Am I Normal?

Emily, John and David discuss Donald Trump’s attempts to seize voting machines, the racist attacks on the yet-to-be-named SCOTUS nominee, and they are joined by Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings program at Harvard University's T. H. Chan School of Public Health, to discuss ways we might update U.S. COVID norms. Here are some notes and references from this week’s show: Joseph G. Allen for The Washington Post: “Our Playbook to Fight Covid-19 Is Outdated. Here Are 10 Updates for 2022.” Joseph G. Allen and Celine R. Gounder for The Hill: “We Have a Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity to Fix Our Crumbling Schools” Healthy Buildings: How Indoor Spaces Drive Performance and Productivity, by Joseph G. Allen and John D. Macomber Adam Serwer for The Atlantic: “Republicans Seem to Think Putting a Black Woman on the Supreme Court Is the Real Racism” Meltdown: What Plane Crashes, Oil Spills, and Dumb Business Decisions Can Teach Us About How to Succeed at Work and at Home, by Chris Clearfield and András Tilcsik  Here’s this week’s chatter: Emily: Kristin Toussaint for Fast Company: “How Do Workers Take on a National Chain Like Starbucks? One Store at a Time”; Noam Scheiber for The New York Times: “Taking On Starbucks, Inspired by Bernie Sanders” John: Adam Gopnik for The New Yorker: “Molière to the Panthéon!”; History, Art and Archives: United States House of Representatives: Representative Clement Vallandigham of Ohio David: Neil Vigdor for the New York Times: “A Teenager Tracked Elon Musk’s Jet on Twitter. Then Came the Direct Message.”  Listener chatter from Erin Arizzi-Shores: The Double Shift: “The Check's Not In The Mail” More listener chatter from Larry Williams: Barbara J. King for NPR: “Watch The Moment A Dying Chimpanzee Recognizes An Old Friend”; Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves, by Frans De Waal.  For this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment Emily, John, and David offer advice about how to establish a work/life balance.   Tweet us your questions and chatters @SlateGabfest or email us at gabfest@slate.com. (Messages may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise.) Podcast production by Jocelyn Frank. Research and show notes by Bridgette Dunlap. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices