The Takeaway

In National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, pork producers are suing, saying that it is too expensive to comply with the standards set by California's Proposition 12, a measure that attempts to increase the living conditions for farm raised animals such as chickens and pigs. Most pork raised on pig farms in other states are confined to metal gestation crates where they are unable to turn around for their entire lives. Because most pork consumed in California is produced outside of California, the measure in effect forces out of state pork producers to comply to California's standards. Pork producers claim that the Constitution does not empower California to effectively set regulatory standards for all other states.  First, we speak with Kathy Hessler, Assistant Dean for Animal Legal Education at George Washington University Law School, about National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, and its possible implications. Then we speak with Tyler Doggett, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Vermont, about how we should think about the living conditions of the pigs we kill for food.

Economic and political turmoil in Venezuela has led to a record number of Venezuelan migrants making the dangerous trek across Central America to seek refuge in the United States. Since last October, more than 150 thousand Venezuelans have arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border. For the first time on record, in August of this year, the number of Venezuelan migrants detained by Mexican authorities exceeded the number of migrants from Central America. Until recently Venezuelan migrants were allowed to stay in the United States while they waited to go through immigration court and apply for asylum, but now the situation is more complex and the Biden Administration announced in mid-October that Venezuelan migrants would start being expelled back to Mexico under the controversial public health order, known as Title 42. For more, we spoke with Ambassador Patrick Duddy, director of Duke University’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and from 2007 to 2010 he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for both President Bush and President Obama.

Republican Monica De LaCruz is a small business owner and insurance agent. She has a massive fundraising advantage. She’s brought in nearly $4 million compared to Democrat Michelle Vallejo's $1.5 million. Democrat Michelle Vallejo is a grassroots and business leader. The outcomes of House races can be affected by campaigns at the top of the ticket, and the Texas governor's race versus Beto O'Rourke and Greg Abbott is a big one raging in Texas right now.  Race is also a big factor in this all-Latina, woman versus woman election. Texas’s 15th Congressional district is more than 80% Latino, and whatever happens in this Texas Congressional district will shape how many political observers understand the political power and preferences of Latino voters.  We hear from Maria Teresa Kumar, CEO and Co-Founder of Voto Latino and Matthew Choi, Washington Correspondent for the Texas Tribune for more. 

Artist, photographer and filmmaker Sky Hopinka centers Indigenous perspectives in his films, layering abstract sounds, bright imagery and occasionally his own poems. Hopinka’s films are intended to capture the histories and contemporary experiences of Native peoples. His films Anti-Objects, or Space Without Path or Boundary (2017), Mnemonics of Shape and Reason (2021), and maɬni—towards the ocean, towards the shore (2020) all show Hopinka’s use of innovative cinematic language. He also founded COUSIN, a collective to support Native filmmakers and is an assistant professor of Film and Electronic Arts at Bard College. 

The Takeaway is joined by journalist, activist and author George M. Johnson. They’re the author of “All Boys Aren’t Blue”, the second most banned book in the country AND they recently became a member of this year’s TIMES 100 Most Influential People list.

22-year-old jazz singer Samara Joy is out with her debut album, Linger Awhile. With comparisons to the likes of Sarah Vaughan and other great jazz artists, Samara is taking the music world by storm.

39 states elect judges in some form, so chances are you may see judges up for vote on your ballot in November. But what is the difference between all the different circuit courts in which judges preside over? And how can voters access information about the judges on their ballot? And... should judges even be elected? We speak with LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, retired California superior court judge, and author of the recent book Her Honor: My Life on the Bench... What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It.

The highly competitive race for Ohio’s 13th Congressional district, a seat left vacant by congressman Tim Ryan who is running for Senate, is between Ohio State representative Emilia Sykes and Trump-backed attorney Madison Gesiotto Gilbert. We hear from Wendy Smooth, Senior Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence and a Professor of Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University and Anna Staver, a political reporter for USA Today Network’s Ohio Bureau. Read the full article here.

According to data from AdImpact, Republican candidates nationwide have recently increased their spending on ads attacking Democrats' approaches to crime and public safety. We look at how these narratives might impact voters' perception of their own safety and dig deeper into the data available on crimes rates — and what it can tell us about both causes and solutions to crime. We're joined by Rena Karefa-Johnson, Director of National programming at FWD.us, and Ames Grawert, Senior Counsel at the Justice Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU.  

On 20 October 2022, amid a continuing economic and political crisis, Truss announced her intention to resign as Prime Minister. Installed by the UK's Conservative Party just last month, after her predecessor Boris Johnson was dramatically ousted, Truss had been in office less than six weeks before beginning the dizzying economic roller coaster she has been largely blamed for. But since her first days, some have said her days on the job are numbered. Turns out that the number of days Truss had was 45, making her the shortest-serving prime minister in British history. Joining us to talk about the ever-changing political landscape of the UK is Adlea Suliman, Breaking News Reporter at the Washington Post, based in London. 

Counties in 26 states elect county clerks. One of the primary responsibilities of the position is to administer elections.  After the 2020 election, and false claims of election fraud by former President Trump and his supporters, county clerks and many of the election workers who work with them found themselves targeted by threats and harassment.  Those are the states that local elections administrators are really dealing with some brand new problems that I don't think any of us really expected after the 2020 election. They're getting physical assaults in their offices now. They're having to hire additional security. They have threats that they've had to report to the FBI. And, you know, for a job that was relatively unknown and also is so administrative and really when it's done right, is not a very controversial thing. It's been really jarring, I think, for a lot of election administrators that are now coming under attack for doing their job. And I think we're all still trying to figure out what that means for the future of elections administration. But everybody right now is really looking to 2024 and wondering what's going to happen. - Brianna Lennon We speak with a Brianna Lennon, Boone County, Missouri County Clerk and co-host of the High Turnout, Wide Margins podcast, about what a county clerk does, what voters should think about when electing one, and the importance of the position in upholding democracy. 

Coroners are elected in counties in 20 states in the country. To learn more about about what a coroner does, and what is important to consider when voting for a coroner, we speak with Darnell Hartwell. He is currently chief deputy coroner of Berkeley County, South Carolina, which encompasses parts of North Charleston and its outskirts. He is also a Republican candidate for coroner of Berkeley County running unopposed in the November midterm election.

A new book, “Meme Wars: The Untold Story of the Online Battles Upending Democracy in America,” explains how the “Stop the Steal” movement started online and resulted in the January 6 insurrection, using examples from Gamergate, the Occupy Wall Street movement and Donald Trump’s rise to the presidency to develop its playbook. "Meme wars are about the struggle or battle over the definition of a situation or the definition of what it means to be on one side of an issue," book co-author Dr. Joan Donovan told The Takeaway. Donovan is the research director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.  "In a lot of ways, [meme wars] are an insurgent attack on the mainstream in some way. And in that sense, the idea is to bring fringe outsider ideas into the realm of the powerful," added co-author Emily Dreyfuss, Senior Managing Editor of the Shorenstein Center's Technology and Social Change Research Project project.  Dreyfuss and Donovan co-authored "Meme Wars" with Brian Friedberg, Senior Researcher on the Technology and Social Change Research Project.  

The fallout from the leaked audio of racist and derogatory comments made by Los Angeles City Councilmembers Nury Martinez, Gil Cedillo and Kevin De Leon continues. How does the city heal and move on from this? We’re joined by Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson who represents the 8th district in Los Angeles and Dr. Danielle Clealand, associate professor in the departments of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies and African and African Diaspora Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss anti-Blackness and colorism within the Latine community. 

For our #DOWNBALLOT series, we're looking at the role and importance of school board elected officials. 18-year-old Shiva Rajbhandari is a high school senior in Boise, Idaho, who also was recently elected to serve on Boise's School Board. We speak with Shiva about his experience as a student serving on the school board, why he believes students should have a seat at the table in school boards, and explore the importance of school boards as an important downballot elected office.