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144 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 11.5K ratingsNPR's original documentary podcast unearths the stories behind the headlines. Police shootings. Towns ravaged by opioids. The roots of our modern immigration crisis. We explore what's been sealed off, undisclosed, or never brought to light. We return with a deeply-reported portrait of why these stories, and the people behind them, matter.
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Episodes
Field Notes: On Losing the Gaza They Knew
March 07, 2024 01:18 - 32 minutes - 30 MBThe second in a two-part special series featuring conversations between Embedded host Kelly McEvers and NPR reporters who have been on the ground during the current conflict between Israel and Hamas In this episode, Morning Edition's Leila Fadel paints an intimate portrait of displacement in Gaza. She shares voice memos she's been receiving from a college student trying to survive and the story of a family that escaped the war only to find that it had followed them home. Learn more about spo...
Field Notes: On Reporting, the Israel-Hamas War
February 29, 2024 08:00 - 35 minutes - 32.3 MBThe first in a two-part special series featuring conversations between Embedded host Kelly McEvers and NPR reporters who have been on the ground during the current conflict in Gaza. In the first episode, NPR's Daniel Estrin talks about the challenges of reporting on the Israel-Hamas war and the work of his colleague Anas Baba from inside Gaza. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Taking Cover: Accountability
December 22, 2023 08:00 - 9 minutes - 8.42 MBIn this Taking Cover update, a U.S. senator wants answers from the Marines about what went wrong - and we meet an Army soldier still serving on active duty who's been denied the truth about his war wounds. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or plus.npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The Kill List: The Pier
December 21, 2023 20:30 - 1 hour - 60.7 MBSince activist Karima Baloch's mysterious death in 2020, her family has been searching for answers. Journalist Mary Lynk has, too. The documents Mary gets and the people she talks to will lead her closer to the truth of what happened that day. But is the truth enough closure for a family? For the people Karima was fighting for back home in Balochistan? For other dissidents like her, in exile or hiding across the globe? The Kill List is a 6-part podcast from the CBC's investigative series, Unc...
The Kill List: Living Ghosts
December 19, 2023 18:59 - 1 hour - 59 MBAs her native Balochistan mourns activist Karima Baloch's death, we dive deeper into what Karima was fighting for and why – and learn about the intense history of the Baloch people and the state of Pakistan. Also – the story of what happens to dissidents who disappear... and then come back alive. The Kill List is a 6-part podcast from the CBC's investigative series, Uncover. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or plus.npr.org. Learn ...
The Kill List: 'I am not a terrorist'
December 14, 2023 19:16 - 59 minutes - 54.5 MBWe talk to the people closest to Karima Baloch, including some who are opening up for the very first time, to try to understand what could have led to her death. The Kill List is a 6-part podcast from the CBC's investigative series, Uncover. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or plus.npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The Kill List: The Dissident Club
December 12, 2023 19:01 - 47 minutes - 43.8 MBCritics of the Pakistani government, like Karima Baloch and Sajid Hussain, find themselves in this kind of nightmarish club of exiles who flee to far away countries in the West but still fear the reach of Pakistan's intelligence agency. In this episode, we meet some members of that club and ask: could Pakistan be targeting exiles in the West? The Kill List is a 6-part podcast from the CBC's investigative series, Uncover. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embed...
The Kill List: A Death in Sweden
December 07, 2023 19:27 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBBefore Karima's death, another prominent Baloch dissident was found dead in Sweden. The two deaths bear a striking resemblance. Could they be connected? The Kill List is a 6-part podcast from the CBC's investigative series, Uncover. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or plus.npr.org. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The Kill List: Death of an Icon
December 05, 2023 18:03 - 52 minutes - 48.1 MBKarima Baloch was forced to flee to Canada because of her work fighting for human rights in her home of Balochistan, a province of Pakistan. But when Karima's body washes ashore on Lake Ontario, it raises questions about the disappearances and deaths of other Pakistani dissidents. The Kill List is a 6-part podcast from the CBC's investigative series, Uncover. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or plus.npr.org. Learn more about spons...
All The Only Ones: No More (Gender) Drama
November 16, 2023 08:00 - 50 minutes - 46.1 MBIn the final episode of the series, we meet Christine, an 18 year old from New Mexico, shortly after starting hormone replacement therapy, as she navigates her freshman year of college. We also meet Dr. Charles Ihlenfeld, who was a physician at the John Hopkins Gender Clinic, working with many young people as they transitioned in the 1970s. We spend time with one of his patients, Joanna, whose path to transition meant hiding her past, and how in 2023, being visible can be empowering, but also...
All The Only Ones: I can't wait
November 09, 2023 15:50 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MBIn part 2, we meet Parker, a senior in high school in Columbus, Ohio. Parker is a top field hockey athlete, but as a trans person, he is faced with making a difficult decision: either pursuing his dreams as a D1 trans field hockey player in college next year, or pursuing his dreams of starting hormone replacement therapy, which could get him banned from playing. We also meet two historical trans youth of the 1960s, Vicky and Donna, both facing barriers to getting the care and treatment they n...
All The Only Ones: The missing piece of the puzzle
November 02, 2023 16:37 - 42 minutes - 39 MBIn our first episode, we meet Zen, a Mexican-American, New Orleans native, coming into their transness, exploring its spectrum, as we learn about an historic trans person, Bernard, from Alabama in the early 1900s, fighting to be seen. They're both navigating their identities in a world that is constantly trying to define them. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Introducing All The Only Ones
October 30, 2023 07:00 - 2 minutes - 2.13 MBAll The Only Ones is a new 3-part series from NPR's Embedded. Host Laine Kaplan-Levenson unearths the little known and often neglected history of trans youth in America. We follow the lives of young transgender people today and travel back in time to the turn of the 20th century to meet some of the earliest trans youth documented in American history. Launching on November 2. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The Unmarked Graveyard: Angel Garcia
October 26, 2023 07:00 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBWhen Annette Vega was seven years old, she found out the man she called "dad" wasn't her biological father. But all she knew was that her mom had had a teenage romance with a guy named Angel Garcia. Annette has searched for Angel for more than 30 years. That search is coming to the end. "The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Island" is a new series from Radio Diaries that tells the stories of seven people buried on Hart Island through a range of circumstances. Hart Island, an uninhabited...
The Unmarked Graveyard: Neil Harris Jr.
October 19, 2023 07:00 - 23 minutes - 21.8 MBA few years ago, a young man who called himself Stephen became a fixture in Manhattan's Riverside Park. Locals started noticing him sitting on the same park bench day after day. He said little and asked for nothing. When Stephen's body was found dead in 2017, the police were unable to identify him, and he was buried on Hart Island. Then, one day, a woman who knew him from the park stumbled upon his true identity, and his backstory came to light. "The Unmarked Graveyard: Stories from Hart Isl...
Hold the Sitar: The Making of the Love Commandos Theme Song
August 30, 2023 16:16 - 24 minutes - 22.6 MBIn this bonus episode of Love Commandos, Gregory Warner interviews musician John Ellis, who composed Rough Translation's original theme music in 2017, and songwriters Amira Gill and VASU, who jointly created the new theme song for Love Commandos. They discuss their musical processes, and how they incorporate stories into their music. Follow the musicians: John Ellis: https://www.johnaxsonellis.com Amira Gill: https://www.instagram.com/amiragill VASU: https://www.vasundharagupta.com ...
Love Commandos: Calling It Quits
August 18, 2023 18:25 - 30 minutes - 27.6 MBIn Episode 5 of Love Commandos, couples seeking to shut down the Love Commandos' shelter band together in a risky plan. Want to hear bonus episodes of Love Commandos? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Love Commandos: Forever Yours
August 09, 2023 21:30 - 34 minutes - 31.6 MBOn Episode 4 of Love Commandos, couples in the shelter feel pressured to stay indefinitely. We try to figure out why. Want to hear episodes of Love Commandos a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Love Commandos: The Honeymoon
August 02, 2023 17:52 - 31 minutes - 28.8 MBOn Episode 3 of Love Commandos, stories of life inside the Love Commandos shelter begin to diverge as co-founder Sanjoy Sachdev shows a different side. Want to hear episodes of Love Commandos a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Love Commandos: After the Wedding
July 26, 2023 10:00 - 32 minutes - 29.7 MBThreatened by their families, an inter-caste couple in India hits a breaking point. Their last option to stay together? The Love Commandos. Want to hear episodes of Love Commandos a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Love Commandos: The Vow
July 26, 2023 10:00 - 22 minutes - 20.6 MBWhen falling in love can mean risking your life, the Love Commandos in India will protect you. But at what cost? Want to hear episodes of Love Commandos a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The 13th Step: Just the Beginning
June 29, 2023 12:00 - 56 minutes - 51.7 MBHow deep can you dig for the truth before it gets dangerous? In March 2022, reporter Lauren Chooljian published her first story detailing allegations against Eric Spofford, the founder of New Hampshire's largest addiction treatment network. Over the following months, Lauren received a first-hand glimpse into the ways powerful, wealthy people can intimidate sources and try to stop journalism from happening. And then, there was the vandalism... This is episode three of The 13th Step, produced b...
The 13th Step: The God of Recovery
June 28, 2023 12:00 - 51 minutes - 46.8 MBAs Eric Spofford tells it, he spent his teen years in the throes of addiction and crime. When he got sober, he became a crusader for recovery. On the second episode of The 13th Step from New Hampshire Public Radio, host Lauren Chooljian unravels how the founder of New Hampshire's largest addiction treatment network built his company – and the allegations that he abused that power by sexually assaulting members of his own staff. This is episode two of The 13th Step, produced by our friends at ...
The 13th Step: The Shadow
June 27, 2023 12:00 - 36 minutes - 33 MBSo many of us have been touched by America's addiction crisis. And we look to treatment for solutions. But what happens when communities dedicated to treatment turn out to be dangerous? In the first episode of The 13th Step – the new investigative series from our friends at New Hampshire Public Radio (NHPR) – host Lauren Chooljian uncovers the culture of sexual misconduct in America's recovery communities, a phenomenon known as 13th stepping. This is a story that some people tried to stop NHP...
Buffalo Extreme: Winners
June 12, 2023 21:55 - 38 minutes - 35.4 MBIt's competition season, and the girls say they're over what happened at the Tops supermarket last year. "I'm fine!" But then the shooter has his sentencing hearing, and those feelings come flooding back. When they hit the stage — they're wobbly. And argumentative. The girls and Coach Yani open up about the hard truth: where they really stand one year later. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Buffalo Extreme: Do Good, Get Good
May 26, 2023 00:48 - 48 minutes - 44.1 MBHow do you make sense of something terrible that's happened—and move forward? From the cheer gym to the therapy office, we follow the parents, coaches and kids of Buffalo All-Star Extreme in the year after the Tops massacre. The mass shooting set back the cheerleaders' training schedule by months, and now competition is just weeks away. After everything that happened to her community, Coach Yani wants her team to win more than ever. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.co...
Buffalo Extreme: Base
May 11, 2023 21:53 - 43 minutes - 39.4 MBAyanna Williams Gaines is the coach and founder of Buffalo All-Star Extreme, a Black competitive cheerleading and dance team from Buffalo, New York. Williams Gaines started the gym as a space for Black girls to feel safe and to thrive in the predominantly white world of cheer. But on May 14, 2022, a white supremacist came to a predominantly Black neighborhood on the east side of Buffalo and killed ten Black people at a grocery store just a few blocks away from the gym. In the wake of the mass...
Introducing Buffalo Extreme
May 08, 2023 10:00 - 2 minutes - 2.12 MBWhat happens after a racist mass shooting in your neighborhood? On May 14, 2022, the world changed for residents of Buffalo, New York, when a white man approached the Jefferson Street Tops supermarket and started shooting. He murdered ten and injured three people, almost all Black. That same day, teenagers and children — members of a Black cheer team called BASE — were at their gym around the corner. "Buffalo Extreme" is their story: a 3-part series where NPR hands the mic to the girls, thei...
Taking Cover: The Gulf School
May 04, 2023 10:00 - 55 minutes - 50.8 MBTom and Graham meet Shihab's brother in Baghdad — but he's wary. They also visit Fallujah, to find the schoolhouse and talk with people who were on the other side of the occupation. Then, finally... back to Camp Pendleton. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Taking Cover: Cover-Up
April 27, 2023 10:00 - 55 minutes - 50.4 MBThe team turns to Pat Tillman's family for help. Duncan Hunter the elder, and the younger, respond to NPR's questions... kind of. A breakthrough in the search for the interpreter has Tom and Graham planning a trip back to where it all began. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Taking Cover: Up the Chain
April 20, 2023 16:00 - 58 minutes - 54.4 MBTom and Graham work their way up the chain of command, looking for someone — anyone — who can explain how and why this incident was buried. One general claims he can't recall the incident. Another talks with the team at the Pentagon, then changes his story about Duncan Hunter's involvement. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Taking Cover: Finding David
April 13, 2023 16:04 - 53 minutes - 49.7 MBAs Tom and Graham work to track down the men in the courtyard, one of the wounded Marines has long remained elusive. His former comrades wonder if he's even still alive. Eventually, with help from Carlos, the team finds David. His chilling story reflects the lingering wounds of war. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Taking Cover: JAGMAN
April 06, 2023 10:00 - 43 minutes - 40.8 MBHoping to get their hands on the official investigation, the NPR team flies to Tucson. But problems begin shortly after arrival. The widow of a man who died in the explosion wants to know why the Marine Corps lied to her. Tom and Graham want to know why the recommended punishments were overturned. The team finally confirms a crucial detail from the original tip. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
Taking Cover: Stand-To
March 30, 2023 09:58 - 48 minutes - 44.4 MBThe wounded are evacuated. The battle subsides. Now the men of Echo 2/1 begin to wonder: What happened? The Marine Corps says "no records exist" but Tom and Graham find testimony before an obscure Congressional subcommittee that says otherwise. The team also finds that promises made — to Congress, to the families of the dead and to wounded Marines — have been broken. And, they hear from one man who knows exactly what happened in the courtyard of that schoolhouse — but they still have to wonde...
Taking Cover: Danger Close
March 16, 2023 10:09 - 50 minutes - 46 MBNPR's Pentagon Correspondent, Tom Bowman, receives a shocking tip from a trusted source: A deadly explosion during the Iraq War was an accident—friendly fire, covered up by the Marine Corps—and the son of a powerful politician may have been involved. He partners with an old pal, Graham Smith, to investigate, and they discover the truth is even worse than the tipster realized. After dozens of interviews, the team patches together the story of the First Battle of Fallujah — the days and hours...
White Lies: The Excludables
March 16, 2023 10:05 - 1 hour - 59.5 MBIn our final episode of the season, we start researching the names on the secret list of 2,746 Cuban excludables. What we find confirms many of our suspicions about the arbitrariness of how the U.S. government created the list. Our reporting takes us — where else? — to Cuba, to finally track down the men on the roof and hear them tell their own stories. What had they hoped to find in this country and what had they found instead? Finally, our journey takes us to one last interview in a high ri...
Introducing: Taking Cover
March 14, 2023 13:45 - 3 minutes - 2.93 MBHosted by NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and Graham Smith of the Investigations unit, Taking Cover isn't just a show about the worst Marine-on-Marine friendly fire incident in modern history. It's a story of betrayal, brotherhood, and what's owed—to families, the wounded, and to the American public—when we send our young to war. Coming soon, after this week's conclusion of White Lies. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
White Lies: The List
March 09, 2023 10:54 - 48 minutes - 44.3 MBSince we began reporting this story, we've been after a list. A secret list. On it are the names of 2,746 people whom the US government deemed excludable, including the men on the roof. The government has kept this list so secret that at one point it went so far as to classify it. None of the Mariel detainees knew if their name was on the list or not. In fact, nobody knew what names were on the list. Until now. In Episode 7, the story of a list that sparked uprisings, separated families, and ...
White Lies: The Trial
March 02, 2023 10:50 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MBIn Episode 6, we sneak into the graveyard of the Atlanta federal penitentiary with a radical peace activist to learn more about what happened in the prison in late 1984. A peaceful protest by detainees held in the Atlanta pen resulted in a violent crackdown, and one of the detainees, a man named Jose Hernandez-Mesa, was charged in federal court with inciting a riot. We tell the story of his trial — and the surprising verdict that began reshaping public opinion about the Mariel Cubans who were...
White Lies: The Pen
February 23, 2023 11:00 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MBOn May 18, 1980, a man named Genaro Soroa-Gonzalez arrived in Key West from the port of Mariel. With no family waiting to sponsor him, he was sent by plane to a resettlement camp at an army base. There he was interviewed by the INS and, a few days later, he boarded another plane, this one bound for the federal prison in Atlanta. But wait - he'd committed no crime, so why was the US government detaining him? And how long could they hold him? In Episode 5, the story of Genaro Soroa-Gonzalez and...
White Lies: The Entry Fiction
February 16, 2023 11:00 - 55 minutes - 50.7 MBWhen President Carter promised to welcome the men and women arriving on the Mariel boatlift with "an open heart and open arms," he had referred to them as refugees. But technically speaking, they weren't refugees. They were classified as entrants, an immigration status with a peculiar legal standing in the United States. While entrants are physically allowed to enter the country, legally they're still at the border, asking to come in. Their presence in the country is known as a legal fiction ...
White Lies: The Rumors
February 09, 2023 11:00 - 51 minutes - 47.1 MBDuring our reporting, we heard one story over and over again: that Fidel Castro had emptied his prisons to fill the boatlift. It's a story that's been told so often and with such conviction that of course it must be true, right? But what if this was more theater than history? What was happening in 1980 in Miami and throughout the country that made this story so compelling? Why did it feel so true to so many people? In Episode 3, we go to Miami to find out. Want to hear the next episode of Whi...
White Lies: The Boatlift
February 02, 2023 15:00 - 49 minutes - 45.7 MBNote: Due to a technical error, some listeners did not hear the correct audio for Episode 2. We are re-publishing it with the corrected audio. The story of the men on the roof didn't start with that prison takeover in 1991. It didn't start when they were detained in federal prisons. And it didn't start when the government made a secret list of their names in 1984. Instead, it started in the spring of 1980, with one of the largest refugee crises in American history: the Mariel Boatlift. Want t...
White Lies: The Men on the Roof
January 26, 2023 14:00 - 46 minutes - 42.3 MBIt all started with a photograph. A photograph from 1991 of a prison takeover in rural Alabama. A photograph of a group of men on the roof of that prison holding a bedsheet scrawled with a message: "Pray for us." In the first episode of the new season of White Lies, hosts Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace go searching for answers to the questions raised by this photograph. Who were these men? What on earth had made them want to take over that prison? And what became of them after? As they s...
White Lies: Season 2 Trailer
January 23, 2023 14:37 - 3 minutes - 3.02 MBIn 1991, a group of men took over a federal prison in rural Alabama. But these men weren't prisoners, they were immigration detainees, all of them from Cuba. And none of them were serving time for a sentence; they were being indefinitely detained. Who were these men? What in the world had brought them from Cuba to a prison in rural Alabama, and what became of them afterward? On the new season of White Lies, hosts Chip Brantley and Andrew Beck Grace set out to find the men who took over the pr...
The Last Cup: Postscript
December 20, 2022 22:27 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBThe 2022 World Cup has ended. With his left foot, Messi wrote a more spectacular finale than we could have imagined. In the final installment of The Last Cup, Jasmine Garsd reveals the magic of Argentina's first World Cup victory since 1986. This final episode of our series is mainly in English, with some Spanish. Este último capítulo está disponible en ingles, e incluye comentario en español. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
The Last Cup: Bonus Episode
December 08, 2022 20:14 - 25 minutes - 23.4 MBArgentina has made it to the quarter finals of the 2022 World Cup, but the road has been a winding one. In our bonus episode, we take a moment to reflect on the scores and stumbles of the qualifying rounds, and speculate on what's to come for our hero, Lionel Messi. Host Jasmine Garsd discusses Argentina's anxiety with producer Julieta Martinelli and sports reporter Fidel Martinez. The Latinx Files is a weekly newsletter written by Fidel Martinez about the American Latinx experience. Juli...
The Last Cup: Part 5
December 02, 2022 13:48 - 39 minutes - 36.7 MBAfter a falling-out with the Argentine national team and a shaky reconciliation, Messi eventually finds his way back to play at the 2021 Copa America for yet another chance at redemption. And then it's on to Qatar for the 2022 World Cup, his last shot at the most coveted trophy. In the final chapter of Lionel Messi's journey, we catch up to the present. Our host Jasmine Garsd reflects on what a win would mean for Messi and for Argentina - and what it really takes to come home. The Last Cup ...
The Last Cup: Part 4
November 22, 2022 05:01 - 34 minutes - 31.9 MBWith the disappointment of the 2010 World Cup behind them, Argentines are hopeful that Lionel Messi might break their losing streak at the 2011 Copa America, the largest tournament in South America. Messi is prepared to give his all, looking for a way to deliver a victory for his home country. Meanwhile, host Jasmine Garsd makes the long journey back to Argentina after many years away and faces an unexpected tragedy. The Last Cup is a dual language limited series from NPR and Futuro Studios...
The Last Cup: Part 3
November 17, 2022 05:01 - 31 minutes - 28.7 MBLionel Messi finally gets a chance to put on Argentina's national jersey, but something is off. His time abroad has fundamentally changed the way he plays. Things get even more complicated when the Argentine soccer legend, Diego Maradona, becomes coach of Messi's 2010 World Cup team. With Messi under increasing scrutiny, the hometown crowd begins to question if he can ever get out from under Maradona's shadow. The Last Cup is a dual language limited series from NPR and Futuro Studios. All e...