Title: Navigating Interracial Friendships with Some Of My Best Friends Are

Description: Here's a preview of another podcast we're enjoying, Some of My Best Friends Are, from Pushkin Industries. Harvard professor Khalil Gibran Muhammad and journalist Ben Austen are friends, one Black and one white, who grew up together on the South Side of Chicago. On Some of My Best Friends Are, Khalil and Ben, along with their guests, have critical conversations that are at once personal, political, and playful, about the absurdities and intricacies of race in America. In this preview, Khalil and Ben talk with author Saladin Ambar about his new book, Stars and Shadows: The Politics of Interracial Friendship from Jefferson to Obama. Through famous bonds ranging from Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe, to Barack Obama and Joe Biden, they explore the dynamics, benefits, and difficulties of cultivating interracial friendships. Hear the full episode, and more from Some of My Best Friends Are, at https://podcasts.pushkin.fm/sbfs2?sid=america.

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A new Gallup poll shows that half of US workers say they are quiet quitting, a phenomenon in which employees do the bare minimum at work. The key term here is employee engagement which measures involvement at work and enthusiasm employees have about work. Since 2021, employee engagement has fallen as workers feel unfulfilled with their jobs and are now being asked to return to the office. Ray Smith, reporter on the Careers Team at the Wall Street Journal, joins Oscar Ramirez for more on quiet quitting.

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Schools are back but they are still dealing with the setbacks and learning loss all due to the pandemic.  Recently we saw Department of Education data showing 9-year-olds are behind in reading and math, the sharpest decline we’ve seen since 1990.  The learning loss was generally worse in districts that kept classes remote longer.  To combat this, states are spending billions on tutoring, expanded summer school, and more individual attention for students.  Scott Calvert, reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more on what schools are doing and how they are tracking progress.

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As overall pandemic worries continue to fade, one of the biggest curiosities continues to be log Covid, what causes it and who is the most susceptible?  A new study says that psychological factors such as depression, anxiety, and loneliness, could be better predictors than physical ailments.  To be clear, it is not a causal relationship, but there is an association.  Siwen Wang, research fellow at Harvard and lead author of this study, joins us for what to know.

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Telehealth companies got a big push during the pandemic when rules were waived that required people to see an in-person health provider to be prescribed controlled substances.  Now telehealth apps are spending millions to advertise on TikTok saying they can get a person a diagnosis of ADHD and a prescription for Adderall in as little as 30 minutes.  Content creators are also posting about living life with ADHD leading to billions of views and many to think they might also have the condition. Then they are targeted with ads.  Sara Morrison, senior reporter at Recode, joins us for how startups are pushing Adderall on TikTok.

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Even as pandemic disruptions have faded and most schools have returned to in-person instruction, permanent virtual classes are still being offered to protect vulnerable children.  Districts in Texas, California, and New York are creating full-time remote learning programs for this school year.  The virtual option may only be appropriate for a small percentage of students, but in an effort to fight declining enrollment and disruptions from families moving, virtual schools will remain part of the education system. Ben Chapman, education reporter at the WSJ, joins us for what to know.

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The fall Covid-19 booster campaign will be upon us soon and how well the new Omicron-specific boosters will work may depend on a phenomenon called “original antigenic sin.”  Since people have been infected, vaccinated, and boosted, people’s immune systems are on different playing fields and your first exposure may play a bigger part in future immune responses.  Carolyn Johnson, science reporter at the Washington Post, joins us for what to know.

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The Covid pandemic has changed just about every aspect of Americans’ health, and it has mostly been for the worse.  As people missed health screenings, abandoned routines, and went through isolation we saw a range of other chronic diseases worsen.  Overall death rates of heart disease and stroke rose, drug overdose deaths and alcohol abuse rose, and even mental health took a hit.  Brianna Abbot, health reporter at the WSJ, joins us for more.

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Despite fears of a recession and record-high inflation, pent-up demand for travel and fun are leading people to Las Vegas.  After sheltering for most of the pandemic, older consumers are returning to the Strip, international travelers are also back, and work and fan conventions are filling up the calendar.  Katherine Sayre, gambling reporter at the WSJ, joins us for how people are feeling lucky as Vegas is still booming.

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We are seeing an increase in food insecurity around the country and this time around it is not due to a wave of people losing jobs, rather high inflation has been hitting Americans hard, leading many to seek out help from food banks.  Lora Kelley, business reporter at the NY Times, joins us for how the food banks themselves are struggling to meet demand as they see decreasing donations and increased costs due to paying more for transportation and acquiring food.

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As the group of people who have not had Covid continues to shrink, many ideas begin to swirl about how they have avoided it for so long.  For some it could be a healthy immune system, masking, or just luck, but could genetics also be at play?  Katherine Wu, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins us for how scientists are looking into whether some are just naturally resistant to the virus.

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