What do Silicon Valley billionaires, religious parents of six, and eugenics-curious biotech founders have in common? Welcome to the world of pronatalism—a growing movement that aims to solve the so-called population crisis by making more babies.We follow the unlikely alliance between tech futurists and traditional conservatives who think it’s their duty to repopulate the Earth—with intelligence, ambition, and carefully screened DNA. Many believe our economic future is at stake without more humans.“If you think of government as a business, then babies are its future customers,” said Patri Friedman, grandson of the economist Milton Friedman. This week on Reveal, we go inside NatalCon, a gathering where embryo optimization meets Old Testament values. From Elon Musk’s fertility tweets to startup founders planning five-child families like product launches, this isn’t just about babies—it’s about engineering civilization. But in some corners of the movement, a darker theme emerges: Who’s deemed fit to reproduce, and who’s left out? We also talk with the Reverend Rob Schenck, a former leader in the Christian nationalist movement, about his multidecade plan to repeal abortion rights and push the American government to the right.
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50:30
Mohsen Mahdawi Fought ICE and Won His Freedom. For Now.
In April, Palestinian student activist Mohsen Mahdawi walked into an immigration office to obtain US citizenship. He left in handcuffs. The Columbia University student was detained by ICE and accused by the Trump administration of jeopardizing US foreign policy through his involvement in protests following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. On this week’s More to The Story, Mohsen talks to host Al Letson about his arrest by ICE, his role in campus protests, and his childhood growing up in a West Bank refugee camp. Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Digital producer: Nikki Frick | Interim executive producers: Brett Myers and Taki Telonidis | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson
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Read: Mohsen Mahdawi Has Been Released From Federal Custody (Mother Jones)Listen: Gaza: A War of Weapons and Words (Reveal)Read: Mahmoud Khalil, Finally Free, Speaks Out (Mother Jones)
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29:34
The 13th Step
Across the country, women seeking addiction treatment are being harassed and assaulted by men in positions of power. The problem is so pervasive that it has a name among those in the industry: the 13th Step.“I fell right into it, right into it. You know, it’s like, it’s just, you're so vulnerable,” says a victim named Andrea. “The 13-stepper is like, um, when you take advantage of a newcomer. Like, they, they joke like, ‘Don’t be a 13th-stepper.’”This week on Reveal, we join Lauren Chooljian from New Hampshire Public Radio, who started her investigation by looking at that state’s largest addiction treatment network, founded by Eric Spofford. After exposing allegations that he was harassing patients, Chooljian, her sources, and staff at New Hampshire Public Radio became the targets of intimidation and vandalism. In recent weeks, Spofford was indicted on charges that he orchestrated those attacks. Chooljian then follows another case, this time in California, where the owner of a group of treatment centers was sexually assaulting clients and carrying out massive insurance fraud. The owner, Chris Bathum, was brought to justice after two women teamed up to gather evidence and take it to law enforcement. This is an update of an episode that first aired in February 2024.
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51:10
“Madness”: A Retired Brig. General Slams Trump’s Military Power Grab
Greg Smith spent 35 years in the Army National Guard. But he’s never witnessed the military used the way it’s being deployed in Los Angeles in response to protests opposing the Trump administration’s immigration raids. On this week’s More To The Story, Smith discusses how the military appears increasingly tasked with enforcing a political agenda rather than defending the Constitution.Producer: Josh Sanburn, with help from Artis Curiskis | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Digital producer: Nikki Frick | Interim executive producers: Brett Myers and Taki Telonidis | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson
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Listen: Trump’s Mass Deportations Are Decades in the Making (More To The Story)Listen: Immigrants on the Line (Reveal)Read: The “Twisted” History of Trump’s Legal Theory for Using Troops Against Protesters (Mother Jones)Read: Confessions of a Weekend Warrior: Thirty-Five Years in the National Guard (Greg Smith)Note: If you buy a book using our Bookshop link, a small share of the proceeds supports our journalism.
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28:04
2024 Broke the Democrats. Can They Put Themselves Back Together?
For the first time in two decades, the Democratic Party has found itself without a clear party leader or even an obvious frontrunner. Angry and adrift, politicians and voters are clashing over how to fight back. They’re also grappling with an uncomfortable new reality: The places that shifted hardest away from Democrats last fall were the kinds of communities that formed the backbone of the Democratic coalition for years—working-class, nonwhite, and heavily immigrant areas of blue cities and states. Now the battle for the party’s future and reckoning over its recent past is coming to a head in New York City, where support for Democrats has cratered among Latino and Asian voters. In one of the first big tests of the party’s direction after Donald Trump’s reelection, Democrats will choose between radically different options for mayor: a centrist former governor in his 60s who resigned in disgrace and a millennial democratic socialist whose rise in the polls has shocked the political establishment. This week on Reveal, we head to New York to talk to voters who abandoned Democrats in November and take you inside the bitter fight to win them back.
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Reveal’s investigations will inspire, infuriate and inform you. Host Al Letson and an award-winning team of reporters deliver gripping stories about caregivers, advocates for the unhoused, immigrant families, warehouse workers and formerly incarcerated people, fighting to hold the powerful accountable. The New Yorker described Reveal as “a knockout … a pleasure to listen to, even as we seethe.” A winner of multiple Peabody, duPont, Emmy and Murrow awards, Reveal is produced by the nation’s first investigative journalism nonprofit, The Center for Investigative Reporting, and PRX. From unearthing exploitative working conditions to exposing the nation’s racial disparities, there’s always more to the story. Learn more at revealnews.org/learn.
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