The Takeaway

According to the CDC, in 2020, 861 women died in the US as a result of maternal causes. That’s up from 754 women who perished during or shortly after giving birth the year before, and an increase compared to the 658 women who lost their lives due to pregnancy and birth complications a year earlier. 

In fact, the rate of maternal mortality in the United States has increased in the past three decades. During a time when most countries throughout the world have improved outcomes for people giving birth, having a baby in this country has become more dangerous and deadly. And Bearing the brunt of these brutal statistics is Black women. 

For nearly a decade researchers and reproductive justice advocates have worked to marshal resources to address this crisis. But statistics, graphs, and “rates per one hundred thousand” can make it difficult to capture the human reality of maternal death. 

A new documentary film out on Hulu is changing that. 

In Aftershock, Tonya Lewis Lee and Paula Eiseltfollow what happens to the families of Amber Rose Isaac and Shamony Gibson, after each woman dies from medical negligence after giving birth. 

Whether you're interested in history, politics, memoirs, or light reads by the pool, our listeners have recommendations for you:

"Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil" by Susan Neiman

“In the wake of white nationalist attacks, the ongoing debate over reparations, and the controversy surrounding Confederate monuments and the contested memories they evoke, Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans delivers an urgently needed perspective on how a country can come to terms with its historical wrongdoings.”

"Against Fascism and War" 

A report to the 7th Congress of the Communist International, 1935 that includes a 1936 speech on the People's Front and a short speech to Young Communist International. Foreword by James West, then a U.S. youth delegate to the 7th Congress. 

"Dreams of El Dorado: A History of the American West" by H.W. BrandsIn Dreams of El Dorado, H. W. Brands tells the thrilling, panoramic story of the settling of the American West.

"The Soul of America" by John Meachum

Meachum writes about the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the birth of the Lost Cause; the backlash against immigrants in the First World War and the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s; the fight for women’s rights; the demagoguery of Huey Long and Father Coughlin and the isolationist work of America First in the years before World War II; the anti-Communist witch-hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy; and Lyndon Johnson’s crusade against Jim Crow. Each of these dramatic hours in our national life have been shaped by the contest to lead the country to look forward rather than back, to assert hope over fear—a struggle that continues even now.

“Waterman’s Song” by David Cecelski

The first major study of slavery in the maritime South, The Waterman's Song chronicles the world of slave and free black fishermen, pilots, rivermen, sailors, ferrymen, and other laborers who, from the colonial era through Reconstruction, plied the vast inland waters of North Carolina from the Outer Banks to the upper reaches of tidewater rivers.

"Four Funerals, No Marriage: A Memoir" by Mike Keren                                                                           

Author Mike Keren gives his readers an inside look at his unexpected foray into caregiving to his sick and dying parents and in-laws. Often funny and always poignant, the story begins when his loving but difficult parents announce they are moving back to New Jersey from their retirement home in North Carolina because they “never really liked it there.” Within days of arriving on a house-hunting trip, his father is hospitalized with a stroke and his mother with another in a series of heart attacks. At the same time, his partner’s mother is recuperating from a hysterectomy and struggling with chemotherapy after a diagnosis of uterine cancer. Additionally, he must deal with the unhappy marriage between his parents, sibling relationships that have often been his undoing, a homophobic world, and his own lifetime of affective dysregulation.

"The Gown" by Jennifer Robson'It is about two young women who work for a dress designer just after World War II, and they were involved in making the gown for Queen Elizabeth's wedding.'

"How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us Versus Them" by Jason StanleyAs the child of refugees of World War II Europe and a renowned philosopher and scholar of propaganda, Jason Stanley has a deep understanding of how democratic societies can be vulnerable to fascism: Nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. In fact, fascism’s roots have been present in the United States for more than a century. Alarmed by the pervasive rise of fascist tactics both at home and around the globe, Stanley focuses here on the structures that unite them, laying out and analyzing the ten pillars of fascist politics—the language and beliefs that separate people into an “us” and a “them.” He knits together reflections on history, philosophy, sociology, and critical race theory with stories from contemporary Hungary, Poland, India, Myanmar, and the United States, among other nations.

We talk with best selling author Michael Pollan about the paperback release of his book, “This is Your Mind on Plants,” in which he analyzes the complex relationship between humans, their brains, and the psychoactive molecules in plants, and how these plants are used to alter our consciousness. In the book, he uses a trio of psychoactive substances in plants (opium, caffeine, and mescaline) to look at these relationships, challenge what we characterize as a "drug," and look at why some drugs are legal, commonly and openly used, while others are cast into the shadows of crime of punishment.

Michael Pollan, co-founder of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and author of the books “This is Your Mind on Plants,” and "How to Change Your Mind." He is also the host of the Netflix series, “How to Change Your Mind.”

The iconic actor, writer, and singer Billy Porter makes his directorial debut with the new film called, “Anything’s Possible.” The movie is a sweet, queer rom-com that Porter has described as being in the mold of a John Hughes classic, but with a much more representational cast.

We speak with Billy Porter about the film, his career, and living his truth after speaking publicly last year about being HIV positive.

The residents of Gordon Plaza are fighting for a fully-funded relocation from the toxic land that their community was built on by the City of New Orleans. The subdivision was built on top of what was once the Agricultural Street Landfill – an area designated by the EPA as a hazardous waste site in 1994. Since 1993, residents have been fighting for financial compensation for emotional distress and property damage. They’ve also pushed for a fully-funded relocation, which after decades, may now be in sight.

On June 23, the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to approve a $35 million plan to ​​relocate the residents of Gordon Plaza. The $35 million dollar figure is an estimated cost of relocation for the owners of all 67 households including home replacement costs and moving expense. The estimate came from a study authored by two professors at Tulane University and a New Orleans real estate broker and expert on home evaluations in December.

Along with relocating the residents, the City plans to convert part of the land into a solar energy farm. In the 2022 budget passed in December, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell allocated $2 million in bond funding to survey the site for redevelopment.

Residents of Gordon Plaza are optimistic but are still keeping things in perspective. Gordon Plaza residents have won several judgments in class-action lawsuits against the City of New Orleans, the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and the Orleans Parish School Board, for lost property value and emotional distress. But, many of the residents have still not received compensation from those judgments, and probably never will. According to a 2021 investigation by the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate, the City has more than 560 outstanding judgments and settlements, with a backlog of about $40 million. Some date back 25 years.

The difference this time is that the money has been allocated: The City Council is diverting funding from municipal bonds in this year’s capital budget from stalled projects the city hasn’t yet initiated.

The city has scheduled meetings with residents and is working with a law firm to work out distributing the funds. But Jesse Perkins, other residents of Gordon Plaza, and advocates are hoping to get this money as soon as possible – and potentially even find new homes by the new year. A city spokesperson told The Takeaway that "the city has hired a firm to assist with the property acquisition, the firm is planning to identify the escrow and title companies by the end of July. And then will be providing the city with timelines on the process."

We spoke with Jesse Perkins, a resident of Gordon Plaza about these updates, and how he and the other 54 families still living there, feel after decades of fighting to get city officials’ attention. 

Check out our previous coverage: Gordon Plaza Residents Fight for Relocation from Toxic Land.

Khristi Lauren Adams joins us to discuss her new book, Unbossed: How Black Girls Are Leading the Way.

The 2022 Georgia Senate race is heating up as Republican Herschel Walker, a political newcomer, faces off against incumbent Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock. As was evident in the 2020 Georgia Senate races that saw Warnock and Democrat Jon Ossoff win election, the importance of Black voters in Georgia is expected to play a key role in determining the outcome of this election. 

We speak with Maya King, New York Times politics reporter covering the South, who has been covering the race, and Andra Gillespie, political scientist at Emory University, who discuss the latest developments in the race, and the efforts and strategies by both sides to garner support from Black voters.

The 2022 Supreme Court ruling on Oklahoma vs. Castro-Huerta granted the state of Oklahoma the power to prosecute non-Indians who commit felony crimes against tribal citizens on reservation land. It comes just two years after a landmark decision in McGirt vs. Oklahoma, which resulted in 40% of eastern Oklahoma being affirmed as reservation land, thereby expanding tribal jurisdiction over criminal cases there. Tribes and tribal law experts see the Castro-Huerta ruling as an alarming turn in the Court’s treatment of Indian law and tribal affairs.

We speak with Allison Herrera, reporter on Indigenous Affairs at KOSU in Oklahoma and correspondent for Newsy, and Dr. Matthew Fletcher, Harry Burns Hutchins Collegiate Professor of Law at University of Michigan Law and a tribal judge.

On Wednesday, President Biden visited Somerset, Massachusetts, and spoke at what used to be the largest fossil-fuel-burning power plant in New England. In front of the shuttered Brayton Point Power Station, Biden announced new executive orders to direct funding towards the impacts of climate change. "Today I'm making the largest investment ever. $2.3 billion to help communities across the country build infrastructure that's designed to withstand the full range of disasters we've been seeing up to today extreme heat, drought, flooding, hurricanes, tornadoes," Biden said. 

But environmental groups have been urging Biden to go further than executive actions: to invoke a national climate emergency. They say this would empower the administration to take even more substantial steps against climate change.

For more on this we speak with Jean Su, the Energy Justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Jean also co-authored a report that details how Biden could use the powers of an emergency declaration on climate. It’s called “The Climate President’s Emergency Powers.”

For his new book Rebel Speak: A Justice Movement Mixtape scholar and activist Bryonn Rolly Bain compiled conversations he’s had with movement and thought leaders from different generations with the goal of reframing how we think about justice. Many of the people featured in Bain’s book are formerly incarcerated or people whose family members are incarcerated. We speak with Bain about how he centered marginalized perspectives in his book to weave together a radical vision for the future.

Bain is also co-director of the Center for Justice at UCLA and creator of the one-man show “Lyrics from Lockdown."