Reveal

• Charlie Kirk and Trump's Looming Political Crackdown

  More To The Story: The shocking assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk last week was part of a wider, horrific trend: the rise of political violence in America. But Kirk’s murder also seemed to reveal something even darker. Before a suspect was found—when facts were scarce—the race for political retribution was already well underway. This week, Utah prosecutors charged 22-year-old Tyler Robinson with seven counts related to Kirk’s death, including aggravated murder. The charging documents say Robinson described Kirk as someone who “spreads too much hate.” According to prosecutors, Robinson’s mother told investigators her son had started to lean to the left politically and that he was “becoming more pro-gay and trans-rights oriented.” She said her son was in a relationship with his roommate, and that the roommate was transitioning. Prosecutors also released a text exchange between Robinson and that roommate shortly after Kirk’s death, in which Robinson confesses to the crime. On this week’s episode of More To The Story, Mother Jones National Affairs Editor Mark Follman examines America’s spiraling political discourse, why early explanations of motive in gun violence incidents are almost always misguided, and why the Trump administration is cutting federal funding for programs meant to prevent violent incidents like Kirk’s assassination.Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson Donate today at Revealnews.org/more Subscribe to our weekly newsletter at Revealnews.org/weekly Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky Read: Trump Prepares to Wipe Out Years of Progress on Gun Violence (Mother Jones)Listen: Lessons From a Mass Shooter’s Mother (Reveal)Read: Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America (Dey Street Books)Watch and read: No, Charlie Kirk Was Not Practicing Politics the Right Way (Mother Jones) Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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• The Strike That Broke a Supermax Prison

  At 18, Jack Morris was convicted of murdering a man in South Los Angeles and sent to prison for life. It was 1979, and America was entering the era of mass incarceration, with tough sentencing laws ballooning the criminal justice system. As California’s prison population surged, so did prison violence. “You learn that in order to survive, you yourself then have to become predatorial,” Morris says. “And then, you then expose somebody else to that, and it’s a vicious cycle.” When California started aggressively targeting prison gangs, Morris was accused of associating with one of the groups. The punishment was severe: He was sent to a special supermax unit at the state’s highest-security prison, Pelican Bay. The facility was designed to isolate men deemed the “worst of the worst.” Like Morris, most lived in near-total isolation. No phone calls, no meaningful physical contact with another human, no educational classes, no glimpses of the outside world. The only regular time out of a cell was for a shower and solo exercise in another concrete room. Decades later, prisoners at Pelican Bay, including Morris, started a dialogue through coded messages and other covert communication. They decided to protest long-term solitary confinement by organizing a hunger strike. It would become the largest in US history and helped push California to implement reforms. This week on Reveal, we team up with the PBS film The Strike to tell the inside story of a group of men who overcame bitter divisions and harsh conditions to buildan improbable prison resistance movement.This episode originally aired in March 2025. Support Reveal’s journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/weekly Connect with us onBluesky, Facebook and Instagram Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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• Being Black in America Almost Killed Me Part 2

  More To The Story: When Trymaine Lee began writing his first book, he didn’t realize that the gun violence he was reporting on was such a central part of his own story. But then he began digging into his family history, only to fully learn about a series of racially motivated murders involving his ancestors. Lee’s book, A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America, soon became more personal than he’d planned. On this week’s episode of More To The Story, Lee sits down with host Al Letson for part 2 of a conversation about generational trauma, the challenges of being a Black journalist in America, and how learning about his family’s history has changed how he writes and reports on Black Americans killed by violence.Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson Donate today at Revealnews.org/more Subscribe to our weekly newsletter at Revealnews.org/weekly Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky Listen: Mississippi Goddam (Reveal)Listen: Being Black in America Almost Killed Me Part 1 (More To The Story)Read: Trump Prepares to Wipe Out Years of Progress on Gun Violence (Mother Jones)Read: A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America (St. Martin’s Press)Watch: Hope in High Water: A People’s Recovery Twenty Years After Hurricane Katrina (Peacock) Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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• Taken by ICE

  A young woman clings to a tree as masked men try to peel her off. The men wrench one of the woman’s arms behind her back, then stuff her into the back of an unmarked SUV as bystanders film and shout. She was selling food outside a Home Depot in West Los Angeles when federal agents chased her down and arrested her.  Videos of aggressive immigration raids like this have become commonplace as the Trump administration pursues its goal of deporting millions of people over the next four years. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is arresting people in front of their kids during school dropoffs, on the way to church, and at routine check-ins at immigration offices. Communities are pushing back, leading to clashes with police and protests. These raids are remaking the country. “Being forced apart like this is tearing through the heart of our home and community,” says Cecelia Lizotte, the sister of a Nigerian man in ICE detention.This week on Reveal, producers Katie Mingle and Steven Rascón and reporter Julia Lurie tell stories about the people swept up in President Donald Trump’s mass deportations and the families that are left behind.  Support Reveal’s journalism at Revealnews.org/donatenow Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to get the scoop on new episodes at Revealnews.org/weekly Connect with us onBluesky, Facebook and Instagram Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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• Being Black in America Almost Killed Me Part 1

  More To The Story: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Trymaine Lee was in the middle of writing his first book when the unthinkable happened. At 38, a massive heart attack nearly took his life. That near-death experience altered his life and forced him to reckon with the years he’s spent chronicling gun violence involving Black men in America, as well as his own family history marred by slavery, lynching, and even murder. On this week’s episode of More To The Story, Lee sits down with host Al Letson for part 1 of a very personal conversation about the moment Lee thought he might be dying, the many challenges of being a Black journalist in America, and how his brush with death redirected his new book, A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America.Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson Donate today at Revealnews.org/more Subscribe to our weekly newsletter at Revealnews.org/weekly Follow us on Instagram and Bluesky Listen:40 Acres and a Lie (Reveal)Read: What It’s Like to Celebrate Black History in a State Where It’s Banned (Mother Jones)Read: A Thousand Ways to Die: The True Cost of Violence on Black Life in America (St. Martin’s Press) Note: If you buy a book using our Bookshop link, a small share of the proceeds supports our journalism.  Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

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