"There are literally...teenagers wasting away behind bars because adults can't figure out how better to serve them," says Ko Bragg, a reporter in Jackson, Mississippi, who focuses on how the media covers juveniles charged as adults. She says that experience can make a child feel that they are irredeemable. Bragg gives her Brief but Spectacular take on justice and journalism in Mississippi.

Prison reform is a major topic within the national political conversation. For many incarcerated people, the path to jail begins in the teen years; at any given time, roughly 50,000 young people are held in juvenile prisons. Johnnie McDaniels, former executive director of the Henley-Young Juvenile Justice Center, shares a brief but spectacular take on the "revolving door" of juvenile corrections.

Police shootings in African American communities have prompted public outcry in recent years, triggering a national conversation on the need for reform. A year ago, Tetrina Blalock's cousin was killed by police after being shot more than a dozen times following a narcotics pursuit. Blalock reflects on that experience and her own encounters with law enforcement in her community.

Brittney Cooper is a cultural theorist, author and professor. Her new book, “Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower,” discusses the history of oppressive power structures and the intersection of race and feminism. She gives her brief but spectacular take on “eloquent rage.”