Press Play with Madeleine Brand
Bowe Bergdahl, ICE Holds, and 'My Salinger Year'
The White House plays defense upon Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl's return, California counties refuse ICE holds, Joanna Rakoff on Salinger and Syrian elections.
By Madeleine Brand • • 52m ListenAfter a triumphal announcement about the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl from the Taliban, the White House is playing defense as more of the story emerges. More and more California counties are refusing ICE’s request to hold potentially deportable inmates after they’ve served their jail sentences. Author Joanna Rakoff talks about the year she spent answering JD Salinger’s fanmail. And Bashar al-Assad is expected to be elected for a third 7-year term as Syria’s President, despite the horrible and ongoing civil war.
Banner Image: Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier who was captured during the War in Afghanistan; Credit: United States Army
In this episode
5 storiesThe Bergdahl Story Gets Complicated for the White House
After a triumphal announcement by President Obama about the release of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, the White House has been playing defense on the story. It turns out that Bergdahl had become disillusioned with the American military operation in Afghanistan and had walked off the base.
Read the story9 minICE Holds
One by one, counties in California are opting out of a practice called ICE holds. ICE refers to the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and “holds” refer to the practice of local authorities keeping potentially-deportable immigrants in jail after their sentences are up.
Read the story9 minWe Need to Talk About the Children
Ever since Amy Chua popularized the term “Tiger Mom”, there’s been a lot of debate around the country over Eastern vs Western parenting practices. Now, Stanford researchers have compared the more strict approach of some Asian-American families to the more lenient approach of some European-American parents.
Read the story8 min'My Salinger Year'
When she was 23, Joanna Rakoff left grad school in London and moved to New York City to pursue her dream of becoming a poet. Despite being what she calls, “the only bookish, angry, misfit American teenager to have graduated from high school without reading Catcher in the Rye ,” Rakoff gets a job at the literary agency that handles JD Salinger.
Read the story13 minSyrian Elections
Polls opened today for Syria’s presidential election. President Bashar al-Assad is expected to win a third 7-year term. That’s despite a three-year civil war that’s killed hundreds of thousands of people, displaced millions, and is still going on.
Read the story8 min
