The Takeaway

Chef and media darling Carla Hall joins us to talk about all of her favorite foods and things for Thanksgiving.

Also, The Takeaway has you covered with recommendations from some top chefs who talk about their favorite Thanksgiving foods and share some of their go-to recipes.

We’ll hear from Chefs Samin Nosrat, author of the James Beard Award-winning book Salt, Fat Acid Heat; Pati Jinich, host of the 3x James Beard Award-winning PBS series, Pati’s Mexican Table; and the 2018 James Beard Best Chef of the Southeast, pitmaster Rodney Scott.

Butterball Talk-Line Supervisor Bill Nolan talks with us about all things Turkey from tips on cooking to avoiding common Thanksgiving Day cooking problems. 

Thanksgiving is a time of gratitude, but in the chaos of day-to-day life, it can sometimes be difficult to find something to be thankful for during challenging times.

So, we talk to Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis, author of Fierce Love: A Bold Path to Ferocious Courage and Rule-Breaking Kindness That Can Heal the World, host of the “Love.Period.” podcast, and senior minister of New York City's Middle Collegiate Church in the East Village to find out what she's giving thanks for this holiday season. 

Recently, Russia has been ramping up its attack on Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructures using airstrikes to target power plants, water works, and natural gas facilities. With a cold, Ukrainian winter looming, these are all attempts to make ordinary Ukrainians suffer and break their resolve.  This week, the World Health Organization estimated that 10 million Ukrainians—about one fourth of the country—is without electricity. And they warn that the winter will be life threatening for many Ukranians.  

We speak with Nataliya Gumenyuk, Ukrainian journalist and founder of the Public Interest Journalism Lab, about ordinary Ukrainian’s are experiencing and bracing for, now and in the coming months.

Then, we revisit a conversation with Edward Reese, a non-binary queer Ukrainian activist and project manager for Kyiv Pride, who became a Ukrainian refugee in April and was seeking gender affirming surgery.

The experiences of Black womanhood in America are often bound up with a hyper-awareness of how one's natural hair could be perceived — and all the simultaneous trauma and joy that comes with it. A new docuseries, The Hair Tales, uses the complex world of Black hair as a portal to explore Black women’s cultural contributions, unique identities, and dynamic humanity. The six-part series is now available on-demand on OWN and streaming on Hulu.

We're joined by the show's creator and co-executive producer, and esteemed fashion writer and editor: Michaela angela Davis.

On Saturday night, a gunman entered Club Q in Colorado Springs and opened fire. Before he was subdued by patrons, he managed to kill 5 people and injured more than two dozen. That gunman is now charged with 5 counts of murder and 5 counts of bias motivated crime causing bodily injury.

Dr. Jonathan Metzl, professor of Sociology and Psychiatry and the Director of the Center for Medicine, Health and Society joins us to talk about the aftermath of the 601st mass shooting in the United States this year.

A new report from The Intercept looks at the story of Ajay Kumar, an asylum-seeker from India, who was detained in an ICE Detention center. When Kumar went on hunger strike to demand his release, a judge allowed the U.S. Government to force-feed him – and this is the first time a video of a detainee being force-fed in federal custody has been released to the public.

This is a practice that is widely condemned by medical professionals and the United Nations has said that force feeding inside ICE Detention centers could be violating the U.N. Convention Against Torture, but this is a standard practice for detainees on hunger strike in U.S. Federal facilities, and often gets little attention.

We speak to the lead journalists of the investigation: Travis Mannon, Investigative video journalist for The Intercept, and José Olivares, lead producer for The Intercept.

Since taking over Twitter on October 27, Elon Musk has fired top executives, reinstated former president Donald Trump's account, laid off over half of Twitter's 7500 employees, and set guidelines for a new cut-throat work culture. 

The Takeaway was joined by tech journalist Alex Kantrowitz, Host of the Big Technology podcast and a contributor to CNBC, to discuss an update on Elon Musk’s twitter takeover, employee layoffs, and the future viability of the social media app. 

On Wednesday, Republicans won their 218th seat in the Congress, flipping control of the House of Representatives even with several races still uncalled. Then on Thursday, Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her plans to step down as House Speaker after leading Democrats for two decades, though she will still remain in Congress as a Representative from California.

House Republicans nominated current Minority leader Kevin McCarthy to become the new speaker, pending a vote on the House floor in January. President Joe Biden now has a clearer picture of the legislative landscape for the remaining two years of his first term. But before the 118th Congress takes its seats just after the New Year, there is still a narrow window for some legislative action by the 117th.  

The remainder of 2022 — this period between an election and the installment of successors is known as a lame-duck session — and this could be the last chance for Democrats to use their majority in both chambers of Congress to pass legislation. 

In fact, they’ve already started that work. 

On Wednesday, the Senate voted to advance a bipartisan same-sex marriage bill, which would protect marriage equality under federal law. Congress also just passed a federal cannabis bill designed to expand medical marijuana research to be signed into law.And lawmakers need to pass a budget to avoid a looming government shutdown by December 16th.

So what else is on the agenda for this lame-duck session? Potential immigration reform, expansion of Child Tax Credits, and more. We spoke with Dorian Warren co-president of Community Change, co-chair of the Economic Security Project, and my co-host for Takeaway Deep Dives, and Bruna Sollad, Senior communications and Political Director of United We Dream, the largest non-profit immigrant youth-led community in the country fighting for immigration reform.

Farai Chideya, creator and host of the syndicated public radio show/podcast Our Body Politic, joins us to discuss the aftermath of the 2022 Midterm elections including: wins by her fellow Baltimorean Governor-elect Wes Moore as the first Black Governor of Maryland, and Florida’s Maxwell Alejandro Frost who is just 25-years-old.

For full transcript, see above.