The Takeaway

We’ve just passed the two year anniversary of the inauguration of President Joe Biden. So how are the American people grading him, halfway through? It’s time for a look back at the accomplishments and setbacks of those first two years — and to consider what they mean for a potential Biden-2024 run. We speak with Julian Zelizer, professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University.

The Takeaway listeners and producers got the chance to get their student loans questions answered by student loan expert Betsy Moyette while the limbo over Biden's forgiveness plan continues.

Wajahat Ali, columnist for The Daily Beast, and author of Go Back to Where You Came From: And Other Helpful Recommendations on How to Become American, begins his book with humorous responses to “fan mail.”  “Go back to where you came from!” writes one fan, to which Wajahat responds “Fremont, California! I’d love to but I can’t afford the rent. I’m priced out.”   Wajahat’s book highlights the struggles and triumphs of growing up in a white America with immigrant parents from Pakistan.  He chronicles how his world, like for so many Muslim-Americans, changed overnight after 9/11. He explores the model minority myth, and identifies America’s most dangerous foe, Whiteness, providing commentary and ideas on how the country can band together to invest in hope, and overcome the greatest threats to America.  

On January 3rd, Kenan Anderson returned to the familiarity of L-A for what was supposed to be a short visit. He’d recently set out to embark on a new professional career: that of educator as a high school English teacher in Washington, D-C. Kenan hoped to collect a few belongings left behind in the city after the move to his new home. Instead, the man remembered by his uncle for his fearlessness in the face of challenge and adversity, was killed by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department. As tasers remain ubiquitous in police departments across the nation, and officers continue to kill using the weapon, we’re left to wonder if they’re truly “less lethal”. Alex Vitale, Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College, author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics and The End of Policing joins for more.

How has entertainment television in the U.S. reckoned with the reversal of Roe vs. Wade? A report from Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) at the University of California—San Fransisco found that for the first time in a decade, at least one third of shows in 2022 actually depicted barriers to abortion access. While it's progress, it's still a far cry from reality — for most of the past decade, the majority of women of reproductive age have lived in states that are hostile to abortion rights. We discuss why it’s important to accurately portray all facets of abortion decisions in popular media, with ANSIRH research analyst Steph Herold.

Omegle is an online platform where strangers from across the world are paired together for video and text chats. In March of 2022, The United Nations’ Human Rights Council launched a special cyber investigation into the platform and found that many adult men use the site as a space for sexual activity. The site, which collects no identifying information from its users, is grappling with allegations of enabling child predation. Freelance journalist David Alm reported on Omegle for Mother Jones  and joined The Takeaway to discuss his findings.  

Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn — the duo behind the electronic pop outfit, Sylvan Esso — have been creative partners for over a decade. Their fourth and latest album, "No Rules Sandy," sees them attempt to shed the pressures of global fame, get out of their own heads, and break the rules they realized had been holding them back.  "No Rules Sandy" was created primarily over the course of three weeks in LA, the fastest Sylvan Esso has ever made a record — spontaneous and instinctive. The album gets a physical release on January 20th. "With this one, the rules that were being disregarded were both editorial rules, but also just trying to go where the joy is," Amelia Meath told The Takeaway.

The North Carolina General Assembly convened last week for the start of its new legislative session. Republicans sit on the cusp of a supermajority that would give them the power to override any veto handed down from the Democratic Governor Roy Cooper. And they’ve got their eyes set on abortion. Some of that support could come from the Democratic side of the house. In 2019 and 2021 two abortion restriction bills were vetoed by the Governor, but not before receiving support from members of the Democratic caucus. Members Republicans once more hope will provide support for future abortion restriction bills. Pew Research shows North Carolinians, are almost evenly split on their views regarding abortion –  49 percent believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 45 percent believe the opposite – the state’s status as a safe haven for abortion could be in jeopardy.

We’re beginning our “23 Mayors in 2023” series and heading to Louisville, Kentucky!  Mayor Craig Greenberg was elected in November, and just took office after a campaign in which he survived a politically motivated shooting at his campaign office.   His background is as a lawyer and an entrepreneur who co-founded a luxury hotel chain and served as its CEO for a number of years.  And while he’s a relative newcomer in the political arena, he’s no stranger to a good skirmish. He also is a majority owner of Ohio Valley Wrestling, a professional wrestling organization. He enters his new role as mayor of a city which has deep mistrust of its police force, stemming from Breonna Taylor’s killing, and stretching further into the past.  We speak with Mayor Craig Greenberg about how he plans to address gun violence and policing, and hear about some of his hopes and dreams for Louisville, Kentucky.

Lawmakers in the 118th Congress now face a clash in the House of Representatives that could bring the American economy to the brink of crisis — the fight over raising the debt ceiling. In a letter sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the United States government will reach its debt limit of about $31.4 trillion, today — on Thursday Jan 19… after that, the Treasury Department will have to start taking QUOTE: “extraordinary measures” to prevent the United States from defaulting, but those measures will be exhausted by early June. House Republicans are using their new majority and the threat of the debt default to leverage the Biden Administration and Democrats to make deep spending cuts, but Democrats have said they refuse to negotiate when it comes to raising the debt ceiling.  The debt ceiling is the government’s borrowing limit to pay for the nation’s existing bills. And if the debt ceiling isn’t raised, and the country defaults on payments, experts warn that it would be globally catastrophic. For more on this we talk with Jeff Stein, White House economics reporter for the Washington Post.

In December, the index for eggs rose 11.1 percent, meaning there was some serious “egg-flation.” Eggs saw the highest month-over-month inflation of any expenditure category, so why are the prices of eggs going up? Chickens. The egg, bird, and the food have played multiple roles in the lives of African American women. Chickens have provided food and a source of income for many Black families, and helped women define and exert themselves in a hostile and racist society. The chicken and the egg have a long legacy and history in America that might "BEAK" your interest.  We speak with Thérèse Nelson, chef and founder of Black Culinary History. Kenny Torrella, staff writer at Vox and author of the newsletter Meat/Less, tells us it's more than just supply chain issues– chickens are finding themselves in a tough and "PECK-uliar" circumstance. And we hear from Beth Hoffman, journalist, farmer, and author of Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America.

A musical adaptation of the 1959 movie, "Some Like It Hot," is now on Broadway. The movie has been acclaimed as one of the best comedy films of all time, but much of that comedy relies on the trope of men using drag as a disguise. It's a trope that Broadway is no stranger to, as evidenced by recent adaptations of "Mrs. Doubtfire" and "Tootsie." The "Some Like It Hot" musical attempts to alleviate this tension between historic and often harmful portrayals of drag and the rich reality of drag as art, self-expression, and everything in between. But can a revision of an old story featuring harmful stereotypes ever truly be a vehicle for authentic representation?  We speak with J. Harrison Ghee, star of Some Like It Hot, about the show's new take on his character. We learn about the evolution of drag in theater from Domenick Scudera, professor of theater at Ursinus College. And we talk with Miss Peppermint — drag star, actress and ambassador for Trans Justice at the ACLU — about her experience as a trans woman working on Broadway and in the drag industry during this time of rising hatred against drag performers and gender non-conforming folks.

In Atlanta, Georgia, community activists remain locked in a nearly 2-year struggle against the development of a massive police training center in a forest just outside the city, dubbed "cop city."  Only weeks after George Floyd’s murder in 2020 and the 2020 police killing of Rayshard Brooks, calls to "demilitarize" and "defund the police" amassed all over the country. It was difficult for Atlanta, as it was for many cities across the country. The city’s 14 percent increase  in homicides was accompanied by several, tragic, high-profile murders just as the voters were facing a choice of who would serve as the next mayor. The race and runoff were dominated by these public perceptions of crime and questions about how candidates would respond became central.  In September 2021, the Atlanta City Council approved plans to grant a ground lease to the Atlanta Police Foundation for a $90 million dollar police training facility to be built on 85 acres of land near Southeast Atlanta, located in a lower-income, predominantly Black area not represented on Atlanta's City Council. A local firm conducted a survey of residents near the proposed site and found 98% of respondents opposed the project. The approval was also granted despite strong opposition from community groups who oppose this substantial allocation of public resources to Atlanta police.  Additionally, the land slated for development has a fraught history, having formerly served as the Old Atlanta Prison Farm where inmates were subjected to abusive, "slave-like" conditions. Digital producer Zachary Bynum reports from Atlanta, talking with activists, organizers, and elected officials from the city to determine what this all means about race, land stewardship, and power in the struggle for the future of Atlanta's South River Forest. Editor's note: We reached out to the Atlanta Police Foundation for comment and we have not yet received a response. If we do, we will post it on thetakeaway.org.

Negro spirituals and Freedom songs carry within them expressions of joy, pain and the realities of living as a Black person in the United States. These songs provided the sonic background of the Civil Rights Movement. Today, a new sound provides the sonic background in the ongoing movement for Black liberation and agency: Trap music. Trap music traces its roots to the heart of the Black American south. It’s part of the continuing evolution of Hip-Hop in America with lyrics that paint a picture of surviving a system that entraps while pursuing the “American Dream”. We discuss music as a form of Black expression from the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement to Trap music’s existence as a route to self-determination and the path it carves on the journey of Black liberation.

The Big Payback is a new documentary film that chronicles the efforts for reparations on both the national level with H.R. 40 through Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and on the local level in Evanston, Illinois by following the work of Alderman Ruth Rue Simmons. Co-Directors Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow talk about their film which makes its television premiere on PBS’ Independent Lens on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.