Reveal

In 1946, a Black Army veteran was returning from World War II when a white police officer pulled him off a Greyhound bus and beat him blind.
The details were fuzzy. No one was sure about the identity of the police officer. The veteran, Isaac Woodard, didn’t even know what town he was in when it happened. Radio host Orson Welles learned about the shocking crime and pledged to find the officer who did it.
“We’ll call the policeman ‘Officer X,’” Welles said on his Sunday evening program. “He might be listening to this; I hope so. Officer X, I’m talking to you. Wash your hands. Scrub and scour, you won’t blot out the blood of a blinded war veteran.”
This week on Reveal, the podcast Radio Diaries brings us Woodard’s story, from his beating to the outrage that prompted the military’s desegregation. And to understand the experience of a Black servicemember today, we speak with Kyle Bibby, a Marine Corps veteran and co-founder of the Black Veterans Project. 

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More To The Story: A blue wave engulfed Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. Democrats throughout the country soundly defeated GOP candidates, giving them at least 54 seats in the US Senate and a majority in the House of Representatives. But it was where they won that was so shocking. Texas, South Carolina, Kansas, and Iowa all elected Democrats to the Senate, while a number of House districts that previously supported President Donald Trump turned against the GOP. On this week’s More To The Story, Mother Jones’ Ari Berman talks with host Al Letson about this potentially transformational moment in American politics, how redistricting backfired on Republicans, and what the 2026 midterm results could mean for the presidential race in 2028.
Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Digital producer: Artis Curiskis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson
Read: The GOP’s Mid-Decade Gerrymandering Strategy Was an Epic Fail (Mother Jones)
Read: Trump’s Midterms Nightmare (Mother Jones)
Read: Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America (Picador)

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On a brilliantly sunny day in May, Mother Jones national correspondent Kiera Butler found herself eating quiche in the cheerful breakfast nook of a home high above the rolling farmland of Moscow, Idaho. Her host was Doug Wilson, a firebrand pastor, self-proclaimed Christian nationalist, and spiritual leader steering a rapidly growing empire.
During her visit, Wilson, who is 73, was soft-spoken and friendly, reminiscing with his wife about when their now-grown kids were young. But behind that grandfatherly veneer lies a movement that preaches rigid patriarchy, strict discipline, and a deep disdain for progressive politics. 
“God has called men to be aggressive leaders,” Wilson says. “If they fail to follow through, then they are disobeying God.”
This week on Reveal, Butler and producer Steven Rascón go inside the homes of Wilson’s inner circle to show how fringe fundamentalist doctrines are quietly migrating from rural church pews into the heart of American national security policies pushed by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who counts Wilson as one of his spiritual advisers.

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More To The Story: Ken Cuccinelli is a longtime fixture of the conservative movement. The former Virginia attorney general and former Trump official is known for his far-right views on immigration, his denial of climate change, and some very conservative positions on social issues like gay rights and same-sex marriage. But more recently he’s become one of the leading figures on the right pushing for a more open and transparent election process as well as voting restrictions that critics say could wind up disenfranchising legal voters. As the midterms approach, More To The Story host Al Letson talks with Cuccinelli about why he believes beefed-up voting restrictions are necessary, whether he believes the lies about the 2020 election, and why he doesn’t support President Trump’s proposal that Republicans “take over” the elections.
Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Vincent Sherry | Digital producer: Artis Curiskis | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson
Listen: Why Are We Still Talking About Voting Rights in 2026? (Reveal)
Read: These State Races Could Be the Sleeper Issue of the Midterms (Mother Jones)
Listen: Voter Suppression is Happening in the South. This Organizer Fights It. (More To The Story)
Learn more: Election Transparency Initiative

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In the run-up to this year’s midterm elections, one of the defining campaign issues is the elections themselves. Ever since President Trump first urged red states to draw up new maps to give Republican candidates an electoral edge, America has been caught in a historic redistricting fight that was supercharged this spring when the Supreme Court gutted much of the Voting Rights Act. That landmark decision led to the elimination of majority Black districts around the country. Meanwhile, the president has been pushing legislation that could restrict voting access while using the bully pulpit to falsely claim that there’s widespread voter fraud. Some even fear President Trump could use the power of the executive branch to interfere with the election itself. On this week’s Reveal, host Al Letson talks with three people at the heart of this historic fight over voting rights in America: LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter; and Ken Cuccinelli, chairman of The Heritage Foundation’s Election Transparency Initiative, and Democratic Sen. Adam Schiff of California.

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