Shows
Alabama Politics This WeekWill Charles Barkley Run for Alabama Governor? (+ ProPublica's Amy Yurkanin)This week, Josh and David explore lessons from Europe on labor, tipping, and public health, then pivot to Alabama's criminal justice system through ProPublica journalist Amy Yurkanin's investigation into the Jorge Ruiz case—a legal immigrant sentenced to 99 years (later reduced to 50) for a fatal car crash, raising hard questions about immigrant bias in courts, media framing, and judicial overreach.They also dig into Alabama's 2026 gubernatorial race: Charles Barkley flirting with an independent run, and Tommy Tuberville's residency problems.The show closes with the bail reform fiasco and Right Wing Knucklehead of the Week: Tommy Tu...
2025-10-241h 23
Down in Alabama with Ike MorganDelta 8 and legal trouble over a legal productToday on the show we're going to talk with reporter Amy Yurkanin, who has done reporting on Delta 8, hemp, and the trouble a pregnant woman found herself in after using a legal product.But first, let's talk about an impeachment lawsuit against a mayor, crime-fighting measures in Birmingham, and an impressive cruise out of Mobile. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2024-08-2121 min
KQED's ForumPolitical and Legal Fallout Continues After Alabama IVF RulingLawmakers in Alabama this week are scrambling to limit the effects of a Feb. 16 state Supreme Court decision holding that frozen embryos are human and that anyone who destroys them can be held liable for wrongful death. Since the decision, major IVF providers across the state have suspended their services, leaving an industry in chaos and families going through IVF in limbo. Meanwhile, Republicans in the U.S. Senate blocked a bill Wednesday that would have created national protections for fertility treatment. We’ll talk about the ongoing fallout in Alabama and where the broader movement for fetal personhood st...
2024-02-2955 min
American Dreams PodcastCriminalization of PregnancyIn 2014, Tammy Loertscher got pregnant. A few years before, her thyroid had been removed. She lost her job. She lost her insurance. Her state, Wisconsin, had turned down the Medicaid expansion associated with the Affordable Care Act. So she didn't have access to meds. So she self-medicated, just to keep herself stable. When she realized she was pregnant, she went to a doctor to help her get back on a better regimen, so she could be healthy for her fetus. Instead, she was arrested. We talk to filmmaker Jo Ardinger about her film, "Personhood," which follows Loertscher's story, and...
2023-01-2924 min
Outbreak Alabama: Stories from a PandemicCovering COVID: How We've ChangedA year into the pandemic, AL.com journalists reflect on how they and their outlook on COVID-19 have changed.Guests: Ramsey Archibald, Trisha Powell Crain, J.D. Crowe, Greg Garrison, Joseph Goodman, Leada Gore, Ivana Hrynkiw, Roy Johnson, Dennis Pillion, Carol Robinson, Sarah Whites-Koditschek, Amy Yurkanin. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
2021-03-1222 min
Outbreak Alabama: Stories from a PandemicCovering COVID: What Gave Us HopeAlabama journalists reflect on the pandemic after dedicating a calendar year to reporting on COVID-19. While they were faced with telling difficult stories about death and struggle, AL.com reporters also found tremendous humanity and inspiring moments that gave them hope about the direction the pandemic was headed in Alabama.Guests: Ramsey Archibald, Trisha Powell Crain, J.D. Crowe, Greg Garrison, Joseph Goodman, Leada Gore, Ivana Hrynkiw, Roy Johnson, Dennis Pillion, Carol Robinson, Joe Songer, Sarah Whites-Koditschek, Amy Yurkanin. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
2021-03-1017 min
Outbreak Alabama: Stories from a PandemicCovering COVID: The Hardest PartAlabama journalists reflect on the pandemic after dedicating a calendar year to getting vital information about COVID-19 and the state's response to the public. AL.com reporters talk about the most difficult aspect of covering COVID in Alabama. A pandemic that has so far killed half a million people in the country is inherently dark, and it's challenging work to put it all into context for readers who want as much information as they can get as quickly as they can get it.Guests: Ramsey Archibald, Trisha Powell Crain, J.D. Crowe, Greg Garrison, Joseph Goodman...
2021-03-1032 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 6: Point 14The killing of Bonita Carter in 1979 changed Birmingham, and its leadership. Protests following her death forced the city to reshape its police department, four decades before Black Lives Matter made its greatest impact. It was a decade after Black civil rights leaders had gathered in Birmingham to make 14 points to their white peers in Birmingham, to demand acknowledgement that Black people were still treated as second class citizens.They pointed out longstanding police violence against Black residents, that Black people consistently were given less courtesy and respect from police. That white people got a benefit of the...
2020-12-1443 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 6: Point 14The killing of Bonita Carter in 1979 changed Birmingham, and its leadership. Protests following her death forced the city to reshape its police department, four decades before Black Lives Matter made its greatest impact. It was a decade after Black civil rights leaders had gathered in Birmingham to make 14 points to their white peers in Birmingham, to demand acknowledgement that Black people were still treated as second class citizens.They pointed out longstanding police violence against Black residents, that Black people consistently were given less courtesy and respect from police. That white people got a benefit of the...
2020-12-1444 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 5: "Shoot her again"Who is Officer George Sands? The Birmingham police officer had amassed more than a dozen complaints before fatally shooting Bonita Carter. He’d been seen as a problem by some city leaders, while others protected him – saying he was just a symptom of a poorly trained police department rather than a rogue bad apple?Before being elected mayor, Richard Arrington had been shocked to learn Sands was Bonita Carter’s killer, for he had been in so much trouble before. But Sands was protected by the powerful police union, and county rules that restricted the authority of the ma...
2020-12-0732 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 5: "Shoot her again"Who is Officer George Sands? The Birmingham police officer had amassed more than a dozen complaints before fatally shooting Bonita Carter. He’d been seen as a problem by some city leaders, while others protected him – saying he was just a symptom of a poorly trained police department rather than a rogue bad apple?Before being elected mayor, Richard Arrington had been shocked to learn Sands was Bonita Carter’s killer, for he had been in so much trouble before. But Sands was protected by the powerful police union, and county rules that restricted the authority of the ma...
2020-12-0733 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 4: Catching the Devil on All SidesThe status quo was broken in Birmingham, Alabama, in the weeks after the Bonita Carter killing. The city once known as Bombingham, as the Johannesburg of the South, reeled from protests, and counter-protests from the Ku Klux Klan. A scientist, a former college dean named Richard Arrington who had long been aligned with that white progressive mayor, David Vann, broke away from the mayor to launch his own campaign. A committee formed by Vann to take testimony from witnesses to the shooting – one of the main reasons we can reconstruct the events of the crime – found Officer George Sands had...
2020-11-3033 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 4: Catching the Devil on All SidesThe status quo was broken in Birmingham, Alabama, in the weeks after the Bonita Carter killing. The city once known as Bombingham, as the Johannesburg of the South, reeled from protests, and counter-protests from the Ku Klux Klan. A scientist, a former college dean named Richard Arrington who had long been aligned with that white progressive mayor, David Vann, broke away from the mayor to launch his own campaign. A committee formed by Vann to take testimony from witnesses to the shooting – one of the main reasons we can reconstruct the events of the crime – found Officer George Sands had...
2020-11-3035 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 3: The ShoeboxWhat was it about the killing of Bonita Carter that sparked police reform? The search for that answer led the Reckon Radio team into the bowels of the Birmingham Public Library, to a recently discovered box of “Birmingham Police Shooting and Incident Cards.” These cards, seen by almost no one in decades, detail the lives of hundreds of people in Jefferson County, Alabama – the deaths of hundreds, killed by police and security officers and written off, seemingly casually, as “justifiable.”Almost all the victims are Black. Almost all are men. Many are young, teenagers, shot in the back as th...
2020-11-2335 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 3: The ShoeboxWhat was it about the killing of Bonita Carter that sparked police reform? The search for that answer led the Reckon Radio team into the bowels of the Birmingham Public Library, to a recently discovered box of “Birmingham Police Shooting and Incident Cards.” These cards, seen by almost no one in decades, detail the lives of hundreds of people in Jefferson County, Alabama – the deaths of hundreds, killed by police and security officers and written off, seemingly casually, as “justifiable.”Almost all the victims are Black. Almost all are men. Many are young, teenagers, shot in the back as th...
2020-11-2337 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 2: Anger and actionProtest began to swell in Birmingham began to swell the night Bonita Carter was killed, and it grew larger and larger in the days that followed. Black people, who had marched for voting power and integrated water fountains and lunch counters a decade and a half before, took to the streets to condemn police violence from a department built by Bull Connor. The killing of Bonita Carter seemed to be the last straw, especially when the mayor, a progressive named David Vann who had helped push Connor out in the ’60s, hesitated to discipline the police officer who shot he...
2020-11-1637 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 2: Anger and actionProtest began to swell in Birmingham began to swell the night Bonita Carter was killed, and it grew larger and larger in the days that followed. Black people, who had marched for voting power and integrated water fountains and lunch counters a decade and a half before, took to the streets to condemn police violence from a department built by Bull Connor. The killing of Bonita Carter seemed to be the last straw, especially when the mayor, a progressive named David Vann who had helped push Connor out in the ’60s, hesitated to discipline the police officer who shot he...
2020-11-1638 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 1: 'It was a girl in the car'June 22, 1979, just another evening in Birmingham Alabama, and Bonita Carter and her friends ride their bikes to a convenience store as the sun sets. What happened there would change their lives, and their cities forever.Chapter one of “Unjustifiable” reconstructs those events, moment by moment and step by step, from the vantage points of onlookers, participants, store workers, witnesses and police. By the end of the night, a police officer named George Sands fired four shots into a car, killing the unarmed young Black woman, after a white man pointed to the car and screamed that she was dangerous man...
2020-11-1626 min
Reckon RadioUnjustifiable Chapter 1: 'It was a girl in the car'June 22, 1979, just another evening in Birmingham Alabama, and Bonita Carter and her friends ride their bikes to a convenience store as the sun sets. What happened there would change their lives, and their cities forever. Chapter one of “Unjustifiable” reconstructs those events, moment by moment and step by step, from the vantage points of onlookers, participants, store workers, witnesses and police. By the end of the night, a police officer named George Sands fired four shots into a car, killing the unarmed young Black woman, after a white man pointed to the car and screamed that she was dangerous man...
2020-11-1627 min
Reckon RadioTrailer: UnjustifiableReckon Radio presents: “Unjustifiable,” an investigative series from Pulitzer-prize winning columnist John Archibald and Roy S. Johnson examining an overlooked moment of civil rights history in the heart of the South. The story begins in 1979, when a police officer with a history of complaints shot and killed a 20-year-old Black woman named Bonita Carter. Her death would forever change the course of Birmingham, Alabama.The legacy of Bull Connor’s police department looms large over Birmingham. Even today, black and white images of dogs and firehoses used against Birmin...
2020-11-0202 min
Reckon RadioTrailer: UnjustifiableReckon Radio presents: “Unjustifiable,” an investigative series from Pulitzer-prize winning columnist John Archibald and Roy S. Johnson examining an overlooked moment of civil rights history in the heart of the South. The story begins in 1979, when a police officer with a history of complaints shot and killed a 20-year-old Black woman named Bonita Carter. Her death would forever change the course of Birmingham, Alabama.The legacy of Bull Connor’s police department looms large over Birmingham. Even today, black and white images of dogs and firehoses used against Birmingham children and foot soldiers are tou...
2020-11-0203 min
Outbreak Alabama: Stories from a PandemicThe Struggle in Nursing HomesAL.com investigative reporter Amy Yurkanin on what happens when someone in a nursing home is diagnosed with coronavirus and where that leaves family members, why the state hasn't been reporting related data and if testing in nursing homes is now higher priority for the state. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
2020-05-1522 min
Reckon InterviewBONUS: John Archibald and Amy Yurkanin on coming attractions from Reckon RadioThe hosts behind "Greek Gods," John Archibald and Amy Yurkanin, hop on the Reckon Interview to give our audience a preview of what's in store for seasons 3 and 4 of Reckon Radio. Archibald also gives listeners a hint on what to expect from his forthcoming memoir. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
2019-09-3025 min
Reckon RadioTrailer: RecusedEpisode NotesReckon’s Amy Yurkanin dives into the untold story of Jeff Sessions, from the people who knew him best.• How did Jeff Sessions become President Trump’s most controversial cabinet member? And what led to his downfall? • Did you know President Trump wasn’t the first person to pressure Sessions to look the other way during an investigation into the executive branch? • What was the political fallout of Sessions’ failed judicial confirmation hearing in 1986? • How did he become one of the most anti-immigration Senators in the United States? • All these answers and more. See acas...
2018-11-1302 min
Reckon RadioTrailer: RecusedEpisode Notes
Reckon’s Amy Yurkanin dives into the untold story of Jeff Sessions, from the people who knew him best.
• How did Jeff Sessions become President Trump’s most controversial cabinet member? And what led to his downfall?
• Did you know President Trump wasn’t the first person to pressure Sessions to look the other way during an investigation into the executive branch?
• What was the political fallout of Sessions’ failed judicial confirmation hearing in 1986?
• How did he become one of the most anti-immigration Senators in the United States?
• All these answers and more.
This podcas...
2018-11-1300 minReckon RadioTrailer: Greek GodsEpisode Notes
Threats of violence, wire-tapping, boycotts, voter coercion, whatever it takes to win. That's the playbook of The Machine, a secret society that has controlled student government at the University of Alabama for more than a century. The Machine has been described as "the most powerful fraternity in America" and its tentacles reach to the State House, Washington and beyond.
Reckon Radio presents, "Greek Gods," an examination of politics, privilege and race hosted by Amy Yurkanin and John Archibald, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. In a four-episode miniseries, Reckon Radio examines what...
2018-07-3100 min
Reckon RadioTrailer: Greek GodsEpisode NotesThreats of violence, wire-tapping, boycotts, voter coercion, whatever it takes to win. That's the playbook of The Machine, a secret society that has controlled student government at the University of Alabama for more than a century. The Machine has been described as "the most powerful fraternity in America" and its tentacles reach to the State House, Washington and beyond. Reckon Radio presents, "Greek Gods," an examination of politics, privilege and race hosted by Amy Yurkanin and John Archibald, winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for commentary. In a four-episode miniseries, Reckon Radio examines what...
2018-07-3103 min