The Intercept Briefing

Chenjerai Kumanyika, assistant professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University, hosts a special two part discussion. Kumanyika is co-host of the podcasts Uncivil and Scene on Radio. He is an organizer with 215 People’s Alliance, and the Debt Collective. He is joined for this special episode of Intercepted by the iconic geographer and abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore, author of "Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California." Gilmore is one of the world’s preeminent scholars on prisons and the machinery of carceral punishment and policing. In this discussion, she offers a sweeping and detailed analysis of the relentless expansion and funding of police and prisons, and how locking people in cages has become central to the American project. Gilmore offers a comprehensive road map for understanding how we have arrived at the present political moment of brutality and rebellion, and she lays out the need for prison abolition and defunding police forces. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

With the threat of a widespread military deployment in U.S. cities looming, the president is acting as an authoritarian dictator. Dr. Keisha Blain, author of "Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom," discusses the history of black rebellion against police violence, the deadly ‘Red Summer” of 1919, and the life of Ida B. Wells. Dr. Blain, a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh, also discusses the context of various protests tactics and the weaponization of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Police forces across the U.S. are functioning as violent militias equipped with military gear. Operating like a violent counterinsurgency force, the government has used drones and is using other military and intelligence-grade surveillance systems on protesters. Stuart Schrader, author of "Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing" and a lecturer at Johns Hopkins, analyzes the long and intertwined history between policing in the U.S. and abroad. Schrader also discusses the context of U.S. military deployment on American soil and the long tradition of militarized police forces. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The modern Republican Party has mastered the art of voter suppression and gerrymandering, but the president is now seeking to exploit the pandemic to aid these efforts. In between tweets accusing Joe Scarborough of being involved with the death of an intern decades ago and spending time on the golf course as the U.S. neared 100,000 coronavirus deaths, Trump has offered an overwhelmingly fictional narrative about Democratic voter fraud punctuated by warnings of the election being illegitimate before a single vote has been cast. Mother Jones senior reporter Ari Berman, author of "Give Us The Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America," analyzes the strategy of Trump and the GOP and lays out what he considers the nightmare scenario for the November election. As Trump continues to downplay the human toll of Covid-19, he is doubling down on his push for states to quickly reopen. Many of the states that have reopened surround Indian country and the Chairman of the Hopi Tribe reservation says, “we have a wildfire burning around us.” Journalist Rebecca Nagle, host of the podcast This Land, discusses how the coronavirus is disproportionately impacting native communities, explains some major cases before the U.S. Supreme Court on indigenous land rights, and talks about Trump’s battles against native tribes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the Covid-19 U.S. death toll climbs toward 100,000 and unemployment is nearing 20 percent, House Democrats have offered up a bill that is intended to offer a sharp contrast to the corporatist Republican agenda. HuffPost senior reporter Zach Carter analyzes how Nancy Pelosi quashed progressive calls for action within her own party and delivered a bill filled with corporate gifts, means-tested crumbs for many, along with some good proposals. Carter also discusses his new book "The Price of Peace: Money, Democracy, and the Life of John Maynard Keynes" and the influence the famed economist maintains to this day. As Trump claims the meat industry is back on track, meat plant workers are getting sick in droves. Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the industry consistently maintains the highest workplace injury rate among manufacturing and private industry. Journalist Ted Genoways, author of “The Chain: Farm, Factory, and the Fate of Our Food,” discusses the lives and deaths of meat workers and looks back at Upton Sinclair’s novel “The Jungle” and its parallels to the modern meat industry. Other podcasts make money from advertising and corporate sponsors. We don’t have ads — Intercepted is powered by its members. When you support Intercepted, you become a part of the journalism that holds the powerful to account. Become a member — together we can make a difference. This is a community effort. Your donation, no matter the amount, makes a difference. Generous support of listeners like you is what makes our fierce and independent reporting possible. Do what you can. Become a member at theintercept.com/join. All donations are welcome. You can make a one-time gift or become a sustaining member. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

David Blight, Pulitzer prize winning author of "Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom" and a Yale history professor, discusses the era of Reconstruction, the swift dismantling of its hard fought gains, and the enduring power of white supremacy. As Joe Biden talks of building a presidency in the spirit of FDR and the New Deal, Greg Grandin, whose book "The End of the Myth: From the Frontier to the Border Wall in the Mind of America" won the 2020 Pulitzer in nonfiction, discusses the battle for the New Deal, who was left out of its gains, and analyzes what such a program would look like in the aftermath of the Trump presidency. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two dozen women have accused Donald Trump of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault, including rape. Trump has responded by denigrating, mocking and attacking his accusers. Eight women have made allegations of misconduct against Biden and one of them has accused him of sexual assault. Biden, who is running on a campaign to restore dignity and honesty to the White House, emphatically denies he assaulted his former staffer Tara Reade and has sought to explain away his conduct toward his other accusers by portraying his unwanted touching as his way of being affectionate. The New Republic’s Melissa Gira Grant discusses Reade’s allegations, Biden’s response and the broader discourse in the media and Democratic Party surrounding the actions of the presumptive nominee toward women. And former Nevada lawmaker Lucy Flores says Joe Biden touched her inappropriately, kissed her head and sniffed her hair when he was campaigning for her. She says she didn’t report it to the Obama White House at the time for fear of retaliation or rejection, but when Biden began to run for president she felt an obligation to speak out. Flores was soon followed by seven other women sharing similar stories. She discusses her experience with Biden, what it means that the Democratic party is standing by him and the impact of a choice between Trump and Biden. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The new podcast Somebody documents Shapearl Wells’s quest to find out what happened to Courtney Copeland, her 22-year-old son who wound up with a bullet in his back outside a Chicago police station in 2016 and died soon after.On April 30, Topic Studios, The Intercept, and Chicago-based journalism nonprofit Invisible Institute presented a live conversation and listening session focused on Shapearl’s experiences confronting Chicago Police and challenging the city’s long-standing racial disparities. The event was hosted by Intercept co-founding editor Jeremy Scahill and featured Somebody co-hosts Shapearl and Alison Flowers, a journalist at the Invisible Institute. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

While the statistics are grim, the harsh reality is how the Trump administration — as well as some governors and mayors — handled this crisis made the situation much more deadly than it should have been. New York Magazine writer Zak Cheney-Rice discusses how the economic, social, racial, and gender injustices that predate this pandemic have impacted the most vulnerable people in the United States. He also discusses Trump’s incompetence, Joe Biden’s strategy of being seldom seen or heard, and how all of this might impact the 2020 presidential election.Trump and his radical anti-immigrant minion Stephen Miller are already exploiting the crisis to ram through radical measures aimed at immigrants, as ICE deports detainees infected with the coronavirus disease. John Washington, author of “The Dispossessed: A Story of Asylum at the U.S.-Mexico Border and Beyond,” discusses the dueling messages to migrant workers from a White House that openly espouses hate and wants them deported while government agencies have categorized many as “essential workers.” Washington also discusses his latest piece for The Intercept, “We Need to Reverse the Damage Trump Has Done in Latin America. Biden’s Plans Don’t Cut It.”And Intercepted listeners share more of their stories of life during the pandemic.If you or someone you know needs emotional support or is contemplating suicide, resources include the Crisis Text Line, the Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the Trevor Project, or the International Association for Suicide Prevention. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hidden behind the scenes of protests against Democratic governors is the role of radical fringe groups, gun enthusiasts, and right-wing financiers, some with ties to the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos. Author Jeff Sharlet discusses the rise of right-wing religious extremists, influential members, their broader strategy, and how the shutdown protesters are being used as disposable pawns in a much longer game. Sharlet’s books “The Family” and “C-Street” chronicle the history and strategy now permeating the Trump administration and the Republican Party.As his administration rolls out its phased plan for “re-opening America,” Dr. Seema Yasmin, a former officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzes the insanity of Trump’s daily briefings, his strategy to withhold aid from states based on how nice governors are to him, and what should be done to overcome the pandemic scientifically and socially. Plus, Intercepted listeners share their often gut-wrenching stories of struggling to survive in a country rocked by the nightmare of economic uncertainty in the time of the coronavirus crisis.If you or someone you know needs emotional support or is contemplating suicide, resources include the Crisis Text Line, the Suicide Prevention Lifeline, the Trevor Project, or the International Association for Suicide Prevention. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Across the United States right now, there are over 32,000 people in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, otherwise known as ICE. Tucked away in remote corners of the country, ICE’s detention centers have long had issues with providing adequate medical care, and have been proven breeding grounds for disease. Just last year, an outbreak of mumps overtook dozens of ICE facilities, infecting nearly 900 detainees.For the tens of thousands of people currently detained by ICE during the coronavirus pandemic, for whom social distancing is impossible, there is widespread fear that an even more pervasive and deadly outbreak could occur.Carceral facilities — prisons, jails — like ICE detention centers, have much higher infection rates than the general public. On Riker’s Island, for example, the rate of infection is seven times that of New York City.As of Thursday, there have been 100 confirmed cases of coronavirus among ICE detainees, and 25 cases among ICE employees at detention centers, according to ICE’s own website.The Intercept's Ryan Devereaux has been speaking directly to detainees inside of an ICE facility in Etowah County, Alabama. ICE maintains that it is following appropriate CDC protocols. But as Ryan recently reported in his story “'Burials Are Cheaper Than Deportations': Virus Unleashes Terror in a Troubled Ice Detention Center,” detainees in this facility, overwhelmed by their own precarious conditions in the face of the coronavirus threat, were forced to radically take matters into their own hands to ensure their own safety. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.