Best Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting Podcasts (2025)

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She Ate a Poppy Seed Salad. Child Services Took Her Baby. 50:28

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5m ago50:28

50:28

Pregnant with her fifth child, Susan Horton had a lot of confidence in her parenting abilities. Then she ate a salad from Costco: an “everything” chopped salad kit with poppy seeds. When she went to the hospital to give birth the next day, she tested positive for opiates. Horton told doctors that it must have been the poppy seeds, but she couldn’t …

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Gazans Are Starving. It’s a Manmade Catastrophe. 25:15

1d ago25:15

25:15

In the last few months, widespread starvation has gripped the Gaza Strip. United Nations-backed food security experts say the “worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out” in Gaza, home to an estimated 2 million Palestinians. One of the few organizations still on the ground trying to feed Palestinians at risk of famine is the Gaza Soup K…

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They Followed Doctors’ Orders. The State Took Their Babies. 50:36

5d ago50:36

50:36

Jade Dass was taking medication to treat her addiction to opioids before she became pregnant. Scientific studies and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say this leads to the best outcomes for both mothers and babies. But after Dass delivered a healthy daughter, the hospital reported her to the Arizona Department of Child Safety, which c…

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The Bible Says So…or Does It? 33:08

8d ago33:08

33:08

Dan McClellan has spent much of his life learning—and relearning—what the Bible and its authors were trying to tell us. But his years in graduate school also taught him that the way scholars talk about the Bible is much different from how churchgoers discuss it. Several years ago, McClellan began pushing back against what he saw as misguided biblic…

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Trump’s New World (Dis)order 50:13

12d ago50:13

50:13

During his campaign for the presidency, Donald Trump talked a lot about pulling America out of international treaties and disentangling from military operations abroad. Once in office, he started talking about the idea of Manifest Destiny…that the expansion of the US was both justified and inevitable. In some cases that’s meant turning the tables o…

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Ibram X. Kendi vs. America’s “Antiracism Backlash” 25:36

15d ago25:36

25:36

Just a few years ago, historian and activist Dr. Ibram X. Kendi seemed to be everywhere. At the height of the Black Lives Matter movement, Kendi became one of the leading voices on racism in America—and particularly what he described as antiracism. But over the last few years, as a backlash grew against the BLM movement, Kendi also came under attac…

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The Landlord Gutting America’s Hospitals 50:54

19d ago50:54

50:54

In April 2024, medical staff testified before Louisiana’s House Health and Welfare Committee about just how bad things had gotten at the Glenwood Regional Medical Center. The West Monroe hospital had been under fire from the state Health Department over lapses in patient care that seemed to be escalating. The hospital had stopped paying bills for o…

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The Real Conspiracy Behind the Texas Floods 31:51

22d ago31:51

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David Sirota is a journalist, former speechwriter to Bernie Sanders, and co-writer of the Oscar-nominated movie Don’t Look Up, about the threat of climate change. On this week’s More To The Story, Sirota joins host Al Letson to discuss how climate change is fueling more intense weather events like the recent floods in Texas, how the country’s leade…

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We Regret to Inform You 49:42

28d ago49:42

49:42

Bruce Praet is a well-known name in law enforcement, especially in California. He co-founded a company called Lexipol that contracts with more than 95 percent of police departments in the state and offers its clients trainings and ready-made policies. In one of Praet’s online training webinars, he offers a piece of advice that policing experts have…

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Is AI Pushing Us Closer to Nuclear Disaster? 30:34

29d ago30:34

30:34

Earlier this year, Daniel Holz from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced that its experts were moving the hands of the Doomsday Clock to 89 seconds before midnight. The hands have been moved only 25 times since the clock’s creation in 1947, and they’re now the closest they’ve pointed to imminent global destruction. On this week’s More To…

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A Decade of Reveal 50:39

1M ago50:39

50:39

This week on Reveal, we celebrate our 10-year anniversary with a look back at some of our favorite stories, from investigations into water shortages in drought-prone California to labor abuses in the Dominican Republic. And we interview the journalists behind the reporting to explain what happened after the stories aired. This is an update of an ep…

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Jeffrey Goldberg on Signalgate, Pete Hegseth, and the Risk of WWIII 30:24

1M ago30:24

30:24

In March, The Atlantic’s editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, began receiving top secret messages from national security officials in the Trump administration after he’d been inadvertently added to an internal Signal chat. Many of those same officials oversaw recent military strikes against Iran. On this week’s More To The Story, host Al Letson sits …

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Elon Musk and JD Vance Want You to Breed. A Lot. 50:30

1M ago50:30

50:30

What do Silicon Valley billionaires, religious parents of six, and eugenics-curious biotech founders have in common? Welcome to the world of pronatalism—a growing movement that aims to solve the so-called population crisis by making more babies. We follow the unlikely alliance between tech futurists and traditional conservatives who think it’s thei…

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Mohsen Mahdawi Fought ICE and Won His Freedom. For Now. 29:34

1M ago29:34

29:34

In April, Palestinian student activist Mohsen Mahdawi walked into an immigration office to obtain US citizenship. He left in handcuffs. The Columbia University student was detained by ICE and accused by the Trump administration of jeopardizing US foreign policy through his involvement in protests following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. On …

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The 13th Step 51:10

2M ago51:10

51:10

Across the country, women seeking addiction treatment are being harassed and assaulted by men in positions of power. The problem is so pervasive that it has a name among those in the industry: the 13th Step. “I fell right into it, right into it. You know, it’s like, it’s just, you're so vulnerable,” says a victim named Andrea. “The 13-stepper is li…

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“Madness”: A Retired Brig. General Slams Trump’s Military Power Grab 28:04

2M ago28:04

28:04

Greg Smith spent 35 years in the Army National Guard. But he’s never witnessed the military used the way it’s being deployed in Los Angeles in response to protests opposing the Trump administration’s immigration raids. On this week’s More To The Story, Smith discusses how the military appears increasingly tasked with enforcing a political agenda ra…

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2024 Broke the Democrats. Can They Put Themselves Back Together? 50:44

2M ago50:44

50:44

For the first time in two decades, the Democratic Party has found itself without a clear party leader or even an obvious frontrunner. Angry and adrift, politicians and voters are clashing over how to fight back. They’re also grappling with an uncomfortable new reality: The places that shifted hardest away from Democrats last fall were the kinds of …

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Trump’s Trade War Is Stressing Red State Farmers 26:14

2M ago26:14

26:14

Bryant Kagay is a farmer in Missouri feeling the uncertainty of President Donald Trump’s tariffs up close. He voted for Trump last year but now questions whether the trade war with China is part of a long-term strategy that could help US businesses or merely a short-term negotiating tactic. In this episode of More To The Story, he says the on-again…

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50 States of Mind 50:51

2M ago50:51

50:51

This month, some of the nation’s best and brightest teenage girls will gather in Mobile, Alabama, to embark on two of the most intense weeks of their lives. Everybody wants the same thing: to walk away with a $40,000 college scholarship and the title of Distinguished Young Woman of America. Reporter Shima Oliaee competed for Nevada when she was a t…

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David Hogg’s Fight for the Future of the Democratic Party 29:17

2M ago29:17

29:17

David Hogg is disrupting the Democratic National Committee. He’s well known for his gun control advocacy work after surviving the horrific mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, seven years ago. Today, he’s taken on a new role as a DNC vice chair, the first member of Gen Z to hold the position. But his political action committee is spending $20 millio…

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The EEOC’s Identity Crisis 50:02

2M ago50:02

50:02

Dylan Bringuel remembers the exact moment they got hired by the Holiday Inn Express in Jamestown, New York. It was late August 2022, and Bringuel—who uses they/them pronouns—had recently moved across the country and was struggling to find work. Bringuel is transgender and was upfront about their gender identity during the job interview. “ I was lik…

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Rage and Resentment Are Killing the Great American Road Trip 28:23

2M ago28:23

28:23

A record 45 million Americans were expected to travel this Memorial Day weekend, long considered the unofficial kickoff to summer. And most of them were hitting the road. Sarah Kendzior is no stranger to the family road trip. Her family, in fact, has visited 38 states—and counting. These trips were born out of a love and curiosity for America and a…

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Kids Under Fire in Gaza 50:22

3M ago50:22

50:22

When Dr. Mimi Syed returned from her first volunteer trip to Gaza in the summer of 2024, she started flipping through her notes and came to a shocking conclusion: In one month, the ER physician had treated at least 18 children with gunshots to the head or chest. And that’s only the patients she had time to make a note of. “They were children under …

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She Denied Mel Gibson a Gun—Then Trump’s DOJ Fired Her 23:30

3M ago23:30

23:30

When Liz Oyer was appointed US pardon attorney in 2022 by President Joe Biden, she’d landed her dream job. As a longtime public defender, Oyer was now in a position to advise the president on the backlog of thousands of individuals seeking presidential clemency. But earlier this year, her dream job ended abruptly. In March, Oyer was asked to make a…

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Lessons From a Mass Shooter’s Mother 50:37

3M ago50:37

50:37

In 2014, in the college town of Isla Vista, California, a 22-year-old man killed six people and injured 14 others before killing himself. He didn’t suddenly “snap” one day out of the blue; he planned the attack and spiraled into crisis in the years leading up to it. The horrific incident left violence prevention experts wondering: What were the mis…

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Pet-Eating Lies to Deportation Fears: Haitians in Trump’s Crosshairs 16:42

3M ago16:42

16:42

Lindsay Aime remembers the moment his Haitian immigrant community came under a national spotlight. It was September 2024 when then-presidential candidate Donald Trump accused Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating people’s pets. To Aime, who is originally from Haiti but has lived in Springfield since 2019, the accusation was not just ab…

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Alabama’s Threats to Prosecute Abortion Helpers 49:45

3M ago49:45

49:45

In August 2022, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall made a guest appearance on a local conservative talk radio show. It was two months after the US Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, and abortion was now illegal in Alabama. And Marshall addressed rumors that he planned to prosecute anyone helping people get abortions out of state. “If so…

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Nikole Hannah-Jones: Trump Is Erasing Black History 30:57

3M ago30:57

30:57

President Donald Trump’s second term has swung a wrecking ball at diversity, equity, and inclusion policies and programs throughout the country. Few writers seem better suited to explain this unique moment in America than Nikole Hannah-Jones. A New York Times journalist and Howard University professor, Hannah-Jones has spent years studying and shap…

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In Fallujah, We Destroyed Parts of Ourselves 50:30

3M ago50:30

50:30

It’s been just over 20 years since the Battle of Fallujah, a bloody campaign in a destructive Iraq War that we now know was based on a lie. But back then, in the wake of 9/11, the battlefield was filled with troops who believed in serving and defending the country against terrorism. “Going to Fallujah was the most horrific experience of our lives,”…

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How Public Schools Became Ground Zero for America’s Culture Wars 30:57

3M ago30:57

30:57

Mike Hixenbaugh first knew things had changed when someone on a four-wheeler started ripping up his lawn after his wife placed a Black Lives Matter sign outside their home on the suburban outskirts of Houston. Hixenbaugh is an award-winning investigative reporter for NBC News. He’s covered wrongdoing within the child welfare system, safety lapses i…

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Teaching Kids to Read: How One School District Gets It Right 50:18

4M ago50:18

50:18

The schools in Steubenville, Ohio, are doing something unusual—in fact, it’s almost unheard of. In a country where nearly 40 percent of fourth graders struggle to read at even a basic level, Steubenville has succeeded in teaching virtually all of its students to read well. According to data from the Educational Opportunity Project at Stanford Unive…

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How Trump Exploits Working Class Pain 26:52

4M ago26:52

26:52

Sociologist Arlie Hochschild has spent years talking with people living in rural parts of the country who have been hit hard by the loss of manufacturing jobs and shuttered coal mines. They’re the very people President Donald Trump argues will benefit most from his sweeping wave of tariffs and recent executive orders aimed at reviving coal mining i…

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How Police Guns End Up in the Hands of Criminals 50:45

4M ago50:45

50:45

When the Stanislaus County Sheriff’s Department in California wanted to purchase new firearms, it sold its used ones to help cover the cost. The old guns went to a distributor, which then turned around and sold them to the public. One of those guns—a Glock pistol—found its way to Indianapolis. That Glock was involved in the killing of Maria Leslie’…

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What Trump’s Tariff Shock Will Cost You 30:01

4M ago30:01

30:01

Justin Wolfers teaches economics 101 at the University of Michigan. It’s an introductory course about supply, demand, and trade. The basics. He wishes President Donald Trump attended. Wolfers, an Australian known for his research on how happiness relates to income, is one of the more prominent economists speaking up about Trump’s sweeping tariff po…

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Trump’s Deportation Black Hole 50:45

4M ago50:45

50:45

On March 15th, federal agents rounded up more than 230 Venezuelan nationals who were then deported to El Salvador and locked up in the country’s notorious mega-prison. The Trump administration said the men belonged to a violent Venezuelan gang, but presented no evidence, and there were no court hearings in which the men could contest the allegation…

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Trump’s “Pincer Attack” on Journalism Is Working. But There’s Hope. 29:03

4M ago29:03

29:03

David Folkenflik occupies a unique role at NPR: He’s a journalist who writes about journalism. And that includes the very organization where he works, which is once again being threatened by conservatives in Washington. The second Trump administration has aggressively gone after the media in its first few months. It’s kicked news organizations out …

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The Churn 50:19

4M ago50:19

50:19

Adam Aurand spent nearly a decade of his life stuck in a loop: emergency rooms, psychiatric hospitals, jails, prison, and the streets in and around Seattle. During that time, he picked up diagnoses of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and schizoaffective disorder. He also used opioids and methamphetamine. Aurand’s life is an example of what happens …

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She Launched “The Daily Show.” Now She’s Fighting Red State Abortion Bans. 27:55

4M ago27:55

27:55

The Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead’s path to advocacy was a curvy one. She started out as a comedian, first as a stand-up and then working on The Daily Show. In the early 2000s, she co-founded Air America Radio, which was designed to be a counterweight to the popularity of radio personalities on the right. Today, as producer of the Feminist Bu…

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The Strike That Broke a Supermax Prison 50:33

4M ago50:33

50:33

At 18, Jack Morris was convicted of murdering a man in South Los Angeles and sent to prison for life. It was 1979, and America was entering the era of mass incarceration, with tough sentencing laws ballooning the criminal justice system. As California’s prison population surged, so did prison violence. “You learn that in order to survive, you yours…

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Exclusive: Trump Fired This Top Watchdog. Now He’s Speaking Out. 26:34

5M ago26:34

26:34

Fraud, waste, and abuse: That’s what inspectors general are tasked with investigating throughout the federal government. But in his first week in office, President Donald Trump did something unprecedented. He fired at least 17 IGs—more than any president in history—without notifying Congress or providing a substantive rationale for doing so, both o…

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The Deputies Who Tortured a Mississippi County 50:30

5M ago50:30

50:30

When Andrea Dettore-Murphy first moved to Rankin County, Mississippi, she didn’t believe the stories she heard about how brutal the sheriff’s department could be when pursuing suspected drug crimes. But in 2018, she learned the hard way that the rumors were true when a group of sheriff’s deputies raided the home of her friend Rick Loveday and beat …

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Bird Flu, Measles, and Trump’s Ticking Time Bomb 31:35

5M ago31:35

31:35

This month marks the five-year anniversary of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed 1.2 million people in the US alone. While life has returned to normal for most Americans, the threats to our health haven’t disappeared. On this week’s episode of More To The Story, infectious disease epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera talks with host Al Letson …

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The Plague in the Shadows 50:50

5M ago50:50

50:50

Decades before Covid-19, the AIDS epidemic tore through communities in the US and around the world. It has killed some 40 million people and continues to take lives today. But early on, research and public policy focused on AIDS as a gay men’s disease, overlooking other vulnerable groups—including communities of color and women. “We literally had t…

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Trump’s Mass Deportations Are Decades in the Making 30:46

5M ago30:46

30:46

This past weekend marked a major escalation in the Trump administration's mass deportation efforts, with the dramatic detention of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist who played a prominent role in the protests against Israel on Columbia University’s campus last year. Khalil, a Columbia graduate student, is a permanent legal resident in the US. …

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An Atrocity of War Goes Unpunished 50:45

5M ago50:45

50:45

In November 2005, a group of US Marines killed 24 civilians in Haditha, Iraq. The case against them became one of the most high-profile war crimes prosecutions in US history—but then it fell apart. Only one Marine went to trial for the killings, and all he received was a slap on the wrist. Even his own defense attorney found the outcome shocking. “…

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How Trump’s January 6 Pardons Hijacked History 35:59

5M ago35:59

35:59

One of President Donald Trump’s first actions as president was simple and sweeping: pardoning 1,500 people convicted of offenses related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. That single executive action undid years of work and investigation by the FBI, US prosecutors, and one person in particular: Tim Heaphy.Heaphy was the lead investi…

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A Decade of Reveal 50:51

5M ago50:51

50:51

This week on Reveal, we celebrate our 10-year anniversary with a look back at some of our favorite stories, from investigations into water shortages in drought-prone California to labor abuses in the Dominican Republic. And we interview the journalists behind the reporting to explain what happened after the stories aired. Support Reveal’s journalis…

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More To The Story with Al Letson 2:33

6M ago2:33

2:33

From the unflinching investigative team behind Reveal comes a new weekly podcast that delivers More To The Story. Every Wednesday, Peabody Award-winning journalist Al Letson sits down with the people at the heart of our changing world for candid—sometimes uncomfortable—conversations that make you rethink your entire newsfeed. Whether he's sounding …

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40 Acres and a Lie Part 3 51:01

6M ago51:01

51:01

The loss of land for Black Americans started with the government’s betrayal of its “40 acres” promise to formerly enslaved people—and it has continued over decades. Today, researchers are unearthing the details of Black land loss long after emancipation. “They lost land due to racial intimidation, where they were forced off their land (to) take fli…

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40 Acres and a Lie Part 2 50:40

6M ago50:40

50:40

Skidaway Island, Georgia, is home today to a luxurious community that the mostly White residents consider paradise: waterfront views, live oaks and marsh grass alongside golf courses, swimming pools, and other amenities. In 1865, the island was a thriving Black community, started by freedmen who were given land by the government under the 40 acres …

Reveal From The Center For Investigative Reporting Podcasts