In The Thick is excited to present an episode from our sister podcast, Latino USA. In this episode, Maria talks with Rafael Reif, who is stepping down as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the end of the month. Reif reflects on his tenure, how his upbringing in Venezuela brought him to the helm of one of the world’s top universities, and shares his message for Latino and Latina students pursuing higher education.

Subscribe to Latino USA wherever you get your podcasts!

Rafael Reif on Leading — and Leaving — MIT

Journalists tell you what you’re missing from the mainstream news. Co-hosted by award-winning journalists Maria Hinojosa and Julio Ricardo Varela, IN THE THICK has the conversations about race, identity and politics few people are discussing or want to discuss.

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This week, we’re sharing something special from our friends over at TIME. It’s a preview of their first original podcast, Person of the Week. Each week, TIME Senior Correspondent Charlotte Alter hosts candid conversations with the people who shape the world, about the forces that shape them.

In this episode, Maryland Governor Wes Moore dives deep into the heart of patriotism, unpacking the often-misunderstood term, the symbolism of the American flag and what it means to be an American in today's changing world.

Listen to more episodes of Person of the Week here.

Gov. Wes Moore on Redefining Patriotism, from TIME’s Person of The Week

Maria checks in with an important update about In The Thick. Your favorite political podcast is taking a break for the rest of 2023. While we won't be releasing any new episodes during this hiatus, all of our previous episodes are still available on your podcast feeds. We’ll be restructuring and coming up with something new and better than ever as we get ready for our 2024 election coverage!


And we want to hear from you, dear listener. Reach out to us on social media and let us know what you’d like to see on the show in the coming year.

Peace for now– but we’ll be back. No te vayas!

A Message for Our Listeners

In this episode, we’re unpacking AI. Julio is joined by Karen Hao, contributing writer for The Atlantic focusing on AI, to talk about the human impact of the rapidly evolving technology and what it means to decolonize AI. 

ITT Staff Picks: 


Rebecca Tan and Regine Cabato report on the “digital sweatshops” across the Global South, where workers have to sort and label data for AI models, in this article for the Washington Post. 
“Many creative types are wrestling with the credit conundrum and questions around copyright when it comes to making use of content that has been trained on original illustrations, graphics, and written material,” writes Ko Bragg, in this article for The Markup.
Prosecutors from across the US are asking lawmakers to create a commission to study the impacts of AI on child exploitation, reports Meg Kinnard for The Associated Press.


Photo credit: AP Photo/Richard Drew

AI Is Not What You Think

Futuro Media is taking a short summer break, so we’re sharing an episode from 2022, where Maria and Julio talk with Kim Kelly, labor journalist and author of “Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor,” about the history of labor organizing in the United States and what it says about the labor movement today. They also discuss how women of color have been at the forefront of these movements.


Photo credit: AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez

A Pivotal Moment in American Labor

Julio and guest co-host Fernanda Santos kick off the show with some of the latest news, including the first Republican 2024 presidential debate, and an update on extreme climate across the globe. In our roundtable, Mike German, fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, joins Maria and Julio to talk about why people of color join white supremacist movements, and how authoritarianism in the Republican Party is nothing new. 

ITT Staff Picks: 


As the GOP presidential debates make their premiere in Milwaukee, Jeanne Whalen reports on Donald Trump’s failure to make good on a promise of bringing a manufacturing boom to Wisconsin, in this piece for the Washington Post. 
The deadly fires in Maui reveal the danger of compounding climate events. Emily Pontecorvo writes, “While the precise relationship between the fires, the hurricane, and climate change has yet to be determined, these kinds of “compound” events are likely to increase in a warming world, with consequences that are hard to predict,” in this article for Heatmap. 
Mike German answers nuanced questions in this Spanish-language Q&A; with editor-in-chief of Brennan en Español, Mireya Navarro.


Photo credit: AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Rafael Reif on Leading — and Leaving — MIT

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