American Radical
Apple, Spotify
We have perhaps all experienced the short, sudden electric shock of seeing someone we thought we knew well post something uncharacteristically shocking, or even radical, on social media.
As it was with the family of Rosanne Boyland who, over the summer of 2020, watched with increasing alarm as their beloved daughter, sister and aunt became ever more committed to extreme right- wing Qanon conspiracy theories. The previously apolitical 34- year- old soon became an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, and marched on the US Capitol on January 6.
It was there that she died after losing consciousness among a crush of Trump supporters. American Radical is a podcast that tells Boyland’s story through her family’s eyes, as journalist Ayman Mohyeldin investigates what happened during the last months of Boyland’s life, and how she died on the steps of the Capitol building. Her autopsy claimed her death was the result of an amphetamine overdose from prescribed medication that Boyland was taking at the time, although her family strongly dispute this.
American Radical pulls at the thread of white radicalisation in America. While many on the extreme-right of US politics view Boyland as a martyr, her family believe she was a vulnerable young woman who had faced multiple hardships in her life, which made her easy pickings for radicals to recruit her to their cause. Boyland had battled drug addiction, escaped an abusive relationship, and had been previously diagnosed with cervical cancer, leading to the removal of her cervix and an inability to have much wanted children of her own.
Boyland’s story is heartbreaking, and offers chilling insight into the political landscape of modern America.