Episodes
See Through Copaganda: Alec Karakatsanis
We discuss the main goals of copaganda: narrowing our conception of safety and threat, constantly warning us that those harms are increasing, and telling us that the solution to our fears is more investment in the punishment bureaucracy.
Gun Laws That Work: Emma Brown
We discuss the complexity of gun violence in the United States and the reality that strong gun laws save lives with Emma Brown, the executive director of GIFFORDS, an organization whose mission is to save lives from gun violence in America.
Radical Justice is the Way: Jocelyn Simonson
We discuss how certain radical acts of justice by everyday people challenge the legitimacy of the criminal system and form the underpinning of a new collective legal thought, demosprudence. Collective understanding of justice and safety is changing away from the concept that justice equals cages.
Resist Copaganda!: Alec Karakatsanis
We discuss the main goals of copaganda: narrowing our conception of safety and threat, constantly warning us that those harms are increasing, and telling us that the solution to our fears is more investment in the punishment bureaucracy.
Pursuing Equal Justice: Robert Tsai
Robert L. Tsai is the author of Demand the Impossible: One Lawyer’s Pursuit of Equal Justice for All and Professor of Law and Harry Elwood Warren Memorial Scholar at Boston University School of Law. We discuss the death penalty, legal representation for the indigent, and equality under law.
America’s Half a Billion Guns: Jonathan Metzl
Jonathan M. Metzl is the Frederick B. Rentschler II Professor of Sociology and Psychiatry and the Director of the Department of Medicine, Health, and Society at Vanderbilt University. His most recent book is What We’ve Become: Living and Dying in a Country of Arms. We discuss how lax gun laws and gun ownership as an identity.
Policing Equity and Justice: Phillip Atiba Solomon
Phillip Atiba Solomon is the chair and Carl I. Hovland Professor of African American Studies, Professor of Psychology at Yale University, and co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity. We discuss policing equity, investing in communities, and taking police out of the mental health crisis business.
Everytown for Gun Safety: Nick Suplina
Nick Suplina is Senior Vice President for Law & Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. He was previously an advisor for New York State’s Attorney General. We discuss how 10 years of grassroots organizing has changed the political calculus on gun safety legislation, starting with the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.
Radical Acts of Justice: Jocelyn Simonson
Jocelyn Simonson is Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, a former public defender, and the author of Radical Acts of Justice: How Ordinary People Are Dismantling Mass Incarceration. We discuss how certain radical acts of justice challenge the legitimacy of the criminal system and form the underpinning of a new collective legal thought.
The Fear of Too Much Justice: Stephen Bright & James Kwak
Stephen Bright and James Kwak are co-authors of The Fear of Too Much Justice: Race, Poverty, and the Persistence of Inequality in the Criminal Courts. Stephen Bright has been an advocate for death row inmates for four decades and was the long-time director of the Southern Center for Human Rights, where James Kwak is the immediate past chair.
Dignity and Justice: Judge Victoria Pratt
Judge Victoria Pratt was Chief Judge in Newark Municipal Court in New Jersey and the author of The Power of Dignity. She is currently the Executive Director of Odyssey Impact, an interfaith non-profit driving social change through innovative storytelling and media. We discuss procedural justice, municipal court reform, and increasing the public's trust in the justice system.
Bail Reform’s Success: Alana Sivin
Alana Sivin is the New York State Director of Criminal Justice Reform at FWD.us. We discuss the history of bail reform legislation, the subsequent roadblocks, and the truth behind the efficacy of this policy.
Holding Police Accountable: Joanna Schwartz
Joanna Schwartz is a professor of law at UCLA, where she teaches civil procedure and courses on police accountability. Her new book is Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable. We discuss the multiple levels of protection for police offers and how local and state laws can break us out of the qualified immunity maze.
Police and Public Safety: Thaddeus Johnson
Thaddeus Johnson is a former police officer, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Criminal Justice, and Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice & Criminology at Georgia State University’s Andrew Young School of Policy Studies. This broad-ranging conversation discusses law enforcement and empowering communities and citizens so we can all be safer.
How the NRA Radicalized America: Ryan Busse
Ryan Busse is a former firearms executive, Senior Policy Advisor to Giffords, and author of Gunfight: My Battle Against the Industry That Radicalized America. We discuss how guns are intricately interwoven through our democratic division and radicalization in our everyday lives and in our politics.
The Chicago 7: Mark L. Levine
Mark L. Levine is a lawyer and co-editor of The Trial of the Chicago 7: The Official Transcript. We discuss how the edited transcripts were published, the parallels of social injustice and use of political protests in the late 1960s with today, and the necessity for all of us to be engaged.
Responsible Drug Use: Dr. Carl L. Hart
Dr. Carl L. Hart is a psychologist, professor, and author of Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear. We unpack our deepest misconceptions around drug use, reveal prohibition as an utter policy failure, and make a case for legalization and regulation.
The Punishment Bureaucracy: Alec Karakatsanis
Alec Karakatsanis is a lawyer, founder and executive director of Civil Rights Corps, and author of Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Injustice System. We discuss how the punishment bureaucracy works and how we can re-think our legal system.