The Takeaway

The health of the economy is important, or so we’ve been told. The economy is measured by GDP, Gross Domestic Product, which only measures the value of goods and services produced.

And surprisingly, there is no scope for the positive or negative effects on real people's lives.

To talk more about this we speak with Dirk Philipsen, Associate Research Professor of economic history at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and a Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute for Ethics. 

Producers Ryan and Katerina report on what makes a show or concert accessible to the deaf community and they look at, and try on, some technology from Music: Not Impossible that could help make attending concerts and experiencing music more accessible. Music Not Impossible created what they call “Haptic Suits,” specifically designed for the deaf and hard of hearing. The suits are used to translate music into vibrations that people can then feel throughout their entire body, which can provide a greater connection to music for deaf and hard of hearing communities, and break down barriers between hearing and deaf concert-goers. They spoke with a number of guests about this cutting-edge technology that's making the experience of accessible for all.

One of the Fall’s highly anticipated films is The Woman King starring Viola Davis. It’s the story of the Dahomey empire and their elite fighting force, the Agojie, made up entirely of women.

We talk with director Gina Prince-Bythewood and producer Cathy Schulman about what it took to get this movie made, the inclusion of difficult subjects, and what it means to have a film that centers Black women.

Mason, Tennessee is a small, predominantly Black town of approximately 1,300 residents situated about 40 miles northeast of Memphis in West Tennessee.  The city has struggled with financial mismanagement in the past, but is expected to benefit from a major new economic investment, an electric vehicle plant being built by Ford Motor Company just a few miles away. Recently the Tennessee Comptroller, Jason Mumpower, tried to forcibly take control over the town's finances. We explore the fight Mason is taking on for its financial autonomy.

We speak with:

Virginia Rivers, Vice-Mayor of Mason, Tennessee

Gloria Sweet-Love, President of the Tennessee State Conference NAACP

John Marshall, judicial magistrate in Memphis, Tennessee, amateur historian, and sixth generation Mason native

Otis Sanford, political columnist for The Daily Memphian and a journalism professor at the University of Memphis

We talk about the historical and scientific knowledge gap of women’s bodies and people with vaginas, including trans men, intersex people, and nonbinary people, with Rachel E. Gross, a science journalist and author of the book “Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage.”

Judges have been historically resistant to most kinds of reforms, according to a new report from the Square One Project at Columbia University.

The author of the report, Judge Nancy Gertner, argues that judges must be actively involved in revolutionizing the justice system. She also offers up six key recommendations for reimagining judging, including improvements to judicial selection and community engagement. 

This past weekend, a gunman who appears to have been motivated by white supremacy shot and killed ten people in Buffalo, New York, where he traveled to target the city’s Black community.

The tragic shooting is one of several disturbing massacres motivated by hate that have occurred in recent years. But the history of race based violence dates back to the beginning of what is now the United States, and some of the recent racially motivated attacks call to mind the racist violence that targeted Black communities in the early 20th century.

The Takeaway speaks with Jelani Cobb, historian, staff writer at The New Yorker and incoming dean at the Columbia Journalism School.

In 2017, Andrea Jenkins became the first black openly transgender woman elected to office in the United States.

This year, she became the first openly transgender city council president in Minneapolis. We spoke to her for our Black History Month series, Black.Queer.Rising.

This past Sunday, Operation Save Abortion tackled the question: what can one person do after the Dobbs vs. Jackson decision took away the constitutional right to abortion?  The Takeaway attended the day of learning, action and fundraising.

We hear from five of the panelists and Lizz Winstead, co-creator of The Daily Show and founder and Chief Creative Officer of Abortion Access Front, to discuss Operation Save Abortion, the movement for abortion access, and securing reproductive justice for all.

You may know Jesse Williams from his years starring as the self-proclaimed pretty-boy otolaryngologist Jackson Avery on Shonda Rhimes' hit medical drama Grey's Anatomy. Or maybe you know him from his extensive catalog of television roles, like on Little Fires Everywhere or Power. You might also know him as a fierce advocate against police brutality. But you've never seen him like this. 

Williams has taken the stage as Darren Lemming in the Broadway revival of TAKE ME OUT, a play by Richard Greenberg. In the play, Lemming is a biracial baseball player whose life becomes infinitely more complicated after he decides to come out to the world as gay.

Williams is now on his second run of the show, currently staged at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre until February 5th. He joins The Takeaway to talk about some of our favorite words that start with a B: Broadway, bravery and baseball.