DPIC Podcasts
DPIC is pleased to provide podcasts that discuss a wide variety of issues relating to the death penalty.
Our podcasts cover three different types of death penalty issues.
- DPIC’s current monthly podcast series is called “Discussions With DPIC.” We speak with death penalty experts about timely death penalty developments in the news.
- The “On the Issues” podcast series explores different factual, legal, and ethical topics relating to capital punishment.
- A second series of podcasts details the history of capital punishment in each state.
To listen to any of the podcasts below, simply click the play button. To download the podcast, click the podcast title and then the “Download” button on the episode’s page.
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Featured
Discussions With DPIC

Evangelical Pastor Rich Nathan Discusses How a “Culture of Life” Informs His Opposition to the Death Penalty
Published: Sep 25, 2023
In the September 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, speaks with Pastor Rich Nathan, founding pastor of Vineyard Columbus, an evangelical Christian church based in Ohio. Mr. Nathan shares his pro-life perspective and explains how religious teachings inform his position on the death penalty.
Latest
Discussions With DPIC

Dr. Roya Boroumand
Dr. Roya Boroumand discusses capital punishment in Iran
Published: Aug 31, 2023
In the August 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, speaks with Dr. Roya Boroumand, Executive Director of the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran. A specialist in Iran’s post-World War 2 history, Dr. Boroumand provides historical context for ongoing events and discusses the current increase in executions. With the one-year anniversary of Mahsa Jina Amini’s death approaching, Dr. Boroumand alsohighlights the international community’s response to this event and the protests that followed.
Discussions With DPIC

Kirk Bloodsworth, Thirty Years After His Exoneration
Published: Jul 21, 2023
In the July 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, speaks with Kirk Bloodsworth, the first person exonerated from death row by DNA evidence. Mr. Bloodsworth reflects on the thirty years since his exoneration and discusses the experience of being wrongfully convicted. He also describes the work he and other exonerees have done, and how the issue of innocence has affected legislation on the death penalty.
Discussions With DPIC

Legacy of Race in Tennessee’s Contemporary Death Penalty with Tiana Herring
Published: Jun 26, 2023
In the June 2023 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Death Penalty Information Center Managing Director Anne Holsinger and Data Storyteller Tiana Herring discuss the latest Racial Justice Storytelling Report, Doomed to Repeat: The Legacy of Race in Tennessee’s Contemporary Death Penalty. The report examines the history of Tennessee’s capital punishment system, documenting the continued impact of racial discrimination and racial violence on the administration of the death penalty. Ms. Herring, the author, provides an overview of the report, explores key findings, explains its relationship to DPIC’s earlier work, and identifies…
Discussions With DPIC

American Enterprise Institute’s Dr. Sally Satel Explains Why People with Severe Mental Illness Should Not Be Eligible for the Death Penalty
Published: May 31, 2023
In the latest episode of Discussions with DPIC, Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, interviews Dr. Sally Satel (pictured), a psychiatrist and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. She shares her insights on the role of severe mental illness in death penalty cases.
Discussions With DPIC

Ron McAndrew, Former Florida Warden Who Presided Over Executions
Published: Apr 27, 2023
In the latest episode of “Discussions with DPIC,” Anne Holsinger, Managing Director of DPIC, interviews Ron McAndrew, a former Florida Prison Warden who witnessed executions using electrocution and lethal injection in Florida and Texas. He offers reflections on the negative impact that executions have on the families of both the victim and the condemned, the correctional officers, and on himself.
Discussions With DPIC

Protecting Especially Vulnerable Defendants from the Death Penalty
A Discussion with Karen Steele
Published: Mar 23, 2023
In the latest episode of “Discussions with DPIC,” Robert Dunham, former Executive Director of DPIC interviews Karen Steele (pictured), a researcher and defense attorney in Oregon, regarding the special characteristics of late adolescent defendants facing the death penalty. Research by Steele and others points to the incomplete brain development in those aged 18 – 21 and how that can be exacerbated in those suffering from fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. The research has also found that late-adolescent defendants of color are disproportionately sentenced to death.
Discussions With DPIC

Former Prison Superintendent Frank Thompson on How Executions Affect Corrections Officers
Published: Feb 21, 2023
In the February 2023 edition of Discussions with DPIC, former Oregon Superintendent of Prisons Frank Thompson speaks with DPIC Managing Director Anne Holsinger about how his experiences as a corrections officer — as well as being a murder victim’s family member — have affected his views on capital punishment. Thompson oversaw the only two executions performed in Oregon in the past 50 years and was responsible for developing the execution protocol. He said the process of performing executions created “an additional group of victims” among the prison staff. Seeing the stress it caused him…
Discussions With DPIC

Georgetown Racial Justice Institute Director Diann Rust-Tierney on Reconceptualizing the U.S. Death Penalty as a Violation of Fundamental Human Rights
Published: Jan 06, 2023
Longtime civil and human rights lawyer, Diann Rust-Tierney, the executive director of Georgetown University’s Racial Justice Institute, joins DPIC executive director Robert Dunham for a discussion of race, human rights, and the U.S. death penalty. Prof. Rust-Tierney argues that the death penalty has long been misperceived as a normal public safety tool. The reality, she says, is that “from its very beginning in history, [the death penalty] was part of a legal and social system designed to keep various races in their place.” Rust-Tierney says that racial disparities in the…
Discussions With DPIC

DPIC’s New Report on the Racial History of Oklahoma’s Death Penalty
Published: Oct 31, 2022
In the October 2022 episode of Discussions with DPIC, Death Penalty Information Center Deputy Director Ngozi Ndulue and Data Storyteller Tiana Herring discuss DPIC’s recently released report Deeply Rooted: How Racial History Informs Oklahoma’s Death Penalty. The report looks at the racial history, present, and future of Oklahoma’s death penalty. Ndulue and Herring explore Oklahoma’s unique history, the key findings of the report, its relationship to DPIC’s earlier work, and lessons from Oklahoma’s experience that are applicable nationwide.
Discussions With DPIC

Former Governor Brad Henry and Former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester, co-Chairs of the Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, Call for Halt to Executions
Published: Aug 24, 2022
Former Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry and former U.S. Magistrate Judge Andy Lester, who co-chaired the bipartisan Oklahoma Death Penalty Review Commission, join DPIC executive director Robert Dunham in the August 2022 Discussions With DPIC podcast. Governor Henry, a Democrat, and Judge Lester, a Republican, discuss the findings of the commission’s review that led them to call for a halt to the state’s planned executions of 25 prisoners, at least until significant reforms have been adopted.