Strike the Anvil

The next several years saw a national onslaught of police shootings and killings of black men.

Michael Brown

Walter Scott

Freddie Gray

Laquan McDonald

Philando Castile

Terence Crutcher

Every news story and article left me with more questions than I had before. I had little knowledge of the racial disparities in our criminal justice system. I didn’t understand the legal and political underpinnings of stop and frisk in black communities. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure what the police were and were not allowed or supposed to do in the course of their duty. I had never needed to consider it.

These two podcasts were my primer to the American criminal justice system -- its historical underpinnings, current practices, and reform movements of the past, present, and future. Coupled with Slavery by Another Name by Douglas Blackmon and The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander, these productions would make one hell of a college course.

Sources: Controversial Police Encounters Fast Facts from CNN.com

Host and Pitt Law professor Davis Harris, along with producers Megan Harris (no relation) and Josh Raulerson, put together approachable and substantial conversations with the leading legal minds, activists, and working professionals in the criminal justice system. I’ve been burning through Criminal Injustice for just over a year and now I wish I would have taken notes just to review. In addition to their regular interviews with university researchers, social scientists, investigative journalists, civil rights litigators, et al., Professor Harris frequently drops in with news updates, stories of “Lawyers Behaving Badly,” and a new “Ask Dave” feature where listeners can submit questions.

Topics range from police shootings of civilians, to bail reform, to death sentences for minors, and even brief updates from headline stories like the Bill Cosby trial or the Russia election meddling investigations. Drawing from his own personal store of knowledge and coaxing clear, context-setting explanations from his guests, Harris makes you wonder if interview journalism isn’t just the perfect moonlighting gig for an experienced courtroom attorney and celebrated educator.

Check out:

Episode 52: The Conservative Case for Criminal Justice Reform

Episode 69: Discussion of Juvenile Justice with Marsha Levick, deputy director and chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia.

Impactful and important stories have a way of forcing their own telling. Nigel Poor was working as a volunteer teacher and developing a radio program at San Quentin State Prison when she met Earlonne, who was and is serving a lengthy sentence there. Since then, the two have built one of the most engrossing and enlightening podcast projects out there. Through their conversations with each other, other San Quentin inmates, inmate’s families, and victims of violent crime, Poor and Woods bring the isolating world of prison just a bit closer to those of us on the outside. Further, they do so without sensationalizing prison life or losing sight of the individuals faced with living it.

Content aside, that a show like this can exist at all is remarkable. Earlonne and Nigel brilliantly navigate circumstances that would spell doom for most collaborations. As reported in New York Times Magazine in 2012, Earlonne is unable to email with Nigel and phone calls are limited. Long lockdowns, some as long as six weeks, can prevent the two from communicating at all. Poor and Woods counter these difficulties with copious note-taking and seriously skilled dialogue as they reveal insights about sex and marriage in prison, cell mates, race relations, sex trafficking, going home, and more. No less impressive is the way they both humbly and honestly confront the fact that one of them gets to go home and one of them does not.

Ear Hustle was featured in the New York Times Magazine in October of 2017 and has appeared in numerous publications and media sources including The Atlantic, The New Yorker, and Rolling Stone. It’s likely this isn’t the first place you are reading about it but if you haven’t gotten around to listening you might consider giving Ear Hustle priority status.

Check out:

Episode 4: The Shu

Episode 13: Dirty Water

One would be fairly safe in saying that we have more access to health information now than at any other time in human history. Brain health is no exception. In fact, the brain recently seems to be having quite a moment in the spotlight. There are mindfulness apps, brain training games, sleep trackers, and a host of Ted Talks all aimed at keeping the brain healthy and at peak performance. Admittedly, it’s difficult to sort through the deluge of recent advancements in neuroscience, not to mention determining what’s actually supported by research.

Gray Matters, a recently released podcast from the team at the Ross Center for Brain Health and Performance at Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center, brings a reasoned, highly informed voice to a very noisy conversation. Host Liel Leibovitz holds engaging and richly informative conversations with some of the top minds on, well, the mind. Episode one, titled “Welcome to Your Brain (6 min.),” opens the first season with a discussion on the current state of the research with Dr. Per Sederberg, a professor of psychology and widely respected neuroscientist at the University of Virginia. Other highlights include a frank analysis of current research on mindfulness and how it is being improved at OSU with Dr. Ruchika Prakash (plus a bonus mini-meditation!) as well as an almost “too close to home” conversation on the effects of stress on domestic relationships with Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, doctor and professor of psychology and psychiatry at OSU. The season wraps up with the remarkable story of Ian Burkhart, a young man faced with quadriplegia after a diving accident, and his journey to the boundaries of medical discovery and our understanding of the brain and spine.

With so much information coming from so many different sources, Gray Matters is a welcome reprieve. Accessible discussions with highly-regarded and currently practicing clinicians and researchers are needed now more than ever. A second season is already being rumored and is most welcome.