Bots and The Battle for American Democracy

Coming up on today’s show:

• Last Friday, the Justice Department indicted 13 Russian nationals for conspiring to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. The Takeaway looks at the meaning behind the charges, and what Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s larger plan may be, with Betsy Woodruff, a political reporter for The Daily Beast. 

• U.S. intelligence leaders testified before Congress last week and stated that non-state actors are utilizing bots and fake news to subvert American democracy. But how big is the threat? Molly McKew is an expert on information warfare, and Brendan Nyhan, a professor in the department of government at Dartmouth College, answer. 

• On Monday, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court released a new congressional district map after saying that the previous versions were unconstitutional. The map could help Democrats win the U.S. House of Representatives this fall. Katie Meyer, WITF’s Capitol bureau chief, joins The Takeaway from Harrisburg to explain along with Mira Bernstein, a mathematician and a member of the Metric Geometry and Gerrymandering group at Tufts University.

• There are an estimated 45-60 remaining red wolves left in the wild. Once ranging from Pennsylvania to Florida and as far west as Texas, the only red wolves you can find in the wild are now in North Carolina. DeLene Beeland, a science and nature writer and author of “The Secret World of Red Wolves,” discusses a 30 year old program under the Endangered Species Act that was supposed to help red wolves, but now may be in danger. 

• The “Loving Generation” is a four-part digital documentary series focusing on the generation of children born to one black and one white parent from the mid-1960s thru the mid 80s. Based on the landmark Supreme Court case Loving vs. Virginia in 1967, which made interracial marriage legal, the series directed by Lacey Schwartz and Mehret Mandefroexplores the lives of biracial children, including WNYC’s own Rebecca Carroll, who spoke with director Lacey Schwartz about the series and shares her conversation today on The Takeaway. 

This episode is hosted by Todd Zwillich