After lawmakers killed federal funding for public broadcasting, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has announced it's shutting down.
Without this funding, public media is at risk of decimation. Please consider donating to your local public radio station—and supporting the essential work you've come to rely on from Reveal.
|
|
THE WEEKLY REVEAL
Saturday, August 9, 2025
|
|
Gazans Are Starving. It’s a Manmade Catastrophe.
|
|
|
Courtesy Gaza Soup Kitchen
This is Kara McGuirk-Allison, senior editor at More To The Story. This week, we connected with one of the organizations feeding the people of Gaza under extraordinary conditions.
Our host, Al Letson, spoke with one of the leaders of the Gaza Soup Kitchen.
Abe Ajrami, who was born and raised in Gaza and now lives in the US, helps coordinate the organization’s food aid. In addition to dealing with the lack of supplies, workers are cooking in makeshift tekeyahs, or kitchens that serve free food to people who have lost everything.
“This is manmade starvation,” Abe says. “There are thousands of people who are starving because the Israelis decide to use hunger as a weapon.”
I also had the opportunity to connect with one of the Gaza Soup Kitchen’s workers, 24-year-old Khalid Qadas. Khalid is a photographer, spokesperson, and occasional cook in his tekeyah in western Gaza. Khalid told me that hungry people will start lining up at 7:30 in the morning and wait for hours in the hot summer sun to make sure they receive their only meal of the day.
At the tekeyah, they are able to cook some traditional foods with beans, rice, and pasta. Often, the meal is a soup from these staples. As a treat, they try to make a sweet cake for the children made of flour, oil, and sugar, but those ingredients are hard to come by. Khalid said he longs for a bath or shower and misses shampoo, adding that the lack of clean water and hygienic products is just as dangerous as the lack of food.
Despite having lost 45 kilograms (about 100 pounds) himself, Khalid considers it an honor to cook for his community and believes keeping traditions alive for the children is important for the future of Gaza.
He said in a recorded message: “I want the world to know that Gaza is not just about war and destruction, it’s full of heart.”
|
|
|
Find this episode wherever you listen to Reveal, and don’t forget to subscribe:
|
|
She Ate a Poppy Seed Salad. Child Services Took Her Baby.
|
|
Marissa Leshnov for The Marshall Project
|
|
Pregnant with her fifth child, Susan Horton had a lot of confidence in her parenting abilities. Then she ate a salad from Costco: an “everything” chopped salad kit with poppy seeds.
When she went to the hospital to give birth the next day, she tested positive for opiates. Horton told doctors that it must have been the poppy seeds, but she couldn’t convince them it was true. She was reported to child welfare authorities, and a judge removed Horton’s newborn from her care.
“They had a singular piece of evidence,” Horton said, “and it was wrong.”
Hospitals across the country routinely drug test people coming in to give birth. But the tests many hospitals use are notoriously imprecise, with false positive rates of up to 50 percent for some drugs. People taking over-the-counter cold medicine or prescribed medications can test positive for methamphetamine or opiates.
This week on Reveal, in our collaboration with The Marshall Project that first aired in September 2024, we investigate why parents across the country are being reported to child protective services over inaccurate drug test results.
Reporter Shoshana Walter digs into the cases of women who were separated from their babies after a pee-in-a-cup drug test triggered a cascade of events they couldn’t control.
|
|
|
🎧 Other places to listen: Spotify, iHeartRadio, Pandora, or wherever you get your podcasts.
|
|
Want to share story tips with CIR’s talented team of reporters and producers? Now you can!
Introducing our new "Leak to Us" page, where you can send us tips confidentially. Learn more here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
