News Beat

The News Beat podcast presents “This Week In Social Justice,” streaming live Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET. on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch. Join us on this interactive program to share your thoughts on recent news and ongoing issues as we welcome special guests, break down important issues, and sprinkle in our unique brand of Hip Hop-fueled journalism along the way. Our very special guests for this stream: Catherine Flowers, an internationally recognized environmental activist, founder of the...

News Beat presents “This Week In Social Justice,” streaming live Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET. on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch. On this episode, we broke down New York’s newly signed law legalizing marijuana, also looking at the big picture and whether racial equity is actually being achieved through various legalization laws. Our special guest this week was Alice Fontier, managing director of the Neighborhood Defenders Service of Harlem. Support the show:...

Reform candidates are increasingly winning district attorney elections in the United States. The movement represents a direct challenge to the decades-long tough-on-crime era, characterized by punitive sentencing laws, significant investments in police forces and prisons, and the criminalization of mental health—culminating in the highest incarceration rates in the world. Opponents are fighting back, with the most recent example being Los Angeles County, where a union representing hundreds...

Our video livestream show, This Week in Social Justice, airs every Wednesday at 8pm Eastern on Facebook, YouTube and Twitch. Links to watch live or on-demand are posted at www.usnewsbeat.com/watch This week, we reminded our audience of important historical events and brought up some urgent current happenings, including the ongoing assault on voting rights. We also welcomed author Ross Barkan, who broke down some of the OTHER reasons why Andrew Cuomo has let down the public. News Beat is a...

As we work to deliver you more compelling social-justice-meets-music-and-lyrics episodes of News Beat proper, we want to put you on to another incredible podcast in our production universe, Unf*cking the Republic. This brilliant show is all about exposing political f*ckery -- from all sides -- while informing and entertaining along the way. It's also produced and audio edited by our very own Manny Faces, so if you dig what happens at News Beat, we think you'll dig this too. Check out this...

Like we always do at this time of year, we present an alternative look at Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy, examining how the civil rights icon was so much more than simply the “I Have a Dream” soundbite, which has become known as the cornerstone of his public perception. Along with Pastor Roger C. Williams of the First Baptist Church of Glen Cove, NY, Larry Hamm, of the People's Organization for Progress, hip-hop artist Silent Knight, and King’s own words, listeners learn of MLK’s Poor...

January 6, 2021 was a dark day in the history of this nation. What we all witnessed at the U.S. Capitol was a full-on assault on democracy, incited by President Donald Trump and carried out by right-wing extremists—or simply, domestic terrorists. Tragically, these events, although deeply unsettling, shouldn’t have surprised anyone. Experts have been warning of the threat of right-wing domestic terrorists for years. In 2020 alone, two-thirds of domestic attacks or plots were committed by...

This is a special episode in collaboration with Color Of Change, the largest online racial justice organization in the country. With uprisings rivaling those of the 1960s, Americans this year took to the streets in massive numbers to declare Black Lives Matter and demand systemic change. These rebellions have underscored the desperate need for change in a country steeped in racism and state violence. Will things change? That is the question. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative...

News Beat presents This Week In Social Justice, streaming live Fridays at 1 p.m. ET. - usnewsbeat.com/facebook, usnewsbeat.com/youtube, www.twitch.tv/usnewsbeat Today’s special guest: Fenaba Addo, an associate professor of consumer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Addo talks about the renewed calls to cancel student loan debt and how such loans worsen the racial wealth gap in America. Plus: How COVID-19 is affecting child morbidity rates, episode snippets, viewer comments,...

News Beat presents This Week In Social Justice, streaming live Fridays at 1 p.m. ET. - usnewsbeat.com/facebook or usnewsbeat.com/youtube Today’s special guests: Marcus Ferrell is the former deputy campaign manager for Stacey Abrams and national Black outreach director for Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. Ferrell is going to break down the results of the election, particularly the massive turnout among Black Americans in Georgia, which a Democrat hasn’t won since Bill Clinton in...

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively gutted the historic Voting Rights Act, making it easier for states to suppress the vote by enacting voter ID laws, eliminating early voting, closing polling stations and aggressively purging voter rolls. Voter ID laws, specifically, didn’t exist prior to 2006—now about three-dozen states have some form of voter ID law. Since the court’s 2013 decision, hundreds of polling locations have closed. Experts say these efforts disproportionately...

Symbols of pride for Italian Americans, painful reminders of historical injustices and brutal atrocities for indigenous peoples—statues of controversial 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus have been decapitated, toppled or taken down in cities and towns across the United States amid the ongoing protests against racial injustice and police brutality sparked by the killing of unarmed African American George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer in May. Mohawk activist John Kane of...

Human Rights Watch, an international nongovernmental organization, released a report accusing the NYPD of serious international human rights violations and has called into question some of the justifications made by the top brass of the department after a June crackdown in the South Bronx. Ida Sawyer, co-author of the report and acting crisis and conflict director at Human Rights Watch, joins us for this special episode. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast....

A federal appeals court earlier this month affirmed a controversial Florida law requiring people with felony convictions to pay court fees in order to have their voting rights restored. With less than 50 days until the November election and with the state’s voter registration deadline nearing, the 6-4 ruling all but ensures hundreds of thousands of Floridians won't be able to participate. This is an update to our 2018 episode “Real Voter Fraud: Felony Disenfranchisement’s Civil Death...

The warnings were clear: COVID-19 would spread like wildfire in jails and prisons. It has. The top COVID-19 clusters across America are overwhelmingly jails and prisons, and efforts to reduce jail populations have stalled amid a surge in infections. Among the hardest-hit is San Quentin State Prison in California, which is responsible for about a quarter of the state prison system’s COVID-19 infections and almost half its deaths. Guests: Danielle Harris, managing attorney for the San...

Black Americans have long relied on the Postal Service as a source of stable employment, with our guest tracing this history back to the legal end of slavery. Amid the uproar over recent efforts to undermine the USPS, we examine this history and the role Black postal workers played in the union and civil rights struggle. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor: Rashed Mian Episode...

The 2020 rebellions have sparked renewed discussions surrounding a host of racial issues, including police brutality toward black men. Advocates argue that black women are similarly exposed to excessive police violence yet routinely forgotten or ignored. Among their demands: Say Her Name. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor: Rashed Mian Episode Art: Jeff Main Executive...

In commemoration of this year’s Juneteenth, as countless people flood the streets all across this country calling for justice, equality, and an end to police brutality, among other demands—testament that the struggle is far, far from over—we’re re-releasing an episode that documents proof of this modern-day, state-sponsored slavery, highlighting a sinister and covert FBI initiative codenamed COINTEPRO, short for Counter Intelligence Program. The episode features interviews with Steven...

In the wake of the police slaying of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protesters have not only flooded the streets, but they're actively pushing reforms that go well beyond traditional solutions. The defund police movement would represent a seismic shift in policing in America. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor: Rashed Mian Episode Art: Jeff Main Executive Producer: Jed Morey...

Anti-racism protesters nationwide have been met with chemical agents and aggressive force by police at demonstrations sparked by the modern-day lynching of George Floyd. This episode explores how our right to protest is being criminalized, through laws, harsh tactics, and other measures. This episode was originally published June, 2018. News Beat is an award-winning Morey Creative Studios podcast. Producer: Michael "Manny Faces" Conforti Editor-In-Chief: Chris Twarowski Managing Editor:...