The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, people with office jobs started working from home, trading their desk for the couch or the kitchen table. Then, a lot of workers in their new DIY offices started noticing back and neck problems that weren't there before. So what can you do? Dr. Rahul Shah, board certified Orthopedic Spine & Neck Surgeon with Premier Orthopaedic Associates in South Jersey join...

So how is the world of college athletics dealing with the realities of the coronavirus pandemic? Schools have started classes across the country with mixed success, how has that affected the landscape? Dr. Karen Weaver, Member of the Graduate Faculty at the University of Pennsylvania joins KYW In Depth to talk about the challenges athletic departments are facing right now, how the experiment of br...

We all dream of retirement, but for most people that dream doesn't become a reality until their mid-60s or so. But with the pandemic and everything else that's happening right now, a lot of people are thinking about what they need to do to achieve financial independence sooner rather than later. Jeff Bush, Managing Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Informed Family Financial Services joins KYW...

Public health has moved to the forefront of public consciousness since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. It's probably safe to say that public health isn't something too many of us thought about on a daily basis before mid-March, but a new poll conducted by Public Opinion Strategies for the de Beaumont Foundation shows that the American public is now recognizing the importance of strong publi...

Technology companies have gotten big. Facebook, Twitter -- some of the most recognizable names in corporate America. But they've also been surrounded by their share of controversy, and there have been many calls for government regulation for places like Facebook and Twitter. So what does that mean? Is it realistic? And, to what extent are these companies already regulated? Brett Frischmann, The Ch...

Last week's new unemployment hit a pandemic-adjusted low, but the formula used to measure it changed too. After months of big tech powering stock gains, why the sputter on Wall Street? And why do you keep seeing headlines about the all-powerful American Dollar not being as big as it used to be? David Fiorenza, Associate Professor of Practice at the Villanova School of Business joins KYW in Depth t...

There seems to be momentum building for legalizing recreational marijuana right now in several states, including Pennsylvania. Most of the arguments are economic: states are broke and allowing people to legally buy and sell cannabis products would be a new source of tax revenue. But if we go down that road, there are going to be significant implications for criminal justice reform flashpoints as w...

Six months into the coronavirus pandemic, how have agriculture and farming and the essential supply chains we rely on for food held up? John M. Urbanchuk, Assistant Professor and Chairman of the Agribusiness Department at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, PA joins KYW In Depth to talk about how food production was hit by the pandemic, how the recovery process is going, the biggest challeng...

Tourism has taken a massive hit during the coronavirus pandemic, and that means tough times for airlines. Just how bad is it right now, and how bad can it get? Dr. Benjamin Altschuler, Assistant Professor of Travel and Tourism at Temple University joins KYW In Depth to talk about how coronavirus has steamrolled the airline industry, the massive job losses that have happened already and what's on t...

The economy is difficult to read these days. Millions of people are out of work and there is economic uncertainty everywhere, but the stock market keep rolling right along, setting highs and making big gains. So, how good of an indicator is the stock market actually? Does it really paint a good picture of how the economy is doing? And how can it be doing so well when so many Americans are struggli...

The coronavirus pandemic has caused a lot of people to deal with economic pain and uncertainty like they never have before. We've heard a lot of talk about unemployment benefits, but there are other kinds of benefits that are available for people who just need a little help during tough times. And there are people who can help you navigate the process of finding out what benefits you might qualify...

Staffing polling places on election day has always been a challenge, but right now during the coronavirus pandemic, people are even more leery of spending an entire day volunteering to be around a line of people coming and going to the polls. On top of that, a lot of the volunteers that work the polls in the US are older, which means they're at higher risk for severe illness from the virus. So wha...

This is going to be a school year like we've never seen before. Just about all students will be learning at home at least part of the time, which means technology will be more important than ever. But having that technology available is easier said than done. Larry Lieberman, CEO of Mouse.org joins KYW In Depth to talk about digital divides in American homes, and tips for parents, teachers, and st...

Another week of new jobless numbers over a million. It seems like that used to be a big number, but now it's the new normal. The Dow Jones announced a shakeup this week -- what does that mean for the storied index? And is there a light at the end of the tunnel, in the form of existing home sales? David Fiorenza, Associate Professor of Practice at the Villanova School of Business joins KYW in Depth...

Shifts in the labor force are painful during normal times. Right now, the workforce is changing rapidly without the kind of heads up that we normally get. This pandemic happened very quickly, and half the economy essentially shut off to try to contain it. For workers in some industries, it seems like there's not a lot of hope on the horizon. So, how exactly has COVID-19 accelerated changes in the...

When you're tracking the health of an economy, there are a lot of indicators to look at. One of the key ones is consumer sentiment. But what exactly does that mean? How is it tracked? Why is it important, and what is it telling us about the economy? Dr. Benjamin Liebman, professor of economics at Saint Joseph's University joins KYW In Depth to talk about what you should know about consumer sentime...

At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, 28 million Americans didn't have health insurance -- but it's a lot more than that now. A former acting CDC director is warning that this is just one of the problems the coronavirus pandemic has revealed about American healthcare, and the longer COVID-19 spreads, the worse those problems will get.  Dr. Richard Besser, President and CEO of the Robert Wood J...

The coronavirus pandemic has been challenging for all students, but especially for students with special educational needs. We wanted to find out the extent of what families are going through right now, and what parents need to know to help make the upcoming school year just a little bit easier. Margie Wakelin, Staff Attorney in the Education Law Center's Philadelphia office joins KYW In Depth to...

We're almost six months in to this pandemic and there are still tens of millions of people unemployed. Many people have been able to scrape by with unemployment assistance, but a big chunk of that, the extra $600 from the federal government, is gone now. And still others weren't able to get any assistance at all. As moratoriums on evictions around the country are expiring, KYW In Depth's Paul Kurt...

Last spring the coronavirus pandemic shut down in-person learning at colleges and universities across the United States. Now classes are resuming for the fall, both online and in person. We wanted to know how students and faculty feel about being back on campus, and if college still feels the same this year as it did last year. KYW In Depth's Andrew Kramer went to Temple University to talk with st...

The US was already facing a shortage of doctors before the coronavirus pandemic. Now, the medical community is being stressed to its breaking point. There's a bipartisan bill aimed at getting them some reinforcements -- it's called the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act, and it would make 40,000 unused immigrant visas available for doctors and nurses who want to come here to work. To put that num...

Millions of people are relying on unemployment benefits in the United States, at the same time Apple became America's first $2 Trillion company. The stock market is doing very well, even as unemployment numbers reversed a trend and went back up last week. What's going on? David Fiorenza, Associate Professor of Practice at the Villanova School of Business joins KYW in Depth to talk about the divide...

A handful of months into the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, and a whole lot of people have traded in business casual for leggings, sweatpants, and t-shirts. So how's the fashion industry doing now that we all wear sweatpants to work at home? Jefferson University Fashion Design Program Director Farai Simoyi joins KYW In Depth to talk about how coronavirus has changed the fashion industr...

One of the ways some people are staving off pandemic boredom is by raising chickens in the back yard. Seriously, it's a thing that's happening in 2020 more than in previous years. Something else that's happening more now: the CDC says rates of infection are 22% higher than this time last year. So, how do you take care of a backyard flock the right way? Dr. Sherrill Davison, lead avian health exper...

The Federal Reserve continues to play a critical role in the American economy, and even more so during the coronavirus economic crisis. But there's been some criticism of the work the Fed has been doing. So what has worked, and what hasn't? Dr. Jonathan Scott, Professor of Finance and Department Chair at Temple University's Fox School of Business joins KYW In Depth to talk about what the Fed has b...