
Laine Kaplan-Levenson
Laine Kaplan-Levenson is a producer and reporter for NPR's Throughline podcast. Before joining the Throughline team, they were the host and producer of WWNO's award-winning history podcast TriPod: New Orleans at 300, as well as WWNO/WRKF's award-winning political podcast Sticky Wicket. Before podcasting, they were a founding reporter for WWNO's Coastal Desk, and covered land loss, fisheries, water management, and all things Louisiana coast. Kaplan-Levenson has contributed to NPR, This American Life, Marketplace, Latino USA, Oxford American (print), Here and Now, The World, 70 Million, and Nancy, among other national outlets. They served as a host and producer of Last Call, a multiracial collective of queer artists and archivists, and freelanced as a storytelling and podcast consultant, workshop instructor, and facilitator of student-produced audio projects. Kaplan-Levenson is also the founder and host of the live storytelling series, Bring Your Own. They like to play music and occasionally DJ under the moniker DJ Swimteam.
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The story of one trans college athlete who is being forced to choose between continuing his gender-affirming medical care and playing the sport he loves.
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Labor unions brought us the weekend, social security and health insurance. Political scientist Margaret Levi explains the history of unions and calls for a 21st-century revival of the labor movement.
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As Arctic ice melts, polar bears must leave their homes. Biologist and conservationist Alysa McCall shares lessons on how to plan for a future where climate change forces us all a little closer.
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Kids are their own people. And the data suggests parents' decisions don't have as much sway as we think. Psychologist Yuko Munakata says it's a good thing that there's no right way to parent.
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Sixto Cancel experienced the failings of foster care firsthand. Now he advocates for its reform and the expansion of "kinship care" so that young people can have a say in who raises them.
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Journalist Bina Venkataraman says some disasters are due to a short-sighted view of the future and a shallow memory of the past. She urges us to be smarter citizens and better ancestors.
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Bacteria coordinate attacks using their own chemical language. What if we could decode these messages and thwart their plans? Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi invented a tool to spy on bacterial chatter.
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Monopoly has been one of the best-selling board games in the United States for nearly a century now. And sure, maybe it's just a board game. But author Mary Pilon says Monopoly is much more than that.
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For over 40 years, one of the biggest influences on U.S. politics has been the ideology known as neoliberalism, which has reshaped the relationships that ordinary Americans have to their government.
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NPR's history podcast Throughline brings us a story about science-fiction writer Octavia Butler, and how she used what she saw during her lifetime to create stories of the future.