It was an Olympic opening ceremony like no other: athletes in masks marching in a mostly empty stadium. COVID-19 cases are rising in Japan, the host country, whose population remains largely unvaccinated. Olympic officials hope to shift public focus away from the public health crisis to the competition, and to creating great sporting moments for the history books. Selina Wang reports.

In the past 18 months, millions of children have fallen out of the education system due to the pandemic, and experts warn many may never return. Next week the U.K. and Kenya are co-hosting a high-level global education summit to call for action. Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard will be taking part, and joins the show from London to talk about making up the education shortfall.

How will the athletes handle these unprecedented Olympic Games? Briana Scurry is an Olympic legend, having won two gold medals as goalkeeper for the U.S. women’s soccer team in both 1996 and 2004.

Julie Brown wrote series of explosive articles for the Miami Herald, which revealed how influential money manager Jeffrey Epstein was able to sexually abuse girls and young women for years – and largely escape accountability thanks to lenient prosecution and a host of enablers. She details it all, and pulls back the curtain on her reporting process, in her new book.

As CEO of Xerox, Ursula Burns was the first Black woman to run a Fortune 500 company. Now she sits on the boards of Uber, ExxonMobil, Nestlé, and more. Her new memoir charts her incredible rise to the top, from growing up on welfare to controlling a multi-billion dollar company. Burns speaks with Walter Isaacson about getting more women and people of color into STEM.

Today marks 10 years since Norway’s darkest day, which saw a right-wing terrorist kill 77 people: eight in a bombing in Oslo, and 69 in a rampage on the nearby island of Utoya. Jens Stoltenberg was Norway’s Prime Minister at the time and one of the terrorist’s intended targets. Correspondent Fred Pleitgen sat down with Stoltenberg for a rare personal reflection on the day.

Republicans are boycotting a bipartisan investigation into the January 6 insurrection after Nancy Pelosi rejected two of their picks for the committee on the grounds that they would undermine its integrity. It’s another casualty of Washington gamesmanship. Here to discuss are historian Anne Applebaum and Richard Ben-Veniste, who was a member of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

John Kerry, traveling the globe as President Biden’s envoy on the climate crisis, is pointing at politics and the profit motive as the root of the problem. Looking ahead to the upcoming climate summit in Glasgow, he says that in around 100 days, we can save the next 100 years. How many more meetings will it take to effect measurable, meaningful change? Kerry joins the show from Rome.

A group of Texas state legislators have come to Washington D.C. to battle restrictive new voting laws. The Republican-backed bills disproportionately obstruct voting access amongst ethnic minorities. State representative James Talarico speaks with Michel Martin about what needs to be done to protect national voting rights.

Why is it so hard to talk about climate in a way that drives real change? Katharine Wilkinson is an environmentalist and educator who was named one of “fifteen women who will save the world” by Time Magazine. She is also co-editor of All We Can Save, an anthology of women’s writing on the climate crisis.

Inaction can be a matter of life and death during a pandemic, especially when it comes to vaccine inequity. Reporter Larry Madowo had a shocking and deeply personal experience in his home country of Kenya, where just 1.1% of the population has been fully vaccinated -- in stark contrast to almost 50% in the United States. Madowo reports on this divide and the deadly implications for his own family.

The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser broke the story of former President Donald Trump and General Mike Milley's clash on Iran involvement and joins the show to discuss what she found.

The U.S. has welcomed the talks and says it remains committed to advancing the Afghanistan peace process. For the perspective from the Afghan government’s side, Christiane speaks with Nader Nadery, part of their negotiation team and a former senior adviser to President Ashraf Ghani.

Author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is well known for her bestselling novels Half of a Yellow Sun and Americanah, but her latest book strikes much closer to home. Notes on Grief is an outpouring of love to her father who died in the midst of the pandemic last year and her reflections on that loss.

Some of the Afghans who have benefitted from the last 20 years of relative democracy, women’s rights and freedoms are terrified of a return to the past.

Even with the boom in legal cannabis, there were still more than one million marijuana arrests across the U.S. in 2019. In his new book, "This Is Your Mind on Plants," author Michael Pollan challenges the way we think about all drugs, from psychedelics and opioids to the caffeine in tea and coffee. Pollan speaks with Walter Isaacson about the effects of plant-based drugs on our behavior.

It’s hard to predict the future when it comes to COVID-19, but many are looking at the data from Israel for clues. The country started lifting restrictions in March, after an early vaccination drive saw over 60% of its people get at least one shot – yet cases are spiking again there too. Israel’s Health Ministry director general joins the show to discuss lessons learned.

New reports say that software produced by an Israeli company to assist governments in tracking down terrorists and criminals is now being used by its clients to target activists, politicians, and journalists. The Washington Post, in coordination with 16 media partners including PBS, reports that at least 37 smartphones were successfully hacked by a program called Pegasus. Dana Priest discusses.

Nearly all COVID-19 restrictions have today been lifted in England, on what’s being dubbed “Freedom Day.” A group of global health experts are warning that Britain could become a COVID-19 breeding ground, and that lifting restrictions now is a threat to the world. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan joins the show to discuss.

The Biden administration aims to confront homegrown racism and bigotry. Award-winning historian Kathleen Belew speaks with Michel Martin about American violence and how to combat it.