The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

On Monday afternoon, October 26th, Walter Wallace, Jr. was shot and killed by Philadelphia Police officers who responded to a call about a domestic disturbance and a man with a knife. The unrest, violence, and vandalism that followed on the first night after his death resulted in more than 90 arrests, 30 police officers hurt, and several stores trashed and looted. KYW Newsradio Crime and Justice r...

Pack your swimmies and flippers 'cause there's big news from the moon. Two different studies have provided some good evidence that the moon may have more water than we thought. So what did they see, and why is it important? Dr. Eric Jensen, Professor of Astronomy at Swarthmore College joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about the moon and what these new findings mean for possible future space mis...

For the third time in the Trump presidency, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice is being replaced. If you're on the outside looking in, the whole process can look pretty ugly and vicious. It's a lot of political fights, and long hearings that seem like they all have foregone conclusions. So was it always like this? Or is the process especially contentious today, just like everything else in our politics?...

There's been sort of a perfect storm in real estate during the coronavirus pandemic -- the housing market has been on fire, lending rates are historically low, and people want more space for working from home. So after more than seven months into the pandemic, how's the market holding up and what's happening in the Philly area specifically? Maria Quattrone, CEO and founder of Maria Quattrone &...

Seven plus months into the pandemic and first time unemployment claims are looking really rosy in COVID adjusted terms, under 800,000. Or is that number just hiding a bigger problem? One of the sticking points holding up a new stimulus package is coronavirus liability shielding for businesses. What's that all about? And we've been watching a housing market that's been absolutely on fire for months...

Pennsylvania will be allowed to count mail-in ballots for this year's election that are received up to three days after November 3rd, after legal challenges made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. Michael Moreland, Professor of Law at Villanova University joins KYW Newsradio in Depth to break down what the outcome means for both political parties, for voters, and the ripple effects it could...

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to affects towns and households across the United States with no signs of slowing down, the Association of American Medical Colleges is calling for a coordinated national testing strategy to try and help get us out of this mess. Dr. Atul Grover, AAMC Research and Action Institute Executive Director joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about the state of testin...

Do presidential debates even matter in 2020? Do they change anyone's mind about who they're voting for? If you showed the debate between Biden and Trump to someone 50 years ago, what would they think? Dr. Ben Berger, Associate Professor of Political Science at Swarthmore College & Executive Director of the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility joins KYW Newsradio In Depth for a fasci...

NASA's OSIRIS-REx has touched down on the asteroid Bennu and successfully grabbed a sample for scientists to study back on earth. So why are they interested in this particular asteroid, and what are they hoping to learn? Dr. Harold Connolly, Jr., Founding Chair and Professor in the Department of Geology at Rowan University and Co-Investigator and Mission Sample Scientist on the OSIRIS-REx mission...

It's been well over a year since the explosion at the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery in South Philadelphia. Since then, the original owner declared bankruptcy and the site changed hands. So what's going to happen to it? Harris Steinberg, Executive Director of the Lindy Institute for Urban Innovation at Drexel University joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about the site and a reall...

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues around the world, we're hearing more about the concept of herd immunity. We wanted to dig into herd immunity and find out exactly what it is, how it works, and what happened in other places around the world that have tried to use herd immunity as a strategy without having a vaccine. Dr. Jason Diaz, Assistant Professor in the Integrated Science, Business and Techn...

Hiding in the unemployment statistics is the rising number of people who are experiencing long-term unemployment -- they've been out of work for 27 weeks or more. Scott Deacle, Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Business and Economics at Ursinus College joins KYW In Depth to talk about long-term unemployment, who it's affecting, and what it means on a macro level to an economy and...

Election 2020 is already way different than what Americans are used to -- there's a pandemic, incredible political division, and for the first time a really big chunk of the electorate is going to be skipping the lines at the middle school gymnasium and putting their ballot in the mailbox instead. A ton of information has been sent out about voting by mail, along with a lot of disinformation. So w...

Unemployment is headed in the wrong direction... again. College enrollment is down and the ripple effects are spreading. And towns and municipalities are grappling with some extremely hard decisions if Washington doesn't send relief soon. David Fiorenza, Associate Professor of Practice at the Villanova School of Business joins KYW in Depth to break down the news of the week and explain what it mea...

Ever feel like ads you see online are almost designed specifically for you? Spoiler alert: they are. It's called microtargeting, and it's become a critical tool for political campaigns. Andrew Arenge, Director of Operations for Penn's Program on Opinion Research and Election Studies and the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program joins KYW In Depth to explain how political campaigns know so much about yo...

A lot has changed for firefighters and EMS responders since the coronavirus pandemic hit the US, from the big picture need to source a consistent supply of protective equipment to adding virus preventative measures to day-to-day emergency response planning. Tom Kane, Trustee of the Local 22 Philadelphia Firefighters and Paramedics Union joins KYW In Depth to talk about how fire companies have had...

Before the coronavirus pandemic, childhood obesity was one of the most complicated health challenges of our time. Now, public health researchers are worried the crisis has only become more severe. Jamie Bussel, Senior Program Officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says the pandemic has deepened already severe health inequities in America, including for children who were already at high risk...

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated healthcare innovation, from things like telemedicine letting patients see doctors without leaving the house, to home monitoring -- which doctors say enables them to discharge patients from the hospital faster, while still allowing medical workers to monitor their vitals. Dr. Gregory Breen, Inspira Medical Group Pulmonologist joins KYW In Depth to talk about...

In one night in Philadelphia, more than a thousand birds flew into skyscrapers and died. It was super weird and more than a little eerie. So we asked Dr. Gregory A. George, Associate Professor of Biology at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown to come on KYW In Depth to talk about why it happened.

We're taking a long weekend here at KYW In Depth, but we wanted to rebroadcast one of our favorite episodes from the month everything sort of changed for here in the US. We released this episode towards the end of March, 2020, and it's about another pandemic in Philadelphia's history -- the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic. George Wohlreich, President and Chief Executive Officer of The College of Physici...

In the early 1900s, tuberculosis was a huge public health crisis. It was widespread and it was deadly. And one of the ways people tried to keep children from getting TB back then was open air schools. Fast forward a hundred years to the coronavirus pandemic, and there are some interesting parallels between the public health response back then, and what we're all trying to do now to stay safe and s...

The holiday shopping season is going to be here before we know it, but what is that going to look like in the midst of a pandemic? Dr. Meghan Pierce, Associate Professor of Marketing at La Salle University joins KYW In Depth to talk about how the pandemic is changing how people shop, what shoppers are looking to buy, how trends are shifting and what millions of people still dealing with unemployme...

Battleground states get all the attention when it's time to vote in a presidential election. So why does it seem like the same few states are always in play, while others vote pretty reliably for one party or the other? What has to happen to turn a tried and true Republican or Democratic state into a battleground state? How often do these kind of shifts in how states vote take place? And how is th...

2020 is the year the coronavirus pandemic spread around the world and steamrolled everything else we were trying to do. Before coronavirus in the US, one of the biggest health emergencies was the opioid epidemic. And while COVID-19 became the number one priority, the opioid crisis continues to have a devastating impact. Dr. Anand Parekh, Chief Medical Adviser at the Bipartisan Policy Center joins...

This feels like a pivotal moment for the airline industry. Several major airlines are warning of massive layoffs unless help arrives from Congress. But even if it does, can the industry really escape without lasting damage? Will we ever really fly the same way again? Dr. Benjamin Altschuler, Assistant Professor of Travel and Tourism in the School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management at Tem...