One night in the spring of 2005, Anissa Jordan was sitting in a car in San Francisco while her boyfriend attempted to rob a young man nearby. Shortly after, police arrested both Anissa and her boyfriend. Anissa was detained and dressed in an orange jumpsuit before she learned that the young man had been shot and killed that night and that she and her boyfriend would both be held responsible. The charge: felony murder.
The felony-murder rule, which exists in more than 40 states, allows prosecutors to charge accomplices to certain crimes, such as conspiracy to commit robbery, with murder, even if they didn’t intend to kill—and even if they weren’t present for the murder. It does so by removing intent to kill from the calculus of what makes a murderer. Critics say the rule has disproportionately led to the incarceration of youth of color and women, such as Anissa, but some prosecutors say the felony-murder rule is the key to holding police officers responsible in the killings of civilians.
“By propping up this terrible rule, however we do it, we have to understand this rule is primarily used against Black people and people of color,” says Kate Chatfield, a director at the Justice Collaborative. 
This week on The Experiment, a look at the doctrine that prosecutors used to convict Anissa for a crime she didn’t even witness, and a debate over whether that same rule is crucial to prosecuting the highest-profile case in the country, The State of Minnesota v. Derek Chauvin. 
Further reading:  “What Makes a Murderer?” 

This episode is part of The Atlantic’s project “The Cycle,” which is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge.
Be part of The Experiment. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at theexperiment@theatlantic.com.
This episode was produced by Alvin Melathe and Julia Longoria, with editing by Katherine Wells. Fact-check by Will Gordon. Sound design by David Herman. Special thanks to Adam Harris and John Swansburg.
Music by Water Feature (“With Flowers,” “Richard III(Duke of Gloucester),” and “A Paradise”), Keyboard (“Being There” and “My Atelier”), H Hunt (“C U Soon” and “Having a Bath”), and R McCarthy (“Home/Home”), provided by Tasty Morsels. Additional music by Bruce Wiley McKinnon Jr. (“Are You a Freak”) and Tyler O. Sterrett and Jason Trotta (“The Hamlet”). Additional audio from KQED and MPR News.

One night in the spring of 2005, Anissa Jordan was sitting in a car in San Francisco while her boyfriend attempted to rob a young man nearby. Shortly after, police arrested both Anissa and her boyfriend. Anissa was detained and dressed in an orange jumpsuit before she learned that the young man had been shot and killed that night and that she and her boyfriend would both be held responsible. The charge: felony murder.
The felony-murder rule, which exists in more than 40 states, allows prosecutors to charge accomplices to certain crimes, such as conspiracy to commit robbery, with murder, even if they didn’t intend to kill—and even if they weren’t present for the murder. It does so by removing intent to kill from the calculus of what makes a murderer. Critics say the rule has disproportionately led to the incarceration of youth of color and women, such as Anissa, but some prosecutors say the felony-murder rule is the key to holding police officers responsible in the killings of civilians.
“By propping up this terrible rule, however we do it, we have to understand this rule is primarily used against Black people and people of color,” says Kate Chatfield, a director at the Justice Collaborative. 
This week on The Experiment, a look at the doctrine that prosecutors used to convict Anissa for a crime she didn’t even witness, and a debate over whether that same rule is crucial to prosecuting the highest-profile case in the country, The State of Minnesota v. Derek Chauvin. 
Further reading:  “<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/02/what-makes-a-murderer/617819/">What Makes a Murderer?</a>” 

This episode is part of The Atlantic’s project “The Cycle,” which is supported by a grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Safety and Justice Challenge.
Be part of The Experiment. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at <a href="mailto:theexperiment@theatlantic.com">theexperiment@theatlantic.com</a>.
This episode was produced by Alvin Melathe and Julia Longoria, with editing by Katherine Wells. Fact-check by Will Gordon. Sound design by David Herman. Special thanks to Adam Harris and John Swansburg.
Music by Water Feature (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5UmyTpI0yS3xr5Ahv6VcRE?si=IbqdH6UXSAO5cfgHEs9-7g">With Flowers</a>,” “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/04XnWbggAlnqDVoNCpfogX?si=3TpWle6HSJ-0GBv1VN01TA">Richard III(Duke of Gloucester)</a>,” and “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5ncReeDdNIoycEnf3quSrg?si=-sbX5uqKTEmAILymrGgKSA">A Paradise</a>”), Keyboard (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3R6lv2NitANxg6xWQa4ekG?si=s77ofL3NSQKmdhdfJolnOg">Being There</a>” and “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1cVXPyKSHj5Kgk5q8JSYqq?si=pLItqBdxTne36HhautqR7w">My Atelier</a>”), H Hunt (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/28zohU9Dn9zWTYwuW1t7tV?si=yhAYzzw6TzK6aFieXQZZ-w">C U Soon</a>” and “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2pCVhkzKnKrs8jS9FzybBb?si=VC85UL1vR8WvDBFy9dwqsg">Having a Bath</a>”), and R McCarthy (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/6PF6G9wRE47C54o8xp9izp?si=lR2Pd6GoSCaNTNMpia7Yrw">Home/Home</a>”), provided by <a href="http://tastymorsels.org">Tasty Morsels</a>. Additional music by Bruce Wiley McKinnon Jr. (“Are You a Freak”) and Tyler O. Sterrett and Jason Trotta (“The Hamlet”). Additional audio from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VjUFNfZ2QA">KQED</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26f7445_0rE">MPR News</a>.

The Experiment

What Makes a Murderer?

This is quite a bit heavier than what I usually share on here, but it’s a very well done piece on felony murder, weaving in interviews with Anissa Jordan, who was convicted of felony murder, the Justice Collaborative, and Keith Ellison. 

I also found Anissa’s honesty, openness, and introspection to be extremely powerful. 

The national-park system has been touted as “America’s best idea.” David Treuer, an Ojibwe author and historian, says we can make that idea even better—by giving national parks back to Native Americans.
“By virtue of the parks returning to Native control, I would like people, when they’re standing at the foot of El Capitan, to look up knowing they’re on Native lands, to look up knowing that they’re standing on the graves of Native people,” says Treuer, who grew up on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota as the nearby Voyageurs National Park was being established. “I would like, when people look up at vistas, like at Yosemite or at Yellowstone, that they’d look up as a way to look back at the history of this country.”
Treuer, who wrote the book The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America From 1890 to the Present, says that Native Americans are too often precluded from using the land in culturally significant ways that go back millennia. In his essay for The Atlantic, he makes the case that the U.S. should return control of national parks to its Native people.
Further reading: “Return the National Parks to the Tribes”

Be part of The Experiment. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at theexperiment@theatlantic.com.
This episode was produced by Tracie Hunte and Gabrielle Berbey, with editing by Matt Collette and Katherine Wells. Fact-check by Jack Segelstein. Sound design by David Herman.
Music by Laundry (“Films”), Parish Council (“Socks Before Trousers” and “Heatherside Stores”), h hunt (“11e” and “Journeys”), and naran ratan (“Trees etc.), provided by Tasty Morsels. Additional music by John Charles Schroeder and Ross Taggart Garren (“Mournful Blues”) and Ken Anderson and Rebecca Ruth Hall (“Calliope - Underscore”). Additional audio from National Geographic, WNYC, PBS, and C-SPAN.

The national-park system has been touted as <a href="https://www.nps.gov/americasbestidea/">“America’s best idea.”</a> <a href="https://www.davidtreuer.net/">David Treuer</a>, an Ojibwe author and historian, says we can make that idea even better—by giving national parks back to Native Americans.
“By virtue of the parks returning to Native control, I would like people, when they’re standing at the foot of El Capitan, to look up knowing they’re on Native lands, to look up knowing that they’re standing on the graves of Native people,” says Treuer, who grew up on the Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota as the nearby Voyageurs National Park was being established. “I would like, when people look up at vistas, like at Yosemite or at Yellowstone, that they’d look up as a way to look back at the history of this country.”
Treuer, who wrote the book <a href="https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781594633157">The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America From 1890 to the Present,</a> says that Native Americans are too often precluded from using the land in culturally significant ways that go back millennia. In <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/05/return-the-national-parks-to-the-tribes/618395/">his essay for The Atlantic</a>, he makes the case that the U.S. should return control of national parks to its Native people.
Further reading: <a href="http://theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/05/return-the-national-parks-to-the-tribes/618395/">“Return the National Parks to the Tribes”</a>

Be part of The Experiment. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at <a href="mailto:theexperiment@theatlantic.com">theexperiment@theatlantic.com</a>.
This episode was produced by Tracie Hunte and Gabrielle Berbey, with editing by Matt Collette and Katherine Wells. Fact-check by Jack Segelstein. Sound design by David Herman.
Music by Laundry (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0XpDFdxfGYzyBqGZaCECvE?si=891864a256784f2b">Films</a>”), Parish Council (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5WF5d7FAmPTs2WkNDVB5wK?si=a6ff68e2cb2144fd">Socks Before Trousers</a>” and “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/62mhHV52VY6XfT2CbEnulH?si=42e98baf9d8d4784">Heatherside Stores</a>”), h hunt (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0wB7nNtB8FW1rbaJtuWqWX?si=d8d4bbe4912847e6">11e</a>” and “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7lSGEtn3JUPOM5oSYY6D0A?si=424b95f31c3942ee">Journeys</a>”), and naran ratan (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/5s2PkVuIo9mFzRFHp9Wupa?si=1d9b9251aa094ab6">Trees etc.</a>), provided by <a href="http://tastymorsels.org">Tasty Morsels</a>. Additional music by John Charles Schroeder and Ross Taggart Garren (“Mournful Blues”) and Ken Anderson and Rebecca Ruth Hall (“Calliope - Underscore”). Additional audio from <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF2ZmWfnXDw">National Geographic</a>, <a href="https://www.wnyc.org/story/59197-the-national-parks-americas-best-idea/">WNYC</a>, <a href="https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-national-parks/">PBS</a>, and <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?510017-1/interior-secretary-swearing-ceremony">C-SPAN</a>.

The Problem With America’s National Parks

As someone who loves the National Park Service (really), I’m very persuaded by this argument. An ambitious, gradual project like the one proposed here would preserve all their greatness while inviting a long-overdue discussion about the injustices that created them in the first place.

Nineteen sixty-four. Freedom Summer. Marylin Thurman Newkirk was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in a county where just about 250 Black adults out of more than 13,000 were registered to vote. She would grow up as part of the first generation of Americans who lived in a true democracy, according to her son Vann R. Newkirk II.
That has a lot to do with a law enacted a year after her birth, in 1965. That’s when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which ended Jim Crow laws preventing Black people from voting in many states.
But the protections enacted in 1965 didn’t last, and today they’re hanging by a thread. Now, in the aftermath of his mother’s death at 56, Newkirk argues that the best way to ensure that democracy lasts is a constitutional amendment.
Further reading: “When America Became a Democracy”

Be part of The Experiment. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at theexperiment@theatlantic.com. Listen and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podcasts
This episode was produced by Julia Longoria, Alvin Melathe, and Gabrielle Berbey, with editing by Tracie Hunte and Katherine Wells. Fact check by Will Gordon. Sound design by David Herman.
Music by h hunt (“C U Soon,” “Journeys,” “Nice Arp”), Ob (“Wold”), Keyboard (“Being There,” “Ojima”), Laundry (“Films”), and water feature (“ancient morsel”); catalog by Tasty Morsels. Additional audio from CBSN, New York Public Radio, C-SPAN, Denia Vega, Rare Facts, American Experience PBS, KXAN, Oyez (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License), Democracy Now!, News4JAX, DW News, Streamline Films, and Archive.org.

Nineteen sixty-four. Freedom Summer. Marylin Thurman Newkirk was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in a county where just about 250 Black adults out of more than 13,000 were registered to vote. She would grow up as part of the first generation of Americans who lived in a true democracy, according to her son <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/author/vann-newkirk/">Vann R. Newkirk II</a>.
That has a lot to do with a law enacted a year after her birth, in 1965. That’s when Congress passed the Voting Rights Act, which ended Jim Crow laws preventing Black people from voting in many states.
But the protections enacted in 1965 didn’t last, and today they’re hanging by a thread. Now, in the aftermath of his mother’s death at 56, Newkirk argues that the best way to ensure that democracy lasts is a constitutional amendment.
Further reading: <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/voting-rights-act-democracy/617792/">“When America Became a Democracy”</a>

Be part of The Experiment. Use the hashtag #TheExperimentPodcast, or write to us at <a href="mailto:theexperiment@theatlantic.com">theexperiment@theatlantic.com</a>. Listen and subscribe: <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-experiment/id1549704404">Apple Podcasts</a> | <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/64nFJEu758qByG5l6kqg6F?si=fybR7dgXRX2c5pINkWgKaA">Spotify</a> | <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/wnyc/the-experiment-3">Stitcher</a> | <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRwcm94eS5nb29nbGUuY29tL2V4cGVyaW1lbnRfcG9kY2FzdA">Google Podcasts</a>
This episode was produced by Julia Longoria, Alvin Melathe, and Gabrielle Berbey, with editing by Tracie Hunte and Katherine Wells. Fact check by Will Gordon. Sound design by David Herman.
Music by h hunt (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/28zohU9Dn9zWTYwuW1t7tV?si=Ld2HTAGEQAiiuOtPh-38Fg">C U Soon</a>,” “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/7lSGEtn3JUPOM5oSYY6D0A?si=tfR_JSq6RWKcqXSm2ZOA3g">Journeys</a>,” “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1QOEGDe2NX2vKaQO6BFnDj?si=fK3p_XHURz-1-KKofn5y6g">Nice Arp</a>”), Ob (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/1lI3dphblKr0Nl5kkljYYq?si=2dAQ3EawRkSjFN2d4LwUDQ">Wold</a>”), Keyboard (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3R6lv2NitANxg6xWQa4ekG?si=dZ2MUH4ATyWDT5myZHxSaQ">Being There</a>,” “<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/3kK2i7VuZXZbkKyb546rI0?si=IYhVP_BkTDud-FHyZRi7jAd">Ojima</a>”), Laundry (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/0XpDFdxfGYzyBqGZaCECvE?si=_me81WGxS5CXlpj1sm5QAQ">Films</a>”), and water feature (“<a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/47PQfT9COUyjQOxEwwpWMv?si=UWiVqcQaSCWlf3ArZzdGOw">ancient morsel</a>”); catalog by Tasty Morsels. Additional audio from CBSN, New York Public Radio, C-SPAN, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwI0GKVQqasEr3cn2ghnh6g?pbjreload=102">Denia Vega</a>,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP4iY1TtS3s"> Rare F</a>acts, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jKNHS0NV2c">American Experience PBS</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbFmicUTb_k">KXAN</a>, <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2012/12-96">Oyez</a> (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License), <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9IppHYEzCg">Democracy Now!</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhOQhjoBnM4">News4JAX</a>,<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3om6oCLaOY"> DW News</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA0J8glLZJs">Streamline Films</a>, and <a href="https://archive.org/details/y2mate.comselmabloodysundayaovqbt0rtto1080p">Archive.org</a>.

56 Years

I definitely didn’t *need* a new podcast in my queue, but The Experiment is worth checking out. Every episode is a totally different angle on US history and culture, and all of them are super well-produced. Here’s my favorite ep so far:

Each week, we tell the story of what happens when individual people confront deeply held American ideals in their own lives. We're interested in the cultural and political contradictions that reveal who we are.

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