O ur host and our staff have remained dedicated to one thing: bringing you, the listeners, a quality news and information show. Unfortunately, in February, The Takeaway staff found out that WNYC executives planned to cancel the show. The last day of the show was June 2nd, 2023. No official press release or external communications from NYPR mentions the end of the show, so in this episode, we address it head on with our former executive producer and current Executive Editor for GBH News, Lee Hill...
Jun 02, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Ep 74•Transcript available on Metacast Rounding out our Producer Appreciation Weeks, intern David Escobar and host Melissa Harris-Perry look back at some of the stories he’s produced for The Takeaway: Does The Indian Child Welfare Act Hang in Peril? ; An Enduring American Pastime: The State Fair ; Working Out the Four-Day Work Week ; Healing Trauma Through Nature in Wildcat ; How A Doll Became a Queer Icon in M3GAN "David Escobar is a senior at Fordham University, double majoring in Journalism and Digital Technology & Emerging Media....
May 31, 2023•45 min•Ep 73•Transcript available on Metacast David Gebel spent many years working as a singer and actor, and in between shows would work as a temp at various corporate jobs. Little did he know that all those acquired office skills would help him end up at WNYC, initially supporting Radiolab, and then expanding his work to also include supporting The Takeaway and the podcast More Perfect. David focuses on the paperwork, the scheduling and the business support tasks, so that everyone else can focus on making great audio, but David was also i...
May 31, 2023•6 min•Ep 72•Transcript available on Metacast "Atlanta influences everything." As part of our Producer Appreciation Weeks, Host Melissa Harris-Perry talks with the professionals behind the scenes who bring you the stories you love. Digital producer Zachary Bynum is a resident of Atlanta who's worked remotely with The Takeaway for the last 2 years. He produces, edits, and publishes all of our social media content, webpages, and podcasts. Zachary has also produced some enterprising coverage on the show, so today we are revisiting some of his ...
May 30, 2023•45 min•Ep 71•Transcript available on Metacast As part of our goodbye to The Takeaway , Melissa Harris-Perry sits down with the beautiful folks behind the scenes who make the show happen every day! Today, we're highlighting the work of producer, Monica Morales-Garcia , by listening back to a few of her favorite segments: "Black Maternal Health Week Comes to an End" "Hospice Care Is Plagued by Exploitation" "Brittney Johnson is Spellbinding" "Keyla Monterroso Mejia is Taking the Lead" "Now, Who Speaks [non-English]? " Monica joined The Takeaw...
May 29, 2023•48 min•Ep 70•Transcript available on Metacast As part of our farewell to The Takeaway, host Melissa Harris-Perry sits down with the people behind the scenes who make The Takeaway happen. Today, we're taking a look at some of the work done by Cat Sposato while here on the show. Some of her favorite segments include: Unpacking the Parkland Shooter Verdict A Conversation with MacArthur Fellow Kiese Laymon Hurricanes, Puerto Rico and Bad Bunny's "El Apagón" The Polarizing Popularity of Pickleball Cat joined The Takeaway team in September 2022, ...
May 26, 2023•49 min•Ep 69•Transcript available on Metacast We continue our Producer Appreciation Weeks with Host Melissa Harris-Perry , who peels back the curtain and speaks with the talented folks that make The Takeaway every day. Today we're highlighting some of Morgan Givens ' favorite segments produced during his time with The Takeaway : What Makes a Black Man Electric Literature Editor-in-Chief Denne Michele Norris Makes History and Makes Space Award Winning Poet Danez Smith Rises to the Top Why Titus Kaphar Won't "Shut Up and Paint" Level Up: Acce...
May 25, 2023•50 min•Ep 68•Transcript available on Metacast As part of our farewell to The Takeaway, Melissa Harris-Perry sits down with the folks behind the scenes who make the show happen every day. Today, we're highlighting the work of Mary Steffenhagen — an award-winning investigative journalist and producer who joined The Takeaway just over a year ago — by listening back to a few of her favorite segments: • "When Women’s Survival is Criminalized" and "Corrections in Ink" • "A Culture of Abuse and Cover-Ups in the Southern Baptist Convention" • "How ...
May 24, 2023•47 min•Ep 67•Transcript available on Metacast We continue our Producer Appreciation Weeks with Host Melissa Harris-Perry , who peels back the curtain and speaks with the talented folks that make The Takeaway every day. Producer Ryan Wilde got his first taste of radio in an unlikely place: 104.5 Ice Radio in Antarctica. After beginning his public radio career as an intern, and then producer for The Brian Lehrer Show , he also had a stop in Illinois to produce The 21st , a daily, statewide show produced by Illinois Public Media . After return...
May 23, 2023•50 min•Ep 66•Transcript available on Metacast As part of our Producer Appreciation Weeks, Host Melissa Harris-Perry talks with the professionals behind the scenes who bring you the stories you value and the shows you love. Producer Katerina Barton revisits some of her favorite segments that she's produced throughout the past two years on The Takeaway: Gordon Plaza Residents Fight for Relocation from Toxic Land What is Driving the Truck Driver Shortage? What Does Queer Mean? Holiday Movie Prescriptions The Savannah Bananas Play Ball Katerina...
May 22, 2023•52 min•Ep 65•Transcript available on Metacast You might not know this about our Line Producer Jackie Martin, but she is an Air Force Veteran who served from 2000-2005. On The Takeaway, she has produced segments about “Other Than Honorably” Discharged LGBTQ+ Veterans who were discriminated against and discharged due solely to their sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status. On top of that, she has coproduced a number of other segments about sports , politics , and culture. " After she left the AirForce she began her career in radio, ...
May 19, 2023•13 min•Ep 61•Transcript available on Metacast Over the years, The Takeaway has seen a long list of rotating staff made up of intrepid, outspoken journalists and producers. That list does not include Vince Fairchild who is a 'Takeaway veteran' in every sense of the word. Vince has worked as a broadcast engineer on the show since its first year on air in 2008 and now serves as our Senior Broadcast Engineer. "H e fact checks like no other. He sound designs with mastery. And he’s so good that when our Director Jay Cowit is out, Vince slides rig...
May 19, 2023•15 min•Ep 63•Transcript available on Metacast As the Takeaway comes to an end, we get one last set of movie prescriptions from Kristen Meinzer, a culture critic and host of the podcast " By The Book " and Rafer Guzman, a film critic for Newsday, and they bring us movie prescriptions about embracing change and fresh starts. Together Kristen and Rafer are the co-hosts of the podcast, Movie Therapy . KRISTEN’S PICKS: Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar, 2021 When middle aged best friends Barb and Star lose their jobs, they decide that a restorat...
May 19, 2023•23 min•Ep 62•Transcript available on Metacast We went behind-the-scenes with our control room team: Jay Cowit , Vince Fairchild and Jackie Martin to find out how The Takeaway gets made every day. Then, we got a 1-on-1 conversation between show host Melissa Harris-Perry and Director Jay Cowit who's been working on the Sound design of The Takeaway for nearly 15 years now. "Jay has been with The Takeaway since its on-air inception in 2008, and has been the Show Director, Technical Director, and sound designer since 2009...He is responsible for...
May 19, 2023•24 min•Ep 64•Transcript available on Metacast Original Air Date: August 30, 2022 More than 55,000 people across the U.S. are incarcerated with the sentence of life without the possibility of parole. This population been rising sharply in the past few decades, with an increase of 66% since 2003, according to research by The Sentencing Project. For those who are sentenced to live and die behind prison walls, there is a sense that they have been forgotten. B ut a new project is documenting some of their stories: The Visiting Room Project featu...
May 18, 2023•24 min•Ep 60•Transcript available on Metacast On Friday, June 2, we will broadcast our final episode. As we head into these final days, we are taking the time to pause and show a little gratitude for the extraordinary team of producers who make The Takeaway every day. Today, we are hailing our Senior Producer: Shanta Covington. Shanta and Takeaway host Melissa Harris-Perry have been working on media projects together for over a decade now. They first met when Melissa worked as a tv host on MSNBC's MHP Show (2012-2016). Shanta was a guest bo...
May 18, 2023•22 min•Ep 59•Transcript available on Metacast Ruth E. Carter made history when she became the first Black costume designer to win an Oscar, and the first Black woman to win two Oscars, both for her work on Marvel’s Black Panther franchise . She’s been the premier designer for movies that portray iconic Black characters and cultures for three decades, having worked with the likes of Spike Lee, Denzel Washington and Ava DuVernay even before her Black Panther triumphs. Carter recounts pivotal moments and reflects on her career in a new book, "...
May 17, 2023•15 min•Ep 57•Transcript available on Metacast The mounting death toll from the opioid crisis in the United States continues to wreak havoc in cities, towns, and rural communities across the nation. Over the past two decades, the number of people dying from opioid overdoses in New York , and across the United States , are rising each year. But there is something that some public health experts say could help. Narcan, the brand name for the drug naloxone, is an overdose prevention tool that anyone can use. It’s a simple nasal spray , it's leg...
May 17, 2023•17 min•Ep 58•Transcript available on Metacast A group of dancers working at the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar in North Hollywood , Los Angeles, just won their battle to form the only current union for strippers in the country. Since being locked out on the job in March 2022, the dancers held a strike and picket for eight months before officially voting to unionize with Actors' Equity in November. But club management challenged the vote, prompting the National Labor Relations Board to set a hearing for May 15, 2023. Yet over this past weekend...
May 17, 2023•15 min•Ep 56•Transcript available on Metacast The Writers Guild of America, which has over 11-thousand members, is entering week its third week of a work stoppage . This is the first strike in 15 years, and comes at a time when the TV and film industry has seen some major changes in recent years. Amongst their demands, writers are seeking higher wages, better residuals, and assurances on the use of AI. First we hear from Monice Mitchell Simms , TV writer, screenwriter, author, producer and a member of the Writers Guild of America, who has b...
May 16, 2023•9 min•Ep 55•Transcript available on Metacast Under the covid era immigration policy, Title 42 had expelled and turned away 2.6 million people at the U.S. Southern border without question. But that has not stopped the tens of thousands of migrants from gathering along the Southern border, hoping to be allowed to remain in the United States while awaiting a court date. While the Biden administration has rejected comparisons to the Trump administration, now as Title 42 measures have been lifted new asylum rules have been put into place. Causi...
May 16, 2023•14 min•Ep 54•Transcript available on Metacast Sunday marked one year since the racist mass shooting in Buffalo. Melissa Harris-Perry sits down with Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown to reflect on the tragedy and discuss how the city is coping right now. The tragic shooting is one of several disturbing massacres motivated by hate that have occurred in recent years. But the history of race based violence dates back to the beginning of what is now the United States, and some of the recent racially motivated attacks call to mind some of the racist viol...
May 15, 2023•16 min•Ep 53•Transcript available on Metacast Original Air Date: May 6, 2022 Motherhood and its many meanings and expectations are created and experienced within the particular realities of our society and history. And to better understand some of our shared national history with mothering we sat down with Professor Michele Goodwin of the University of California-Irvine who is author of the book Policing the Womb: Invisible Women and the Criminalization of Motherhood....
May 12, 2023•18 min•Ep 52•Transcript available on Metacast We discuss what motherhood looks like when mothers and children are separated by borders, and how these families challenge Western stereotypes about what "good" motherhood is. We speak with Gabrielle Oliveira , associate professor at Harvard's Graduate School of Education and the author of "Motherhood Across Borders: Immigrants and their Children in Mexico and in New York City."
May 12, 2023•9 min•Ep 51•Transcript available on Metacast Harpist Ashley Jackson seeks to shatter the traditionally narrow definition of "classical music," highlight Black history and pay homage to Black composers. Jackson, an Assistant Professor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies for the Music Department at Hunter College, views the harp as a vehicle for storytelling . In a recent performance at New York City's Lincoln Center called "Take Me To The Water," Jackson explored the role and symbolism of water in Black stories. Her upcoming album, " ...
May 11, 2023•9 min•Ep 48•Transcript available on Metacast On May 8th, 2023, Community Change Action, a nonprofit organization that aims to “dramatically improve material conditions for people struggling to make ends meet in the United States,” launched its “A Day Without Childcare” action. Thousands of parents, families and childcare providers came together to push for equitable access to childcare. Co-President of Community Change and friend of the show, Dorian Warren, joins The Takeaway to discuss this action.
May 11, 2023•27 min•Ep 50•Transcript available on Metacast Washington state has long led on progressive policies and reform. In late April, Washington Governor Jay Inslee signed a package of bills to address gun violence . House Bill 1240 prohibits the manufacture, importation, distribution, and sale of assault-style weapons in Washington. Two additional measures require a 10 day waiting period and a training requirement for all gun purchases were also signed by the Governor. We speak with Governor Jay Inslee about the legislation, and hear how Washingt...
May 11, 2023•14 min•Ep 49•Transcript available on Metacast Nebraska state senator from Omaha, Machaela Cavanaugh, promised to filibuster every bill that comes before the legislature this year — even those she supports. Why? She’s trying to stop a bill intended to outlaw gender-affirming care for people 18 and under. Senator Cavanaugh has been filibustering since February 23 and halfway through the legislative session in March, she’d managed to prevent even a single bill from passing. Her work took on a new urgency this week when Republicans introduced a...
May 10, 2023•15 min•Ep 46•Transcript available on Metacast Last week, Jordan Neely, a talented dancer whose impersonations of Michael Jackson made fans of many who watched him perform, was killed by a white former Marine on the New York City subway. Before the marine put Jordan in a chokehold that killed him, he’d been crying out for food. In the depths of despair, he said he wanted to die. But, what he needed was help. Countless others believe Jordan Neely should be alive today. Protests have rocked the city’s subways on behalf of a young man whose men...
May 10, 2023•16 min•Ep 47•Transcript available on Metacast After speaking out on the Montana House floor against a bill that would restrict gender-affirming health care, Rep. Zooey Zephyr was censured by the legislative body. Zephyr, the state’s first openly transgender representative, will be barred from attending in-person debates and voting on legislation for the rest of the legislative session. That’s because Zephyr’s lawsuit against the Montana House, claiming her censorship violated her First Amendment rights, was denied by a Montana District judg...
May 10, 2023•24 min•Ep 45•Transcript available on Metacast 
