High standards are crucial for maintaining public trust in the police – but in recent years the reputation of the Metropolitan Police has been damaged by a number of scandals.

Sir Mark Rowley was appointed as Met Commissioner in September 2022 with a mandate to bring in higher standards of policing, reduce crime rates, and deliver more trust in the Met Police. At this Institute for Government event, the Commissioner set out how he intends to achieve his priorities, including through changes to police structures, improved leadership, and the New Met for London plan.

The event was chaired by Emma Norris, Deputy Director at the Institute for Government. Following his brief opening remarks, the Commissioner took part in a Q&A with the in-person and online audience.

In conversation with Sir Mark Rowley, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service

Yasmine Arrington Brooks was a teenager when she became the potential answer to a challenge. The child of incarcerated parents with a passion for making things happen, she founded ScholarCHIPS and hasn't looked back since.

ScholarCHIPS provides college scholarships, mentoring, mental health supports, and a peer support network to college-bound young adults who have incarcerated parents, inspiring them to complete their college education.

I've been a Yazzie fan for a long time and I wondered: what would she say about how curiosity contributes to the work of social entrepreneurship?

ScholarCHIPS:  https://www.scholarchipsfund.org 

Theme music by Sean Balick; “Front Runner” by Union Hall, via Blue Dot Sessions.

CHOOSE TO BE CURIOUS

Ep. #210: ScholarCHIPS: Curiosity with Social Entrepreneur Yasmine Arrington Brooks

Led by formerly incarcerated people and family members of people in prison, RAPP (Release Aging People in Prison) works to end mass incarceration and promote racial justice through the release of aging people in prison and those serving long sentences. It recently held a press conference to highlight two key bills: Elder Parole and Fair and Timely Parole Bills. LeAna Taylor, whose father has been in prison for two decades, discusses the effort with Mark Dunlea for Hudson Mohawk Magazine.

RAPP Calls For Reforms For Elderly Prisoners

Who are UCI’s Underground Scholars? In 2018, students established the Underground Scholars Initiative to create pathways into higher education for incarcerated, formerly incarcerated and system-impacted individuals. After three years, USI members advocated for a staff-led program, leading to the formation of the Underground Scholars Program in October 2021. The two groups are separate but aligned in their mission to provide support services for such students. 

Shawn Khalifa – an undergraduate with a compelling story – is one of 44 participants currently in UCI’s Underground Scholars Program. He began serving a life sentence for first-degree murder at the age of 15. Released 16 years later, Khalifa is now on track to graduate in June with a degree in sociology. His journey highlights the transformative power of education and support in changing lives and trajectories.

In this UCI Podcast, Khalifa candidly opens up about his personal history and reveals how his lived experiences ignited a passion for a future career in which he helps develop policies promoting systemic transformation in education. 

This episode was recorded in the podcast studio at UCI’s ANTrepreneur Center. The music, titled “Road Home,” was provided by VYEN via the audio library in YouTube Studio.

UCI Podcast: Underground Scholar Shawn Khalifa shares his journey

Holistic Evolution (HE) addresses the developmental needs of male youth of color in Northwest Indiana, by providing them with a mentor that has healthy beliefs and clear standards. Through the use of encouragement and accountability mentors create a lasting positive impact on HE's mentees. Join us as we chat with Ester Lewis and Roman Griffin about the impact of mentoring, community connection and HE as a whole.

Holistic Heroes

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman hold a postmortem examination of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' suspended campaign for president before considering Donald Trump's recent claim that presidents deserve full immunity from prosecution.

00:27—Ron DeSantis drops out of the race for the Republican presidential nomination

19:54—Trump claims full presidential immunity

30:05—Weekly Listener Question

47:00—Argentine President Javier Milei addresses Davos

54:38—This week's cultural recommendations

Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsors:

The world would be a better, freer, and happier place if constitutional protections for private property were taken just a tad more seriously. That's according to our friends over at the Institute for Justice, who have just begun releasing a new season of their legal history podcast, Bound By Oath. Bound By Oath tells the story of how the Supreme Court has cleared the way for government officials to abuse property rights: to trespass on private land without a warrant, to restrict peaceful and productive uses of property, to seize and keep property without sufficient justification, and much more. Featuring interviews not only with scholars and litigators but also with the real-life people behind some of the Supreme Court's most momentous property rights decisions, the new season explores the history behind today's civil rights battles. So plug Bound By Oath into wherever you get your podcasts, and start with Episode 1.

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

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The Reason Roundtable

DeSantis Down and Out

While some of us went a little nuts during the COVID-19 lockdowns, others—including many of our country's leaders and people in the media—went absolutely batshit crazy, often with disastrous results. 

Exactly why that happened is the subject of author Jon Ronson's latest season of Things Fell Apart, a podcast that explores the deep origins of today's culture wars in controversies, panics, and delusions from decades ago.

I talked with Ronson about why he believes the creation of a fake medical condition called "excited delirium" in 1988 ultimately led to the death of George Floyd in 2020, how law enforcement fixations on white supremacy warped the investigation into a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, and how the director of the massively influential Plandemic documentaries was actually rewriting the script of Star Wars.

Ronson is best known as the author of The Men Who Stare at Goats, an account of a U.S. Army unit that tried to perfect paranormal powers like walking through walls, and So You've Been Publicly Shamed, which helped define cancel culture just as it was becoming widespread via social media.

We also talk about Things Fell Apart, how he survived COVID, and how critical thinking and media literacy are more important than ever in a world in which we can all produce and consume our versions of the truth.

Today's sponsor:

Better Help. When you're at your best, you can do great things. But sometimes life gets you bogged down, and you may feel overwhelmed or like you're not showing up in the way that you want to. Working with a therapist can help you get closer to the best version of you—because when you feel empowered, you're more prepared to take on everything life throws at you. If you're thinking of giving therapy a try, Better Help is a great option. It's convenient, flexible, affordable, and entirely online. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists anytime for no additional charge. If you want to live a more empowered life, therapy can get you there. Visit BetterHelp.com/TRI today to get 10 percent off your first month.


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The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie

Jon Ronson: Why We Went So Crazy During COVID Lockdowns

This presentation will provide an overview of the factors that may be contributing to the recent rise in juvenile crime and violence including the easy availability and use of more lethal firearms, the role of exposure to violence impacting youth mental health, the rising influence of social media particularly as it is manifested via cyberbullying in and outside of schools, and the lingering impacts of the COVID pandemic. Examples of promising community based efforts to address youth violence will be provided as well as what has been shown not to work.

Akron Roundtable Presentation - Daniel J. Flannery

Pollution. Lead poisoning. Community policing. Imprisonment. The challenges of environmental justice are even bigger than you may realize. Abt’s Dr. LaToria Whitehead and Dr. Jennifer Bronson discuss how systemic and structural racism has disproportionately thrust Black families into a brutal cycle linking dangerous environmental conditions, poor health, and involvement in the justice system.

Break the Chain: Exploring the Links Between Environmental & Criminal Justice

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Peter Suderman, and special guest Emma Camp react to the announcement that President Joe Biden will not be prosecuted for mishandling classified documents and parse a fresh batch of speech gaffes underpinning his apparent cognitive decline.

00:29—Quick reactions to last night's Super Bowl LVIII

06:10—Special counsel will not prosecute Joe Biden in classified documents case.

26:06—House Republicans attempt to tie foreign aid spending bill to domestic border crisis.

35:12—Weekly Listener Question

44:48—Congressional Budget Office delivers latest bleak report on future U.S. economic outlook

52:26—This week's cultural recommendations

Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsor:

A common misconception about relationships is that they have to be easy to be "right." But sometimes, the best ones happen when both people put in the work to make them great. Therapy can be a place to work through the challenges you face in all of your relationships—whether with friends, work, your significant other, or anyone. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online. Designed to be convenient, flexible, and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist, and switch therapists any time for no additional charge. Become your own soulmate, whether you're looking for one or not. Visit BetterHelp.com/roundtable today to get 10 percent off your first month.

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

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Biden’s Cognitive Shrinkflation

In this conversation, we talk to Garrett Hazelwood about his new investigation, “Louisiana Law Gives Judges a Financial Incentive to Set High Bail and Secure Convictions,” produced in partnership with WWNO and WRKF. Hazelwood discusses how he got access to the financial documents for his investigation, how he got in contact with people who faced exorbitant court fees, and the biggest challenges he faced while reporting. 

“Louisiana Law Gives Judges a Financial Incentive to Set High Bail and Secure Convictions:” https://bit.ly/3UEWhLe 

Transcript: https://bit.ly/49BKmTj

Type Investigations is a newsroom for independent investigative journalists. For our latest, subscribe to our newsletter: www.typeinvestigations.org/subscribe

Garrett Hazelwood: Following the Money in Lousiana's Court System

In this episode, Kate interviews Dr. Nayeli Urquiza Haas about her interdisciplinary work with criminal law, regulation of traditional plant medicines, and drug policy. Specific plants covered include opium and marijuana.If you want to find out more about Urquiza's work, you can find her academia.edu profile here: https://lancaster.academia.edu/NayeliUrquizaHaas or follow her on Twitter with her handle @UrquizaNayeli. 

If you are interested in connecting with Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene, please visit our website networkingwithplants.org or email us at networkingwithplants@gmail.com .

The music piece is kindly offered to us by artist Mileece. You can find her work at: www.mileece.is

Special thanks to steering committee member Joe Culhane for creating the podcast image.

Episode 27 Kate Brelje interviews Nayeli Urquiza Haas

Writer and podcast host Coleman Hughes published a column in The Free Press in January entitled, "What Really Happened to George Floyd?" in which he analyzes a documentary called The Fall of Minneapolis, which has racked up more than 6 million views on YouTube and Rumble. The documentary makes the case that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin may have been wrongly convicted of murdering George Floyd in 2020. In his column, Hughes ultimately concluded that it's time for Americans to "consider the possibility that Chauvin was not a murderer, but a scapegoat."

Later in January, investigative journalist and former Reason staffer Radley Balko began publishing an extensive three-part rebuttal on his Substack The Watch, which he concluded earlier this month. It's entitled "The Retconning of George Floyd," and he takes apart errors and what he says are outright lies in the documentary. He also heavily criticizes Hughes and The Free Press for failing to consult experts or include research that he says could've helped them avoid serious mistakes.

Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe hosted Hughes and Balko on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions. Balko argued that Hughes and The Free Press missed or misrepresented key facts about the killing of Floyd and Chauvin's trial. Hughes defended his skepticism of the felony murder verdict. They also discussed their opposing views of the protests and police reforms that followed Floyd's death.

Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or on the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher.

Coleman Hughes vs. Radley Balko: Who's Right About George Floyd?

Fraud is the UK’s most common crime. But despite 3.5 million incidents reported in 2022/23, 40% of all reported crimes, only one in a thousand results in a charge or summons. So why is there such a huge gap between preventing, detecting and prosecuting this crime – and what can be done to fix the problem?

A wide range of organisations have responsibility for tackling fraud, including the Home Office, National Crime Agency, Serious Fraud Office, City of London Police, Metropolitan Police Service, Financial Conduct Authority and the National Cyber Security Centre. However, there are problems with coordination, capacity and capability.

So what can government and others do to help prevent fraud? How can coordination among the various agencies responsible for tackling fraud be improved? And what steps could be taken to help increase detection and prosecution rates?

We were joined by an expert panel, including:

Francesca Carlesi, CEO of Revolut UK
Adrian Searle, Director of the National Economic Crime Centre
Nick Stapleton, Co-Presenter of BBC Scam Interceptors
Rt Hon Emily Thornberry MP, Shadow Attorney General

The event was chaired by Nick Davies, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

We would like to thank Revolut for kindly supporting this event.

How can government tackle fraud?

Are American cities crime-ridden hellscapes right now? Have cities rebounded from pandemic-era homicide spikes? Why do subway shootings in New York and carjackings in D.C. keep making the news?

"I think a lot of this has to be disaggregated: There is a public order problem, and there is a violent crime problem, and they're not necessarily the same problem," Peter Moskos, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City and former Baltimore cop, tells Reason's Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe on the latest episode of Just Asking Questions.

They discussed the pros and cons of broken-windows policing, how "soft-on-crime" district attorneys affect the cities they're tasked with keeping safe, and whether New York City should become more like Singapore by cracking down on petty crimes.

Watch the full conversation on Reason's YouTube channel or on the Just Asking Questions podcast feed on Apple, Spotify, or your preferred podcatcher.

Peter Moskos: What Does Good Policing Look Like?

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty criticized trying cases in the media during her presentation at Drinking Liberally in Minneapolis on March 21, 2004. Here is the case she was talking about:

https://www.startribune.com/evidence-under-debate-as-minnesota-state-trooper-charged-in-motorists-killing-appears-in-court/600353023/

Stella Shaffer, audio engineer

Mary Moriarty Criticizes Trying Cases In The Media

THE VIRTUOUS MIND is a podcast from Providence Christian College that discusses all facets of the human experience and the liberal arts from a biblical worldview. www.providencecc.edu

The mission of Providence Christian College as a Reformed Christian institution is to equip students to be firmly grounded in biblical truth, thoroughly educated in the liberal arts, and fully engaged in their church, their community, and the world for the glory of God and for service to humanity.

LEARN MORE: https://www.providencecc.edu
APPLY: https://www.providencecc.edu/apply

The Virtuous Mind • "Reforming Criminal Justice" - Matthew T. Martens

In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman assess the spate of anti-Israel campus protests at universities across the country, followed by another look at the trials of both Harvey Weinstein and Donald Trump in New York.

00:37—Campus protests across the country

31:35—Weekly Listener Question

38:01—Harvey Weinstein rape conviction overturned in New York

44:01—Trump trials continue apace

48:57—This week's cultural recommendations

Send your questions to roundtable@reason.com. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

Today's sponsor:

Hello, liberty lovers! Are you passionate about preserving civil liberties and individual freedom? Do you want to support organizations that uphold these principles but struggle to navigate the complex world of charitable giving? Well, fear not! We have the perfect solution for you: a giving account with DonorsTrust. A giving account, also known as a donor-advised fund, is a simple, secure, and tax-advantaged way for libertarian givers like you to support the causes you care about most. With a donor-advised fund, you can make a contribution, receive an immediate tax deduction, and then recommend grants to your favorite charities over time. Plus, you retain control over how your charitable dollars are invested, ensuring they align with your values and goals. Whether you're passionate about defending free speech, protecting property rights, or promoting limited government, a donor-advised fund with DonorsTrust empowers you to make a meaningful impact. Join us in preserving liberty for future generations by opening a donor-advised fund at DonorsTrust today. To learn more and get started, visit our sponsor, DonorsTrust, at www.donorstrust.org/roundtable. Take control of your giving and make a difference in the fight for freedom. Remember, every dollar counts in the battle to safeguard our civil liberties. Let's make our voices heard together!

Audio production by Ian Keyser; assistant production by Hunt Beaty.

Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

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Where Do Libertarians Stand on the Campus Wars?

Welcome to The Backstory, where we sit down with our reporters and ask them to take us behind the scenes of their work. A nonprofit newsroom for independent investigative journalists, Type Investigations covers the most urgent issues of our time, including racial and economic justice, climate and environmental health, and civil and human rights. We tell deeply reported stories in partnership with print, broadcast, and digital media outlets — allowing us to bring our work to a wide range of audiences.

The evolution of plants has been so successful that today they account for the majority of living biomass on Earth. Humans, along with all other animals, exist thanks to plants, and we can continue to exist only in relationship to them. Plants are all around us, but we tend to overlook their importance in our everyday lives. Plants are essential not only to every breath we take, but also to our food, medicine, shelter, and clothing. Still, most of us walk through life and ‘nature’ without recognizing plants as the beings shaping the planet.

The Vegetal Turn
Given the magnitude of challenges facing the Earth, recent years have seen a renewed and growing attention to plant life across the humanities as well as in the social and natural sciences. This Vegetal Turn is generating transdisciplinary conversations within and beyond academia that seek to create awareness of plant lives and stories and that pursue respectful relationships with plant beings by advancing an ethics of care. How can we better understand the role and agency of plants in shaping on Earth? What does respect mean when engaging with a forest, a field, an orchard, or a potted plant? How do we advance a transition from thinking to acting, from research to practice, in our connection with plants?

What actions are now needed?
We believe that the current challenges of the Anthropocene offer a compelling and urgent opportunity to advance a movement for thinking and engaging differently with plants as well as for increased allyship and exchange between researchers, practitioners, educators, and activists. Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene is a newly created network for those involved in research, education, and advocacy for human-plant relationships of care and reciprocity, and a collaboration between the Consortium of Environmental Philosophers, The Plant Initiative, the Literary and Cultural Plant Studies Network, the Eternal Forest project, and other groups. We invite connections with additional existing and incipient networks and communities concerned with plants and ethical plant-human relationships to carry out multidisciplinary projects. Such a “polyculture of ideas” will bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous science, literature, philosophy, poetry, art, anthropology, education, botany, and environmental activism.

What do we do?
Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene aims to create and offer tools, content, and methods for transdisciplinary and transgenerational environmental education engaging with the Vegetal Turn that isinternational but locally grounded. The network collaborates to advance outreach and education for the general public through books, conferences, videos, podcasts, and other educational materials, both online and in person. Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene is built on a foundation that is respectful of Indigenous and local botanical knowledges, contemporary scientific discoveries, and world philosophies and literatures. We support generative ways to cultivate educational pathways through art, stories, songs, ceremonies, and individual experiences as well as opportunities for collaborative action.

We welcome your support for the goals of better understanding plants and aligning human behavior with plants in more ethical and respectful ways. For more information or to join in this initiative, please contact us: networkingwithplants@gmail.com

Who We Are
Networking with Plants in the Anthropocene’s Steering Committee:

Alice McSherry

Anna Perdibon

Deepta Sateesh

Evgenia Emets

Joela Jacobs

Kate Brelje

Marcello Di Paola

Paul Moss
thinkingintheworld.com/projects/netw…anthropocene/

The Hudson Mohawk Magazine is a locally-produced nightly news hour that provides sanctuary for the discussion of a wide range of topics, scaling from the global to the hyper-local. The show is broadcast on WOOC 105.3 FM, The Sanctuary for Independent Media's low-power radio station based in Troy, NY.

With the support of people like you, the Sanctuary uses art and participatory action to promote social and environmental justice and freedom of creative expression.

Choose to be Curious is a show all about curiosity. We talk about research and theory, but mostly it's conversations about how curiosity shows up in work and life.  

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Founded in 1968, Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Our podcast offerings include:

The Reason Roundtable
Every Monday, the libertarian editors of the magazine of “Free Minds and Free Markets”—Matt Welch, Nick Gillespie, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Peter Suderman—discuss and debate the week’s biggest stories and what fresh hell awaits us all.

The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie
Want to know what comes next in politics, culture, and libertarian ideas? Reason’s Nick Gillespie hosts relentlessly interesting interviews with the activists, artists, authors, entrepreneurs, newsmakers, and politicians who are defining the 21st century.

The Soho Forum Debates
Reason presents a libertarian-themed debate series recorded monthly before a live audience in New York City. Moderated by former Barron's Economics Editor Gene Epstein, the Soho Forum features Nobel prize winners, radical thinkers, and other public intellectuals facing off over the future of bitcoin, veganism, sex work, illegal drugs, electric vehicles, abortion, robotics, government debt, and other controversial topics.

The mission of Providence Christian College as a Reformed Christian institution is to equip students to be firmly grounded in biblical truth, thoroughly educated in the liberal arts, and fully engaged in their church, their community, and the world for the glory of God and for service to humanity.

Our mission is to improve the quality of life and economic well-being of people worldwide. The Intersect is a forum in which our experts brainstorm about new ways they can bring their skills together to further that mission.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is the youngest member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced three Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.

The Akron Roundtable podcast brings you monthly installments of nationally recognizable figures and local leaders sharing their thought-provoking perspectives on topics that engage, educate, and inspire listeners. These episodes are recorded in full at the Akron Roundtable luncheons and include the audience Q&A session with each guest. To learn more about Akron Roundtable or to attend a luncheon please visit our webpage.

New tracks tagged #criminal justice