(Photo illustration by News21)
Podcast trailer
Episode 1: The status of police reform in America
Whether it’s civil unrest on the streets of Akron, Ohio, or demands for accountability coming from within a department, communities and law enforcement across the country are rethinking what police reform really means. In this episode, you’ll hear about the state of police reform – from the people fighting for change. Host Nathan Collins talks to a reverend who has fought for civil rights for 40 years and fears he won’t see true reform in his lifetime. You’ll meet a police union leader pushing for reform from the inside, but knows change is incremental. And you’ll hear from a police officer who stood up to her department and now faces a legal battle. (Hosted and produced by Nathan Collins/News21)
Episode 2: The people. The politician. The police. The people pushing for reform.
The fight for long-lasting change is happening everywhere. Host Arrthy Thayaparan introduces you to those at the forefront – the people whose families have lost loved ones to police violence and are seeking justice, a former activist turned politician who is holding police accountable and a police chief who is taking extra steps to ensure his officers have Crisis Intervention Training. This episode introduces you to the people pushing for police reform. (Hosted and produced by Arrthy Thayaparan/News21)
Episode 3: Changing culture and building trust
We’ll hear how the future is being imagined by people pushing for police reform and those actively making efforts for improvement. In Minnesota, host Natalie Skowlund speaks with a mother advocating to change how police officers respond to routine traffic stops. A police chief in Utah explains how police officers and mental health crisis teams collaborate to help people in their community get access to therapy instead of going to jail. And in Colorado, a detective describes how he uses his personal experiences to build trust in a town heavily populated by Latinos. (Hosted by Natalie Skowlund, produced by Nathan Collins/News21)
Nathan Collins is an investigative journalism graduate student at Arizona State University who graduated from the University of Southern California in 2019 and the Thornton School of Music. Before switching to journalism, Collins, who plays saxophone, toured professionally with John Fogerty. Collins is passionate about public media, audio storytelling and creating meaningful narratives.
Arrthy Thayaparan is a 2022 master’s of journalism graduate from the University of British Columbia. She has interned as a multimedia journalist at City News 1130, Capital Daily and The Thunderbird and works as a radio program assistant at the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Natalie Skowlund is a bilingual journalist and graduate student at Arizona State University. She has worked as an education reporter at the Grants Pass Daily Courier in Oregon and has had her work published by Indian Country Today, The Portland Tribune, WDAV and The Astorian.
