Axios Re:Cap

Apple and Google today announced plans to expand their coronavirus warning software, months after an initial rollout that hasn't met expectations. Dan and Washington Post tech reporter Reed Albergotti dig into the initial hopes for this software, what happened and what could come next.

Reducing police brutality and improving trust between police departments and Black communities is urgent work. Dan discusses the interventions that could make a difference with Brookings Institution fellow and University of Maryland professor Rashawn Ray, who has spent more than a decade studying systemic racism and running implicit bias trainings for police departments.

The dividing line between Fox News Channel and Donald Trump has become blurred, with each increasingly relying on the other to accomplish their goals. Axios Re:Cap speaks with Brian Stelter, the CNN media critic and author of a new book about FNC's evolution, its internal struggles, and how hosts like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson influence national policy.

Sports arenas in cities like Atlanta and Charlotte will be converted on November 3 into polling places, to reduce wait-times while enabling social distancing. It's an effort being led by More Than A Vote, a nonpartisan voting rights group formed by NBA and WNBA players like LeBron James, in the wake of George Floyd's murder. Axios Re:Cap digs in with Renee Montgomery, a point guard for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and co-founder of More Than A Vote. We discuss the election, last night's player strike, and why she opted out of this season to focus on issues of social justice.

Nike this week is rolling out five new editions of Kobe Bryant sneakers, but few fans have gotten them at the retail price. Instead, they've been scooped up by resellers who use bots to acquire the shoes, and then charge consumers hundreds of dollars extra. Axios Re:Cap digs into the multi-billion dollar sneaker resale market with For The Win's Mike Sykes, who argues that Bryant's legacy is being tarnished.

Chinese financial tech giant Ant Group today filed for what could become the largest initial public offering of all time, with plans to list in Hong Kong and Shanghai. Axios Re:Cap digs into why this deal is as much about geopolitics as it is about stocks, and why New York got left behind.

The Republican National Convention kicks off this evening, with plans to lay out an economic vision different from what the Democrats presented last week. Axios Re:Cap speaks with Jason Miller, a senior advisor to the Trump campaign, about where the economy has been, where it's at, and where Trump wants to take it in a second term.

Robert Smith captivated America in May 2019 when he pledged to pay off student debt for Morehouse College's graduating class. It was Smith's introduction on the national stage, but he’d had decades of success in private equity that made him the wealthiest Black person in the U.S. and a philanthropic force. Now, Bloomberg News reports that he's under criminal investigation by the IRS, which could dent both his reputation and his political ambitions. Dan digs in with Bloomberg reporter Neil Weinberg.

One of the policy specifics offered up repeatedly during the Democratic National Convention has been Joe Biden's promise to create millions of renewable energy sector jobs. Dan digs into his plan with Biden campaign surrogate and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, whose state is a major player in both renewable energy and fossil fuels.

This week has seen, in rapid succession, UNC Chapel Hill send students home, Notre Dame suspend in-person classes, and Michigan State University advise students to stay home. Delaware State University, a historically black university, believes it can — and must — find a way to bring its students back to campus safely. Dan discusses DSU’s plan with university president Tony Allen.

Prior to the pandemic, America’s most urgent public health crisis was the opioid epidemic. It’s been overshadowed by the coronavirus, but meanwhile the situation may have gotten much worse. Dan is joined by the Associated Press's Geoff Mulvihill to discuss this situation and the next phase of litigation against prescription opioid makers.

Within the next week, House Democrats plan to vote on $25 billion in new funding for the U.S. Postal Service and to hold an Oversight Committee hearing at which Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is expected to testify. Dan is joined by Oversight Committee chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) to discuss the future of USPS and how it will impact this November's election.

This weekend we're posting four mini-episodes of the Axios Re:Cap podcast, focused on the unique challenges of back-to-school in 2020. This one digs into learning loss, and its long-term implications for students, schools, and the economy.

This weekend we're posting four mini-episodes of the Axios Re:Cap podcast, focused on the unique challenges of back-to-school in 2020. This one digs into the device drought that could render remote learning irrelevant.

This weekend we're posting four mini-episodes of the Axios Re:Cap podcast, focused on the unique challenges of back-to-school in 2020. This one digs into learning pods, including what they are, how schools are reacting, and the inequities they may exacerbate.

This weekend we're posting four mini-episodes of the Axios Re:Cap podcast, focused on the unique challenges of back-to-school in 2020. This one digs into the strains on special education.

This year has been devastating for the live music industry, especially for touring musicians, some of whom earn up to 90% of their income from playing live. Axios Re:Cap producer Naomi Shavin is joined by Glass Animals frontman Dave Bayley, who released an album this week and discusses what it’s like to release and promote music when touring isn’t an option.

The U.S. for months has faced a national reckoning over simultaneous crises that Black Americans, especially, are facing: structural racism and violence, health disparities in COVID-19 outcomes and devastating economic impacts from the pandemic. Axios Re:Cap producer Naomi Shavin is joined by Shelly Bell, founder of Black Girl Ventures, to discuss how the founders in her network are faring, what happened after her organization received a wave of donations in June, and what she hopes to see happen next.

On Monday, a California Superior Court judge ruled that Uber and Lyft should classify drivers as employees, not temporary contractors. Both companies plan to appeal, and on Wednesday, Uber’s CEO said that if this ruling is upheld, the company would have to temporarily stop operating in California. The ruling has implications far beyond the ridesharing industry, for the entire gig economy and more. Axios Re:Cap producer Naomi Shavin discusses the ruling and what comes next with Mike Isaac of the New York Times and author of “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber.”

Russia announced Tuesday that it has approved a vaccine for COVID-19 and has plans to inoculate health care workers, teachers, and others in the coming months, despite barely starting Phase 3 clinical trials. Axios Re:Cap producer Naomi Shavin digs into the impacts of this announcement on the vaccine race with Derek Lowe, medicinal chemist, author and expert on drug development and the pharmaceutical industry.

August recess was supposed to start for Congress this week, but stimulus negotiations fell apart last week — prompting President Trump to circumvent Congress and attempt to extend programs put in place by the CARES Act via executive action. Now, it’s unclear if Congress is still negotiating, let alone if they’re any closer to a compromise. Axios Re:Cap producer Naomi Shavin is joined by Washington Post White House economics reporter Jeff Stein to find out more about the state of stimulus talks.

Every day that goes by without a new stimulus agreement is another day of worry for many in America's middle class, which was shrinking before the pandemic began. Dan digs into what the pandemic has done to the middle class and what policies are needed to bolster it with Jim Tankersley, a New York Times economics reporter and author of the new book, “The Riches of This Land.”

An early pandemic fear was that people would be unable to pay rent and that it would lead to a surge in homelessness. Lawmakers intervened, creating municipal, state-level and federal eviction moratoriums — but many of them have now expired, including the federal moratorium put in place by the CARES Act. Dan discusses the looming housing crisis and where it factors into current stimulus negotiations with Alieza Durana of the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

As stimulus negotiations drag on, Democrats and Republicans seem unable to agree on whether to include coronavirus-related liability protections for businesses, health facilities and schools — a decision that could reset the cost-benefit analysis for businesses thinking about reopening and employees considering a return to work. Dan digs into this debate with U.S. Chamber of Commerce EVP and chief policy officer Neil Bradley.

President Trump relaxed his threat to ban the popular social media app TikTok, giving Microsoft room to negotiate an acquisition from Chinese tech giant ByteDance. Dan is joined by Peter Navarro, President Trump’s top trade adviser and a noted China hawk, to discuss the White House's current stance on TikTok, on Microsoft's operations in China, and on the deal.

We are on track for a more complicated voting process this fall than in any past election of our lifetimes. There are concerns around safety in the middle of a pandemic, security, logistics, access and more. Dan is joined by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who explains why it could take weeks to know results from his state and why he remains confident in the process.

Last year, nearly the entire editorial staff of media site Deadspin quit in protest over interference in their editorial decisions by management. Now, most of them have reunited to form a new company called Defector Media, which will rely on a paid subscription model and no outside investment. Dan discusses the Deadspin walkout, the new project and this new business model with Defector's Giri Nathan.

The chief executives of Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google testified about antitrust issues in front of a House Judiciary subcommittee on Wednesday. It was the highest-profile showdown to date in the increasingly fraught relationship between Washington and Silicon Valley, which could culminate in efforts to break up one, or more, of the companies. Dan was joined by subcommittee chair Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) after the hearing ended to discuss what the committee learned, why he wanted the four CEOs to testify together, and which companies he thinks should be broken up.

Live music venues were among the first businesses to close during the pandemic and will be among the last to reopen. In the meantime, many are facing financial ruin. Dan is joined by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is co-sponsoring a new bailout bill with Sen. John Cornyn aimed at helping independent venues.

The White House and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this afternoon rolled out their proposal for the next federal stimulus. They have major disagreements with the Democrats who they'll need to get it passed — and it’s possible that no issue will be more contentious than unemployment benefits. The extra $600 per week payments allocated by the CARES Act are due to expire on Friday. Dan digs into the negotiations ahead with Wall Street Journal Congress reporter Andy Duehren.

Americans seem resigned to the idea that life won't return to normal until we have an approved and widely-distributed vaccine for COVID-19, but vaccine optimism could be undermining other efforts to control the spread of the virus. Dan is joined by Tom Frieden, who led the Centers for Disease Control from 2009 to 2017, to discuss how realistic it is to hope for a vaccine by year-end — and what will still need to happen even when we have it.

This week, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) introduced legislation aimed at stemming the use of forced labor by American corporations — particularly those that run much of their supply chain through China. Hawley joins Dan to discuss what his bill covers, what’s happening to China's persecuted Uighurs, why his bill doesn't address U.S. prison labor, and what he sees as corporate America's hypocrisy. Plus, his thoughts on the new federal stimulus negotiations.

Hedge fund titan Bill Ackman today raised $4 billion in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange — but it wasn’t for a company, or even for the firm that controls his hedge funds. It was for something called a SPAC, a special purpose acquisition company, and it was the largest SPAC IPO of all time. Dan is joined by Ackman to discuss why SPACs have become so popular and what Ackman has learned since 2012, when he used a SPAC to bring Burger King public.

Unlike in many other parts of America, Los Angeles isn’t debating whether or not to send students back into physical classrooms. In the time since it was announced that the L.A. Unified School District would be fully-remote through at least the end of 2020, it’s become a stand-bearer on the remote-learning front. L.A. Unified Superintendent Austin Beutner joins Dan to discuss why he made the remote decision, how he distributed devices to students, his vision for contact tracing, and what he thinks about President Trump's funding cut threat.

There are around half a million independent restaurants in America, and a recent report found that upwards of 85% of them could go out of business without some sort of direct aid from Congress. Dan discusses the precarious state of the restaurant industry with Ivy Mix, a renowned bartender, co-owner of Leyenda in Brooklyn, and author of Spirits of Latin America, and Steven Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning film director who owns spirit brand Singani 63.

Tom Houck counted the late Congressman John Lewis among his closest friends, speaking to him almost daily for the past 45 years. Dan spoke with Tom Houck, who once was Martin Luther King Jr.'s driver, about Lewis' life, legacy and the next generation of civil rights activists.

Public health officials almost all agree that wearing masks in public could help flatten the coronavirus curve, but not all elected officials are willing to require mask use. In Georgia, where coronavirus cases are surging, Governor Brian Kemp moved to overrule the mask mandates of 15 cities. Dan digs in with Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, whose city was the first in the state to issue a mandate.

The National Basketball Association is scheduled to resume the season that it abruptly suspended in March in just two weeks. Until then and through the season, players, coaches, support staff, and even NBA reporters are sequestered in Disney World. The NBA’s Disney bubble is being watched closely — not just for the sport, but by all kinds of businesses because if the NBA can't control infections inside the bubble, it increases concerns for everyone else. Dan is joined by the Washington Post's Ben Golliver, one of 10 NBA beat reporters currently inside the bubble.

Stocks rose today on promising new COVID-19 vaccine data from Moderna Therapeutics — the latest news cycle in which vaccine optimism outpaces the science. Dan is joined by Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the CDC and current CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, to dig into what Moderna’s report can tell us, what it can’t tell us, what comes next in the vaccine race, and where the CDC fits into the picture.

Gun sales in America have surged since the pandemic began, with 7.8 million background checks run for firearms purchases between March and June. Dan is joined by Wall Street Journal reporter Zusha Elinson who has been reporting on the spike in sales, around 40% of which are by first-time buyers, and what is motivating this trend.

In parts of the country, including states where coronavirus cases are surging, the start of the school year is just weeks away. Yet the nation seems to be getting further from a consensus on if and how schools should reopen for in-person learning. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joins Dan to discuss teachers’ concerns, the resources schools need to safely reopen, and what education might look like this fall. Plus, auto entrepreneur Henrik Fisker joins Dan to discuss why electric vehicles are having a stock market moment on the day that his company Fisker agreed to be acquired.

Outbreaks in cities like New York, Miami and Houston have gotten a lot of attention, but coronavirus is hitting rural areas, too, and while it can be easier to socially distance in rural America, it is often harder to get medical care. Georgia-based microbiologist Amber Schmidtke has found that coronavirus-related morbidity is higher in many of Georgia's rural counties than in Atlanta, and she joins Dan to discuss the urban-rural health care divide.

Joe Biden returned to his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania today to give his first major speech on economic policy since becoming the Democratic Party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Former U.S. Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker is a campaign advisor and surrogate, and she joins Dan to discuss Biden's economic plans, how they were developed, and how they may change.

Facebook is currently dealing with the largest ad boycott in its history, with nearly 1,000 brands pulling paid advertising for the month of July. The boycott aims to apply pressure on Facebook to address hate speech on its namesake app and Instagram. After meeting with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other top company executives today, four of the boycott's organizers joined Dan on Re:Cap. Rashad Robinson of Color of Change, Derrick Johnson of the NAACP, Jonathan Greenblatt of the ADL, and Jessica González of Free Press discuss why they organized the boycott, what they took from today's meeting, and what comes next.

In the last two days, President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned that the White House was considering shutting down TikTok due to security concerns over its relationship with the Chinese government. That news didn’t go over well, as TikTok has an estimated 800 million monthly active users, 30 million of whom are in the U.S. Dan is joined by John Shahidi, who leads one of the country's top management and studio companies for social media influencers, to talk about TikTok’s success in the U.S. and the business ecosystem flourishing around it.

Earlier today, New York regulators fined Deutsche Bank $150 million for its dealings with Jeffrey Epstein. This came less than a week after the arrest of Epstein confidant Ghislaine Maxwell on sex trafficking charges. Business Insider's Meghan Morris has been investigating Jeffrey Epstein’s financial ties to Wall Street, and she joins Dan to discuss what Maxwell might know about Epstein's business dealings.

Over the weekend, tensions between media and tech escalated because of a dispute that started on Clubhouse and spilled over to Twitter. But the divide between tech and the journalists covering tech has been growing for some time. Dan digs in with investor and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis, who has been on both sides of the tech/media divide.

This morning brought news that the U.S. economy added 4.8 million jobs in June — and an unexpected press conference from President Trump to tout the numbers. But the jobs survey the numbers came from ended before the recent spike in coronavirus cases, and questions abound about how far the economic reality in the country today diverges from that report. Dan digs in with the Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell.

Stephanie Kelton is an economist with rising influence in the Democratic Party who advised the Bernie Sanders campaign and is on a Biden campaign economic task-force. Kelton believes we’re thinking about the deficit wrong and that we should stop framing policy proposals with the question “How will you pay for that?” She joins Dan to discuss the economic theory she’s helped to mainstream.

The chat app Discord announced today that it raised $100 million from venture capitalists at a $3.5 billion valuation. It’s an indication of how far Discord has come and how successful its rehabilitation has been after it was used as an organizing tool for white nationalists in Charlottesville. Now it might provide a model for other social media platforms struggling with content moderation. Dan is joined by Discord co-founder and CEO Jason Citron.