In the United States, political power is allocated when Americans go to the polls and vote for the candidates whom they believe will best represent their interests in government. For that reason, access to the ballot has been restricted--and contested--since the early days of democracy, with each expansion of the electorate met by measures to suppress the vote. Democracy, it seems, has always been for some, but not others. On this episode of “Who Is?,” join Sean Morrow for a conversation on voter suppression in the aftermath of Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act and upended how Americans vote. Featuring three women who fight for voting rights nationwide: Stacey Abrams, Lydia Camarillo, and Natalie Landreth.  

Stacey Abrams, 2018 Democratic candidate for Governor of Georgia and former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives. She’s the founder of Fair Fight and Fair Count, and her new book is, “Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America” 

Lydia Camarillo, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and William C. Velasquez Institute 

Natalie Landreth, a senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund


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Who Is Voter Suppression?

“Who Is?,” an original podcast from NowThis, explores the biographies of influential people in the United States and beyond. Now in a third season, “Who Is?” presents deep dives into the stories of political power players, the donor class, and more. The podcast is hosted by NowThis correspondent Sean Morrow.

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If you work hard in the United States, there is no limit to the possibility of what you might achieve. That’s the American Dream. But the reality is that America today increasingly resembles aristocratic societies of the past, which were characterized by little social mobility and dramatic inequality perpetuated in part by the passage of enormous fortunes from one generation to the next. How and why this has occurred in the United States is largely the result of power, politics, and policy choices--choices that enable the coding of wealth in the legal systems that structure not only our economy, but our society and our democracy. The system is rigged--and rigged in favor of the few. Join Sean Morrow on the final episode of the third season of “Who Is?” for a look directly at the money, what it means for the rest of us, and what we can do about it. 


James Henry, an economist, attorney, tax justice activist, and a senior advisor to the Tax Justice Network

Paul Krugman, an economist, author, and longtime columnist at The New York Times. His most recent book is “Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future”

Katharina Pistor, a professor at Columbia Law School. Her most recent book is “The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality”


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Who Is Inherited Wealth?

Rebekah Mercer may be the most powerful woman in conservative politics today, and she’s never held--and probably will never run for--elected office. Since 2004, Rebekah Mercer has been the director of the Mercer Family Foundation, which means for nearly twenty years she has been one of the key people who is in charge of how her father Robert Mercer’s vast fortune is spent. And following the Citizens United decision in 2010, millions of dollars of that vast fortune have been dedicated to American politics, and primarily to American politics on the far right. The Mercers have played a major role in the contemporary rise of the far right, and from Cambridge Analytica to Kellyanne Conway, Rebekah Mercer and her father were instrumental in the election of President Donald Trump. But after Trump won, it was Rebekah who was named to his transition team. In 2021, however, Trump’s election almost feels like ancient history, and the real question is what will Rebekah Mercer do next, and what does that mean for the rest of us and our democracy? 


Brendan Fischer, Director of Federal Reform at the Campaign Legal Center 

Jane Mayer, Chief Washington Correspondent at The New Yorker, and author of several books, including “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right”  


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Who Is Rebekah Mercer?

Mayor Pete is now Secretary Buttigieg, which means that the former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is now a member of the Biden Administration. A surprisingly popular presidential candidate in 2020, Buttigieg has an unusual story, and in just a few years, he’s gone from planning bike lanes and roundabouts to overseeing the nation’s highways, airports, and more. Buttigieg has already run for president once and he’ll almost certainly do it again, so it’s South Bend and beyond on this episode of "Who Is?," for a look at the man who could one day be America’s first (openly) gay president. 


Sam Centellas, Executive Director of la Casa de Amistad, a community center which has been serving the needs of immigrants and residents of South Bend, Indiana, since 1973

Beth Osborne, Director of Transportation for America. During the Obama Administration, Osborne served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy 

Adam Wren, a Features Correspondent at Insider's Washington Bureau


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Who Is Pete Buttigieg?

In 2020, Andrew Yang ran for president, and although he never really had a serious chance, he became a familiar name, and a familiar face. In 2021, he’s running for Mayor of New York City, and this time, he might win. If he does, Yang will face an enormous challenge: navigating one of the world’s most important cities through an uncertain recovery. A man with essentially no political experience but a lot of ideas and a lot of charisma, Yang has the opportunity to reimagine how the post-pandemic city functions. But he’ll also have to contend with the day-to-day realities of governing, from policing to public schools to public housing. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow dives deep into Yang himself, examines the policy and the people behind his current campaign for mayor, and explores how a city like New York can build an inclusive economy as it recovers from Covid-19.


Katie Honan, who covers City Hall in New York City for The Wall Street Journal

Amy Liu, vice president and director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, which she co-founded in 1996

Harry Siegel, a senior editor at The Daily Beast, columnist at The New York Daily News, and co-host of the podcast FAQ NYC


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Who Is Andrew Yang?

Unless you’re lucky enough to live on another planet, you’ve probably heard about the climate crisis. It’s a problem we must address if we want humanity--and the rest of the Earth’s animal and plant population--to continue to survive and thrive. But in order for that surviving and thriving to happen, we must immediately and definitively cut emissions and begin the transition away from fossil fuels. How’s that going? As you’ve probably heard, not so well, and as a result, more radical approaches are increasingly in the mix. Geoengineering is one of these, and while it won’t solve the climate crisis, it may enable us to remove some of the carbon dioxide we’ve emitted and even artificially lower global temperatures while we detox from fossil fuels. The catch? We don’t really know what would happen if we did it, and we may not be able to undo it. On this episode of “Who Is?,” it’s a look at one of the big choices we may have to make in the not so distant future.  


Elizabeth Kolbert, who has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1999. Her most recent book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” was published in February of 2021 

Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G). Pasztor was previously United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change in New York under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon


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Who Is Voter Suppression?

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