The Takeaway

The new film Retrograde is an unflinching portrait of what happened in the nine months after President Biden announced he would withdraw troops from Afghanistan in August 2021. The film follows one Afghan general, Sami Sadat, to tell an emotional story of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Award-winning filmmaker Matt Heineman and his team of Green Berets were there to capture the final months of some 20 years of U.S. involvement in the conflict prior to the fall of Kabul. When President Biden announced that the U.S. was pulling out, Heineman and his team shifted gears, and embedded with Afghan forces to see what would happen. We speak with Matt about the withdrawal from Kabul. 

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case of Haaland v. Brackeen, which could strike down the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The ICWA was intended to prevent Native children from being separated from their tribes and families. It was enacted in 1978 in response to US Government practices that forcibly removed hundreds of thousands of Native children from their homes. We speak with Rebecca Nagle, a freelance writer and member of the Cherokee Nation, about what this new challenge in the Supreme Court could mean for ICWA and the SCOTUS precedents it could overrule.

The new Netflix series “Blockbuster” premiered on November 3rd. The show stars a diverse cast of characters, fighting to save the last Blockbuster store. Cast member Tyler Alvarez joins us to discuss the new series, his connection to the character Carlos, and if not Blockbuster, what he hopes to save in this world.

This year, a record number of women ran for governorships at 25 candidates, while the number of women running for Congress fell short of the record-setting 2020 and 2018 cohorts. But 45 of those races for Governor, House or Senate featured two or more women candidates running against each other. We’ve brought you special coverage of some of those races in our SHE-lection series: a partnership between The Takeaway and the Center for American Women and Politics. What do the 2022 midterm results tell us about the future of women in politics? We're joined by Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. Find all episodes in the SHE-lection! series here.

All the votes have been cast in Midterms 2022, and many of the results are in.  Florida Republicans are celebrating statewide victories in the elections for Governor and Senate. But outside of the Sunshine state, it’s hard to find evidence of a significant "red wave" that many Republicans had hoped for. For the most part, Republican candidates won in Republican districts, and Democrats carried Democratic districts.  The statewide races didn’t bring many surprises: Republican JD Vance took Ohio. Democratic candidate for governor Stacey Abrams conceded to Republican governor Brian Kemp. Democrat John Fetterman secured Pennsylvania. And as of Wednesday morning, many of the toss up state-wide races like Wisconsin and Nevada were still up in the air.  We get election takeaways from Joel Payne, Democratic strategist, and CBS News political contributor and Brendan Buck, a partner with the political communications firm, Seven Letter. Brendan was the press secretary for Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and former House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan.

Just a few years after graduating from college, Chloe Maxmin won a seat in Maine’s 88th legislative district. Two years later she was elected to Maine’s state Senate. She was the first Democrat to represent the 88th and the youngest woman elected to the state senate.  We talk with Chloe about her strategy of deep canvassing and why she believes rural voters are the crucial to American democracy. 

Heading into the 2022 Midterms, 37 states are governed by trifectas: a single party controls a majority in the state house, state senate, and also holds the governor’s seat.  There are 23 Republican trifectas and 14 Democratic trifectas.  This sort of single party control of states has increased since 2018, and in this election cycle, a handful of states could gain or lose  trifectas.   We speak with Archon Fung, Director of the Harvard Ash Center at the Harvard Kennedy School, about what trifectas mean for democracy and for public policy.

According to The Williams Institute, an LGBTQ think tank at UCLA and more than 800,000 transgender adults are eligible to vote, but barriers to access, or fears of voter intimidation may prevent some trans individuals from even attempting to cast their ballot.  The Williams Institute says that 31 states conduct their elections primarily in person at polling places AND have voter ID laws – and half of  voting-eligible transgender Americans living in these states do not have an ID that correctly reflects their name and/or gender. We spoke with Josie Caballero, Director of US Trans Survey and Special Projects for the National Center for Transgender Equality.

This summer, major social media platforms like Twitter pledged to ban and remove election disinformation, but a recent report shows that they haven't lived up to their promises. Last week, the media and technology watchdog group Free Press released a comprehensive analysis of the election and disinformation-related policies of Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and YouTube. It concluded that these sites have not lived up to their promises. Read the Free Press report here. The rampant spread of online disinformation in the run-up to the 2022 midterms has led to real threats and violence against poll workers, politicians and voters alike. In the midst of this, billionaire Elon Musk purchased Twitter and dramatically weakened the company’s ability to moderate hate speech, harassment and disinformation. We speak with Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, one of the 60+ civil rights and government watchdog organizations supporting the Free Press report.  In response to requests for comment from The Takeaway, TikTok directed us to their statement "Our commitment to election integrity." Twitter highlighted a Tweet thread from Yoel Roth, Head of Safety and Integrity at Twitter. Meta directed us to their statement "How Meta Is Planning for the 2022 US Midterms."

Discarded cars and a 19th Century Shipwreck are being discovered, human remains have been found, and barges are running aground as the Mississippi River has reached historic lows due to persistent drought throughout the Central U.S.  Last Saturday, October 22nd, the river fell to a new low of -10.81 feet in Memphis, Tennessee.  We speak with a scientist who studies water and rivers about what is causing the drop, the economic fallout, and what it spells for the future of the River in a climate change future.

In her new book, “Raising Them Right,” award-winning journalist Kyle Spencer documents a coordinated and well-funded right-wing movement aimed at young people to bring ultra-conservative and radical ideas into the mainstream. Right-wing organizations have spent millions of dollars recruiting and training young people. They use social media, flashy trips to conservative conferences in vacation hotspots, celebrity conservatives, and wedge issues from the so-called culture wars to draw them in, essentially making a machine to prepare these young people to become future leaders of American conservatism.

Writer, actor, and comedian Bashir Salahuddin is co-creator and star of the variety show Sherman’s Showcase and the HBO Max sitcom South Side. We talk to Bashir about how his career in Hollywood has taken him back to the South Side of Chicago, his inspirations for writing television, and his words of wisdom for young creators who want to get a start in the industry.

How many new clothing garments do you buy each year? Data from the American Apparel & Footwear Association says that the  average American bought about 69 items of clothing and 7 and a half pairs of shoes in the year 2020. The days of buying two pairs of jeans and two nice tops for each new season seem to be out of fashion in recent years. It's easier than ever to buy lots of clothes, but what are the consequences of that ease? We’re looking at our fashion consumption habits, the ethical ramifications of fast fashion, and accessible alternatives to fast fashion with Aja Barber, author of CONSUMED: The Need for Collective Change: Colonialism, Climate Change, and Consumerism, and a contributing editor at Elle UK. 

Emiko Jean is a Japanese-American author-- but, before she was an author, she was an entomologist (bug catcher), candle maker, florist, and teacher. She strongly believes in “faking it till you make it” and asking for forgiveness rather than permission. Emiko has written many YA novels, like, Tokyo Ever After, which was a Reese Witherspoon Book Club YA Pick. But her most recent novel, Mika in Real Life, is a bit more grown-up. With themes about sexual assault, motherhood, adoption, and coming of age when you’re already an adult. We speak with Emiko Jean about her new novel, motherhood, and how her book explores and deconstructs the 'model minority myth.' 

It's the final weekend before Election Day 2022! According to the US Election project, more than 33 million people have already cast their ballots, but that doesn't mean parties, campaigns, or candidates are ready to rest their cases. These heady final days are what we like to call — closing arguments. Here at The Takeaway, we’ve been following the 2022 midterm elections through the stories of SHElection!, which is a political matchups where both candidates are women. So, in today's final installment of SHElection! we ask: How are the parties, candidates, and campaigns of 2022 targeting women voters in their closing arguments? The Takeaway spoke with Aimee Allison, founder and president of She the People – a national organization the builds power for women of color, and Grace Panetta, politics reporter at The 19th – a nonprofit newsroom covering gender, politics and policy.