Brian Lehrer: A Daily Politics Podcast

As educators around the country hunker down for what looks like months more of social distance learning, graduations and standardized tests loom, and video-chat tools have raised some eyebrows.For insight, we turn to the issues faced by the New York City school district, the largest district in the country in the hardest-hit city in the world. On Today's Show:This marks the third week of distance learning for NYC schools. Jessica Gould, WNYC reporter, and Alex Zimmerman, education reporter at Chalkbeat New York, report on how it's going, including the news that the Department of Education will prohibit the use of Zoom after reports of insecure connections on the popular video chat site.

With some hopeful signs coming out of hard-hit Italy and Spain that social distancing measures are flattening the curve, New York, Detroit and the state of Louisiana are projected to reach peak infections in the coming week. Going into this critical moment, we look at the federal response to the pandemic. On Today's Show:White House reporter for the Associated Press and political analyst for MSNBC/NBC News, Jonathan Lemire talks about the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, including guidelines and relief proposals.

Somehow, this pandemic has become partisan. We've been hearing from callers and other reporting that ardent supporters of President Trump have been making a point of breaking social distancing guidelines to try to paint the crisis as an inflation of the media and Trump's political opponents. On Today's Show:McKay Coppins, staff writer at The Atlantic and the author of The Wilderness: Deep Inside the Republican Party's Combative, Contentious, Chaotic Quest to Take Back the White House (Little Brown, 2015), talks about how some Conservatives and Republicans are defying social distancing measures as a political act.

National policy conflicts with state policy conflicts with world policy on wearing masks to protect from COVID-19. Should you make your own? And if so, how? On Today's Show:As calls mount for a change in official guidelines on masks for non-healthcare workers, science journalist Roxanne Khamsi discusses the reasons for (and against) everyone wearing masks to protecting themselves and others against COVID-19 and Amy Wilson, a Jersey City-based artist who teaches in the Visual and Critical Studies department at the School of Visual Arts and maker of "political crafts," talks about some of the patterns and considerations for making them at home.

ABC's White House correspondent asked the President recently whether everyone who needs a life-saving ventilator will have access to one. The President dodged, and called it a "cutie-pie" question. On Today's Show:That very correspondent, Jonathan Karl talks about what it's like to cover a public health crisis from inside Trump's White House. His advice for those looking to understand the administration's response: Look at what Trump does, not what he says.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, U.S. congresswoman representing parts of Queens and the Bronx, talks about the federal relief package which is to include cash payments to everyone, as well as rent and mortgage relief, plus what social distancing means for the census.

New York, now the epicenter of the global pandemic, has hit a threshold of 1,200 deaths from COVID-19. That comes as a U.S. navy hospital ship, the USNS Comfort, docked this morning in the Hudson River. Based on epidemiological projections, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo says the worst is yet to come. On Today's Show:As the U.S. attempts to tame the exponential spread of the coronavirus pandemic, Eunice Yoon, Beijing bureau chief and senior correspondent at CNBC and NBC News, reports from China on the differences between the Chinese and American approaches, and what we can learn about containment and treatment from China's approach.

Can you catch COVID-19 from a cardboard box? What about a plastic takeout bag? Today, tips and best practices for safely getting things delivered to your home while social distancing. On Today's Show:Stephen Morse, professor of epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, explains what we know in terms of how long COVID-19 lives on various surfaces, and best practices to stay safe.

As government officials have sparred this week over a massive $2 trillion relief package, President Trump is chomping at the bit to get the economy back up and running. With a sizable subset of healthy Americans in tenuous employment situations, and worried about how they'll pay April's rent, economic concerns have overshadowed the issue of navigating this pandemic as a public health crisis. On Today's Show:We refocus on that question. Our guest, Richard Besser, MD, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and former acting director of the CDC, updates the latest on the COVID-19 outbreak and talks about those most at risk from the disease and the actions to prevent its spread.

As the economy crashes amid the coronavirus pandemic, Catherine Rampell, syndicated opinion columnist at The Washington Post, political and economic commentator at CNN and special correspondent at PBS Newshour, talks about the federal government's stimulus proposals, and how the Defense Production Act could address manufacturing shortages of PPE and much-needed ventilators.