In the chaotic world, the Economist Fat-based reporting helps you find sanity in the circus.

With the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale, you can save 50% on unlimited access to The Economist.

The Economist's correspondence are on the ground where world-shaping stories happen.

They connect the dots between major topics from economics and global politics to science, technology and culture.

So, go to Economist.com slash Black Friday offer to take advantage of this half-price offer,

ending soon.

Hey, everybody, it's Audie Cornish, and the assignment is actually taking a couple of weeks off.

We're going to be preparing for a new year

of conversations, including how the pandemic changed so much of our culture, the way we watch

movies, the way we listen to music. And, you know, we're going to examine COVID itself,

specifically how medical professionals and disability rights activists are recognizing long COVID as a mass disabling

event. And I'd never heard of that term either. So there's a lot to dig into. But today, I want to

invite you into this warm, gracious, and many times funny conversation between my colleague Anderson Cooper

and Stephen Colbert.

It's from Anderson's podcast, All There Is.

The whole season is this deeply personal exploration of loss and grief and finding community.

And if you haven't listened, I highly recommend that you do and give it a follow.

I'll be back in the new year with more episodes of the assignment. In the meantime, here's Anderson.

Hey, it's Anderson Cooper. If you listen to episode one of the podcast last week, I want to say thank you. And thanks for coming back to episode two. I've gotten so many comments from you and direct messages

on Instagram, which is pretty much the only social media place I am anymore. And it's been really

beautiful to read them. They're personal, they're intimate, they're deeply felt, except for the ones

about buying cryptocurrency, which I haven't because frankly, I don't really understand what it is.

...