The delta variant might have some of us feeling like we’re reliving March 2020, but at least a new piece in The Atlantic is making us smart on how the COVID-19 pandemic might end. We’ll discuss what it’ll mean when the virus becomes endemic and blends into the background of our lives. Plus, people are getting vaccine boosters under the table, and it’s getting “hot in herre”: Earth just went though the hottest month on record! Then, we end Friday the only way we know how, with a round of Half Full/Half Empty. 

• “Delta Has Changed the Pandemic Endgame” from The Atlantic 

• “Unvaccinated people face more Covid restrictions in future” from CNBC 

• “Alabama Just Tossed 65,000 Vaccines. Turns Out It’s Not Easy To Donate Unused Doses” from NPR 

• “One Million People Have Opted for a Third COVID Booster Shot, CDC Estimates” from Newsweek 

• “It’s official: July was Earth’s hottest month on record” from NOAA 

• “Major League Baseball hopes a real-life ‘Field of Dreams’ will bring back fans” from Marketplace 

• “The microwedding is here to stay, this event planner says” from Marketplace 

• “Senate proposal lays path for universal pre-K” from Marketplace 

• “Why is Friday the 13th unlucky? The cultural origins of an enduring superstition” from CNN 

Here’s everything we talked about: 

Read the transcript here.

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