United, we’re not (The Reveal podcast)

First, a dispatch from Detroit, where Black voters were crucial in flipping the state from red to blue. Host Al Letson talks with Candice Fortman, executive director of Detroit-based Outlier Media, who also pitched in as a volunteer poll worker. As mostly Black elections workers counted votes last week, mostly White right-wing protesters outside the elections office chanted, “Stop the count!” Fortman shares her perspective on how the scene fits into decades of Black voter suppression.

Then we travel to the small town of Kingwood, West Virginia, to explore the legacy of the summer’s massive Black Lives Matter protests. In collaboration with 100 Days in Appalachia, reporter Chris Jones talks with a local Black organizer whose family has lived in West Virginia since the 1800s, a Black state legislator and a recently elected sheriff. Jones is a fellow with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues and communities.

The United States now has more than 10 million active COVID-19 cases. We talk with a nurse in Iowa City, which is seeing its largest COVID-19 spike ever. We also hear from Dr. Carlos del Rio, an epidemiologist at the Emory University School of Medicine, about how the Trump administration is failing to control the deadly virus.

We then focus on reproductive rights in Georgia, where last year the state passed a law restricting abortions after six weeks. A federal judge struck down the law, but it could come before the Supreme Court as a challenge to Roe v. Wade. Reporter Sonam Vashi talks with two Georgia women on opposite sides of the new law.

Finally, a Guatemalan family seeking asylum and separated by the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy talks about their hopes for the future.
Interview: 

https://revealnews.org/episodes/united-were-not/