The Crackdown on Student Protesters

can hear the helicopter circling this is. Asa chvi I'm a producer with the. daily um just uh walked out of uh the6th. Street Station it's the main station for. Columbia's morning side Heights campus. and um it's day seven of the Gau a.

solidarity encampment where 100 students. were arrested last. Thursday so on one side of R you see. camera Crews you see NYPD officers all. lined up there's barricades steel. barricades caution tape this is normally. a. completely open. campus and I'm able to um all members of. the public you're able to walk through.

looks like uh International media is. here have your IDs out have your IDs out. students lining up to swipe in uh to get. access to the University ID required for. entry. um hi how are you officer uh we're. journalists with the New York Times. you're not going to be get in all right. sorry thank you yeah it's it's total. lockdown here at Columbia please have. your IDs to swi from The New York Times. I'm Michael borro this is the daily.

today the story of how Colombia. University has become the epicenter of a. growing showdown between student. protesters College administrators and. Congress over the war in Gaza and the. limits of free. speech I spoke with my colleague Nick. fandos it's Thursday.

April. [Music]. 25th Nick if we rewind the clock a few. months we end up at a moment where. students at several of the country's. best known universities are protesting. Israel's response to the October 7th. attacks its approach to a war in Gaza at. times those protests are happening. peacefully at times with rhetoric that. is. inflammatory and the result is that the. leaders of those universities land.

before Congress but the President of. columia University which is the subject. we're going to be talking about today is. not one of the leaders who shows up for. that testimony that's right so the house. education committee has been watching. all these protests on campus and the. Republican chairwoman decides I'm going. to open an investigation look at how. these administrations are handling it. because it doesn't look good from where. I sit and the house last winter inv. invites the leaders of several of these.

Elite schools Harvard Penn MIT and. Colombia to come and testify in. Washington on Capitol Hill before. Congress now the president of Columbia. has what turns out to be a very. well-timed pre-planned trip to go. overseas and speak at an international. climate conference so Manu shafik isn't. going to be there so instead the. presidence of Harvard and Penn and MIT. show up and it turned out to be a. disaster right these universities they.

were asked very pointed questions about. the kind of speech taking place on their. campuses and they gave really convoluted. kind of academic answers back that just. baffled the committee but there was one. question that really embodied the kind. of Disconnect between the committee and. it wasn't just Republicans Republicans. and Democrats on the committee and these. college presidents and that's when they. were asked a hypothetical does calling. for the genocide of Jews violate Penn's. rules or code of conduct yes or.

no if the speech turns into conduct it. can be harassment and two of the. presidents claudian gay of Harvard and. Elizabeth McGill of the University of. Pennsylvania they're unwilling to say in. this really kind of intense back and. forth that this speech would constitute. a violation of their rules it can be. depending on the context what's the. context targeted as at an individual. it's targeted at Jewish students Jewish. individuals do you understand your. testimony is dehumanizing them and it.

sets off a firestorm it does not depend. on the context the answer is yes and. this is why you should resign these are. unacceptable answers across the board. members of Congress start calling for. their resignations alumni are really. really ticked off Trustees of the. University start to wonder uh I don't. know that these leaders really have got. this under control uh and eventually. both of them lose their jobs in a really. high-profile way right and as you've. hinted at for somewhat peculiar.

scheduling reasons Colombia's president. escapes This Disaster of a hearing in. what has to be regarded as the best. timing in the history of the American. Academy yeah exactly and Colombia is. watching all this play out and I think. their first response was relief that she. was not in that chair but also. recognition that sooner or later their. turn was going to come back around and. they were going to have to sit before. Congress why were they so certain that. they would probably end up before.

Congress and that this wasn't a case of. completely dodging a bullet will they. remain under investigation by the. committee but also as the winter wears. on all the same intense protests just. continue unabated so in many ways. Colombia is like these other campuses. but in some ways it's even more intense. this is a university that has both one. of the largest Jewish student. populations of any of its peers but it. also has a large Arab Muslim student.

population a big Middle Eastern studies. program it has a dual degree program in. Tel Aviv and it's a university on top of. all that that has a real history of. activism dating back to the 1960s so. when students are recruited or choose to. come to Colombia they're actively opting. into a campus that Prides itself on. being an activist Community it's in the. middle of New York City it's a global. place you know they consider the city. and the world really like a classroom to. Colombia in other words if any campus.

was going to be a hotbed of protest and. debate over this conflict it was going. to be Columbia University exactly and. when this spring rolls around the Stars. finally align and the same Congressional. committee issues another invitation to. Manu shafik Columbia's president to come. and testify and this time she has no. excuse to say no but presumably she is. well aware of exactly what testifying.

before this committee ENT tals and is. highly prepared Colombia knew this. moment was coming they spent months. preparing for this hearing they brought. in outside Consultants crisis. communicators experts on. anti-Semitism the weekend before the. hearing she actually travels down to. Washington to Hole up in a war room. where she starts preparing her testimony. with Mock questioners and testy. exchanges to prep her for this and she's. very clear on what she wants to try to. do where her her counterparts had gone.

before the committee a few months before. and looked aloof she wanted to project. humility and competence to say I know. that there's an issue on my campus right. now with some of these protests veering. off into anti-semitic incidents but I'm. getting that under control I'm taking. steps in good faith to make sure that we. restore order to this campus while. allowing people to express themselves. freely as well okay so then the day of. her actual testimony arrives and just.

walk us through how it goes the. committee on education and the workforce. will come to order I note that so. Wednesday morning rolls around and. president shafik sits at the witness. stand with two of her trustees and the. head of Columbia's new anti-Semitism. task force Colombia stands guilty of. gross negligence at best and at worst. has become a platform for those. supporting terrorism and violence. against the Jewish people and right off. the bat there put through a pretty.

humbling Litany of some of the worst. hits of what's been happening on campus. for example Just 4 days after the. harrowing October 7 attack a former. Colombia undergraduate beat an Israeli. student with a stick while the. Republican chairwoman of the committee. Virginia Fox starts reminding her that. there was a student who was actually hit. with a stick on campus there was another. gathering more recently glorifying Hamas. and other terrorist organizations and. the kind of chance that have become an.

everyday chorus on campus which many. Jewish students see as threatening but. when the questioning starts president. shafik is ready one of the first ones. she gets is the one that tripped up her. colleagues does calling for the genocide. of Jews violate Colombia's code of. conduct Mr Greenwald and she answers. unequivocally Dr shafik yes it does and. Professor that would be a violation of. Colombia's rules they would be punished. as president of Colombia what is it like. when you hear chants like by any means.

necessary or inata revolution I find. those chants incredibly distressing and. I wish profoundly that people would not. use them on our campus and in some of. the most interesting exchanges of the. hearing president shaik actually opens. Colombia's disciplinary books we have. already suspended 15 students from. Colombia we have six on disciplinary. probation these are more disciplinary. actions that have been taken probably in.

the last decade at Colombia and she. talks about the number of students that. have been suspended but also the number. of Faculty that she's had removed from. the classroom that are being. investigated for comments that either. violate some of Columbia's rules or make. students. uncomfortable one case in particular. really underscores this and that's of a. middle eastern studies Professor named. Joseph mad he wrote an essay not long. after Hamas invaded Israel and killed. 1200 people according to the Israeli.

government where he described that. attack with adjectives like awesome now. he said they've been misinterpreted but. a lot of people have taken offense to. those comments Miss stonic you're. recognized for five minutes thank you. chairwoman I want to follow up on my. colleague rep walberg's question. regarding Professor Joseph mad so let me. be clear uh president and so. representative Elise stefanic the same. Republican who had tripped up claudian. gay of Harvard and others in the last. hearing really digging into president.

shafik about these things at columia he. is still chair on the website so has he. been terminated as chair congresswoman I. I and shafi's answers are maybe a little. surprising getting back to you I know. you confirmed that he was under. investigation yes I can confirm that did. you confirm he was still the chair he. says that Columbia is taking his case. seriously in fact he's under. investigation right now well let me ask. you this will you make the commitment to. remove him as. chair um.

and when stefanic presses her to commit. to removing him from a campus leadership. position I think that would be I think I. I would yes let me come back with yes. but I think I I just want to confirm his. current status before I write we'll take. that as a yes that you will confirm that. he will no longer be chair shafik seems. to kind of pause and think and then. agree to it on the spot almost like she. is making administrative decisions with. or in front of Congress now we did some.

reporting after the fact and it turns. out the professor didn't even realize he. was under investigation so he's learning. about this from the hearing too so what. this all adds up to I think is a. performance so in line with what the. lawmakers themselves wanted to hear that. at certain points these Republicans. didn't quite know what to do with it. they were like the dog that caught the. car Colombia beats Harvard and youen one. of them a republican from Florida I. think at one point even Marvel well you. you beat Harvard and Pen y'all have done.

something that they weren't able to do. you've been able to condemn. anti-Semitism without using the phrase. it depends on the context but the so. Columbia's president has passed this. test before this committee yeah this big. moment that tripped up her predecessors. and cost them their jobs it seems like. she has cleared that hurdle and. dispatched with a congressional. committee that could have been one of. the biggest threats to her presidency. without objection there being no further. business the committee stands a.

journ but back on campus some of the. students and faculty who had been. watching the hearing came away with a. very different set of. conclusions they saw a president who was. so eager to please republicans in. Congress that she was willing to sell. out some of the University's students. and faculty and trample uncherished. ideas like academic freedom and freedom. of expression that have been a Bedrock. of American higher education for a. really long time MH and there was no. clear embodiment of that than what had.

happened that morning just as president. shafik was going to testify before. Congress a group of students Before Dawn. set up tents in the middle of Colombia's. campus and declared themselves a pro. Palestinian encampment in open Defiance. of the very rules that Dr shaik had put. in place to try and get these protest. under control so these students in real. time are beginning to test some of the. things that Columbia's president has.

just said before Congress exactly and so. instead of going to celebrate her. successful appearance before Congress. shaik walks out of the hearing room and. gets in a black SUV to go right back to. that war room where she's immediately. confronted with a major dilemma it. basically boils down to this she had. just gone before Congress and told them. I'm going to get tough on these protests. and here they were so either she gets. tough and risk inflaming tension on. campus.

or she holds back and does nothing and. her words before Congress immediately. look Hollow H and what does she decide. so for the next 24 hours she tries to. negotiate off-ramps she consults with. her Deans and the New York police. department and it all builds towards an. incredibly consequential. decision and that is for the first time. in decades to call the New York City. Police Department onto campus in riar. and break this thing up the students. involved and then arrest them to.

essentially eliminate this encampment. eliminate the encampment and send a. message this is not going to be. tolerated M but in trying to quell the. unrest shafik actually feeds it she ends. up leaving student protesters and the. faculty who support them feeling. betrayed and pushes a campus that was. already on edge into a full-blown crisis. [Music].

after the break what all of this has. looked like to a student on Columbia's. campus we'll be right back. [Music].

hello is is this. Isabella yes this is she hi Isabella. it's it's Michael Barbaro from the. daily hi nice to meet you earlier this. week we called Isabella Ramirez the. Editor in Chief of Colombia's. undergraduate newspaper the Columbia. daily spectator which has been closely. tracking both the protests and the. University's response to them since. October. 7th so. I mean in in your mind how do we get to.

this point I wonder if you can just. briefly. describe the the kind of key moments. that that bring us to where we are right. now I mean since October 7th there has. certainly been constant escalation in. terms of tension on campus and there. have been kind of a variety of moves. that I believe have distanced sort of. the student body The Faculty from the. University and its Administration. specifically the suspension of uh.

Colombia's chapters of students for. justice in Palestine and Jewish voice. for peace and that became a huge moment. in what was sort of characterized as. suppression of pro Palestinian activism. on campus effectively rendering those. groups quote unquote unauthorized what. was the college's explanation for that. they had cited in that suspension a. policy which states that a demonstration.

must be approved within a certain window. and that there must be an advanced. notice and that there's a process for. getting an authorized demonstration but. the primary point was this policy that. they were referring to which we later. reported was changed before the. suspension so it felt a little ad hoc to. people yes it certainly came as a. surprise especially at spectator we're. sort of nerds of the the university in. the sense that we are familiar with.

faculty and University governance but. even to us we had no idea where this. policy was coming from and and this. suspension was really the first time. that it entered most students sphere got. it um you know Columbia's campus is so. known for its activism and so in my time. of of of being a reporter of being an. editor I've overseen several protests. and I've never seen Colombia penalize a. group for quotee unquote not authorizing.

a protest so that was certainly in our. minds unprecedented and I I believe part. of the justification there was well this. is a different time and I think that is. a reasonable thing to say but I think a. lot of students they felt it was. particularly one-sided right that it was. targeting a specific type of speech or a. specific type of viewpoint although the. University of course in its explicit. policies did not outline and was. actually very explicit about not. targeting specific view points so. so just to be super clear it felt to.

students and it sounds like. journalistically it felt to you that the. University was coming down in a kind of. uniquely one-sided way against students. who were supporting Palestinian rights. and may have expressed some frustrations. with Israel in that. moment yes I certainly Isabella says. that this was just the beginning of a. really tense period between student. protesters and the university after. those two student groups were suspended.

campus protest continued students made a. variety of Demands they asked that the. university divest from businesses that. profit from Israel's military operations. in Gaza but instead of making any. progress the protests are met with. further Crackdown by the university and. so as Isabella and her colleagues at the. college newspapers see it there's this. overall chilling effect that occurs some. students become fearful that if they. participate in any demonstrations.

they're going to face disciplinary. action so fast forward now to April when. these student protesters learned that. president shafik is headed to Washington. for her Congressional testimony it's at. this moment that they set out to build. their. encampment I think there was obviously a. lot of intention in timing those two. things I think it's sort of inherently a. critique on. a political pressure and and this.

Congressional pressure that we saw build. up against of course Claud and gay at. Harvard and Migel at upen so I think a. lot of students and faculty have been. frustrated at this idea that there are. there are not only Powers at the. University that are dictating what's. happening but there are perhaps external. powers that are also guiding the way. here in terms of like what the. university feels like it must do or or. has to do and I think that timing was.

super crucial having the encampment. happen on the Wednesday morning of the. hearing was an incredible in some senses. interesting strategy to direct eyes sort. of to different places right right um. all eyes were going to be on shafik in. DC but now a lot of eyes are on New York. the encampment is set up. in the middle of the night SL morning um.

prior to the hearing and so what. effectively happens is they caught. shafik when she wasn't on campus when a. lot of senior administration had their. resources dedicated to supporting Shafi. in DC and you have all of those people. sort of not necessarily out of. commission but with their focus. elsewhere so the encampment is met with. very little resistance at the beginning. there were sort of Public Safety. officers floating around and and sort of.

watching but at the very beginning hours. I think there was a sense of we did. it it would be quite surprising to. anybody and administrator to now. suddenly see dozens of tents on this. lawn in a way that I think very. purposely puts an imagery of we're here. to. stay as the morning kind of evolved and. Congressional hearing.

continued. open. support then we started seeing. University delegates that were coming to. the encampment saying you know you you. may face disciplinary action for. continuing to be here I think that. started around almost like 9 or 10 a.m. they started handing out these code of. conduct violation. [Music]. notices then there started to be more.

Public Safety sort of action in presence. so they started like barricading the. entrances the day progressed there was. more threat of discipline the students. became informed that if they continue to. stay they will face potential academic. sanctions potential. suspension us. louder I think a lot of people were like. okay you're threatening us with. suspension but so what this is about the. systems that Manu shafik that the Board.

of Trustees that columia University is. complicit in what are you going to do to. try to get us out of here and that was. obviously promptly answered this is. the unauthorized encampment will be. arrested and charged with trespassing my. phone blew up obviously from from the. reporters from the editors of saying oh. my God the NPD is on our campus and as. soon as I saw that I came out and I saw.

a huge crowd of students and Affiliates. on campus watching The Lawns and as I. kind of circled around that crowd I saw. the last end of the New York Police. Department pulling away protesters and. kind of clearing out the last of the. encampment you. you we see you we you. [Music].

it was something truly unimaginable over. a hundred students SL other individuals. are arrested from our campus forcefully. removed and although they were suspended. there was a feeling of you know this. traumatic event that has just happened. to these students but also this sense of. like okay the worst of the worst that. could have happened to us just happened. and for those students who maybe. couldn't go back to into campus now all.

of their peers who were supporters or. are in solidarity are in some senses. further emboldened they're now not just. sitting on the Lawns for a prop. Palestinian cause but but also for the. students who have endured quite a lot so. the Crackdown sought by the president. and enforced by the NYPD ends up you're. saying becoming a galvanizing Force for. a broader group of Colombia students. then were originally drawn to the idea.

of ever showing up on the center of. campus and protesting yeah I can. certainly speak to the fact that I've. seen my own PE friends or even. acquaintances who weren't necessarily. previously very involved in activism and. organizing efforts suddenly finding. themselves involved can I I just I have. a question for you which is. sure all journalism student journalism. or not student journalism is a kind of.

first draft of history and and I wonder. if we think of this as a historic moment. for Colombia how you imagine it's going. to be. remembered yeah there is no doubt in my. mind that this will be a historic moment. for. Columbia I think that this will be. remembered as a moment in which the. fractures were la bear really we got to.

see some of the disunity of the. community in ways that I have never. really seen it before and what we'll be. looking to is where do we go from here. how does Columbia repair how do we heal. from all of this that is the big. question in terms of what will. happen Nick Isabella Ramirez just walked. us through what this has all looked like.

from the perspective of a Columbia. student and from what she could tell the. Crackdown ordered by President shafik. did not quell much of anything it seemed. instead to really intensify everything. on campus I'm curious what this has. looked like for shafik it's not just the. students who are upset you have faculty. including professors who are not. necessarily sympathetic to the. protesters view of the war who are. outraged about what shafik has done here.

I feel that she's crossed a boundary. that hasn't been crossed on Columbia's. campus in a really long time and so you. start to hear things by the end of last. week like censure no confidence votes uh. questions about from her own professors. about whether or not she can stay in. power so this creates a whole new front. for her and on top of it all as this is. going on the encampment itself starts to. reform tent by tent wow almost in the. same place that it was and shaik decides. that the most important thing she could.

do is to try and take the temperature. down which means letting the encampment. stand or in other words leaning in the. other direction this time we're going to. let the protesters have their say for a. little while longer H the problem with. that is that over the weekend a series. of images start to emerge from on campus. and just off of it of some really. troubling anti-semitic episodes in one. case a guy holds up a poster in the. middle of campus and points it towards a.

group of Jewish students who are. counter-protest and it says paraphrasing. here hamas's next targets I saw an image. of that I mean what it seemed to evoke. was the message that Hamas should murder. those Jewish students I mean that's the. way the Jewish students interpret it. right it's a pretty straightforward and. jarring statement at the same time just. outside of Columbia's closed Gates. killing children protesters are showing. up from across New York City. it's hard to tell who's affiliated with.

colia who's. not back to there's a video that goes. viral of one of them shouting at Jewish. students go back to Poland go back to. Europe in other words a clear message. you're not welcome here right in fact go. back to the places where the Holocaust. was committed exactly and this is not. representative of the vast majority of. the protesters in the encampment who. mostly had been peaceful they would. later hold a a Seder actually with some.

of the pro Palestinian Jewish protesters. in their ranks but those videos are. reaching members of Congress the very. same Republicans that shafik had. testified in front of just a few days. before and now they're looking and. saying you have lost control of your. campus you've turned back on your word. to us and you need to resign they call. for her outright resignation over this. that's right Republicans in New York and. across the country begin to call for her. to step down from her position as.

president of colia so shafi's dilemma. here is pretty extraordinary she has set. up this Dynamic where pleasing these. members of Congress would probably mean. calling in the NYPD all over again to. sweep out this encampment which would. mean further alienating and inflaming. students and faculty who are still very. upset over the first Crackdown and now. both ends of this spectrum lawmakers in. Washington folks on the Columbia campus.

are saying she can't lead the university. over this situation before she's even. made any fateful decision about what to. do with this second encampment not a. good situation no she's besieged on all. sides for a while the only thing that. she can come up with to offer is for. classes to go hybrid for the remainder. of the semester so students who aren't. feeling safe in this protest environment. don't necessarily have to go class right. and I think if we zoom out for a second.

it's it's worth bearing in mind that she. tried to choose a different path here. right than her counterparts at Harvard. or Penn and after all of this she's kind. of ended up in the exact same Thicket. with people calling for her job with the. White House the mayor of New York City. and other these These are Democrats uh. maybe not calling on her to resign quite. yet but saying I don't know what's going. on on your campus uh this does not look. good I mean that reality that taking a. different tack That was supposed to be.

full of learnings and lessons from the. stumbles of her peers the fact that that. didn't really work suggests that there's. something really intractable going on. here and I wonder how you're thinking. about this intractable situation that's. now arrived on these college. campuses well I don't think it's just. limited to college campuses right we. have seen intense feelings about this. conflict play out in Hollywood we've. seen them in our politics in all kinds.

of interesting ways in our media we've. seen it in the media but college. campuses at least in their most. idealized form are something special. they're a place where students get to go. for four years to think in big ways. about moral questions and political. questions and ideas that help shape the. world they're going to spend the rest of. their lives in and so when you have a. question that feels as urgent as this. war does for a lot of people I think it. reverberates in an incredibly intense. way on those campuses and there's. something like I don't know if it's.

quite a contradiction of terms but. there's a collision of different values. at stake so universities thrive on the. ability of students to follow their. minds and their voices where they go to. to maybe even experiment a little bit. and find those things but there are also. communities that rely on people being. able to trust each other and being able. to carry out their classes and their. academic Endeavors as a collective so. they can learn from one another so in. this this case that's all kind of. getting scrambled students who feel.

strongly about the Palestinian cause. feel like the point is disruption that. something so big and immediate and. Urgent is happening that they need to. get in the faces of their professors and. their administrators and their fellow. students right and set up an encampment. in the middle of Campus no matter what. the will say right and from the. administration's perspective they say. well yeah you can say that and you can. think that and that's an important. process but maybe there's some bad. apples in your ranks or though you may. have good intentions you're saying. things that you don't realize the. implications of and they're making this.

environment unsafe for others or they're. grinding our classes to a halt and we're. not able to function as a university so. the only way we're going to be able to. move forward is if you will respect our. rules and we'll respect your point of. view the problem is that's just not. happening something is not connecting. with those two points of view and as if. that's not hard enough you then have. Congress and the political system with. its own agenda coming in and putting its. thumb on a scale of an already very. difficult situation right and at this.

very moment what we know is that the. forces that you just outlined have. created a dilemma an uncertainty of how. to proceed not just for president shafik. and the students and faculty at Colombia. but. for a growing number of colleges and. universities across the country and by. that I mean this thing that seemed to. start at Columbia is literally spreading.

absolutely we're talking on a Wednesday. afternoon and these encampments have now. started cropping up at universities from. coast to coast at Harvard and Yale but. also at University of California at the. University of Texas at smaller campuses. in between and at each of these. institutions there's presidents and. Deans just like president shafik at. Columbia who are facing a really. difficult set of choices do they call in. the police the University of Texas and. Austin this afternoon we saw protesters. physically clashing with police right do.

they hold back like at Harvard where. there were dramatic videos of students. literally running into Harvard Yard with. tents they were popping up in real time. and so Colombia really I think at the. end of the day may have kicked off some. of this but they are now in League with. a whole bunch of other universities that. are struggling with the same set of. questions it's a set of questions that. they've had since this war broke out and. now these schools only have a week or. two left to classes but we don't know. when these standoffs are going to end we.

don't know if students are going to. leave campus for the summer we don't. know if they're going to come back in. the fall and start protesting right away. or if this year is going to turn out to. have been an aberration that was a. response to a really awful bloody war or. if we're at the beginning of a bigger. shift on college campuses that will long. Outlast this war in the Middle. East well Nick thank you very much. thanks for having me Michael.

we'll be right. [Music]. back here's what else you need to. another day the United Nations is. calling for an independent investigation. into two Mass Graves found after Israeli. forces withdrew from hospitals in Gaza a. officials in Gaza said that some of the.

bodies found in the graves were. Palestinians who had been handcuffed or. shot in the head and accused Israel of. killing and burying them in response. Israel said that it soldiers had exuded. bodies in one of the graves as part of. an effort to locate Israeli. hostages and on Wednesday Hamas released. a video of hssh gold B Poland an Israeli. American dual citizen whom Hamas has.

held hostage since October 7th it was. the first time that he has been shown. alive since his captivity. began his kidnapping was the subject of. a daily episode in October that featured. his mother Rachel in response to hamas's. video Rachel issued a video of her own. in which she spoke directly to her son. and hirs if you can hear this we heard.

your voice today for the first time in. 21 days and if you can hear us I am. telling you we are telling you we love. you stay strong. survive today's episode was produced by. Sydney Harper AA chv Olivia natat Nina. Feldman and to mod with help from. Michael Simon Johnson it was edited by.

Devin Taylor and Lisa Chow contains. research help by Susan Lee original. music by Marian Lozano and Dan Powell. and was engineered by Chris Wood our. theme music is by Jim brunberg and Ben. lerk of. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Michael buaro see you tomorrow.