Season Three Of The Heist Podcast: How The System Has Screwed Black Farmers And Ranchers

When local journalism and the newspapers went into an internet-induced death spiral a decade ago, it left a gaping hole of accountability. Without local newspapers launching investigative reports into corrupt politicians, shady businesses, and systemic inequality, who or what would take their place?

Thankfully, there are non-profit, advocacy organizations like the Center For Public Integrity that investigate systems and circumstances that contribute to inequality in our country.

The Center For Public Integrity seeks to counter the corrosive effects of inequality by holding powerful interests accountable and equipping the public with knowledge to drive change. They are an independent, nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization dedicated to investigating

Their reporters excel at investigating the systems and circumstances that contribute to inequality in labor, housing, health care, education and access to democracy. We also expose the far-reaching implications of a history of unequal power, by examining disparities in environmental and criminal justice, transportation, technology and access to financial tools. 

That's where the podcast The Heist enters the picture. The Heist podcast, produced by The Center For Public Integrity, brings alive some of the most egregious inequities in our society. In season one,  wealthy people and large corporations have won big in Donald Trump’s America. The Trump Administration promised the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 would pay for itself and boost the middle class. But in truth, the tax cuts funneled hundreds of millions into the pockets of the rich and ballooned the national debt. Then, something similar happened again with the 2020 pandemic bailout. Promises made, promises broken.

The first season of The Heist is the story of a huge political swindle, how it happened, and how power works in a Donald Trump presidency. Reporters spent months behind the scenes: we get to know a big Republican donor, a senator who caves to political pressure, and the enigmatic Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, who led the charge for these laws.

In season two of The Heist, an Iowa entrepreneur determined to help narrow the wealth gap sets off to open the first Black-owned bank in more than 20 years. No part of that is easy. ReShonda Young is trying to do something nobody in the country has managed in more than 20 years. Open a new Black-owned bank.

In the second season, The Heist follows her quest to confront the enormous wealth gap between Black and white Americans with tools of the banking system that has helped perpetuate it. And we tell the story of that gap, a centuries-long heist pulled off through virulent discrimination.

Here’s the thing: To open a bank, you need to raise a lot of money. And if you’re aiming for majority Black ownership, the wealth gap will fight back every step of the way.

The third season of The Heist just debuted and focuses on the history of government discrimination against Black farmers. In the first episode, we are introduced to Nate Bradford, a Black cattle rancher from Oklahoma whose dream it is to make his ranch self-sustaining enough that he can quit his full-time job and work his ranch.

We learn in the first episode how the local Department Of Agriculture's Farm Services Agency went back on its word and refused to restructure Bradford's loan.

We also learn that in the 20th Century, Black farmers and ranchers lost more than $326 billion in land.

The host in season three is April Simpson, a Daytime Emmy award-winning journalist with over 20 years of experience in journalism, content development, producing, editing, anchoring, talk show hosting and field reporting. 

Simpson excels here as she interviews Nate Bradford in his home. Her vivid descriptions of the ranch, the interior of the home, and of Bradford overflow with pathos, heroism, courage, and the dogged determination to fight in the face of a legacy of discrimination against Black farmers and ranchers by the Department Of Agriculture.

Simpson explains that Bradford and his family came from Georgia at the beginning of the 20th Century to escape the Jim Crow laws. She reveals Nate Bradford and his family as hardworking, God-fearing Americans who are pursuing the American Dream. 

What's standing in the Bradford's path?

A sleazy history of discrimination against Black farmers and ranchers by the U.S. government.

As author James Baldwin once said, "Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

Check out The Heist.