The Takeaway

This past month, millions of Americans will have taken up new fitness, health and wellness pursuits. There is typically no shortage of influencers and so-called gurus ready to capitalize on this reliably-annual influx of customers, but that’s taken a more sinister turn in these recent, turbulent years. We discuss the increasing convergence of right-wing conspiracies with wellness circles, how authoritarianism became embedded in the modern history of yoga, and how to practice wellness with awareness.

We're joined by Matthew Remski, a yoga practitioner, co-host of the Conspirituality podcast and co-author of the upcoming book, "Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat," with Julian Walker and Derek Beres.

On January 7, Memphis Police officers pepper sprayed and brutally beat photographer and avid skateboarder Tyre Nichols. Nichols complained of shortness of breath, and waited 22 minutes before an ambulance arrived to transport him – in critical condition – to a local hospital. He died on January 10.

Memphis police chief Ceralyn Davis called the beating of Nichols a “failure of basic humanity.”  This brutal killing has renewed public discussions of police abolition.

We talk with Professor Christian Davenport, professor of political science at The University of Michigan and author of State Repression and the Promise of Democratic Peace.

To hear our deep dive on police abolition, you can listen here.

Goldie Taylor brings sharp analysis, keen insights, and deep empathy to her televised appearances and her journalistic coverage. The author of multiple novels, Goldie Taylor’s narrative voice is as memorable as her speaking voice. Earthy and resonant.

Now Goldie has written her most personal story– an unflinching memoir, The Love You Save. The book details the brutal journey of her childhood marked by poverty, unkindness, and repeated experiences of childhood sexual assault, 

MHP sat down with journalist, writer, and survivor, Goldie Taylor. 

His name was Tyre Nichols. 

He was 29 years old, the youngest of four children. Father to a 4-year-old son. Tyree loved to skateboard. He was just 80 yards away from his mother’s house when he was stopped by Memphis police. Tyre called out to his mother as he was being beaten by five Memphis police officers. 

On the evening of January 7, Memphis police stopped Tyre while he was driving. Initially, the police report indicated Tyre was stopped for reckless driving. But after extensive, initial review the Memphis chief of police indicated there was no proof of probable cause for the traffic stop. He died in the hospital three days after that traffic stop.

On Friday evening, the City of Memphis released video footage of the traffic stop. It is hard to watch. The video shows five officers pepper spraying, beating, kicking, punching, shocking, and dragging Tyre. The five officers were fired 2 weeks ago. On Thursday, they were indicted on multiple felony charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault, aggravated kidnapping, official misconduct and official oppression.For more, we spoke with Aaron Morrison, the national race and ethnicity writer for the Associated Press.

January 27th marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this day in 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp, was liberated.

The Remembrance Day is a day to commemorate the 6 million Jewish lives that were lost at the hands of the Nazi German regime, and the millions of other Europeans the Nazis saw as racially inferior. This included Soviet prisoners of war, Roma and Sinti populations, people with disabilities, and Polish people.But this commemoration of 78 years since the end of World War II can’t be separated from the fact that recently some high profile celebrities and politicians have made antisemitic remarks, and there’s been a rising trend of harassment, vandalism and violence directed against Jews.According to the Anti-Defamation League, Antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in the US in 2021.

We hear from Toby Levy, an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor, and Jack Kliger, the President & CEO of the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust about rising antisemitism and the importance of reflecting on history and remembering victims and survivors.

Then, we hear from Mattie Kahn, writer and author of the forthcoming book, Young and Restless, about the story of her great uncle Arthur Kahn, the first Jewish victim of the Holocaust

New Orleans launched their bike share program, Blue Bikes, in 2017 in partnership with a for-profit bike share company called Social Bicycles, beginning with 700 pedal bicycles. Geoff Coats was hired to run the program. 

Soon after, Uber bought out Social Bicycles (which by then had changed its name to Jump) and Blue Bikes flourished: by 2020, the fleet size was upgraded and almost doubled to 1,350 pedal assist e-bikes. But then, the pandemic hit. Uber paused the program, and then spun it off to Lime, a scooter company and competitor.  Lime, using the bikes as leverage, approached the city and asked to replace the bikes with electric scooters.  The city balked, and almost overnight, the bikes disappeared from the city streets, and the bike share program was defunct by June 2020. While this could have been the end of bike sharing in NOLA, Geoff Coats devised a plan to resurrect the program.  He organized with community leaders, organizations, and sponsors and eventually developed a non-profit entity, Blue Krewe to operate Blue Bikes, eventually receiving approval from the city to relaunch as a community-based bike sharing program.  In September 2021, after over a year of New Orleans not having a bike sharing program, Blue Bikes went back online.

Since relaunch, Blue Krewe has overseen over 300-thousand trips, and have refocused the mission of NOLA's bike share program to be more aligned with the city’s mission of providing an affordable and equitable transportation alternative.

We speak with Geoff Coats, CEO of Blue Krewe, about reviving the city's bike share program.

We are 26 days into 2023, and the United States has already experienced 40 mass shootings, as of today Thursday morning. 

California, a state with some of the nation’s toughest gun laws, has suffered three mass shootings in less than a week. In Monterey Park, California on Saturday, a man with a gun killed 11 people, and injured nine. On Monday, there were two more shootings. In Half Moon Bay, a man killed seven people, and injured one. And in Oakland, another armed individual killed one person and injured seven people in a shooting at a gas station that night.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, so far this year, in these 26 days of January, there have been nearly 3,000 gun related deaths - a number that includes deaths by suicides, homicide, defensive and unintentional shootings.

So what can we do about it? We speak with Igor Volsky, executive director of Guns Down America about guns and gun reform in America.

The paintings produced by artist Titus Kaphar have become some of the most coveted pieces of art in America. His paintings – which reimagine the people included in American history – are displayed in museums from Seattle to New York City, and at auction, they’ve fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars.

But the message of the Michigan-born artist’s work – which critically examines how art historically excludes Black and Brown faces – is a source of discomfort for many art collectors, dealers, and museums in the U.S. And despite pressure to keep his artwork apolitical, Titus says his refusal to be silent gets at the heart of how he defines the word “artist.”

We talk to Titus Kaphar about his paintings, and we discuss the painter’s venture into a different medium in his documentary, Shut Up and Paint.

In a recent interview on The Takeaway, Kamau Franklin said, "What seems to be underreported is that even at the beginning of the protest against Cop City, when people were doing demonstrations and marches on city sidewalks, we would have at the end of those demonstrations, police jumping in the middle of them and arresting people for just standing or talking after demonstrations. And they've come in during demonstrations. They've used pepper spray. They've violently thrown people to the ground. Folks have been arrested. This is pre the charges of domestic terrorism." 

Activists view cop city as proof of the ongoing militarization of the police.

Bulldozers and police raids made their way through Weelaunee People’s Park last Wednesday after police killed protester Manuel Terán AKA Tortuguita. Officials say Manuel fired first, but activists doubt the official account from police. The GBI director says there is no body cam footage from the incident and the Georgia Department of Public Safety released a press release saying they would not be releasing the identity of the trooper who was struck in the abdomen for concerns for "for the protection of life, safety, and public property."

Local activists are calling for an independent wrongful death investigation.

In the aftermath, protests happened across the country this past weekend and more protesters around the South River Forest have been arrested on “domestic terrorism” charges. 

For more, we checked in with Founder of Community Movement Builders Kamau Franklin and Sean, a participant in the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement, for an update on “cop city.” We also spoke with City Councilmember At-Large Michael Julian Bond who supports the development of cop city.

To keep up with our coverage of cop city, check our recent segment.

When a debate over gas stove regulation blew up this month, it revealed that Americans have a deep affinity for these kitchen appliances. But like “natural” gas, it’s all rooted in marketing that the gas industry has fostered over decades as part of its efforts to combat the rise of electric and renewable energy.

Research into the health risks of gas stoves as a source of indoor air pollution is growing, and the effects of methane on climate change are already well-established.

We speak with Rebecca Leber, senior reporter at Vox covering climate, about how to finally cut the line on gas power. Read Rebecca's reporting for Vox on the recent gas stove debate, and her previous reporting for Mother Jones on the gas industry's insidious marketing on stoves.