February 1, 2021

NPR’s “Tiny Desk” Gets an Actual Tiny Desk, Courtesy Pharoahe Monch

Pharoahe Monch/Th1rt3en

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We interrupt your pandemic programming with a breaking news bulletin from our Recharge desk at Mother Jones: Down the hall, on your left, past the deranged conspiracy babble of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, around the corner from the tepid sycophantism of Sen. Mitch McConnell, and through the door marked “Some Good News” is creative fire for your cold February. Hip-hop luminary and rock star Pharoahe Monch, featured here before, has a new band that’s created its very own tiny desk for NPR’s Tiny Desk concert series. Enjoy the desk. It’s emblazoned with the group’s logo in celebration of its new album, livestreamed on the show.

Speculation is growing over what’s inside the desk and whether, in fact, the drawers aren’t glued shut. Sources with knowledge of the desk’s build tell me it may contain blueprints to solve climate change, rescue the United States from political peril, and drive economic growth. It may also contain promo codes for rare bottles of Pappy Van Winkle bourbon, autographed copies of every New York Mets rookie card from the 1980s and ’90s, and Monch’s own license to ill.

This is a developing story. Tune in again, same time same place, for the next installment of our multipart series, What’s Inside the Tiny Desk? And get to know the new band. Monch, its leader, enjoys long walks for cardio. The guitarist, Marcus Machado, is gearing up for Aquarius Purple. And drummer Daru Jones takes percussion of only the highest order.

Elsewhere in good news, Chuck D got the Monch memo and played Th1rt3en’s new record, A Magnificent Day for an Exorcism, on his show to mark its 12th year and 100,000th song. And yes, there’s merch.

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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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