Deep Dive with Laura Arnold Laura Arnold

Laura Arnold sits down with former presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Stanford professor Larry Diamond, a leading scholar in democracy reform, to discuss the crisis eating away at American democracy and potential solutions, including ranked-choice voting.

America’s criminal justice system has exploded in scope over recent decades and the punishment for these individuals does not always end when they leave prison or jail. In this episode of Deep Dive, Laura Arnold sits down with three guests to examine the vast and complex web of legal barriers and exclusions that people with criminal records face, the way these barriers reinforce racial inequity and the implications for society writ large.

Birth control is one of the most popular innovations of modern history, with eight out of 10 Americans supporting it as essential health care. Yet millions lack access, and the politicization of contraception has exacerbated the problem. Is there hope for change on the horizon? In this episode of Deep Dive, Laura Arnold sits down with three guests to examine contraceptive equity, explore the barriers to giving women true choice and discuss potential policy solutions that could help close the gaps in access.

Nearly two out of every five students who start a full-time, four-year undergraduate program drop out. This is especially true for part-time students, low-income students and students of color.  The U.S. higher education system is clearly broken, yet solutions have remained elusive because of a lack of data needed to answer basic questions about a school’s performance. 

Recent mass shootings in Georgia and Colorado have spurred cries for change, including President Biden's effort to ban assault rifles.  But will this moment be any different?  In this episode, Laura Arnold sits down with four experts on gun violence prevention to discuss the evidence about the causes of gun violence and effective approaches to prevention.  Together, they dissect the political dynamics that continue to stand in the way of action. 

The video of police officer Derek Chauvin pressing his knee into George Floyd’s neck for approximately 9 minutes served as the spark that ignited a tinder box of demonstrations calling for police reform. We examine the root causes of the accountability crisis in policing and the impacts on communities of color; outline the various policies that have been proposed and the evidence on their effectiveness; and explore what’s next in this movement to effect change in policing.