COVID-19 and Low-Income Workers, Black Opera, For Life

Workers Most at Risk for Catching, Spreading Coronavirus (0:31) Guest: Marissa Baker, Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington  Congress is wrangling over how best to prop up the US economy as coronavirus shutdowns drive businesses and individuals into dangerous financial territory. The $2 trillion proposal currently being debated would send $1,200 checks to most adults and $500 to most children. Hundreds of billions of dollars would be available to help small businesses meet payroll costs. Low income workers with low-wage jobs are at particular risk of contracting and spreading the coronavirus right now. How to Spot Misinformation Online (16:25) Guest: Alex Mahadevan, Senior Multimedia Reporter, MediaWise, Poynter Institute Bad information about the novel coronavirus is all over the internet - Facebook has been working hard to take down misinformation. But we’re not that great at spotting bad information online even when we’re not in crisis. Half of Americans admit they’ve shared made-up news, but didn’t know it was fake at the time. That’s where MediaWise steps in – it’s a group at the Poynter Institute dedicated to helping teenagers be more media literate. How Blackness Is Portrayed on the Opera Stage (32:12) Guest: Naomi Andre, Scholar in Residence at the Seattle Opera, Professor at the University of Michigan, and Author of the 2018 Book “Black Opera: History, Power, Engagement.” It was barely five years ago, that America’s most prestigious opera company – the Met in New York – stopped putting blackface makeup on tenors performing the lead role in Verdi’s Otello. Until then, few of opera’s fans or participants raised any concern about the idea of a white man darkening his face to play the famous Shakespeare’s character. The performance of white South African tenor Johan Botha as Othello, wearing blackface in the Met’s 2012 production of the opera, launched musicologist Naomi Andre into the research that became her 2018 book, “Black Opera: History,