Who Is?

In some ways, George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who turns 90 this week, is the sum of the worst horrors and greatest triumphs of the twentieth century. A survivor of World War II who narrowly escaped Nazi concentration camps, Soros would escape totalitarianism twice, making his way to London on the eve of the Soviet occupation of his hometown, Budapest, Hungary. Soros went on to become one of the financial titans of global capitalism, a ruthless hedge fund manager whose aggressive currency speculation infamously broke the Bank of England. As he amassed an immense fortune, Soros would spend $32B on his Open Society Foundation, an organization through which he seeks to nourish liberal democracy worldwide. It’s that very work in support of democracy which has led Soros to become the reviled target of both Western antidemocratic conservatism and Eastern antiliberalism. On this episode of Who Is?, Sean Morrow explores the story of one of the most loved--and loathed--people on the planet.

• Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford and senior fellow at Stanford University, who has been writing about the transition to democracy in Eastern Europe for 40 years
• Hannes Grassegger, an investigative reporter based in Bern, Switzerland, who focuses on digital power and information warfare
• Kati Marton, a Hungarian born writer, journalist, and activist. Marton is currently working on her tenth book, a biography of Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel
• Emily Tamkin, U.S. editor and Washington correspondent at The New Statesman, a political and cultural magazine based in the United Kingdom. Tamkin's new book, “The Influence of Soros: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for an Open Society,” is available now

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the defining characteristics of the modern nation state is that the state has a monopoly on the use of force. In the United States, police officers are a manifestation of this agreement, to which we are all parties--whether we like it or not--and that is perhaps one reason among many why the apparent lack of accountability that seemingly pervades incidents of police misconduct is so troubling: it throws into question the terms of the social contract. There’s a lot to talk about here, but when it comes to accountability, or lack thereof, there’s a story to be told about money, politics, and power, and that story is playing out in cities across the country, and is visible not only in the contracts that police unions negotiate with the cities who employ them, but in the role police unions play in local politics. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow tackles police unions, and goes to St. Louis to see how reform continues to unfold in the metro, nearly seven years after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson.

• Phillip Atiba Goff, a Professor of African-American Studies and Psychology at Yale University. Dr. Goff is a co-Founder of the Center for Policing Equity, a research organization that promotes data-informed approaches to police transparency, equity, and accountability
• Stephen Rushin, a Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he teaches criminal law, evidence, and police accountability
• Blake Strode, Executive Director of ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit civil rights law firm based in St. Louis, Missouri
• Retired Sergeant Heather Taylor, a 20-year veteran of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Taylor was previously President of the Ethical Society of Police, a police association in St. Louis

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rebekah Mercer may be the most powerful woman in conservative politics today, and she’s never held--and probably will never run for--elected office. Since 2004, Rebekah Mercer has been the director of the Mercer Family Foundation, which means for nearly twenty years she has been one of the key people who is in charge of how her father Robert Mercer’s vast fortune is spent. And following the Citizens United decision in 2010, millions of dollars of that vast fortune have been dedicated to American politics, and primarily to American politics on the far right. The Mercers have played a major role in the contemporary rise of the far right, and from Cambridge Analytica to Kellyanne Conway, Rebekah Mercer and her father were instrumental in the election of President Donald Trump. But after Trump won, it was Rebekah who was named to his transition team. In 2021, however, Trump’s election almost feels like ancient history, and the real question is what will Rebekah Mercer do next, and what does that mean for the rest of us and our democracy?

• Brendan Fischer, Director of Federal Reform at the Campaign Legal Center
• Jane Mayer, Chief Washington Correspondent at The New Yorker, and author of several books, including “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right”

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful woman in the United States. The first woman to lead the House of Representatives--and third in line to the presidency--she’s passed landmark legislation like the Affordable Care Act; has been the legislative partner, or adversary, of three presidents; and is playing a decisive role in the impeachment of President Trump. All that, and she didn’t even hold elected office until she was 47, after she had raised five children. Whatever your politics, this is Nancy Pelosi’s moment. Join Sean Morrow for this not-to-be-missed look at the woman who is, arguably, the leader of the democratic party.

• John Lawrence, former Pelosi Chief of Staff; Visiting Professor at the University of California's Washington Center; author of The Class of '74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship
• Paul Kane, Senior Congressional Correspondent and Columnist at the Washington Post
• Stephanie L. Young, former White House Senior Public Engagement Advisor in the Office of Public Engagement

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the United States, political power is allocated when Americans go to the polls and vote for the candidates whom they believe will best represent their interests in government. For that reason, access to the ballot has been restricted--and contested--since the early days of democracy, with each expansion of the electorate met by measures to suppress the vote. Democracy, it seems, has always been for some, but not others. On this episode of “Who Is?,” join Sean Morrow for a conversation on voter suppression in the aftermath of Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act and upended how Americans vote. Featuring three women who fight for voting rights nationwide: Stacey Abrams, Lydia Camarillo, and Natalie Landreth.

• Stacey Abrams, 2018 Democratic candidate for Governor of Georgia and former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives. She’s the founder of Fair Fight and Fair Count, and her new book is, “Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America”
• Lydia Camarillo, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and William C. Velasquez Institute
• Natalie Landreth, a senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices