Zoë Schiffer: Yeah, we don’t need a Grok.
Brian Barrett: Grok would just say that it’s sick.
Zoë Schiffer: Grok mitigating the fight between the mom and the person who’s yelling at her about her baby.
Leah Feiger: I really, really feel for these workers, and I really, really feel for all of these customers that were stranded. Spirit in so many ways, like something that we love to make fun of just a little bit, like you take Spirit when you have to, but also it was actually available and it worked and it wasn’t nearly as expensive as anyone else. It’s kind of sad, especially when I look at the shrinking airline industry in the US, when I look over at Europe and I’m like, “You guys have so many low-cost carriers.” And especially with all of the deals, everything back and forth between JetBlue and Spirit that got squashed, it was just a little bit sad to see that happen.
Brian Barrett: And Leah, when you say stranded, I want to be clear, that’s literal. I think some of these employees, they were not in their home cities when Spirit shut down. So they had to rely on other airlines offering them a jump seat or a travel pass to get home. Fortunately, it’s apparently a very communal industry. Other airlines helped them out. Other airlines are offering preferential employment interviews to Spirit Airline employees. But can you imagine, I’m in London right now, and if WIRED shut down and I had to find another way home. I mean, I’d be OK, but—
Leah Feiger: No, but it would also just be ridiculous. This is wild. I think of that 30 Rock episode when Liz Lemon is like, “Oh yeah, this is my flight.” And they’re like, “Sorry, we’re out of flights now. We just make popcorn,” which was incredible to see, but that’s so real.
Brian Barrett: I think from a consumer level, if you were going to book tickets for the summer, do it soon because now it’s a supply and demand thing, right? A whole airline is gone. That’s a lot of seats that aren’t there, so there’s more scarcity. Prices are going up basically at the worst possible time for people like myself who are thinking about planning some time for summer travel with, again, two kids.
Zoë Schiffer: Coming up after the break, we’ll be getting into the news of the hantavirus outbreak on a cruise ship. Should we be concerned, or are we panicking for no reason? We’ll find out.
Leah Feiger: So in recent days, there have been more and more headlines of a hantavirus outbreak happening on the MV Hondius, a Dutch-flagged cruise ship. The cruise departed from the south end of Argentina over a month ago, making stops in Antarctica, the island of Saint Helena, among other stops. The trouble started when a man started showing symptoms like a fever, a headache, and eventually this became a respiratory illness. He died on board and a few weeks later, his wife did as well. She was later confirmed to have the hantavirus too. As of this week, seven cases have now been confirmed and the ship is currently carrying 147 passengers and crew. To help us understand what on earth is going on, we are joined by WIRED staff writer Emily Mullin.
