Aired Dec 26, 2025

In this special repurposed episode, host David Beckemeyer revisits the social and political scars left by the COVID-19 pandemic. While the crisis may have receded from the headlines, the emotions, frustrations, and misunderstandings it fueled are still present. This episode is an attempt to honestly acknowledge what happened, what went wrong, and what we still haven’t fixed, without taking partisan sides.

The core of the discussion centers on a non-official investigative report, The Lessons from the COVID War, put together by 34 experts as the closest equivalent to a “9/11 report” for the pandemic.

By moving beyond political divisiveness, this episode seeks to put energy into dealing with the real, systemic challenges that continue to leave the U.S. unprepared for the next pandemic.