Criminal Justice Reform, Ponzi Schemes, The ‘Textalyzer’

Coming up on today’s show:

• On Thursday, Senators Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley announced that they have enough support to pass a criminal justice reform bill that will help reduce the American prison population. Takeaway Washington Correspondent Todd Zwillich brings us the latest from Capitol Hill.

• What do advocates have to say about the latest announcement on criminal justice reform, and do the concessions needed to pass this bill help or hurt inmates? Glenn Martin, president and founder of Just Leadership USA, a criminal justice reform organization, weighs in.

• Leicester City Football Club once faced odds of 5,000–1 to win the English Premiere League, but this weekend the soccer club could become the champion for the first time. Manish Bhasin, a BBC soccer presenter and lifelong Leicester City fan, explains.

• In an attempt to crack down on texting driving, lawmakers in New York are hoping to give police a device that is the digital equivalent of a Breathalyzer. An officer would be able to use the “Textalyzer” to go into a phone to determine if anything illegal (like texting) was going on at the time of a car crash. Lauren Smith, policy counsel at the Future of Privacy Forum, has the details. 

• This week, culture reporter Melissa Locker introduces The Takeaway to “Whatever, Linda,” a dark comedy set in 1978. This web series is about four secretaries on Wall Street who become the engineers behind the world’s most notorious Ponzi scheme.

• Instead of telling you about the movies you should see in theaters this weekend, Newsday Film Critic Rafer Guzman is here tell you about the ones that you really should absolutely never see. He explains what makes a truly terrible movie.

• A new film based on the life of Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan comes out today. Called “The Man Who Knew Infinity,” the movie traces Ramanujan’s journey from poverty in India to Cambridge. Here to discuss this project is one of the film’s associate producers, Ken Ono, a renowned mathematician who has been deeply inspired by Ramanujan.