Born in 1940, Samuel Little was known in multiple states as a drifter, petty criminal and man occasionally capable of violence. Like many people living on the fringe of society, he seemed to slip through the fingers of justice despite numerous arrests. Yet intrepid investigators and improvements in DNA testing eventually proved Little was more than an itinerant drug addict and shoplifter -- according to the FBI, he is the most prolific serial killer in US history.
We’re told some people just need to be saved. But what people really need is to be needed. This community of young single mothers in Lexington, Kentucky reveals a version of this story.
Full video viewing options for this story plus links to the Instagram and LinkedIn versions:
This episode features Tanya Torp, Executive Director of Step by Step, a nonprofit that chose to stop assuming what young mothers needed—and started asking.
These moms didn’t just receive support. They shaped it. They requested Narcan training. They showed up. They led. They built trust and built community. And in the process, they reminded us:
People need dignity. Agency. The opportunity to contribute.
More stories and updates: https://stories.howtocitizen.com
🎙️ This story series is a collaborative effort by Shira Abramowitz, Jon Alexander, Elizabeth Stewart, and Baratunde Thurston. Video produced by Alexa Lim.
In which North Korea jump-starts its fledgeling monster movie industry by literally kidnapping talent from across the DMZ, and Ken was distracted by skateboarding. Certificate #37139
The state of Alaska is actively working to shut down a gaming hall just opened by the Native Village of Eklutna. The Chin'an Gaming Hall is doing a brisk business with pull-tabs and 85 bingo machines in an unassuming building just outside of Anchorage. But state officials maintain the operation is illegal because the tribe does not control the land it is on. Elsewhere, in Maine, tribes are also working against state resistance to expand gaming. They face a regulatory reality that is different from tribes in other states because of legislation in 1980 limiting Maine’s tribes’ gaming enterprise ability.
Mia and Spencer Jordan of the Urban Ore Workers Union discuss the workplace as a microcosm of the authoritarianism currently sweeping the American political system and how their strike is fighting back.
On 17 December 1967, Harold Holt, the immensely popular prime minister of Australia, went for a swim -- and vanished. In the decades since, his family and the public still have questions about what exactly happened. In tonight's episode, Ben, Matt and Noel explore a mystery that remains unsolved in the modern day, along with a meditation on empathy, and a bevy of increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories.
Cleaner energy! Reasoning with climate deniers! Using fandom to pass policy! And not burning out. Adam Met, of the colossal indie pop band AJR is also a career climate activist, an International Human Rights Law PhD, adjunct professor at Columbia University, and the author of the upcoming book “Amplify: How to Use the Power of Connection to Engage, Take Action, and Build a Better World.” He joins to chat about breaking through the overwhelm of climate causes, what action actually matters, if petitions even work, what happens to our brains at a rock concert, how human rights and climate policy intersect, if you should drive a gas or an electric car, how to solve problems that are vexing you by not working on them, carbon footprint guilt, the similarities between writing an album and writing a book, and how to do something about climate change without bumming everyone out. It’s possible.Â
Pre-order his book releasing June 3, 2025, Amplify: How to Use the Power of Connection to Engage, Take Action, and Build a Better World, on Bookshop.org or Amazon
This episode features Steph and Lance: one conservative, one liberal, both neighbors, both school board members. With the support of Urban Rural Action, they chose relationship over partisanship. Listening over labeling. Curiosity over contempt.
And the result? A school board that works. For the kids. For the community. For all of us. This is what it looks like to citizen:
Listen deeply. Speak honestly. Resist the pull to polarize. Build something different—together
🎙️ This story series is a collaborative effort by Shira Abramowitz, Jon Alexander, Elizabeth Stewart, and Baratunde Thurston. Video produced by Anne Gutteridge.
The Trump administration scrapped a civil rights agreement 14 years in the making with the Rapid City, S.D. school system. The agreement was aimed at correcting inequities for Native American students. Data show Native students in the district are given harsher punishments than their white counterparts. The students also are less likely to be in higher level classes. The decision comes as President Donald Trump has terminated nearly half of the federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights staff.
We’ll also look at a Virginia tribe’s suit against the commonwealth for what the tribe says is withholding Medicaid reimbursements for tribal citizens’ health care.
Gare and James discuss a meeting between Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on expanding CECOT style prisons to hold US citizens and immigrants.
