science journalism

Today’s episode is a long one: It’s about the debate over media coverage of COVID. Three years after the fateful March of 2020, when it feels like the world shut down for COVID, we are revisiting two of the most contentious debates in this space. No. 1: The lab leak hypothesis; which is the debate over the possibility that COVID originated at a laboratory in China and not, as the official story went, at a wet market in Wuhan. And no. 2: the mask debate. And why a seemingly simple question—do masks work—is so hard to answer. Today’s guests are Dan Engber, a science writer and editor at The Atlantic who has chronicled the ups and downs of the media’s relationship to the lab leak. And Jason Abaluck, a Yale economist who has conducted masking research in Bangladesh. Host: Derek Thompson  Guests: Dan Engber & Jason Abaluck Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Vergecast is back with Nilay Patel, Dieter Bohn, new Verge science editor Liz Lopatto, and notable humanoid trollbeast TC Sottek. There was Ebola, Windows 10, really good Twitter stuff, and then Dieter foolishly took a bet that will see him use a BlackBerry Passport for the next two weeks. It got real. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices