On Juneteenth, Maria and Julio take time to honor and reflect on what today has meant for Black Americans for decades. They hear from Futuro Media's Amanda Alcántara, who shares her reflections on the historical significance of this day. They also talk about the Supreme Court’s decision to block Trump from ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and they break down which states around the country are seeing spikes in coronavirus cases. ITT Staff Picks:  - Jelani Cobb dives into Juneteenth and freedom for The New Yorker. He writes, "In honoring that moment, we should recognize a moral at the heart of that day in Galveston and in the entirety of American life: there is a vast chasm between the concept of freedom inscribed on paper and the reality of freedom in our lives." - Nicole Narea summarizes what you need to know about the US Supreme Court's ruling on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program for Vox.  - Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute writes, "anti-racism demonstrations are the perfect scapegoat for a rise in Covid-19 cases, but science suggests their risks can be mitigated," for The Guardian. Photo Credit: AP Photo/Chris Pizzello  

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Maria and Julio talk about police and prison abolition with Charlene Carruthers, author and founding member of Black Youth Project 100, and Ejeris Dixon, director of Vision Change Win. They imagine a world without police, dive into community safety, and get real about what calls for defunding the police mean. ITT Staff Picks: - Mariame Kaba, an organizer whose work focuses on dismantling the prison industrial complex writes, “Yes, we mean literally abolish the police,” in this op-ed for The New York Times. - "These calls to defund and disband police have roots in decades of prison abolitionist organizing, which aims to end incarceration and policing in favor of a society grounded in collective care and social provision," writes Amna A. Akbar for The New York Review of Books. - Kayla Reed and Ash-Lee Woodward Henderson write about the demands of The Movement for Black Lives in this piece for Essence.  Photo Credit: (AP Photo/Ragan Clark)  

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Maria and Julio get into how race and activism show up in sports - historically and in the current Black Lives Matter movement - with Howard Bryant, a senior writer for ESPN and correspondent for NPR’s Weekend Edition. They talk about Bryant’s recent book, Full Dissidence: Notes from an Uneven Playing Field, and the ways in which Black athletes, like Colin Kaepernick, have spoken up and been silenced in the movement for racial justice. ITT Staff Picks: - Sally Jenkins writes for The Washington Post about why Kaepernick took a knee and the NFL owners who ostracized him for doing so. - Nick Martin writes, "the NFL is no better than any of the other brands trying to seize the moment by throwing money at the issue in hopes of whitewashing their complicity" in this piece for The New Republic. - Leonie Annor-Owiredu writes, "the Black Lives Matter movement isn't a trend to be commodified," in this piece for Creative Review. Photo Credit: AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File  

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As thousands of protestors fill the streets, Maria and Julio talk about the #BlackLivesMatter movement, performative allyship, and what it means to abolish the police with Karen Attiah, global opinions editor for the Washington Post and ITT All-Star Dr. Christina Greer, associate professor of political science at Fordham University and co-host of the podcast FAQ NYC. ITT Staff Picks: - Karen Attiah writes for The Washington Post about #blackouttuesday and performative solidarity. - Jenna Wortham writes for The New York Times about why this time — the biggest collective demonstration of civil unrest in our generation's memory — is different. - Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor asks, "How do we change this country?" in this article for The New Yorker. Photo Credit: Nicholas Ortiz  

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Protests continue across every state in this country, and in countries around the world, in the fight for racial justice for Black lives. Maria and Julio talk about the different ways people have been organizing, the gaslighting they have seen in responses from those in power, and what this means in the context of 2020 primary elections. ITT Staff Picks:  - “Responding to a protest of police violence with more police violence and more criminalization, is the absolute worst possible response," Andrea Ritchie, told reporter Fernanda Echavarri in this piece about the effects of curfews for Mother Jones. - Astead W. Herndon's piece for The New York Times focuses on flipping the framework for the 2020 election. He writes, "If Democrats want people to vote, party leaders need to listen to why people are angry." - Zack Linley writes for The Root about the police killing of Manuel Ellis, a black man who died in Tacoma, Washington on March 3, 2020.  

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Maria and Julio process this historic moment in the fight for racial justice and defending Black lives with Julieta Martinelli, Futuro Media producer who is on the ground covering the ongoing protests in Atlanta. Then, they dive into conversation with Danielle Moodie, co-host of the podcast Democracy-ish and host of the radio show WokeAF, to make sense of this year so far and what it all means for the 2020 presidential election. ITT Staff Picks: - By Michael Harriot in The Root: A timeline of events to contextualize the anger, frustration and desperation that have led to demonstrations and uprisings across the country. - "To be black and conscious of anti-black racism is to stare into the mirror of your own extinction," Ibram X. Kendi writes for The Atlantic. - In a Medium piece Danielle Moodie writes, "From slavery to the Jim Crow South to this week’s incident in Central Park, all a White woman has ever had to do in America is lie about the threat of a Black man in order to incite White men wielding badges (or not) to come running to their aid with guns, ropes, torches, and chains at the ready."  

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As protests continue in Minneapolis and spread across the country, Maria and Julio talk about anti-black racism and violent policing in the United States. They reflect on the ways in which white supremacy shows up in police interactions, as well as in daily life — for instance in threats from a white woman walking her dog in Central Park. ITT Staff Picks: - A former classmate of George Floyd says his nickname was "gentle giant" in this profile by the  Associated Press. - ITT All-Star, Jelani Cobb gives context to the death of George Floyd in The New Yorker. - Amanda Marcotte writes for Salon about the differences in police response to the Black Lives Matter protests compared to the anti-lockdown protests.  

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Maria and Julio are joined by James Boo, showrunner at Self-Evident, a podcast telling Asian America’s stories and Erika Lee, award-winning author and professor of history and Asian American studies at the University of Minnesota. They focus on the spike in anti-Asian sentiment that people are experiencing across the country. They also talk about the economic impact for historic neighborhoods across the country, including New York City’s Chinatown. This episode was reported and produced by In the Thick's New York Women’s Foundation IGNITE! Fellow, Harsha Nahata. ITT Staff Picks:  - Cathy Erway, host of the podcast Self-Evident, writes about the efforts to save businesses in New York City's Chinatown via GrubStreet, New York Magazine's Food and Restaurant blog.  - Li Zhou writes about how the coronavirus is bringing deep-seated anti-Asian sentiment to the surface for Vox.  - Tracey Jan reports for the Washington Post about the racism Asian American doctors and nurses have experienced in the fight against the coronavirus.  

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Maria and Julio discuss how the Latinx community is being affected by the COVID-19 crisis. They highlight the latest Latino USA episode which looks inside a New York City hospital's ICU. Also, they continue to dive into the cruel, inhumane conditions at detention centers and prisons around the country. ITT Staff Picks: - Latino Rebels reports on a lawsuit filed by four migrant detainees against the Elizabeth Detention Center, a private prison in New Jersey.  - A poll of nearly 2,000 Latinx Americans nationwide shows that they continue to be disproportionately affected by the virus via NBC News.  - The virus has hit correction officers and inmates — who are majority black and Latinx — especially hard in New York City with 1,259 guards and 545 inmates infected via The New York Times.  

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May is Mental Health Awareness month, so Maria and Julio discuss the psychological and emotional toll of living through a global pandemic. They are joined by Dr. Patrice Harris, child and adolescent psychiatrist and president of the American Medical Association, and Bethany Ao, a mental health reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer. ITT Staff Picks: - In her latest for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Bethany Ao writes about the psychology behind why it is hard for us to accept a pandemic. - The Washington Post reports that nearly half of Americans say the coronavirus crisis is harming their mental health, and experts warn a historic wave of mental-health problems is approaching. - From The New York Times: Before the coronavirus pandemic, healthcare workers were already vulnerable to PTSD and burnout. Now mental health experts are seeing increased rates of trauma, anxiety, depression and insomnia from these frontline workers who've treated COVID-19.   

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