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Podcasts Take Two
Ask An Expert: What To Do During Holiday Gatherings, Why Old Tech Isn't The Only Problem for CA's Unemployment Agency, Media's Reckoning with Race and Sexual Harassment Issues
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Sep 24, 2020
Listen • 49:35
Ask An Expert: What To Do During Holiday Gatherings, Why Old Tech Isn't The Only Problem for CA's Unemployment Agency, Media's Reckoning with Race and Sexual Harassment Issues

How to handle the holidays during COVID-19, what needs to happen to fix the delays at the EDD and how the media is reckoning with race and sexual harassment issues.
People dressed in colorful Halloween costumes parade along Santa Monica Blvd during the annual street Halloween festival in West Hollywood, California on October 31, 2016. The event, which expects over 500,000 participants, is billed as the largest Halloween party in the world. / AFP / Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)
People dressed in colorful Halloween costumes parade along Santa Monica Blvd during the annual street Halloween festival in West Hollywood, California on October 31, 2016. The event, which expects over 500,000 participants, is billed as the largest Halloween party in the world. / AFP / Mark RALSTON (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images)
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MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images
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Ask An Expert: Holiday Gatherings

L.A. County health officials have now reported more than 260,000 COVID-19 case and over 6,400 deaths due to the virus. Daily new case numbers have been steadily declining for over a month now, but the county has also seen a few increases. We make sense of those numbers and answer all your coronavirus questions and concerns.

Guest:

  • Paula Cannon, USC Professor of Microbiology

'California, the Most Calamitous Place on Earth'

We discuss the history of natural disasters in California and what the future may hold as climate change worsens with Mark Arax who authored the NYT column 'California, the Most Calamitous Place on Earth.'

Guest:

  • Mark Arax, writer whose most recent book is “The Dreamt Land: Chasing Water and Dust Across California.”

CA's EDD Report Recommends Fixes for the State Agency

Fallout continues over the report dropped by the state with recommendations for fixing the delays at the EDD. The realization that CA's unemployment agency has been so woefully underserved by outdated technology has drawn much criticism. We discuss how this was allowed to happen. 

Guest:

  • Jennifer Pahlka, former executive director of Code for America and the former U.S. Deputy Chief Technology Officer under the Obama administration

Media Reckoning

Newsrooms across the country are reckoning with both race and sexual harassment issues, with some staffs calling for the resignations of executives in charge. We look at the phenomenon and what it means for the communities those news organizations cover.

Guest:

  • Doris Truong, Director of Training and Diversity at the Poynter Institute