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** THE WEEKLY REVEAL
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Saturday, January 24, 2026


** How Sports Became a Battleground Over Trans Rights
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** Kirby Lee/Getty
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Listen to the episode ([link removed])

During an NCAA women’s swimming championship in March 2022, two seniors tied for fifth place. The race was unremarkable except for one fact: One of the swimmers, Lia Thomas, was a transgender woman. The swimmer she tied with, Riley Gaines, believed the NCAA never should have allowed her to participate.

The matchup, and Gaines’ subsequent transformation into a leading anti-trans activist, has fueled a growing movement to “save women’s sports” from trans women—and a conservative crusade against trans rights more broadly.

Over the last year, the anti-trans movement has reached a tipping point.

Trans girls are banned from girls’ school sports in the majority of states. The NCAA and US Olympic and Paralympic committees have banned trans women from women’s competitions. The Supreme Court is currently considering the issue, too.

This week on Reveal, we examine Gaines’ rise and radicalization and dive into the science to understand how gender-affirming hormone therapy affects trans women’s performance—and what questions science still has not answered around fairness in women’s sports.
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🎧 Other places to listen: Spotify ([link removed]) , Overcast ([link removed]) , iHeartRadio ([link removed]) , or wherever you get your podcasts.


** How ICE Became Trump’s Very Own Paramilitary Force
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Dave Decker/ZUMA

Over the past few weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been terrorizing Minnesota, as documented instances of egregious brutality flood our social media feeds.

This week alone, one ICE agent pepper-sprayed ([link removed]) a protester directly in the face while pinned to the asphalt, and another was caught ([link removed]) tackling and handcuffing a child in the snow while they pleaded, “I’m legal,” in Spanish.

But the instance that shook me the most was the detention ([link removed]) of 5-year-old Liam Ramos. ICE agents detained the preschooler along with his father earlier this week, but not before reportedly using the child as bait in an attempt to capture other family members in their home.

His photo, depicting him standing in the snow as an ICE officer grips his Spider-Man backpack, went viral on social media. As my Mother Jones colleague Inae Oh wrote ([link removed]) , the visuals of his arrest are excruciating. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and his administration stand by their occupation of the T ([link removed]) win Cities. ([link removed])

While Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minneapolis has been nothing short of horrifying, it isn’t new. Radley Balko, a journalist and author of Rise of the Warrior Cop, has tracked police militarization for decades and tells us that Trump has turned ICE into his own personal paramilitary, like other autocrats before him.

“He is using these forces as basically the way an authoritarian uses a paramilitary force, to carry out his own personal grudges to inflict pain, violence, and discomfort on people that he sees as his political enemies,” Balko said.

In our latest episode ([link removed]) of More To The Story, Balko discusses with host Al Letson how Trump’s crackdown, the militarization of police, and America’s long-running drug war are all connected.

It’s an eye-opening piece you won’t want to miss.

-Arianna Coghill

Find this episode wherever you listen to Reveal, and don’t forget to subscribe:
Apple Podcasts ([link removed]) | Spotify ([link removed]) | iHeartRadio ([link removed]) | Overcast ([link removed])
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** In Case You Missed It
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** 🎧 A Dictator Deposed—What Now for Venezuela? ([link removed])
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In the wake of Nicolás Maduro’s ouster, Venezuelan journalists, historians, and politicians explain what’s at stake for their country.

Photo Credit: Cristian Hernandez/AP
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** 🎧 America’s New Era of Violent Populism Is Here ([link removed])
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University of Chicago professor Robert Pape examines the troubling rise of domestic political violence and says Trump’s January 6 pardons could be the most consequential decision of his presidency.

Photo Credit: Joel Marklund/Bildbyran/Zuma
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** 🎧 I Study Fascism. I’ve Already Fled America. ([link removed])
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Former Yale professor Jason Stanley has taken a lot of heat for moving to Canada. Why? Because he studies fascism—and he believes it’s already arrived in the US.

Photo Credit: ANP/Zuma

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** 🎧 What Trump’s Venezuela Attack Means for the World ([link removed])
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Foreign Policy’s Emma Ashford examines how the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro could signal a new era of US foreign policy.

Photo Credit: Kyle Mazza/CNP/Zuma

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This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Arianna Coghill and edited by Nikki Frick. If you enjoyed this issue, forward it to a friend ([link removed]) . Have some thoughts? Drop us a line (mailto:[email protected]) with feedback or ideas!

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