In this episode, Niki, Natalia, and Neil discuss hydroxychloroquine, the drug President Trump is pushing as a potential cure for the coronavirus.
Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:
- As COVID-19 continues to claim American lives, President Trump has spoken of anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential cure, despite scant medical evidence supporting this claim. Niki referred to Tom Nichols’ book The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters. Natalia referred to Niki’s CNN article, also on expertise. Neil cited this Vox piece regarding speculations of Trump’s financial interest in hydroxychloroquine, and he also wrote about Trump’s fascination with the drug in his column for The Week.
In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:
- Natalia discussed Zeynep Tufekci’s Atlantic article, “Keep the Parks Open.”
- Neil recommended the new Netflix show, Unorthodox.
- Niki shared “Wipe Out,” a 99 Percent Invisible episode about toilet paper.











![A lantern slideshows four overlapping illustrations of the Earth depicting its tilt at different time periods in the past, present and future. Dates represented are 13000 BC, 5544 BC, 1921 AD, 2296AD. Handwritten in blue ink at bottom left corner of plate is the text 'G53 CLW [illegible] Aug '22'.](https://i0.wp.com/publicseminar.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/Wragge_Earth.jpg?fit=768%2C749&ssl=1)


