The Takeaway

Since 2020, election officials are “leaving in droves,” in many cases due to the misinformation campaigns and the subsequent threats made against them. In fact, the FBI issued a warning a few weeks ago that in seven states, including Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada, and Wisconsin, there have been an unusual level of threats continuing against election officials. In states like Arizona and Georgia, we’ve also seen how voter intimidation and suppression tactics are being used with baseless claims of "voter fraud" as justification.  In Georgia, Joe Biden became the first Democratic president to win Georgia in nearly three decades in 2020. And strong voter turnout helped send two Democrats to the US Senate. Flipping control of the chamber to the Democratic party and making the state of Georgia a swing state.  But even as Democrats where celebrating their wins, Republican lawmakers in Georgia, were seizing on the potential political gains from Trump's, ‘Big Lie.’ And through that traction of disinformation passed the controversial Georgia Senate Bill SB 202. Which restricts almost all aspects of voting, including a provision that has made it easier for regular citizens to challenge the eligibility of other voters in their county.  We speak with Lawrence Norden, senior director of the Elections and Government Program for the Brennan Center for Justice, to hear about how political violence and threats of violence are playing out for the Midterms, and what it means for our democracy and free and fair elections. On The Media reporter, Micah Loewinger also joins The Takeaway to talk about how this is affecting voters, in the latest installment of our occasional series, Georgia at the Intersections.

WNBA head coach James Wade is coming off an historic coaching stretch, winning a WNBA championship and the WNBA’s 2022 Executive of the Year Award in the past two seasons with the Chicago Sky. But before his WNBA success, Coach Wade coached the same team in Russia that Brittney Griner- who's serving a cruel, nine-year sentence in Russia- played for before her arrest. We talk to coach Wade about the experience for American basketball players overseas and about Brittney Griner’s incarceration in Russia.

Scottish-born actor, Alan Cumming has had a long career. He’s been in everything from cult classics like "Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion." To Mainstream blockbusters like "X2: X Men United." Alan is eclectic. Time Magazine once called him one of the three most fun people in show business (the others were Cher and Stanley Tucci). Alan Cumming’s new book Baggage: Tales from a Fully Packed Life is about how his life, including his work life, has been shaped by his baggage and how he has learned to live it.  In this interview, Alan speaks about his career, the Spice Girls movie, and why his grandmother was so influential in letting his freak flag fly. 

For the final installment of our SHE-lection! series, we're headed to Kansas’s Third Congressional district where Democratic Representative Sharice Davids is running for her third term against former Kansas Republican Party chair Amanda Adkins, who also challenged Davids for the seat in 2020. Davids is one of the first Native American women and one of the first openly LGBTQ persons elected to the House. In the run-up to Election Day, Adkins and Davids have been squaring off on the economy, reproductive rights and public safety. A new Sienna College/New York Times poll showed Davids with a 14 point edge over Adkins, but recent redistricting has given the Third district a potentially more conservative constituency than previous years. We speak with Washington correspondent for The Kansas City Star, Daniel Desrochers, and Emily Hedges Vietti, a gender and politics researcher at the Institute for Leadership Studies at the University of Kansas and the director of Ready to Run Kansas. 

Jemele Hill joins us to discuss her new memoir, Uphill, which chronicles the events of her upbringing that shaped her life and career, as well as the story behind the better known moments of her time at ESPN.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments this Monday in two cases that challenge the consideration of race in undergraduate admissions. The Court’s decisions in these cases will undoubtedly shape the future of American higher education for millions of students. In previous challenges to affirmative action, the Court has continued to uphold the principles of affirmative action and the notion that diversity in higher education serves a compelling governmental interest. But the plaintiffs in both cases currently before the Court, a conservative activist group called Students for Fair Admissions, argue that affirmative action itself is discriminatory.  Dr. Melissa Murray, Frederick I. and Grace Stokes Professor of Law at NYU, joins us to unpack these arguments and consider their ramifications.  

New York Times finance reporter Emily Flitter joins us to talk about her new book, The White Wall: How Big Finance Bankrupts Black America, which includes a deeply reported look into systemic racism within the American financial industry and the practices keeping the racial wealth gap in place. "She also gives a voice to victims, from single mothers to professional athletes to employees themselves: people who were scammed, lied to, and defrauded by the systems they trusted with their money, and silenced when they attempted to speak out and seek reform."

It has been over a month now since the death of 22-year-old Iranian Mahsa Amini who died while in the custody of Iran’s morality police in September. Her death ignited a movement across the country, and protests have continued throughout the country. The response from Iranian authorities has been brutal, with human rights groups saying at least 253 people have been killed, including 34 children.  On top of the brute force being used to crackdown on dissidents, a new report from The Intercept details the ways in which Iran is employing digital violence by monitoring, and manipulating peoples phone usage and internet.   We speak with Murtaza Hussain, a reporter for The Intercept, about the situation in Iran. 

Nothing says Halloween more like the time-honored tradition of settling in for a scary movie. Kristen Meinzer is a culture critic and host of the podcast "By The Book" and Rafer Guzman is a film critic for Newsday. Together Kristen and Rafer are the co-hosts of the podcast, Movie Therapy, and they joined The Takeaway to give their picks for Halloween movie prescriptions for different occasions.

With 11 days until the 2022 Midterms we check in on Wisconsin and Florida. We speak with Ari Berman, senior reporter for Mother Jones.  We check in on the hotly contested races in Wisconsin and Georgia. Plus, we hear how, despite being a true swing state in statewide elections, the GOP has a stranglehold on Wisconsin's state level politics due to extreme gerrymandering.

Founder of Democracy in Color and New York Times Bestselling author Steve Phillips, joins us to discuss his new book "How We Win the Civil War: Securing a Multiracial Democracy and Ending White Supremacy for Good."

This week, Futuro Media released its first ever-poll of Latino voters and the results offer critical insights into the fastest-growing racial and ethnic group in the U.S. electorate – making up more than 34 million eligible voters. The polling looked closely at the battleground states of Florida, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. In the sunshine state, where Latinos account for more than 1 in 5 eligible voters – it’s incumbent Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis who earned higher ratings that his opponent Charlie Crist. In Georgia – Latino’s who are about six percent of the state’s eligible voters show a preference for incumbent Republican Governor Brian Kemp over Democratic challenger Stacey Abrams. But up in Pennsylvania, it's the Democratic candidates in both the Governor and Senate races with a slight edge.  So what does all of this tell us about Latino voters? To find out we spoke with Julio Ricardo Varela, President of Futuro Media and co-host of the podcast “In the Thick,” and with me is Héctor Sánchez Barba, the CEO of Mi Familia Vota, a non-profit organization that encourages Latino election participation. Héctor , welcome to The Takeaway.

Oliver Morrison, General Assignment Reporter for WESA-FM joins us to discuss key takeaways from the only debate between Dr. Mehmet Oz and Lt. Governor John Fetterman in Pennsylvania for the U.S Senate seat.

This month the U.N. announced that there were 7.7 million Ukrainian refugees scattered across Europe. Among them is a 12-year-old girl, Yeva Skalietska.  During the early days of the war on Ukraine, Yeva picked up an empty notebook and began to write everything she was experiencing. She begins her journey on the day of her 12th birthday and through her diary we see the normal life of a 12-year-old girl change to a war zone. Now safe with her grandmother in Ireland, Yeva has published her diary into a book, "You Don’t Know What War Is: The Diary of a Young Girl from Ukraine." 

Teen Vogue and Change Research conducted a poll targeting 1,173 young voters across the country for their “Midterms Vibe Check” series. Versha Sharma, Editor in Chief of Teen Vogue, joins us to discuss the results and what they say about voters under 35 in the United States.