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. We're deep into coronavirus world right now. It's the only news story that anyone seems to be interested in.

And it's also obsessing most of us, myself included, on a minute-to-minute basis.

We spent a lot of time so far on the show focusing on medical aspects of the crisis,

and that's, I think, entirely appropriate given where we are

in the cycle. But it's also not too soon, I think, to start talking about the economic consequences

of what's happening and what's likely to happen. And that's particularly pressing because

Congress and the president have agreed on a relief plan to address coronavirus, one that is

intended to take a stab at slowing down the harms economically that people might be facing in real

time, and also perhaps at softening the blow of recession that seems to be headed our way.

In order to make some sense of what economists think

about the set of problems and how they can be solved, I knew I wanted to talk to Professor Stephanie

Stancheva of the Harvard Economics Department. Professor Stanchova is what economists call

technically a hot shot. She's extraordinary scholar,

tenured pretty much right away upon joining the Harvard University faculty,

...