The Stakes
The Stakes is your look at the week's news, without the filler of talking heads and clickbait. Every week, MTV’s Holly Anderson and her team of writers — including Ana Marie Cox and Jamil Smith — guide you through the week’s news, social justice issues, and culture stories through a mix interviews, essays, special reporting, and poetry. The Stakes is investigative, thoughtful, and BS-free.
Episodes
June 30, 2017 • 31 mins
On April 29th, the 25th anniversary of the L.A. riots, the residents of South Los Angeles came together to commemorate, reflect, and organize. Producer Mukta Mohan and Senior National Correspondent Jamil Smith went to the corner of Florence and Normandie, where the unrest began, to speak to the people, young and old, who have been rebuilding and strengthening their neighborhoods through activism and art. Interviews include Rodney K...
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May 18, 2017 • 28 mins
Welcome to The Stakes. This week, Senior National Correspondent Jamil Smith sits down with Let America Vote founder Jason Kander—the Army veteran and former Missouri Secretary of State who narrowly lost his U.S. Senate race last fall to Republican incumbent Roy Blunt. They talked about his new organization's mission to stop voter suppression and gerrymandering; the President’s new “election integrity” commission; and that ad when h...
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April 28, 2017 • 42 mins
For several months beginning in late summer 2016, protesters camped out in North Dakota to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline — a $3.7 billion project that is currently transporting oil across four states. The self-described "water protectors" wanted to protect sacred Standing Rock Sioux sites that pipeline construction could destroy, and worried about potential contamination of the Missouri River should a rupture happ...
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March 11, 2017 • 30 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes.” This week, producer Mukta Mohan brings us stories from Friendship Park: the only place along the 2,000 miles of border between the United States and Mexico where people from both countries can talk to each other face-to-face.
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March 3, 2017 • 19 mins
This week on The Stakes, senior national correspondent Jamil Smith speaks to Nicole and Akeem Browder, the siblings of Kalief Browder, who spent three years in Rikers Island without a trial. His powerful story was made into a six-part documentary series, Time: The Kalief Browder Story, which premiered on Spike on March 1.
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February 25, 2017 • 27 mins
Senior national correspondent Jamil Smith talks with Congresswoman Maxine Waters about going viral after 37 years of public service, and why she's no fan of the current administration. Plus, producer Mukta Mohan speaks with Pat Ivers and Emily Armstrong of GoNightClubbing about the time they spent documenting New York City’s punk and no wave scenes from 1975 to 1980.
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February 17, 2017 • 23 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes,” where this week we're diving into the art world. Doreen St. Félix spoke with 61-year-old painter Kerry James Marshall — whose just-closed show "Mastry" drew huge crowds to the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Met Breuer building in New York. The legendary artist reflected on what has changed over the course of his 35-year career, and what has remained the same — namely, his commitment to portraying only bl...
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February 10, 2017 • 34 mins
"You know you try to have fun with how scary this might be. I think ultimately comedy is cathartic. I think it's empowering. I think it's important to laugh at the things that scare you because I think it can help you. You can fight that person more effectively. But I'm telling jokes but I'm going to be honest it's a hard time."
We’ve got a special episode for you this week featuring Jamil Smith in conversation with comedian Dean ...
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February 4, 2017 • 32 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes,” where we're trying our best to make sense of a world that increasingly defies the rules of logic. Coming up on the show today:
Part 1: MTV News staff writer Doreen St. Félix talks with I Am Not Your Negro director Raoul Peck, whose film continues the legacy of one of America’s most notable writers and social critics.
Part 2: Producer James T. Green heads to the Bronx Documentary Center for "Whose Stre...
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January 28, 2017 • 52 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes,” a rundown of the week’s news — without the talking heads. Coming up:
Part 1: We venture to a small town upstate with a long history in the fight for women’s rights, as writer Jaime Fuller and producer Kasia Mychajlowycz report from the Women’s March in Seneca Falls, New York — the birthplace of the American women’s suffrage movement.
Part 2: Producer James T. Green chats with Robyn Kanner, designer and...
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January 21, 2017 • 37 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes,” a rundown of the week’s news — without the talking heads. As always, we’ve got a great show for you, so grab your coffee or tea, put in your earbuds, and let’s get to it. Coming up:
Part 1: Politics writer Jane Coaston talks with transgender equality advocate Erica Lachowitz about what the Trump presidency means for the fight to repeal North Carolina's HB2.
Part 2: Politics writer Jaime Fuller meets wi...
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January 19, 2017 • 25 mins
While the nation reflects on President Barack Obama's impact during his last days in office, we can't forget FLOTUS Michelle Obama. MTV Founders editor Julie Zeilinger speaks with WNYC Editor of Special Projects and LA Times critic-at-large Rebecca Carroll about her essay about Michelle Obama's impact on her as well as the position of First Lady — as well as her refusal to conform to gendered and racialized stereotypes, her unique...
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January 14, 2017 • 42 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes,” a rundown of the week’s news — without the talking heads. This week is all about action, so let’s get into it. Coming up on the show today:
Part 1: Writer Marcus Ellsworth talks with Ash-Lee Henderson, co-director of Tennessee's Highlander Research and Education Center — otherwise known as the place Rosa Parks was trained before the Montgomery bus boycott, and where the song “We Shall Overcome” became ...
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January 7, 2017 • 36 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes,” where this week is all about looking ahead. Coming up on the show today:
Part 1: We take a look at the future of humanitarian aid as producer Kasia Mychajlowycz speaks with Sunita Grote, manager of UNICEF’s Innovation Fund, about how they’re investing in drones to help children around the world.
Part 2: Producer James T. Green talks about the evolution of libraries with Josie Parker of the Ann Arbor Di...
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December 30, 2016 • 30 mins
Welcome to a special edition of “The Stakes,” where we’re taking a look back at one of our best pieces from the past year — plus a little something new. Coming up:
Part 1: Senior national correspondent Jamil Smith sits down with civil rights legend John Lewis and his two collaborators on a recent graphic-novel trilogy.
Part 2: Our poet in residence Marcus Ellsworth is back with "The Last First Breath," a poem about being suspended ...
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December 22, 2016 • 35 mins
Welcome to a special holiday edition “The Stakes,” where we’re taking a look back at one of our best pieces from the past year — plus a little something new.
Coming up, we’ve got an extended version of music writer Hazel Cills’s interview with Khaela Maricich and Melissa Dyne, a.k.a. The Blow, on womanproducer.com — their digital archive of women making their own sonic universes. We're also featuring a poem from Hanif Willis-Abdur...
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December 17, 2016 • 36 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes,” MTV’s “orange in your Christmas stocking” of podcasts. We’re tasty and sweet! Just peel us! That’s not weird, and I resent any implications to the contrary!
Coming up on the show today:
- MTV Podcast Director Michael Catano speaks to Rebecca Craven of the Pipeline Safety Trust, an independent organization that promotes pipeline safety, to find out how common pipeline failures actually are — and what’s ...
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December 10, 2016 • 36 mins
Welcome back to “The Stakes,” where we don’t mind that it’s getting darker earlier and earlier, because there are no windows in our podcast studio. Coming up on the show today:
- We check in with organizers at Standing Rock to learn what’s next in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.
- Bandcamp managing editor Jes Skolnik talks to Jessica Hopper, MTV’s editorial director of music, about the fire at an Oakland, California, ...
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December 3, 2016 • 43 mins
For months, protesters have been camping out in North Dakota to stop construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.7 billion project that will transport oil across four states. Supporters state that the pipeline will bring millions of dollars to the area, create jobs, and decrease U.S. reliance on foreign oil; opponents want to protect sacred Standing Rock Sioux sites that pipeline construction could destroy, and worry about pot...
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November 19, 2016 • 50 mins
Welcome back to "The Stakes," the podcast where we collectively try to untangle the colossal clusterfuck that is politics, news, and social justice in the year 2016. Coming up on the show today:
Part 1: MTV News podcast producer James T. Green talks to Al Buford, who calls himself the spark of the 1966 and 1968 Chicago riots and who once shared some history with Green during a chance encounter in an Uber.
Part 2: MTV music writer H...
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