Post Reports

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The essential labor of care work Aug 06, 2022

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On today’s “Post Reports,” a conversation with author Angela Garbes about her new book, “Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change.”

In 2020, author Angela Garbes found herself at home taking care of her two daughters, clinically depressed and unable to write. It was a time when people were told to stay home, unless you were an essential worker.

“But I remember sitting there being like, ‘What about me?’ ” Garbes told “Post Reports” editor Lexie Diao. “What about parents? What about mothers? Like, what we are doing is nothing less than essential. … The pandemic has exposed that without care, we’re lost.”

Garbes’s new book is called “Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change.” The book examines the history of caregiving in America through the lens of the author’s own Filipinx identity, and makes the case that caregiving is an undervalued and overlooked labor that disproportionately relies on women of color.

Flying is a mess. Blame the airlines. Aug 05, 2022

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What’s to blame for a summer of flight disruptions. And the legacy of pioneering “Star Trek” actress Nichelle Nichols.

This summer has been filled with air travel issues: canceled flights, lost baggage, long lines. There’s been a lot of finger-pointing from airlines, at weather issues and short-staffed air traffic controllers, but federal data suggests the airlines themselves are to blame for many of the disruptions. Transportation correspondent Lori Aratani explains why airlines are still struggling to handle the demand for travel, and how to plan ahead when traveling.

Nichelle Nichols, the actress best known for her role as Lt. Uhura in “Star Trek,” died last weekend at 89. David Betancourt discusses the road she paved for Black women in entertainment and the impact she had on the entire science fiction genre.

The steel mill town being reshaped by abortion Aug 04, 2022

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Today on “Post Reports,” we take you to a conservative-leaning steel town in Illinois grappling with its new role as home to the closest abortion clinics for many patients in the South and Midwest post-Roe.

Granite City is a conservative-leaning community in Southern Illinois that’s seen layoffs at the local steel mill and had dozens of businesses close in recent years. But the city is now becoming known for something else: abortion. It’s home to the closest abortion clinics for many out-of-state patients across the South and Midwest who can no longer access the procedure where they live because of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe. v Wade.

Granite City’s geography – it sits at the bottom of a blue state, surrounded by a sea of red states with abortion bans – means as many as 14,000 people are expected to come here for an abortion in the next year.

That influx of abortion patients could infuse much-needed cash into the city. But some in Granite City are not comfortable hitching their economic fortunes to abortion.

Abortion reporter Caroline Kitchener and audio producer Ariel Plotnick went to Granite City just days after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They talked to people in the community about what this post-Roe era could mean for their city.

When abortion is on the ballot Aug 03, 2022

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An abortion access victory in Kansas. Trump-backed candidates on the rise. What the results of Tuesday’s elections could mean for the midterms in the fall.

Kansas voters delivered the first election win to protect abortion access since the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Campaign reporter Hannah Knowles unpacks this surprising outcome — supporters of abortion rights overwhelmingly won — and what lessons it carries for the politics of abortion.

At the same time, many candidates backed by former president Donald Trump and those who denied he lost the 2020 election prevailed in their primary races Tuesday. Hannah says the fall midterms are expected to be a red wave even as Democrats “hope that in the end, voters will just see these candidates as too extreme and especially see their kind of campaigns against democracy itself as too extreme.”

Is Afghanistan harboring terrorists — again? Aug 02, 2022

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The killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the world’s most wanted terrorist, leaves al-Qaeda in a leadership crisis. But the drone strike ordered by President Biden also highlights new tensions with the Taliban one year after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Ayman al-Zawahiri’s safe house in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, was targeted by a drone strike Saturday after months of planning, officials said Monday. And Zawahiri had been a U.S. target for more than two decades: He oversaw the 9/11 attacks alongside al-Qaeda’s founder, Osama bin Laden.

“This is a victory for the president, no doubt,” national security reporter Shane Harris says on today’s episode of Post Reports. “But beneath that victory is the fact that the world's most wanted terrorist moved right into the capital city of the country that [Biden] ordered troops to leave last year.”

He voted to impeach Trump. Did it kill his career? Aug 01, 2022

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Rep. Peter Meijer was one of 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump, but back in his district a right-wing base on the rise hopes to punish him for his vote.

Less than two weeks after arriving in Congress, one of Republican Rep. Peter Meijer’s first votes was to impeach former president Donald Trump after the events of January 6, 2021.

Now, Meijer is fighting for his seat back home in his western Michigan district where supporters of the former president have mobilized in staunch opposition to the congressman. And despite bucking his party to stand with Democrats in impeaching Trump, Democrats trying to flip his seat blue have interfered in the primary to boost his opponent in the hopes of facing an easier opponent in the fall.

Today on Post Reports, politics producer Arjun Singh takes us to western Michigan to understand the stakes of this Republican primary and explore just how strong Meijer’s opposition really is.

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Your kids’ apps are spying on them. Here’s what to do. Jul 29, 2022

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Today on “Post Reports,” we talk to tech columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler about how apps are spying on our kids — and what we can do to stop it.

Geoff has been looking at tech from a consumer perspective in his series We the Users, and he says apps are spying on our kids at a scale that should shock you.

More than two-thirds of the 1,000 most popular iPhone apps likely to be used by children collect and send their personal information out to the advertising industry, according to a major new study shared with Geoff by fraud and compliance software company Pixalate. On Android, 79 percent of popular kids apps do the same.

On today’s show, Geoff tells us who the biggest offenders are, and what parents can do to protect their kids’ privacy online .

The true story of a 10-year-old’s abortion Jul 28, 2022

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The story of a 10-year-old who crossed state lines for an abortion after Roe v. Wade fell sparked loud skepticism from media and politicians. Today, how local journalists uncovered the truth — and why the public rarely hears such abortion stories at all.

When the Indianapolis Star published a story July 1 about a 10-year-old rape victim from Ohio who was forced to travel to Indiana for an abortion because of new restrictions in her home state, it sparked a national frenzy. An indignant President Biden cited the story a week later as an example of extreme abortion laws, and his political opponents pounced. They suggested it was a lie or a hoax. The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board concluded it was “too good to confirm,” and the Post’s Fact Checker cautioned it was “a very difficult story to check.” Ohio’s attorney general went further, calling it a “fabrication.”

Meanwhile, local journalists went digging. Using shoe-leather tactics, reporters in Ohio and Indiana proved that the horrific story no one wanted to believe was indeed true.

Today, media reporter (and frequent guest host) Elahe Izadi tells the story of how local journalists got the first big scoop of the post-Roe era, why the public rarely hears such abortion stories and the role local journalists play in documenting the consquencesof Roe’s fall.

The Justice Department eyes Trump Jul 27, 2022

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Today on Post Reports, how the Justice Department is investigating former president Donald Trump’s actions surrounding the 2020 election. Plus, how same-sex marriage has become a bipartisan issue.

This week, a Washington Post investigation revealed that the Justice Department is investigating former president Donald Trump’s conduct surrounding efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Devlin Barrett reports on what the investigation looks like and whether any criminal charges could result.

In the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Congress is considering a bill to protect same-sex and interracial marriage — two long-standing rights that some fear could be revoked by the court in the future. While the Senate still needs to vote on the bill, almost 50 House Republicans joined Democrats to approve it. Congressional reporter Marianna Sotomayor explains why some Republicans' views of marriage have changed, and the political calculations others could be making with their vote.

The race to contain monkeypox Jul 26, 2022

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The World Health Organization declared monkeypox a global health emergency over the weekend — leading to debate within the White House over whether the United States should do the same as case numbers continue to climb.

The Biden administration is weighing whether to declare the nation’s monkeypox outbreak a public health emergency. As health policy reporter Dan Diamond explains, officials are hoping to make a decision this week – but the deliberations are complicated by politics.

Monkeypox is the latest global health emergency. Here's what to know.

As the United States confronts its largest-ever monkeypox outbreak, public health authorities navigate a delicate but familiar balancing act: how to warn gay men about their risk without fueling hate. This story was published last month during Pride.

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