Everyday Injustice

About Everyday Injustice

Davis Vanguard Podcast will be covering criminal justice reform, mass incarceration, wrongful convictions, and more.

Publisher

Davis Vanguard

Category

news

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

12 Jul 2019

Latest episode

6 Oct 2025

Latest episodes

316 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   6 Oct 2025

   Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 303: Daniel Forkkio - Building Narrative Power for Justice

   In this episode of Everyday Injustice, host David Greenwald speaks with Daniel Forkkio, CEO of Represent Justice, a national organization that amplifies the voices of formerly incarcerated people through storytelling. Forkkio explains that Represent Justice partners with filmmakers, advocates, and ambassadors across the country to humanize those impacted by the criminal legal system and shift public perception. “It’s all storytelling all the time,” he says, emphasizing dignity, authenticity, and lived experience as central to systemic change. Forkkio traces the organization’s origins to the Just Mercy campaign in 2019, when screenings of the film inspired powerful audience reactions and led him to found Represent Justice as a permanent platform for narrative change. Today, the nonprofit supports projects like Chasing Redemption, which explores life-without-parole sentences, and A Million Dollar Cage, a film exposing the staggering costs of youth incarceration in Los Angeles. Through these campaigns, Represent Justice uses stories to influence legislation, reshape culture, and empower communities to envision a justice system rooted in transformation rather than punishment. Throughout the conversation, Forkkio challenges the myths surrounding crime, punishment, and safety, calling for broader public understanding of trauma, housing insecurity, and mental health as drivers of incarceration. He urges greater media literacy and a rejection of fear-based narratives that dominate headlines, reminding listeners that “authentic stories can shift beliefs by the thousands.” His advocacy for restorative justice reflects a vision of reconciliation and healing — a vision that contrasts sharply with America’s overreliance on prisons and punishment. Forkkio concludes by inviting audiences to take action: watch a film, learn about its campaign, and support the storytellers who are reshaping the conversation around justice. “Everyone has a role to play when it comes to narrative,” he says. “Take a stand by watching something and changing the way that you think.” Represent Justice, through its growing network of ambassadors, films, and partnerships, is redefining how stories of incarceration and redemption can move a nation toward empathy and reform.

2. 

   29 Sept 2025

   Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 302: Legal Disruption and the Fight for Justice

   A Conversation with Courtney Teasley On this episode of Everyday Injustice, attorney and activist Courtney Teasley shares her journey from growing up in East Nashville during the crack epidemic to becoming what she calls a “legal disruptor.” Teasley defines this role as going beyond the bare minimum in the legal system—intervening proactively to prevent unjust outcomes before they are sealed by guilty pleas or convictions. Her story begins with personal experience. Raised by her grandmother while her mother struggled with addiction and incarceration, Teasley witnessed firsthand how the system punished users as if they were dealers. Watching her mother receive inadequate legal defense sparked her determination to become an attorney who fights differently—challenging the systemic complacency that fuels mass incarceration. Today, Teasley has expanded her work beyond the courtroom. She coaches lawyers on building independent practices, lectures on legal literacy, and organizes court watch programs. Her book series, The Easy Way to Learn Your Rights, seeks to empower families, churches, and schools to teach communities how to protect themselves against systemic abuse. “Every lawyer is not an advocate, and every advocate is not a lawyer,” she emphasizes, urging people to step into the fight for justice regardless of professional title. Throughout the conversation, Teasley underscores the urgent need for systemic change. From highlighting the low threshold for probable cause that drives mass incarceration to calling for more transparency in prosecutorial practices, her work reflects a vision of empowerment and accountability. At its core, her message is clear: building justice requires disrupting the status quo and equipping disproportionately affected communities with the knowledge and tools to defend themselves.

3. 

   22 Sept 2025

   Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 301: How Fines and Fees Punish Poverty and Destabilize Budgets

   The latest episode of Everyday Injustice takes on one of the least understood but most destructive aspects of the criminal legal system: fines and fees. Host David Greenwald speaks with Lillian Patil and Tanisha Pire of the Fines and Fees Justice Center about their new report, Imposing Instability: How Court Fines and Fees Destabilize Government Budgets and Criminalize Those Who Cannot Pay. Their research exposes how state and local governments across the country rely on fines and fees not only as a tool of punishment, but also as a hidden and unstable source of revenue. Patil and Pire explain how fines and fees are imposed at nearly every stage of the system—from traffic tickets and public defender applications to probation supervision—and how this creates what they describe as a “hidden tax” on low-income communities. Over five years, courts in just 24 states imposed nearly $14 billion in fines and fees. Yet much of this debt is uncollectible because the people charged cannot pay, leaving families destabilized and governments still facing budget gaps. The conversation highlights the human toll: people losing driver’s licenses, facing arrest warrants, being pushed into cycles of debt, and even incarceration because they lacked the ability to pay. As Pire notes, courts rarely conduct ability-to-pay assessments, meaning people are penalized not for their actions but for their poverty. Patil points out that governments often spend more trying to collect this money than they ever receive, making the practice both unjust and fiscally unsound. Despite these harms, reform has been slow. Some states, like California, have eliminated license suspensions and discharged uncollectible debt, but many continue to depend on fines and fees even as revenues decline. Patil and Pire argue that sustainable, equitable funding must replace this failing system. Their report makes clear that fines and fees are “bad for people, bad for budgets,” and that bold reform is urgently needed.

Who has been a guest on Everyday Injustice

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Jessica Pishko
• Patrice Sulton
• Todd Clear
• Corinna Lane
• Philip Jacobs

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

YouTube views

499,375

Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.0 / 5

8 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

2 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 69 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

69

Social presence

0

YouTube

86

Engagement

84

Contact Everyday Injustice

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.

Questions about Everyday Injustice