The Takeaway

Two weeks ago, heavy, sustained rains in the area around the port city of Durban, in the KwaZulu-Nata province of South Africa, triggered major flooding and mudslides.  More than 400 are confirmed dead, dozens are still missing, and over 40,000 people displaced. Amongst those most affected are vulnerable communities, some of whom were already displaced by the government during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. President Cyril Ramphosa said after the tragedy that “these floods are a tragic reminder of the increasing frequency of extreme weather conditions as a result of climate change.” The Takeaway talked with John Eligon Johannesburg bureau chief at The New York Times.

Many Indigenous communities live on land that is being directly impacted by global warming. And as resistance to fossil fuel production has grown in recent years, Indigenous people have been at the center of the movements to reverse this trend. On this Earth Day weekend, The Takeaway is looking at how the 2016 Standing Rock protests and water protector movement created a blueprint for ongoing environmental activism. To learn more, we speak with Nick Estes, a citizen of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, incoming American Indian Studies department professor at the University of Minnesota, and founder of The Red Nation, an Indigenous resistance organization. He's also the author, "Our History Is the Future:Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance." 

Queer Ecology looks at the biases and limitations that exist in environmental studies. To learn more, we spoke with Nicole Seymour, an associate professor of English and Graduate Advisor of Environmental Studies at Cal State Fullerton. She is author of several books including: "Strange Natures: Futurity, Empathy, and the Queer Ecological Imagination."

Environmental justice documents the disproportionate effects of climate harm on communtiies of color and it insists that these communities must be the key decision makers as we find solutions.   Wawa Gatheru is the 23 year-old founder of Black Girl Environmentalist, a supportive community for Black girls, women, and non-binary environmentalists. We speak with Gatheru about her work with Black Girl Environmentalist and her goal of an anti-racist environmental movement.

On this Earth Day we want to celebrate by hearing from the next generation. April is National Poetry Month and as you may have heard, The Takeaway is talking with young poets across the country. Jessica Kim is Urban Word’s 2022 National Youth Poet Laureate West Regional Finalist. She joined the program to talk about her work and shared one of her poems. We’ll also hear from students at Wake Forest University about what Earth Day means to them.   

From the devastation of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana to the deep freeze in Texas during winter storm Uri, to  the urban heat islands in California, we are facing the extreme effects of climate change and marginalized communities are the most impacted. We speak with Elizabeth Yeampierre, the executive director of Uprose, about the inequities of climate change and the need for climate justice.

The Next 100, a progressive think tank working to support the next generation of policy leaders, partnered with The GenForward Survey to find out how Millennials and GenZers feel about the US government, and their level of trust in local and state officials. The survey, conducted last November and December, shows that young adults, especially low-income individuals and people of color, feel a general lack of trust in the government, and they say they feel underrepresented, and disconnected from policy making decisions.  One of the findings shows that: “Black respondents and respondents with a household income below $60,000 were the least likely to feel like full and equal citizens in our country.” For more we speak with Francisco Miguel Araiza, Deputy Executive Director of Next 100.

Mason, Tennessee is a small, predominantly Black town of approximately 1,300 residents situated about 40 miles northeast of Memphis in West Tennessee.  The city has struggled with financial mismanagement in the past, but is expected to benefit from a major new economic investment, an electric vehicle plant being built by Ford Motor Company just a few miles away. Recently the Tennessee Comptroller, Jason Mumpower, tried to forcibly take control over the town's finances. We explore the fight Mason is taking on for its financial autonomy. We speak with: Virginia Rivers, Vice-Mayor of Mason, Tennessee Gloria Sweet-Love, President of the Tennessee State Conference NAACP John Marshall, judicial magistrate in Memphis, Tennessee, amateur historian, and sixth generation Mason native Otis Sanford, political columnist for The Daily Memphian and a journalism professor at the University of Memphis Music from this episode by: The Memphis Jug Band Milton Ruiz, J. Cowit (https://jcowit.bandcamp.com/), I Think Like Midnight (http://www.ithinklikemidnight.com/) Hannis Brown (https://www.hannisbrown.com/)  The Sometime Boys (https://www.thesometimeboys.com/)

While sewage surveillance is not a new concept, testing a community’s wastewater has become much more common in the age of Covid to identify spikes in infection. The data is not reliant on how many people have insurance or how many choose to get tested. So, is sewage surveillance the great equalizer of disease identification? What are its applications beyond Covid? We speak with Newsha Ghaeli, president and cofounder of Biobot Analytics, about the inclusive and comprehensive benefits of water epidemiology.

As Cannabis becomes legal and the marijuana industry takes shape, are the laws equitable for all? We speak with James Meggesto, Chair of the Native American Practice at Holland and Knight and member of the Onondaga nation about the reality that federal protections for state and territorial marijuana markets don’t apply to sovereign native lands, and the inequity that can cause in the system.

In November 2020, voters in New Jersey legalized recreational marijuana, and now, recreational marijuana will finally be available for adult consumers to purchase in New Jersey starting tomorrow on April 21st.  New York legalized recreational marijuana last March, but legal sales by licensed dispensaries are not expected to open until the end of 2022 – despite a robust unlicensed market. For more, we spoke with WNYC and Gothamist reporter Caroline Lewis.

Does the burgeoning marijuana industry have an equity problem? We look at the barriers to entry and the problems of equity and decriminalization with Christine De La Rosa, CEO and CO-Founder of The People’s Ecosystem, an organization empowering communities through cannabis from legacy to legends.

What does it take to enter the cannabis industry? We’ll talk to Emmy award-winning journalist, Mara Schiavocampo, executive producer & host of the podcast “Run Tell This,” about entering the industry as a person of color, the barriers she and others face, and the health benefits of cannabis.

Bicycle Day commemorates the day when Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann was the first human to trip on LSD on April 19, 1943.And now, there is a growing movement in the United States to decriminalize and legalize psychedelic substances, such as psilocybin – the active ingredient in “magic mushrooms.” New research shows that these psychedelic drugs can be used for recreation and also for therapeutic treatments. In November 2020, Oregon became the first state to legalize psilocybin-assisted therapy, alongside decriminalizing the personal possession of drugs more broadly. In Cities such as Denver, Oakland, California and Washington, D.C., voters have approved ballot measures to decriminalize the personal possession of psychedelic mushrooms. And although Psilocybin and other psychedelics remain illegal under federal drug laws, there are several prominent universities studying psychedelic-aided therapy and its effectiveness in treating mental health conditions including depression, anxiety, PTSD and – perhaps most surprisingly – addiction. We speak with Michael Pollan, Co-founder of the Berkeley Center for the Science of Psychedelics and author of How To Change Your Mind: What The New Science Of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, And Transcendence, about the history of Bicycle Day, the criminalization of psychedelics, and psychedelic-aided therapy.

April is National Poetry Month and The Takeaway is talking with young poets across the country. Isabella Ramirez is Urban Word’s 2022 National Youth Poet Laureate South Regional Finalist. She joined the program to talk about her work and shared one of her poems.