Question Everything

Voting in this year’s midterms is already underway. And for the past year leading up to this election, the Trump administration has been pushing to get its hands on every state’s unredacted voter rolls, saying it wants to check for noncitizens who are illegally registered.

Those rolls include personal information like driver’s license numbers, full birth dates, and partial Social Security numbers. Some state election officials agreed to hand their lists over to the federal government, but Utah’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson refused.

Then the Justice Department sued her and threatened her with criminal charges.

She told Question Everything producer Zach St. Louis the story.

Also this week, The Signal Awards honored Question Everything with eight awards, including two listener choice awards. Thanks to all who voted for us! Here are two of the winning episodes you can check out: The Talented Ms. Goldiee and I Was 11 When Instagram Took Over My Life.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Guests:

Deidre Henderson, Lieutenant Governor of Utah

Midterm elections are around the corner, and AI is obviously an issue that’s getting a ton of attention from candidates. There are so many thorny questions around this technology, but what do politicians intend to do about it?  Today, we are sharing an interview with Texas Congressman Greg Casar from Slate's podcast, "What Next," where Casar talks about his concerns with AI and why he sees the anger that people feel about it as an opportunity to build a political movement that brings people together.

You can hear Slate’s What Next wherever you get your podcasts.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Guests:

Lizzie O’Leary, from Slate’s What Next

Greg Casar, US Representative for Texas’s 35th Congressional District.

Just a few weeks ago, David Ellison and Paramount were staring down the barrel of a $7 million dollar per day fine for every day their merger with Warner Bros was not finalized, with a 12 state class-action antitrust lawsuit standing in the way. The states, led by California attorney general Rob Bonta, seemed to have Ellison backed into a corner.

But then, at what seemed like the 11th hour, Bonta announced a settlement with Paramount that would allow the merger to go through. The deal closed this week, officially giving Trump allies David and his father Larry Ellison control over vast swaths of the entertainment industry, as well CBS News and CNN.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is mad they didn’t fight harder. In an unusually frank interview, he reflects with Brian on what went wrong with their case, and what the new mega-company Skydance will mean for independent news in America.

Also, check out our previous stories on media capture and the Ellison bromance with Trump.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Guests:

William Tong, Attorney General of Connecticut

Flock Safety’s license plate cameras are in about 6,000 towns across the U.S. But lately, towns have been pulling out of their contracts after all sorts of creepy stories about cops using the cameras to spy on people in their personal lives.

But in Tewksbury, Mass., residents have a different concern: they can’t get Flock to tell them what their town originally agreed to. For months, residents and town officials have been asking the company a simple question, which the company will not answer. That sends two residents down a Kafkaesque rabbit hole to figure out what Flock might be hiding.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Guests:

Dustin Weir, Tewksbury resident

James Mackey, Tewksbury Select Board member

A few weeks ago, Meta was in trouble. 47 states plus several U.S. territories were suing the company in federal court for knowingly harming kids with its apps, Instagram and Facebook. Several of the states were in the middle of a trial in California; damaging information was coming out about Meta; execs were being grilled on the stand; there was talk of CEO Mark Zuckerberg having to testify, and damages as high as $1.4 trillion. The company had already lost two major trials over child safety this year. The wind seemed to be at the states’ backs.

And then they settled. Without even finishing their case in court. Meta didn’t have to admit any wrongdoing.

Why? Why did the states give in? The evidence against Meta was damning. Why didn’t the states take the company to task and force a verdict?

Brian calls up the man who led the negotiations with Meta for the states, Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, to ask him why he and his colleagues gave in.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Guests:

Jonathan Skrmetti, Attorney General of Tennessee

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