The Other Side: Mississippi Today's Political Podcast

Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins has worked for years to reform Mississippi's notoriously opaque youth courts. He sat down with Mississippi Today to discuss why the courts are now somewhat open to the public, what happened during the the recent special legislative session and why having a uniform youth court system is crucial to to the state.

Stuart Stevens for decades was one of the top Republican political strategists and he ran campaigns for dozens of congressional, senatorial, gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. But the Mississippi native left the party over President Trump and says, "There is no Republican party ... it has turned into the pro-tariffs party." Stevens says the GOP these days, "in many ways is to the left of the Democratic Party." The author of the New York Times bestseller "It Was All a Lie" and numerous other books also gives his take on Mississippi's upcoming midterm elections, how Sen. Roger Wicker is doing as armed services chair and even takes a couple of digs at former Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffen.

Mississippi Today's Molly Minta walks through the Jackson corruption case that resulted in the conviction of five people, including former Mayor Chockwe Antar Lumumba and former District Attorney Jody Owens, from the city's initial plans to develop some property into a convention hotel to the FBI bribery sting.

Katie Blount talks about leading the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, including the public response to the Two Mississippi Museums. She retired as the department's director on June 30.

Mississippi Today staff gives a rundown of the political stumping at the Neshoba County Fair last week. Did anyone make any news? Did we mention it was hot?

Senate Public Health Chairman Hob Bryan said the lack of transparency around the governor's program to spend millions in federal rural health dollars in Mississippi is "almost the Saturday Night Live parody of secrecy." Bryan and his House counterpart, Chairman Sam Creekmore, share their frustrations over lack of input from communities, and the Legislature, in how the state spends federal rural health care money.

Mina Corpuz with Mississippi Today and Daja E. Henry with The Marshall Project review their deep-dive reporting into suicides in Mississippi's prisons. Inmates -- including those known to pose harm to themselves -- are often locked away in solitary confinement without adequate checks on their wellbeing. The reporters looked at a decade's worth of data and tell harrowing stories through the eyes of family members and inmates. The project was a partnership between Mississippi Today, The Marshall Project and the Clarion Ledger.

Tameshia Shelton, a Clay County mother of four, is serving life in prison on a murder conviction. But the latest reporting from Jerry Mitchell and Madeline Nguyen has opened the door for her to get a long-awaited retrial. The investigative reporters join Emily Wagster Pettus to discuss their findings and the recent ruling from the Mississippi Supreme Court.

National NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson talks with Mississippi Today about GOP redistricting in Mississippi and across the South, and on his organization's call for a boycott of major college athletic programs in states pushing to weaken Black voting power through gerrymandering.

Mississippi Today's politics team gives a rundown on a monumental week in the Magnolia State that saw thousands of people marching and rallying in Jackson over voting rights and the gerrymandering battle embroiling much of the nation.