NPR: Stranger Danger and Moral Panics feat. Paul Renfro

This week we bring on Paul Renfro, who is an associate professor of history at Florida State University and the author of “The Life and Death of Ryan White: AIDS and Inequality in America” and “Stranger Danger: Family Values, Childhood, and the American Carceral State.“

In this conversation, we discuss the “stranger danger” of the ’80s and how moral panics are moments where differential vulnerabilities among the different races, genders, sexualities, etc. can be exploited for reactionary political gain. We see much to learn from Renfro’s narration of episodes of frenzy over the safety of children — and the subsequent apparatuses created to “protect” them — and the trans panic we’ve witnessed over recent years, which we get into in the show.

And, because it’s No Police Radio, we discuss what role the cops play in panics as supposed instruments of “protection.”