THE WEEKLY REVEAL

Hello! In this issue:

• A national competition for high school girls is disrupted by news of the fall of Roe v. Wade.
• Across the country, hospitals are giving drugs to people in labor and then reporting them to child protective services when they test positive for those drugs.
• When Carol Stuart was murdered in 1989, Boston was all too willing to believe her husband’s story: A Black man did it.

THIS WEEK’S PODCAST

50 States of Mind

Every summer, 50 of the nation’s best and brightest teenage girls gather in Mobile, Alabama, to embark on two of the most intense weeks of their lives. Everybody wants the same thing: to walk away with a $40,000 college scholarship and the title of Distinguished Young Woman of America.

Reporter Shima Oliaee competed when she was a teenager. Invited back as a judge in 2022, Oliaee decided to bring her audio kit and capture it all.

In the final days of the competition, there was news from Washington that had big implications for women across the nation. Roe v. Wade had fallen. The girls are faced with a tough decision: Do they speak up for their political beliefs or stay focused on winning the money? And what might this mean for their futures—and their friendships?

This week, Reveal is partnering with The Competition podcast, from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios and hosted by Oliaee, to explore the dreams of young women, America’s promise, and what it takes to survive being a teen girl today.

Our Latest

Hospitals Gave Women Medications During Childbirth—Then Reported Them for Using Illicit Drugs

A Quote to Remember

Robert Ahearn was a Boston police detective assigned to investigate the murder of Carol Stuart, a pregnant woman shot on her way home from birthing class. Ahearn was quickly skeptical of her husband, Chuck, who was also shot and told police it was a Black man.

Ahearn was soon taken off the case, and the city’s intense manhunt focused on the countless Black and Latino boys and men who loosely fit the description. But it was the husband all along.

Listen: The Racist Hoax That Changed Boston

In Case You Missed It

Impact Update

Halverson reported that neighbors around one Saudi-owned hay farm have watched their water quality worsen and their wells run dry as the farm grows the crop and ships it to feed Middle Eastern dairy cows.

This week, the Arizona attorney general took action. She sued the Fondomonte farm, alleging it was a public nuisance and asking a judge to stop excessive groundwater pumping. The company is “taking advantage of Arizona’s failure to protect its precious groundwater resource,” the lawsuit says.