What the reaction to Trump’s felony conviction tells us about the word “felon”

Jakie Lay

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Jakie Lay

What the reaction to Trump’s felony conviction tells us about the word “felon”

Jakie Lay

This week, we’re revisiting a series we call Word Watch, where we go deep on a piece of language that’s really sticking in our teeth.

So we’re turning our sights on “felon” — which is all over the discourse following former President Donald Trump and Hunter Biden’s recent convictions — and looking into what it tells us (and can’t tell us) about the 19 million people in the U.S. carrying that designation around.

Parker and Gene chop it up with the comedian Arif Shahid, who performs under the name Felonious Munk, to talk about what it means for him to carry this reference to his felony conviction so publicly. Then, Gene talks to Josie Duffy-Rice, a writer who focuses on the criminal justice system, to look at the ways “felon” sticks to people long after their sentences end.

This episode was co-hosted by Gene Demby and B.A. Parker, produced by Christina Cala, and edited by Courtney Stein. Our engineer was Josh Newell.