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Bill Gates and Rashida Jones start a podcast

Dr. Anthony Fauci will be the first guest on the podcast called Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions. It's set to premiere Nov. 16.

Gael Cooper
CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper, a journalist and pop-culture junkie, is co-author of "Whatever Happened to Pudding Pops? The Lost Toys, Tastes and Trends of the '70s and '80s," as well as "The Totally Sweet '90s." She's been a journalist since 1989, working at Mpls.St.Paul Magazine, Twin Cities Sidewalk, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and NBC News Digital. She's Gen X in birthdate, word and deed. If Marathon candy bars ever come back, she'll be first in line.
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Gael Cooper
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Gates and Jones are teaming up for a podcast.

 GatesNotes.com

Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates is starting a limited-series podcast with filmmaker, actress and activist Rashida Jones. The show, Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions, is scheduled to premiere Monday, Nov. 16, and Dr. Anthony Fauci will be the first guest.

"Ever since the pandemic started, we've heard the same refrain: We need to get back to normal," a promotional site for the first episode reads. "But what does 'normal' even mean after such a history-changing event? Bill and Rashida discuss how COVID-19 will forever change our workplaces, our schools, and even our social lives. They also get real with (National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) director Dr. Anthony Fauci about what we can expect in the months ahead."

Gates said in a tweet Thursday that the hosts would "talk about some of the biggest issues facing our world with special guests including authors, experts and friends." And a trailer shared on social media shows the two quizzing each other as well. Jones asks Gates if he really thinks life will be better in 20 years, and the billionaire philanthropist says yes.

Jones, the daughter of music producer Quincy Jones and actress Peggy Lipton, co-directed and co-produced a Grammy Award-winning 2018 documentary, Quincy, about her father. And Gates co-founded Microsoft in 1975, and is co-chairman and co-founder of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.