A Judge Illegally Jailed Black Children In Tennessee
For more than a decade, officials in Rutherford County, Tennessee, were arresting kids en masse and placing them in juvenile detention. In this county, children were going to jail over tiny – or even non-existent – infractions. ProPublica and Nashville Public Radio reported this story and Meribah Knight, the lead author, joins us to unpack who allowed this to go on for so long.  And in headline...
24m Oct 13, 2021
24m
544 Days In An Iranian Prison with Jason Rezaian
In July of 2014, Iranian-American journalist Jason Rezaian and his wife were accused of being spies by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and were arrested. Jason was held captive for 544 days, and he’s the host of Crooked Media’s podcast, “544 Days.” He joins us to discuss his experience in captivity.  And in headlines: Merck asked the FDA for emergency use authorization of its experimental COVID-19 p...
18m Oct 12, 2021
18m
Votes Against Gun Violence with Shannon Watts
Guns were involved in three out of every four homicides in 2020, and 2021 is shaping up to be deadly, too. According to the Gun Violence Archive, from January 1st to September 15th of this year, more than 14,000 people died from gun violence in the U.S. Moms Demand Action founder, Shannon Watts, joined us to discuss Demand a Seat. It's a program that recruits gun violence survivors and activist...
16m Oct 11, 2021
16m
Women Soccer Players Fight Against Abuse
Players across the National Women’s Soccer League have recently gone public with stories of verbal, emotional, and sexual abuse and harassment. Following these reports of abuse, the league cancelled all five games scheduled for last weekend. And when games resumed on Wednesday, the saga culminated with dramatic moments of silent protests at all league matches. Meg Linehan, who covers the world ...
21m Oct 08, 2021
21m
Small Step For Big Student Loans
The Biden administration announced it will overhaul the student loan forgiveness program for public service employees. It was supposed to forgive certain federal loans of people who worked in the public sector or at non-profit jobs for at least 10 years, but about 98 percent of those who applied were denied. The change will help over a half-million borrowers. Work at all of the Kellogg Company’...
17m Oct 07, 2021
17m
Ernest Johnson And The State Of The Death Penalty
Ernest Johnson was executed in Missouri, yesterday. Johnson had been on death row for over 25 years after being convicted of the 1994 murder of three people. However, pleas for clemency from his supporters, including Pope Francis, intensified recently, saying Johnson’s intellectual disabilities made the execution unconstitutional and immoral. The FDA’s advisory committee will be considering mor...
24m Oct 06, 2021
24m
Facebook's Status: It's Complicated
Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram were offline for six hours yesterday in what’s been called the most sustained and the largest outage for the company in recent memory. It came a day after CBS aired an interview with a Facebook whistleblower, and on the same day the company filed a dismissal in an anti-trust lawsuit by the federal government. The latest Supreme Court term began, yesterday, and t...
19m Oct 05, 2021
19m
Mandela Barnes Wants To Be Wisconsin's Next Senator
Wisconsin's 34-year-old Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes is one of the many Democrats running to beat Republican U.S. Senator Ron Johnson. Johnson's seat has been seen as one of the most likely to flip to Democratic hands next year. We interviewed Barnes about entering the primary with statewide name recognition and his overt effort to be the staunch progressive in next year's race. And in he...
17m Oct 04, 2021
17m
Did IATSE That Coming
Congress approved a short-term spending bill to keep the government open until early December, but Democrats are still scrambling to strike deals on social policies and infrastructure. The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), the union representing thousands of workers in the entertainment industry, has been at a months-long impasse in contract negotiations with the All...
19m Oct 01, 2021
19m
Britney Spears Wins In Court
Britney Spears' father has been suspended as conservator of her estate. Her lawyer requested that a separate hearing be set in 30 to 45 days, and #FreeBritney activists hope Spears will be free by her 40th birthday. Members of International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, the union that represents all kinds of people behind the scenes on TV and movie sets, will begin voting on a strike ...
17m Sep 30, 2021
17m
Dancing On The Debt Ceiling
After Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have funded the government and raised the debt ceiling, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told Congress it would be catastrophic if lawmakers didn’t raise that ceiling. Additionally, the House is supposed to vote on the infrastructure package tomorrow. Crooked Media’s Editor-in-Chief Brian Beutler joins us to break down all of the Congressional n...
21m Sep 29, 2021
21m
R. Kelly Convicted
After decades of allegations and investigations, a jury convicted R. Kelly, marking the end of a six-week federal trial. He was found guilty of all nine counts that he faced, including charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. Republicans who claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen suffered a humiliating defeat in Arizona. But instead of admitting they were wrong, the Stop the Steal ...
20m Sep 28, 2021
20m
The Long And Short Of Long COVID with Dr. Ashish Jha
As many as one in five people who became ill with COVID-19 have reportedly developed long-term symptoms that last well after they’ve recovered from the initial infection. Informally called “Long COVID,” the condition is associated with chronic fatigue, brain fogginess, headaches, and more. We interview Dr. Ashish Jha from the Brown School of Public Health, who’s launched a new study to look at ...
19m Sep 27, 2021
19m
What Have You Got To Boost? with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
A CDC advisory board unanimously said that people 65 and older should be allowed to receive a booster shot of the Pfizer-BiONTech COVID vaccine. It also agreed that younger people who might be at high-risk could get a booster as well, but NOT those who are at high risk of being exposed to COVID at their jobs. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, epidemiologist and the host of America Dissected, joins us to brea...
20m Sep 24, 2021
20m
Missing Women In America
In addition to Gabrielle Petito’s tragic murder, we discuss the horrific rates of people of color who’ve gone missing in America. For example in Wyoming, where Petito’s body was found, 710 Indigenous people went missing between 2011 and 2020, and over half of them were women.  In COVID news, President Biden pledged to donate 500 million vaccine doses to lower income countries. The FDA also auth...
20m Sep 23, 2021
20m
A Historic Strike Ends At Nabisco
In defiance of Texas’ new abortion law, one doctor in the state claimed he performed an abortion. On Monday, two men, neither of whom are in Texas, filed the first lawsuits under the law against that doctor. More than 1,000 Nabisco employees across five states will begin to return to work following a weeks-long strike. It was the first strike at the company in something like 52 years.  And in h...
19m Sep 22, 2021
19m
Immigration Reform Can't Wait with Denea Joseph
The Senate’s parliamentarian said that Democrats could not use the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill to create a pathway to citizenship for the millions of undocumented people in the U.S. At the same time, over 14,000 Haitian migrants began to arrive at the Texas-Mexico border in recent days in order to seek asylum. Several hundreds of them have been deported back to Haiti, using a pandemic-rel...
18m Sep 21, 2021
18m
Deteriorating Conditions At Rikers Island
An FDA panel, last week, unanimously approved a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech covid vaccine for people 65 and older, and anyone at risk of severe illness. The full FDA will likely make a formal decision on boosters based on that advisory panel’s recommendations in the coming days, followed by a CDC meeting to decide who should be getting them.  Rikers is the main jail in New York City and...
23m Sep 20, 2021
23m
Police Reform And Accountability In Minneapolis
Former Minneapolis police officer and convicted murderer Derek Chauvin pleaded not guilty to not one but TWO federal indictments this week in two separate instances of extreme police brutality. He’s currently serving a 22.5 year sentence at a maximum security prison outside of Minneapolis. And starting today, Minneapolis voters will decide on a measure that could reform the make-up and mission ...
19m Sep 17, 2021
19m
This Is Your Brain On Instagram
Voters in California appeared to send the message to Governor Gavin Newsom that his coronavirus policies were the right way to go after saving him from a recall. The vote also sends a pretty strong political message to Democrats around the country about the pressures they might face for their own pandemic measures. Additionally, President Biden met with top executives of companies that supporte...
18m Sep 16, 2021
18m
India Walton On The Race To Lead Buffalo
India Walton, the Democratic nominee for mayor of Buffalo, New York, is poised to win this November. Walton would be the first woman to ever lead the second largest city in the state, and the first self-identified socialist to lead a major American city in over 50 years. She joins us to kick off a new series of conversations that highlight candidates running in local and state elections and pri...
20m Sep 15, 2021
20m
Last Call For California's Recall
The California recall election of Governor Gavin Newsom wraps up today. Newsom campaigned with President Biden, yesterday, and if he is booted from the Governor’s mansion, polls show he is most likely to be replaced with conservative talk show host Larry Elder. KQED’s political correspondent Marisa Lagos joins us to get a status report on where things stand. And in headlines: one million Afghan...
21m Sep 14, 2021
21m
America's Forever Wars With Spencer Ackerman
This past weekend marked the 20th anniversary of 9/11, and beyond the typical yearly commemoration, the FBI released a newly declassified document detailing contacts that two hijackers had with Saudi associates in the U.S. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Spencer Ackerman, joins us to discuss the history of 9/11, the war on terror, and the latest developments in Afghanistan. And in headlines:...
22m Sep 13, 2021
22m
Anti-Muslim Bias After 9/11 with Shahana Hanif
Tomorrow marks 20 years since 9/11. The terrorist attack caused a ripple effect that has influenced many parts of American history and culture, but it also fueled a rise in Islamophobia. We hear from Shahana Hanif how two decades of anti-Muslim bias has hurt and transformed the lives of American Muslims. When the attack happened, Hanif was a 10-year-old growing up in Brooklyn. Today, she lives ...
18m Sep 10, 2021
18m
Bring It On Holmes
Yesterday marked the beginning of the federal criminal trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the blood-testing startup Theranos. She and her former boyfriend Sunny Balwani were charged with about a dozen counts that include wire fraud for lying to investors as well as patients about what Theranos technology could actually do.  The weekly pediatric coronavirus cases in the U.S. surpassed 250...
19m Sep 09, 2021
19m
The Lone Star State Of Emergency
A law that effectively banned abortions in Texas after the sixth week of pregnancy with no exceptions for rape or incest took effect last Wednesday after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to block it. We spoke to Leah Litman, an assistant professor of law at the University of Michigan and cohost of the podcast “Strict Scrutiny,” to get a better understanding of how the law was designed. Also in Te...
19m Sep 08, 2021
19m
Fight Or Flight Attendant with Sara Nelson
The FAA had to investigate more than 600 incidents involving unruly passengers in the first half of 2021, which is already double the number from the previous two years combined. Sara Nelson, international president of the Association of Flight Attendants, joins us to discuss how flight attendants, as front-line workers, are dealing with these people. And in headlines: over one million people s...
22m Sep 01, 2021
22m
America's Last Days In Afghanistan with Rep Barbara Lee
After 20 years, the U.S. has pulled out the last of its troops from Afghanistan. We spoke with Democratic Rep. Barbara Lee, who was the only member of Congress to vote against the authorization of use of force that led to U.S. troops being in Afghanistan, to discuss the latest developments. And in headlines: officials are still assessing the damage of Hurricane Ida, a new Texas law bans abortio...
23m Aug 31, 2021
23m
Labor And The Pandemic with Mary Kay Henry
A U.S. military drone blew up a vehicle in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday that was filled with explosives and was believed to be a threat to the international airport. This came after a suicide bombing outside of the airport last Thursday killed at least 170 civilians and 13 American military members, and ISIS-K claimed responsibility.  This past year has been defined by unionizing and organizin...
17m Aug 30, 2021
17m
Welcome To The Recall California
California Governor Gavin Newsom is facing a recall election, which could result in getting replaced by a right-wing candidate even if he defeats them by a landslide in vote totals. We spoke with Dan Pfeiffer, a co-host of Pod Save America, about the state of the election, and what voters in California need to know.  The fallout from the shameful last act of former New York Governor Andrew Cuom...
20m Aug 26, 2021
20m
The Timeline For Evacuating Afghanistan
The first U.S. troops started leaving Afghanistan, yesterday, as President Biden decided not to extend the timeline for U.S. withdrawal past the original August 31st deadline. The Taliban said yesterday that they would no longer allow Afghans to evacuate, which is a major departure from their previous position. Full vaccine approval for children younger than 12 might not come until the end of t...
17m Aug 25, 2021
17m
Eyes On The Pfizer
The FDA granted full approval for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, making it the first vaccine in the country to move beyond the "emergency use authorization" that's been in place for months now. The announcement was followed by a slew of new vaccine mandates for educators, service members, and more. Republican attacks on voting rights are continuing every day in Texas, North Carolina, and Georgia....
19m Aug 24, 2021
19m
Uncovering The Foes Of The Indian Child Welfare Act with Rebecca Nagle
In the new season of “This Land,” journalist Rebecca Nagle investigates who is attempting to take down a federal law that aims to keep Native American foster and adoptive children with Native American communities, and why. Nagle joins WAD to explain how all is not what it seems in a court case where a white couple claims that they cannot adopt their foster child, who is of Navajo and Cherokee d...
21m Aug 23, 2021
21m
You're Just Going To Have To Antitrust Us
On the same day Facebook announced the launch of “Horizon Workrooms,” a virtual reality app for remote work meetings, the Federal Trade Commission filed an updated antitrust suit against the company. The FTC argues that Facebook tried to maintain a monopoly in the social media sphere through acquisitions of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014, and lessened the ability of contending apps like...
19m Aug 20, 2021
19m
The Trial of R. Kelly
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky announced that a vaccine booster plan can begin September 20, but only if the FDA determines that a third shot for those who got Pfizer and Moderna is deemed safe and effective. Federal health officials estimate that vaccine protection against COVID-19 decreases over time, but their effectiveness against severe disease, hospitalization and death remains high. ...
19m Aug 19, 2021
19m
Hit Me with Your Third Shot
The Biden Administration is expected to announce as soon as today that boosters should be in order for most fully vaccinated people who got either the Pfizer or Moderna shots. The recommended third dose should come approximately eight months after the last shot. But those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will have to wait on a possible booster shot until results from a study are relea...
19m Aug 18, 2021
19m
What Haiti Needs
After Taliban fighters took control over Afghanistan this weekend, UN Secretary General António Guterres urged all countries to open their doors to Afghan refugees and refrain from deportations. Panicked civilians flooded the airport in Kabul on Monday, some even clinging to a departing U.S. plane, hoping to escape an uncertain future under Taliban rule. President Biden defended the U.S. withdr...
19m Aug 17, 2021
19m
The Taliban Takes Kabul
The Taliban seized Afghanistan with a takeover of its capital Kabul this past weekend, leading the country’s President Ashraf Ghani and U.S. personnel to flee. Afghan civilians also attempted to leave the country, which led to chaos at the airport in Kabul. We talked about what led to the swift takeover of Afghanistan by Taliban forces with Laurel Miller, director of the International Crisis Gr...
21m Aug 16, 2021
21m
What's The Census In That?
The Taliban has taken over twelve provincial cities in Afghanistan, and U.S. intelligence officials estimate the country's capital Kabul could also fall within a few months. The takeovers have not affected the timeline of withdrawing U.S. troops from the country.  New Census data shows that diversity has grown quickly in the past decade with the greatest gains seen among people identifying as H...
21m Aug 13, 2021
21m
Two Bills With One Vote with Representative Pramila Jayapal
Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema say they might not support a budget bill with a $3.5 trillion price tag, but Democrats in the House won't support the bipartisan $1.2 trillion infrastructure package unless the larger bill passes, too. We spoke with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal about how House progressives are thinking about these two crucial bills. America is facing two major heat waves...
18m Aug 12, 2021
18m
New York State Of Resign
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced his resignation yesterday, one week after New York Attorney General Leticia James’ office released a damning report detailing allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against the governor by 11 women who worked for him. Cuomo's resignation will take effect on August 24th, at which point Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul will take over. The International P...
19m Aug 11, 2021
19m
The Dog Days Of Pandemic Summer with Dr. Abdul El-Sayed
The U.S. is currently seeing over 100,000 new COVID cases each day on average. It’s the highest number since this February, with hospitalizations and deaths up as well. We spoke to epidemiologist and former Detroit health commissioner Dr. Abdul El-Sayed about the state of the pandemic, and whether we should feel like we're moving backwards. We asked him about the return to in-person classes, wh...
22m Aug 10, 2021
22m
The Long View Of The Midterms
Next year's midterm elections will dictate the future of voter rights, reproductive rights, climate change, pandemic recovery, and more. They may seem far off, but we can start getting ready for 2022 now. We spoke with Crooked's political director Shaniqua McClendon about the "No Off Years" campaign, which aims to support local organizers on the ground, register more people, and fight misinform...
20m Aug 09, 2021
20m
Biden Goes Electric
President Biden announced his goal to make new vehicles greener in his administration’s first major use of federal regulatory power to cut carbon emissions. Still, some climate advocacy groups say that Biden's executive order doesn’t go far enough compared to the plans of other countries to achieve zero emissions.  New York's Governor Andrew Cuomo has been given until Friday the 13th to submit ...
17m Aug 06, 2021
17m
WHO's Calling The Shots
The World Health Organization called for a moratorium on booster shots until the end of September, right as a number of countries have started or are planning to start booster campaigns amid concerns about the Delta variant of coronavirus. COVAX, the program supported by WHO to distribute donated vaccines to nations in need, is struggling to deliver on its promise. Mexico has filed a lawsuit ag...
19m Aug 05, 2021
19m
Life Cuomos At You Fast
A five month investigation into the conduct of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo found evidence of sexual harassment towards 11 current and former employees, and a sexist and hostile workplace. Nancy Pelosi, President Biden, and many more Democrats have called for Cuomo to resign, but so far he has refused. A National Labor Relations Board officer found that Amazon broke federal labor laws, in par...
20m Aug 04, 2021
20m
An Impending Eviction Crisis
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said that students must be in classrooms this year and that schools should require everyone to mask up, but local districts will ultimately decide on their policies themselves. Some workplaces are moving forward with vaccine and mask mandates, but predominantly among their white-collar employees. The House failed to pass an extension of the federal eviction...
19m Aug 03, 2021
19m
Keeping The DREAM Alive
New GDP numbers released by the Commerce Department show that the size of the economy has risen above pre-pandemic levels, but an increased spread of coronavirus could slow that growth. Relatedly, the federal government announced several plans and ideas to address the vaccination slowdown, including cash incentives and reimbursement for federal employees who get the shot. Congressional Democrat...
19m Jul 30, 2021
19m
On The Ground At Tokyo 2020
This year's Olympics is like no other, taking place in the midst of a pandemic, and in a city under a state of emergency in response to rising COVID-19 cases. We talked to The Washington Post's Ava Wallace about what it's like to report on the games this year, but also, the overall experience for her, for athletes, and for Tokyo residents at-large. Democratic donor Ed Buck was convicted in fede...
18m Jul 29, 2021
18m
Recollections Of An Insurrection
The CDC said yesterday that fully vaccinated people should wear masks in indoor public settings in counties where the transmission rate is "substantial" or "high," after new evidence showed that a vaccinated person could transmit the Delta variant of COVID to others. President Biden may also begin requiring federal employees and contractors to be vaccinated or face regular testing. Four U.S. Ca...
20m Jul 28, 2021
20m