Shorenstein Center Media and Politics Podcast

Kristen Soltis Anderson, pollster and co-founder of Echelon Insights, author of The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America (And How Republicans Can Keep Up), and co-host of The Pollsters, a bipartisan weekly podcast, joined Nicco Mele to discuss how millennial voters might impact the midterm elections, cultural attitudes towards the Kavanaugh hearings, and how young people view the Republican Party.

This Shorenstein Center Media & Politics Podcast was recorded September 24, 2018.

This podcast features conversations with journalists from three of the six finalists for the 2018 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting: the Asbury Park Press, BuzzFeed News, and a collaboration between STAT and the Boston Globe. We’ll hear from the other three finalists later this week, and you can find more information and links to each investigate story by visiting goldsmithawards.org.

Conversations with:

STAT and The Boston Globe David Armstrong and Evan Allen The Addiction TradeSTAT and The Boston Globe exposed treatment centers, middlemen, and consultants that exploited people seeking addiction treatment, and has led to criminal and congressional probes. Stories ranged from insurance fraud schemes, to poor care at Recovery Centers of America, to patient health put at risk on the TV program Dr. Phil.

BuzzFeed News Melissa Segura Broken Justice In ChicagoBuzzFeed News investigated a Chicago detective accused by the community of framing more than 50 people for murder. The findings from the series led to the freeing of an innocent man from prison after 23 years, and authorities reviewed the cases of other prisoners.

Asbury Park Press Shannon Mullen and Payton Guion Renter Hell This investigation exposed the hazardous living conditions of thousands of tenants in New Jersey’s government-supported housing. As a result, the state issued more than 1,800 violations, and two state senators introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at fixing many of the issues brought to light in the series.

Cathy O’Neil, data scientist and author of the new book Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, discussed how some algorithms can have an invisible, but important and destructive impact on people’s lives. Decisions about employment, criminal sentencing, and many other areas are now influenced by algorithms and big data. This is a serious problem, argues O’Neil, as there is little transparency about how these systems are constructed or used. This Shorenstein Center Speaker Series event was recorded October 4, 2016, at Harvard Kennedy School.

Hosts: Erica Licht and Nikhil Raghuveera

Featuring: Christopher Bruce (ACLU of Georgia) and Nse Ufot (New Georgia Project) 

The Untying Knots Podcast explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systems of oppression and working towards a more equitable future. In this episode of Untying Knots, Erica Licht and Nikhil Raguveera take a closer look at the history of institutional racism in US voting, as well as its specific iterations in the state of Georgia. Their conversations with key staff at the ACLU of Georgia and the New Georgia Project reveal how the two organizations are amplifying the voices of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color voters, and striving to eliminate racist barriers in current and future elections.

Untying Knots is supported by the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center and the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project. Thanks to Christopher Bruce, Nse Ufot, LaTosha Brown, Sanhitha Raghuveeera, and Dr. Megan Ming Francis.

Learn More:

ACLU of Georgia: https://www.acluga.org/

New Georgia Project: https://newgeorgiaproject.org/

Music:

Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

In "Toxic City: Sick Schools" The Philadelphia Inquirer revealed unsafe conditions in Philadelphia’s rundown public schools, with children forced to learn in buildings rife with mold, asbestos and flaking and peeling lead paint. By scouring maintenance logs and conducting scientific testing inside 19 elementary schools, and engaging teachers and parents in their reporting, the Inquirer built a comprehensive database of the shocking conditions putting children at risk on a daily basis.

Read the reporting: http://media.philly.com/storage/special_projects/lead-paint-poison-children-asbestos-mold-schools-philadelphia-toxic-city.html

In this episode of the Shorenstein Center podcast, Heidi Legg talks to reporters Wendy Ruderman, Barbara Laker, and Dylan Purcell, along with Investigations Editor Jim Neff, about how they found and analyzed data, tracked an expanding web of problems, and eventually uncovered the vast number of health hazards across the city's school system.

This episode is part of the Shorenstein Center's special series of interviews with the finalists for the 2019 Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Journalism. The Goldsmith Prize winner will be announced at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government on March 12, 2019.

Music provided by ExtremeMusic.com