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The Navajo Nation has been enforcing stay-at-home orders, curfews and weekend lockdowns for months to try and slow the spread of coronavirus. And that’s presented a challenge for artists, vendors, and small businesses on the reservation that rely on tourism and don’t have online stores. A business incubator called Change Labs is offering up to $5,000 loans to Native entrepreneurs on the Navajo and Hopi Nations to help them cope with the pandemic. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with Change Lab’s Jessica Stago about the unusual loan program based on the idea of ‘kinship lending.’

In this time of separation and social distancing, there is one thing that can unite nearly all humans on the planet…music. In this week’s installment of Play Us a Tune, we hear from 18-year-old Carson Woodruff, a jazz pianist and music producer from Flagstaff. The pandemic caused an abrupt end to his senior year of high school and uncertainty about what his first semester of college will be like. Those experiences are the inspiration behind Carson’s song Bind, which he wrote just for today’s segment.