The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

As we continue to make more and more progress getting COVID-19 vaccines into people’s arms, Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), in conjunction with the Black Coalition Against COVID (BCAC) has released a new video series called "The Conversation: Between Us, About Us.” The videos feature black doctors, nurses and researchers answering questions and providing information with the goal of getting more a...

Stimulus checks are hitting bank accounts, and if history is any indication the next 30 days or so are gearing up to be a great month for retail sales. But why does it feel like, a year out, we've just hit stasis on unemployment numbers? Plus, what's going on with our trade with China? David Fiorenza, Associate Professor of Practice at Villanova School of Business joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to t...

Many private liberal arts colleges are struggling to survive amid the coronavirus pandemic. Enrollment is down, and small colleges rely on room and board revenue more than large universities. So what does this mean for the future of these schools? Application Nation founder Sara Harberson joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about why small schools are having trouble, what colleges are doing to tr...

One of the things the coronavirus pandemic has done is turbo charge the problem of food insecurity here in the US. Food banks saw unprecedented demand for months on months, and the last time we checked in with the Food Bank of South Jersey, the demand was as strong as ever. We asked Fred Wasiak, President and CEO of the Food Bank to come back to the podcast to talk about what the situation is like...

Analytics have become a huge part of the landscape of sports. They've changed the way many people look at and talk about teams and games, they've even changed how many teams approach building their rosters and the types of players they target. It is always fascinating to dig into data and Villanova University Business student Ethan Carpenter has done some impressive work with basketball, specifica...

It started on a snow day. Dr. Christine Meyer pays her staff even when the office is closed, so she was trying to find something for them to do, and she figured -- why not just help people find vaccines. So she posted on Facebook for people to email her office if they needed help finding a vaccine. She got 1200 emails in 2 hours and the email server crashed. Fast forward a bit, and the PA CoVID Va...

College athletes generate a tremendous amount of value for their schools. And for many years now there's been a ton of talk about whether they should be getting paid for their services in a sanctioned way that doesn't break any NCAA rules or hurt their future prospects. For many people that discussion involves the athletes getting paid by the school they play for. But there is also another way for...

More and more students and teachers are returning to the classroom for in person learning across the country. Teachers have always had the challenge of dealing with a classroom of students who are all in different places when it comes to emotional and intellectual development -- but now after a year where the country has been rocked by a pandemic that has been felt by everyone, but not equally by...

The $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill called the American Rescue Plan is now law, and there is a lot inside it -- including anti poverty initiatives that have some serious teeth. Dr. Scott Deacle, Associate Professor and Chair of the Business and Economics Department at Ursinus College joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to break down what's in the bill and how it impacts individual households and the e...

The American Rescue Plan is now law and just like that a lot of help is headed to some very desperate people. So what are the big headlines in the new stimulus plan, and how is the money going to make its presence known in the economy? What are local governments getting out of the bill? And how does this change the outlook of the broader economic recovery? David Fiorenza, Associate Professor of Pr...

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the Director of the Hayden Planetarium and the author of the new book Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going. He joins KYW Newsradio in Depth to talk about extraterrestrial life, space travel, what he told Elon Musk about traveling to Mars, and what he thinks humanity should learn from the coronavirus pandemic. 

There is nothing like the pure joy and excitement for a college basketball team that gets into the NCAA Tournament. It’s why they play. It is especially special when a team that hasn’t gotten there in a while gets to punch a ticket -- and that is where the Drexel Dragons come in. The Drexel men's basketball team won the Colonial Athletic Association title on Tuesday night, beating Elon in the conf...

Before we got to flu season, there was a lot of concern in the medical community about the repercussions of combining a roaring pandemic with even a normal flu season. Fast forward to March, and flu cases are down dramatically across the board. This is incredibly good news for everyone, but especially the elderly. So what does it mean that we basically skipped a flu season? Dr. Maryann Lauletta, M...

The last 12 months have been as hard as you can imagine for people who work in public health around the country and the world. And of course while there's light at the end of the tunnel as vaccines continue to get distributed, there's still a lot more to do to fight this pandemic. But what happens after that? What lessons have we learned, and is our public health infrastructure in a better state t...

You've probably heard that the Doomsday Clock is inching closer to midnight. We wanted to find out what exactly that means and if it's actually as terrifying as it sounds. Dr. Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to break down what the Doomsday Clock means, who determines what time it is, and how to measure the existential threats...

Most of the attention right now is on vaccines, and the best hope of ending this pandemic happens when a critical mass of people get vaccinated. But vaccines are only part of the battle against the virus. Good therapeutics are needed as well to keep people from dying from COVID-19, and to help treat people who suffer with effects of the virus weeks and months after their infection. Dr. Mark DiNubi...

A good jobs report just came out, and we're all waiting to see if $2 trillion in stimulus money is actually going to make it into the economy. What a week! 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.

Slowly but surely the number of people getting vaccines is going up. That's a great thing. But we're also constantly seeing these stories about variants and mutations of the virus, and anecdotes of someone who tested positive even after getting a vaccine shot, and recently there's been talk about the idea that it might be safer to wear two masks. It can all be kind of overwhelming and discouraging...

You've probably hear about these mammoth lawsuits filed by voting technology companies Smartmatic and Dominion against multiple media personalities, networks and lawyers in connection with the ongoing falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump in favor of Joe Biden. We wanted to dig into these lawsuits, what they are alleging, their odds of succeeding in a court of law... and, i...

The two first coronavirus vaccines, the ones made by Pfizer and Moderna have been out for months now. But the process of making them, shipping them, and getting them to people has been much choppier than most of us hoped. So how exactly are these vaccines made? We definitely need more vaccine than is out there right now, so why we can't just make them faster? Dr. Jason Diaz, Assistant Professor in...

When we think about the concept of sustainability we often think about the government setting rules and regulations, but the private sector can and often does play a dominant role. And there's a lot more to sustainability than the buzz words -- there's a whole host of environmental and social issues that all surround working towards having a future world for the next generation that is adequate an...

For decades, tobacco companies targeted Black communities and young people with menthol cigarettes. That's the headline of a new report from the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, who are trying to document the destructive impact cigarettes have and call for the banning of flavored tobacco products. Portia Reddick White, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids a...

What would it take to have a real, functional, impactful third political party in America that actually has a meaningful chance of being competitive in elections? It's something we talk about just about every national election cycle -- but is it something that could actually happen in American politics? Dr. Joshua Weikert, Assistant Professor at Immaculata University in the Department of Civil Eng...

The COVID-19 vaccines are here and becoming more accessible every day. And while much of the population would do just about anything to get vaccinated, there are a significant number of people who are hesitant, if not outright hostile, about the vaccine. So the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative are launching a new COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative to try and meet people where they are to try...

The stock market has had a couple rough days in a row. What’s up with Wall Street, and the dip be a sign of better days ahead in real life? A significant drop in unemployment as jobless claims dropped by a hundred thousand. Is that statistically significant enough to point to a recovery? And as vaccinations keep ramping up and coronavirus cases keep dropping, what’s a realistic timeline for our ec...