It’s the excruciatingly long final week of the year. Brad and Desi are on vacation. I’m NICOLE SANDLER, holding down the fort and guest hosting The BradCast for a few days. [Audio link to full show is posted below this summary.]
I have a busy show for you today. But I start today’s companion post with a bit of a retraction from the CDC which just arrived in my inbox. I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or cry, as it showed up just as I put the finishing touches on today’s show.
Our first guest today is JOHN M BARRY, a professor at Tulane and author of a number of books. The one we’re concerned with today is The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History. Barry literally wrote the book on the closest approximation of what we’re living through right now. So I wanted to check in with him to ask how the 1918 Spanish Flu finally ended, and to ask if we might be on the same track with the arrival and potential predominance of the Omicron variant. And, frankly, it appeared that I may have hit on something.
At least until five minutes ago, when I received this alert. “CDC significantly cuts estimate of omicron’s prevalence in US,” reads the headline at The Hill. So I kept reading…
I guess that just means the situation is even more dire than we thought.
Also today, I reached back into late 2020 for our second interview, but there’s a method to my madness. In October of 2020, NY Times columnist NICHOLAS KRISTOF and his wife, Sheryl WuDunn, produced a film to go along with the book they released the previous year with the same title, Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope.
In it, Kristof takes a hard look into poverty in America, the wealthiest nation on the planet. He takes us back to his hometown of Yamhill, Oregon, where people are really struggling.
Perhaps it was the journey of making the film and writing the book that convinced Kristof to make a major life change. This year, he quit the NY Times, moved back to Oregon and launched his campaign to run for Governor. It appears to me that he’s doing it for all the correct reasons. Listen to our conversation, and you’ll understand what I mean…
As you suggested, we should not kid ourselves with wishful thinking.
The science of causes is not as ironclad as we are often led to believe (Omicron (OMC!) – 2).
The Netflicks movie “Don’t Look Up” is a classic …
Re: Don’t Look Up
Great movie. A buffet of Irony. Fits our times perfectly.
Acting is very good overall, but Mark Rylance
is extraordinary as an Elon Musk/Steve Jobs-type.
Rylance captures the smarmy optimism and obtuse arrogance of this type brilliantly.
I predict another Best Supporting Actor award for Rylance for this role.