If you work hard in the United States, there is no limit to the possibility of what you might achieve. That’s the American Dream. But the reality is that America today increasingly resembles aristocratic societies of the past, which were characterized by little social mobility and dramatic inequality perpetuated in part by the passage of enormous fortunes from one generation to the next. How and why this has occurred in the United States is largely the result of power, politics, and policy choices--choices that enable the coding of wealth in the legal systems that structure not only our economy, but our society and our democracy. The system is rigged--and rigged in favor of the few. Join Sean Morrow on the final episode of the third season of “Who Is?” for a look directly at the money, what it means for the rest of us, and what we can do about it. 

• James Henry, an economist, attorney, tax justice activist, and a senior advisor to the Tax Justice Network
• Paul Krugman, an economist, author, and longtime columnist at The New York Times. His most recent book is “Arguing with Zombies: Economics, Politics, and the Fight for a Better Future”
• Katharina Pistor, a professor at Columbia Law School. Her most recent book is “The Code of Capital: How the Law Creates Wealth and Inequality”

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Rebekah Mercer may be the most powerful woman in conservative politics today, and she’s never held--and probably will never run for--elected office. Since 2004, Rebekah Mercer has been the director of the Mercer Family Foundation, which means for nearly twenty years she has been one of the key people who is in charge of how her father Robert Mercer’s vast fortune is spent. And following the Citizens United decision in 2010, millions of dollars of that vast fortune have been dedicated to American politics, and primarily to American politics on the far right. The Mercers have played a major role in the contemporary rise of the far right, and from Cambridge Analytica to Kellyanne Conway, Rebekah Mercer and her father were instrumental in the election of President Donald Trump. But after Trump won, it was Rebekah who was named to his transition team. In 2021, however, Trump’s election almost feels like ancient history, and the real question is what will Rebekah Mercer do next, and what does that mean for the rest of us and our democracy? 

• Brendan Fischer, Director of Federal Reform at the Campaign Legal Center 
• Jane Mayer, Chief Washington Correspondent at The New Yorker, and author of several books, including “Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right”  

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Politicians have been trying to “fix” health care in the United States for nearly a century, and they really never manage to do it. Why? It has everything to do with money, and the moneyed interests--from health insurers to hospitals to pharmaceuticals--which have basically built the system we have today, and which spend more on lobbying to keep it that way than the military-industrial complex spends on defense. The Partnership for America’s Health Care Future, a group led by Hillary for America and Obama Administration alum Lauren Crawford Shaver, represents the latest move by the money to stop overhauls of health care, from a public option to Medicare for All, that a majority of Americans support. 

• Karl Evers-Hillstrom, who covers money in politics at opensecrets.org, the online home of the Center for Responsive Politics  
• Melissa Thomasson, Chair and the Julian Lange Professor of Economics at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where she studies the economic history of health insurance and health care  
• Dr. Eric Topol, a physician, researcher, and author of many books, including most recently, “Deep Medicine: How Artificial Intelligence Can Make Healthcare Human Again” 

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In 2020, Arizona and Georgia, two traditionally red states, turned blue. And while Stacey Abrams has received a lot of credit and media attention for the organizing that led to Georgia turning blue, what happened in Arizona? Is there a Stacey Abrams of Arizona? To find out, Sean Morrow spoke with some of the observers who saw it coming and one of the organizers who made it happen, and discovered that Arizona turning blue is about communities organizing around civil rights, about demographic change, and about activated Tribal Nations who are aware of the unique relationship between Native Americans and the federal government.  

• Patty Ferguson-Bohnee, a Professor at the Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Ferguson-Bohnee is director of the Indian Legal Clinic at ASU, and serves as the Native Vote Election Protection Coordinator for the State of Arizona 
• Phoenix City Councilmember Carlos Garcia, a longtime organizer who represents Phoenix’s 8th City Council District
• Terry Greene Sterling, an author and journalist who has been writing about Arizona for many years. Her forthcoming book, co-authored with Jude Joffe-Block, is “Driving While Brown: Sheriff Joe Arpaio Versus the Latino Resistance”

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One of the defining characteristics of the modern nation state is that the state has a monopoly on the use of force. In the United States, police officers are a manifestation of this agreement, to which we are all parties--whether we like it or not--and that is perhaps one reason among many why the apparent lack of accountability that seemingly pervades incidents of police misconduct is so troubling: it throws into question the terms of the social contract. There’s a lot to talk about here, but when it comes to accountability, or lack thereof, there’s a story to be told about money, politics, and power, and that story is playing out in cities across the country, and is visible not only in the contracts that police unions negotiate with the cities who employ them, but in the role police unions play in local politics. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow tackles police unions, and goes to St. Louis to see how reform continues to unfold in the metro, nearly seven years after the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson. 

• Phillip Atiba Goff, a Professor of African-American Studies and Psychology at Yale University. Dr. Goff is a co-Founder of the Center for Policing Equity, a research organization that promotes data-informed approaches to police transparency, equity, and accountability
• Stephen Rushin, a Professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law, where he teaches criminal law, evidence, and police accountability
• Blake Strode, Executive Director of ArchCity Defenders, a nonprofit civil rights law firm based in St. Louis, Missouri 
• Retired Sergeant Heather Taylor, a 20-year veteran of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. Taylor was previously President of the Ethical Society of Police, a police association in St. Louis

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On April 19th, 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City; 168 people were killed, and hundreds more injured, in what remains the deadliest incident of domestic terrorism in the United States. Twenty five years later, in 2020, FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that the United States had recorded the deadliest year for domestic terrorism since the Oklahoma City Bombing. Then came the January 6th Insurrection. America has a problem, it seems, and the problem isn’t new. But why are Americans attacking America? On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow digs deeper into the nature of domestic violent extremism in the United States, and the history we as a nation must face up to if we are to confront—and address—the violence which plagues our democracy. 

• Alina Das, a Professor of Clinical Law at the NYU School of Law, where she co-teaches and co-directs the Immigrant Rights Clinic 
• Roudabeh Kishi, ‎the Director of Research & Innovation at the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project 
• Susan Neiman, a philosopher and Director of the Einstein Forum. She is the author of many books, including “Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil”
• Kari Watkins, Executive Director of the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

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Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is one of the most powerful and one of the most enigmatic people in the world. Often positioned as a primary global antagonist of the United States, Khamenei and his regime have endured five American presidents, and his story reveals, among other things, the consequences of American foreign policy. But Khamenei himself is a clever politician, a leader who has maintained the pious economic populism of the Iranian Revolution, and a tactician whose absolute authority is solidified through his relationship to institutions: namely, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard. Little of this, however, has brought any benefit to the people of Iran, who, for nearly 70 years, have found themselves living through one variety of authoritarianism or another. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow contends with absolute authority, the long shadow of history, and the uncertain future of a nation of more than 80 million.    

• Ervand Abrahamian, one of the world’s great historians of Iran. His forthcoming book, "Oil Crisis: From Nationalism to Coup d'Etat,” will be published in 2021
• Mahnaz Afkhami, Founder, President, and CEO of the Women’s Learning Partnership and former Minister for Women’s Affairs in Iran. Her memoir, “The Other Side of Silence,” will be published in 2021
• Maziar Bahari, a journalist, filmmaker, and founder of IranWire, a forum which presents Iranian citizen journalism covering national and local news  
• Trita Parsi, co-Founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, as well as the Founder and former President of the National Iranian American Council 

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Ronald Reagan, a man who was first elected President more than forty years ago, remains one of the most impactful and influential conservative politicians in American history. Reagan, who made it in Hollywood before he made it to the White House, was a towering statesman, a favorite of Republicans and Democrats alike, and a man whose image recalls a past which may never have existed in the first place. How we view Reagan is one way in which America reveals itself, and more importantly, what we leave out of his story are some of the things that we most need to remember. On the first episode of the third season of “Who Is?,” join Sean Morrow, host of “Who Is?,” for a critical reevaluation of Reagan, his administration, and his legacy. 

• Mayor Willie Brown, former Mayor of San Francisco and former Speaker of the California State Assembly
• Maria Foscarinis, Founder and Executive Director of the National Homelessness Law Center
• Jo-Marie Burt, Professor of Political Science and Latin American Studies at George Mason University
• Elizabeth Oglesby, Professor of Latin American Studies and Geography at the University of Arizona
• Monica Prasad, Professor of Sociology at Northwestern University
• Paul Volberding, a physician who has been fighting HIV/AIDS since the beginning of the epidemic

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"Who Is?," an original podcast from NowThis News that explores the lives of the powerful, is back for a third season. On "Who Is?," host and NowThis correspondent Sean Morrow dives deep into the stories and backstories of the politicians, donors, media moguls, movements, and ideas that shape our lives, from Ronald Reagan to Inherited Wealth, and Domestic Violent Extremism to Police Unions. Featuring conversations with the reporters, biographers, colleagues, confidantes--and occasionally adversaries--who know these world molders and big ideas best, "Who Is?" is back for another season of sixteen episodes. There's a new guy in the White House, and we're still living through a pandemic. Who knows what could happen next? 

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“Nobody would be fighting this hard to suppress the vote—the lie about voter fraud—if the vote was not powerful.” - Reverend Doctor William Barber II

Bonus episode!

If you listened to “Who Is Electoral College,” you heard from Reverend Doctor William Barber II. Reverend Doctor Barber is a major civil rights leader, organizer, and also a certified genius: he got the MacArthur grant in 2018, which is unofficially called the 'Genius Grant.' Rev. Barber is the founder of Repairers of the Breach, and runs the revitalized modern version of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign. For a special bonus episode of "Who Is?" we’re sharing our unedited interview with Rev. Barber, as he shares his thoughts on democracy, power, and the importance of voting.

• Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign

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In 2000 and 2016, the candidate who lost the popular vote was elected president. Somehow, that’s democracy at work, and it’s thanks to a baroque institution called the Electoral College. Born out of the same contentious negotiations in 1787 that gave America the Three-fifths Compromise and the structure of the Senate, which bestows equal representation on Wyoming (the least populated state) and California (the most), the Electoral College remains with us today despite numerous attempts to abolish it. That’s because the Constitution is almost impossible to change, and because the Electoral College ultimately values some votes more than others. But America is changing, and as the composition of the electorate shifts as America grows more diverse, is the Electoral College a symbol of the insurmountable structural problems embedded in our democracy or a distraction from the power we exercise when we all vote?

• Rev. Dr. William Barber II, president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign
• Alexander Keyssar, the Matthew W. Stirling Jr. professor of history and social policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government
• Sanford Levinson, the W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas Law School
• Mark Hugo Lopez, director of global migration and demography research at the Pew Research Center
• Representative Emilia Sykes, who represents Ohio’s District 34 in the Ohio House of Representatives, where she is Democratic Minority Leader

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After a lifetime of firsts--from San Francisco District Attorney to California Attorney General to the Senate--Kamala Harris could become the first woman to serve as Vice President. Born in Oakland, California, and raised in Berkeley, Harris’s groundbreaking career in law enforcement has opened up space for women like Chicago’s Kimberly M. Foxx and Baltimore’s Marilyn Mosby. But it has also on occasion put her at odds with the communities she is first to represent in office, and at times obscured her record on consumer protection, the environment, privacy, LGBTQ+ rights, and more. Nevertheless, Harris represents, in many ways, the future of the Democratic Party, and in just a few weeks, could be on her way to the White House. 

• Senator Barbara Boxer, who represented California in the Senate for nearly 25 years
• Tanya Christian, a New York City-based journalist covering news and politics
• Marisa Lagos, political correspondent at KQED in San Francisco. Lagos is co-host of the podcast Political Breakdown  

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Mayor Pete is now Secretary Buttigieg, which means that the former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is now a member of the Biden Administration. A surprisingly popular presidential candidate in 2020, Buttigieg has an unusual story, and in just a few years, he’s gone from planning bike lanes and roundabouts to overseeing the nation’s highways, airports, and more. Buttigieg has already run for president once and he’ll almost certainly do it again, so it’s South Bend and beyond on this episode of "Who Is?," for a look at the man who could one day be America’s first (openly) gay president. 

• Sam Centellas, Executive Director of la Casa de Amistad, a community center which has been serving the needs of immigrants and residents of South Bend, Indiana, since 1973
• Beth Osborne, Director of Transportation for America. During the Obama Administration, Osborne served as the Acting Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy as well as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Transportation Policy 
• Adam Wren, a Features Correspondent at Insider's Washington Bureau

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What do John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh have in common? They made it onto the Supreme Court of the United States in part as a result of the activity of Leonard Leo, the de facto head of the conservative legal movement. Leo, who until recently led the Federalist Society, is a masterful conductor of a network of nonprofits and advocacy groups that have largely succeeded in transforming the third branch of American government, the Judicial. If Amy Coney Barrett, a Leo favorite, is confirmed by the Senate, the conservative transformation of the courts may be the most significant and lasting accomplishment of the Trump Administration.

• Caroline Fredrickson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and distinguished visitor at Georgetown Law
• Robert O’Harrow Jr., an investigative reporter at the Washington Post
• Chase Strangio, deputy director for transgender justice at the American Civil Liberties Union

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Andrew Wheeler, the current Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, is the most important member of the Trump Administration that you’ve never heard of. Extremely effective, Wheeler has systematically rolled back landmark federal regulation designed to address the climate crisis, and meticulously dismantled longstanding rules that protect our air, water, and environment. On this episode of "Who Is?," Sean Morrow dives deep into Wheeler’s roots in West Virginia, a state which makes plain the complicated realities of environmental regulation, and which presents a challenge only a strong federal bureaucracy can meet: charting a path toward a carbon neutral future that includes those who have already intimately experienced the consequences of heavy industry.   

• Coral Davenport, a reporter who covers energy and environmental policy, with a focus on climate change, at the New York Times 
• Gina McCarthy, President and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council Action Fund. McCarthy previously served as Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, from 2013-2017
• Ken Ward Jr., a reporter who covers West Virginia for ProPublica. Ward is a co-founder of Mountain State Spotlight, a new nonprofit news organization that focuses on West Virginia

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It’s one thing to believe that a powerful elite exerts an outsize influence on American democracy. But it’s another thing to believe that this elite is involved in an organized conspiracy of Satanic worship and pedophilia, and further, that the only person who can save the children--and America--is President Donald J. Trump. This is the general thesis of QAnon, a bizarre and baseless ideology that has been embraced by as many as several million Americans, who organize primarily on social media. Although QAnon isn’t real, the rapid spread of extremist belief at the far right fringe--and the domestic security threat this represents--is real, and indicates that a small but not insignificant subset of Americans no longer inhabits the same reality as the rest of us. That’s a problem for democracy, and the democratic institutions on which society depends. On this episode of Who Is?, join Sean Morrow for a trip down the rabbit hole. 

• Amarnath Amarasingam, a professor at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, where he studies radicalization, terrorism, diaspora politics, post-war reconstruction, and the sociology of religion
• Nancy Rosenblum, the Harvard University Senator Joseph Clark professor of ethics in politics and government emerita. Her most recent book is “A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy”
• Brandy Zadrozny, a reporter at NBC News, where she covers disinformation, extremism, and the internet 

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is one of the wealthiest and most powerful people on the planet. And yet, much of his story remains a mystery. Born in St. Petersburg, when it was still known as Leningrad, Putin’s childhood unfolded on the streets of a city  recovering from a devastating, years-long siege during World War II. Today, Putin is the longest-serving Russian leader since Stalin, and could be in charge until 2036. On this episode of Who Is?, Sean Morrow dives deep into Putin’s past, and talks to some of the Russians who are fighting back against Putinism, and for freedom and democracy in Russia. 

• Catherine Belton previously served as the Moscow correspondent for the Financial Times. She’s currently a special correspondent at Reuters, and is the author of “Putin’s People: How the KGB Took Back Russia and Then Took On the West”
• Masha Gessen, a staff writer at The New Yorker and author of many books, including “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin,” and most recently, “Surviving Autocracy” 
• Michael McFaul, who has taught at Stanford since 1995. McFaul served for five years in the Obama Administration, which included several years as U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. His most recent book is “From Cold War to Hot Peace: An American Ambassador in Putin’s Russia” 
• Nadya Tolokonnikova, a founder of feminist collective Pussy Riot

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In the United States, political power is allocated when Americans go to the polls and vote for the candidates whom they believe will best represent their interests in government. For that reason, access to the ballot has been restricted--and contested--since the early days of democracy, with each expansion of the electorate met by measures to suppress the vote. Democracy, it seems, has always been for some, but not others. On this episode of “Who Is?,” join Sean Morrow for a conversation on voter suppression in the aftermath of Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 Supreme Court decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act and upended how Americans vote. Featuring three women who fight for voting rights nationwide: Stacey Abrams, Lydia Camarillo, and Natalie Landreth.  

• Stacey Abrams, 2018 Democratic candidate for Governor of Georgia and former Minority Leader of the Georgia House of Representatives. She’s the founder of Fair Fight and Fair Count, and her new book is, “Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America” 
• Lydia Camarillo, president of the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project and William C. Velasquez Institute 
• Natalie Landreth, a senior staff attorney at the Native American Rights Fund

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On February 26, 2012, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. On July 13, 2013, Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the case of Martin’s death. In response to Zimmerman’s acquittal, Alicia Garza, an Oakland-based organizer, wrote a post on Facebook which contained the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” A friend, Patrisse Cullors, hashtagged it: #blacklivesmatter. Eight years later, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May, tens of millions of Americans poured into the streets, in outrage and grief, to demand that this never happen again. Nationwide protests in support of racial justice continue, and, tragically, so do police shootings of Black Americans: from Kenosha, Wisconsin, to Los Angeles, California. On this episode of “Who Is?,” a look at how Black Lives Matter has grown into a movement. 

• Keisha N. Blain, a professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, and president of the African American Intellectual History Society. She is the author of “Set the World on Fire: Black Nationalist Women and the Global Struggle for Freedom” 
• Miski Noor, a writer and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Noor is a co-founder of Black Visions Collective
• Vince Warren, director of the Center for Constitutional Rights

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In 1993, Jeff Bezos noticed that use of something called “the web” was up 2300 percent. So, he moved to Seattle and started a company: Amazon. Nearly thirty years later, Bezos, the wealthiest human being on the planet, is on track to become humanity’s first trillionaire, and Amazon has grown into one of the largest and most valuable companies in the world. An exquisite, revenue-generating machine, from e-commerce to Amazon Web Services, or, AWS, Amazon is both marketplace and infrastructure for the contemporary economy. But Amazon’s dominance and Bezos’s immense wealth come at a cost: to workers, to small businesses, and to the health of competitive markets. On this episode of “Who Is?,” the story behind the package--and your Amazon Prime membership.

• Vanessa, an Amazon worker and organizer with DCH1 Amazonians United
• Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self Reliance 
• Kshama Sawant, a Seattle City Councilwoman who has represented Seattle’s District 3 since 2014
• Andreas Weigend, a data scientist who previously served as Amazon’s chief scientist. He is the author of the book “Data for the People”

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On the first season of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow explored Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and the military industrial complex. But what about the meat industrial complex? Whether it’s beef, chicken, or pork, most of the meat that winds up on your dinner plate is the ultimate result of an industrial food system controlled by a handful of powerful multinational meatpacking corporations: JBS, Smithfield, Cargill, Tyson, and National Beef. Big Meat. And for the most part, the story of Big Meat--and the system of industrial meat production that it controls--is a story untold, despite the enormous impact that these companies and this system has on everything from our diets, to the health and economic stability of rural communities in the United States, to the global climate crisis. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow takes a trip inside the refrigerator--and beyond--for the story of how Big Meat came to be, and what we can do about it.

• Leah Douglas, an associate editor and staff writer at the Food and Environment Reporting Network 
• Sherri Dugger, executive director of the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project
• Joe Maxwell, former Lieutenant Governor of Missouri and co-founder and president of Family Farm Action Alliance
• Shefali Sharma, director of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy’s European office 

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There are more than 7 billion people on the planet, and as of this year, nearly 3 billion of them use Facebook or one of the platforms it owns: Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. As a result, the company is massively profitable, which has made Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s co-founder and CEO, one of the most wealthy and powerful human beings in the world. At the helm of this behemoth, Zuckerberg wields a power that, according to legendary investigative journalist Julia Angwin, is unlike any other in history. On this episode of “Who is?,” Sean Morrow confronts Facebook, and the man in charge of the platform on which much of human digital communication occurs, and on which most of the world’s digital community resides. 

• Julia Angwin, a renowned investigative journalist who has written about tech for the Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, and is now editor in chief of The Markup, which she founded  
• Sarah Frier, who writes about social media for Bloomberg in San Francisco. She’s the author of “No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram,” which was published in April of this year 

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In some ways, George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist who turns 90 this week, is the sum of the worst horrors and greatest triumphs of the twentieth century. A survivor of World War II who narrowly escaped Nazi concentration camps, Soros would escape totalitarianism twice, making his way to London on the eve of the Soviet occupation of his hometown, Budapest, Hungary. Soros went on to become one of the financial titans of global capitalism, a ruthless hedge fund manager whose aggressive currency speculation infamously broke the Bank of England. As he amassed an immense fortune, Soros would spend $32B on his Open Society Foundation, an organization through which he seeks to nourish liberal democracy worldwide. It’s that very work in support of democracy which has led Soros to become the reviled target of both Western antidemocratic conservatism and Eastern antiliberalism. On this episode of Who Is?, Sean Morrow explores the story of one of the most loved--and loathed--people on the planet.

• Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European Studies at the University of Oxford and senior fellow at Stanford University, who has been writing about the transition to democracy in Eastern Europe for 40 years 
• Hannes Grassegger, an investigative reporter based in Bern, Switzerland, who focuses on digital power and information warfare
• Kati Marton, a Hungarian born writer, journalist, and activist. Marton is currently working on her tenth book, a biography of Chancellor of Germany Angela Merkel 
• Emily Tamkin, U.S. editor and Washington correspondent at The New Statesman, a political and cultural magazine based in the United Kingdom. Tamkin's new book, “The Influence of Soros: Politics, Power, and the Struggle for an Open Society,” is available now

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In 2020, Andrew Yang ran for president, and although he never really had a serious chance, he became a familiar name, and a familiar face. In 2021, he’s running for Mayor of New York City, and this time, he might win. If he does, Yang will face an enormous challenge: navigating one of the world’s most important cities through an uncertain recovery. A man with essentially no political experience but a lot of ideas and a lot of charisma, Yang has the opportunity to reimagine how the post-pandemic city functions. But he’ll also have to contend with the day-to-day realities of governing, from policing to public schools to public housing. On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow dives deep into Yang himself, examines the policy and the people behind his current campaign for mayor, and explores how a city like New York can build an inclusive economy as it recovers from Covid-19.

• Katie Honan, who covers City Hall in New York City for The Wall Street Journal
• Amy Liu, vice president and director of the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, which she co-founded in 1996
• Harry Siegel, a senior editor at The Daily Beast, columnist at The New York Daily News, and co-host of the podcast FAQ NYC

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On Who Is?, Sean Morrow talks a lot about the system--and the powerful financial interests that exert a profound influence on it. But who are these check-writing billionaires, where do they make their money, and how do they spend it in order to influence our democracy? One of them, Paul Singer, runs a hedge fund, Elliott Management, whose business is activism--but not the activism you might think of. Elliott’s “activism” is activist investing, and the changes Elliott advocates for--at major main street companies like AT&T--often involve tens of thousands of layoffs, and result in the collapse of small towns and regional economies. That’s not all: Elliott is also in the business of using the courts to force entire countries, like Argentina, into default, making a handsome profit in the process. What does Paul Singer do with all of the money he makes at Elliott? Invest it in politics, and think tanks that seek to advance American militarism in the Middle East. On this episode of Who Is?, the story of one of America’s financial titans, and the power he wields over not only our economy, but our democracy.     

• Michelle Celarier, a renowned finance journalist who has covered hedge funds and the men who run them for New York Magazine, Fortune, Institutional Investor, and the New York Post
• Eli Clifton, an investigative journalist who focuses on how money influences U.S. foreign policy, and research director of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft's Democratizing Foreign Policy Program
• Nell Geiser, the director of research for the Communications Workers of America
• Jen Wieczner, a senior writer at Fortune Magazine, where she covers finance, tech, and hedge funds and their role in the market

The views expressed in this podcast include opinion unless cited as fact and Paul Singer and his hedge fund firm, Elliot Management Corporation, have previously denied any claims of wrongdoing

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How did Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, the son of Abraham Schumer, an exterminator, and Selma Schumer, a homemaker, become the most powerful Democrat in the Senate? Schumer’s path to power is, on the one hand, a case study in the American meritocracy elevating one of its best and brightest: a hardworking, public school graduate who worked his way to the top. On the other hand, Schumer’s politics are an object lesson in the demands American democracy makes of those who aim to reach such pinnacles of power. As the November election approaches--and Democrats aim to retake the Senate--this episode features a conversation with the last Democrat to run the Senate, former Majority Leader Harry Reid. 

• Carol Kellerman, who has had a long and distinguished career in public service in New York City, and who has worked with, and for, Senator and Representative Chuck Schumer throughout his career  
• Former Senate Majority Leader and former amateur boxer Harry Reid, who represented Nevada in the Senate for 30 years

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After serving as United States Ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump Administration, former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, the first woman to lead the state, has fast become one of the most prominent and powerful politicians in the contemporary Republican Party. Haley, the daughter of Punjabi Sikh immigrants, grew up in rural South Carolina, and first entered politics when she defeated a longtime incumbent in a longshot race after Hillary Clinton inspired her to run for political office. As a member of the South Carolina House, Haley fought for transparency. But as Governor, Haley was in line with some of the most antidemocratic positions of her party, from fighting to limit voting rights to seeking to attract jobs to South Carolina via toady corporate giveaways. To understand one of the most talented, compelling, and complicated women in conservative politics, Sean Morrow talks to the people who have observed--and served--with Haley during her meteoric rise to the top. Featuring a conversation with former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and CNN analyst Bakari Sellers. 

• Eleanor Openshaw, Co-Director of the New York office of the International Service for Human Rights (ISHR). She leads ISHR’s work to to promote NGO participation and protect civil society space at the United Nations
• Bakari Sellers, former member of the South Carolina House of Representatives and CNN political analyst. His new book, My Vanishing Country, was released in May 2020
• Andy Shain, Columbia Bureau Chief of South Carolina’s Post and Courier

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In 2018, after defeating a powerful corporate Democrat in one of the biggest political upsets in American history, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became the most prominent progressive in the United States. In office, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez has proposed visionary policy, like the Green New Deal, and become famous for her willingness to challenge the status quo directly--a formidable poise she developed over more than a decade of experience in grassroots organizing. Ocasio-Cortez, who will turn 31 in October, is a politician with a long career ahead of her. As she cruises toward a second term, more than anything else, she has proven that it is possible to fight back against the moneyed political establishment and win. On the first episode of the second season of “Who Is?,” join Sean Morrow, host of “Who Is?,” as he talks with the journalist who first covered AOC’s longshot primary challenge, the volunteers who were with her from the start, and the activists fighting on the ground to propel the progressive movement forward. 

• Naureen Akhter, Deputy District Director for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
• Aida Chavez, who covers Congress and politics at The Intercept
• Shaniyat Chowdhury, an activist and insurgent candidate who challenged Representative Gregory Meeks in New York’s 5th congressional district
• Bianca Cunningham, a former co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), and a co-founder of the DSA AfroSocialists and Socialists of Color Caucus

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"Who Is?," an original podcast from NowThis News that explores the lives of the powerful, is back. On "Who Is?," host and NowThis correspondent Sean Morrow dives deep into the stories and backstories of the politicians, donors, media moguls and movements that shape our lives, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Mark Zuckerberg, and #BlackLivesMatter to George Soros. Featuring conversations with the reporters, biographers, colleagues, confidantes--and occasionally adversaries--who know these world molders best, "Who Is?" is back for another season of sixteen episodes. It's an election year, and we're living through a pandemic. There's a lot to talk about.

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A billionaire among billionaires, Charles Koch is one of the most powerful men in the world. By all accounts a brilliant businessman, Charles inherited his father’s company when Lyndon B. Johnson was in the White House, and, over decades, has transformed privately held Koch Industries into a massive multinational conglomerate with annual revenues of well over a hundred billion dollars. Since the 1970s, he’s not only reinvested that money in his company, but funneled it into American politics, financing ideas, organizations, and politicians, which together present a carefully engineered attempt to dismantle the regulatory state, and perhaps government itself. And he’s been very successful: Charles Koch, more than anyone else, may epitomize the pervasive influence of money on American democracy. On the final episode of the first season of Who Is, Sean Morrow explores the biography of Charles Koch, and the history of the Koch Network, for a look at how the very, very wealthy seek to control the political process, and what the rest of us can do about it.

• Amy Goodman, Host and Executive Producer of Democracy Now!
• Alexander Hertel-Fernandez, Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. His most recent book is State Capture: How Conservative Activists, Big Businesses, and Wealthy Donors Reshaped the American States -- and the Nation 
• Christopher Leonard, Author of Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America

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Vice President Mike Pence, who has described himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order,” for decades, was born a Catholic Democrat, but rose to prominence as an Evangelical conservative. Once elected to Congress, his friendly attitude toward big business attracted the attention of billionaire donors like Charles Koch. But as Governor of Indiana, Pence became infamous for how his faith informed his politics, from praying for an answer to an HIV outbreak in Scott County, to advocating for a religious freedom policy that enabled business owners to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. Then came Donald Trump. On the penultimate episode of the first season of Who Is, Sean Morrow turns to Pence biographer Tom LoBianco, to try to understand the man who could be the next President of the United States.

• Tom LoBianco, Reporter and Author of Piety & Power: Mike Pence and the Taking of the White House 
• Sarah Posner, a Reporting Fellow at Type Investigations, where she covers the religious right, white nationalism, and more. Her latest book, Unholy: Why White Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump, is out on May 26, 2020 
• Laura Ungar, a Midwest Editor and Correspondent at Kaiser Health News. Ungar recently returned to Austin, Indiana, for a look at how the city has recovered, and to evaluate the challenges faced by those living in rural America, for Kaiser Health News and NPR. Her extensive coverage of Austin may be found at https://www.courier-journal.com/

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Arkansas is one of America’s poorest states. Today, it’s also one of its reddest, and the politicians it sends to Washington, like its star senator, Tom Cotton, aim to cut the government assistance programs that many Arkansans depend on. But the state was once solidly democratic, and elected charismatic democratic politicians like former President Bill Clinton, for decades. In the second of three episodes exploring the contemporary Republican Party, and the future of the party after Trump, Sean Morrow digs into the forces that brought Sen. Cotton to power, including deep pocketed donors like Charles Koch, and untangles the complexities of white identity politics and the nationalization of Southern beliefs and attitudes.   

• Ernie Dumas, Journalist and Author of The Education of Ernie Dumas 
• Tamika Edwards, Executive Director of the Social Justice Institute at Philander Smith College 
• Angie Maxwell, Director of the Diane Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society and an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Arkansas

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As Democrats nationwide consider who their party will nominate to challenge President Trump in November, Republicans look ahead -- to 2024. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, after a meteoric rise through Kansas politics to leading the CIA and the State Department, is widely believed to be preparing to run for higher office. A businessman; a veteran; and a committed Christian, Pompeo represents one possible future for the Republican Party. He’s also an object example of how conservatives, by and large, have accommodated themselves to Trump. On this episode of Who Is, Sean Morrow inspects the complex and contradictory beliefs and impulses of the man who rode the Tea Party to Congress and Benghazi to fame.

• Lara Jakes, a Diplomatic Correspondent based in the Washington bureau of The New York Times 
• Dion Lefler, Government and Politics Reporter at The Wichita Eagle 
• Tom Shine, Director of News and Public Affairs at Wichita Public Radio, KMUW 
• Nahal Toosi, Foreign Affairs Reporter for Politico

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Who is Stephen Miller? One of three Senior Advisors to the President--along with Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump--Miller is arguably the person who has had the greatest impact on the most people. Policy that Miller has devised, and, thanks to a conservative-leaning Supreme Court, by in large been able to enact, has changed how immigration works in the United States. But that's not all: as one of President Trump's favorite speechwriters, Miller has crafted much of the language that brings "Make America Great Again" to life. On this episode of Who Is, Sean Morrow explores how a Jewish kid from liberal Santa Monica became an immigration hardliner, and dives deep into the history of immigration--and immigration control--in the United States. Airs 02/04/2020.    

• Marisa Franco, director and co-founder of Mijente, a political, digital, and grassroots hub for Latinx organizing and movement building
• Dr. Kelly Lytle Hernandez, Professor of History, African American Studies, and Urban Planning at UCLA, and the author of Migra! A History of the U.S. Border Patrol 
• Nick Miroff, immigration enforcement and Department of Homeland Security reporter at the Washington Post 
• Laurie Winer, co-founder and editor of the LA Review of Books

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Unless you’re lucky enough to live on another planet, you’ve probably heard about the climate crisis. It’s a problem we must address if we want humanity--and the rest of the Earth’s animal and plant population--to continue to survive and thrive. But in order for that surviving and thriving to happen, we must immediately and definitively cut emissions and begin the transition away from fossil fuels. How’s that going? As you’ve probably heard, not so well, and as a result, more radical approaches are increasingly in the mix. Geoengineering is one of these, and while it won’t solve the climate crisis, it may enable us to remove some of the carbon dioxide we’ve emitted and even artificially lower global temperatures while we detox from fossil fuels. The catch? We don’t really know what would happen if we did it, and we may not be able to undo it. On this episode of “Who Is?,” it’s a look at one of the big choices we may have to make in the not so distant future.  

• Elizabeth Kolbert, who has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1999. Her most recent book, “Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future,” was published in February of 2021 
• Janos Pasztor, executive director of the Carnegie Climate Governance Initiative (C2G). Pasztor was previously United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change in New York under Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

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Jared Kushner, husband of Ivanka Trump, is probably the most powerful person in the United States who we know the least about. The grandchild of immigrants who escaped the Holocaust, Kushner is the beneficiary of his family’s meteoric rise, and the quintessential rich kid: before his donation-based admission to Harvard, Kushner hobnobbed with politicians and managed segments of his family’s vast real estate holdings. In graduate school, he bought a newspaper--and ran it into the ground--and a billion-dollar Manhattan office tower--which, until the election of President Donald Trump, nearly bankrupted the family business. But once his father-in-law is elected president, Kushner finds himself--or maneuvers his way into--the middle of everything, whether it’s building the wall, devising a solution to the Israel-Palestine imbroglio, or negotiating a trade deal with China. Featuring Andrea Bernstein, author of the newly released book American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power.     

• Andrea Bernstein, co-host of the Trump Inc. podcast from WNYC and ProPublica, and author of American Oligarchs: The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power
• Daniel Golden, Senior Editor at ProPublica and author of The Price of Admission: How America's Ruling Class Buys Its Way into Elite Colleges—and Who Gets Left Outside the Gates
• Vanessa Grigoriadis, host of Tabloid: The Making of Ivanka Trump and author of Blurred Lines: Rethinking Sex, Power and Consent on Campus

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How did Saudi Arabia get away with the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the kidnapping and alleged torture of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, and even 9/11? How does it get away with war in Yemen and human rights violations at home? Oil, and the wealth that oil has brought about. On the first international episode of Who Is, Sean Morrow explores the 34-year-old trillionaire in charge of Saudi Arabia, Mohammad bin Salman, and the story of a monarchy that is using its wealth to secure its global legitimacy--and expand its influence--through investments in Silicon Valley notables like Twitter, Uber, and Slack. Featuring Agnès Callamard, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions, who investigated Khashoggi’s 2018 killing.

• Hala Aldosari, Robert E. Wilhelm Fellow at the MIT Center for International Studies
• Agnès Callamard, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extra-Judicial Executions and Director, Global Freedom of Expression, Columbia University
• Steven A. Cook, Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. His latest book is False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and Violence in the New Middle East

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In the United States, war is big business. The Department of Defense, led by Secretary Mark Esper since 2019, has a budget of $738 billion this year. And while many of those dollars pay for those who serve in the armed forces and the maintenance of a nuclear arsenal, a significant portion of that budget will go to the military-industrial complex, which President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned Americans about in his farewell address in 1961, and which, prior to his appointment, Secretary Esper represented in Washington as a lobbyist. With the question of war in the air after the United States--in a targeted drone strike on Iraqi soil approved by President Donald Trump--assassinated the second most powerful man in Iran, Qasem Soleimani, who stands to profit? On this episode of Who Is, Sean Morrow dives deep into Secretary of Defense Mark Esper and the military-industrial complex.   

• Kate Brannen, Editorial Director of Just Security
• Jack Detsch, Pentagon Correspondent of Al-Monitor
• Aaron Mehta, Deputy Editor and Senior Pentagon Correspondent of Defense News

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Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is the most powerful woman in the United States. The first woman to lead the House of Representatives--and third in line to the presidency--she’s passed landmark legislation like the Affordable Care Act; has been the legislative partner, or adversary, of three presidents; and is playing a decisive role in the impeachment of President Trump. All that, and she didn’t even hold elected office until she was 47, after she had raised five children. Whatever your politics, this is Nancy Pelosi’s moment. Join Sean Morrow for this not-to-be-missed look at the woman who is, arguably, the leader of the democratic party. 

• John Lawrence, former Pelosi Chief of Staff; Visiting Professor at the University of California's Washington Center; author of The Class of '74: Congress after Watergate and the Roots of Partisanship
• Paul Kane, Senior Congressional Correspondent and Columnist at the Washington Post 
• Stephanie L. Young, former White House Senior Public Engagement Advisor in the Office of Public Engagement

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On this episode of Who Is, host Sean Morrow explores the backstory of Fox News and its founders: media savant Roger Ailes and Australian billionaire Rupert Murdoch. A sophisticated mix of media and politics, what we know as Fox News is the result of a decades-long conservative effort, and has become a defining force in American politics and presidential elections. Featuring scholars who study conservative media and movements--A.J. Bauer, Reece Peck, and Khadijah White--as well as Caroline Heldman, who appeared on the network hundreds of times, and whose harrowing recollections of the behavior of major personalities echo in contemporary dramatizations like Bombshell and The Loudest Voice, among others.

GUESTS:

• A.J. Bauer, Assistant Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University 
• Reece Peck, Assistant Professor at the City University of New York, Staten Island
• Khadijah White, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at Rutgers University
• Caroline Heldman, Professor of Politics at Occidental College

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Sen. Bernie Sanders is America’s most prominent self-described democratic socialist, and he’s running for president--as a democrat. Born in Brooklyn, Sanders arrived in Vermont via Chicago, where he was first elected Mayor of Burlington in 1981 by a margin of 10 votes. And from the climate crisis to income inequality to his Medicare For All plan, Sanders has been a consistent progressive voice ever since, as mayor, congressman, and finally, senator. But has Sanders had a measurable impact on our democracy? Does he know how to ‘play the game’? On this episode, host of Who Is, Sean Morrow, talks to the Vermonters who know “Bernie” best, including another former candidate for president: former Vermont governor Howard Dean.

GUESTS:

• Howard Dean, 2004 Democratic Candidate for President; former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee (2005-2009); Governor of Vermont (1991-2003)
• Alan Abbey, Director of Internet and Media at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, Israel
• Bob Kinzel, of Vermont Public Radio
• Dave Levinthal, editor-at-large at the Center for Public Integrity

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Former Vice President Joe Biden has been in politics for like, ever. Elected to the Senate nearly fifty years ago in 1973, Biden was Obama’s Vice President and is now running for president himself (and not for the first time). He’s been praised for his public service, criticized for his record on race, and noticed for his sunglass selection. On this episode, host of Who Is Sean Morrow unpacks Biden’s long career, for the stories you need to know about Uncle Joe.

GUESTS:

• Ryan Grim, The Intercept
• Natasha Korecki, Politico

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Sen. Elizabeth Warren is running for president. A mother who had her first child at 22, Warren vaulted from Oklahoma to the halls of Harvard and on to the Senate. On this episode of Who Is, host Sean Morrow takes you beyond the 2020 hype for the stories that you need to know about the woman who wants to take on President Trump.

GUESTS:

• Sheelah Kolhatkar, of The New Yorker 
• James Pindell, of the Boston Globe
• Alex Thompson, of Politico

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Who Is the most powerful person in America? Perhaps Chief Justice of the Supreme Court John Roberts. Appointed for life, Justice Roberts could cast the decisive vote—defining the law of the land—when it comes to issues like abortion, gun control, LGBTQ rights, and things you don’t even realize touch your everyday life. Presidents and Senate power breakers might get the press, but for the power behind the throne, look for the man in the black robe.

GUESTS:

• Amy Howe, of Howe on the Court and host of podcast SCOTUSTalk. Co-founder of SCOTUSblog
• Dahlia Lithwick, of Slate, she hosts the Amicus podcast.
• Mark Joseph Stern, of Slate, and author of “American Justice 2019: The Roberts Court Arrives”

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Billionaire and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater are siblings whose decisions have shaped America’s youth and defense systems. Are they genius strategists like the Lannisters, or bungling buffoons like the Bluths? On this episode of Who Is, find out how these powerful siblings obtained the positions they have (hint: money), and what the privatization of public education and the privatization of the military have in common. This episode features Katherine Gallagher, an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, who represented Iraqis wounded and families of Iraqis killed by Blackwater in Baghdad.

Watch the video series at NowThisNews.com

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Americans aren’t in agreement about much these days, but there does appear to be one thing that they overwhelmingly support: legalizing the medical and recreational use of cannabis. Across the country, cannabis is winning at the ballot box and in the statehouse, and whether you partake or not, legalization has major implications for civil rights and civil liberties, for social and racial justice, and, of course, for those who see cannabis as an enormous opportunity to make a lot of money. While federal legalization remains distant, how states legalize could play a significant role in determining the type of cannabis economy that may emerge in America. Will it be a market characterized by equity and competition--a small business success story--or a market dominated by politically influential corporate interests: Big Weed? On this episode of “Who Is?,” Sean Morrow takes a look at legalization and who stands to benefit from it.    

• Emily Dufton, a writer and historian. Her first book is “Grass Roots: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Marijuana in America”
• Beau Kilmer, Director of the Drug Policy Research Center and McCauley Chair in Drug Policy Innovation at RAND
• Majority Leader Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, who represents District 141 in the New York State Assembly 
• Shaleen Title, Distinguished Cannabis Policy Practitioner in Residence at the Drug Enforcement and Policy Center of the Ohio State University Moritz College of Law

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Who Is Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell? Host of Who Is Sean Morrow flew to Kentucky to find out, where he interviewed the people who have covered McConnell from his home state for decades. Is Mitch McConnell a political genius or just somebody willing to play outside the rules?

GUESTS:

• Phillip Bailey, Louisville Courier-Journal
• John Cheves, Lexington Herald Leader
• Al Cross, Director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues at the University of Kentucky
• Alec MacGillis, ProPublica
• Alex Pareene, The New Republic

Watch the video series at NowThisNews.com

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“Who Is?,” an original podcast by NowThis, explores the back stories of well-known, powerful people in the U.S. Over the course of sixteen 30-45minute episodes, the podcast will look at top leaders in Washington, Trump’s inner circle, the field of presidential hopefuls and major political donors. The podcast is hosted by NowThis correspondent Sean Morrow.

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In 1851, then Secretary of the Interior Alexander H.H. Stuart wrote the following: “What is to become of the aboriginal race? … A temporary system can no longer be pursued. The policy of removal, except under peculiar circumstances, must necessarily be abandoned; and the only alternatives left are, to civilize or exterminate them.” In 2021, Congresswoman Deb Haaland, a Laguna Pueblo woman, was confirmed Secretary of the Interior. Haaland, a single mother who enrolled in college at 28 and would later experience homelessness, is a remarkable person--and politician--whose presence in the Biden Administration marks a profound assertion of Indigenous political power in the United States.  

• Julia Bernal, Alliance Director at the Pueblo Action Alliance
• John Leshy, who has dedicated much of his career to America’s public lands and the laws that govern them, served as Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior throughout the Clinton Administration. His political history of public lands in the United States, “Our Common Ground,” will be published in late 2021 by Yale University Press
• Jenni Monet, a journalist who writes about Indigenous Affairs

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Does the nuclear command authority of the United States protect the world from an ill-considered strike by the Commander in Chief? Short answer: No. Before 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic, many people may have thought that existential risk was the stuff of science fiction. Not anymore. Joan Rohlfing has been working on managing existential risk for decades. From arms control to disarmament, she has had a hand in almost every conceivable aspect of the nuclear portfolio. And while an intentional or inadvertent use of nuclear weapons could conceivably end the human story at any moment, Rohlfing is optimistic. Nuclear is a solvable problem, and the solutions we might imagine and enact--from international cooperation to technology innovation--offer models for mitigating existential risk elsewhere. On “Who Is?” this week, it’s the end of the world, and what we can do to prevent it.

• Joan Rohlfing, President and Chief Operating Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative

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