In the final episode of the Torn Apart podcast, Dorothy Roberts makes the case for the abolition of the child welfare system and lays out a vision for the more just and equitable society that could replace it. Roberts discusses why abolition, and not reform, is the necessary path forward. In conversation with Professor Anna Arons of St. John’s University, Roberts uses how New York City is a case study for what could happen if family policing ends. During the pandemic, New York City limited it...

In this episode, Torn Apart reveals the child welfare system’s deep entanglements with the criminal legal system. It exposes how state child protection caseworkers collaborate with police and use a carceral logic to surveil families. It investigates how the system treats Black children like criminals, resulting in Black children being more vulnerable to arrest, incarceration, and early death. Foster care is traumatic for both children and parents, and often leaves lasting damage o...

In this episode, Torn Apart shows that the child welfare system was designed from its beginning to oppress marginalized communities. The episode explores how the child welfare system's roots in slavery, settler colonialism, and white supremacy, taking listeners on a journey to the separation of enslaved children from their mothers on plantations and the return of freed Black children to former enslavers as court-ordered apprentices. It uncovers how over time, the child welfare sys...

In this episode, Professor Dorothy Roberts opens Torn Apart with a first-hand account from a young Black mother, Vanessa Peoples, who became the subject of a government child welfare investigation when a stranger accused Peoples of neglecting her young son who had wandered away from her briefly in a park. Professor Roberts brings the listeners through the horrors that the child welfare system inflicts on families by invading homes, targeting low-income families, and threatening to separ...

Welcome to Torn Apart, a podcast hosted by Professor Dorothy Roberts. Journey with her as she brings listeners front and center with the oppressive child protection system and what we need to do to reimagine child welfare. Hear from families at the center of this travesty as she welcomes guests and narrates this gripping series. Launching November 13th at Ms. Magazine.