May 23, 2018

Introducing The Mother Jones Podcast

It’s us. But in your ears.

/Mother Jones; Getty Images

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Debuting today: The Mother Jones Podcast, our new weekly flagship show.

In each episode, MoJo’s brilliant reporter Jamilah King will go deep on a big story you’ll definitely want to hear more about. We’ll give you an inside glimpse behind some of our biggest and best investigations—think private prisons, electoral skullduggery, Dark Money, and Trump’s Russia connections—and smart interviews with our reporters and newsmakers. In essence, we are determined to make your week more informed by cutting through the chaos with the stories that really matter, told by the folks you have always trusted for smart, fearless, reporting.

On this week’s episode: It’s primary season in America. Senior Reporter Tim Murphy profiles the candidates ripping up West Virginia’s political blueprint and asks what their successes and failures mean for national politics come November. Tim will untangle the reasons why progressives there are going wild for a former paratrooper—and Trump voter—Richard Ojeda, while ex-con coal baron Don Blankenship, undeterred by a punishing loss, nonetheless tries and tries again to rehab his name. Remember, he just got out of prison after serving time related to a deadly explosion at a mine he oversaw in 2010. Read Tim’s twin profiles of Ojeda and Blankenship, and while you’re there check out MoJo filmmaker Mark Helenowski’s videos about the candidates.

In Georgia, Democrat Stacey Abrams just enjoyed a spectacular, history-making victory to become the first black woman to ever to win a major party’s gubernatorial nomination, but her toughest battle is ahead: Can this national political darling beat a well-funded Republican, in a deep-red state, to break another glass ceiling and become the first female black governor in America? Host Jamilah King met and interviewed Abrams—and profiled her for Mother Jones—and offers insights into the kind of woman she is and her chances come November.

Then it’s time for our resident Russia guru David Corn to make the extraordinarily complicated Mueller investigation understandable and tell us what happened recently. He’ll be back every week to help untangle this godforsaken mess. We’ll also chat to David Beard, the author of our weekly Recharge newsletter, giving you a jolt of good news.

Because, let’s face it, we all need it.

There will be more good news every week on The Mother Jones Podcast.

You can and subscribe using any of the following services:

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

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