The film Snowden, which opens this weekend, was turned down by all of the big Hollywood studios. Director Oliver Stone explains what it took to make his film about the NSA whistle-blower—and why Edward Snowden deserves a presidential pardon.

Plus: Nation Sports Editor Dave Zirin says Colin Kaepernick’s protest against police violence is changing the NFL, which has been a bastion of support for our permanent state of war.

And Margo Jefferson talks about what she calls “Negroland”—the world of the black elite in the 1950s, the world in which she grew up. She won the Pulitzer Prize in Criticism; her book Negroland: A Memoir won the National Book Critics Circle award—it’s out now in paperback.

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