Summary
Legendary environmental activist talks America’s contaminated water supply.
The entire population of Jackson, Mississippi lost access to safe running water after excessive rainfall and flooding. But it’s not the first time there’s been issues with the city’s water supply, or the first case of contaminated drinking water in the US.
Justin and Sarah speak to environmental activist Erin Brockovich, who won a case over safe drinking water in California, before being portrayed on film by Julia Roberts. They’re also joined by Corey Stern, the lawyer representing 1,600 Jackson residents in their lawsuits against the city and the state.
The mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, now says “Even when we are not under a boil water notice, it’s not a matter of if these systems will fail, but when these systems will fail. Safe, drinkable, reliable, sustainable and an equitable water treatment facility is a much longer road ahead”.
And President Joe Biden and former president Donald Trump have both been in Pennsylvania making some big speeches. The Americast gang break down what they said and how it played out on our undercover voters’ social media feeds.
Americast is made by Phil Marzouk, Alix Pickles and Chris Flynn. The studio director is Emma Crowe. The assistant editor is Sam Bonham. The senior news editor is Jonathan Aspinwall.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:04.7 | So guys, remember last week we were talking about Donald Trump's and questionable choice |
| 0:09.0 | of carpet in the government photo of the secret documents in Mar-a-Lago that the FBI released |
| 0:15.2 | and it was loud, it was patterned, it was like something you don't often see and don't |
| 0:20.4 | often want to see. |
| 0:21.4 | It was like something out of the 70s, that's what it was and that was what was so striking |
| 0:24.8 | about it and I sensed, I think I said it at the time, I sensed polyester. |
| 0:28.5 | Well, we've had an interesting carpet related question from one of our America'sters, |
| 0:33.0 | this has been who dialed him from Copenhagen. |
| 0:35.8 | After the true crime from the FBI raid was revealed in that hideous, hideous carpet of all |
| 0:45.7 | the US governmental buildings that you've been working in and around, which has the loudest |
| 0:53.0 | carpets you've ever seen. |
| 0:56.6 | I've been racking my brains trying to remember where it was that I had seen similarly |
| 1:01.1 | awful carpets and whether it was in a US government building and I finally remember it's |
| 1:05.0 | not its Trump turnberry in Scotland, the hotel and golf course that he bought. |
| 1:09.7 | He's obviously had equally bad if not worse carpets, especially woven to go in there |
| 1:13.8 | as well. |
| 1:14.8 | Can I go with a non-governmental building, but one that was really memorable, it was Walter |
| 1:19.4 | Crunkight's carpet, at the top of the CBS building, Walter Crunkight, the great American |
| 1:23.9 | newsreader when he was still with us and I went to see him in New York, at the top of |
| 1:27.2 | the CBS building, huge green carpet. |
| 1:29.9 | When I say huge, huge in every direction, the office was big, but also the carpet seemed |
... |
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