When Robert Taylor bought land and began to build a home in St. John Parish in Louisiana, he envisioned a compound that would house his family for generations to come. But living in this 85-mile stretch of land along the banks of the Mississippi River that is home to some 200 fossil fuels and petrochemical operations has taken its toll. Known as Cancer Alley, Taylor now hopes his grandchildren don't have to live in the "Sacrifice Zone." Learn what has happened since we first aired this episode - and how AI hosts would have told the story.

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Donald Trump built his reelection campaign off big promises – among them, the mass deportation of migrants, retaliation against political opponents, deploying the military to crush dissent, and allowing states to decide abortion rights. Having won a second term as the President of the United States, the question is, now what?  

Ngofeen Mputubwele  talks to three Human Rights Watch experts from the front lines of advocacy in the United States. Tirana Hassan, Tanya Greene and Sarah Yager discuss not only the threats looming over human rights in the United States and abroad, but how they maintain their hope that rights can be protected and promoted.  

Tirana Hassan: Executive Director of Human Rights Watch 

Tanya Greene: Director of Human Rights Watch’s US Program 

Sarah Yager: Washington Director at Human Rights Watch 

Gen. Sri Rumiati served as a policewoman in Indonesia for decades, but her life’s work became centered around protesting a policy of the state security forces. When she was summoned for military service, she was shocked to learn that she was required to take a virginity test. The Indonesian military and police held the misogynistic belief that female soldiers and officers needed to be chaste and that they could test for virginity by examining a woman’s hymen, an abusive practice that has no scientific basis. 

The policy lasted for decades, until a Human Rights Watch report and tireless advocacy by activists like General Rumiati moved the immovable. Indonesia’s military and police forces stopped requiring virginity tests. 

Andreas Harsono: Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch 

Sri Rumiati: Retired police general & activist 

Meenakshi Ganguly: Deputy director of the Asia Division at Human Rights Watch 

In the late 1960s, the United Kingdom made a deal allowing the US to build a military base on Diego Garcia, one of 58 islands that make up the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. The UK, which had colonized the islands in the 1800s, claimed there was “no permanent population” in Chagos. But that was a lie. Several hundred Chagossians lived on those islands. They were all forcibly removed by 1973 and have been campaigning to return ever since. In 2024, the UK announced it would relinquish its last colony in Africa, recognizing the sovereignty of Mauritius. What does this mean for the Chagossians? Will they finally be able to return home?  

Mausi Segun: Executive Director of the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch  

Ellianne Baptiste: Second-generation Chagossian  

Finn Lau, a Hong Kong activist, was taking his daily walk along London’s River Thames when Chinese government thugs beat him up. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was filing paperwork at a Saudi consulate in Turkey when Saudi government assassins murdered and dismembered him. And Bi-2, a dissident Russian-Belarusian rock band, narrowly avoided being forcibly sent to Russia while on tour in Thailand. All had fled repression and thought they were safe in exile. But increasingly, governments are reaching beyond their borders to target critics – is anywhere safe? 

Sarah Yager: Washington Director at Human Rights Watch 

President Nayib Bukele came to power in El Salvador on a promise of ending gang violence. He succeeded, turning a state that was the world’s murder capital into to one with one of the lowest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere. But in the process, he systematically dismantled democratic checks and balances and arbitrarily detained tens of thousands of people, including children. El Salvador now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world. 

What’s to be done when an elected leader attacks human rights, yet remains wildly popular? That question is personal to Agustín, a Salvadorian teenager who spent his whole life trying to avoid gangs but was wrongly detained in Bukele’s crackdown.  

Juanita Goebertus Estrada: Director of Human Rights Watch’s Americas Division  

José Miguel Cruz: Director of Research at Florida International University's Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center 

Since April 2023, more than a half-million people have been displaced in Sudan due to fighting between two armed forces who were once aligned. The story of how the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces turned on each other, with devastating consequences for Sudan’s civilians, can be traced back to 2013 when a group of dissidents were told by their interrogators to ride a bicycle drawn with chalk on the wall of a Sudanese jail. 

Detained for providing legal support to torture survivors, Human Rights Watch researcher Mohamed “Mo” Osman was introduced to the power structures that have shaped today’s conflict. In “The Chalk Bicycle,” host Ngofeen Mputubwele takes listeners through a decade that began with conflict, then saw the ousting of a dictator and great hopes for democracy only to be plunged back into conflict again. 

Mohamed Osman: Researcher, Africa Division at Human Rights Watch

Christopher Tounsel: Associate Professor of History, Director of Graduate Studies and Director of African Studies Program at the University of Washington

In the early aughts, a campaign to “Save Sudan” became the bipartisan issue of the time. Celebrities and politicians alike implored a global audience to pay attention to and advocate against Suan’s human rights crisis.  

As interventions waned, so did the attention of many global onlookers. But, since the Sudan Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces began fighting in April 2023, over 500,000 Sudanese civilians have been displaced. What has happened in Sudan since the world stopped paying attention? 

Mohamed Osman: Researcher, Africa Division at Human Rights Watch 

Christopher Tounsel: Associate Professor of History, Director of Graduate Studies and Director of African Studies Program at the University of Washington 

When Robert Taylor bought land and began to build a home in St. John Parish in Louisiana, he envisioned a compound that would house his family for generations to come. Now, Taylor hopes that his grandchildren don’t have to live in this “Sacrifice Zone.”  

The Taylors’ home is situated in what’s known as Cancer Alley, an 85-mile stretch of land along the banks of the Mississippi River that was once home to sugar plantations, but now houses some 200 fossil fuel and petrochemical operations. 

Through this ‘porch chat’ conversation with Robert and his daughter, Tish, we learn not only about the rare cancers, respiratory ailments, and miscarriages that afflicted their family and friends, but also how the duo is fighting back to stop these pollutants from ruining their environment.    

Robert Taylor: Founder of Concerned Citizens of St. John Parish and long-time resident of St. John Parish, located in Cancer Alley 

Tish Taylor: Member of Concerned Citizens of St. John Parish and daughter of Robert Taylor. 

In 2023, Human Rights Watch researcher Nadia Hardman came across a letter the United Nations had sent to the government of Saudi Arabia expressing concern over the killing of Ethiopian migrants who were attempting to enter the kingdom. Migrants from the Horn of Africa had long used the so-called “eastern migration route” through war-torn Yemen in the hope of getting employment in Saudi Arabia – but the UN letter mentioned a mass grave of up to 10,000 in a remote border region. The Saudi government denied the allegations, saying the UN had no dates, and no locations. So, Nadia stepped in to see if she could verify them.  

Nadia couldn’t reach the remote border, so she began interviewing people in Yemen. One of the people she was in touch with began sending her social media videos from the massacre site. Nadia soon called on Human Rights Watch’s digital investigation’s lab for help. In this episode, Host Ngofeen Mputubwele takes listeners through how Human Rights utilized satellite imagery of burial sites, conducted interviews with survivors of the attacks, mined social media, and verified video footage from the border to show how Saudi authorities summarily executed hundreds of unarmed migrants – many of them women and children – in what is likely a crime against humanity.  In the aftermath of the report and the media attention it generated, Germany and the United States ceased funding and training Saudi border guards.  

Nadia Hardman: Researcher, Refugee and Migrant Rights Division at Human Rights Watch 

Sam Dubberley: Managing Director, Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch 

Devon Lum: Former Assistant Researcher, Digital Investigations Lab at Human Rights Watch