Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

Back in 2019, a panel of health experts declared that of every country in the whole world, the United States was the most prepared for handling a pandemic. So what went wrong? Acclaimed author Michael Lewis is unparalleled in unearthing the most compelling characters to tell an unexpected story – it’s no wonder he’s had multiple books turned into movies (The Blind Side, Moneyball, The Big Short). Now, Lewis has done it again with his latest book, “The Premonition”, following the people who spent years preparing for a pandemic only to be ignored at the most crucial juncture – to devastating results. READThe Premonition: A Pandemic Story by Michael Lewis

How does bitcoin work? Where did it come from, why does it exist, and will it ever be used for everyday purchases? Far from some passing fad, bitcoin has been around for more than a decade now and shows no signs of going anywhere. We figured it was long overdue to understand the most well-known cryptocurrency and the problem it is trying to solve. Lucky for us, Bloomberg editor Joe Weisenthal came prepared.

Racial hierarchy in America is deeply embedded in big structural institutions. From housing to criminal justice to education, there’s decades of scholarly work and research dissecting the lasting legacies of policies that disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. Now, tax law scholar Dorothy A. Brown has a mind-blowing new book about race and tax, uncovering the ways the tax code is constructed to build white wealth while impoverishing black Americans. In a conversation that is engaging, enlightening, and even laugh out loud funny (seriously), Brown lays out the culmination of her life’s work and explains why now could be the time to fix the system.The Whiteness Of Wealth: How the Tax System Impoverishes Black Americans--and How We Can Fix It by Dorothy A. Brown

Wikipedia is not like a lot of our current internet. It’s not like sites like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube that mines its users’ attention and tries to capture it through push notifications and algorithms in order to maximize profits. Wikipedia is a vestige of an earlier de-commodified, open sourced internet. It’s an amazing well of knowledge built from decentralized human collaboration that anyone with an internet connection can freely access. It is an incredible institution where users can read and learn about almost anything. This week Katherine Maher, the departing CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, joins to talk about the history of Wikipedia, its organization, and its ability to endure amidst a changing internet. 

What happens in your body after you get a vaccine? The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines feels like the first positive mile marker in the pandemic but folks have a lot of questions – How were they developed? How do they work? Is there anything we should worry about? Dr. Peter Hotez has been a leading voice over the last year, lending his expertise in global health and vaccine development during some of the most crucial moments of the pandemic. Now, he’s here to address our biggest questions about what he calls “the most powerful technology humankind has ever invented”. READ: Preventing The Next Pandemic: Vaccine Diplomacy In A Time Of Anti-Science  by Dr. Peter Hotez

Over the past few years a broader conversation around speech has intensified in the United States. It is a conversation about speech, taboo, social justice, power and hierarchy, penalty about what things people can or can't say, should or shouldn't say in what environments, and what censure should attach to that kind of speech.  It’s an incredibly thorny conversation to have, filled with exhaustively overused terms like “cancel culture”, but it is not an unimportant one. This week scholar and linguist, John McWhorter, joins to discuss our discourse around speech and debate where we as a society should set our boundaries.

Amazon puts just about everything you might need one click away and over the last year, people have been turning to the tech giant more than ever. But all that frictionless efficiency comes at huge social costs. In his new book “Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America”, ProPublica Reporter Alec MacGillis investigates Amazon’s impact on the deepening economic divide in towns and cities across the country. Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America by Alec MacGillisListen to Amazon's Wish List with Stacy Mitchell

What happens when you raise the minimum wage? The almost decade long push for a federal 15$ minimum wage made new noise in the last few weeks when Democrats tried to include it in the American Relief Act. Although this new push failed, the policy remains incredibly popular even though there are even some Democrats who are opposed. So, what are the real world consequences of a raised minimum wage, and what are its impacts on the market and labor? This week professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Arin Dube, joins to give an economist’s view of the minimum wage and the revolution in the thinking behind it. 

We have reached the point where we are hitting anniversary markers in this pandemic. It was just about this time a year ago when all of our lives completely changed. Businesses went dark, schools went remote, we separated ourselves and hit pause on daily life in order to slow the spread of a once in a century pandemic. It is a rare event that has been completely inescapable and that we have all had to deal with to the best of our abilities. This week New York Times columnist, Michelle Goldberg, joins to talk about her own year and discuss the frustrations felt, the choices made, and the lessons and reflections gleaned from a year of COVID. 

Critically acclaimed playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith crafts groundbreaking art at the intersection of journalism and theater. Her explosive one-woman plays centered on the Los Angeles riots and the Crown Heights riots, “Twilight: Los Angeles” and “Fires in the Mirror” respectively, took shape from hundreds of interviews conducted by Smith herself. Her newest piece, “Notes From the Field” had her traveling everywhere from Finland to the Yurok Tribe of Northern California, compiling 250 conversations about the school-to-prison pipeline. Her work requires a masterful command of storytelling, empathy, and the art of the interview, and she joins this week to describe how those pieces came together in her celebrated career.Read  We Were the Last of the Nice Negro Girls by Anna Deavere SmithFind out more about Inheritance