Public opinion polls consistently show that Abraham Lincoln is widely regarded as our greatest president. And George Washington nearly always makes the top 5 which is why we celebrate Presidents Day on this third Monday of February. But, beyond Washington and Lincoln, Americans today have very different ideas about what makes a president great. 

Historian Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University, joins us to discuss what makes a great president. 

This month, following the killings of New York City based rappers Chii Wvttz and TDott Woo, Mayor Eric Adams said he was going to meet with social media companies to discuss removing drill rap videos featuring “guns” and “violence.” Members of the drill scene and fans of the genre have criticized Adams for looking at drill as the problem, rather than the much more systemic issues that lead to gun violence. Mayor Adams has since met with several drill rappers in an attempt to focus on potential solutions but his initial criticism is reminiscent of a long line of attempts by politicians to criminalize rap rather than understand it. 

The Takeaway speaks with Michael Jeffries, dean of academic affairs and professor of American Studies at Wellesley College and also author of “Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop,” about the history of political attacks on hip hop.

When the final US troops left Afghanistan in August, there was still $7 Billion dollars in Afghan central bank assets locked away in the federal reserve in The United States. This is $7 billion that the new Taliban government claims belongs to them, and $7 billion that could finally pay damages to the families of those who were killed on Sept 11, 2001. Perhaps most urgently, this is $7 billion that could provide valuable relief for the Afghan people facing a dire humanitarian crisis in a nation we occupied for two decades.

This week, President Biden signed an executive order that would split the $7 billion in half, giving just half of it to support humanitarian aid in Afghanistan, with a judges’ approval. The other $3.5 billion is being freed up for a group of relatives of victims of the Sept. 11th attacks who filed a lawsuit against the Taliban 20 years ago, and could claim this money for damages. 

We spoke with with Charlie Savage, New York Times National Security and Legal Reporter and author of “Power Wars,” to help explain to us why Biden is proposing to split these funds in half, and why he’s facing criticism.

It’s been more than six months since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Since the withdrawal, more than 76,000 Afghans have resettled across the U.S. We check in on resettlement efforts, the challenges facing Afghan refugees, and more with Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.

In the first month after the Texas SB8 law banning abortions after 6 weeks took effect, the number of pregnant people getting abortions in the state decreased by 60 percent. Abortion providers in neighboring states like Oklahoma are seeing an influx of patients.

We speak with Caroline Kitchener, national political reporter, covering abortion, at The Washington Post, and Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, an OB-GYN and abortion provider in Texas and board member with Physicians for Reproductive Health, about where people are going to obtain abortions and the impact the rise in demand has on patients, abortion providers, and the medical system.

For the next installment in Black.Queer.Rising, The Takeaway speaks with Chanda Prescod-Weinstein. She's an assistant professor of physics and core faculty member in Women’s Studies at the University of New Hampshire, and she's author of “The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred,” a book about the work she’s done to rethink our understanding of the cosmos and make space for more Black, queer people in STEM.

In a rare bipartisan move last week, Congress passed legislation targeting forced arbitration in sexual assault and harassment cases. For years, employers have used forced arbitration clauses in employment contracts to silence workers. The bill, called The Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, gives people a choice of going to court to pursue sexual misconduct claims or through arbitration.

One of the issue’s most prominent advocates has been former Fox News host Gretchen Carlson. She’s been working to ban forced arbitration since 2016, when she filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against former Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. A forced arbitration clause prevented her from being able to sue her employer so instead she had to sue Ailes personally

For more on this, The Takeaway spoke with with David Noll, professor of law at Rutgers Law School. 

In recent weeks, a growing number of Democratic governors have started rolling back mask mandates, out pacing  and other Covid-19 related restrictions.

WNYC health and science editor Nsikan Akpan recently explored the breadth of research that shows how effective masks are at slowing the spread of Covid-19 for kids and adults, and he joined The Takeaway to give listeners a better understanding of what public health experts are advising at the moment.

An analysis by Penn State and Iowa researchers found that Covid-19 may be fairly widespread among white-tailed deer. Up to 80 percent of the deer sampled in Iowa from April 2020 through January 2021 were infected with COVID-19. And The U.S. Department of Agriculture has confirmed Covid infections in deer in 15 states total.

Another recent study of deer in Staten Island, New York in December 2021 and January 2022, found white-tailed deer carrying the omicron variant, which marks the first time this varient has been reported in wild animals. These findings worry experts about the possibility for the virus to mutate in wild animals and cause other variants.

The Takeaway gets an explanation of the research from Suresh Kuchipudi, who led the research team and is a Professor and Chair in emerging infectious diseases at Penn State University.

What is Ethical Artificial Intelligence? We talk with Timnit Gebru, founder and executive director of DAIR (Distributed AI Research) about creating AI that is rooted in people from the beginning and works to serve marginalized communities.