 | | Primary voters waited in line in Atlanta, Ga., on Tuesday.Audra Melton for The New York Times |
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On Thursday’s episode, we spoke with Astead Herndon, a national political reporter, about the logistical meltdown in Georgia’s primary election. Astead was a regular guest on our series The Field, taking us with him on the campaign trail earlier this year. We asked him to reflect on what has changed since his last appearance for that show: |
I spent 2019 crisscrossing the country, making temporary homes for myself in cities like Waterloo, Iowa; Concord, N.H.; and Detroit. I was following the front lines of what felt, at the time, like the world’s biggest story: the 2020 presidential election. |
In the months since, the pandemic has sidelined the presidential campaign trail — and me, for a time. Instead of being at news conferences or interviewing voters at events, I was confined to cover the race with my colleagues from home. This meant no hotel dry-cleaning, no fried fair food and no post-rally headaches. It also meant too many Zoom calls. |
With my plans for the year scrapped, I worked with my editor to chart a different course, one determined by the country’s crises. In April, I drove 14 hours (no planes!) to Wisconsin to witness one of the only primaries happening amid the pandemic. I also went back to South Carolina to cover protests against police brutality, to Texas for George Floyd’s memorial and, finally, to Georgia, where I spoke with voters waiting in five-hour lines. Their delays at the ballot box were the focus of our episode this week and a source of national outrage. |
Through my mask, I’ve chatted with folks experiencing vastly different realities — all depending on where they are in the country. Store reopenings, the logistical plans for primaries and the availability of restaurant food vary across state and city lines. Along the way, I’ve called The Daily with dispatches and tried to describe what I was seeing. These aren’t the shows we envisioned in January, but we have to find ways to meet people where they are, however we can. |
 | | Caitlin Dickerson.James Estrin/The New York Times |
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This week, Caitlin Dickerson guest hosted three episodes of the show. Caitlin is an immigration reporter for The Times. She joined the company in 2016 after spending five years working in public radio. “It was a huge leap for me to decide to leave audio — my first love — to work in print,” she told us. “I remembered feeling really relieved and excited when, not too long after I arrived at The Times, Lisa Tobin wandered over to my desk to tell me about the new podcasting department that she was starting.” |
Caitlin was one of the first reporters that Michael interviewed when we started the show in February 2017 (you can hear that episode, and how different Michael sounded, here). Caitlin was also our very first guest host. On that appearance, Caitlin spoke with our former colleague Yamiche Alcindor about the police killing of Philando Castile. Now, three years later, she is back to help us cover a moment that feels all too familiar. |
Last night, deep in an edit for today’s episode, our editor Wendy Dorr sent a message to the producer Alexander Leigh Young: “Could someone please get me a calming caddy?” |
On today’s episode, we spoke to Ronda McIntyre, an elementary schoolteacher in Columbus, Ohio, about her experience adjusting to remote teaching. As Ronda explained, a “calming caddy” is a literal caddy with soothing objects, like zen coloring sheets, honey-scented lotion and cold, smooth stones from Lake Michigan. Back when she was teaching in the classroom, if a student was ever going through a difficult time, they could take the class’s shared caddy to a quiet spot in the room. Sometimes, an observant friend would bring it to them as a way of expressing care. |
 | | The contents of Ronda’s classroom caddy.Ronda McIntyre |
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Just hearing about this concept was itself a balm for our team. We decided that one day, maybe, if we were ever back in the office, we’d make a calming caddy for our corner in The Times’s headquarters. |
While Ronda said she can’t provide her students with a classroom caddy remotely, she encourages them on their weekly Zoom calls to share ways they’ve been de-stressing at home — whether shooting basketballs, sitting on the porch or taking the time to read a book. |
Tuesday: Protesters are calling for the abolition of policing. We asked John Eligon what that might actually look like. |
Wednesday: The funeral for George Perry Floyd Jr. was both a national reckoning and a moment of personal mourning, says Manny Fernandez, who covered Mr. Floyd’s memorial service in Houston. |
Thursday: A primary election in Georgia this week was marred by a meltdown of new voting systems. Astead Herndon explains why that’s not the only reason Democratic leaders watched the results closely. |
Friday: We spoke to Ronda McIntyre, an elementary schoolteacher in Ohio, about the crisis in her classroom — and in America’s education system. |
That’s it for The Daily newsletter. See you next week. |
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