Terry Gross

The U.S. has only four percent of the world's population — and yet it accounts for 20 percent of all COVID deaths. New Yorker writer Lawrence Wright discusses America's pandemic year.

Maria Ressa has faced criminal charges, death threats and internet trolls because of her coverage of the Philippine president. She's the subject of a new PBS FRONTLINE documentary, A Thousand Cuts.

Interested in learning a new skill in the new year? CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta says that will also improve your brain health. "The act of experiencing something new — or even doing something that's typical for you, but in a different way — can all generate these new brain cells," says Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon and associate professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. He has a new book about the brain.