Episode description

This week Farai Chideya explores Black gun ownership with journalist Trymaine Lee, and takes the pulse of voters in California with Representative Karen Bass. A pediatrician helps us understand how to support kids through the pandemic, and a former Secret Service agent gives us tips for staying safe at the polls. Plus, one writer’s escape to Paris.

Episode Rundown

0:35 Joe Biden’s campaign raised two million dollars after David Perdue’s exaggerated mispronunciation of running mate Kamala Harris’s name.

2:00 Farai talks to journalist Trymaine Lee about the increasing numbers of Black gun owners, a subject he spoke about on his MSNBC podcast Into America.

8:02 Lee talks about the risks associated with being a Black man with a gun. “While America has always been a very violent, very dangerous place, where guns are lionized, guns are worshiped, just not in the hands of Black folks.” Lee says.

8:39 Representative Karen Bass of California talks about voter suppression and encourages everyone to vote this upcoming election.

12:47 Political contributor Errin Haines and Farai talk about all things politics: the significance of having a Black woman moderate a presidential debate, the importance of state races, and Florida’s role in the election.

18:15 In the weekly Covid-19 update: the CDC’s new recommendations for avoiding close contact, the rising death rate for Hispanics, and new research on the low risk of transmitting the virus through breast milk.

20:18 Genevieve Daftary, pediatric medical director at Codman Square Health Center in Boston, says she sees increasing rates and intensity of anxiety, depression, and behavioral dysregulation in children since the start of the pandemic.

26:14 Former Secret Service agent Holli Draines gives advice on how to stay safe and secure at the polls and other public places.

28:09 Draines says you should always know your exits, tell people where you’re going, and if you ever feel unsafe, put time and distance between you and the situation.

31:48 Listeners tell us what’s on their minds with our SPEAK platform.

32:57 Liz Hartley, an investor who is also the co-founder of the group Eleven Three, offers tools that track polling lines and help you plan your voting strategy.

36:01 Filpina filmmaker Isabel Sandoval talks with us about her film “Lingua Franca,” a story about a power struggle that defies the tropes of Hollywood, especially when it comes to portraying trans women.

42:20 In our weekly “Good news:” Barbie addresses systemic racism, HBO announces more Euphoria episodes, and civil rights icon Angela Davis appears in the New York Times Style Magazine.

43:18 Author Audrey Edwards talks about her experience leaving the U.S. for Paris, when Donald Trump was elected in 2016. She talks about the freedom and empowerment she felt in her book American Runaway: Black and Free in Paris in the Trump Years.