Podcast appearances and mentions of katherine wu

The Trump administration is rapidly canceling grants at the National Institutes of Health. Katherine Wu, staff writer for The Atlantic, explains how the agency is beginning to terminate active research grants — seemingly on political grounds. 

Katherine Wu, staff writer for The Atlantic, explains how the Trump administration's cuts to research grants has already — and will continue to — impact scientific progress in the United States.=>"The Breaking of American Science" (The Atlantic, Feb. 14, 2025)

One month into the new Trump administration, research funds have been frozen, data has been taken down and scientific discourse censored. Now, with vaccine skeptics in positions of incredible power, including Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the future of scientific research and healthcare access appears uncertain. Marisa and Scott discuss the state of American science with The Atlantic staff writer Katherine Wu.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Some may scoff, but many pet owners feel their furry friends are more akin to human family. Katherine Wu, staff writer for The Atlantic, discusses the dynamics of the relationships between people and their pets. → Pets Really Can Be Like Human Family

On this episode of Archebyte, Katherine Wu and fellow Archetype team member, Nick Pai, are joined by the CEO and co-founder of Risk Labs, Hart Lambur, to talk bridges, L2s, and interoperability.Hart and Risk Labs are best known for creating UMA, an optimistic oracle, and Across Protocol, a crosschain bridge. In the multichain future that is quickly becoming the present, infrastructure like oracles, bridges, and sequencers play crucial roles. But, these tools that are meant to facilitate interoperability between blockchains still have plenty of room for improvement.During our conversation, we dig into the problems that bridges currently face, how Across is designed to mitigate them, and what a safer multichain ecosystem looks like. Hart and Nick give their thoughts on centralized, decentralized, and shared sequencers, intents, and the role aggregators play in regards to bridges. They also answer the loaded question - are bridges L2s?

On this episode of Rehash, we speak with Rebecca Rettig, Chief Legal and Policy Officer at Polygon Labs, about the current state of crypto regulation around the world.This is the first legal and policy focused conversation we've had on Rehash in over a year - the last conversation we had on crypto regulation was with Katherine Wu from Archetype and Crypto Council for Innovation all the way back in Season 2. The main difference I wanted to touch on in this episode (other than just getting a more current take on where crypto regulation currently stands) is getting a more global perspective on how different countries or regions of the world are looking at crypto. Rebecca talks about key pieces of crypto legislation like MiCA (Markets in Crypto Assets) in the EU and FIT (Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act) in the US and shares her perspectives on which countries have the most crypto friendly policies.We focus most of the conversation on crypto policy, but we do chat a bit on the legal front as well. Rebecca talks about some key court cases we've seen recently in the U.S., such as the Coinbase case, and shares her take on what she believes the SEC's strategy is and what that means for us as people building and working in the industry.Finally we wrap up with some spicy questions from our community, like how to stay out of jail as someone building in web3 or whether crypto will ever succeed in the U.S.Rebecca was nominated by Carsten and voted onto the podcast by Justin Conley, Katelyn Donnelly, Zayi Reyes, Meg Lister, Aaron Soskin, David Silverman, anon, and Carsten.COLLECT THIS EPISODEhttps://www.rehashweb3.xyz/ FOLLOW USRehash: https://twitter.com/rehashweb3Diana: https://twitter.com/ddwchenRebecca: https://twitter.com/RebeccaRettig1TheValueProp: https://thevalueprop.io/ SPONSORSLens Protocol: https://lens.xyzLivepeer: https://livepeer.org LINKSMarkets in Crypto Assets (MiCA)Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act (FIT)Crypto435TheValuePropGet involved in policy: Email policy@polygon.technology TIMESTAMPS0:00 Intro4:00 The shift from legal to policy7:43 Infrastructure provider vs dapp provider9:29 Non-financial use cases for crypto10:02 High level overview of global crypto policy14:49 Government 101 (US)19:12 What is the SEC's strategy?20:39 People used to hate telephones20:51 SEC's lawsuit against Coinbase24:57 What will happen to DAOs and NFT projects without legal protections?26:36 Best advice for DAOs29:20 Will the US ever embrace crypto?30:56 Wyoming DAO LLCs31:58 Which country's laws apply?33:48 Most important crypto legislation takeaways36:06 How can I help push crypto policy forward?38:37 Will crypto ever succeed in the U.S.?39:25 Best places to live for web3 nomads40:03 How to stay out of jail 42:51 Follow Rebecca DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

Katherine joins TWiV to discuss her career in science writing, from not liking science at all, to a PhD in microbiology and immunology, and writing for Nova, the NY Times, and The Atlantic, and how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted her craft. Host: Vincent Racaniello, Kathy Spindler, and Brianne Barker Guest: Katherine Wu Subscribe (free): Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, RSS, email Become a patron of TWiV! Links for this episode MicrobeTV Discord Server All Katherine's articles at The Atlantic Vaccines still blocking severe disease (The Atlantic) Calling Omicron mild is wishful thinking (The Atlantic) Tattoos do odd things to the immune system (The Atlantic) The Story Collider Timestamps by Jolene. Thanks! Intro music is by Ronald Jenkees Send your virology questions and comments to twiv@microbe.tv

Canadian Wildfire Smoke Drifts Across The United States This week, smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted south, enveloping the Northeastern United States, casting an ominous orange glow. The smoke continued spreading outwards to the Southeast and to the Midwest. While climate change is extending and worsening the Canadian wildfire season, it's still rare for this many fires, so early in the season. Ira talks with Katherine Wu, staff writer at The Atlantic, about the latest on the Canadian wildfires and other top news stories of the week, including; a new type of cat contraception, drilling into the Earth's mantle, and a ‘virgin' crocodile birth.   30 Years Later, 'Jurassic Park' Still Inspires On June 11th, 1993, what would become one of the biggest movies of all time was released in theaters: Jurassic Park. Based on the novel by Michael Crichton, the film is about people's belief that they can control nature. Wealthy businessman John Hammond creates a dinosaur nature park. Things go awry quickly. Electric fences break down, dinosaurs get loose, and people are eaten. At the time of its release, the film became the highest-grossing movie of all time. In the decades since it came out, the film has spawned a multi-movie franchise, amusement park rides, video games, and every type of merchandise imaginable. The movie also had a tremendous impact on visual effects, both computer animated and practical, which are still seen today in the media. When the first Jurassic Park movie came out, many of the paleontologists of today were children—or not even born yet. Ira speaks with a trio of paleontologists about the film's impact on them as kids, and its continuous use as an educational tool to inspire young dino enthusiasts: Riley Black, Steve Brusatte and Yara Haridy.   A Biotech Offensive Against Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes Mosquitoes are the primary spreaders of some highly dangerous diseases for people: The insect spreads diseases like yellow fever, dengue fever, malaria, and zika, which kill millions of people globally each year. There's one species of mosquito that's invasive to the United States, and whose populations are spreading: Aedes aegypti, which is recognizable by black and white markings on its legs. Lee County, Florida is taking aim at this species with biotechnology. Their strategy is to release 30,000 sterilized male mosquitoes into the environment, who will go on to mate with females, who then will release eggs that do not hatch. Male mosquitoes don't bite, only females do. The goal of this method is to decrease the Aedes aegypti population with every generation. Biotechnology to combat this mosquito species is nothing new. Ira speaks with reporter Cary Barbor at WGCU in Fort Myers about this strategy in her city. He also speaks with Dr. Omar Akbari, professor of cell and developmental biology at UC San Diego, about his research on using CRISPR to alter Aedes aegypti into harmless insects.   To stay updated on all-things-science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters. Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.    

Elon Musk and Florida governor Ron DeSantis are reportedly announcing DeSantis' bid for president today…on twitter. We asked listeners whether Musk's actions have changed their use of the social media platform. Peggy Shukur (New England ADL) and Idit Klein (Keshet) discussed the ADL's new report on extremism in Massachusetts. Juliette Kayyem weighed in on fake AI images of a burning Pentagon that went viral this week, and the U-Haul truck that crashed into a White House security barrier. She also discussed headlines out of the G-7 summit, and the latest on the trial of Jack Teixeira. Amal Amon, Samia Komi, and Omnia Fadelelsaid, are all natives of Sudan who moved to Massachusetts in the early 2000's. They joined us to discuss the war in Sudan and how it's impacting the lives of their loved ones still in Sudan. Corby Kummer discussed an Atlantic piece on what we do and don't know about the drawbacks of eating fast. He also talked about the state of COVID-era restaurant policies and some expanded SNAP benefits. Paul English and Marcelo Suárez-Orozco joined to discuss UMass Boston's new AI Institute, which they are naming in English's honor after his $5 million donation. English founded the travel company Kayak and is co-chairing Embrace Boston. Suárez-Orozco is the chancellor of UMass Boston. According to a new piece by Katherine Wu in The Atlantic, there's no scientific evidence that eating fast is worse for you than eating slow. We asked listeners to call in to share their eating habits.

On this episode of Archebyte, we are joined by Collin Meyers, Founder of Obol Labs. The Obol Network is an ecosystem for trust minimized staking that enables people to create, test, run and coordinate distributed validators. Collin kicks off the episode by laying some groundwork and explaining the history of staking infrastructure and how it has led us to where we are today, post Ethereum Merge. We briefly discuss withdrawals and how they affect staking dynamics before diving deep into DVT - Distributed Validator Technology. Collin breaks down what DVT is, how it works, and what it can enable for validators as well as the crypto ecosystem at large. We discuss the challenges that at home validators face and Collin shares his advice for becoming an at home validator and overcoming these challenges. We close out our conversation as Collin looks to the future and shares what he's excited to see develop in the crypto infrastructure space in the coming years as we acknowledge that blockchain tech is at its core one incredible use case of applied cryptography.  

In this week's conversation between Dr. James Emery White and co-host Alexis Drye, they discuss whether it's okay for a Christian to get a tattoo or cosmetic surgery. Culture clings tightly to the belief that we, as individuals, have the right to determine what we do with our bodies and how we use them. But what does the Bible have to say about this topic? How much are we allowed to manipulate our bodies? Episode Links Dr. White referenced several articles from The Atlantic that have been written in recent years on tattoos. Katherine Wu wrote, “Tattoos Do Odd Things to the Immune System” discussing the body's response to ink-filled needles. Amanda Mull wrote, “Tattoos Now Have an Exit Strategy” looking at the increasing popularity of semipermanent tattoos. And finally, Adrienne Green wrote an article titled “Watching Tattoos Go From Rebellious to Mainstream” about how much culture has come to embrace the art of tattoos. Dr. White did a series at Mecklenburg Community Church called “Is it okay for a Christian to…” looking at everything from watching R-rated movies to smoking marijuana. One of the installments focused on whether it's okay for a Christian to get a tattoo or to be cremated. He also mentioned another series in today's conversation called “Seasons of Life.” The installment on the 40s explored how a fixation on anti-aging and all that we try to do to fight it tends to creep into our mindset during this decade of life. Finally, Dr. White read an excerpt from an essay written by Lore Ferguson titled, “Beautiful Beyond Our Control.” We'd definitely encourage you to read the whole thing as it's so beautifully written. For those of you who are new to Church & Culture, we'd love to invite you to subscribe (for free of course) to the twice-weekly Church & Culture blog and check out the Daily Headline News - a collection of headlines from around the globe each weekday.

A few weeks ago, raw data gathered in Janaury 2020 from Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China — the early epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic — was uploaded to an online virology database. It caught the attention of researchers. A new genetic analysis from an international team provides the strongest evidence yet for natural origins of the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of one animal in particular: raccoon dogs. Short Wave co-host Emily Kwong talks with Katherine Wu, a staff writer at The Atlantic, who broke the story and explains the genetic evidence. To dive into emerging genetic evidence of this pandemic's origins, read:- Crits-Christoph et. al (2023), Genetic evidence of susceptible wildlife in SARS-CoV-2 positive samples at the Huanan Wholesale Seafood Market, Wuhan: Analysis and interpretation of data released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control- Katherine Wu's Atlantic article, The Strongest Evidence Yet That an Animal Started the Pandemic- Michaeleen Doucleff's NPR reporting, What does science say about the origin of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?

At Long Last, More Regulations For Forever Chemicals This week, the EPA proposed the first national standards for drinking water that would set limits on the amount of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) chemicals that would be allowed in water systems. There are thousands of different PFAS chemicals, which are often used industrially for properties such as heat, water and stain resistance—from fire-fighting foams to coatings on clothing and paper plates. They have come to be known as “forever chemicals” as they are extremely slow to break down in the environment. The chemicals have been linked to health problems, including cancer. Katherine Wu, staff writer for The Atlantic, joins Ira to talk about the proposed regulations and how such a sweeping rule might be implemented nationwide. Wu also discusses her latest article on COVID-19 origins, and genetic analysis that could tie the pandemic back to raccoon dogs in the Wuhan market. They also talk about other news from the week in science, including research hinting at active volcanoes on Venus, a study of the effects of COVID-19 on maternal health during pregnancy, and research into curing HIV with stem cells from cord blood. Plus an explosion of seaweed, and the unveiling of a new space suit design.   How AI Is Changing The Drug Development Pipeline Researching and developing new drugs is a notoriously long and expensive process, filled with a lot of trial and error. Before a new drug gets approved scientists must come up with something they think might work in the lab, test it in animals, and then if it passes those hurdles, clinical trials in humans. In an effort to smooth out some of the bumps along the road, a growing number of pharma companies are turning to new artificial intelligence tools in the hopes of making the process cheaper and faster. Ira talks with Will Douglas Heaven, senior editor for AI at MIT Technology Review about his reporting on the topic.    An Ambitious Plan To Build Back Louisiana's Coast Louisiana will receive more than $2 billion to pay for an ambitious, first-of-its-kind plan to reconnect the Mississippi River to the degraded marshes on Plaquemines Parish's west bank. A collective of federal and state agencies—the Louisiana Trustees Implementation Group—signed off on the multibillion-dollar Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion on Wednesday. The funding will come out of settlement dollars resulting from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Once constructed, the two-mile-long sediment diversion is expected to build up to 27 square miles of new land by 2050. In the next 50 years, as Louisiana's coast continues to sink and global sea levels rise, the diversion is also projected to sustain one-fifth of the remaining land. “The Trustees believe that a sediment diversion is the only way to achieve a self-sustaining marsh ecosystem in the Barataria Basin,” wrote the implementation group in its decision. Read the rest at sciencefriday.com. Balancing The Good And Bad Of Phosphorus Phosphorus is critical to life as we know it. In fact, every cell in the human body contains this important element. It's also a key component in fertilizer. But not all of that fertilizer stays on crops—much of that phosphorus flows into waterways. Therein lies the rub: the runoff fertilizes the plant life growing in the water, creating toxic algal blooms. To top it all off, the phosphorus reserves in the United States are on track to disappear in just a few decades, according to some estimates.  Ira talks about the past, present, and future of phosphorus with Dan Egan, journalist in residence at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's School of Freshwater Sciences, and author of the new book, The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and A World out of Balance. Want to read The Devil's Element with us? Join the SciFri Book Club and read along!   Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

The debate over COVID-19's origin is focused on two theories, that humans were first infected by a wild animal or that the virus leaked from a lab. Scientists say the natural transmission theory has been strengthened by new genetic evidence from the market in Wuhan, China, where there was a big COVID outbreak in December 2019. John Yang discussed the report with Katherine Wu of The Atlantic. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

FDA Expands Pharmacy Options for Abortion Pills This week, the FDA finalized rules that would allow more retail pharmacies to stock and fill prescriptions for the abortion drug mifepristone. Previously, the medication had been available only via certain specialty pharmacies or via mail order. Now, major retail pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens can apply for permission to fill prescriptions for the medications, which now account for about half of all abortions performed in the United States. The immediate effects of the rule change are not entirely clear, however—a patchwork of state and local laws govern the availability of these medications, and may prevent their availability in some areas. Around half of the states have some restriction on abortion pills. Katherine Wu, science writer at The Atlantic, joins Ira to unpack the rule change and other stories from the week in science, including news of a new surging COVID variant called XBB.1.5, the injury to NFL player Damar Hamlin, a stray snowy owl visiting southern California, a likely farewell to the Mars InSight lander, and a study looking at how an island rat population can affect offshore coral reefs.   Meet The Comedians Bringing A Sense Of Humor To Science A scientist and a comedian walk into a bar—for an interview about the craft of science comedy. Ira talks to comedians Chuck Nice, Kasha Patel, and Kyle Marian Viterbo about their work bringing the joke format to science communication. While all three have different approaches to science—whether it's sneaking the knowledge into “regular” jokes, or going straight for the factual jugular—they agree that the practice of stand-up has much in common with the scientific process. “We normally start with an observation or a question,” says Nice. “The experimentation is the joke itself, seeing whether or not it will get a laugh… you have to tell it in front of an audience. And after that you go, ‘Wow, that sucked. I can't believe that wasn't funny.'” Plus, why comedy can itself be a science, and what good comedy has in common with good (science) communication. “It's a long term skillset in playing with, and communicating, and connecting with your audience,” says Viterbo. “To be able to really listen to our audience, which these days we need more of.”

This is a re-broadcast of one of our most popular episodes of season 7, The Science of Butts! What is a butt? That's what science journalist Katherine Wu wanted to know. Her quest for an answer leads her into a web of big butt questions, and a search to find the top butt scientists in the world. She discovers a debate over where butts come from, and a very strange butt that could rewrite the annals of butt history. This episode features an original song called, “Sometimes Butt.” Trust us, it's a fun one! (And yes, we say the word “butt” and other butt-related words a lot.) Can't get enough of butt science? There's plenty more! Listen to a bonus interview episode with Katherine Wu, available to Patrons who support Tumble at a level of $1 a month or more. You'll get access to an ad-free feed with all our bonus episodes, at patreon.com/tumblepodcast This episode is based on Katherine's article, “The Body's Most Embarrassing Organ is an Evolutionary Marvel.” Find more butt science resources on the blog on our website, sciencepodcastforkids.com. Tumble en Español, our Spanish-language show, has new episodes starting January 27th! Check out that feed at here.

December is here and with it comes the third winter of the pandemic. With the holiday travel and indoor family gatherings, the season has brought tragic spikes in COVID cases the last two years. Are we in for more of the same, or will this winter be different? Deputy editor Paul Bisceglio talks with staff writer Katherine Wu about what to expect. Will a new variant accelerate infections like Omicron did a year ago? What does a massive wave of other viruses mean for the season? And after years of vaccines, masking, and testing, how can we help those who are most at risk this year? Further reading: Will Flu and RSV Always Be This Bad? Will We Get Omicron'd Again? Annual COVID Shots Mean We Can Stop Counting The Worst Pediatric-Care Crisis in Decades Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why Do Cats Purr? An Investigation Into A Purr-fect Mystery Science Friday recently received a voicemail from a listener named Violet from Maui, Hawai'i, who wanted to know: Why do cats purr? We wanted to see what other cat lovers knew about cat purring. So we sent our talented SciFri colleagues Diana Montano and Kyle Marian Viterbo to the Meow Parlor, a cat cafe in New York City to find out. Guest host Katherine Wu, who recently wrote about why cats purr for The Atlantic, also talks with Robert Eklund, professor of language, culture, and phonetics at Linköping University in Linköping, Sweden. He explains what we do and don't know about how and why cats purr.   How To Digitally Recreate Darth Vader's Voice From A War Zone James Earl Jones played Darth Vader for 45 years. But this September, he officially stepped down from the role. Fear not, Star Wars fans—the villain isn't gone for good. Instead, the filmmakers have teamed up with the Ukrainian AI company Respeecher to recreate his voice. Respeecher can convert one person's speech into the voice of another. The company's work has appeared in the Star Wars canon already, as Young Luke Skywalker in “The Mandalorian” and “The Book of Boba Fett.” And just last month, they debuted their Darth Vader mimic in the T.V. show “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” They always knew that it would be challenging to recreate Vader's iconic voice. But their job got a whole lot harder when Russian troops invaded their nation. Respeecher chief technology officer Dmytro Bielievtsov and sound engineer Bogdan Belyaev join guest host Kathleen Davis to talk about their work.   Toxic Death Cap Mushrooms Take Root In The Mountain West Toxic mushrooms are not unusual in the Mountain West. “This is probably a lepiota,” said Susan Stacy, looking at a mushroom on a recent afternoon in a Boise, Idaho, neighborhood not far from downtown. “See that little dark nub in the middle and little flecks around here?” Stacy turned to her mushroom identification book. “Edibility: to be avoided. Perhaps poisonous,” she said. While this little mushroom could be problematic for a curious dog or child, it doesn't compare to one of the world's deadliest mushrooms – which Stacy discovered in Boise last September. She remembers that it was a hot day, and she decided to take a detour from her normal route to check out a busier area where many lawns were “generously” watered. “And here I come upon this mushroom, and I knew it was an Amanita because I had seen them before. And an Amanita, to my mind, is a gorgeous, statuesque, elegant creation. They're just stately,” she said. The genus Amanita includes, incidentally, the species on which the red and white mushroom emoji is likely based, which also happens to be poisonous. Read the rest of this story on sciencefriday.com   Will A Hotter World Make Jellyfish Haute Cuisine? The ocean is filled with delicious ingredients, but our favorite seafood items might not stick around on menus forever … thanks to climate change taking its toll on fisheries. As a result, scientists are thinking more and more about what the future of food is going to look like—what ingredients we should eat more, and what we should eat less. That could mean we'll eat more items like kelp, oysters, and mussels, which are a great source of nutrients, since they can be sustainably harvested. But there's another seafood that's being encouraged as a food of the future. But it's a little more unfamiliar—and maybe surprising—to most of the world. It's jellyfish. Although it's a fairly common ingredient in several countries, like China and Vietnam, it hasn't quite broken into the international market yet. Guest host Katherine Wu talks with Agostino Petroni, a journalist based in Rome who reported on the topic for Hakai Magazine, and Dr. Antonella Leone, a researcher at the Italian National Research Council's Institute of Sciences of Food Production, based in Lecce, Italy. They talk about the benefits of jellyfishing, what it's going to take to catapult jellyfish into the international seafood market, and their favorite jellyfish recipes.   Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.  

Don't Trust What You See On TikTok This Election Season Midterm elections in the United States are just under two weeks away. And new research suggests a significant risk of misinformation for American social media users—particularly from the video-sharing platform TikTok. Cybersecurity researchers at NYU published their findings after submitting misleading advertisements to YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. The ads contained either the wrong dates or voter requirements for upcoming elections, or perpetuated narratives about the validity of past elections. And while TikTok prohibits all political advertising, 90% of those test ads were approved. Meanwhile, YouTube performed the best in rejecting all of the ads, and Facebook accepted about 30% of English-language ads. New Scientist's Tim Revell joins co-host Kathleen Davis to talk about the misinformation implications of social media advertisements. Plus, the dramatic electrical charge of swarming honeybees, the good news about declining monkeypox cases, and other stories.   When Studying Ecology Means Celebrating Its Gifts Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer's book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants was first published nearly a decade ago—but in 2020, the book made the New York Times best-seller lists, propelled mainly by word of mouth. The book explores the lessons and gifts that the natural world, especially plants, have to offer to people. Kimmerer writes that improving our relationship with nature requires the acknowledgment and celebration of a reciprocal relationship with the rest of the living world. “I think we can care better for one another, for the land, and in fact we can do better science when we consider all of these streams of evidence, and assumptions, about the living world,” says Kimmerer. Kimmerer is a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, and the founder and director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. In this SciFri Book Club discussion, recorded before a live Zoom audience, she discusses the book, the role of ceremony in our lives, and the challenge of addressing ecological issues such as exotic species within a reciprocal framework.   Looking Ahead To Our Third Pandemic Winter As winter approaches in the northern hemisphere, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are monitoring the rise of new COVID-19 variants—all, so far, descendants of 2021's highly transmissible Omicron variant, whose emergence kicked off a deadly winter wave. Will any new variants emerge with the same potential? Guest host Katherine Wu talks to viral evolution researcher Dr. Verity Hill about the forces that may encourage the emergence of another concerning variant, and why new variants are more likely to evade our immune system's defenses. Meanwhile, pediatric departments around the country are seeing more children with influenza and RSV than usual, heralding an early and potentially more severe start to the winter respiratory virus season. Duke University's Dr. Ibukun Kalu joins to share about how multiple viruses may add to the risks COVID poses, as well as the toll the pandemic has already taken on healthcare's capacity.   Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.    

Rebecca Rettig is the General Council at the Aave companies, which build open source, blockchain based software for the web3 world. She's a respected lawyer and longtime friend of our host, Katherine Wu. We dive right into the episode with Rebecca answering the question that's on all of our minds - why is regulation so difficult? We discuss the negative narrative that mainstream media portrays about the crypto industry and Rebecca offers some advice on how to flip that narrative. Because there is such a disconnect between lawmakers and crypto builders, it's difficult for both sides to find common ground about what crypto is and how to regulate it. Blanket statements like “same risk, same regulation” need to be thought about deeply as blockchain technology, and decentralization more specifically, certainly add levels of nuance to the discussion and change how we think about risk.At the end of the day, crypto regulation is inevitable. This conversation covers what we should do as crypto community members to help build a future where regulation can guide and help us instead of stopping and stifling us. During our talk we also touch on regulation for DAOs, DeFi, centralized web3 tools, and we get the inside scoop on The Rebecca Test.  

Biden Declares The COVID-19 Pandemic Over. Is It? During an interview with 60 minutes last weekend, President Joe Biden said “the pandemic is over.” “The pandemic is over. We still have a problem with covid, we're still doing a lot of work on it. But the pandemic is over. If you notice, no one is wearing masks. Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape, “ Biden said at the Detroit auto show. This comment has prompted some dismay from the public health community. The World Health Organization hasn't declared the pandemic over just yet. And the criteria to declare a pandemic over is nuanced and cannot be declared by the leader of a single country. Ira talks with Katherine Wu, staff writer at the Atlantic, about that and other top science stories of the week including a new ebola outbreak in Uganda, the latest ant census, and Perseverance's rock collection.  Diving Into The Biggest Ideas In The Universe Can mere mortals learn real physics, without all the analogies? Dr. Sean Carroll, Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and author of The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion, says yes—if you're willing to accept a bit of math. Carroll says that he dreams of a world in which ordinary people can have informed ideas on physics, and might argue about the latest black hole news as urgently as they might debate a sports team's performance in last night's game. His new book starts with some of the basics of motion that might be taught in an introductory physics class, then builds on them up through concepts like time and black holes. Carroll joins Ira to talk about the book, exploring where physics equations leave off and philosophical concepts begin, and the nebulous world in between. To read an excerpt of The Biggest Ideas In The Universe: Space, Time, and Motion, visit sciencefriday.com. Was Soylent Green Right About 2022? In the spring of 1973, the movie Soylent Green premiered. The film drops us into a New York City that's overcrowded, polluted, and dealing with the effects of a climate catastrophe. Only the city's elite can afford clean water and real foods, like strawberry jam. The rest of the population relies on a communal food supply called Soylent. There's Soylent Red, Soylent Yellow… and a new product: Soylent Green. The year the film takes place? 2022. And spoiler alert: Soylent Green is people. While the 2022 the film depicts is—thankfully—much darker than our current situation, the message still holds up. When the film premiered, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and the Clean Air Act were very much in the country's consciousness. 50 years later, warmer temperatures, soil degradation, and social inequality are more relevant than ever. Joining Ira to talk about the importance of Soylent Green 50 years later is Sonia Epstein, associate curator of science and film at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City. Also joining is soil scientist Jo Handelsman, director of the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery in Madison, Wisconsin.  Saturn's Rings Might Be Made From A Missing Moon Saturn's rings are one of the most stunning, iconic features of our solar system. But for a very long time, Saturn was a ring-less planet. Research suggests the rings are only about 100 million years old—younger than many dinosaurs. Because Saturn wasn't born with its rings, astronomers have been scratching their heads for decades wondering how the planet's accessories formed. A new study in the journal Science suggests a new idea about the rings' origins—and a missing moon may hold the answers. Co-author Dr. Burkhard Militzer, a planetary scientist and professor at UC Berkeley, joins Ira to talk about the surprising origins of Saturn's rings. Want to know more? Listen to this previous Science Friday episode about Saturn's formation.  Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu   and Espresso Systems' Jill Gunter about what tornado cash is + the use cases + reactions to tornado cash sanctions, the issues when it comes to privacy in Web3 and how crypto users should have various options when it comes to privacy. 

A Plan to Cap Insulin Prices May Not Be Helpful 30 million people in the U.S. live with diabetes, and access to insulin can be expensive. More than 1 in 5 people with private insurance pay more than $35 a month for this necessary medication. The U.S. Senate has a plan to cap insulin prices for certain diabetics, but critics say this plan would not help make insulin affordable for a majority of people. Plus, many people have been following the discoveries of the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST, with baited breath. Astronomers may have found the youngest exoplanet we know of. And a deep space hoax of a chorizo slice fooled the astronomy community. Joining Ira to talk about these stories and other science news of the week is Katherine Wu, staff writer for The Atlantic based in New Haven, Connecticut.   What You Need To Know About Monkeypox Last week, the White House declared the monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency. Currently there are a little over 9,000 confirmed cases in the United States, and just under 30,000 worldwide. Since the end of May, monkeypox has been spreading in countries where it has not been previously reported. The virus is mainly spreading within gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men. And because of that there is stigma associated with the outbreak. Ira talks with Rachel Roper, virologist at the Brody Medical School at East Carolina University, and Perry Halkitis, dean of the Rutgers University School of Public Health, to explain the basics of transmission, answer listener questions, and debunk misinformation about the monkeypox outbreak.   Frenemies, Lovers, And The Fate Of The Cosmos: Our Galaxy Tells All Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is 13.6 billion years old, all-knowing, and a little sassy. It has a rich social life of friends, frenemies, and even love interests—all other galaxies in the local group, including the stunning Andromeda. And the Milky Way is a little disappointed that we've stopped telling as many stories about it. Or at least, that's how folklorist and astronomer Dr. Moiya McTier imagines the galaxy's personality when writing her new book, “The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy.” The book stretches from the beginning of the universe to the birth of our planet, and then on to the eventual theoretical end of the cosmos. Along the way, we learn both the science of how stars form and galaxies collide, and the many stories and myths humans have told about these bodies throughout our relatively brief lives. McTier joins Ira to tell all (on behalf of the Milky Way), and explain the importance of story in scientific knowledge and discovery. Read an excerpt of the book on sciencefriday.com.   Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu   and Crypto Council For Innovation's (CCI) Sheila Warren chat about why crypto regulation is so difficult, what a day in the life looks like for Sheila when she's working on the Hill and her thoughts on the best practices for founders looking to build in crypto.

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and Gitcoin's Annika Lewis about how crypto fits in as a public good, what Annika's excited about in crypto right now and whether all companies should become a DAO.

Shortly after millennials hit their teens and started getting jobs, their employment numbers plummeted fueling the myth of the lazy millennial.  But now, after looking at the data, it seems like it might not be that they didn't want jobs, rather they were entering the workforce after two recessions and competing with laid-off, more experienced workers.  Andrew Van Dam, Department of Data columnist at The Washington Post, joins us for what to know.   Next, the nonprofit agency that operates the transplant system is called the United Network for Organ Sharing and according to a recent review, the technology used to match donated organs to patients is in need of a full overhaul.  It has been plagued by aged out software, periodic system failures, and an over-reliance of manually inputting data.  Lenny Bernstein, health and medicine reporter at The Washington Post, joins us for more.   Finally, 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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and Nomad's Pranay Mohan about why safety is so important to Nomad, what optimistic verification is and what makes block space so valuable. 

This week Short Wave is celebrating our sense of taste with an entire week of themed episodes, covering everything from sugar and spice to what's beyond our classic ideas of taste. It's a series we're calling, "Taste Buddies."In today's encore episode with Atlantic science writer Katherine Wu, we take a tour through the mysteries of sourness — complete with a fun taste test. Along the way, Katie serves up some hypotheses for the evolution of sour taste because, as Katie explains in her article, "The Paradox of Sour," researchers still have a lot to learn about this weird taste.Baffled by another seemingly mundane aspect of our existence? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org and who knows — it might turn into a whole series!

When Times Get Tough, These Toads Make Hybrid Babies Scientists have long thought that when two animals from two different species mate, it's a colossal error and the end of the road for the mismatched couple. It's called interspecies breeding, and many hybrid offspring often end up sterile, such as zonkeys —a cross between a zebra and donkey. Or they can develop serious health problems, like ligers and tigons. One biologist even went as far to call interspecies breeding “the grossest blunder in sexual preference.” But is breeding across species lines always a dead end? One critter —the plains spadefoot toad—shows us that maybe it isn't. In fact, it can give them a leg up in survival. Katherine Wu, staff writer for The Atlantic, talks with Ira about the complicated sex lives of the female plains spadefoot toads, the trade-offs females make when choosing a mate, and why hybridizing critters may not be such a biological abomination after all.     Major Semiconductor Support Bill Passes First Hurdle Earlier this week, the Senate voted in favor of the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors (CHIPS) for America Act. If passed, the bill would provide more than $50 billion to companies that will build semiconductor factories here in the United States. Semiconductors are versatile materials—such as silicon—often used in electronics and in microchips. But the bulk of semiconductors, known as “chips,” are produced in other countries, mostly Taiwan. If the CHIPS Act is passed, the government will fund tech companies to build factories at home instead. Although the bill still has to go through the House and be signed by President Biden, this Senate vote is still a monumental moment in the tech world. Jesús del Alamo, a professor of electrical engineering at MIT, joins Ira to talk about why this bill is such a big deal, and what's at stake.   Drought Could Raise Toxic Dust Around Utah's Great Salt Lake Utah's Great Salt Lake holds a unique ecological niche as the western hemisphere's largest saltwater lake. The body of water is three to five times saltier than the ocean, with salinity ranging between 12 and 28 percent. According to the Great Salt Lake Institute, millions of birds from more than 250 species rely on the lake yearly, alongside a diverse variety of plants and animals. Like many bodies of water in the U.S., climate change is affecting the status quo in the Great Salt Lake. The water is drying up at an alarming rate, reaching its lowest level in recorded history this month. Now, researchers warn that toxic dust could increase as water levels continue to drop. Joining Ira to discuss the Great Salt Lake's ecosystem and future is Bonnie Baxter, director of the Great Salt Lake Institute and biology professor at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Utah.   A Flaw in Human Judgment: How Making Decisions Isn't As Objective As You Think If two people are presented with the same set of facts, they will often draw different conclusions. For example, judges often dole out different sentences for the same case, which can lead to an unjust system. This unwanted variability in judgments in which we expect uniformity is what psychologist Daniel Kahneman calls “noise.” The importance of thoughtful decision-making has come in stark relief during the pandemic and in the events leading up to the January 6th insurrection. Ira talks with Nobel Prize-winning psychologist Daniel Kahneman about the role of ‘noise' in human judgment, his long career studying cognitive biases, and how systematic decision-making can result in fewer errors. Kahneman is the co-author of “Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment,” along with Oliver Sibony and Cass R. Sunstein, now available in paperback.   Transcripts for each segment will be available the week after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.  

President Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 despite being vaccinated and double boosted and is experiencing mild symptoms.  The current wave of infections we are seeing are mostly the BA.5 Omicron subvariant and it could be what the Covid normal looks like.  Katherine Wu, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins us for how the endless churn of variants will keep infecting people even if you're vaccinated or had prior infection. Next, the impact of the pandemic on children has been so uneven that in classrooms across the country we are seeing a wider range of student abilities and it could be harder for those lagging behind to catch up.  A recent study shows that students in grades three to eight showed a larger spread in achievement levels this year compared to 2019.  The gap was 4-8% in reading and 5-10% in math.  Erin Einhorn, national education reporter at NBC News Digital, joins us for what to know. Finally, Costco has two recession-proof items at their stores… the $1.50 hot dog combo and their $4.99 rotisserie chickens.  When it comes to the chicken, Costco has built out its own chicken business contracting with famers to raise their birds, building a feed mill, a hatchery, and slaughter plant.  Kenny Torrella, reporter at Vox, joins us for how the rotisserie chickens are considered a “loss leader” just to get you in the door to buy more stuff. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

President Biden has tested positive for Covid-19 despite being vaccinated and double boosted and is experiencing mild symptoms.  The current wave of infections we are seeing are mostly the BA.5 Omicron subvariant and it could be what the Covid normal looks like.  Katherine Wu, staff writer at The Atlantic, joins us for how the endless churn of variants will keep infecting people even if you're vaccinated or had prior infection.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and Parcl's Trevor Bacon about how Parcl is helping users reimagine real estate investing and why they use blockchain technology for their product.

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and Iris' Kristen Stone chat about what the importance of DAOs are and loops back to whether  Kristen still thinks giving early contributors tokens to a project incentivized greed or not. They also talk about how to structure compensation for DAO contributors to ensure the work is missions based and not solely focused on the monetary gains. And  Kristen drops a hot take on what she thinks DAO contributors will be in the near future. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu and guest co-host Ash Egan chat with Ethereum Foundation's Justin Drake about all things Ethereum, from what the merge is to the impact the merge will have. And what's the future for Ethereum in 50 years? 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu chats with Privy's Henri Stern about all things privacy, what data sovereignty means and why it's important as well as the dangers of convenience when it comes to your online experience. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu chats with Archetype's Ash Egan about watershed moments in the Crypto industry, how to deal with market volatility and their day-to-day at Archetype. 

Welcome to Cross-Chain Examination, an inclusive and friendly place for your 102-level crypto/Web3 content.In this episode of the podcast, host Katherine Wu chats with Crypto Coven's xuannu and astrea about how the team thinks of fostering a sense of belonging in their community and how NFT goes beyond just jpegs.Cross-Chain Examination is presented by Archetype and sponsored by parcl and Protocol Labs.

On this Episode of Rehash: a web3 podcast, we sat down with Katherine Wu, Investor at Archetype VC and Research Fellow for Crypto Council for Innovation. Katherine received the most votes out of all the guests nominated for this season of Rehash. Katherine was nominated by Diana Chen and some of the questions asked in this episode were submitted by DAO member Carsten (@carstenpoetter).We kickoff the episode getting to know Katherine, her background, and how she got into crypto investing. Katherine explains what she loves most about being a VC and gives us some insight to what it's like being a VC in the web3 space as opposed to traditional investing. She talks about investing in founders, and clears up for us how “ideas” get funding before they are even working product. Katherine explains how she chooses projects to invest in, but emphasizes the importance of doing your own research. She explains some of the risks involved in investing, specifically, risks regarding regulation (or lack thereof.) We continue our discussion on regulation, and talk about ways to innovate in the web3 space safely. We close out our conversation looking to the future, making predictions about our current bear market, and discussing our hopes and fears for crypto in the next 5 years. We play a game of this or that, and Katherine gives us the inside scoop on her new podcast launching soon.To continue this conversation and stay up to date on all things Rehash, you can follow Diana on Twitter @ddwchen and Rehash @rehashweb3. You can also follow Katherine @katherineykwu. ⌛ TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 Intro1:31 Katherine's background3:32 What Katherine loves most about being a VC?6:22 Things that have surprised Katherine as a VC8:44 Investing in crypto vs. traditional tech10:52 How to DYOR13:05 Discussion on founders that make good companies16:38 How ideas get funding 19:22 Risks when investing 22:00 Regulation23:37 Why regulation is so hard25:36 How to innovate in web3 safely27:48 Hopes for the bear market29:49 Predicting this year's bear market trends 29:56 If crypto ceased to exist in 5 years, why would that be?31:20 This or that!35:17 Follow Katherine!35:45 Katherine's podcast alpha!37:41 Credits DISCLAIMER: The information in this video is the opinion of the speaker(s) only and is for informational purposes only. You should not construe it as investment advice, tax advice, or legal advice, and it does not represent any entity's opinion but those of the speaker(s). For investment or legal advice, please seek a duly licensed professional.

COVID-19 vaccines for children from six months to five-years-old are on the brink of approval. Katherine Wu, staff writer for The Atlantic argues it's important for parents to get their babies and toddlers vaccinated right away, and talks about how the campaign to vaccinate kids is flagging.

As we trudge through our third year of the pandemic, what is the state of our immunity to COVID? On this week's On the Media, hear how vaccines and reinfections interact with fast-evolving variants. Plus, why we should take the recent monkeypox outbreak seriously, but avoid panicking.1. Katherine Wu [@KatherineJWu], staff writer for The Atlantic, on building immunity three years into the pandemic. Listen. 2. David Robertson, doctoral candidate at Princeton University, on what the press got wrong when covering herd immunity. Listen. 3. Fiona Lowenstein [@fi_lowenstein], journalist and founder of Body Politic, on how to write about Long Covid. Listen. 4. Jon Cohen [@sciencecohen], writer at Science, on why we shouldn't compare the recent monkeypox outbreak to Covid. Listen. Music: Sleep Talking by Ornette ColemanSonata for Violin and Guitar (Mauro Giuliani) by Itzhak Perlman and John WilliamsSuperstition (Stevie Wonder) by Jung SunghaI Got A Right To Sing the Blues by Billy KyleJohn's Book of Alleged Dances by The Kronos Quartet

The Atlantic's Katherine Wu discusses what we know -- and what we are still struggling to understand -- about long Covid.

Cases of COVID-19 are moving back up again at a rapid pace, driven by a highly contagious offshoot of the original omicron strain. Meanwhile, parents of young kids are eagerly awaiting approval of Pfizer's and likely Moderna's vaccines for kids under 5 years old. Katherine Wu, a writer for The Atlantic who has a Ph.D. in microbiology, joins William Brangham to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Cases of COVID-19 are moving back up again at a rapid pace, driven by a highly contagious offshoot of the original omicron strain. Meanwhile, parents of young kids are eagerly awaiting approval of Pfizer's and likely Moderna's vaccines for kids under 5 years old. Katherine Wu, a writer for The Atlantic who has a Ph.D. in microbiology, joins William Brangham to discuss. PBS NewsHour is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

COVID-19 variants are evolving around the world, impacting the trajectory of the pandemic and our ability to fight it. Andy speaks with microbiologist Katherine Wu, who's been writing for the Atlantic about how surges in North Korea, China, and South Africa will affect the U.S. and what we can do about it. She expresses cautious optimism about variant-specific vaccines, worry over zero-COVID policies in parts of Asia, and insight into what the virus will do next. Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt. Follow Katherine Wu on Twitter @KatherineJWu. Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium.    Support the show by checking out our sponsors! America's psychiatric emergency systems are struggling to assist those in dire need of help. The Kennedy-Satcher Center for Mental Health Equity, a subsidiary of the Satcher Health Leadership at Morehouse School of Medicine, is partnering with Beacon Health Options to establish critical guidelines for dismantling inequity through its new research and policy initiative. You can join the movement too by attending their upcoming virtual summit. Go to kennedysatcher.org to register today. Beacon Health Options has also published a new white paper online called Reimagining Behavioral Health Crisis Systems of Care. Download it today at beaconlens.com/white-papers. Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/    Check out these resources from today's episode:  Read Katherine Wu's Atlantic article about how to adjust vaccine recipes as the virus quickly mutates: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2022/05/covid-vaccine-recipe-omicron-protection/629846/ Find vaccines, masks, testing, treatments, and other resources in your community: https://www.covid.gov/ Order Andy's book, “Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response”: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165  Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.  For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The next phase of Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine begins much as the last one did: with a massive military convoy of armored vehicles heading into the fight, this time in eastern Ukraine. President Zelensky has put the onus on America to defend desperate citizens trapped in the war zone. But can the US deliver the heavy weapons Ukraine needs in time to block Russia's full scale attack? Leon Panetta served as Defense Secretary and CIA Director and joins the show to discuss.  Also appearing in today's episode: Economist Paris Bureau Chief Sophie Pedder, International Fund for Agricultural Development President Gilbert Houngbo, Atlantic staff writer Katherine Wu.  To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Abigail Disney speaks with Brian Stelter about Republicans demonizing the company co-founded by her grandfather. Plus: Kara Swisher on Elon Musk's plans for Twitter; Anne Applebaum on the Ukrainian president's TV producing power; Claire Atkinson on Discovery's merger with CNN's parent WarnerMedia; and Katherine Wu on the first "so what?" wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

Pucker up, duderinos! Short Wave's kicking off a series on taste we're calling, "Taste Buddies." In today's episode, we meet Atlantic science writer Katherine Wu and together, we take a tour through the mysteries of sourness — complete with a fun taste test. Along the way, Katie serves up some hypotheses for the evolution of sour taste because, as Katie explains in her article, "The Paradox of Sour," researchers still have a lot to learn about this weird taste.Baffled by another mundane aspect of our existence? Email the show at shortwave@npr.org and who knows — it might turn into a whole series!

David Leonhardt and Katherine Wu discuss how Covid risk calculations are changing. Derek Thompson says there are "three circles of risk." Plus, Carl Bernstein says the voting rights fight is the top story for newsrooms. To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy

As booster shots roll out across the country, Andy calls up Katherine Wu, who got a Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology before joining the stellar science writing staff at The Atlantic. They discuss what we know about how the boosters will work, what to expect during our upcoming second pandemic winter, and what the future of COVID looks like. Plus, how Katherine approaches effectively communicating about science in real time.    Keep up with Andy on Twitter @ASlavitt and Instagram @andyslavitt.    Follow Katherine @KatherineJWu on Twitter.   Joining Lemonada Premium is a great way to support our show and get bonus content. Subscribe today at bit.ly/lemonadapremium.    Support the show by checking out our sponsors!   Click this link for a list of current sponsors and discount codes for this show and all Lemonada shows: https://lemonadamedia.com/sponsors/  Throughout the pandemic, CVS Health has been there, bringing quality, affordable health care closer to home—so it's never out of reach for anyone. 

Learn more at cvshealth.com.   Check out these resources from today's episode:    Watch President Biden get his booster shot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=188toSUMRNk  Read all of Katherine's articles in The Atlantic, including the one she co-wrote with Ed Yong about winter: https://www.theatlantic.com/author/katherine-j-wu/ Here's the CDC statement on ACIP booster recommendations: https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2021/p0924-booster-recommendations-.html Find a COVID-19 vaccine site near you: https://www.vaccines.gov/  Order Andy's book, Preventable: The Inside Story of How Leadership Failures, Politics, and Selfishness Doomed the U.S. Coronavirus Response: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250770165    Stay up to date with us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at @LemonadaMedia.    For additional resources, information, and a transcript of the episode, visit lemonadamedia.com/show/inthebubble. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.