Armchair Expert episode 984
Claudia Rowe (on the foster care system)
Claudia Rowe (Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care) is a decorated journalist, advocate, and author. Claudia joins the Armchair Expert to discuss making the shift from using long-form journalism to a book to tell a story, touching off a five-year correspondence with a confessed serial killer, and confronting why she became fixated on what causes a person to commit murder. Claudia and Dax talk about her harrowing experience writing a true-crime memoir, realizing that this trial of a teenager in foster care actually corresponded to all the reporting she’d done, and how the failures of the foster system factored into the case of Maryanne. Claudia explains collaborating with incarcerated individuals to articulate thoughts about the carceral system, how poverty can often look like neglect, and her argument for a rehabilitative system of child care.
Explore episode 984 with AIEpisode overview
Claudia Rowe (Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care) is a decorated journalist, advocate, and author. Claudia joins the Armchair Expert to discuss making the shift from using long-form journalism to a book to tell a story, touching off a five-year correspondence with a confessed serial killer, and confronting why she became fixated on what causes a person to commit murder. Claudia and Dax talk about her harrowing experience writing a true-crime memoir, realizing that this trial of a teenager in foster care actually corresponded to all the reporting she’d done, and how the failures of the foster system factored into the case of Maryanne. Claudia explains collaborating with incarcerated individuals to articulate thoughts about the carceral system, how poverty can often look like neglect, and her argument for a rehabilitative system of child care.
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Short transcript highlights
These brief excerpts are navigation aids selected from different points in the transcript.
- Are you in from Washington? Yes, I came in last night. Okay. And where do you live in Washington?
- it can be very genuine. It's like heartbreaking. And then you get in the reality of like so am I bringing someone
- Can't wait for you to come back with your other your next book. I have some ideas. Okay, good. Good.