Civil Rights Filmmaker Takes on Voter Suppression in “After Selma” (0:29)

Guest: Loki Mulholland, Emmy-winning Documentary Filmmaker of “After Selma,” Executive Director of The Joan Trumpauer Mulholland Foundation

Voting is a right of citizenship in the United States – one it’s easy for many of us to take for granted. But it took a series of constitutional amendments to extend voting rights to all Americans. First was the 15th Amendment passed after the Civil War, giving black men the vote. It wasn’t until 1920 that women got the vote – we’re coming up on the 100th anniversary of that. But racial discrimination in the South kept many black men and women from voting until the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. And so today, it looks like it’s working. But a new documentary about voter suppression in America today called “After Selma” shows that it’s not.

 

Scientists Lured Fish Back to Dying Coral Reefs with Loudspeakers (21:58)

Guest: Tim Gordon, Marine Biologist, PhD Student, University of Exeter

The world’s coral reefs are in dire straits. Extreme heat killed off half the Great Barrier Reef in 2016 and 2017. Those damaged areas of coral became like a ghost town. But if fish could be drawn back to the reef, their very presence could trigger other parts of the coral ecosystem to come back, too. Marine biologist Tim Gordon has struck on an ingenious strategy to lure fish to patches of dead coral – sound. 

 

The Power of Black Twitter (33:29)

Guest: Meredith Clark, Assistant Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia

There’s a subset of Twitter that’s come to be known in recent years as “Black Twitter.” University of Virginia media studies professor Meredith Clark is writing a book about what it is and why it matters.

 

A White Supremacist’s Journey Out of Hate (50:36)

Guest: Tony McAleer, Author, “The Cure for Hate: A Former White Supremacist’s Journey from Violent Extremism to Radical Compassion”

Major cities in the US have seen a surge in hate crimes targeting Jews in recent months, including a stabbing in the home of a rabbi in New York during Hanukkah, in which five people were killed. The FBI says violence by white-supremacist extremists is the primary domestic terror threat in the US.

And so Tony McAleer’s story is worth considering. As a young man, he joined a gang of white supremacists, shaved his head, spewed anti-immigrant rhetoric and attacked minorities, publicly denied the Holocaust, and created an automated phone messaging system to spread his hate more widely - before the internet made it even easier. 

Today Tony McAleer has left that hate behind and is co-founder of a nonprofit called “Life After Hate” which helps people leave extremist groups. His new memoir is called, “The Cure for Hate.”

 

Rural Communities Face Growing Health Care Disparities as Hospitals Continue to Close (1:28:07)

Guest: Simon F. Haeder, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Pennsylvania State University

Rural America is facing a healthcare crisis. Since 2010, more than 100 rural hospitals have closed, which means long drives or expensive ambulance rides in an emergency for people living in those areas. But hospital closures are only the start of the problem for rural communities. Cost-cutting measures by insurance companies are also making it harder for people to see a doctor.