Writer Roxane Gay comes from a generation of what you might call “very online.” She gained international fame because she had a distinctive voice that stood far from the madding crowd on social media. This week Audie talks with Roxane about her new collection of essays, “Opinions,” how her opinions have changed, what it's like to become famous for sharing them, and how social media changed the way we all think about criticism and professional opinion.

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The political landscape has never been more confusing, and to some, even overwhelming. How do we determine fact from fiction? What keeps fact-checkers up at night? And what’s a democracy to do when even the professionals aren't believed?

Today, we have Daniel Dale, a CNN senior reporter who rose to prominence for fact-checking former President Donald Trump, and Matthew Facciani, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Notre Dame. He studies people who fall victim to misinformation and how to best engage with them in a compassionate way.

Call us with your political Assignments: ‪(202) 854-8802‬.

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Big news: The Assignment is expanding to twice a week! Starting October 10th, The Assignment takes on politics. Every Tuesday we will go beyond the horserace — talking with journalists with a sharp understanding of this political moment. This is in addition to our regular Thursday podcast, where we talk with people whose lives intersect with the headlines. 

To kick off our weekly political pod, we’ve invited CNN Political Director David Chalian to talk about how he covers this tumultuous political moment, the role of the media as truth tellers, and how he’s revamped his weekly podcast, The CNN Political Briefing, which drops every Friday. 

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How do you take a story everyone thinks they know, and look at it through a new lens? What role – if any – does the identity of the translator play in the retelling of a story? And what is it like telling your own story after spending much of your career interpreting – and being interpreted by – others? 

This week, Audie chats with Emily Wilson. Wilson is the translator of Homeric epics like “The Odyssey.” She is a professor of Classical Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and a frequent subject of headlines and stories herself. Her translation of The Iliad came out September 26. 

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Between student protests, controversial speakers, and debates over “safe spaces,” complaints about free speech on campus are louder than ever. How do school leaders respond to these gripes? And how do they balance freedom of expression – and the idea that speech can be violence? 

We have two college presidents from the front lines of this debate: Roslyn Clark Artis of Benedict College and Michael Roth of Wesleyan University. Both schools are part of the so-called “Campus Call for Free Expression.”

Leave us an Assignment: [email protected] or call (202) 854-8802‬.

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In recent years, Greek life faced a crisis as the pandemic cast a shadow on recruitment, and the “abolish Greek life” movement grew across campuses. But then came #RushTok — a flurry of TikToks documenting the sorority recruitment process among university campuses, especially in the South. One tag, in particular, soared to remarkable heights: #BamaRush. It chronicled the rush process at the University of Alabama and has garnered an astonishing 3 billion TikTok views (and counting).  

This week we speak to writer, journalist, and former sorority sister Anne Helen Petersen, who has been documenting the phenomenon. Why are the videos dominating our feeds? And what does RushTok’s popularity say about its stars... and its biggest stans? 

Anne Helen Petersen is a writer and journalist whose writing has appeared in BuzzFeed News, The New York Times, Vox, The Atlantic, and more. Her books include Out of the Office: The Big Problem and Bigger Promise of Working From Home and Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation. She writes a Substack newsletter called Culture Study. 

 

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Is there a coin shortage in the U.S.? Is there an increase in kids smoking weed at school? And: what’s the deal with Montana politics?  

All of these questions were asked by you, our listeners. Throughout the life of this podcast, we’ve asked you to pick up the phone and leave us Assignments – and you have delivered. We love getting these messages. We took these three Assignments and called up three reporters who could give us some answers. Joining us this week, CNN Business reporter Clare Duffy @claresduffy, CNN Health reporter Jacqueline Howard @JacqEHoward, and Montana Free Press editor, Brad Tyer. 

Read the Montana Free Press at MontanaFreePress.org and follow them at @mtfreepress. 

We're only getting started with your Assignments, so if you want to leave us one, please do! You can send an email to [email protected] or leave us a voicemail: 202-854-8802 

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For Labor Day — the unofficial end of summer and the official holiday celebrating the American worker — we are checking in on the state of the striking actors and writers demanding more from the studios they work for. When the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) went on strike earlier this year, no one was sure how long the first dual strike in over 60 years would last. Six weeks later both unions are still on the picket line. This week we speak to industry insider, Franklin Leonard, about the state of the strikes and how this could change the way Hollywood works, and how we watch movies and TV. 

Franklin Leonard is a film and television producer and the founder of The Black List, a platform for film and television writers to showcase their work to industry professionals. 

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Imran Ahmed is a man in the middle of the disinformation wars. He is the CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an organization dedicated to researching online hate speech and disinformation. Audie talks with him about how he came to the work, the lawsuit filed against him by Elon Musk’s X Corp. (formerly Twitter), and what it all means for the debate over “free speech” versus “hate speech” online. 

For more context on today’s conversation, read CNN’s reporting here. And read X Corp’s response to CCDH here.  

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Devastating wildfires like the ones in Maui could become more common in our future due to a host of several factors, including climate change. But what about the folks who are already grappling with the fact that climate change is here? This week, we break down the connection between climate change and wildfires with climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain. Then, Audie talks with former wildland firefighters Megan Fitzgerald-McGowan and Riva Duncan about how climate change is shifting the way fires are fought, and how the work is getting more demanding, more difficult, and more dangerous. 

GUESTS:

Megan Fitzgerald-McGowan is currently a Program Manager at Firewise USA, which teaches people how to adapt to living with wildfire and encourages neighbors to work together and take action now to prevent losses. She is a former wildland firefighter. 

Riva Duncan is the vice president of Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, a nonprofit advocacy group fighting for reforms for federal wildland firefighters. She retired from wildland firefighting in 2020 after more than 30 years. 

Dr. Daniel Swain is a climate scientist focused on the dynamics and impacts of extreme events—including droughts, floods, storms, and wildfires—on a warming planet. He blogs at Weather West, which provides real-time perspectives on California and western North American weather and climate. 

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