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Shanghai's lockdown has eased, but businesses are still tallying the costs

Jul 14, 2022
Shanghai's lockdown crippled supply chains and logistics. Materials and transport costs climbed, and there have been personal struggles too.
Authorities put barriers around Shanghai streets to enforce the severe lockdown in the spring.
Charles Zhang/Marketplace

Rumors of the death of the American mall may have been greatly exaggerated

Jun 27, 2022
In a new book, design critic Alexandra Lange describes how design played a major role in the shopping mall’s successes and failures.
Older malls that are dead or dying may offer communities and cities the chance to rethink the use of public space.
H. Armstrong Roberts/Retrofile via Getty Images

Corporations' decisions seem to signal the end of the pandemic

Jun 22, 2022
“Some companies are large enough that they can be the trendsetters,” one health economist tells us.
Broadway, which has been stringent on COVID-19 restrictions, is lifting its mask mandate on July 1.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Summer school is increasingly important for students, but where are the teachers?

Jun 20, 2022
With many teachers exhausted by the demands of the pandemic, it's harder for school districts to recruit them for summer work.
Summer school programs can be helpful for students whose education was disrupted by COVID. But finding educators willing to work this summer is easier said than done.
Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Things are "awesome and amazing" at this Montana mall

Jun 16, 2022
Alana Ferko explains what's new at the Butte Plaza Mall.
Tim Boyle/Getty Images

How is Gen Z managing its money?

Jun 14, 2022
Some graduated into a pandemic and are experiencing high inflation and market volatility. That's changing their approach to their finances.
From left, Tobi Plumpter, Guy DeWeever II, Emanuel Perez and Leah Smith, on the laptop screen, are part of an investing group of young Black professionals.
Nancy Marshall-Genzer/Marketplace

French company is recycling used face masks into useful objects

Jun 10, 2022
The company takes used and discarded symbols of the pandemic and turns them into items such as coat hangers and classroom rulers.
Plaxtil co-founder Jean-Marc Neveu with used face masks in the factory where they are transformed.
John Laurenson

For public good, not for profit.

Pandemic boosts U.S. vitamin and supplement industry

Jun 8, 2022
Spending on dietary supplements has grown strongly during the pandemic, and some health care providers say that raises concerns.
Workers at the NOW Foods facility in Sparks, Nevada, pack bottles on Feb. 23.
Kaleb Roedel/Mountain West News Bureau

Virtual school evolves, even as the pandemic wanes

Jun 7, 2022
What once was a necessity is now an expanding educational frontier.
Virtual learning used to be less dynamic, with students and teachers accessing materials at different times. The pandemic changed that.
Jon Cherry/Getty Images

Evusheld offers vulnerable Americans protection from COVID. But getting it has been complicated.

May 24, 2022
Scarcity and a lack of outreach has left millions of immunocompromised Americans without access to the treatment.
The Biden administration ordered 1.7 million doses of Evusheld, but around three-quarters of those may have gone unused, according to some estimates.
Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images