logo
episode-header-image
Aug 2023
1h 2m

The Sunday Read: ‘The Ongoing Mystery of...

The New York Times
About this episode
Where did it come from? More than three years into the pandemic with untold millions of people dead, that question about the origin of Covid-19 remains widely disputed and fraught, with facts sparkling amid a tangle of analyses and hypotheticals like Christmas lights strung on a dark, thorny tree. One school of thought holds that the virus, known to science ... Show More
Up next
Sep 4
The Intertwined Legacies of Gloria Steinem and Dolly Parton
Gloria Steinem, the feminist icon and co-founder of Ms. magazine, died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan. Her death came as many were still grieving the loss of another iconic woman: Dolly Parton.On paper, the connections between the two women seem superficial, but for the Ti ... Show More
30m 56s
Sep 3
A.I. Is Outsmarting Its Creators
From the start, the greatest fear for those developing artificial intelligence was that their creations would go rogue to act in unauthorized and dangerous ways. Some researchers now say it has happened. Kevin Roose, a technology columnist for The New York Times, explains what th ... Show More
40m 36s
Sep 2
The Fight for the West Bank
Over the past year, there has been an increase in violence in the West Bank. Israeli settlers have terrorized Palestinians, set fire to their property, uprooted their olive groves and stolen their animals in an effort to drive them off their land. Rachel Abrams speaks to Loui Rid ... Show More
28m 1s
Recommended Episodes
Mar 2022
Covid -19 origins
Wuhan's Huanan Seafood Market is associated with many of the first cases or Covid- 19, but data on precisely how and from where the virus might have first spread has been difficult to find. However a re-examination of the earliest samples collected from the market seem to pinpoin ... Show More
57m 32s
Jun 2021
The Wuhan Lab-Leak Theory Of Everything
Will we ever find out how the pandemic started? In the past few months, the theory that Covid-19 actually came from a lab in Wuhan (instead of jumping from a bat to a human in a food market) has been back in the spotlight. But is all this chat being led by science or politics? Ca ... Show More
29m 23s
Jun 2021
Coronapod: Uncertainty and the COVID 'lab-leak' theory
Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been allegations that SARS-CoV-2 could have originated in a Chinese lab. A phase one WHO investigation concluded that a 'lab-leak' was "extremely unlikely" and yet, the theory has seen a resurgence in recent weeks with several scien ... Show More
16m 25s
Mar 2023
Why Pandemic Researchers Are Talking About Raccoon Dogs
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 internation ... Show More
14m 17s
May 2020
Liu Xiaoming: Is China a victim of Covid-19 or the source of the problem?
As the global effort to control Covid-19 continues so arguments about culpability for the spread of the pandemic intensify. At the centre of the story is China, where the outbreak began. Did the Chinese government’s impulse to cover up the truth cost the world dear? Or did China ... Show More
24m 26s