Marijuana has been legalized in some states, but ProPublica's Sebastian Rotella says there's still a thriving illicit market in the U.S., dominated by criminals connected to China's authoritarian government. Also, John Powers reviews the Romanian film Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people.
Where they will say to me, but.
It can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is.
The history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross.
When states started legalizing marijuana, one of the hopes was that it would cut down on crime because people could buy it legally from licensed sellers.
But in some states, including Oklahoma, legalization inadvertently helped organize crime, especially the chinese mafia exploit new opportunities.
Chinese organized crime has come to dominate much of the illicit marijuana trade in the nation, from California to Maine, according to a new series of investigative reports by a team of four journalists from two nonprofit news organizations, ProPublica and the Oklahoma based the Frontier.
My guest, Sebastian Rotella, is the lead reporter on this series.
For several years, he's been investigating chinese organized crime in the US, Europe and Latin America.
He's reported on the connection between chinese organized crime and China's authoritarian government and how that relationship is helping China expand its influence and power around the world.
Rotello worked for almost 23 years for the Los Angeles Times before joining ProPublica in 2010.
He covers international security issues, including terrorism, intelligence, organized crime, human rights and migration.
Part one of the new series focuses on chinese organized crimes grip on Americas illegal marijuana market, which has led to increases in other crimes, including money laundering.
Part one was published earlier this month.
Part two emphasizes the ties between the chinese mafia and the chinese government and will be published tomorrow.