Mike Davis talks about who gets forgotten in a pandemic—and about the political, and economic, obstacles to making faster progress on effective anti-viral medication and a vaccine. Mike is the author of many books, including City of Quartz and The Monster at Our Door: The Global Threat of Avian Flu.

Also: Rebecca Solnit talks about how she became a feminist, and a writer—in San Francisco in the 1980s, “the queerest city in the world.” She’s the author of Men Explain Things To Me and many other books. Her new memoir is Recollections of My Nonexistence.

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