About this episode
A deadline to end the war in Afghanistan. Biden’s vision for the future of infrastructure. Plus, how Native communities are tackling vaccinations. Read more: Biden announced that the United States will withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, 2021. Missy Ryan explains that the decision tells us a lot about the administration’s priorities. “Nobody is going to say that the situation in Afghanistan is what anybody would have wanted in 2001 or 2011 or 2020. The government is incredibly fragile. The Taliban is very powerful, and the prospects for peace are very dubious,” she says. President Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for the federal government to take on a vast new role in funding the nation’s transportation networks , seeking to rebuild roadways and transit while battling climate change, racial injustice and traffic deaths. Transportation reporter Ian Duncan says the plan is not quite the easy bipartisan victory some may have hoped. Native Americans were vaccinated against smallpox and then pushed off their land . Reporter Dana Hedgpeth says this history has created generational trauma that tribes are working hard to counteract in their drive to vaccinate Native communities.