Episode 1 of Toward Reconstitution begins there and asks a basic question: what is a government for? From Kohen’s death and the investigation that followed, Melissa Cosgrove introduces the framework that will guide this series: obligation, feedback, repair, and the relationships that make public power answerable to the people who live under it.

Sources and further reading

• Mississippi Today — reporting on Kohen Wiley’s death, the police response, the investigation, and the records released afterward.
• Mississippi Today — reporting on Senatobia Sgt. Hunter Foster, his prior civil-rights litigation, and an internal complaint concerning a racist remark made two days before Kohen’s death.
• Mississippi Free Press — reporting identifying Foster as one of the officers present during the June 14 shooting.

Additional reporting and source materials are linked below:

Family, community mourn Senatobia toddler — Mississippi Today

Officer who shot baby Kohen Wiley was not in harm’s way, family attorney says — Mississippi Today

Senatobia police finally released internal reports — Mississippi Today

Senatobia officer involved in toddler shooting was accused of racial remark at work — Mississippi Today

Documents identify one officer present at the shooting — Mississippi Free Press

Update, September 2, 2026: After this episode was recorded, the Senatobia Board of Aldermen fired Police Chief Harold Vanderford amid separate reporting about racist messages attributed to him. The investigation into Kohen Wiley’s death remains ongoing.

AP: Senatobia police chief fired amid controversy following Kohen Wiley shooting

Episode 2 of Toward Reconstitution follows Kristin’s story into the Medicaid unwinding, when states reviewed the eligibility of tens of millions of people after pandemic-era continuous enrollment ended. More than 25 million people were disenrolled in KFF’s near-final count, and 69 percent of those disenrollments were procedural, meaning coverage ended without a determination that the person was ineligible. Later federal data counted 26.8 million disenrollments out of 89 million completed redeterminations. 

The episode asks what participation means when the work of correcting government’s mistakes keeps falling back on the person affected by them. It introduces answerability as something more demanding than simply giving people a form, a phone number, or somewhere to appeal, and looks at what changes when institutions can recognize recurring failures instead of forcing each person to fight through them alone.

Sources and further reading

• The Washington Post — Amy Goldstein, “Nearly 4 million in U.S. cut from Medicaid, most for paperwork reasons.” The original reporting on Kristin and Ryan Fortner, including the lost renewal, the termination of their Medicaid coverage, the $380 Suboxone prescription, and Kristin’s attempts to get the problem corrected.
  Read the Washington Post reporting
• KFF — Medicaid Enrollment & Unwinding Tracker. Near-final state data showing more than 25 million disenrollments, with 69 percent of disenrollments occurring for procedural or paperwork reasons and 61 percent of renewals completed automatically through ex parte review.
  View the KFF tracker
• KFF — An Examination of Medicaid Renewal Outcomes and Enrollment Changes at the End of the Unwinding. Analysis of the final stages of the unwinding, including procedural disenrollment rates, automatic renewals, and wide variation among states.
  Read the KFF analysis
• KFF — Survey of Medicaid Unwinding. National survey research on what Medicaid enrollees experienced while trying to renew coverage, including problems completing the process and interruptions in access to care.
  Read the KFF survey
• U.S. Government Accountability Office — Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance: Disenrollments After COVID-19 Varied Across States and Populations. Federal analysis of 89 million completed redeterminations, 26.8 million disenrollments, state variation, and CMS efforts to identify and correct improper disenrollments.
  Read the GAO report