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Alec Karakatsanis is a civil rights lawyer and the founder of Civil Rights Corps. He’s the author of Usual Cruelty: The Complicity of Lawyers in the Criminal Justice System, and a new book called Copaganda. It looks at the ways in which police, police, prosecutors, and the media shape public perception of safety. Karakatsanis argues that by stoking fears, and manipulating perceptions of what it means to keep safe, mass media contributes to inequality and authoritarianism – and keeps us from focusing on policies that would actually improve people’s lives. On April 28th, 2025, Karakatsanis came to KQED studios in San Francisco to talk to Lara Bazelon, an author and Professor of Law.