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Can a Democratic Socialist Win in Deep-Red Florida? Sep 30, 2026

Show notes

More To The Story: Back in August, Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon did something few outside the state saw coming: She won Florida's Democratic US Senate primary. Her victory sent shock waves through the political world not only because her opponent Alex Vindman’s war chest dwarfed hers 19 to 1, but also because Nixon ran as a Democratic Socialist. Today, she’s one of a number of candidates around the country affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America who could be elected to Congress this November. The sudden rise in the DSA’s popularity is reshaping the Democratic Party and America’s political landscape. On this week’s More To The Story, Nixon talks to host Al Letson about going from community activist and comic book co-author to upstart US Senate candidate, being “the biggest thorn” in Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ side, and whether her progressive message can win in deep-red Florida.

Read: Angie Nixon Goes on Trial in September. She Just Won Florida’s Senate Primary. (Mother Jones)

Listen: Black in the Sunshine State (Reveal)

Listen: How Redistricting Is Upending America’s Midterms (More To The Story)

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Introducing “The Speaker: How Nancy Pelosi Changed the Face of Power” Sep 28, 2026

Show notes

Before her historic Speakership, even before she got to the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi worked for years outside the spotlight as an official in the California Democratic party while she raised her family in San Francisco. That

was until 1987, when tragic circumstances led her to do something she hadn’t considered before: run for Congress. Her first hurdle? A city in crisis and a motivated opponent from a community impacted by a deadly epidemic.

Dig Deeper at kqed.org/podcasts/thespeaker
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The Art Trump Doesn't Want and the Artists Left Behind Sep 26, 2026

Show notes

Last year, arts organizations and cultural institutions across the US received an alarming message: Their federal grants had been canceled.

The letters said their projects no longer aligned with new federal priorities and that money was being redirected toward the Trump administration’s agenda. The grants had funded museum exhibits, public art programs, historical research, and community arts initiatives.

Angela Sutton and a team of archaeologists were in the middle of excavating a long-forgotten Black neighborhood in Nashville when she got the news: “Just got an email out of the blue saying, ‘Please stop. You're done.’”

This week on Reveal, reporter Jonathan Jones travels to Nashville and beyond to meet the people living with the fallout of arts funding cuts. Some organizations are scaling back their work. Others worry artists will censor themselves just to survive. But many are fighting back.

Since this show first aired in March 2026, federal courts ordered the National Endowment for the Humanities to reverse mass grant cancellations and struck down the National Endowment for the Arts’ restrictions on “gender ideology.” While some NEH funds have resumed, no retroactive NEA money was restored, and the Trump administration has appealed both rulings.

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Loyalists Only, Please. Why Trump Surrounds Himself With True Believers Sep 23, 2026

Show notes

More To The Story: President Donald Trump’s second term has often felt like an exercise in mass distraction. As soon as he’s directing people to pay attention to one issue like the Iran war or immigration, he’s already moved on to false claims about widespread voter fraud, taking over Greenland, or building a massive arch in the nation’s capital. In the new book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump, New York Times reporter and co-author Jonathan Swan has tried to make sense of Trump’s unprecedented tenure by bringing readers inside the room where major decisions happen. And Swan says the loyalists Trump has surrounded himself with in his second term have made Trump’s overwhelming and exhausting presidency possible. On this week’s More To The Story, Swan talks about the immense challenges of covering the Trump administration, how the Jeffrey Epstein scandal sent the White House into crisis mode behind closed doors, and why he’s not eager to write another book about the president anytime soon.

Listen: The Secrets Behind “The Talented Mr. Epstein” (More To The Story)

Read: Trump is Growing Desperate on Iran (Mother Jones)

Listen: A New Year, a New War (Reveal)

Read: Inside the White House Freakout Over the Epstein Files (The New York Times Magazine)

Read: Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump (Simon & Schuster)

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Did My IUD Make My Depression Worse? Sep 19, 2026

Show notes

After Mother Jones senior reporter Julia Lurie had her IUD removed, she was surprised to find that she felt happier and calmer than she had in years.

Her experience made her wonder: What does the science say about how hormonal birth control affects mood? And in a moment when contraceptives are so politicized and misinformation is rampant, is it possible to talk about the side effects of birth control without giving ammunition to those who want to get rid of it altogether?
In talking with scientists, doctors, and public health experts, Lurie learns that for years, research has found that people on hormonal contraceptives are much more likely to experience depression, suicidality, anxiety, insomnia, and other effects rarely discussed by the doctors who prescribe them.

“For some women, it can be an almost overnight change,” says OB-GYN and contraceptive researcher Dr. Ojvind Lidegaard.

This week on Reveal, we explore the gaps in women’s reproductive health, from contraceptives to menopause.

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Russia Targeted Past US Elections. Will It Meddle in the Midterms? Sep 16, 2026

Show notes

More To The Story: The 2016 election that put Donald Trump in the White House the first time was defined in many ways by the role of America’s longtime adversary Russia. Over the years, multiple investigations have concluded that Russia meddled in the election to boost Trump over Hillary Clinton and create political discord among voters. Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly called the Russia investigations a “hoax.” As the 2026 midterms approach, experts warn that Russia could interfere in US elections once again. Because as Mother Jones Washington bureau chief David Corn lays out in his new book, How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America, Russia has been waging a continuous campaign against the US. On this week’s More To The Story, Corn talks about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “twilight war” against the US and Western democracies, argues that the infamous Steele dossier ultimately helped Trump, and examines how the Trump White House has dismantled government agencies tasked with finding and fending off Russian disinformation campaigns.

Listen: Trump’s Impulsive Foreign Policy Is Tearing Apart the Global Order (More To The Story)

Read: Why Is Trump’s DOJ Still Helping the Russian-Linked Liar Who Smeared Biden? (Mother Jones)

Read: How Russia Won: Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, and the Fight for America (Harper)

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The Black Market for a Lifesaving Cat Drug Sep 12, 2026

Show notes

In 2023, Marlena Arjo adopted a one-eyed kitten with a penchant for destruction. She named him Otto, and over the next eight months, Otto grew into his own little chaotic personality.

“ He’s laying on houseplants, he’s tearing books out of the bookshelves, ripping the calendar off the wall…I wasn’t prepared for having a criminal in my home,” Arjo joked.

Within months, Otto got sick and stopped eating. Arjo rushed him to a vet and learned he had feline infectious peritonitis, better known as FIP, a disease that kills nearly all cats that contract it.

The vet said there was nothing the clinic could do. But there was something Arjo could do.

“I shouldn’t tell you this,” Arjo recalled the vet telling her. “But by the way, you can get drugs for this if you go to this Facebook group.”

This week on Reveal, in partnership with the Hyperfixed podcast, we tell the story of the cat drug black market, why it was even necessary, and how cat lovers fought for big changes to make the black market obsolete.

This is an update of a show that originally aired in January 2026.

Listen to Hyperfixed’s greatest hits

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The Revolutionary Roots That Inspired Tupac Shakur Sep 09, 2026

Show notes

More To The Story: Last month, Duane “Keffe D” Davis was found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of rapper Tupac Shakur. The verdict came 30 years after Tupac was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas that for decades remained cloaked in conspiracy theory and mystery. It’s impossible to overstate rapper Tupac’s influence on music and culture in the 1990s. One of the era’s bestselling musical artists, he helped define West Coast hip-hop through vulnerable, introspective lyrics and Black power politics. By his own admission, sports writer Jeff Pearlman is not the rapper’s likeliest biographer. But as he waited for what he called “the big, fat biography” of Tupac, his impatience and long-standing fascination with the rapper got the best of him. So he set out to write it himself. On this week’s episode, Pearlman talks about his book Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur; discusses how Tupac’s Black Panther mother, Afeni Shakur, shaped her son; and examines the nuance and mystery that surrounded Tupac’s life and death for decades.
This episode first aired in June 2026.
Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Digital producer: Artis Curiskis | Intern: Joni Binder | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson

Read: The 24 Best Books We Read in 2025 (Mother Jones)

Listen: Baltimore Mayor to Trump: Don’t Send Your Troops (More To The Story)

Read: Only God Can Judge Me: The Many Lives of Tupac Shakur (Mariner Books)

Note: If you buy a book using our Bookshop link, a small share of the proceeds supports our journalism.

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More People Have Died From 9/11 Than on 9/11 Sep 05, 2026

Show notes

When Mia Farina got seriously ill in 2014, she thought she had a bad case of pneumonia. But it turned out to be far worse: It was the start of chronic lung disease related to the months she spent working in and around ground zero after 9/11.

Back then, Farina was a rookie cop, present when the second Twin Tower came down. She and her Brooklyn squad ran to escape the burning debris. “At one point, you couldn’t run because the stuff that was collapsing was so deep,” she said. “So it would go up to my thigh, and you would feel people’s hands and feet because…they’re all under the rubble.”

Farina lives on Long Island, surrounded by other responders who also are sick and dying from their work at ground zero 25 years ago. She and tens of thousands of other 9/11 responders and survivors were promised care through the World Trade Center Health Program, a federally funded lifeline meant to treat the long-term medical consequences of that day. But funding has never kept up with the number of people who continue to get sick.

This week on Reveal, reporter Lynn Hallarman, a Long Island doctor turned journalist who once treated 9/11 responders, explores the community of responders around her, their reliance on a program that’s been unstable for decades, and the science behind why people are still getting sick.

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The Fight for America’s Future Is Happening in the South Sep 02, 2026

Show notes

More To The Story: Tennessee Rep. Justin J. Pearson first caught national attention when he was expelled from the state’s House of Representatives after demonstrating in support of gun law reforms. Today, he’s the Democratic candidate for Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District. It’s an area newly transformed by redrawn voting maps and sprawling data centers, putting Pearson at the center of some of the country’s biggest national fights. On this week’s More To The Story, Pearson talks about how redistricting has upended Tennessee and the many ways gun violence has become a deeply personal issue for him. He also looks back at the opposition to his 2023 demonstration for gun law reform when he was dubbed part of “the Tennessee Three.”

Listen: How Redistricting Is Upending America’s Midterms (More To The Story)

Read: Republicans Don’t Need to Win Elections Anymore. They Just Need Their Judges. (Mother Jones)

Listen: Not All Votes Are Created Equal (Reveal)

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