News Beat

On this episode of BackBeat, the team discusses the inspiration for the episode “Hijacking Jihad: Reclaiming ‘Islam’s Personal Struggle’” and how reporting on the meaning of Jihad has given them a more nuanced view of the religion. You’ll hear from News Beat producer Michael Conforti, aka Manny Faces, editor-in-chief Christopher Twarowski, and managing editor Rashed Mian as they provide insight in...

Over the last two decades, the term "Jihad" has exclusively been defined as a holy war perpetrated by extremists. As such, when the average American hears the term "Jihad," they conflate Islam with terror. Although the term has been hijacked by extremists, many Muslims in the US and around world don't recognize Jihad's contemporary application. For these Muslims, the term, which literally translat...

On this episode of BackBeat, the News Beat team goes behind-the-scenes of episode 0002, "The True Origins of the War on Drugs," to provide additional insight as to how the episode came together and why it was important to tell this story. News Beat and BackBeat are brought to you by Morey Publishing, an inbound marketing agency and custom publishing house located on Long Island, NY. For more infor...

One trillion dollars . That’s how much the United States has spent in the last 40 years on the war on drugs. Currently, more than 450,000 Americans are imprisoned for drug offenses—up from 40,000 in 1980. In the federal system alone, almost half of all inmates are drug offenders. Despite the government’s investment in this war, America remains the No. 1 country in the world for  illicit drug use ,...

Welcome to News Beat. An unconventional examination of conventional wisdom. News Beat is an educational and alternative news podcast combining spoken word, music and audio clips. In this inaugural episode, we take an alternative look at Martin Luther King, Jr.'s legacy, examining how the civil rights icon was so much more that simply the "I Have a Dream" soundbite, which has become known as the co...