Sophia Freuden sat down with Chloe Freuden, a registered nurse in the State of Washington, to discuss recent policy recommendations issued by the CDC regarding masks. They also chatted about medical misinformation, legal action being taken against it, and how coronavirus will impact the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

In this week's episode, Pinot & Policy winos Drake MacFarlane and Hannah Cowden receive a lesson in epidemiology, virology, and the efficacy of boxed wine mimosas from special guest Michael Luzadder -- a real life STEM major. Truly, high school biology is better with booze.

The Pinot & Policy crew invites special guest Phoebe Gresser, a political liaison with the Outlaw Dirty Money initiative in Arizona, to discuss the impact of social distancing on campaigns and ballot initiatives across America. Oh, and we get wine drunk at noon, as is tradition.

Drake MacFarlane, Hannah Cowden, and Sophia Freuden teamed up to talk about the pending apocalypse, otherwise known as coronavirus. No stone was left unturned, including risks of the pandemic, its economic and political impact, and what it means for gerontocracy in the United States.

Drake MacFarlane, Hannah Luzadder, and Sophia Freuden hop on this episode to talk Bloomberg's meme campaign to win the Democratic nominations, corporate capture of natural artistic communities, influencer culture, and everything else on the internet that makes you want to rage quit life. Sound: "Nylon string Guitar with steel string bass" by 4barrelcarb on Freesound.org with a CC0 1.0 license.

Drake MacFarlane and Sophia Freuden sit down to discuss our cyber overlords, Facebook and Google, as well as some antitrust investigations that have been launched against them in recent weeks. They go over the legal history of major antitrust laws in the US, privacy scandals, possible legal defenses for these companies, and pretty much every else that's terrifying as it relates to data and the law.

Sound: "jazz_music_loop.mp3" by anechoix with a CC BY 3.0 license.

Hannah Cowden, Drake MacFarlane and Sophia Freuden sit down over some Radlers and gin to discuss climate change--or as it is increasingly known, the climate crisis. This particularly spicy discussion includes 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg and her upcoming address at the UNGA and the wildfires in the Amazon rain forest. What--if anything--can be done to tackle this crisis? Listen in to find out what our podcast crew thinks.

Sound: "Piano, Bach Fantasia, A (H6 MS).wav" by InspectorJ with a CC BY 3.0 license

Hong Kong is seeing mass protests reaching as large as 1.7 million people marching in a single day. This protest movement is 11 weeks old and four weeks away from the 70th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party taking control of mainland China. Brews in hand, our regular podcast crew discusses the reasons for these protests, the complicated China-Hong Kong relationship, and economic and geopolitical conditions affecting the entire situation.

Sound: "Chinese flute Hulusi" by iluppai on Feesound.org with a CC0 1.0 license

Arbitror’s Editor-in-Chief Sophia Freuden sat down with TJ Sjostrom and Maria Gershuni to discuss Ivan Golunov’s arrest in Moscow earlier this month, potential causes for and consequences of the botched arrest, and the state of journalism worldwide in 2019. If stories of weird corruption, sheer ineptitude, and media biases interest you, give this episode a listen.

Sound: “Bright breathy saxophone by Stan Rams The Netherlands” by Stanrams on Freesound.org with a CC BY-NC 3.0 license

Sophia Freuden, Drake MacFarlane, Hannah Luzadder, and Morgan MacFarlane sit down to discuss who is hot or not in global politics. The discussion includes the intersection of race, age, and gender in beauty standards and how perceived beauty can affect one's own opinion of another person. Much pinot was consumed.

Music: "A Second Behind, picked guitar 1, Rec (16).wav" by jo130 on Freesound.org.

A recent breakout of violence in Gaza is neither the first nor last of its kind. Arbitror's Editor in Chief sits down with Ellen Schwartz, a contributor at Arbitror and an intern at the Arava Institute, a think tank based in southern Israel, to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the conditions on the ground in both places.

Sound: "Floating Synth Melody at 130 BPM C major loop music" by Lemoncreme on Freesound.org with a CC BY 3.0 license.