The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

The makeup of the House of Representatives will be shifting a bit in the wake of the 2020 Census. Some states will gain a seat or two, and some will lose a seat with new maps drawn for the 2022 midterms. Dr. Fred Foley, Adjunct Instructor of Political Science at La Salle University joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to break down how reapportionment works, what these results mean, and how the ripple eff...

You've probably heard people talk about a semiconductor or chip shortage recently. It's a big deal, and it probably affects a lot more things than you might realize. Dr. David Kurz, Associate Clinical Professor of Management at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about why there's a chip shortage in the first place, where the scarcity is being felt mo...

Public Health Funding is an ongoing concern in this country, and we've seen the effects of that first hand during this COVID-19 pandemic. So have we learned our lesson about the importance of funding public health? And will funding public health at proper levels be a priority going forward in this country? John Auerbach is the President and CEO of Trust For America’s Health, a non profit that focu...

Ever since the 2020 election, laws have been introduced in states across the country that seem to be designed to make it harder for people to vote. So is that observation actually true? And what's behind the push for these new laws? Dr. Benjamin Dworkin, Director of the Rowan Institute for Public Policy and Citizenship (RIPPAC) at Rowan University in Glassboro, NJ joins the podcast to explain what...

Some economics predicted the biggest jobs month in memory, and boy were they off target. So what happened? David Fiorenza, Associate Professor of Practice at Villanova School of Business joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about what happened this week in the economy and what it means for all of us in our daily lives.

It's been a rough year, and a lot of that COVID stress has found a new home around our waistlines. Americans have gained on average 1.5 pounds per month that we've been in this pandemic. So now what? How do you get the scale moving in the right direction again? Dr. Winifred Constable is a weight loss specialist who runs Diata Medical Weight Loss in Bryn Mawr, PA. She joins KYW Newsradio in Depth t...

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner and challenger Carlos Vega met in an intense, contentious debate on Wednesday, May 5th. The candidates tackled Philadelphia's gun violence crisis, victims' rights, systemic racism in the justice system, and a host of other questions posed by KYW Newsradio's community affairs reporter Cherri Gregg, crime and justice reporter Kristen Johanson, and NBC 10'...

One of the surprising things we're seeing in this pandemic economy -- the labor market is tight these days when it comes to the fast food industry. You might have seen the help wanted signs near you, a ton of places have signs out that they're hiring and offering interviews on the spot. So what's going on? Dr. Lu Lu, Assistant Professor at the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management at...

It sure feels like we are getting closer and closer to what we call normal as the number of COVID-19 vaccinations continues to rise. Morning Consult, a global data intelligence company, has been tracking people's comfort level with doing different things for more than a year now, things like going to the mall or eating indoors in a restaurant. Alyssa Meyers is a brands reporter at Morning Consult...

One day the pandemic will be over, but a pair of Drexel epidemiologists say the virus responsible for COVID-19 will likely become endemic, something we have to learn to live with. So what's that going to look like? Dr. Neal Goldstein, assistant research professor at Drexel University and one of the authors of the post that caught our eye joins the podcast to talk about what it means for a pandemic...

A recent Supreme Court decision dealing with juveniles being sentenced to life without parole really took the court in a completely different direction than it had been tracking. So what happened, and why did the court change course? Dr. Jill McCorkel, Professor of Sociology and Criminology at Villanova University and the founding director of the Philadelphia Justice Project for Women and Girls jo...

We've talked a lot about the COVID-19 vaccine on this podcast. How it was developed, how it's been rolled out, how effective it is. The one angle we haven't really talked about though: hearing from the people actually doing the vaccinating, putting needles into arms. Today, four vaccinators from Inspira Health in South Jersey join the podcast for a really touching and meaningful about how they got...

Unemployment keeps heading in the right direction. The GDP numbers show a consumer fueled economy going gangbusters. Spending and savings are both up. The economy is opening up in a big way and all signs are pointing to an absolutely extraordinary post-pandemic economic recovery. 13 months of weekly economic updates, and I don't think the show notes have ever been this positive LET'S GO! David Fio...

We have hit the 100th day of Joe Biden’s presidency. It has become part of the political fabric to examine a presidency after 100 days -- but why? Where did this sort of arbitrary benchmark come from? And as long as we're here, what have we learned 100 days into the Presidency of Joe Biden? Dr. Ben Berger, Associate Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College and Executive Director of the...

Americans enjoy celebrity politicians. You can look at several examples from history -- Ronald Reagan went from Hollywood to the Governor's Mansion, to the White House. Donald Trump became a household name with a reality TV show before he moved to Washington DC. And now, polls suggest we could see a President The Rock inauguration sometime in the not so distant future. So why are Americans drawn t...

An enormous number of cicadas are waking up very soon after spending the last 17 years developing. It's going to be awesome, and probably very noisy. Dr. Christopher Tipping, Professor of Biology at Delaware Valley University joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about what it's going to look like and what people should know before they emerge.

So what have we learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and how can these lessons be put to good use to prevent the next public health crisis? "We have short memories," cautions Dr. Stephanie Zaza, President of the American College of Preventive Medicine, so we need to start the hard work now while the experience of the last year is fresh in our minds. Dr. Zaza joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to break dow...

It finally looks like we're making solid strides in the right direction on the unemployment from. And on top of that, the help wanted signs are everywhere, especially at minimum wage jobs. What's goin on? A huge amount of people say they're concerned about inflation, so why aren't economists all that worried? The US has a real chance to invest in its infrastructure, and it looks like a capital gai...

We will one day, hopefully sooner rather than later, be in a place where COVID-19 is in the rearview mirror. When we get there, how are we going to look back on this pandemic and this mass trauma event that the whole world just went through together? There's no way to tell with 100% accuracy. But maybe we can learn something by going back in history to the global flu pandemic of 1918. How familiar...

The Biden Administration is throwing its weight behind getting an infrastructure bill through Congress. The president has put forth a more than $2 trillion proposal, the American Jobs Plan. It's ambitious in many ways -- and one of the really interesting core tenets of the bill is the way it addresses environmental issues and climate change on macro and micro levels alike. Dr. Samantha Chapman, Pr...

If you're in the market for a house, get ready to enjoy the ride! The housing market has been on fire and it seems like it's just getting crazier. 'For sale' signs are turning to 'sold' signs in record timing, houses are being sold way above listing prices, and all this is going on in the middle of the pandemic. So what's going on? How long will this last? And should we be concerned about what hap...

Right now the main focus in our fight against COVID-19 are the variants that are popping up around the United States and around the world. And when you talk about variants there's another phrase that gets thrown around too, 'genetic surveillance.' It's a critical tool for tracking and responding to virus variants, so we wanted to learn more about it and how it works. Dr. Zachary Klase, Associate P...

From curbside pickup to home delivery to wiping down your shopping cart handle with hand sanitizer, grocery shopping habits were turned on their head over the last year. Laurentia Romaniuk is an Instacart Trends Expert and senior product manager, she joins the podcast to break down a new report from Instacart about how the pandemic dramatically shifted how we shop, where we shop, and what those ch...

Bernie Madoff died in prison this week at the age of 82. He was the mastermind of a ridiculously large ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of people to the tune of billions of dollars. It was a fraud uncovered in the midst of the financial crisis back in 2008. We wanted to look back on the Madoff scandal in the wake of his death, and talk about if something like this could happen again. Rafael P...

Retail sales went through the roof after the most recent round of stimulus from the federal government. Turns out when you give people money, they will spend it at businesses. Regardless, stay tuned for arguments in Congress about whether direct payments actually work. We've been waiting for months for a significantly better unemployment report and we might have gotten it -- jobless claims fell by...