ABC News, 2020, 11:21… Steve Osunsami addresses criticism behind Erivo's “blackness” related to her portrayal of Harriet Tubman, despite being a British actor.
The Intersex Justice Project
Vice News, 2019, 10:21… Pidgeon Pagonis’ childhood memories include surgeries, hormone therapy, and repeated inspections of their genitals. When they turned 18 and got a copy of their medical records, they finally understood why. The first page had a handwritten note: “46 XY male pseudohermaphrodite.” The procedures that followed were also listed: a clitoral reduction, vaginoplasty, and surgery to remove undescended testes. For Pagonis, the results of some of these procedures have been both physically and psychologically damaging.
Diversity in the Cannabis Industry
Refinery29, 2019, 8:12… On this episode of Truth Told, we dive into the world of women in the business of weed. With the marijuana industry becoming a booming one in the U.S., what does that mean for those who have been affected by the stigma surrounding it. Press play to uncover the reality of the marijuana industry in America.
Skin Bleaching & Racial Capital
The Evolution of Wedding Vows
Young Black Farmers Defying Discrimination
Vice News, 2019, 10:27… Kendrick Ransome started out farming a few years ago with just a hoe, a rake, and a shovel. He could have used support getting his hog and vegetable business off the ground, but he was wary of asking institutions for help. “My big brother told me, ‘Stay away from loans,’” said Ransome. In 1925, most farmers in his rural hometown of Edgecombe County, North Carolina, were black. But now, the 26-year-old is an anomaly. “When they did take out loans and they were unable to pay them back, you lose everything you got — that’s including your farm and your land for your family.” Ransome’s fear of institutions is based in the centuries of discrimination black farmers have faced across the country. But despite that history, he and other young black Americans are reclaiming the trade. The forces pushing black farmers off their land in the 20th century were manifold, and the impact was devastating. In 1920, there were more than 925,000 black farmers; by 2017, there were fewer than 46,000, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Cultural Exchange v Appropriation
Broadly, 2019, 13:22... With a large number of Asian artists breaking into the hip hop scene, the conversation surrounding cultural appropriation has become more common. Model Salem Mitchell sits down with local LA rapper, Hollei Day to discuss Asians in Hip Hop, and the female rapper’s views on cultural appropriation. We explore the fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange.
Do Not Be Afraid of Dead Bodies
Inside Edition, 2019, 3:47… Death is a topic few people in the West care to discuss, and mortician Caitlin Doughty would like to change that. Doughty helps people confront the nuts and bolts of death on her YouTube channel, “Ask a Mortician.” “I think that people want to hear the information we're presenting,” she told InsideEdition.com “They want to hear somebody like me talk about death as if it's not strange.” She added, “People should not be afraid of death.”
Face Recognition and Surveillance States
The New York Times, 2019, 4:28… Police databases now feature the faces of nearly half of Americans — most of whom have no idea their image is there. The invasive technology violates citizens’ constitutional rights and is subject to an alarming level of manipulation and bias. Our privacy, our right to anonymity in public and our right to free speech are in danger.
Dolly Parton, A Marxist From 9 to 5
AJ+, 2019, 12:00… Dolly Parton is an American icon. But she stands, perhaps most importantly, as a timeless ode to the foundation of this country: the working class. In the inaugural episode of Pop Americana, Sana Saeed explores the radical politics of Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5” - the song, the film and the album. We threw in some Marxist theory too.
Skewed Drinking Statistics
Aspirational Dentistry
Streaming Celebrities and Child Exploitation
Stock Buybacks & Inequality
SWATing
Adam Ruins Everything, 2019, 4:35… SWAT teams were invented in the 1960s to deal with hostage situations and prison escapes. Nowadays, these situations only make up 7% of SWAT deployments as most of their time is spent on non-violent drug searches. Two-thirds of SWAT raids do not even result in discovering a weapon and 40% do not find drugs. New York City also estimates that 10% of no-knock SWAT teams bust into the wrong address.
Sex and Race Bias in Medicine
Last Week Tonight, 2019, 22:37… The intersection of sex and race bias is particularly deadly for women of color who are often not believed by their physicians. Medical students are often taught there are biological differences between the races in terms of skin thickness, pain tolerance, and nerve endings. There are also the problems of implicit biases and structural problems in medicine. For example, the male body has traditionally been the default reference in medical research. In other words, most medical studies have been done on male bodies.
American Social Immobility
Adam Ruins Everything, 2019, 4:44… Americans subscribe to the individualistic fantasy that hard work results in success, and the “American Dream” can loosely be interpreted as climbing the social ladder. Sociologists call that (upward) social mobility, a concept describing how individuals can change their socioeconomic status. While mobility is possible in open class systems, increasing structural inequalities are making this ever more difficult in the United States.
Functions of the Drug Trade
Ozark, 2017, 2:20… In the popular Netflix show Ozark, Marty, played by Jason Bateman, is forced into a life of crime, laundering money for drug lords. His family knows about this and wrestles with the morality of this lifestyle. When Marty's son Jonah goes to school, he’s asked to sign a pledge that he will not use drugs. Jonah confronts the teacher with economic contributions or latent functions that the drug trade has for society.
Digital Archeology
Workism & Burnout
The Atlantic, 2019, 5:33… Should a job provide a paycheck or a purpose? Traditional religion lends some people meaning, community, and self-actualization. For many Americans, work has stepped in to fill that role. But this all-encompassing worship of work is setting us up for mass anxiety and inevitable burnout, says Atlantic staff writer Derek Thompson.