Brief Break from Classical Programming with some Public Affairs Shows on Race and the Cornavirus airing 11am-2pm Friday June 26

Current Public Affairs Programming running Friday June 26 from 11am - 2pm

11am: Big Picture Science - Soap, Skin, Sleep
Some safeguards against COVID-19 don’t require a medical breakthrough. Catching sufficient Z’s makes for a healthy immune system. And, while you wash your hands for the umpteenth time, we'll explain how soap sends viruses down the drain. Plus, your body’s largest organ – skin – is your first line of defense against the pandemic and is also neglected because of it. Find out why we're suffering from "skin hunger" during this crisis.

Guests:

Cody Cassidy – Author, “Who Ate the First Oyster: The Extraordinary People Behind the Greatest Firsts in History.”
Nina Jablonski – Anthropologist, paleobiologist at Pennsylvania State University and author of “Skin: A Natural History.”
Eti Ben Simon – Neuroscientist and sleep researcher, Center for Human Sleep Science, University of California, Berkeley

Noon: Open Source - Coronavirus Conspiricism
Conversations with Errol Morris, Anna Merlan, and Jay Rosen about conspiracy theories of the pandemic.
What we’re learning again in coronavirus time is that when the medical system stumbles in a pandemic – and when the media machinery, the chattering class stumbles on top it – watch out! Something like it happened two centuries ago when Yellow Fever struck New York and Philadelphia. Nobody knew then to blame the mosquitos that carried the bug, so a society of feckless thinkers – the Illuminati, so called — took the heat. We are in a boom time again for blaming all sorts of people for COVID-19: Bill Gates, Globalism, Dr. Fauci, China. It is high season for conspiracism, and YouTube videos have become the place to tune in.

There’s a boisterous new kid on the media block, at an active corner in the coronavirus conversation. People get there on Google’s YouTube channel on the Internet. The stream of videos can have a compelling voice, a documentary look, lots of added effects and typically the feel of a hard sell. Lots of people hear it as propaganda. Lots of others hear a galvanizing truth.

1pm: Philosophy Talk - White Privilege and Racial Injustice
“White privilege” has become a buzzword in discussions about racial inequality and racial justice. The call to “check your privilege” appeals to those privileged to acknowledge the various ways they receive special treatment that others don’t. But when white people explicitly acknowledge their privilege, does this do anything to further racial equality? Is talking about “white privilege” just a way to assuage white liberal guilt? Instead of unequal privilege, should we be more focused on equal rights? What kind of theory of justice is required to improve black lives? John and Ken check their privilege with Naomi Zack from the University of Oregon, author of White Privilege and Black Rights: The Injustice of U.S. Police Racial Profiling and Homicide.