May 22, 2020

This is a time of stress -- the world over. In New York, the U.S. city worst hit by the pandemic, Governor Andrew Cuomo is trying to get citizens to open up about their mental health with the “How Are You Really?” campaign. Professor Jack Saul, psychologist and author of “Collective Trauma, Collective Healing," joins the show from New York to discuss treating trauma on a massive scale.

Over the past few months we have seen people of color disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. A report reveals that the COVID-19 mortality rate for black Americans is almost two and a half times higher than the rate for white Americans. Dr. Helene Gayle, the former director of the CDC’s National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, joins Michel Martin to discuss the root causes of this.

Among the hundreds of thousands who have died from the coronavirus are music world luminaries Alan Merrill, Ellis Marsalis, and sax legend Manu Dibango -- whose passing deeply affected his good friend Angélique Kidjo. It moved her to give Miriam Makeba’s famous South African hit “Pata Pata” a COVID-themed rewrite. She joins the program to talk about the song -- and her friend.