fiction/non/fiction S3 Ep. 6: The Language of Abuse: Rene Denfeld and Megan Phelps-Roper on Private and Public Violence in the Trump Era
In this episode, writers Rene Denfeld and Megan Phelps-Roper talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about how the private language of abuse has infected the political rhetoric of the Trump era. Denfeld discusses her work as a licensed investigator and talks about writing about verbal abuse, as well as the difference between investing in mass incarceration and investing in justice; Phelps-Roper recounts how she thought about language and audience as a member of the Westboro Baptist Church, and how she considers the same thing now that she has left it.
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Guests:
- Rene Denfeld
- Megan Phelps-Roper
Readings for the Episode:
Rene Denfeld
Megan Phelps-Roper
- Unfollow
- I grew up in the Westboro Baptist Church. Here's why I left, TEDNYC Talk, February 2017
Others
- Sonia Sotomayor Raises the Alarm Over Border Patrol’s Lawless Brutality: The Supreme Court is poised to remove all constitutional limits on border agents’ ability to kill. by Mark Joseph Stern, Slate.com, Nov. 13, 2019
- Rape is rampant at this women’s prison. Anyone who complains is punished, lawsuit says. by Romy Ellenbogen, The Miami Herald, Dec. 4, 2019
- The 25 women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct, by Eliza Reiman, Business Insider, Oct. 9, 2019
- The Language of the Trump Administration Is the Language of Domestic Violence, by Jessica Winter, NewYorker.com, June 11, 2018
- Men in Power and the Lies They Tell: On Brett Kavanaugh, Donald Trump, and the Malleability of Truth, by Lacy Johnson, LitHub, Oct. 2, 2019
- Topeka Church Protests at Bethesda's Walt Whitman School Over Poet's Sexuality, by Daniel de Vise, The Washington Post, April 25, 2009
- "A Humanist View," by Toni Morrison, speech given at Portland State University, May 30, 1975. Transcribed by Keisha E. McKenzie.
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