Emma hosts Jarrod Shanahan, assistant professor of criminal justice at Governors State University, and Zhandarka Kurti, assistant professor of criminology and criminal justice at Loyola University, Chicago, to discuss their recent book States of Incarceration: Rebellion, Reform, and America’s Punishment System. Then, Emma is joined by Jake Werner, Research Fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, to discuss his recent […]

Sam speaks with Matthew Johnson, interim director of Beloved Community Ministries, to discuss the demonstrations surrounding Atlanta’s “Cop City.” Then, Sam and Emma break down the biggest headlines of the day. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on the backlash to the officers responsible for the killing of Tyre Nichols, the lies involved in the […]

Sam and Emma host Graham Rayman, criminal justice reporter for The New York Daily News, and Reuven Blau, senior reporter for The City to discuss their recent book Rikers: An Oral History. First, Sam and Emma run through updates on this weekend’s mass shooting at Monterey Park, a former New York FBI agent engaging in money laundering with Russian connections, Biden’s new […]

Emma hosts Dorothy Roberts, professor of Law, Sociology, and Civil Rights at the University of Pennsylvania, to discuss her recent book Torn Apart: How the Child Welfare System Destroys Black Families–and How Abolition Can Build a Safer World. Emma first covers yesterday’s simultaneous mass shootings, including five dead in Tulsa, the continued shortage of US-produced baby formula, the Israeli […]

Emma hosts Gina Dent, Associate Professor of Feminist Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, to discuss her recent book Abolition. Feminism. Now., co-written with Angela Davis, Erica Meiners, and Beth Richie. Professor Dent and Emma begin by discussing how the mainstream roles of feminism and abolitionism have changed over the last half-century, including how certain forms of feminism […]

Emma hosts Deva Woodly, Associate Professor of Politics at the New School for Social Research, to discuss her recent book Reckoning: Black Lives Matter and the Democratic Necessity of Social Movements, on the growing importance of Radical Black feminist pragmatism in an age where politics are seen exclusively as brokering deals with the powerful, and never about […]

Sam and Emma host Kellie Carter Jackson, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Wellesley College, to discuss her recent book Force and Freedom: Black Abolitionists and the Politics of Violence, using the influence of Black leaders to explore the growth of the abolitionist movement from moral suasion to an understanding that intrinsic rights cannot be granted. Professor […]

Sam and Emma host Tony Messenger, Metro columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, to discuss his recent book Profit and Punishment: How America Criminalizes The Poor In The Name Of Justice, on how municipalities across the US have instituted a system of debtors’ jail, trapping poor folks into a system of punishment and payment with no way out, […]

Sam and Emma host author and activist Victoria Law to discuss her new book, “Prisons Make Us Safer”: And 20 Other Myths about Mass Incarceration, on how our perception of incarceration has been wrong from the start. Sam, Emma and Victoria explore our carceral state and how racism and social control are the catalysts for mass incarceration and […]

Sam and Emma host author and activist Victoria Law to discuss the recent spate of anti-Asian hate crimes and her new book “Prisons Make Us Safer.” Then philosopher Jules Evans joins the program to discuss his theory of “Conspirituality” on the link between New Age spirituality and conspiracy in America. And in the Fun Half: the best […]