Post Reports

Today on “Post Reports,” a show about how our bodies have changed during the pandemic. We hear from our listeners about how their bodies have surprised, delighted and worried them after these past few years. Read more:Here on the “Post Reports” team, we’ve been thinking a lot about…our bodies. Specifically, how they’ve changed over these past two years, as we’ve gone through lockdowns, isolation and return-to-work. We reached out to our listeners to hear how their bodies have evolved over the course of the pandemic and got lots of fascinating stories, of both big and small evolutions. Today on the show, stories from our listeners and our newsroom, on everything from getting a lung transplant to growing out an afro. Plus, we talk with Well+Being editor Tara Parker-Pope about how to understand the changes we’ve gone through — and what the pandemic can teach us about caring for our communities. 

Today on “Post Reports,” we talk about Ian’s historic destruction in Florida, and why the story of this storm has only just begun.Read more:Hurricane Ian made landfall Wednesday in southwestern Florida as one of the most powerful storms to ever hit the United States. Millions of people are without power, and the full extent of the destruction may not be clear for days. We hear from Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Brittany Shammas, and Brady Dennis about what we know so far about the damage from Hurricane Ian. And why Florida is more vulnerable than ever to these storms, given its growing population and the effects of climate change.Maps show how millions of people have moved into Hurricane Ian’s path.

Black men who have sex with men are contracting monkeypox at a higher rate than any other group in the United States. But they are among the least likely to be vaccinated. Today, the creative outreach to get at-risk groups vaccinated against monkeypox.Read more:Monkeypox cases might be going down, but there are still at-risk groups. While Black gay men are more likely to get monkeypox than other demographic groups, they’re also less likely to be vaccinated. Johnny Wilson, an employee with a county health department in North Carolina and a Black gay man himself, tried to address this disparity by providing monkeypox vaccines at nightclubs. Reporter Fenit Nirappil on how representation makes a difference when trying to close vaccine gaps.

Conservative Giorgia Meloni is Italy's presumed next prime minister. Who is she? And what do the results of Italy’s historic election mean for the strength of the far-right movement in Europe? Read more: This week Italian voters sided with the far-right party Fratelli d’Italia, also known as the Brothers of Italy. The election results could also mean the country gets its first female prime minister, Giorgia Meloni. On today’s “Post Reports,” Rome bureau chief Chico Harlan dives into Meloni’s history, how she rose to prominence in Italian politics and her party’s proposals — including stricter limits on migration. And though the Brothers of Italy may not stay in control for long, Harlan says that in Europe the “signs to suggest that momentum has returned for nationalist parties” are piling up.

Today on “Post Reports,” we talk about how Black coaches have been excluded from the NFL’s top jobs, despite years of attention on this issue – and why the problem is actually getting worse. Read more:Since 1989, only 25 head coaches in the National Football League have been Black, and in the more than a century long history of the NFL only 26 Black men have held the title. Despite 60 percent of the league’s players being Black, an investigation by The Washington Post found that the NFL’s hiring and firing practices still disadvantage Black coaches at every turn. Sports enterprise reporter Michael Lee and sports columnist Jerry Brewer join us today to discuss their reporting about how the NFL sidelines Black coaches.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is doubling down in Ukraine – holding staged referendums in occupied territories and drafting men to the war. Today on “Post Reports,” we’ll talk about how Russians are reacting to the dramatic escalation.Read more:This week in Ukraine, Moscow began staging referendums in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and drafted hundreds of thousands of Russian men to join the war effort. The escalation sparked protests, arrests and sold-out flights as some Russians – who had tried for months to ignore the war – suddenly found their lives thrown into chaos as they were summoned to duty.With the announcement of a military mobilization in Russia came a veiled threat: that Russia would use nuclear weapons, if necessary. The Biden administration has been sending messages to Moscow about the grave consequences that would follow, according to U.S. officials.

The death of Mahsa Amini is igniting protests across Iran — and it’s drawing global attention to Iranians’ anger and frustration with their ultra-conservative leaders.Read more:Earlier this month, 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was detained by the so-called morality police in Tehran for violating Iran’s law on headscarves and died several days later. In the days since, protesters have flooded the streets in cities across Iran. Many have been burning hijabs, symbolizing their frustration with the Islamic republic’s restrictive rules and oppressive treatment of women. None of this comes without aggressive pushback from the Iranian government, however — including restricted internet access and cell service, police beatings of protesters, and enormous deployment of security forces. Foreign affairs reporter Miriam Berger explains the significance of these protests and what could happen next.

How a pandemic food program was used to allegedly defraud the government of $250 million. Read more:This week, the federal government indicted 47 people connected to the Minnesota-based nonprofit Feeding Our Future in the largest known pandemic fraud scheme. The nonprofit claimed to be giving meals to thousands of kids who needed them. Instead, the Justice Department said, they were using bribes and shell companies to falsify information, and in some cases used the federal money they got to buy real estate, luxury cars and jewelry. Congressional economic policy reporter Tony Romm reports on how the complex scheme was pulled off and what it reveals about how the government was spending relief money during the pandemic. 

Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico five years ago. Recovery in many ways had just begun when Fiona hit the island. Today on “Post Reports,” we talk to Arelis R. Hernández about why the recovery has been stymied, and how another storm could complicate it further. Read more:Hurricane Maria cleaved Puerto Rican memory. There was one kind of life before the storm, and an entirely different life that emerged in its wake. Before the storm, the Caribbean island archipelago was teetering economically and unraveling politically. In the five years since, there have been ongoing blackouts, protests, earthquakes and a global pandemic. Puerto Ricans have moved from powerlessness to precarity.As the anniversary approached, The Washington Post went back to visit those who opened up their homes then, to show us their lives now. Hurricane Fiona — which hit Puerto Rico on Sunday, destroying homes, roads and bridges — was still days away. But even before that, much of the post-Maria recovery work had just begun. Arelis R. Hernández reports. Read the latest live updates on Hurricane Fiona here. You can also listen to an Opinion piece from Lin-Manuel Miranda and his father about how to get Puerto Rico help now. Miranda is the creator of “Hamilton” and “In The Heights,” and his father, Luis A. Miranda Jr., is a philanthropist and political strategist.

On today’s show, we take you to London for Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral. Plus, the colonial legacy and potential future of the monarchy without her leadership.Read more:The coffin of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, was laid in the royal vault at Windsor Castle on Monday. The funeral procession marks the end of 10 days of national mourning. London correspondent Karla Adam describes how thousands of people camped near Westminster Abbey to watch the funeral procession. “There were sleeping bags. A lot of people brought toys or games or chess sets just to pass the time because they’ve been camping out for a day or two,” she said, while others watched from big screens across the city.The queen’s passing has been marked around the world with tributes from world leaders and around-the-clock media coverage. But as foreign affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor shares later in the show, it also sparked criticism of the monarchy’s past and debates about the relevancy of the institution. “It's important to look at the queen in her own right as opposed to the queen as this icon of the empire,” Tharoor says. “It is also very hard to separate that, because what is the queen without being an icon of empire?”Follow The Post’s live coverage of the funeral here.