We’re bringing you an episode of a new podcast we think you’ll love: The Amendment. A new podcast about gender, politics, and power from The 19th News and Wonder Media Network, The Amendment is hosted by award-winning journalist and 19th editor-at-large Errin Haines. Each week, Errin sits down with people who have fresh perspectives on the state of our country – and asks questions that center the voices of women, queer folks, and people of color. The Amendment adds much needed asterisks to America’s most pressing political conversations – and gets clear on the unfinished work of our democracy. In this episode, we hear from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones on what role the free press should play in ensuring the survival of our democracy. Nikole Hannah-Jones is the creator of the 1619 Project, Knight Chair in Race and Journalism at Howard University, and a leading voice on the vital role of journalism in our democracy today. In the inaugural episode of The Amendment, Errin and Nikole discuss the current state of journalism, the high stakes of this presidential election, the importance of historical context in our political moment, the challenges faced by Black women in journalism and more. 

Since Teaching Texas wrapped last fall, the state has been embroiled in a debate over school vouchers, climate change education and district takeovers. But flying slightly under the radar – though equally consequential – is House Bill 1605. In a discussion recorded live at Texas Tribune Fest, Grace is joined by Rep. Gina Hinojosa and State Board of Education Chairman Keven Ellis to dive into how the bill re-allocates power, impacts teachers, and charts a new future for Texas public education.

Each year, Texas public school students learn the story of their state’s origin: the battle for the Alamo. The story has become a rallying cry throughout the ages for Texans, and Americans – It’s an underdog tale of sacrifice. But, it’s also not very historically accurate. In the series finale, Grace explores the danger of teaching myths as though they’re fact.

This fall, for the first time in 12 years, the Texas State Board of Education was due to review the Social Studies TEKS. In doing so, they attempted to answer the question: how should we teach U.S. History? Against the backdrop of outrage over CRT and a midterm election that will likely bring a more conservative board to power – what did the SBOE decide?

Library books aren’t required reading like textbooks are, but they can play a big role in a child’s education. As activists and politicians bring book banning back into the education debate, one group of Texas parents are fighting back. They want their kids to read stories that center diversity – and in the case of one contentious book, they won.

Critical race theory. It’s the latest rallying cry for people attempting to disrupt trust in public education. What do we lose when parents vilify educators? To find out, Grace pays a visit to the Texas suburb at the center of the national conversation.

Nowadays, standards known as TEKS dictate what every Texas student needs to learn. The State Board of Education is in charge of approving these standards. So, when a creationist dentist gained control of the board, those standards started to reflect his beliefs – for better or worse.

When the Gablers’ protégé, Neal Frey, gained control of Educational Research Analysts…he took a different approach. Grace journeys to Longview, Texas to meet the man himself and witness the last vestige of the Gablers’ enterprise.

By the 80s, Norma and Mel had gained real traction in the textbook industry. And with their newfound power, they start dictating what goes into textbooks. They threaded their conservative Christian beliefs into textbooks across the nation, with little regard for separating fact from opinion.

On the outskirts of Hawkins, Texas, a couple found a problem in one of their kids’ school books. They didn’t have a background in education, but because they lived in Texas, their concern ignited a national movement and several decades of influence over what the rest of the country learned.

Introducing Teaching Texas, a new audio documentary from Wonder Media Network that uncovers the surprising history behind America’s latest culture war.

Four years later, the Democrats reassembled the "blue wall" and America's Dairyland is poised to reprise its role as the tipping-point state. But Wisconsin's incredibly tight margins point to an increasingly thorny path ahead, not just for the state, but for the nation as a whole.

In a state with split-ticket voters and historically tight margins, every single vote is up for grabs. With only one week until election day, Grace takes us to the most contentious areas in the state, to see which messages are resonating on the ground.

As much as Wisconsin’s dairy farmers are a microcosm of rural America’s struggle, so too is the deeply segregated city of Milwaukee a microcosm of racial inequality in this country. But in the 2016 post-mortem, only Milwaukee was blamed for its drop in voter turnout. This week, Grace takes us to 53206, one of the country's most incarcerated zip codes -- and the heart of Milwaukee's homegrown Democratic organizing.

Dairy country is where Donald Trump racked up his largest margins in the state. These are the swing voters that propelled him to the White House. But four years later, these same voters are struggling to stay afloat amid trade wars, COVID-19, and Big Agriculture's siege on family farms. So this week, Grace asks the big question: Which way will Wisconsin's farmers swing this time?

The story of why Wisconsin went red in 2016 starts long before any votes were cast for Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. This week, Grace takes us back to the election of Governor Scott Walker, whose Conservative agenda shaped Wisconsin's trajectory and laid the groundwork for Donald Trump.

In the lead up to the 2016 presidential election, no one was looking at Wisconsin. But maybe they should have been. In our first episode, host Grace Lynch takes us back to the collapse of the Democrats' "blue wall" and how Wisconsin's swing to the right swayed the whole country, and may do it again.

A new Wonder Media Network original series about the unlikely decider of the 2016 election and whether America's Dairyland could once again determine our nation's future.