Who Is?

Politicians have been trying to “fix” health care in the United States for nearly a century, and they really never manage to do it. Why? It has everything to do with money, and the moneyed interests--from health insurers to hospitals to pharmaceuticals--which have basically built the system we have today, and which spend more on lobbying to keep it that way than the military-industrial complex spends on defense. The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a group led by Hillary for America and Obama Administration alum Lauren Crawford Shaver, represents the latest move by the money to stop overhauls of health care, from a public option to Medicare for All, that a majority of Americans support. 

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In 2020, Arizona and Georgia, two traditionally red states, turned blue. And while Stacey Abrams has received a lot of credit and media attention for the organizing that led to Georgia turning blue, what happened in Arizona? Is there a Stacey Abrams of Arizona? To find out, Sean Morrow spoke with some of the observers who saw it coming and one of the organizers who made it happen, and discovered that Arizona turning blue is about communities organizing around civil rights, about demographic change, and about activated Tribal Nations who are aware of the unique relationship between Native Americans and the federal government.  

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One of the defining characteristics of the modern nation state is that the state has a monopoly on the use of force. In the United States, police officers are a manifestation of this agreement, to which we are all parties--whether we like it or not--and that is perhaps one reason among many why the apparent lack of accountability that seemingly pervades incidents of police misconduct is so troubling: it throws into question the terms of the social contract. There’s a lot to talk about here, but when it comes to accountability, or lack thereof, there’s a story to be told about money, politics, and power, and that story is playing out in cities across the country, and is visible not only in the contracts that police unions negotiate with the cities who employ them, but in the role police unions play in local politics. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow tackles police unions, and goes to St. Louis to see how reform continues to unfold in the metro, nearly seven years after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. 

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On April 19th, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City; 168 people were killed, and hundreds more injured, in what remains the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism in the United States. Twenty five years later, in 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that the United States had recorded the deadliest year for domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City Bombing. Then came the January 6th Insurrection. America has a problem, it seems, and the problem isn’t new. But why are Americans attacking America? On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow digs deeper into the nature of domestic violent extremism in the United States, and the history we as a nation must face up to if we are to confront—and address—the violence which plagues our democracy. 

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Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is one of the most powerful and one of the most enigmatic people in the world. Often positioned as a primary global antagonist of the United States, Khamenei and his regime have endured five American presidents, and his story reveals, among other things, the consequences of American foreign policy. But Khamenei himself is a clever politician, a leader who has maintained the pious economic populism of the Iranian Revolution, and a tactician whose absolute authority is solidified through his relationship to institutions: namely, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Little of this, however, has brought any benefit to the people of Iran, who, for nearly 70 years, have found themselves living through one variety of authoritarianism or another. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow contends with absolute authority, the long shadow of history, and the uncertain future of a nation of more than 80 million.    

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Ronald Reagan, a man who was first elected President more than forty years ago, remains one of the most impactful and influential conservative politicians in American history. Reagan, who made it in Hollywood before he made it to the White House, was a towering statesman, a favorite of Republicans and Democrats alike, and a man whose image recalls a past which may never have existed in the first place. How we view Reagan is one way in which America reveals itself, and more importantly, what we leave out of his story are some of the things that we most need to remember. On the first episode of the third season of “Who Is?,” join Sean Morrow, host of “Who Is?,” for a critical reevaluation of Reagan, his administration, and his legacy. 

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"Who Is?," an original podcast from NowThis News that explores the lives of the powerful, is back for a third season. On "Who Is?," host and NowThis correspondent Sean Morrow dives deep into the stories and backstories of the politicians, donors, media moguls, movements, and ideas that shape our lives, from Ronald Reagan to Inherited Wealth, and Domestic Violent Extremism to Police Unions. Featuring conversations with the reporters, biographers, colleagues, confidantes--and occasionally adversaries--who know these world molders and big ideas best, "Who Is?" is back for another season of sixteen episodes. There's a new guy in the White House, and we're still living through a pandemic. Who knows what could happen next? 

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“Nobody would be fighting this hard to suppress the vote—the lie about voter fraud—if the vote was not powerful.” - Reverend Doctor William Barber II

Bonus episode!

If you listened to “Who Is Electoral College,” you heard from Reverend Doctor William Barber II. Reverend Doctor Barber is a major civil rights leader, organizer, and also a certified genius: he got the MacArthur grant in 2018, which is unofficially called the 'Genius Grant.' Rev. Barber is the founder of Repairers of the Breach, and runs the revitalized modern version of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign. For a special bonus episode of "Who Is?" we’re sharing our unedited interview with Rev. Barber, as he shares his thoughts on democracy, power, and the importance of voting.

• Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign

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In 2000 and 2016, the candidate who lost the popular vote was elected president. Somehow, that’s democracy at work, and it’s thanks to a baroque institution called the Electoral College. Born out of the same contentious negotiations in 1787 that gave America the Three-fifths Compromise and the structure of the Senate, which bestows equal representation on Wyoming (the least populated state) and California (the most), the Electoral College remains with us today despite numerous attempts to abolish it. That’s because the Constitution is almost impossible to change, and because the Electoral College ultimately values some votes more than others. But America is changing, and as the composition of the electorate shifts as America grows more diverse, is the Electoral College a symbol of the insurmountable structural problems embedded in our democracy or a distraction from the power we exercise when we all vote?

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After a lifetime of firsts--from San Francisco District Attorney to California Attorney General to the Senate--Kamala Harris could become the first woman to serve as Vice President. Born in Oakland, California, and raised in Berkeley, Harris’s groundbreaking career in law enforcement has opened up space for women like Chicago’s Kimberly M. Foxx and Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby. But it has also on occasion put her at odds with the communities she is first to represent in office, and at times obscured her record on consumer protection, the environment, privacy, LGBTQ+ rights, and more. Nevertheless, Harris represents, in many ways, the future of the Democratic Party, and in just a few weeks, could be on her way to the White House. 

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