In the Bubble with Andy Slavitt

Actor Jay Ellis is in the hottest movie of the summer – Top Gun: Maverick. Andy escapes with Jay into a world of nostalgia, childhood dreams coming true, and trying to act while traveling 1,200 mph and 8 Gs without puking. Jay shares how growing up on Air Force bases with a jet mechanic for a father prepared him for this role and the communal power of a packed movie theater after years of pandemic...

As the man responsible for manufacturing and distributing the COVID-19 vaccine in less than a year, US Army four-star General Gustave Perna has a thing or two to say about today’s supply chain issues. He says product shortages, from vaccines to baby formula, are preventable if you center mission over profit and run hypotheticals that prepare your team for worst case scenarios. Andy relives Operati...

The price of goods like gasoline and food is up sharply amid the highest inflation since the 1970s, and a stock market slump may be impacting your investment portfolio. What should you do as you watch the pump tick up and your 401(k) tick down? Andy sits down with two money experts, the Washington Post’s Michelle Singletary and President Obama’s Economic Advisor Betsey Stevenson, to better underst...

Many Americans don’t feel like the politicians they elect are creating the laws they want, including common sense gun regulations, paid family leave, and universal health care. Why don’t our policies reflect the will of the majority? Andy explores that question with former Minnesota Senator Al Franken, who explains why we don't have the elective democracy we think we do and gets emotional reflecti...

On this Memorial Day, the producers of In the Bubble wanted to share another Lemonada Media show that they hope you will find helpful as the country feels like it’s spinning out of control. It’s called Last Day. In this award-winning series, Lemonada co-founder and author Stephanie Wittels Wachs confronts massive epidemics with humanity, wit, and a quest for progress. Now, back for a third season,...

Following this week’s shooting in Uvalde, Andy speaks with a mother who knows the pain parents of the victims are experiencing. Rhonda Hart lost her 14-year-old daughter, Kimberly, in the 2018 Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas, and talks about how she continues to fight for gun reform despite the uphill battle. Joining the conversation is reporter Jennifer Mascia and former firearms executive...

For those overwhelmed by the news of yet another infectious disease outbreak by the name of monkeypox, this episode is for you. With an equal dose of relief and urgency, Andy invites one of the world’s leading experts on monkeypox, UCLA professor Anne Rimoin, to explain why the disease is spreading now and how concerned we should be. You’ll be reassured but also encouraged to pay attention — at th...

COVID-19 variants are evolving around the world, impacting the trajectory of the pandemic and our ability to fight it. Andy speaks with microbiologist Katherine Wu, who’s been writing for the Atlantic about how surges in North Korea, China, and South Africa will affect the U.S. and what we can do about it. She expresses cautious optimism about variant-specific vaccines, worry over zero-COVID polic...

The echoes of white nationalism have seeped into talking points espoused by conservative media and the GOP party. The shooting in Buffalo is the latest example of where those dangerous thoughts can lead. Andy speaks with hate crime researcher Jeannine Bell and extremism reporter Andy Campbell about how Republican politicians and political pundits spouting anti-immigrant and anti-Black hate leads d...

Our nation’s children are experiencing some of the highest levels of stress in history due to the pandemic, yet they lack the skills to properly verbalize and manage their mental health. The good news? It’s not too late for adults to lend a hand, and you don’t have to be a primary caregiver to do so. Mental health expert Dr. Nzinga Harrison teaches Andy about the seven Positive Childhood Experienc...

With the 2022 primaries underway and the midterms in less than six months, CNN’s John King has his iconic magic wall prepped and ready for election coverage. Tracking the races more closely than arguably anyone else, John gives Andy his insider take on Trump’s effect on the primaries so far, whether Democrats will turn out for the midterms with the same force they did in 2018, and the key House an...

Women make up more than half of the U.S. population, yet less than a third of the nation’s elected leaders. It’s not because they’re not winning. It’s because they’re not running. And studies show that the gender gap in political ambition is just as big today as it was 20 years ago. Why, and how do we change that? Andy poses those questions to gender and politics researcher Jennifer Lawless and Sh...

You asked, we answered! Andy asks Dr. Ashish Jha, current White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, the top 10 questions submitted by listeners, including our overall risk levels, what’s next for vaccines, how to diagnose long COVID, and minute by minute timing of the approval process for young kids. He explains who’s still dying from COVID, predicts when waves will hit different parts of the...

As the U.S. hits the tragic milestone of 1,000,000 deaths, Andy talks with Dr. Deborah Birx to explore how it happened and some of the most pivotal moments of President Donald Trump’s COVID response. Birx says she knew she wouldn’t win any popularity contests when she agreed to serve as the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under Trump in 2020. She was right. Andy gives Birx a chance to...

A post-Roe America could become a reality soon, if Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s draft ruling becomes the court’s final decision. From the West Alabama Women’s Center in Tuscaloosa, Robin Marty tells Andy how the decision would impact her patients from day one, and urges Americans with privilege to consider how far they’ll go to protect the rights of others. Andy asks Columbia Law School pr...

Early on in the pandemic, people of color were nearly twice as likely to die from COVID-19. Those health inequities weren’t surprising to Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, who was among the first public health officials in the nation to demand her state of Michigan collect race and ethnicity data on COVID patients. In fact, solving them has been her life’s work. Now the chief health equity officer at CVS Healt...

Since the beginning of the pandemic shutdown, In the Bubble has been your home for facts, guidance, and a slice of hope in a hopeless time. Now, as we emerge from our COVID bubbles, there are still lots of issues that Andy wants to help break down without weighing you down. That’s why In the Bubble is expanding to three days a week. In addition to timely and important information about COVID-19, t...

Many parents with young children have one question: When will my kid be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine? They got one step closer to an answer this week, when Moderna filed an Emergency Use Authorization for a vaccine the company says is safe and effective for kids ages 6 months through 5 years. FDA Commissioner Robert Califf tells Andy what’s holding up approval, why getting the dose right is so...

For decades, the messenger RNA (mRNA) platform was seen as too unstable and expensive to be used in vaccines or therapeutic medicines. That changed when the COVID-19 pandemic sparked enough urgency, resources, and money to bring about a breakthrough. Andy speaks with Uwe Schoenbeck, the chief scientific officer for Pfizer's Emerging Science & Innovation team, about what makes the mRNA platform mor...

Some passengers ripped off their masks in jubilee while others froze in horror when airlines across the country announced mid-flight that a Florida judge had struck down the CDC’s travel mask mandate last week. What does this ruling mean for air travel and daily commutes on public transit? Andy speaks with epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina about why you should keep your mask on and how to minimize y...

What if we could take the best of what we learned from the pandemic to build a better and more equitable health care system? What would it look like? That question is at the center of Andy’s conversation with CVS Health’s Executive Vice President Alan Lotvin. Alan envisions a future where the expertise of pharmacists and nurse practitioners is better utilized to help aid the labor shortage. And he...

Andy sits down with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who is cautiously optimistic that a vaccine for children under 5 will get approved by June and a variant-specific vaccine that better protects against Omicron will be approved in the fall. Albert stresses the seriousness of Long COVID, comparing its severity to cardiovascular diseases. And Andy traces a throughline between the harrowing journey of Albe...

Last Day is back for season 3, and in episode 1, our team travels to Montana, where cowboy culture reigns supreme, everyone is armed, and 86% of firearm deaths are suicides. There, we meet a couple that represents all the contradictions at the root of America’s gun debate: One is a suicide prevention advocate, and the other is the most adamant Second Amendment supporter we’ve ever met. Plus, our t...

While COVID caseloads are decreasing in many parts of the United States, many people who have been afflicted throughout the past two years of the pandemic are still suffering with what is commonly called "Long COVID." COVID-19 isn't the first virus to cause long-term illness, but Andy digs into what we know — and don't know — about these lingering symptoms. In Andy's conversation with two experts...

Andy talks with disaster expert Juliette Kayyem about how to prepare for scary and unpredictable things, from hurricanes to cyber attacks. As the former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Intergovernmental Affairs, Juliette accepts that disasters will happen and helps people, companies, and governments “fail safer,” as she puts it. She explains to Andy why a Russian cyber attack on...