After a week marked by the threat of pipe bombs, a synagogue in Pittsburgh was attacked by an antisemitic domestic terrorist who murdered 11 worshippers. Maria and Julio talk about this tragedy and the role of hate with Brentin Mock , Pittsburgher and staff writer for CityLab and Mike German , fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program. ITT Staff Picks Brentin Mock's point of view on what the neighborhood where it happened means to Pittsburgh and the count...
Oct 30, 2018•34 min
Pipe bombs sent in the mail to journalists and high profile Democrats, the migrant caravan and what this all means for the midterms elections that are rapidly approaching. It's been another intense week and Maria and Julio talk all about it with one of our ITT All-Stars, Terrell Jermaine Starr , senior reporter for The Root. ITT Staff Picks How the caravan became a key piece of Trump's electoral strategy, according to The Independent . From Al Jazeera, "Fake news, racism and bombs: Fear and loat...
Oct 26, 2018•27 min
We start our ITT midterm elections countdown with a focus on the younger generation. Julio speaks to Sarah Audelo , executive director of the Alliance for Youth Action and two youth organizers that have been organizing in their communities and are raising their voices this election season: Yatziri Tovar , from Make The Road Action , and Gariyana Williams, from YO Save Our Streets . ITT Staff Picks FiveThirtyEight's analysis on the young vote in the Midterm Elections. Gen Z activists target youth...
Oct 23, 2018•34 min
After another chaotic week of U.S. politics, Maria and Julio catch up on the latest. They talk about the Central American migrant caravan, Senator Elizabeth Warren's DNA test to prove her Native American heritage and the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the dangers that journalists are facing worldwide. ITT Staff Picks: Check out the Democracy Now! roundtable with Native American commentators, that Maria and Julio mentioned. Julio's recent article for NBC's Think on the Central American c...
Oct 19, 2018•19 min
We have 12 years left to reverse the effect of climate change, according to the latest report from the United Nations. Maria and Julio talk with Justine Calma from Grist and award-winning writer Meera Subramanian about this new data and the consequences of climate change for communities of color. ITT Staff Picks Which countries are doing well (and which are failing) to control their emissions? From The Washington Post . Justine Calma explains the dire situation of communities of color facing cli...
Oct 16, 2018•31 min
In the book Enemies in Love , journalist and Columbia University professor Alexis Clark narrates the romance between an African-American nurse and a German prisoner of war during WWII. Maria and Julio talk to Alexis about how the challenges of this era are still relevant today. ITT Staff Picks From the Smithsonian.com : How Black nurses in World War II were relegated to take care of Nazis. Alexis Clark's interview with NPR's Code Switch . The two battles that Black soldiers experienced in WWII (...
Oct 12, 2018•22 min
Maria and Julio talk about the aftermath of the Kavanaugh SCOTUS confirmation, the rise of a populist in Brazil and the conviction of a Chicago police officer for shooting and killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald four years ago. ITT Staff Picks An analysis of why many white women didn't believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, from Rewire.News . This is the tent city built in Texas for the migrant children, from The New York Times. From The Chicago Tribune, the story of the father and son who testified...
Oct 10, 2018•20 min
Maria and Julio talk to In The Thick All-Star Jose Antonio Vargas in this unique, live episode as part of the PEN Out Loud series in New York City. In a very intimate conversation about mental health and the immigrant community, Maria, Julio and Jose Antonio get personal. The live audience also shared their experiences, anxieties and advice. This show was possible thanks to collaboration with PEN America and The Strand bookstore. ITT Staff Picks A researcher explains the mental health toll of un...
Oct 04, 2018•56 min
By confronting Senator Jeff Flake and telling her story of sexual assault, Ana María Archila has become an icon in the midst of the Kavanaugh nomination debate. Maria and Julio talk to Archila about the behind the scenes of her action in Capitol Hill and discuss her next steps. ITT Staff Picks “It was the elevator pitch that altered the trajectory of American history.” Read this op-ed from Philly.com about Maria Gallagher and Archila’s action. Here’s Why White Women Are Abandoning the GOP (From ...
Oct 01, 2018•23 min
During the nomination process for the next Supreme Court Justice, on Thursday we witnessed courage when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford gave her testimony against Brett Kavanaugh. Maria and Julio reflect on what this moment meant for women and all victims of sexual abuse in the country. ITT Staff Picks Check out this thread of tweets by sociologist Nicole Bedera on adolescent sexual violence. From Vox : the Kavanaugh hearing showed how little has changed since Anita Hill. The Kavanaugh hearing might m...
Sep 28, 2018•32 min
One of the most contentious issues has been determining the number of the people who died because of Hurricane Maria. Julio traveled to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the anniversary of the tragedy to speak with Omaya Sosa, investigative reporter and co-founder of the Centro de Periodismo Investigativo, the media institution that has been leading the reporting on the death count on the ground for the past year. ITT Staff Picks The Centro de Periodismo Investigativo worked to find the names and storie...
Sep 25, 2018•26 min
A year ago, Hurricane Maria destroyed Puerto Rico. The past 12 months have brought disorganized recovery efforts, an estimated thousands of deaths and an island that refuses to let go of its resiliency. In The Thick is dedicating a two-part special series to honor this tragic anniversary. In Part 1, Maria and Julio talk to two Puerto Rican journalists: Arelis Hernández , from The Washington Post, and Bianca Padró Ocasio , from The Orlando Sentinel, who've both been covering the impact of Hurrica...
Sep 20, 2018•46 min
The #MMIWG (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls) movement has been gaining momentum in the U.S. and Canada, as Indigenous women call for an end to targeted violence. Maria and Julio speak about this widespread issue with Annita Lucchesi , a Southern Cheyenne cartographer who has built the largest database of missing and murdered Indigenous women, and Jenni Monet , an independent journalist and tribal member of the Pueblo of Laguna. ITT Staff Picks The Intercept on how politicians are...
Sep 18, 2018•35 min
For this LIVE In The Thick in Los Angeles, Maria sat down with Judy Reyes from Scrubs and Claws, USC professor and author Manuel Pastor, and one of our ITT All-Stars, comedian Cristela Alonzo, to discuss California as a leader in promoting immigrant rights, diversity, and social justice. ITT Staff Picks James Fallows reviews Manuel Pastor's latest book, State of Resistance (NY Times). Cristela Alonzo's profile on NPR , from 2012. Judy Reyes talks about her character and representing the LGBTQ co...
Sep 14, 2018•45 min
Algorithms, social media and technology are increasingly becoming a risk for communities of color. Maria and Julio talk about zeroes and ones with Surya Mattu , researcher with The MIT Center for Civic Media, and Jazmine Ulloa , reporter for the Los Angeles Times. ITT Staff Picks How online trolls are using immigration as political wedge for midterms, Jazmine's latest for the Los Angeles Times. Machine bias in the court system, ProPublica's investigation that Surya was a part of Meet the activis...
Sep 11, 2018•36 min
It's another intense week in Washington, D.C., and Maria and Julio are back to break down the latest. They talk about the chaotic Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, what the end of the Flores Agreement means for minors crossing the border and, of course, the New York Times op-ed on resistance within the White House. ITT Staff Picks Of course, here it is in case you haven't read it already, the NYT's piece "I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration." "Whose...
Sep 07, 2018•20 min
Julio and Maria talk with Arjun Singh Sethi , a civil rights lawyer, writer and law professor who interviewed 13 survivors of hate crimes and edited their testimonies for his new book American Hate: Survivors Speak Out . ITT Staff Picks Why does the U.S. fail at gathering hate crime stats? ProPublica explains. HuffPost's story on the tragedy of the Jabara family and the rise of Islamophobia. America Ferrera writes about Jeanette Vizguerra in the latest 100 Most Influential People list from TIME....
Sep 04, 2018•33 min
In this rebroadcast episode from earlier this year, Maria and Julio are joined by Shelby Chestnut, National Organizing and Policy Strategist with Transgender Law Center, and Verónica Bayetti Flores, freelance writer and co-host of Radio Menea. They discuss the LGBT rights movement and how the media can do a better job of covering the LGBT community. ITT Staff Picks: Check out Latino USA's Interview with the stars of FX's 'Pose.' Read about The New York Times' coverage of LGBT candidates running ...
Aug 31, 2018•26 min
Back in February, Maria and Julio sat down with immigration activist Ravi Ragbir, who had endured what a federal judge called an "unnecessarily cruel" detainment and was threatened with a scheduled deportation. Since then, Ravi has been granted a stay from a New Jersey judge. But earlier this month, he was back in court in New York, fighting to be granted a second stay in hopes of preventing his new scheduled deportation date, September 7, 2018. With the recent updates to Ravi's case, In The Thi...
Aug 28, 2018•22 min
In 2008, ICE agents descended on a small rural town in Iowa for their largest operation in the history of the United States. As a result, the population of Postville was slashed almost in half and its economy collapsed. Maria and Julio talk to Almudena Toral and Ronny Rojas , two of the journalists behind a new documentary from Univision detailing the aftermath of the raid. ITT Staff Picks Watch the full documentary on Postville, at the Univision site for free (available in English and Spanish)....
Aug 24, 2018•27 min
A year after the tragedy of Charlottesville and just days after the Unite The Right 2 Rally, Julio talks with returning ITT guest Mike German, a former FBI agent who once infiltrated white supremacy groups undercover. ITT Staff Picks The Atlantic on how white nationalists are winning. Unite The Right 2 could be called a failure, but it's not time to claim victory, according to a former NYPD officer . Pop Culture Collab puts the focus on white nationalism , rather than white supremacists, in this...
Aug 21, 2018•36 min
Maria and Julio talk about the work of Michael Avenatti (Stormy Daniels' attorney...and future 2020 presidential candidate, maybe?) to reunite immigrant families. His clients are parents who have been deported, and whose kids are still in the U.S., so his approach is to send the kids back to their home countries to be reunited. This is a controversial strategy that has been criticized by many long-time immigration lawyers. They also call up immigration attorney, Amy Maldonado, for her expertise ...
Aug 17, 2018•13 min
Maria and Julio catch up with all-star Terrell Jermaine Starr, senior reporter at The Root, and Jane Coaston, senior politics reporter at Vox. They talk the latest with conspiracy theories, Paul Manafort's white male hubris, Unite the Right 2 and how Omarosa's drama could threaten cybersecurity. ITT Staff Picks: Jane's latest for Vox about what the Unite the Right 2 rally tells us about white supremacy in the United States. Terrell's coverage of the Paul Manafort trial for The Root. A look at Pa...
Aug 14, 2018•37 min
Maria and Julio talk about the role of POC journalism in the Trump era including the latest revelations on the death toll in Puerto Rico caused by Hurricane Maria, the National Association of Black Journalists' latest resolution and the silent departure of one of the few Latinx in The White House. Want more? - If you don't know her, you should absolutely read this New York Times obituary of Ida B. Wells (published recently to compensate for a racist oversight for not publishing this when she die...
Aug 10, 2018•19 min
Maria and Julio catch up with immigration organizers Cristina Jiménez, executive director of United We Dream, and Grecia Lima, national political director of The Center for Community Change. They talk about the latest court decision on DACA, the recent white supremacist rally in Portland and The Washington Post's problematic coverage of white minorities in rural Pennsylvania. Want more? The Nation explains the movement to divest from companies that are making money out of immigration enforcement...
Aug 07, 2018•45 min
This week, the American Immigration Lawyers Association reported that a migrant toddler died shortly after being released from an ICE detention center in Dilley, Texas. There are 11,000 kids are living in these detention facilities across the country. Maria and Julio talk with immigration attorney, Amy Maldonado about the immigration detention centers and what she calls our immigration "kangaroo courts." Want more? The Intercept's story on the two Brazilian boys represented by Amy Maldonado. The...
Aug 03, 2018•19 min
Maria and Julio talk about the news with two all-stars: Callie Crossley, host of Under the Radar on WGBH Radio, and Gabby Rivera, writer, artist, activist and our resident nerdberger. They discuss midterm elections, the latest on immigration policy and the spike of racist hate crimes in the United States. Want more? According to the ACLU, migrant parents were forced to sign papers that they couldn't read (from The Hill). From WBRU, Could Democrats Be Thwarted again in these Midterms? Bad conditi...
Jul 31, 2018•44 min
It all started with deadly, violent protests against the Nicaraguan government, but did it really? In this special ITT EXTRA, Julio catches up with Latino USA producer Sayre Quevedo to hear the behind the scenes of his reporting for his latest explainer . Want to read more? The crisis in images, from the BBC . Nicaragua is near a catastrophe, according to The Washington Post . The New York Times explains the increasingly important role of the church in the protests. For information regarding you...
Jul 27, 2018•16 min
Four weeks ago, no one knew her name, but now she gives hope for progressives across the country (and around the world). Julio and Maria talk to Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about why she decided to run for Congress and what the future will bring for her and the Democratic Party. Want to read more? Are Alexandria's endorsements of Democratic insurgents paying off ? How some Democrats are rethinking their own party . Learn more about what Alexandria mentioned: that 60% Puerto Ricans were denied FEMA ...
Jul 24, 2018•38 min
She was the first Latina to run for vice president with the Green Party in 2008, but Rosa Clemente has long been organizing for political and social change. Maria and Julio talk to Rosa about her organizing work, the rap industrial complex and her independent reporting on the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Want to read/watch more? Rosa talks to Rolling Stone about why she didn't participate in the Puerto Rican Day Parade. Watch the mini-doc Puerto Rising, made by Rosa's collective ...
Jul 20, 2018•22 min
