic, and a family fleeing to safety. They also discuss the convoy outside Kyiv and what Putin’s next steps may be.