Despite war and pandemic, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof finds good news in a “stunning” decline of worldwide poverty and “extraordinary” improvements in child mortality. Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez examines retirement options for an aging population as he finds himself getting older.

Writer and author of The Great Revolution: Turmoil and Transformation in Iran, Robin Wright says that after weeks of protest on the streets of Iran, “for the first time in human history, you're beginning to see a counter revolution ignited by women. ” Later, despite the failure of the UN’s leadership conference on climate change, New York Times science reporter David Wallace-Wells says, “we're moving much faster than most analysts projected a few years ago,” and says the climate crisis is not as bad as he thought when he wrote,”The Uninhabitable Earth” five years ago.

Former New York Times and Washington Post Media Critic Margaret Sullivan says America faces a threat to democracy. In her new book, “Newsroom Confidential: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life,” she says it’s time to move on from “objectivity” and make reporting a form of activism. And, Scott Galloway says America is not yet lost, but it has gone adrift, and that’s the title of his latest book. In “Adrift,” he talks about income inequality, polarization, and failing young men. But he says, “I think they can be undone … the ills that plague us are fixable.”

Will Trump run for the presidency again? And in the aftermath of California’s deadly wildfires, can the state’s largest utility, PG&E, mend its ways?

What are the risks of keeping the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant open? And an atheist and Muslim agree on what happens when people find religion through politics.

Does the news really have to be all that bad, or does our addiction to catastrophe drive outlets to deliver what sells? How might today’s media be fixed?

What to expect of the Supreme Court’s decision to ease conceal-carry restrictions, Biden’s new gun safety law, and the Sandy Hook lawsuit? Then, does it matter if Russia leaves the International Space Station?

Why does America’s baby formula shortage continue? Also, Norm Eisen’s new book traces corruption from the Trump White House to the rest of the country.