This Is Critical

Law professor Ekow Yankah walks us through the advent of DNA evidence and the role of the Innocence Project, a nonprofit dedicated to exonerating the wrongfully convicted.

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We enter the k-hole with Dr. Bita Moghaddam, who explains how a dreamlike club drug became a depression treatment, and what you should know before going to that chic ketamine spa down the block.

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Dr. Paulette Steeves is trying to overturn the orthodoxy that humans have only been in the Western Hemisphere for roughly 12,000 years. In doing so, she just might change the way we do archeology.

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Congressman Hakeem Jeffries describes being on the floor of the House of Representatives during the Capitol attack. Fellow Congressman Jamie Raskin tells us about handling that trauma just a day after burying his son. And writer Jamelle Bouie helps us understand how history will remember January 6.

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Deep-thinker and writer Maggie Nelson specializes in calibrating our cultural conversations. What is the right mix of hope and pessimism when talking about climate change? Can we be transgressive while caring for each other? And does true freedom exist?

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We get emotional with historian of emotions Richard Firth-Godbehere. Prepare to rethink everything you thought you knew about the motivations behind some of the biggest moments in history.

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We unearth the origin story of our nation's most beloved — and reviled — beauty pageant and try to predict its future. Is it time to sunset the whole thing? Our chaperones: Amy Argetsinger (author of There She Was: The Secret History of Miss America) and Kate Shindle (Miss America 1998).

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The real problem for the conservative Supreme Court justices hoping to overturn Roe v. Wade is how much reproductive medicine has changed since 1973. Women in the 2020s have many more options for family planning — including abortion pills. Carrie Baker explains.

Resources:
PlanCPills.org
IfWhenHow.org

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We go way too deep on the schmaltzy movies that dominate cable every December with the Defector's David Roth, who has analyzed more than a hundred Hallmark Channel weepies for his highly jolly podcast, It's Christmastown!

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Just in time for Thanksgiving: an exploration of manners, from the skating rink to the formal dinner party. Featuring a well-mannered member of the Emily Post etiquette dynasty and an unruly sociologist.

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