The Takeaway

On Monday, August 22nd, NASA released stunning images of Jupiter taken from the James Webb Space Telescope.

To learn more about the images and what we can expect to learn about Jupiter and our solar system, we speak with Munazza Alam, astronomer, a National Geographic young explorer, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Carnegie Earth and Planets Laboratory in Washington, D.C.

The ongoing pandemic that has killed more than 1 million people in the United States

Last week, Rochelle Walensky, the head of the nation’s top public health agency, announced the need for a "reset" at the organization amid criticism of the mismanagement of COVID and monkeypox.

We speak with Dr. Debra Houry, the acting principal deputy director of the CDC about what went wrong at the beginning of the pandemic, what this “shake up” will entail, and how the CDC can do better with other public health emergencies, including monkeypox. 

For the past few months, the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood has been the site of an effort to form the first union for strippers in the U.S. in 25 years. While stripping may seem like an unlikely profession to unionize due to the "gig" nature of the work, the dancers say they are defying stereotypes about sex work and proving that every worker deserves a union. 

"I want this campaign to hopefully inspire and motivate other dancers and other sex workers to stand up for themselves and stand up for each other and know that there is a community," Reagan, an organizer at Star Garden told The Takeaway.

The same energy animating the Star Garden dancers has been inspiring workers across many industries. According to a Bloomberg Law analysis of National Labor Relations Board data, there were more successful union elections in the first half of this year than in the first half of any other year since 2005. We hear from Alex Press, labor journalist with Jacobin Magazine, about how workers can leverage this energy into workplace power.

Freya the Walrus wandered the waters of the North Sea, visiting different parts of Europe throughout 2020 and 2021. In June 2022, Freya received viral attention on social media for her antics after climbing on the back decks of boats. Freya showed up in Norway this summer and became an unexpected tourist attraction.

In spite of her appeal, Norwegian officials considered her a threat to people who ignored warnings about getting too close to the friendly sea mammal. Freya was a wild animal, after all, “was” being the operative word given the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries' decision to euthanize Freya in favor of "public safety." Freya's killing has brought on public outcry similar to that of the 2016 euthanization of Harambe, the gorilla killed at Cincinnati Zoo.

We speak with Jason Horowitz, Rome bureau chief at the New York Times about the popular walrus and the unpopular decision to end Freya’s life.

Last weekend, “House of the Dragon” premiered on HBO. The show is a “Game of Thrones” prequel, and according to Warner Media, 9.9 million people watched the first episode, a record number of viewers for an HBO series premiere. But critically, the show has not been received as positively as the early seasons of “Game of Thrones,” with many reviewers questioning whether this new series does enough to justify its existence.

The Takeaway speaks with Vulture TV critic Roxana Hadadi about her thoughts on the show and why so many streaming services have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in fantasy series.

Catch a preview of the second episode of HBO's House of the Dragon, premiering Sunday, August 28:

On Wednesday, President Biden announced that he will cancel $10,000 in federal student loan debt for people earning $125,000 or less per year, and will cancel an extra $10,000 for Pell Grant recipients, extend the pause on student loan payments until Dec. 31, and make reforms that would allow the student loan system to be more manageable for borrowers.

This was a long-awaited announcement for the more than 45 million people who have federal student loans, and the White House estimates that this relief will allow for roughly 20 million borrowers to have their student debt fully canceled.In the coming months, the Department of Education said it will release a form to apply for this relief before the end of the year, but also noted that roughly eight million people will receive automatic relief.

We talk with John King, EdTrust President and former U.S. Secretary of Education, about the announcement and what more needs to be done.

And we also hear from Michael Arceneaux, author of “I Don’t Want To Die Poor,” who talks about his private student loan debt.

Former Louisville metro police department detective, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy in association with the murder of Breonna Taylor in March of 2020. Goodlett admitted to helping falsify information in order to obtain a search warrant.

Taylor was asleep when police officers barged into her apartment and killed her in her bed, allegedly searching for Taylor’s former boyfriend whom they suspected of dealing drugs.

Joining us to talk about Goodlett’s plea and police accountability in the aftermath of Breonna’s death is Teva Lindsey, Associate Professor in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department at Ohio State University.

Voters in New York chose candidates in important Congressional districts, and Democratic voters in Florida selected opponents to run against Governor Ron Desantis and Senator Marco Rubio in November. 

We’ll break down what happened on Tuesday and talk about what Governor Desantis’s strategy in Florida signals for his political ambitions and the direction of the GOP.

We speak with associate professor of political science at Fordham University Christina Greer and former Florida Republican Congressman David Jolly about the primary election results in Florida and New York.

Caribbean beaches have been under attack this year, not by people or even sharks, but by the proliferation of Sargassum seaweed.

The monthly report by the University of South Florida’s Optical Oceanography Lab recorded 24 million tons of Sargassum in the Atlantic Ocean in June affecting beaches from Puerto Rico to Barbados.

We speak with Chuanmin Hu, Professor of Oceanography at the University of South Florida’s College of Marine Science who assists in producing the report about the uptick in Sargassum and how it's affecting not only economies but also the local people. 

In Ukraine, today is a day of celebration and sadness. On this day, thirty-one years ago, Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union, after nearly 70 years under Moscow’s control. This came as the USSR was slowly crumbling, and many Soviet satellite states had already established democracies after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Ukraine’s Independence Day is usually marked with a military parade in the capital, air force pilots flying over the Independence Square in Kyiv, and people gathering in their local town squares to celebrate.

But when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th of this year, that all changed. Today also marks six months since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine. In the capital today, Kyiv authorities have banned mass gatherings for fear of intensified attacks from Russia. Instead, destroyed and burned-out Russian tanks and military equipment line the capital’s main street is lined with – a quiet, triumphant nod to Russia’s president who had once hoped to overtake the city. 

And across the US, vigils and events were held throughout the week in solidarity with Ukrainians.

Last night, a crowd gathered at a park in lower Manhattan in a candlelight vigil organized by Razom, a nonprofit in New York working to support Ukraine. Attendees wore Ukrainian flags and held candles to honor the soldiers and civilians whose lives have been lost in the war. We speak with Nataliya Gumenyuk, a Ukrainian journalist and founder of the Public Interest Journalism Lab, with updates on the ground from Kyiv, Ukraine. She also recently wrote an article for The Guardian titled, "Ukraine’s independence day was always important. Now it is a matter of life and death."