Go beyond party lines with Justin T Weller and his counterparts as they work to bring you responsible media that focuses on honest opinions. The State of Us, formerly the Current Issues Show, examines the concepts that Americans are most passionate about and sheds light on those issues yet to be addressed.
TSOU Episode: Republicans Have a Bid Edge for 2022 - Why?
On a highly distorted congressional map that is still taking shape, the party has added enough safe House districts to capture control of the chamber based on its redistricting edge alone.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Republicans Have a Bid Edge for 2022 - Why?
The president's party faces additional burdens at the ballot box. A sliver of voters prefers gridlock and divided government and votes for a check and balance against the president. And the party out of power tends to enjoy a turnout advantage, whether because the president's opponents are resolved to stop his agenda or because of complacency by the president's supporters.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: 7 Changes to the Constitution
It's been 50 years* since America's last real update to its Constitution. We asked seven writers and legal scholars what they think needs amending next. It's been 50 years* since America's last real update to its Constitution. We asked seven writers and legal scholars what they think needs amending next.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Solving America's Division - Is Ranked Choice Voting the Answer?
Elected leaders and voters in New York remain split over the ranked-choice system, but officials in Washington and elsewhere like the results. The most high-profile experiment in ranked-choice voting in U.S. history just took place in New York City. The reviews are mixed.
Read MoreThe arrival this term of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, President Donald J. Trump's third appointee, has transformed a Supreme Court with a slight conservative majority into one that tilted right by a 6-to-3 margin. Justice Barrett has also left Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Seniors Wrongfully Drugged by False Diagnoses at Nursing Homes
At least 21 percent of nursing home residents are on antipsychotic drugs, a Times investigation found. The handwritten doctor's order was just eight words long, but it solved a problem for Dundee Manor, a nursing home in rural South Carolina struggling to handle a new resident with severe dementia.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: 40 Million Americans at Risk of Losing Power & Water - Climate Gets Worse
Mr. Lustgarten is an environmental reporter for ProPublica. His reporting about the causes of water scarcity in the American West, " Killing the Colorado," was a finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: What If We Doubled Life Expectancy?
The Health Issue Between 1920 and 2020, the average human life span doubled. How did we do it? Science mattered - but so did activism. Credit... Aaron Tilley for The New York Times. Set design by Kyle Bean. In September 1918, a flu virus began spreading through Camp Devens, an overcrowded military base just outside Boston.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Seniors Entrapped - YouTube STILL Pushes Harmful Content
Older Americans, a critical source of political donations, often fall victim to aggressive and misleading digital practices. A broad Times analysis points to the scope of the problem. William W. Vaughan Jr. was a senior atmospheric scientist at NASA during the space race and later an accomplished academic, but as with so many aging Americans, time and technology had sapped him of some of his savvy, especially online.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Is Anyone Still Getting Vaccinated?
Researchers and regulators say Joseph Mercola, an osteopathic physician, creates and profits from misleading claims about Covid-19 vaccines. SAN FRANCISCO - The article that appeared online on Feb. 9 began with a seemingly innocuous question about the legal definition of vaccines.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: What's Happening With American Indians & the Supreme Court?
A rush to secure federal benefits during the coronavirus pandemic accelerated enrollment in the Navajo Nation, pushing its population past the Cherokee Nation's to nearly 400,000. ALBUQUERQUE - The Navajo Nation already had its own police academy, universities, bar association and court system, plus a new Washington office near the embassies of other sovereign nations.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Getting a Grip on Climate Change
Floods swept Germany, fires ravaged the American West and another heat wave loomed, driving home the reality that the world's richest nations remain unprepared for the intensifying consequences of climate change. A firefighter battled the Sugar Fire in Doyle, Calif., this month.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Robot Psychiatry - Will A.I. Machines Be Biased?
The Great Read When Google forced out two well-known artificial intelligence experts, a long-simmering research controversy burst into the open. "Your life starts getting worse when you start advocating for underrepresented people," the researcher Timnit Gebru said before losing her job at Google.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Good for You?
President Biden celebrated on Thursday the stripped-down and rejiggered bipartisan rewrite of his infrastructure proposal, proclaiming in a White House news conference that it was a unifying accomplishment for the whole country.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Is the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Good for You?
The president has long pitched himself as both solidly progressive and committed to bipartisanship. His deal with Republicans, coupled with assurances to liberals, attempts to marry the two. WASHINGTON - President Biden's bipartisan infrastructure agreement contains all of the contradictions and promises of the Biden brand.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: 4 Day Work Week? Society Shifts
How to coax corporate America to return to work? First, get rid of the dead plants. When Alice Fair flaunted north-facing views from the 48th floor of a skyscraper in Lower Manhattan, her audience was quiet. Most were on mute.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Democrats Voting Rights Law - Good & Bad
The expansive measure would set a nationwide floor on ballot access, nullify many voting restrictions, change the way political districts are drawn and rein in campaign donations. The far-reaching voting rights measure that Democrats are pressing to enact, known as the For the People Act, was more a political statement than serious legislation when lawmakers first proposed it in 2019.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Democrats Voting Rights Law - Good & Bad
Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, appeared to slam the door on the far-reaching measure when he wrote that he would not vote for any partisan voting bill.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: $15 an Hour Bad for Teens? How Amazon Crushes Unions
Unionization Effort at Amazon In a secret settlement in Virginia, Amazon swore off threatening and intimidating workers. As the company confronts increased labor unrest, its tactics are under scrutiny. Amazon's warehouse in Chester, Va., where a union effort tried to organize about 30 facilities technicians in 2014 and 2015.
Read MoreTSOU Episode: Less Students Pursue Teaching & Massive Gains for Summer Schools
Disruptions to education during the pandemic are turning people away from a profession that was already struggling to attract new recruits. Kianna Ameni-Melvin's parents used to tell her that there wasn't much money to be made in education.
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