Biden's Cannabis Pardons; Mental Health After COVID; A Climate Novelist on Hope and Dread; Leaving New York For A New City

4 segments
A shop on the Lower East Side advertises cannabis products. It's become increasingly easy to find products containing THC while walking around New York City.

Coming up on today's show: 

  • Alyson Martin, co-founder of Cannabis Wire and adjunct professor at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, joins to discuss President Joe Biden's recent announcement to pardon convicted cannabis users and how states might follow his lead.
  • Ashwin Vasan, MD, PhD, New York City health commissioner, talks about the role of public health in recovering from the challenges to mental health after the pandemic lockdowns, plus the latest on vaccines.
  • Lydia Millet, climate novelist and author of several books, including Dinosaurs: A Novel (W. W. Norton & Company, 2022), joins to talk about her new book and how to find hope amid existential dread brought on by climate change.
  • So, you've left New York City: how does your new city compare? In this call-in, we invite our listeners to share their dispatches from the urban areas they now call home.

Transcripts are posted to each segment as soon as they are available.