Award-winning columnist, writer, speaker and editor
Over the holidays, thousands of passengers were left stranded or delayed when Southwest Airline’s outdated re-booking software broke down. Who can be held accountable, and why don’t airlines invest more in their own infrastructure?
Guest: Heather Tal Murphy, business and technology reporter for Slate.
Host: Mary C. Curtis
Five years after exposés in the New Yorker and New York Times, Harvey Weinstein is in jail—but a major rallying point of #MeToo was just how widespread this sexual harassment, abuse, and violence really is in workplaces across industries. Looking back, from the top of media to blue- and pink-collar work, how much has the #MeToo movement changed?
Guest: Christina Cauterucci, senior writer at Slate.
Why one volunteer doctor keeps going back into countries wrecked by Russian bombs.
As a Syrian American surgeon living in Chicago, Dr. Samer Attar felt compelled to be of service during the Syrian civil war, when doctors were being driven underground by Syria’s Russia-backed military. When Russian bombs began raining down in Ukraine this year, Dr. Attar once more raised his hand to cross the border and treat the war-wounded.
Guest: Dr. Samer Attar, associate professor of surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
With disaster relief funds from Hurricane Harvey, Houston’s Harris County instituted a mandatory buyout program for residents in flood-prone areas. But some residents didn’t want to leave.
After winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles, four Olympic gold medals, and over $100 million in prize money, this month Serena Williams announced the end of her professional tennis career. While her on-court accomplishments and longevity put her in the sporting pantheon, her cultural impact is just as remarkable.
Guest: Amira Rose Davis, assistant professor of Black studies at the University of Texas Austin and co-host of the feminist sports podcast Burn It All Down.
The Department of Justice announced this month that it was investigating allegations that leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention mishandled sexual abuse accusations for decades. How have abusers exploited the church’s decentralized structure and notions of forgiveness to avoid accountability, and how have church teachings about sexuality and “purity culture” allowed the abuse to continue?
Guests:
Robert Downen, reporter at the Houston Chronicle.
Jules Woodson, co-founder and COO of Help;Hear;Heal, a nonprofit providing therapy funding for survivors of sexual abuse.
Despite its fraught history of botched executions, the state of Oklahoma is preparing to begin a 29 month execution spree this week. 25 dates have been set for men with severe mental illness, personal histories of childhood abuse, inadequate legal representation, or claims of innocence. Though these inmates have been deemed “the worst of the worst,” activist nun Sister Helen Prejean implores the world to look at fuller pictures of their lives, and seek out an alternative to the death penalty.
Guest: Sister Helen Prejean, anti-death penalty activist and author of Dead Man Walking, The Death of Innocents, and River of Fire.
As part of a stunt to protest the Biden administration’s immigration policies, the governors of Texas and Arizona have been sending bus-loads of migrants to DC and New York without any support. Immigrant advocate groups are scrambling to take care of these people, who were vulnerable well before being used as political props.
Guest: Murad Awawdeh, executive director at New York Immigration Coalition and NYIC Action
State treasurers in red states have been banding together to punish companies that are trying to divest themselves from the fossil fuel industry. But it isn’t clear if, say, BlackRock needs West Virginia more than West Virginia needs BlackRock. And this new front in the culture war may come with a bill that taxpayers have to pay.
Guest: David Gelles, correspondent on the Climate desk at The New York Times, covering the intersection of public policy and the private sector.
When Kentucky attorney general Daniel Cameron investigated the night Breonna Taylor was killed, his office concluded that the two officers who shot Taylor acted in good faith while executing the warrant provided. The Department of Justice’s investigation, however, suggests the warrant itself had false information, without which officers would never have been at Taylor’s home in the first place. Now a candidate for governor, will Cameron pay for his inattention in this high-profile case?
Guest: Tessa Duvall, Frankfort bureau chief for the Lexington Herald-Leader.
