The Takeaway

 The CDC reports “25-percent of U-S adults” serve as caregivers to those who need support and assistance. Caregivers need support, too. Without a network of support, they face burnout and high levels of stress. We talk with Karen Warner Schueler, author of The Sudden Caregiver about what it means to be a caregiver, and how those who support others can find the support they need for themselves.

Two Ethiopians recently filed a lawsuit against Meta, Facebook's parent company, alleging that the company not only allowed hate speech to spread online during the country's recent civil war — it prioritized hate speech. Facebook’s content moderation practices have been under scrutiny for years, particularly after whistleblower Frances Haugen revealed internal documents that showed Facebook was well aware that its practices for finding and removing hate speech in a number of countries — including Ethiopia — were severely lacking. Will the recent peace deal also mean a reckoning for the social media giant?  We speak with Berhan Taye, a Practitioner Fellow at the Digital Civil Society Lab of Stanford University, researching digital rights and social justice. She's based in Nairobi, Kenya.  Meta answered The Takeaway's request for comment with the following statement: "We have strict rules which outline what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook and Instagram. Hate speech and incitement to violence are against these rules and we invest heavily in teams and technology to help us find and remove this content. Our safety and integrity work in Ethiopia is guided by feedback from local civil society organizations and international institutions. We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise and continue to develop our capabilities to catch violating content in the most widely spoken languages in the country, including Amharic, Oromo, Somali and Tigrinya." To read the full transcript, see above.

As the two-year anniversary of the January 6th insurrection approaches, the new graphic novel 1/6 explores a dystopian alternate history: What if the insurrectionists had been successful and violently overturned the election? We speak with co-author Alan Jenkins, professor of practice at Harvard Law School and co-author of the graphic novel 1/6, about the premise, inspiration, and characters in this alternative historical fiction graphic novel.

It’s been two years since the January 6th, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former president Trump who were attempting to stop the election certification process of Joe Biden’s presidency. Since then, over 900 participants in the mob have been charged with various crimes for their actions that day. The majority have received months of jail time or probation, though a number have caught more severe charges and sentences for offenses such as attacking police officers, obstructing Congress, and seditious conspiracy. The investigation has become the biggest criminal inquiry in the history of the Department of Justice, and federal investigators have signaled they’re in it for the long haul. We’re joined by Alan Feuer, criminal justice reporter covering far-right extremism and political violence at the New York Times.

As of Thursday morning, there is still no speaker of the House. This is the third day of the House of Representatives’ new two-year session, and so far, it is in a state of limbo. House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California failed to secure his bid for House speaker on six separate ballots, which prevents House members from being sworn in or working on any legislative business. In the 2022 midterms, Republicans’ won such a slim majority in the House, that choosing a speaker requires near consensus among the party’s members. But the nearly unprecedented chaos that has ensued this week suggests that there may not be a single Republican party. Instead, the GOP just might be the big tent gathering spot for several loosely affiliated coalitions. A majority of the 20 conservative defectors who are holding the House hostage are part of the House’s right-wing Freedom Caucus. For more we spoke with Nicole Hemmer, political historian at Vanderbilt University and author of "Partisans: The Conservative Revolutionaries Who Remade American Politics in the 1990s." 

The documentary Wildcat follows a pair of conservationists attempting to teach an orphaned ocelot how to adapt to the wild and live on its own. We speak with one of the film's stars, Harry Turner, an ex-British solider who originally went to the Amazon to rehabilitate from combat. We talk about the documentary and Harry’s experience in the Amazon.  

The 2022 FIFA World Cup is expected to draw a record breaking 5 billion viewers. Play kicks off Sunday and all eyes are on the host nation Qatar.  This year's World Cup has been embroiled in controversy from the start, with allegations of corruption and bribery in the process of FIFA awarding the bid to Qatar. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Human rights organizations have called out Qatar over human rights violations against migrant workers who have been building the infrastructure for the World Cup. There are also concerns over freedom of expression and assembly, and discrimination against women and the LGBTQ community in Qatar. Meanwhile, there have been protests and calls for boycotts.  We speak with Roger Bennett, founder of the Men in Blazers media network, and co-author of Gods of Soccer. 

Georgians have less than four weeks before their next election since neither Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock or his challenger Republican Herschel Walker earned 50% or more of the vote, which under state law forces a runoff election. On December 6th the state will once again set out to decide who will fill the Senate seat.  We take a look at the sprint to the election finish line with Stephen Fowler, a political reporter at Georgia Public Broadcasting, and host of the Battleground: Ballot Box podcast.

Protests in Iran continue in response to the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died while in police custody after having been detained for allegedly wearing her hijab incorrectly. Since the protests began in September, HRANA, an Iranian human rights organization, estimates that at least 344 protesters have been killed, and almost 16,000 have been detained.  Last week, in an open letter signed by the vast majority of Iran’s members of Parliament, lawmakers called for "no leniency” against protestors.  The letter reads: “We, the representatives of this nation, ask all state officials, including the Judiciary, to treat those, who waged war (against the Islamic establishment) and attacked people’s life and property like the Daesh (terrorists), in a way that would serve as a good lesson in the shortest possible time.” And on Monday, an Iranian court court issued the first known death sentence to a protester since the demonstrations began in September. The protester was accused of setting a government building on fire and charged with “war against God” and “corruption on Earth.” We speak with Jason Rezaian, Global Opinions Writer for The Washington Post and former Tehran correspondent for The Washington Post.

Teen Vogue hosted it's 5th annual Teen Vogue Summit at Goya Studios in West Hollywood, Los Angeles. "Everybody is just trying to be cool, but there's no such thing as cool," said Karissa Mitchell, Senior Beauty and Fashion Editor of Teen Vogue after hosting a panel of changemakers in the beauty industry.  Karissa said put the panel together "...to inspire the teenagers that are coming up in today's society that you're fine just the way you are. And just don't panic when it comes to beauty. Everybody's having the same struggle, even the people you're trying to impress." The theme of this year's summit was "celebrate, collaborate, create!" and it featured some of the industry's favorite creators, changemakers, and ceiling-breakers. Following the midterm elections, our digital producer and "Senior Gen-Z Correspondent" Zachary Bynum stopped by the Summit for some post-election takeaways on politics, culture, fashion, and self-care. Zach spoke with Versha Sharma, Editor-in-Chief of Teen Vogue; ALOK (they/them), gender nonbinary writer, performing artists, and comedian; and Adwoa Aboah, British supermodel, actor, and founder of Gurls Talk. 

According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 44 children in the U.S. has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder. And almost 5-and-a-half million adults in the U.S. have autism.  And the average age of an autism diagnosis comes at about 4 years and 4 months. But that's not the case for everyone. We speak with Lauren Ober, radio producer and host of The Big Listen from WAMU and NPR, who discovered that she is autistic at the age of 42, and chronicles it in her new podcast, The Loudest Girl in the World.

Last week UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, opened the United Nation's annual climate summit, COP27 meeting this year in Egypt, with a dire warning: "We are in the fight of our lives, and we are losing, Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing, global temperatures keep rising, and our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible. We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator.”At last year's conference in Scotland, countries recommitted to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to limit the rise in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius. Despite these promises, the world is still not on track to meet that goal. Even in this year the earth’s rising temperatures have fueled extreme weather events. It’s poorer nations in the Global South that bear a disproportionate share of the burden. This year some of those nations have intensified demands for wealthier nations to pay climate reparations and establish a “loss and damages fund.” President Joe Biden spoke on Friday and outlined U.S. commitments to cutting methane and carbon emissions, but he stopped short of committing any resources for global “loss and damages” due to the United States role as the world’s second largest producer of of greenhouse gasses.   For more on this we spoke with Jean Su, Energy Justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, the co-author of the report, “The Climate President’s Emergency Powers.” And she is Co-Chair of Climate Action Network International. For full transcript, see above.

Veterans day is about honoring those who served.  Some folks are thinking about parents and grandparents who dedicated their life to service. Many reflect on the hardships veterans have endured, as well as their courage at home and abroad. We asked listeners to tell us about the veterans they hold near and dear in their hearts.   For full transcripts, see above.   

Homelessness among veterans has decreased by 11 percent over the past 2 years.  This represents a decline of more than half since 2010.  But the problem persists in some particularly challenging communities. Village for Vets is a non-profit organization working to address homelessness among veterans in Los Angeles, which has the largest population of unhoused veterans of any Metropolitan area. We speak with Mary McGuire, Executive Director of Village for Vets, and Cari Bagdonas, a Coast Guard Veteran who has experienced housing insecurity. For full transcripts, see above.

The number of military veterans elected to Congress has been slowly but steadily increasing since 2015, after decades of historic lows since the 1970s. The 2022 midterm election cycle saw the largest field of veteran candidates in a decade: 196. We hear about the unique assets that veterans can bring to elected office, with Leo Shane III, deputy editor of The Military Times. For full transcript, see above.