During the pandemic, one unlikely TV show has become a tonic for our troubled times. "Ted Lasso" follows the journey of an American college football coach hired by a struggling English Premier League football team. The show has won a truckload of awards and its second season is currently airing on Apple TV+. One of its stars is Nick Mohammed, who holds an Emmy nomination for his role as Nate.

Whitney Duan and her then-husband Desmond Shum were rising stars in China’s business world, but after Shum left the country, Duan disappeared without a trace. Nobody had heard a word from her for years – until Saturday when she called Shum and pleaded that he not publish his new book, which promises to pull back the curtain on Xi Jinping’s China. Shum joins the program to discuss.

The Justice Department is vowing to protect Texas clinics from prosecution for providing abortions, upping the ante after the state brought in a new law attempting to gut Roe v. Wade. Slate senior editor and legal correspondent Dahlia Lithwick has been following the Texas case closely. She joins Michel Martin to analyze the latest developments.

According to the Washington Post, nearly one in three Americans live in a county hit by a weather disaster in the last three months. As Governor of California, Jerry Brown was one of the first national politicians to address the climate crisis and joins the show to discuss what must be done.

Bestselling author Kai-Fu Lee knows the world of tech like no other. Once the president of Google China and a senior executive at Microsoft and Apple, he is now CEO of Sinovation Ventures. His new collection of short stories imagines how artificial intelligence will shape the way we live and work, for better and for worse, as he explains to Hari Sreenivasan.

With President Biden’s domestic agenda looking shaky and global allies wondering what to expect from American foreign policy, we turn to a pair of powerhouse journalists, co-authors who also happen to be married. The New Yorker’s Susan Glasser and The New York Times’s Peter Baker join the show to discuss all this as well as their biography of former Secretary of State James Baker – no relation.

A recent decision by the Supreme Court allows a new Texas law to all but ban access to abortion as guaranteed by Roe v. Wade in 1973. With similar cases pending, many are expressing fear that the decision will set a precedent. To reflect on Texas and what comes next, Christiane speaks with the U.S. Senate’s first Black female senator, Carol Moseley Braun.

To discuss the Taliban's attack on women’s rights, Christiane speaks with a youth activist who has chosen to stay in her country even as the Taliban takes control.

Washington Post sports journalist Kent Babb follows a high school football season in his new book, "Across the River." Set in Louisiana--the state that reported the highest homicide rate in the country for 2019--Babb’s book is a stark look at the fight to keep young students out of the line of fire – and George Clooney has snapped up the film rights.

In 2016 Ady Barkan was diagnosed with ALS, an incurable disease that robs him of basic abilities most of us take for granted. Instead of surrendering, Barkan fought back by launching a crusade for public healthcare. His inspiring story is told in the new documentary "Not Going Quietly." Bianna recently spoke with Barkan, who had a tracheostomy in 2019 and now communicates through voice software.

Retired General David Petraeus spent nearly four decades in the U.S. Army. In 2010, he was made Commander of U.S. Forces in Afghanistan before going on to become Director of the CIA. Petraeus speaks with Walter Isaacson about the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, and what it could mean for the future of American foreign policy.

"An assault on women’s rights” is President Biden's term for the Supreme Court’s overnight ruling which allows Texas’s new abortion law – one of the most restrictive in the country – to take effect. The law permits private citizens to sue anyone assisting an abortion patient: a doctor, a counselor, or even an Uber driver taking someone to a clinic. Bianna discusses with journalist Shefali Luthra.

The evacuation of American troops and support personnel is only a minute portion of the story of America’s involvement in Afghanistan. Craig Whitlock’s new book exposes a long-running campaign of deception by American officials over the past 20 years. The author, an investigative reporter for the Washington Post, joins the show to explain his findings.

The mental toll of war on service members and veterans is hard to overstate. Someone who has experienced that firsthand is former marine and bestselling author Elliot Ackerman. He served five tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and he has now helped hundreds of Afghans escape, in what he calls a “digital Dunkirk.” Ackerman speaks with Hari Sreenivasan about how vets like him view the end of this war.

As Covid cases surge in the U.S., the EU is recommending a new ban on nonessential travel for Americans. At the same time, the WHO has identified a new variant of interest, first seen in Colombia and since found in 39 countries, which could be more resistant to vaccines. Epidemiologist Dr. Larry Brilliant helped defeat smallpox in the 1970s and joins the show for the latest on the pandemic.

The future of Afghanistan and American foreign policy lie in the balance, as President Biden declares his withdrawal marks not just an end to that engagement, but to the whole era of trying to “remake other countries.” Sarah Chayes first went to Afghanistan as a reporter after 9/11, later returning to work with aid agencies in Kandahar, and also advising several U.S. military officials.

One country that has a lot at stake as the Taliban take over Afghanistan is neighboring Pakistan. Maleeha Lodhi served as the country’s ambassador to the UK, the US, and the UN, and she is warning that there is much to fear if Afghanistan descends into chaos.

There has been a recent uptick in U.S. vaccinations, but 26% of adults in the country remain unprotected – and there may be a hidden economic impact. Michelle Singletary is a finance columnist for The Washington Post and her new op-ed “Fired, Sick, or Both” breaks down the cost of refusing inoculation – as she explains to Michel Martin.

What is next for a nation that has drawn so much American blood and treasure, and has for 20 years been the focus of U.S. strategic and security planning? To discuss, Christiane is joined by Ashley Jackson, an expert on extremist groups in the region, alongside Robert Grenier, who served as CIA station chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan from 1999 to 2002.

Angela Merkel, one of Germany’s longest-serving chancellors, has held office for nearly 16 years, but her final term will soon conclude. There are three leading candidates for the post, one of whom is Green Party leader Annalena Baerbock. She joins the program from Potsdam, Germany.