Is the U.S. still vulnerable to Russian hacks? Did reality T.V. helped Trump win the election? The efforts to have an Oakland fire victim's name reflected accurately in the media.
StoryCorps confession ignites debate over atonement, forgiveness
Nearly 90 years ago, Joseph Linsk did something that he would come to regret for the rest of his life. He stole two dollars intended for his parent's cleaning lady, Pearl. At the time, Linsk was eight years old.
Linsk said that he needed the money to settle a schoolyard dispute, but his decision had much bigger consequences: Pearl was fired when she asked for the missing money. Deemed dishonest, she was subsequently blacklisted in the Atlantic City, New Jersey community, plunging her life and the life of her children into uncertainty.
Now 94 and "Doctor Linsk," his confession was recently featured in a StoryCorps recording that aired Friday on NPR's Morning Edition.
The three-minute account received a flurry of responses online: some chided Linsk for taking so long to attempt to right his wrong. Others praised the nonagenarian's decision to come forward. Many were quick to point out the story's underlying racial narrative: Linsk was white, Pearl was black and harmed by his actions.
These revelations raise the question: Is a confession 86 years later sufficient?
Why confess?
"My initial gut said to me that this is a gentleman who has carried this burden for a long time," says Rev. Najuma Smith-Pollard at USC's Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement. "It's possible that whatever he saw or experienced at eight was significant enough that it stayed with him all of these years."
Smith-Pollard says that running from consequences is common for eight-year-olds, similar to how confessions like Linsk's are common among the aging. She says that, as a minister, she often encounters people looking for closure in their final years.
"There is a human tendency to want to clear the air with some things," she says. "This was a man who carried the burden for a long time, and he was at a place now where he felt like he needed to clear this up."
Smith-Pollard says it's impossible to know what led Linsk to break his silence now, but she does have a theory as to why his tale struck such a chord with listeners:
"All of us have been wronged by somebody," Smith-Pollard says. "And at the end of the day, it's our human nature: we just want an apology and not one that came 80 years later."
Issues of race
Several commenters were quick to point out the racial themes present in Linsk's story.
Smith-Pollard says it's likely that race was a factor in Pearl's dismissal, but it probably wasn't on his mind at age eight.
"She didn't get her day in court, she didn't get justice, and so it was an act of racism the way it played out," Smith-Pollard says.
But, she adds, it's likely that wasn't on Linsk's mind at the time. "Was that his intention as an eight-year-old? It doesn't sound like it," she says.
She concedes, however, that it's hard to know why he didn't come forward sooner.
Atonement
Confessing his transgression may have helped take the burden off of Joseph Linsk, but the acknowledgment and apology are unlikely to undo the damage caused, Smith-Pollard says.
"Atonement is about forgiveness, but it's also about reparations," Smith Pollard says. "If you want to do something, then yes, this is a good time to find an organization, find a family, find a non-profit, find a church that — maybe in Pearl's honor — you do something that can be a benefit or a blessing to a family or a child. How about to a single African American woman trying to raise her children, because that's who was affected by his actions at eight..."
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
(Answers have been edited for clarity.)
Congress could play 'extremely important' role in Russian hack probe
After news broke Friday that the CIA had assessed Russia intervened in the presidential election to favor Donald Trump, top-ranking senators from both parties called for an investigation.
"Congress has an extremely important role to play using its investigative powers to get to the bottom of what happened," said Jack Lerner, professor of law at the University of California, Irvine and director of the Intellectual Property, Arts, and Technology Clinic.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he supported an investigation into Russian meddling in the election. On Sunday the Democratic leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer joined Republican John McCain in calling for an investigation.
President-elect Trump called the allegations "ridiculous" in an interview with Fox News' Chris Wallace that aired Sunday night.
"It's an incredibly chilling, scary time when we have a lot of evidence here that Russia really was involved in trying to swing this election," Lerner said.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Invasive quagga mussels show up in Pyramid Lake
Quagga mussels, an invasive species, popped up in California in 2007. Since then, they've spread to more than 30 bodies of water in the state, blocking drains and causing a nuisance for years. Well, last week they showed up in Pyramid Lake, north of Los Angeles, which is a big deal.
Tanya Veldhuizen is the lead scientist for the aquatic nuisance species program for the state water project and she joined Sanden Totten to talk about how they're addressing the problem.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Awaiting Trump, community clinics plan for an uncertain future
Mexico moves to protect ecosystem off the coast of Baja California
There's a group of beautiful, pristine islands just off the coast of Baja California. Conservationists love them because of how ecologically diverse they are and surfers love them for their waves, but for decades now they've been threatened by overfishing and development.
Last week, Mexico recognized their importance by moving to protect them, creating a 2.7 million acre reserve.
Serge Dedina is the executive director of Wild Coast, an international conservation organization, which was involved in establishing the reserve. He spoke with Sanden Totten about the process behind the move and what it means for the ecological diversity of the area.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Oakland fire exposes divide in naming transgender victims
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives completed its work Monday night at the scene of a fatal warehouse fire in Oakland.
Investigators have ruled out a refrigerator as the source of the fire but are still looking at electrical systems as a potential cause. The fire occurred at a venue known to locals as The Ghost Ship. It killed 36 people, including three transgender women.
Their deaths have raised some difficult questions about how to mourn those who have changed their names. Take Two spoke to Kris Hayashi, executive director of the Transgender Law Center in Oakland.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Allegations of sexual abuse in the secretive world of Jehovah's Witnesses
The leadership of the Jehovah’s Witnesses has boldly defied court orders to turn over the names and whereabouts of alleged child sexual abusers across the United States, according to a new investigation in Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Since 2014, courts have slapped the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent corporation – the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York – with multimillion-dollar judgments and sanctions for violating orders to hand over secret documents.
READ AND LISTEN TO THE FULL REPORT FROM REVEAL: "How Jehovah’s Witnesses leaders hide child abuse secrets at all costs"
This story was produced by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Learn more at revealnews.org and subscribe to the Reveal podcast, produced with PRX, at revealnews.org/podcast.
Take Two's Alex Cohen spoke with Reveal reporter Trey Bundy about his investigation.
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Did reality TV help Donald Trump win the presidency?
Next month will mark the new season of NBC's show "The Celebrity Apprentice."
Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will be taking over the reins as "the boss," but the show's original star, Donald Trump, will remain an executive producer on the show while serving as the 45th president of the United States.
A recent TIME magazine piece called Trump the first "reality TV president."
That title might not solely be a reference to Trump's duties on "The Apprentice." Some believe that reality TV played a huge part in Trump's election.
Television producer Nina Tassler, former head of CBS Entertainment, joined Take Two to discuss the effect of reality TV on American culture and politics.
Interview highlights:
On the "villain becomes the hero" theme that was born on CBS's "Survivor," which some consider the first reality TV hit:
"The psychology behind 'Survivor' was almost Darwinian. The idea was 'survival of the fittest,' and that you would take a group of people from very disparate backgrounds and subject them to nature's harsh climates and weather as well as putting them through a series of competitions and it was survival of of the fittest. But what also emerged was a very interesting form of gaming strategy... and that is where the villains sometimes became the heroes, became the winners. In that case it was Richard Hatch, and you saw that bullying, in terms of certain contestants' behaviors, became an effective gaming strategy."
On the ripple effect of reality TV on our culture:
"I think what happens is we begin to look at the shiny bright object, and you begin to look at the individual, in many cases, in many different shows, who sort of makes the most noise, who's got the best slogan, who's got the biggest brand, and he or she calls the most attention to themselves... And we kind of look to them and say, 'well look, that particular person or character has represented a form of winning a way of achieving that I can replicate.' And I think sometimes we do make the mistake of [forgetting] that these are just television programs, this is not reality."
On the connection between Donald Trump's reality TV background and his winning the presidency:
"I [can't] help but think about an article that Timothy Egan wrote for The New York Times back in January, talking about our eight-second attention span... the idea is that the true scarce commodity of the near future will be human attention, and the fact is, we're so used to sort of listening for the first eight seconds and then everything just becomes a wall of noise. And the people who are the most effective and the most impactful are those that sort of grab your attention in those first eight seconds."
To listen to the full interview, click on the blue media player above.
Recount effort stalls with judge's decision in Pennsylvania
Election recount efforts in Pennsylvania have come to a halt after a federal judge rejected a request to go through the paper ballots cast November 8.
In his 31-page decision, U.S. District Judge Paul Diamond said there were at least six grounds that required him to reject the Green Party's lawsuit.
Constitutional attorney John Bonifaz joined Take Two to talk about what this means for the recount effort going forward. He is co-founder and president of the legal advocacy group Free Speech for People and has been advising the Green Party campaign.