072: The Sentence And This American Life

Toby Ball on Rudy Valdez's personal and affecting The Sentence, and a 19-year-old This American Life that in many ways could have been recorded last week -- plus parallels to the current season of Serial, how many crappy congressfolk keep haunting stories of the war on drugs, and how the tiniest of possession charges can, if you'll forgive the pun, snowball. The personal is political in The Blotter Presents Episode 72. Support the pod/site on Patreon (http://www.patreon.com/blotterpresents) ! SHOW NOTES The Sentence (https://www.hbo.com/documentaries/the-sentence) on HBO VF's review (https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/10/the-sentence-hbo-review) of The Sentence This American Life 143: Sentencing (https://www.thisamericanlife.org/143/transcript) Episode 024 on Strong Island (https://theblotterpresents.fireside.fm/24) The New Yorker (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/30/the-family-that-built-an-empire-of-pain) 's 2017 profile of the Sacklers'/Purdue's role in the opioid crisis Frontline, (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/) "Snitch" Special Guest: Toby Ball.