Jul 13, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic’s global ripple effects

A truck used to carry sand for fracking in Odessa, Texas. The recent oil bust has been felt in the sand mining business. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Plus: earnings season, marketing masks and the market for fracking sand.

Segments From this episode

What to expect from second quarter earnings reports this year

Now that corporate earnings season is here, Marketplace host Kai Ryssdal explains what to expect from what might be the strangest corporate earnings season we’re ever going to get.

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COVID-19

Local governments and companies encourage masks in absence of federal policy

by Kristin Schwab

Jul 13, 2020

New York, California and Oregon have put out public service ads to get people to wear masks.

A person walks by graffiti encouraging mask wearing in April in San Francisco.

Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

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COVID-19

How the virus devastated workers in a Brooklyn neighborhood

by Jasmine Garsd

Jul 13, 2020

Brownsville, where 80% of residents are Black, had an infection rate in May that was more than twice the New York City average.

Workers at Brownsville's Collective Fare assemble donated to-go meals. Many residents of the neighborhood are essential workers and more exposed to risk.

Stephanie Keith/Getty Images

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Workplace Culture

An algorithm determines gig workers' pay — and they don't like it

by Meghan McCarty Carino

Jul 13, 2020

Gig workers' livelihoods are increasingly ruled by mysterious — and unpredictable — software.

Drivers protest Uber and Lyft pay policies at LAX in 2019.

Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

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Energy sector woes muddying the future of sand mines

by Andy Uhler

Jul 13, 2020

Sand is an important material used in fracking for oil and gas. When prices dive and oil companies cut costs, sand mines shut down.

$A truck used to carry sand for fracking in Odessa, Texas. The recent oil bust has been felt in the sand mining business.$

Spencer Platt/Getty Images

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COVID-19

Lifeguards, veterinary assistants and architects: a look at some of the jobs protected by PPP loans

by Kai Ryssdal and Maria Hollenhorst

Jul 13, 2020

About 75% of small businesses sought Paycheck Protection Program loans and about 72% of them got PPP loans, according to the Census Bureau.

Seattle Veterinary Associates is among the millions of businesses that have received loans through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

Courtesy of Seattle Veterinary Associates

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For a Honduran textile factory, the pandemic means uncertainty

by Kai Ryssdal and Sean McHenry

Jul 14, 2020

Amid the global pandemic, even supply chains get sick. The director of a polyester yarn factory in Honduras describes how COVID-19 is affecting business.

People queue at a crowded market in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. The pandemic has caused problems for the Honduran textile industry, which exports goods to the United States.

Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images

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Music from the episode

Wu Punk Georgia Anne Muldrow

Som transparents El Petit De Cal Eril

To Zion (feat. Carlos Santana) Ms. Lauryn Hill, Carlos Santana

Mystik Tash Sultana

Ceremony Anchorsong

Meet Me in the Woods Lord Huron

The team

Nancy Farghalli Executive Producer

Maria Hollenhorst Producer II

Sean McHenry Director & Associate Producer II

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