The Takeaway

Making it to the NFL is the dream of countless young boys and men across the nation. Less than 2-percent of college football players make it to the NFL. For those who do make it, before they can don the uniform of a professional team and see those dreams realized, they must first be selected in the NFL draft. Draft day is like winning the lottery for those selected to play on an NFL team, but the draft isn’t without its critics who find the process dehumanizing. Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and football executive Troy Vincent liken the process to a modern-day slave auction. With the N-F-L draft taking place later this month, we check in with Dave Zirin, sports editor of The Nation and author of The Kaepernick Effect, about the state of its draft and how it stacks up against other professional sports. 

Hollywood and the writers that make movies and TV shows possible are in the middle of a labor battle, which could bring Hollywood to a halt for the first time in 15 years.  On Monday, members in the Writers Guild of America union cast their last ballots, and the union announced that 97.85 percent of members voted to authorized a strike.  The writers’ union is currently in negotiations with Hollywood studios. The current contract ends on May 1st, which is when the strike would begin if both sides don’t reach an agreement. At the core of this strike is the rise of streaming content and platforms, with writers feeling left behind with shorter seasons, longer production times, and smaller residual checks. For more on this, we spoke with Brent Lang the Executive Editor at Variety.

Today marks the last day of Black Maternal Health Week. A week that sheds light on the rise of maternal mortality in the US. We speak with Loretta Ross an activist, educator, author, and co-founder of SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, as well as the co-creator of the theory of reproductive justice. Ross has traveled the world at the invitation of leaders and activists to speak about reproductive justice, and in 2022 she was the recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship “Genius Grant.” She is currently an Associate Professor for the Study of Women and Gender at Smith College. She joined us for some takeaways on this final day of Black Maternal Health Week.

Ryan Donovan, an Assistant Professor of Theater Studies at Duke University joins the show to talk about his new book, “Broadway Bodies: A Critical History of Conformity." In the book, Ryan looks at Broadway musicals and casting from 1970 to 2020 and the bodies that Broadway has historically excluded from its stages, based on size, gender, disability, and how that intersects with race and ethnicity, and the shows that are not making an effort to be more inclusive. 

Americans buy more than 800 million books a year. And even though the pandemic era bump in book sales has stabilized, publishing remains a multi-billion dollar industry. There’s a booming genre of online content that is transforming the publishing industry. It’s called “book influencing” where book reviewers online find creative ways across social media platforms to discuss what they are reading. Kelsey Weekman, internet culture reporter for Buzzfeed News, joins us to discuss how these influencers are promoting reading to entire communities online. 

Original Air Date: July 13, 2022 Since 2019, "A Black Lady Sketch Show" has served as a testament to just how wonderfully weird and insightful things get when some of the best Black women comedians gather.  Its success is due in large part to the vision of creator and star Robin Thede. On Tuesday, June 12, it was announced that Thede's timely and iconic sketch comedy show was nominated for a third year in a row. This year the show is nominatd for 5 Emmy nominations including: Outstanding Variety Sketch Series; Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series; Outstanding Editing for a Variety Series; Outstanding Directing for a Variety Series; and Outstanding Production Design .  Back in April, Thede joined The Takeaway to discuss the third season of "A Black Lady Sketch Show" and what it's like blazing trails as a Black woman in comedy. 

Original Air Date: July 29, 2021 The decision by gymnast Simone Biles to not compete in the Olympic Team Finals or the all-around individual competition in order to prioritize her mental health has left many wondering why.  Former Olympian and gold medalist Dominique Dawes joins The Takeaway to give an insider perspective on the pressure young women gymnasts face and why this decision by Biles may be her greatest feat yet.

Original Air Date: January 11, 2022 Actress, author and “gangsta mom of four” Holly Robinson Peete joins us to talk about her advocacy work for kids on the autism spectrum and her decision to go public about her son’s diagnosis.

In the face of so many environmental crises caused by climate change, more and more Americans have been thinking about their carbon footprints. Not only the footprints we make by living — but also the ones we make by dying. An alternative method to burial and cremation has been gaining interest across the country, and it recently became legal in New York: human composting. But legalization is really just the start of the story. Human composting still faces a few major barriers before New Yorkers can actually choose it, and competing interests between businesses in the death industry are complicating matters. The Takeaway producer Mary Steffenhagen reports on what’s next for human composting and what it says about how we commemorate our time on earth.

Jonathan Majors is one of Hollywood’s swiftest rising stars. And he presented a version of masculinity that pushed back against the heavily policed boundaries set by society and Black men themselves. Majors’ version of masculinity welcomed softness and vulnerability – it also drew the ire of those who found his gender performance emasculating and pointed towards the “feminization” of Black men. When he was arrested at the end of March on charges of domestic violence, Majors was arraigned and released, and Majors denies and disputes the charges. Curiously, following his arrest he was defended by many of the same people who decried his turn to a soft version of masculinity. We discuss the boundaries placed on Black men with regards to their masculinity, and why an act of alleged violence can rewrite a man’s place in performing society’s masculine ideals. Mark Anthony Neal, James B. Duke distinguished professor of African and African American studies at Duke University joined to discuss.  

Librarians across the country are using TikTok to advertise their services, connect with communities and put their libraries on the national map... And they're pretty funny! We talk with three librarians about their strategies, goals, and experiences as library workers during a time of rising right-wing attacks on books and library funding. We speak with Rhea Gardner and Mychal Threets, both supervising librarians at Solano County Library in California — and they run the library's TikTok! Visit them on TikTok here. We're also joined by Lisa Varga, executive director of the Virginia Library Association, a chapter of the American Library Association. 

On Monday, at Rutgers University in New Jersey, thousands of professors, part-time lecturers, and graduate and undergraduate students marched together holding signs that read, “We R on strike for a better Rutgers.” We spoke to Dr. Donna Murch, Associate Professor of History at Rutgers and the New Brunswick Chapter President of Rutgers AAUP, one of the unions on strike. In the midst of this standoff, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy, took on a foundational role in preventing University President, Jonathan Holloway, from using an injunction on Faculty and staff. Governor Murphy instructed Holloway to hold off on issuing the injunction, and even spent two hours at the bargaining table himself. 

In the wake of Monday’s mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky, we discussed whether there is any value to “thoughts and prayers” in moments of public violence and loss.   Dean Yolanda Pierce is currently dean of the School of Divinity at Howard University and will soon become dean of the School of Divinity at Vanderbilt University this fall. Dean Pierce joined The Takeaway to offer reflections on the contributions and challenges of public faith discourse in a secular democracy. 

Takeaway producer Ryan Andrew Wilde recently came across a flier that said "Is your name Ryan? Wanna meet other Ryans? Join the Ryan Meetup!" At the bottom of the flier, it laid out some strict rules: "First name must be Ryan" and "No Bryans Allowed." A few weeks later, intrigued but unsure of what to expect, Ryan headed to Ryan Maguire's, a lower Manhattan bar and restaurant, with a microphone and some questions.  Ryan Andrew Wilde, associate producer for The Takeaway, shares the story. We hear all about some of the Ryans he encountered, the history of the name "Ryan," and what's behind the Ryan/Bryan rivalry.  

Many of the Founding Fathers who signed the Constitution had a deep familiarity with Native nations, some having negotiated treaties or engaged in diplomatic relations with them. We spoke to Robert J Miller, Professor of Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at ASU, who enlightened us about the Native origins of the US Constitution