Pushkin.

It's hard to read the news these days without asking yourself, how did we get here?

Fiasco is a history podcast for the co-creators of Slow Burn.

In our first season, Bush v. Gore, we examined an unmistakable turning point in American

politics, the 2000 election, which resulted in a high-stakes stalemate, ended with one of the most

controversial rulings in Supreme Court history. So if you're trying to make sense at the present

moment, check out Fiasco, Bush v. Gore. Listen on theHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

From Pushkin Industries, this is deep background, the show where we explore the stories behind the stories in the news.

I'm Noah Feldman. The past few weeks, we've seen the federal government taking measures to stop coronavirus that

would have been almost unimaginable not too long ago. The president declared a national

emergency. At the state and local level, more and more mayors and governors have declared stay-at-home

orders. The U.S.-Mexico border is closed to non-essential travel, same with the border

to Canada. Most travel from the U.S. to Europe has been suspended. Probably even more things have

changed since I recorded this podcast on Monday evening. Does any of this federal response make

sense? Does the state response make sense? Are we acting based on data, logic,

and reason? And what should we be doing? To get a really expert perspective on this, I spoke to Dr.

Farsad Mostachari. During the Obama administration, Farsad was the national coordinator for

health and information technology at the Department of Health and Human Services. Before that, he worked for the Centers for Disease

Control in the New York office focusing on New York City public health. Now he's the founder and

CEO of Alladade, a healthcare technology company. Farzad is one of the clearest and most rational people that I know, and I knew he would have a lot to say on this topic.

Farzad, from very early in this crisis, and I mean very early, you were loudly saying on Twitter, and I was following you closely, that we didn't have a coherent

national response strategy, even at the conceptual level of knowing what we were trying to do.

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