Mon, Dec 28, 2020
In June 2018 Donald Trump posed with then Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou at a ground breaking ceremony for the new Foxconn facility in Mt. Pleasant, Wisconsin. Touted as "the eighth wonder of the world" by the president, the multi-billion dollar deal was supposed to produce a 20-million-square-foot manufacturing complex, thousands of jobs, and the beginning of a new well-paying manufacturing sector in the American Midwest. Over two years later, almost none of that has happened. Instead of thousands of new jobs and a promising facility, Wisconsin looks to have been left holding the bag on a deal that was over promised and under delivered. This week, investigations editor and feature writer at The Verge, Josh Dzieza, joins to talk about what happened with the Wisconsin-Foxconn deal and why its promise was doomed to fail.
Mon, Jan 4, 2021
What can bourbon teach about legacy, nostalgia, and consumer trends? Pappy Van Winkle is some of the most coveted bourbon in the world, but it took three generations of labor and loss to reach this pinnacle. Author Wright Thompson spent years with the third generation Van Winkle, who brought the family business back from the brink, studying the careful craftsmanship and rich history that goes into every barrel they produce. With a drink so inextricably tied to a distinct time and place, Wright found an opportunity to interrogate the mythology of the South, the seduction of nostalgia, and what it means to make things that last.
Mon, Jan 18, 2021
Chris has a lot to get to with legendary tech journalist Kara Swisher this week: the deplatforming of President Trump, the conservative obsession with Section 230 (what even is Section 230), why Parler went dark (what even is Parler), and why some Republicans would rather complain about losing Twitter followers than address the deadly attack on the Capitol.
Mon, Jan 25, 2021
For 17 years, the federal execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana, sat dormant. Then, with only six months left in his Presidency, Donald Trump and AG Bill Barr oversaw an unprecedented 13 executions. Of those 13, three took place during his final week in office. So why, with one foot out the door, did the Trump administration take extraordinary measures to rush through a historic slate of executions? This has been the center of Intercept Senior Reporter Liliana Segura's work for a long time. One of the best people on this beat, Segura spent months traveling to Terre Haute over and over again as the spree unfolded. So when it came to learning more about what just happened, who these people were, and what it means for the death penalty more broadly, we knew who to turn to.
Mon, Feb 1, 2021
Come on a journey to learn about the little-known origins of Sen. Mitch McConnell's beloved obstruction tactic. Turns out, the country owe the filibuster to the efforts of John C. Calhoun, a virulent racist and spiritual father of the Confederacy, as he tried to protect the power of a minority of Senators who represented slave states. So how did the filibuster go from a tool of the South, to "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", to today, where a single email is enough to block legislation? That's right , a single email. With prophetic-like timing, Senate insider Adam Jentleson just released a new book examining the history of the filibuster, making the case that it's partially responsible for turning the Senate into one of the greatest threats to democracy.
Mon, Feb 8, 2021
Roughly 19 million acres of eastern Oklahoma hung in the balance in the summer of 2020. Before the Supreme Court was a case asking a question crucial to Native land rights - does the United States still honor the treaties signed in the 1800s promising that land to indigenous tribes? And in a landmark 5-4 decision penned by conservative justice Neil Gorsuch, the court ruled that yes, that land remains reservation land. It was a huge win - but what does it mean? Joining the show this week is Rebecca Nagle, a member of the Cherokee tribe and host of a phenomenal podcast titled "This Land", detailing the long fight leading up to this moment.
Mon, Feb 15, 2021
A short while ago, you may have seen posts crossing your social media feeds from celebrities and activists like Rihanna or Greta Thunberg showing support for farmers in India. Right now, one of the world's largest protest movements is taking place across India. Millions of farmers are demonstrating against a set of policy proposals passed by Narendra Modi and his government. In turn, Modi has tried to quash the movement, going so far as attempting to force Twitter to silence any critical voices. This week, journalist and Washington Post columnist, Rana Ayyub, joins to discuss the protest movement and how Modi's reaction to it fits his pattern of illiberalism and nationalism that marches India away from democracy.
Mon, Feb 22, 2021
This conversation starts at Grid Talk 101 (what even is an energy grid) and ends at the fragility of modern life. That can only mean one thing - David Roberts is back. An energy and climate journalist, Roberts explains that we have every reason to believe that we'll see an increase in the freak weather events like the one that wrought havoc on Texas. And as we witnessed firsthand, one failure, one breakdown in a system, can have a deadly domino effect resulting in some truly dystopic conditions in a matter of days. So how can we avoid another Texas-sized meltdown? And what exactly went wrong in the first place?
Mon, Mar 1, 2021
Critically acclaimed playwright and actress Anna Deavere Smith crafts groundbreaking art at the intersection of journalism and theater. Her explosive one-woman plays centered on the Los Angeles riots and the Crown Heights riots, "Twilight: Los Angeles" and "Fires in the Mirror" respectively, took shape from hundreds of interviews conducted by Smith herself. Her newest piece, "Notes From the Field" had her traveling everywhere from Finland to the Yurok Tribe of Northern California, compiling 250 conversations about the school-to-prison pipeline. Her work requires a masterful command of storytelling, empathy, and the art of the interview, and she joins this week to describe how those pieces came together in her celebrated career.
Mon, Mar 8, 2021
It was just about this time a year ago when everyone's lives completely changed. Businesses went dark, schools went remote, we separated ourselves and hit pause on daily life in order to slow the spread of a once in a century pandemic. It is a rare event that has been completely inescapable and that we have all had to deal with to the best of our abilities. This week New York Times columnist, Michelle Goldberg, joins to talk about her own year and discuss the frustrations felt, the choices made, and the lessons and reflections gleaned from a year of COVID.
Mon, Mar 15, 2021
What happens when you raise the minimum wage? The almost decade long push for a federal 15$ minimum wage made new noise in the last few weeks when Democrats tried to include it in the American Relief Act. Although this new push failed, the policy remains incredibly popular even though there are even some Democrats who are opposed. So, what are the real world consequences of a raised minimum wage, and what are its impacts on the market and labor? This week professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Arin Dube, joins to give an economist's view of the minimum wage and the revolution in the thinking behind it.
Mon, Mar 22, 2021
Amazon puts just about everything you might need one click away and over the last year, people have been turning to the tech giant more than ever. But all that frictionless efficiency comes at huge social costs. In his new book "Fulfillment: Winning and Losing in One-Click America", ProPublica Reporter Alec MacGillis investigates Amazon's impact on the deepening economic divide in towns and cities across the country.
Mon, Mar 29, 2021
Over the past few years a broader conversation around speech has intensified in the United States. It is a conversation about speech, taboo, social justice, power and hierarchy, penalty about what things people can or can't say, should or shouldn't say in what environments, and what censure should attach to that kind of speech. It's an incredibly thorny conversation to have, filled with exhaustively overused terms like "cancel culture", but it is not an unimportant one. This week scholar and linguist, John McWhorter, joins to discuss our discourse around speech and debate where we as a society should set our boundaries.
Mon, Apr 5, 2021
What happens in your body after you get a vaccine? The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccines feels like the first positive mile marker in the pandemic but folks have a lot of questions - How were they developed? How do they work? Is there anything we should worry about? Dr. Peter Hotez has been a leading voice over the last year, lending his expertise in global health and vaccine development during some of the most crucial moments of the pandemic. Now, he's here to address our biggest questions about what he calls "the most powerful technology humankind has ever invented".
Mon, Apr 12, 2021
Wikipedia is not like a lot of our current internet. It's not like sites like Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube that mines its users' attention and tries to capture it through push notifications and algorithms in order to maximize profits. Wikipedia is a vestige of an earlier de-commodified, open sourced internet. It's an amazing well of knowledge built from decentralized human collaboration that anyone with an internet connection can freely access. It is an incredible institution where users can read and learn about almost anything. This week Katherine Maher, the departing CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, joins to talk about the history of Wikipedia, its organization, and its ability to endure amidst a changing internet.
Mon, Apr 19, 2021
Racial hierarchy in America is deeply embedded in big structural institutions. From housing to criminal justice to education, there's decades of scholarly work and research dissecting the lasting legacies of policies that disproportionately disenfranchise people of color. Now, tax law scholar Dorothy A. Brown has a mind-blowing new book about race and tax, uncovering the ways the tax code is constructed to build white wealth while impoverishing black Americans. In a conversation that is engaging, enlightening, and even laugh out loud funny (seriously), Brown lays out the culmination of her life's work and explains why now could be the time to fix the system.
Mon, Apr 26, 2021
How does bitcoin work? Where did it come from, why does it exist, and will it ever be used for everyday purchases? Far from some passing fad, bitcoin has been around for more than a decade now and shows no signs of going anywhere. We figured it was long overdue to understand the most well-known cryptocurrency and the problem it is trying to solve. Lucky for us, Bloomberg editor Joe Weisenthal came prepared.
Mon, May 3, 2021
Back in 2019, a panel of health experts declared that of every country in the whole world, the United States was the most prepared for handling a pandemic. So what went wrong? Acclaimed author Michael Lewis is unparalleled in unearthing the most compelling characters to tell an unexpected story - it's no wonder he's had multiple books turned into movies (The Blind Side, Moneyball, The Big Short). Now, Lewis has done it again with his latest book, "The Premonition", following the people who spent years preparing for a pandemic only to be ignored at the most crucial juncture - to devastating results.
Mon, May 10, 2021
China is a country with billions of people and a history thousands of years old. For as large and influential as it is, Americans do not consume Chinese cultural exports in the same way that China does in the reverse. Chinese made movies are not screened in most theaters across the United States. We do not watch Chinese sitcoms dubbed. While China and other countries regularly consume American culture that show peaks of what life is like in United States, we don't have the same regular access to those windows of everyday China. So, what is life like in China? This week journalist and author Te-Ping Chen joins to talk about her time as a student and journalist in China and her new book of short stories In the "Land of Big Numbers".
Mon, May 17, 2021
What causes violent crime rates to rise? It probably won't surprise you to learn that 2020 was the deadliest year in American history but what you may not know is that 2020 also saw a staggering rise in homicides and violent crime. It's impossible to separate the two - the indefinite closure of crucial community spaces and abrupt economic upheaval were felt nationwide but hit hardest in areas most vulnerable to increased interpersonal violence. To understand what happened last year, it's worth looking back at the last major wave of violence in the United States - what caused the spike then and what caused it to go down? Sociologist Patrick Sharkey's book, "Uneasy Peace", lays out the most successful strategies cities used to decrease violent crime and joins to lend his expertise on what we got right - and what we're getting wrong.
Mon, May 24, 2021
What is gender-affirming health care? Around the country, there's a Republican campaign to legislate and regulate the lives of trans youth. The most destructive of these efforts would bar trans youth in certain states from accessing gender-affirming treatment. Dr. Izzy Lowell runs Queer Med, a private clinic that specializes in providing accessible health care to trans patients ranging from kids to adults. Her practice covers 10 states across the South - and half of those have anti-trans health care bills on the docket. If they pass, it would become criminal for her to provide this care to many of her patients. Dr. Lowell joins this week to break down what exactly we mean when we talk about gender-affirming care, how the decision is made for kids and teens ready to transition, and the potentially devastating impact this legislation would have on their lives.
Mon, May 31, 2021
What we call history isn't a fixed thing; it's a narrative, contested and fought over, changing over time. Right now, the United States is in the midst of a massive historical battle over its own narrative, specifically the legacy of slavery and race in America. The backlash to that fight is spilling into public policy as Republican state legislatures push to regulate the way students are taught about the founding of our country. In Clint Smith's new book "How The Word is Passed", Smith studies our understanding of slavery through the stories we tell of it. He travelled to the cemeteries and plantations and prisons home to these stories to see up close how they reckon with - or fail to reckon with - their own relationship to our country's legacy.
Mon, Jun 7, 2021
How does the human body take in and use energy? It is a simple question, but one that we still do not have a definitive answer to. This week Associate Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology, Herman Pontzer, joins to shed light on these evolutionary mysteries. How did our bodies get to be the way they are? How do we take in and expend energy? And how do we keep ourselves happy and healthy in the modern world we have built?
Mon, Jun 14, 2021
Here in the United States, things are closer to normal than they have been in a long time. Businesses have reopened, gatherings have started to resume, and COVID cases and deaths continue to fall to levels that we have not seen since the very beginning of the pandemic. But even three months ago, it was not clear that this would be the point we are at. So how did the government ramp up its vaccine campaign to get us to a closer normal? This week former White House senior advisor to the COVID response, Andy Slavitt, joins to talk about how the Biden Administration tackled the vaccine distribution problem as well as his new book about the US COVID response, "Preventable".
Mon, Jun 21, 2021
You might think that nothing good happens on the Internet anymore. It's just an algorithmically driven continuous feed of rage, disinformation, and subterfuge. Natalie Wynn, known for her YouTube channel ContraPoints, proves that good things are still happening on the Internet. Part philosopher, part performance artist, and wholly genre-defying, Wynn crafts gorgeous and ethereal video essays on everything from TERFS and J.K Rowling to the rise of incels. There's no one on the Internet quite like Natalie Wynn.
Mon, Jun 28, 2021
In recent years, there's been a steady drip of reporting about UFOs that has penetrated mainstream culture, moving beyond The X-Files and straight into the Pentagon. A series of reports not only confirmed the existence of a government program dedicated to understanding UFOs, but also showed eye-grabbing footage of military encounters. So what do we know about them? And what exactly is the government up to? Gideon Lewis-Kraus set out to answer these questions in his phenomenal new piece in The New Yorker, How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously.
Mon, Jul 5, 2021
Dan Taberski is an expert at pulling on threads. His tireless curiosity and impeccable reporting resulted in a run of acclaimed investigative podcasts, including "Missing Richard Simmons", "Running From COPS", and "Surviving Y2K". He's back with an Apple original podcast "The Line", which uses the case of Eddie Gallagher, a former Navy SEAL charged with war crimes, as a lens to understand the blurred moral boundaries soldiers are asked to operate within when sent to battle.
Mon, Jul 12, 2021
What happens when the bombing stops? The unfortunate reality of American news coverage of Israel and Palestine is that it centers almost entirely on times of extreme violence, broadcasting dramatic images of explosions and destruction. But as soon as some sort of ceasefire is reached, any future coverage of the area instead turns to the state of Israeli politics. The result is not only an asymmetry between our knowledge of Israeli and Palestinian politics, but also an ignorance around what life is actually like for Palestinians in the region. To understand the grinding struggle of life under occupation, the state of Palestinian politics, and the role the United States plays, we're lucky to hear from one of the most celebrated Palestinian-American intellectuals in the world, Rashid Khalidi.
Mon, Jul 19, 2021
From her experience as a single mom trying to figure out how to pay her bills, to her time as a nurse working tirelessly for her patients, to her dedication as an activist marching for accountability in the streets of Ferguson, Congresswoman Bush can tell you exactly why her district voted for her in 2020. She knows she didn't take the road well-travelled on her path to Congress, and her defeat of 10-term incumbent Lacy Clay was one of the biggest upsets of the election, but it's her relatability that sets her apart. It also helps that she's a natural born storyteller.
Mon, Jul 26, 2021
Why is the housing market so hot right now? From the pandemic-induced influx of people working remotely to our collective obsession with cruising Zillow (it's not just us, right?), Bloomberg Opinion columnist Justin Fox discusses why some parts of the country are seeing housing prices sky rocket.
Mon, Aug 2, 2021
Producer Tiffany Champion is back with a post-quarantine vibe check on the WITHpod inbox. In this backstage glimpse of the podcast, hear how Chris Hayes prepares for interviews, which recent episode got the biggest response from listeners, and find out about the exciting changes happening on the show.
Mon, Aug 9, 2021
Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vindman has seen (and heard) a great deal in his experiences in public service. He became a household name as a key witness in Donald Trump's impeachment hearings in 2019. His memoir out August 2021, "Here, Right Matters: An American Story," shares insight into the lead up and events following the infamous call at the center of the trial between former U.S. President Trump and Ukrainian president Zelensky. Vindman joins to discuss that, immigrating to the US, serving in the military, his take on global relations, and what's next for him.
Mon, Aug 16, 2021
Note: This conversation was recorded on July 27th, 2021, before the latest news in Kabul. Recognized around the globe for her research on corruption, Sarah Chayes has seen her fair share of corruption at play. She also had frontline experience in Afghanistan during the events leading up to the country's collapse. The anti-corruption activist witnessed incidents that ultimately contributed to the United States' recent withdrawal. Chayes' career has led her from reporting in Paris for NPR and covering the fall of the Taliban in 2001, to examining developing countries that are considered corrupt during a stint at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The prolific author has said that kleptocratic actions are an "existential threat facing our generation" and her book "On Corruption In America - And What Is At Stake" examines the myriad reasons why unscrupulous practices are prevalent across global networks, and why crisis results.
Mon, Aug 30, 2021
Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Spencer Ackerman joins to discuss catalysts for the War on Terror, inflection points, recent developments in Kabul, and the role of U.S. hegemony in continued global combat. Ackerman also talks about his new book, "Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump," which tells the story of how the weaponized bigotry that fueled the war on terror after 9/11 created the conditions for Trumpism and increased threats to American democracy.
Mon, Sep 6, 2021
Civil rights attorney and author Alexandra Brodsky has spent her entire career focusing closely on ways institutions can best address sexual harms. Her work is the subject of "Sexual Justice: Supporting Victims, Ensuring Due Process, and Resisting the Conservative Backlash," a book published in August 2021. She joins to talk about the importance of treating both victims and the accused fairly, the Biden administration's response to Title IX, and what's ahead as institutions seek to address sexual misconduct claims more equitably.
Mon, Sep 13, 2021
In President Biden's vision of a greener future, half of all new cars sold in 2030 will be electric. As fossil fuel usage continues to take a toll on the environment, the need for cleaner transportation is more important now than ever. Bloomberg Auto and Tech reporter Dana Hull has spent more than a decade covering EVs. The California-based journalist remembers when skeptics believed that Tesla wouldn't survive. Now, other major automakers are trying to play catch up. She joins to talk about progress, what's needed on the infrastructure front, battery supply chain concerns, and how Chris can fulfill his dream of getting an EV minivan.
Mon, Sep 20, 2021
In "The Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage," journalist Jonathan Cohn writes about the battle over healthcare and takes readers into the impetus for, history of, and current state of the Affordable Care Act. He joins to discuss what's missing, inflection points, the role of bipartisanship, and what the ACA means for Americans trying to navigate an increasingly complex system.
Mon, Sep 27, 2021
Note: Some listeners may find the sensitive content discussed disturbing. Who is complicit in some of society's dirtiest work? If you grill a steak, someone somewhere had to butcher the cow under brutal working conditions. Our twenty year war on terror has been fought much the same way, with a relatively small group of our fellow Americans doing difficult, morally fraught work that allows huge majorities of Americans to live in blissful ignorance. In "Dirty Work: Essential Jobs and the Hidden Toll of Inequality in America," Eyal Press explores the nature of our implicit social contract around dirty work: Who does the work itself and what story does it allow society to tell about itself?
Mon, Oct 4, 2021
Time for a fun one, America's favorite fighting Frenchman. You may have seen streets, parks, and subway stations that include the name Lafayette, but may not know much about the man other than the show-stopping performance of Daveed Diggs, who played Lafayette in Hamilton. The actual Marquis de Lafayette was born in France to immense wealth and privilege, allowing him to mingle in the most elite circles of the time. He shipped off to the US colonies to find his fortune and endeared himself to George Washington, fought for US independence and then returned to France to play a crucial role in *their* revolution as well. Mike Duncan, a fish monger turned wildly popular history podcaster, wrote about Lafayette's story in his new book, "Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution." He joins to discuss Lafayette's fascinating life, his research and life in Paris during Covid and whether the US is on the precipice of revolution and democratic decline.
Mon, Oct 11, 2021
Since 2017, a high-tech form of colonization has been rapidly growing in Xinjiang, China. As many as 1.5 million Muslim Uyghurs have vanished into high-security camps and factories. The Chinese regime describes these sites as "vocational education and training centers" that are utilized to counter terrorism. But what actually goes on inside of these internment camps? That's the subject of Darren Byler's new book, "In The Camps: China's High-Tech Penal Colony." In it, Byler draws on a decade of research on the region. He joins to discuss his findings and the role of various forms of technology including facial recognition, smartphones and apps like WeChat, in government surveillance.
Mon, Oct 18, 2021
Life has been anything but easy for 20-year-old Dasani Coates. Named after the bottled water that signaled Brooklyn's gentrification, her story has been featured in five front pages of the New York Times. Together with her siblings, Dasani has had to persevere in an environment riddled with stark inequality, hunger, violence, drug addiction and homelessness. She's not alone. There's nearly 1.38 million homeless schoolchildren in the United States. About one in 12 live in New York City. We often focus on the stories of children who "make it out" of tumultuous environments. But what about the ones who don't? New York Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Andrea Elliot spent nearly a decade following Dasani and her family. Andrea joins to talk about her expanded coverage of the Coates' family story, which is told in her new book, "Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival and Hope In An American City."
Mon, Oct 25, 2021
39-year-old India Walton found herself thrust into the national spotlight when she defeated four-term incumbent Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in the June primary. It was an unusual win: Walton had never held elected office, and Brown isn't letting go of his seat without a fight. Following the stunning upset, the current mayor launched a write-in campaign, and many of the state Democratic establishment have refused to endorse Walton, who describes herself as a democratic socialist. Recently, New York State Democratic Leader Jay Jacobs even compared her to KKK Leader David Duke, a characterization that he has since apologized for using. Walton has now received the endorsement of New York's Democratic senators and she joins to discuss her journey from registered nurse and local activist to politician, why she feels the work of policing is "fundamentally wrong," and proposed changes to Buffalo under her administration.
Mon, Nov 1, 2021
TV weathermen often show up as among the most trusted members of the media and almost no one on earth is as good at it or as well-known as Al Roker. Born to a working-class family in Queens, Roker found his way into TV and then meteorology and has become one of the more prominent voices in the country on the totalizing effects of climate change. In addition to being on the Today Show, he's also the author of more than ten books, including his latest one, "You Look So Much Better in Person," and has a new limited series podcast out called "Cooking Up a Storm", out now wherever you get your podcasts. He joins to talk about that, shares what goes into producing forecasts, discusses why climate change is an "existential threat" to our world, and more. And in a first for our podcast, we asked what you wanted to know. Join as Al also answers questions from WITHpod listeners Keith, Rebecca, and Donna.
Mon, Nov 8, 2021
The Hart-Celler Immigration Act of 1965 lifted a century of restrictions against Asian immigration to the United States. And while not necessarily appreciated at the time, it inaugurated a sea change in American society, setting the nation on the course towards multicultural democracy. Asian Americans now represent the fastest growing demographic group in the country, and yet the category itself feels insufficient for the sheer scope of experiences, backgrounds and cultures it encompasses. What exactly does it mean to be Asian American at this moment? What does it mean for an America whose central axis of political conflict seems to hover over the color line? New York Times opinion writer Jay Caspian Kang probes these questions in his new book, "The Loneliest Americans." The podcaster and son of Korean immigrants joins to talk about assimilation amidst a wave anti-Asian violence, increasing wealth gaps, limited representation and the need for more solidarity in pursuit of upward mobility.
Mon, Nov 15, 2021
Representative Ilhan Omar was just eight years old when her life turned upside down. After an armed compound attack, her family fled Mogadishu, and ultimately ended up in a refugee camp in Kenya. It was there that she experienced the reality that hundreds of millions of refugees worldwide endure. After an intense vetting and interview process, her family was eventually granted asylum in the U.S. and emigrated to Arlington, Virginia. In 2016, she was elected as a Minnesota House Representative, making her the highest-elected Somali-American public official in the United States and the first Somali-American State legislator. She joins to discuss her new book, "This Is What America Looks Like: My Journey from Refugee to Congresswoman," how she got into politics, her response to accusations of anti-Semitism and what's needed to ensure more productivity and less combativeness among members of Congress.
Mon, Nov 22, 2021
Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney has more than 100 credits as a producer, director and writer. Throughout his storied career, he's been the driving force behind titles like "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" and "Dirty Money," a Netflix docuseries about corruption. Most recently, he ventured outside of the visual realm to direct Meltdown, a new series on Audible, about how we ended up with this version of America. The prolific director joined to talk about that, his creative process, why it's so important to give young filmmakers a chance, how production has evolved and more.
Mon, Nov 29, 2021
Lawrence Bartley was just 17-years-old when he was charged and sentenced to 27 years to life following a movie theater shoot-out. Gunfire erupted after the group that he was with exchanged insults with another crew of moviegoers. According to the prosecutor, Lawrence's bullet was the one that hit and killed an innocent 15-year-old boy. Filled with remorse and guilt, Lawrence used his time in prison to reckon with his past, while also finding his place in a rapidly changing society. His incarceration experience ultimately led him to create "News Inside," a Pulitzer Prize-winning Marshall Project criminal-justice-focused magazine that's distributed in prisons around the U.S. He joins to discuss how his experience led him to create the publication, changes to the prison system and life as a (now free) suburban dad.