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. Today we're going to talk about the novel coronavirus and evolution.

All viruses mutate and evolve, and that includes SARS-CoV-2, the virus that produces COVID-19.

The version of the virus that we saw when the pandemic first started this winter is slightly different from the version of the virus that has emerged

today in 95% of the cases that we're seeing.

But what does that tiny little single point difference mean?

One amino acid.

Is it something we should be concerned about?

That is something that scientists are in the process of

figuring out. Today we're joined by one of those scientists. Neville Sanjana is a geneticist

at the New York Genome Center and New York University. He has been researching and publishing

about how the coronavirus is mutating.

Neville, thank you so much for joining me.

Let's start with the, call it the medium picture.

Let's talk about the changes that we know have happened through mutation in the SARS-CoV-2

...