A new contender has entered the podcast landscape: wait, is that California Governor Gavin Newsom? His show features a surprisingly conservative guest list, including MAGA stars Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk. Kai and Kimberly break down the fourth wall and discuss whether there’s value in platforming guests who hold a different set of values. Plus, more federal layoffs took place this past week, this time in the U.S. Department of Education and its civil rights division. Then, the hosts get smiley about rescue dogs in a sled dog race (thanks, Abigail!) and the birds in Kai’s neighborhood.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• • “Gavin Newsom Finds Some Surprising Common Ground With Steve Bannon” from The New York Times

• • “Massive Layoffs at the Department of Education Erode Its Civil Rights Division” by ProPublica

• • “U.S. Department of Education Launches “End DEI” Portal” from the U.S. Department of Education

• • “This Iditarod musher is racing with mostly rescue dogs from Alaska shelters” from Alaska Public Media

• • Kai’s been using Merlin Bird ID from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to identify birds in his neighborhood

• • Meanwhile, Kimberly’s uses the Seek app to help her tell the difference between weeds and plants in her garden

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

Five years ago, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Since then, there have been lockdowns, a recession, two presidential elections and more than a million American lives lost from the disease. In many ways, life feels like it’s back to normal, but David Wallace-Wells, a writer for The New York Times, argues that the pandemic still has a grip on American life, from our faith in public health institutions to the way consumers feel about the economy. On the show today, Wallace-Wells walks us through how Americans neglected to process the seismic impact of the pandemic in the rush to recover from it, and how it’s left us more self-interested and less empathetic. Plus, how this can help explain disgruntled consumers and a growing appetite for risk-taking in the economy.

Then, we’ll get into how responses to public health emergencies have shifted to the realm of the private sector. And, we’ll hear listeners’ reflections on the COVID-19 pandemic, five years on.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Opinion | How Covid Remade Our America, Five Years Later” from The New York Times
• “30 Charts That Show How Covid Changed Everything in March 2020” from The New York Times
• “Gyms, pets and takeout: How the pandemic has shifted daily life” from The Washington Post
• “It’s Not the Economy. It’s the Pandemic.” from The Atlantic
• “Opinion | Covid’s Deadliest Effect Took Five Years to Appear” from The New York Times
• “More Universities Are Choosing to Stay Neutral on the Biggest Issues” from The New York Times

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.

On today’s episode, Kai and Kimberly discuss the future of Biden-era clean energy tax credits under Trump 2.0. A group of GOP lawmakers want them to stay. Meanwhile, the administration is rescinding memos that pushed for climate change-resilient infrastructure. Plus, the hosts weigh in on the arrest of a Palestinian activist and Columbia University student by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Is this the first arrest of “many to come?” Finally, we’ll smile as the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., get closer to full bloom.

Here’s everything we talked about today:

• “Trump Says Columbia Student Arrest Is First of Many to Come” from The Wall Street Journal
• “House Republican support grows for keeping clean energy tax breaks” from Politico
• “Transportation secretary rescinds Biden memos prioritizing infrastructure resilience to climate change” from The Hill
• “2025 Cherry Blossom Peak Bloom Forecasts” from DC Cherry Blossom Watch

Got a question or comment for the hosts? Email makemesmart@marketplace.org or leave us a voicemail at 508-U-B-SMART.