Thursday Morning Politics; GOP Mayoral Debate; COVID-19 Origins; New York City's NBA Playoffs

On today's show:

• Jonathan Capehart, member of The Washington Post editorial board, hosts the “Cape Up” podcast and anchors the Washington Post Live's First Look and The Sunday Show on MSNBC, talks about where the infrastructure and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act bills stand, and more national political news.
• Jeff Coltin, senior reporter at City & State and co-author of the campaign confidential newsletter, recaps the Republican mayoral debate -- which will feature the only two candidates, Fernando Mateo and Curtis Sliwa.
• Over a year into the pandemic, the origins of COVID-19 are still a mystery. Carl Zimmer, New York Times science columnist and author of Life's Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive (Dutton, 2021), talks about the different origin theories within the scientific community, and why the idea that the disease accidentally leaked from a lab in Wuhan China has gained some credibility when it was previously largely dismissed.Both the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets made the playoffs for the first time since 2013.
• The mayoral candidates are all over the map on questions of requiring vaccines and remote learning (though, all of the candidates agree they wouldn't require teachers to get the vaccine). Parents and teachers call in to share their thoughts on requiring the COVID-19 vaccine for teachers, and students who are eligible, plus whether they think the mayor's decision to not offer a full-time remote learning option for next fall was the right one.
• New York City has two teams in the NBA playoffs. Barbara Barker, Newsday sports columnist and features writer, talks about the New York Knicks and the Brooklyn Nets, their fans and how they both managed to qualify.

Transcripts are posted to the individual segment pages as soon as they are available.