Your Call

On this edition of Your Call, we're rebroadcasting our discussion about The Visiting Room Project, an initiative that invites people to sit face-to-face with men serving life without the possibility of parole. Nearly 5,000 people are sentenced to die in Louisiana prisons without any possibility of parole.

The Visiting Room Project is the largest collection of first person testimonials ever gathered from people serving this sentence. We’ll speak with two participants of the project who were recently freed and find out what it’s like to re-enter the world after decades behind bars.

On this edition of Your Call, we rebroadcast our discussion about The Smell of Money, a documentary that tells the story of the late environmental justice activist Elsie Herring and her North Carolina community who take on Smithfield, the world's largest pig slaughterhouse.

We follow them as they fight for the freedom to enjoy fresh air, clean water, and a life without the stench of manure. The film calls on viewers to see the people behind what's on our plates and join the fight for justice.

Guests:

Jamie Berger, writer and producer of The Smell of Money

Naeema Muhammad, senior advisor at the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network

On this edition of Your Call, we rebroadcast our discussion about The Janes, a documentary about an underground network of women who provided an estimated 11,000 safe, affordable, illegal abortions in Chicago from 1968 to 1973.

The Janes were ordinary women who risked their personal and professional lives to support women with unwanted pregnancies in the pre-Roe era. In The Janes, several original members of the collective tell their stories for the first time. How are The Janes reflecting on their work now that abortion is illegal in 11 states in 2022? What is the way forward?

Guests:

Tia Lessin, award winning documentary filmmaker and co-director of The Janes

Emma Pildes, Emmy-nominated filmmaker and co-director of The Janes

Eileen Smith, original member of The Jane Collective

Diane Stevens, original member of The Jane Collective

On this edition of Your Call's One Planet Series, we'll rebroadcast our conversation about The Territory, a new documentary about the ongoing fight to save the Amazon rainforest from land grabbers, loggers, and corporations.

In the 1980s, the Brazilian government had its first contact with the Uru-eu-wau-wau people. They use drones, cameras, and GPS devices to protect their land from invaders. They agreed to work on this film because they want the world to see what’s happening. What can we do to support them?

On this edition of Your Call's Media Roundtable, we discuss the final report by the House committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

The panel recommends that the Justice Department prosecute Donald Trump on four charges, including inciting an insurrection and conspiring to defraud the United States.

Guest:

John Nichols, national affairs correspondent for The Nation, and author of several books, including Coronavirus Criminals and Pandemic Profiteers: Accountability for Those Who Caused the Crisis

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, investigative journalist and photographer Lynzy Billing discusses her ProPublica investigation, which details the fatal activities and nightly raids by secretive, CIA-backed Afghan Zero Units special forces in Afghanistan.

Billing cataloged hundreds of night raids by one of the four Zero Unit squads, identifying at least 452 civilians killed over four years. She crisscrossed hundreds of miles of Nangarhar interviewing survivors, eyewitnesses, doctors, and elders in villages seldom, if ever, visited by reporters. The circumstances of the civilian deaths were rarely clear, but the grieving families she spoke to in these remote communities were united in their rage at the Americans and the US-backed Kabul government.

What does accountability look like for people who lost loved ones?

Guest:

Lynzy Billing, investigative journalist and photographer based between Afghanistan and Iraq

On this edition of Your Call, we find out how food banks are handling increased demand. More than 53 million people turned to food banks last year, one-third more than before the pandemic, according to Feeding America.

With inflation rates causing food prices to skyrocket over 10 percent in the last year and over 60 percent of Americans living paycheck to paycheck, what are food banks and other charities doing to provide more support for their communities?

As people struggle to put food on the table, Congress just passed an $858 billion military budget and Republicans derailed the Child Tax Credit expansion.

Guests:

Craig Hotti, board vice president of Alameda County Food Bank

Ronnell Hunt, community education specialist at Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank

Tanis Crosby, executive director of San Francisco-Marin Food Bank

Ashik Siddique, research analyst for the National Priorities Project, working on the federal budget and military spending

On this edition of Your Call, we speak with independent bookstore owners to find out what's selling and how they survived the pandemic. They'll give recommendations for holiday gifts and discuss their selections for the best books of the year.

More than 300 bookstores have opened in the past couple of years — a revival that is meeting a demand for “real recommendations from real people," according to the New York Times.

What are you reading? And what does your local bookstore mean to your community?

Guests:

Leigh Odum, owner of Leigh’s Favorite Books

Brittany Caine, customer service manager of Kepler’s Books

Doris Moskowitz, owner and director of Moe's Books

On this edition of Your Call, we discuss suicide and mental health in light of the recent death of dancer and DJ Steven “tWitch” Boss.

The US has the highest suicide rate of any wealthy nation, according to the CommonWealth Fund. There were over 45,000 suicides in 2020, and 80 percent of those who took their lives are men, according to the CDC.

How can we support those with suicidal thoughts and how can we reach those who are suffering in silence?

Guests:

Dr. Stacey Freedenthal, associate professor at the University of Denver Graduate School of Social Work, psychotherapist in private practice, author of Helping the Suicidal Person: Tips and Techniques for Professionals, and the forthcoming, Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: What Family, Friends, and Partners Can Say and Do

Dr. Gregory Scott Brown, board-certified psychiatrist, affiliate faculty member at the University of Texas Dell Medical School, mental health columnist with Men’s Health, and author of The Self-Healing Mind: An Essential Five-Step Practice to Overcoming Anxiety and Depression, and Revitalizing Your Life

On this edition of Your Call’s Media Roundtable, we discuss an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity about how decades of tax cuts for the rich fuel income and wealth inequality. In 1980, the top income tax rate for individuals was 70%. Today it’s 37%.

If the 70% rate were still on the books, taxpayers with more than $1 million in income in 2019 could have owed $87.9 billion more in taxes that year, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of IRS data. That’s more than enough money to rebuild and repair all the bridges and water systems across the country slated for work under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed by Congress in 2021.

How has the US tax laws led to wealth and income inequality? And how should the media cover the relationship between taxes and widening inequality?

Guest:

James Steele, Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, and co-author of America: What Went Wrong? The Crisis Deepens