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Obscured — Society & Culture
Obscured

Obscured tells stories that unfold largely out of the public eye. Journalists Emily Previti and Stephanie Marudas cover critical issues that don’t get much attention in the media, reveal how these issues are complex and overshadowed and aim to cultivate understanding and explore potential solutions.

Obscured is produced by Kouvenda Media and mixed by Brad Linder.

The podcast features:

• Original limited series that dive deep into an obscured issue
• Conversational interview episodes with policy professionals, researchers
and journalists
• Revisiting past reporting and finding out what has happened since
• Community-focused panel discussions

Obscured’s first season features a range of issues including the right to intellectual freedom in prison, harm reduction, compensation for people who were wrongfully convicted and a limited series about the stories of law enforcement trauma survivors. Through deep-dive reporting and conversational interview episodes, listeners will hear insights from law enforcement, trauma survivors, formerly incarcerated individuals, healthcare providers, attorneys, policy professionals, advocates, journalists and researchers about the path forward and navigating obstacles along the way.

Obscured’s limited series, From Words to Weapons, drops October 18th.

Sign up for Obscured’s newsletter:
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Learn more about how you can become a supporter of Obscured:
https://www.kouvendamedia.com/support/

Copyright: © 2023

Latest Episodes:

Bad Watchdog: The Missing Text Messages Dec 27, 2023

Show notes

We're excited to share Bad Watchdog with you! It's produced by the Project on Government Oversight or POGO.

Season 1 of Bad Watchdog tells the story of what happens when the person tasked with investigating one of the nation's powerful agencies decides to look the other way.

In episode 1, host Maren Machles takes us back to January 6, 2021, to the insurrection at the United States Capitol.

How did a peaceful transfer of power turn into the first breach of the U.S. Capitol in over two centuries? We may never have all the answers, thanks to the Department of Homeland Security watchdog's failure to alert Congress for months about deleted Secret Service text messages. What's more, that watchdog refused a request to help recover the texts, and even halted an internal Secret Service investigation into their deletion.

Government watchdogs, called inspectors general, are supposed to hold powerful actors accountable. When they don't do their jobs, the effects can be disastrous. Investigators at the Project On Government Oversight examine DHS watchdog Joseph Cuffari's initial response to the missing Secret Service text messages and explore his abrupt change of course after a former White House aide gave shocking testimony about then-President Trump's actions on January 6th.

Maren Machles - Host

Nick Schwellenbach - Guest

Liz Hempowicz - Guest

Gordon Heddell – Guest

For more information about Bad Watchdog and POGO:

https://www.pogo.org/podcasts/bad-watchdog

The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) is a nonpartisan independent watchdog that investigates and exposes waste, corruption, abuse of power, and when the government fails to serve the public or silences those who report wrongdoing.

And to listen to more episodes:

https://pod.link/1665650370

Resources:

House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the Capitol, 6/28/2022 Hearing

DHS Watchdog Failed to Sound Alarm For Months on Secret Service's Purged Jan. 6 Texts (POGO)

DHS inspector general tells Secret Service to stop investigating potentially missing texts (CNN)

Homeland Security watchdog halted plan to recover Secret Service texts, records show (Washington Post)

DHS Watchdog Nixed Alert to Congress About Purged January 6 Texts, New Docs Show (POGO)

Strengthening Government Watchdogs (POGO)

Independence of Inspectors General is Essential (POGO)

FWTW Ep 8: Post-Incarceration Health Care & Navigating Mistrust with Divya Venkat Dec 20, 2023

Show notes

From Words to Weapons Episode 8 delves into health care for returning citizens with Dr. Divya Venkat about how law enforcement trauma shows up in her patients and implementing a harm reduction care model.

Divya is a physician and works for the Allegheny Health Network's Center for Inclusion Health. Divya has treated both incarcerated and formerly incarcerated individuals and shares her perspective with us.

She's the co-founder and co-director of RIvER, a health care delivery program in Pittsburgh for people after being incarcerated.

As part of our conversation, Divya talks about how she and her colleagues navigate patient mistrust in institutions across the board, including the medical field.

Links of Interest:

https://nihcm.org/assets/articles/NIHCM-CIH-RIvER-Venkat.pdf

https://www.ahn.org/services/medicine/center-for-inclusion-health

FWTW Ep 7: Maija Anderson's Story & Supporting Law Enforcement Trauma Survivors Dec 13, 2023

Show notes

From Words to Weapons Episode 7 focuses on Maija Anderson's story and her push to develop a treatment protocol for people after a law enforcement encounter.

Maija has been working on developing a protocol for more than 20 years, with mixed success and support.

Through Maija's story and talking to other researchers and reformers for this episode, Emily Previti reports and shows the obstacles – and potential path forward– to establishing support for law enforcement trauma survivors comparable to what's long been provided for survivors of other forms of trauma.

Links of interest:

Have Nurses Turned a Blind Eye? (Anderson, Maija and Bailey, Mary; American Journal of Nursing)

Latent Class Profiles of Police Violence Exposure in 4 US Cities and Their Associations with Anticipation of Police Violence and Mental Health Outcomes (Leslie Salas-Hernández, et. Al; Journal of Urban Health)

Developing a Model of Forensic Care To Victims of Police Violence (Anderson, Maija and Callari-Robinson, Jacqueline; NNVAWI Conference)

Police in the ED Medical Provider Toolkit (Working Group on Policing and Patient Rights, Georgetown University Health-Justice Alliance)

FWTW Ep 6: County Jails, Mental Health & Accountability Barriers with Brett Sholtis Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

From Words to Weapons Episode 6 focuses on how county jails treat people with mental health conditions.

Emily Previti and Stephanie Marudas talk with Pennsylvania-based journalist Brett Sholtis, who investigated this issue in Pennsylvania, about what that looks like and obstacles he's faced during his reporting.

Brett investigated interactions between corrections officers and inmates with mental health conditions; specifically, how tasers, restraints and other types of force are utilized within county jails.

The conversation also delves into how the lack of transparency can prevent accountability and public understanding of these issues.

Links of interest:

https://www.witf.org/news/mental-health-behind-bars/

FWTW Ep 5: Hector Rivera's Story, Inconsistent Accountability & Revamping Civilian Oversight Nov 22, 2023

Show notes

On Episode 5 of the From Words to Weapons series, Hector Rivera shares his experiences of surviving police brutality and seeking accountability. His experiences point to the lack of an effective, uniform structure for police accountability in the United States. Instead, solutions – and outcomes – vary from city to city. And experts on law enforcement oversight say it almost has to be that way.

In context of Hector's story, Emily Previti breaks down what police oversight currently looks like in Philadelphia where she lives.

Just a heads-up: on this episode, we're really getting into the weeds about this topic that's so often obscured.

Links of interest: https://www.phila.gov/2023-09-13-cpocs-release-of-the-pbi-report-part-2/

https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/daniels-et-al-v-city-new-york

https://www.aclupa.org/en/cases/bailey-et-al-v-city-philadelphia-et-al

FWTW Ep 4: Community Trauma Interventions with Arturo Zinny Nov 15, 2023

Show notes

From Words to Weapons Episode 4 delves into community trauma interventions with Arturo Zinny. The conversation explores what takeaways there might be for people working to address law enforcement trauma and navigating relationships among institutions and communities with lived experience.

There's a small network of researchers and policy makers, around the United States, who are thinking about how to support people who've experienced traumatic encounters with law enforcement.

To better understand what that might entail, Emily Previti and Stephanie Marudas have been talking to public health practitioners who've done adjacent work, hoping to learn about any models that might be analogous and provide more context about these sorts of interventions.

On this episode, Emily and Stephanie speak with Philadelphia-based public health researcher Arturo Zinny. Arturo is Executive Director of Drexel University's Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice where he previously served as director of Healing Hurt People, which helps individuals cope with community violence. He's also a Stoneleigh Foundation fellow and is researching how evidence-based, trauma-informed practices affect the mental health of youth survivors of violence.

Links of interest:

https://drexel.edu/dornsife/academics/faculty/Arturo-Zinny/#:~:text=Bio,Dornsife%20School%20of%20Public%20Health

https://drexel.edu/cnsj/#:~:text=The%20Center%20for%20Nonviolence%20and,to%20sustaining%20careers%2C%20and%20through

https://drexel.edu/cnsj/healing-hurt-people/overview/

FWTW Ep 3: Chester Hollman III's Story & the Politics of Wrongful Conviction Nov 08, 2023

Show notes

From Words to Weapons Episode 3 focuses on Chester Hollman III, who spent nearly three decades in prison for a murder he didn't commit, and the broader political fight over state-administered compensation for people who've been wrongfully convicted. A few years ago, Chester was the subject of a Netflix documentary; this episode picks up where that story left off. We talk with Chester about how he's managing his mental health after being exonerated and now helping others rebuild their lives after prison. Through Chester's post-incarceration story, we also unpack efforts and obstacles to support exonerees legislatively (fruitless thus far in Pennsylvania, among just a dozen states without wrongful conviction compensation laws) and politically (the Pa. GOP's quest to oust Philly's progressive district attorney was peaking while Chester was engaging with us for this podcast).

Links of interest:

The Exoneree Health and Life Experiences (ExHaLE) study: Trauma exposure and mental health among wrongly convicted individuals.

Race and Wrongful Convictions in the United States

Pennsylvania State House Bill 1470

Exonerated Justice ordinance and resolution before Philadelphia City Council

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner impeachment:

The Prosecution: Wrong Place, Wrong Time (Netflix's The Innocence Files, ep. 7)

Report of the Advisory Committee on Wrongful Convictions (Pennsylvania Joint State Government Commission, 2011)

FWTW Ep 2: Barriers to Accountability with Joanna Schwartz Nov 01, 2023

Show notes

From Words to Weapons Episode 2 focuses on barriers to law enforcement accountability with Joanna Schwartz. Law enforcement accountability in the United States is complex and challenging, especially when it comes to trying to sue the police.

On this episode, Emily Previti and Stephanie Marudas turn to UCLA Law Professor Joanna Schwartz, a leading expert on police misconduct litigation in the United States and the author of the 2023 book Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable.

Joanna discusses various barriers to law enforcement accountability based on her experience suing the police on behalf of clients and her extensive research.

The conversation covers issues including qualified immunity, plausible claims and public access laws, as well as emerging laws, policies and alternative models for law enforcement accountability.

Links of interest:

https://www.joannaschwartz.net/shielded-how-the-police-became-untouchable

https://law.ucla.edu/faculty/faculty-profiles/joanna-c-schwartz

FWTW Ep 1: Why Jimmy Warren Ran From Police Oct 25, 2023

Show notes

In Episode 1 of the From Words to Weapons series, we begin with Jimmy Warren's story. It's the first time he's talking publicly about his gun case that made national headlines in 2016 when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court overturned his conviction, ruling that police hadn't had reasonable suspicion to stop him in the first place.

That decision attracted attention because it established running from police doesn't necessarily justify a police pursuit, doesn't automatically mean someone's guilty and could seem like the logical thing to do given generational trauma over law enforcement – in communities of color, in particular. And that police need to consider that when evaluating whether a pursuit is legally justified.

The thing is, no one ever heard from Jimmy. He wasn't interviewed by any reporters. The lawyer who handled his newsworthy appeal case never even met him, despite efforts to find him. It's like the case had a life of its own without him.

In this episode, we hear about his story and the pervasiveness of law enforcement trauma and its effects.

Links to research mentioned in this episode:

Latent Class Profiles of Police Violence Exposure in 4 US Cities and Their Associations with Anticipation of Police Violence and Mental Health Outcomes (Leslie Salas-Hernández, et. al)
The ACLU of Massachusetts' Stop and Frisk report

From Words to Weapons Preview: Limited Series Launch Oct 11, 2023

Show notes

Fatal law enforcement encounters have understandably – and deservedly – captured our attention. But the tens of thousands of Americans who survive trauma inflicted by law enforcement every year are often overlooked. They go without the kind of support our systems offer to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and other forms of trauma. If survivors of other traumas often turn first to police, where are survivors of law enforcement trauma supposed to go? Not to mention, law enforcement often plays a significant role in survivor support beyond that (such as by funding other services and advising providers & policymakers).

On this episode, Emily and Stephanie preview Obscured's first limited series, From Words to Weapons, which is launching October 25th. They explain why this topic is the focus of their inaugural series and share highlights of interviews with law enforcement professionals, trauma survivors, healthcare providers, attorneys, social workers, journalists and researchers.

Links of interest mentioned in this episode:

No Justice for All: Pennsylvania's unequal access to adequate public defense

https://whyy.org/series/no-justice-for-all-pennsylvanias-unequal-access-to-adequate-public-defense/

At the Core of Care

https://pod.link/1472225878

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