Reckonings

Sameer met Anwen freshman year. He was into her, and they started seeing each other. Then one night, after a fraternity party, Sameer convinced Anwen to come home with him — which is when he coerced her into sexual activity. Their senior year, Anwen invited Sameer into a process of restorative justice.

This story features *both* Anwen and Sameer, talking about how they worked through sexual assault using restorative justice.

What does it sound like for a survivor to get her needs met? What does it sound like for a perpetrator to take responsibility for his sexual abuse of power?

Heartfelt thanks to the Friend Foundation, Varda Rabin, and David Karp at the Campus PRISM Project, which helps universities explore the possibility of applying restorative justice to sexual assault: www.skidmore.edu/campusrj/prism.php

Alternative facts.

Fake news.

How are journalists grappling with this moment??

Dive into one journalist's reckoning with truth.

'Behind The Mic' is a series of short pieces I produce periodically, to bring you behind the microphone and reveal a bit of what's going on back here. This time, I'm pulling the curtain on three things: a new creative adventure, the *kinds* of change Reckonings is interested in, and how to bring you more stories more often.

'I could have been a left-wing guerrilla in Columbia. Whatever would have grabbed me at the right time, I was ready for.' What ended up grabbing Frank was neo-Nazism. What ended up grabbing Jesse was jihadi extremism. What do we see when we look beyond ideology?

This episode was produced with generous support from the Gen Next Foundation (www.gennext.com), which leverages a venture philanthropy framework to build paradigm-shifting social ventures with a wide footprint of impact. Their partnership with

"Very earlier on, Roger called me Ailes Junior. He told my dad, 'I've never met anyone more like me than Joe.'" As the protégé of Fox News chairman Roger Ailes, Joe Lindsley was closer to the man who built Fox News than any Fox executive. He helped write Ailes' speeches, sat next to him at executive meetings, and went to church with his family on Sundays. What moved the ambitious twenty-something to abandon the conservative media titan?

For a deeper dive into his epic odyssey, check out Joe's memoir — Fake News / True Story: www.inkshares.com/books/fake-news-true-story

'I can say to climate skeptics on the right, 'I used to believe what you believe. Hell, I wrote your talking points, and for 20 years, I was there! But let me tell you why I'm not there anymore.'' As the head of the Cato Institute's climate and environmental policy shop, Jerry Taylor was a leading spokesperson for climate skepticism. He waged TV battles against climate activists on the likes of CNN, NBC, and Fox, and says he won all of them. And yet, he's the only paid climate skeptic who's ever flipped. Why did he shift not just his views on climate change, but his relationship with his views more broadly?

This is a joint episode with Inquiring Minds, a podcast exploring where science, politics, and society collide (motherjones.com/topics/inquiring-minds). To hear our previous joint episode about worldview transformation in the 2016 presidential election, visit: www.reckonings.show/episodes/inquiring-minds

'When I'm angry and I don't know how to get it out, I take it out on other people. I call people names, I say they're ugly, I talk about the way they dress. And when I get into fighting mode, I just start swinging.' When she was in high school, Halley built a reputation for herself as a bully. So did Chris, who even bullied his teachers, going so far as to break one teacher's jaw. Why do we bully? And what moves us to stop?

'I was getting people to make decisions based on misleading information that could have life or death consequences.' That's Wendell Potter, the former head of public relations for CIGNA. As the executive spin doctor for one of the biggest health insurance companies in the country, he was responsible for concocting tales that enabled CIGNA to deny coverage, discredit critics, and otherwise cast the corporate health insurance machine in a positive light. That was until the numbers in his spreadsheets became actual people with real lives.

What happens when a health insurance PR executive confronts the consequences of his spin? Dive into one man's odyssey from health insurance spin doctor to activist truth teller.

'Behind The Mic' is a series of short pieces I produce periodically, to share what's going on behind the scenes. This time, I'm bringing y'all behind the microphone on two things: 1) an event Reckonings hosted back in December, inviting voters to take a post-election stroll in each other's shoes (short video: bit.ly/2s7OuGD), and 2) the wondrous reason the show has been on hiatus.

With that, Reckonings is BACK, and the next episode is imminent…

'You have all these plans, all these dreams, and then it hits you: my daughter's no longer a daughter, she's a son.' In struggling to accept her daughter as a transgender man, Rita DiNicola had to surrender dreams of wedding dress shopping and biological grandchildren. Similarly, in accepting her son as a trans woman, Catherine Hyde had to reckon with the fact that — as a tomboy from a young age — she'd always wanted, and believed she'd gotten, a son as her only child. Together, Rita's and Catherine's stories provide a hopeful window into what might help other parents, and other people more broadly, overcome transphobia and expand our understanding of gender.