Stress Test, from Mother Jones

Our guest today is David Wallace Wells, a deputy editor at New York Magazine, and author of a vividly distressing new book about the all-encompassing perils of climate change, called The Uninhabitable Earth. With every full-throated warning, on page after page, Wallace Wells fully embraces the notion that eloquently targeted fear can shake the public into action. He also presents a gripping argument that scientists, and others charged with sounding the alarm, have historically been far too timid, for fear of being branded "alarmist" or dismissed as leftist. Now is the time to panic, Wallace Wells argues. In fact, that moment passed long ago. So now what? Host Jamilah King helps listeners locate some moments of hope and optimism amid the fear.

This week, we take a deeper look at what’s happening at the border. You'll go inside a Tijuana shelter where teenaged migrants—young boys and girls—are being held. They’re stuck, caught in legal limbo due to President Trump's deterrent policies. Host Jamilah King talks to Mother Jones immigration reporter Fernanda Echavarri about her recent reporting trip south of the border.

On today's show, we hear the results of a nine-month investigation into how rehab recruiters are luring recovering opioid users into a deadly cycle. Mother Jones reporter Julia Lurie tells host Jamilah King about how some users are being wooed aggressively by rehabs and freelance “patient brokers” in an effort to fill beds and collect insurance money. These brokers scour social media and Narcotics Anonymous meetings for new customers. We get a glimpse into a broken system that’s harming, and sometimes killing, the very people it’s supposed to help, while lining the pockets of facility owners and their corporate bosses. It’s a growing business—and business is booming.

Oscar buzz isn’t what it used to be. In recent years, the Academy Awards have been criticized—and rightfully so—for its lack of diversity and inclusion across members, nominees, and winners. Fraught with a host of issues this year, the spotlight on the night is brighter than ever. Joining host Jamilah King for a hilarious, blistering conversation about what the Oscars are getting right and wrong are April Reign, the founder of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag, and Tre'vell Anderson, the Entertainment and Culture Director at Out Magazine.

As each new Democratic party candidate declares a bid for the presidency—and there have been a lot—there's a new surge of hand-wringing, speculation, and noisy fights over political baggage. Whether you like it or not: the 2020 race has already begun in earnest. But with so many new candidates, is it becoming easier, or harder, to tell who might pose the most serious threat to President Trump’s chance at a second term? Do Democrats want a street brawler, or a unifier? Joining host Jamilah King in the studio for this lively political panel is Josh Barro, business columnist for New York Magazine, and the host of "Left, Right & Center" and "All the President's Lawyers" for KCRW, and Andrea González-Ramírez, who covers news and politics for Refinery29.

Moira Ermentrout was diagnosed with a rare disease when she was born. The six-year-old's list of medical problems is long and complex: she can't breathe on her own, walk, or talk, and she requires at-home assistance 24 hours a day. Factor in doctors appointments, occasional emergency visits, and equipment, the cost of Moira’s care can be crippling on her parents. Moira’s family now faces serious cutbacks to the critical medical care she needs to stay alive—as do thousands of children like Moira around the country, caught in the midst of state-by-state rollbacks. This week, we take a look at one family's fight against a healthcare system that is failing some of the most vulnerable among us.

The State of the Union address: What exactly is the point? On the one hand, Pelosi's Shutdown Smackdown put Trump in a corner by threatening to deny all that attention and adulation in a stately chamber during a primetime slot. On the other hand, maybe it's time to scrap this extravagant, over-baked format altogether? Host Jamilah King explores this time-honored presidential moment with two guests: James Fallows, staff writer at The Atlantic and former chief speech writer for President Jimmy Carter, and Jeffrey Engel, founding director of the Center for Presidential History at Southern Methodist University. Rather than arguing the pros and cons, Fallows and Engel discuss what history can teach us about how to salvage the most important annual address of the presidency and turn it back into something both more traditional and more effective. But it wouldn't be possible to talk about any of this, of course, without assessing the lasting impact of Trump's extreme, norm-defying approach to presidential power.

A special breaking news edition of the Mother Jones Podcast: On Friday morning, the FBI arrested Roger Stone, the longtime adviser to President Donald Trump, as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Stone was charged with seven counts that include witness tampering, false statements, and obstruction. So, who is Roger Stone? What was his connection to Wikileaks and the hacking of the DNC during the 2016 campaign? And, most importantly, how close do these new charges get to the President of the United States? Joining us is Washington DC bureau chief, David Corn, and Dan Friedman, who covers foreign influence and national security for Mother Jones.

Surviving the shutdown: Today, Mother Jones listeners who are employed by the federal government share their wrenching stories of trying to make ends meet as the longest government shutdown in US history grinds on into its fifth week. Scared he’ll miss his daughter’s health insurance payments, Jason Muzzey, a USDA contractor in Kansas City, Missouri, has been forced to apply for shifts at a local McDonalds and start a GoFundMe page. Cara Dodge normally works on educational exhibits for NASA in the Bay Area, a job she adores, but is now counting the days until she must find other work to supplement her family’s slashed income. Also on the show, you’ll visit a Washington DC food kitchen that is dishing out free hot meals to federal workers who suddenly need to watch every penny they spend. Host Jamilah King is joined by Angie Drobnic Holan, the editor of Politifact, to help you separate fact from fiction as the shutdown continues. Is there even a glimmer of bipartisan hope to solve the crisis on the horizon?

This is how far things have come. Try to imagine this scene taking place in normal times: The president of the United States speaking to reporters gathered on the South Lawn of the White House and, just to clarify things, saying, “I’ve never worked for Russia." But here we are. News about special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation has been coming at us thick and fast these days. First, there was the New York Times blockbuster report that the FBI, concerned about Trump's possible work with the Russians, began a counterintelligence investigation into the president. Then, a stunning revelation from the Washington Post about the president confiscating his own interpreter’s notes after a private meeting with Vladimir Putin. And finally, Trump’s new pick for Attorney General being grilled by lawmakers about whether or not he’ll protect the Mueller investigation, and reassuring them it will not become another victim of Washington’s partisan warfare—as Trump so ardently desires. On today’s episode of the Mother Jones podcast, host Jamilah King is joined by our DC bureau chief David Corn, and Terrell Jermaine Starr, senior reporter at The Root, to help you find your way through the confusing, potentially terrifying news about the President and his loyalties.