According to Amnesty International, 15 countries used the death penalty in 2024. The United States was one of those countries. Capital punishment is illegal in 23 states and isn’t used in some of the states where it is legal. But the United States still executed 25 people in 2024 and nearly twice as many people in 2025.

But amidst all the statistics and lofty arguments for and against, it’s important to remember that capital punishment affects real people. It impacts both the people sentenced to death, and the families who’ve lost loved ones to violence.

This hour, we’re listening back to our episode about what the death penalty means to the human beings impacted by it.

Staff Writer at The Atlantic and two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist Elizabeth Bruenig, has seen the impact of the death penalty firsthand. She’s also lost a family member to violence. While many journalists cover capital punishment, fewer are applying to attend the executions of people on death row.

In a deeply personal conversation, Khalilah Brown-Dean talks with Bruenig about her coverage of capital punishment. Her recent cover story in The Atlantic is, 'Witness: Inside America's Death Chambers - What Years of witnessing executions taught me about sin, mercy and the possibility of redemption.'

Bruenig describes her own family tragedy, the realities of death by lethal injection, and why her feelings about capital punishment have changed over time. Plus, the pair describe the complex emotions victims’ families grapple with in the aftermath of tragedy.

GUEST:

• Elizabeth Bruenig: Staff writer at The Atlantic

This episode originally aired on September 5, 2025.

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Many people remember #MeToo from when it went viral in 2017. And before the hashtag, there was the Me Too movement, started by activist Tarana Burke 20 years ago as a way to support survivors of sexual violence, especially Black women and girls.

This hour, we’re reflecting on what has changed since the height of the Me Too movement. We'll discuss everything from policy to social media.

GUESTS:

• Nicole Bedera: Sociologist who studies sexual violence and author of On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence.

• Kat Tenbarge: Award-winning independent journalist who covers internet culture, politics and sexual violence and co-founder of Spitfire News.

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The Disrupted team is welcoming the new year by choosing a couple of the episodes we loved from 2025. We have so many favorites that we couldn't reair all of them, but these are some of the ones that we wanted to listen back to. This week, producer Kevin Chang Barnum chose our episode on student journalism.

Student journalists have been in the spotlight in recent years. In 2024, amidst massive on-campus protests, people turned to student outlets like Columbia University’s WKCR for the most up to date reporting. But practicing journalism as a student comes with risks.

Tufts University graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk was detained in March after the Trump administration revoked her visa. U.S. District Judge William Sessions ordered her release on May 9th, saying the only evidence given for her detention was an op-ed she had written for her school paper.

This hour, we’re talking about the role student journalists play in covering campuses and the communities around them. We discuss the risks student journalists face and they way their role is sometimes overlooked.

GUESTS:

• Gary Green: Executive Director of The Student Press Law Center, an organization that supports first amendment rights for student journalists

• Anika Arora Seth: Editor in Chief of the Yale Daily News from spring 2023 to spring 2024

• Maria Shaikh: Managing Editor at The Retrograde, an independent student newspaper at the University of Texas at Dallas

• Macy Hanzlik-Barend: News & Arts director at WKCR, Columbia University’s independent student-run radio station

This episode originally aired on May 16, 2025.

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The Disrupted team is welcoming the new year by choosing a couple of the episodes we loved from 2025. We have so many favorites that we couldn't reair all of them, but these are some of the ones that we wanted to listen back to. This week, host Khalilah-Brown Dean chose our interview with journalist and author Megan Greenwell.

Megan Greenwell's book, Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream, tells the story of four people whose lives were upended by private equity. This hour, we learn about the business of private equity, and how companies that many people don't understand play a big role in our lives.

GUEST:

• Megan Greenwell: Freelance journalist and author of Bad Company: Private Equity and the Death of the American Dream.

This episode originally aired on June 27, 2025.

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The way people approach children’s books in the U.S. has changed a lot over time.

Philosopher John Locke helped popularize the idea that learning to read should be fun with his 1693 treatise Some Thoughts Concerning Education.

Fast forward 300 years and television series continued Locke’s legacy. Today's adults might remember the joy of reading being touted to young people through shows like Arthur and Reading Rainbow.

The subjects of books for young people continue to change as well. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin—Madison tracks diversity statistics on the books they receive. 2024 was the first time since they started tracking that over half of the books had “significant BIPOC Content.” That designation takes into account the characters, settings and topics of books.

This hour, we’re talking to authors about representation in young people’s literature.

GUESTS:

• Ainissa Ramirez: Award-winning scientist and science communicator. She has worked at Bell Laboratories. Her latest book is a picture book called Spark: Jim West’s Electrifying Adventures in Creating the Microphone.

• Angeline Boulley: bestselling author of Firekeeper’s Daughter. Her new book is Sisters in the Wind.

If you want to learn more about the Indian Child Welfare Act, you can listen to our interview with Matthew L.M. Fletcher. To hear more from Ainissa Ramirez, you can listen to our 2021 conversation.

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Studying oysters can help us understand how Connecticut’s shoreline is changing. Studying lizards can help us understand the history of life on our planet. Biologists research living organisms. And in doing so, they help us understand not only ourselves, but also the way our lives are intertwined with those of every other species.

This hour— Connecticut biologists tell us how their work helps us see what’s going on in the world around us. We'll discuss everything from how someone growing up in New York City could become fascinated by nature to the impact of federal funding cuts on research.

GUESTS:

• Martha Muñoz: Assistant Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Yale University, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Zoology at the Yale Peabody Museum and recipient of a 2024 MacArthur Fellowship.

• Maria Rosa: Assistant Professor of Biology at Connecticut College.

This episode originally aired on July 25, 2025.

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For students and families, navigating the world of higher education isn’t easy. Some of the challenges, like student loan debt, have been going on for years. Other challenges come from more recent changes in how the federal government approaches universities.

To explore these challenges, we're talking to John Maduko, who was appointed Interim Chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system in June. We'll also hear from Jamal Watson, whose new book is The Student Debt Crisis: America’s Moral Urgency.

GUESTS:

• Jamal Watson: Journalist covering higher education. He’s also Associate Dean of the School of Professional and Graduate Studies and Professor of Strategic Communication and Public Relations at Trinity Washington University. His new book is The Student Debt Crisis: America’s Moral Urgency.

• John Maduko: Interim Chancellor of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system.

If you want to learn more about higher education, you can listen to our recent interview with Beverly Daniel Tatum. You can also listen to our 2022 interview with John Maduko.

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Being the first person to do something isn’t easy. There’s no blueprint for what you are doing, no conventional wisdom to fall back on when all else fails. There is also the pressure of expectations and all the people who are counting on your success. But it’s a way to show people what is possible. Being first means being a pioneer. And here in Connecticut, people are pioneering a wide range of fields every day.

GUESTS:

• Shelly Carter: Fire Chief at the Hamden Fire Department. She is the first woman and first person of color to serve in that role.

• Dawn Leaks Ragsdale: Inaugural Executive Director of the Center for Inclusive Growth, a group created through a partnership between Yale and the city of New Haven that seeks to build opportunities for economic growth for all New Haven residents.

• Shiang-Kwei Wang: Campus President at CT State Gateway. She’s the first person to hold the title of “Campus President” and the first Asian American leader of Gateway.

This episode originally aired on September 26, 2025.

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