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Full episode
456: Reap What You Sow
Act One

Alien Experiment

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Last Summer, Alabama passed HB56, the most sweeping immigration bill in the country. It's an example of a strategy called "attrition through enforcement" or, more colloquially, "self-deportation"--making life so hard on undocumented immigrants that they choose to leave the country. But as reporter Jack Hitt found, the new law has had lots of other unintended consequences. Jack has a book coming out this Spring called Bunch of Amateurs. (35 minutes)

By

Jack Hitt

Song:

“You Can't Stay Here” by G.P. Bailey
Act Extra

News Flash: The Real Inventor of "Self-Deportation"

More in Politics

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859: Chaos Graph
Apr. 25, 2025

Act Two: Solving For Where

A woman watches her partner get taken in handcuffs with no explanation.
857: Museum of Now
Mar. 28, 2025

Exhibit Two

Producer Aviva DeKornfeld talks to Ranjani Srinivasan, who tells the story of how her life was transformed over five days via a series of events that started out confusing and escalated to frightening. (25 minutes)
857: Museum of Now
Mar. 28, 2025

Exhibit Three

Producer Laura Starecheski takes us inside one dramatic court hearing on the Trump administration’s executive order and new policy banning transgender people from serving in the military.

More by Jack Hitt

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699: Fiasco!
Apr. 3, 2020

Act One: Opening Night

Jack Hitt's Peter Pan story continues. (18 minutes)Jack is a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and Harper’s.
549: Amateur Hour
Feb. 27, 2015

Act One: Theater of War

Fort Bragg Army base was suffering a number of unnecessary deaths — so they decided to attempt to save soldiers’ lives through the art of musical theater.
510: Fiasco! (2013)
Nov. 1, 2013

Act One: Opening Night

Jack Hitt's Peter Pan story continues.
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