Make It Make Sense, Alabama

In this episode of Make It Make Sense, Alabama , Neeli Faulkner sits down with Kaycee Cavender, Republican candidate for Alabama House District 40, which covers Cleburne County and parts of Calhoun County. Cavender is a small business owner, homeschool mother of four, and longtime grassroots advocate. In this conversation, she discusses her background in legal advocacy, her work to license midwive...

In this episode of Make It Make Sense, Alabama, Whitney Scapecchi and Neeli Faulkner sit down with Ken McFeeters, a Republican candidate for Governor of Alabama in the 2026 race. McFeeters is an insurance agency owner, former president of the Mid Alabama Republican Club, and a 2024 GOP primary candidate for Alabama’s 6th Congressional District who now describes his campaign as a grassroots, outsid...

In this episode of Make It Make Sense, Alabama , we sit down with JR Bowling, a candidate for Alabama State Senate District 4. JR is a North Alabama native with a background in agriculture and manufacturing and decades of experience as a volunteer firefighter. He describes himself as a political outsider. Not because he lacks experience, but because his path into politics came through public servi...

In this Candidate Conversations episode of Make It Make Sense, Alabama , we sit down with Dale Deas. He is a cardiac surgeon and biomedical engineer running in Alabama’s 2026 Republican U.S. Senate primary. Deas shares his path from medicine to politics. He details allegations of retaliation and whistleblower suppression after raising concerns about patient care, hospital consolidation, and corpor...

In this episode of Make It Make Sense, Alabama , Whitney Scapecchi and Neeli Faulkner sit down with Latoya Garrett, an Alabama mom who has spent nearly a decade fighting to reunite her family after what she describes as a false child abuse allegation that spiraled into years of separation, turnover, and trauma. Latoya also explains why her case became even more complicated after her children were...

In this episode of Make It Make Sense, Alabama, Neeli Faulkner and Whitney Scapecchi sit down with Elijah Davidson, a candidate for Alabama House District 95, for a wide ranging conversation about what voters are dealing with right now. Cost of living. Taxes. Housing. Political accountability. And the frustrations people feel when elected officials are hard to reach once they’re in office. Davidso...

In this episode of Make It Make Sense, Alabama , Whitney Scapecchi sits down with Jimmy Fuson, a South Alabama parent advocate who has been fighting to reunite with his daughter, Billyana, after she was taken into custody by Alabama Department of Human Resources. Commonly referred to as DHR in Alabama, the agency functions as the state’s child welfare authority, similar to Child Protective Service...

What happens when a public agency can tell you “trust us,” while keeping the evidence locked away?  In the first episode of Make It Make Sense, Alabama , Neeli Faulkner and Whitney Scapecchi explain the Alabama Open Records Act through one of the most contested categories in the state: police body camera footage. They break down how open records requests are supposed to work, what exemptions agenc...