Long Shadow
29 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 2 months ago - ★★★★★ - 1.7K ratingsThe April 1999 massacre at Columbine High School hurtled the United States into an era of mass shootings. Now, a quarter century later, the horrors of that day have become an almost regular facet of American life, and gun violence a record-smashing epidemic. Clad in both camouflage and Kevlar, 21st-century America is a bastion of freedom where workplaces require active shooter protocols, schools run lockdown drills, and the Second Amendment has become a religion unto itself.
Guns are a uniquely American problem, but the U.S. wasn’t always like this. LONG SHADOW: IN GUNS WE TRUST explores the story of the people — some names you'll know, some you won't — who changed the way America relates to guns, for better or worse. This season, host Garrett Graff, in collaboration with The Trace, chronicles how firearms moved from being an ordinary part of the background of rural life to a menacing element of modern American life.
Crackling with rich archival tape and riveting eyewitness and expert interviews, this narrative podcast examines threads of history that are vitally relevant to our current political climate. In LONG SHADOW’s first season, Graff, a Pulitzer-finalist and a best-selling author and historian, examined the lingering questions of 9/11, the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Season two chronicled how bloody tragedies at the hands of federal agents led to the rise of American far-right extremism and ultimately the January 6 insurrection. Season three will help listeners understand how simply carrying firearms has become its own act of defiance, and how a very specific, carefully manufactured fear has driven explosive demand for guns across America. How did we get here? Subscribe and listen to LONG SHADOW to find out.
LONG SHADOW: IN GUNS WE TRUST is produced by Long Lead and Campside Media in collaboration with The Trace, and is distributed by PRX.
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Episodes
Generation Lockdown
May 22, 2024 08:00 - 1 hour - 62.4 MBRaised on active shooter and lockdown drills, Gen Z has endured an onslaught of violence — and emerged inspiring a wave of activism, a powerful gun safety movement, and hope.
Under the Gun
May 21, 2024 14:15 - 12 seconds - 500 KBThe season finale of Long Shadow: In Guns We Trust is coming soon. But first, a note from Garrett.
A Good Guy with a Gun
May 14, 2024 08:00 - 48 minutes - 44.7 MBEasy to handle and easy to conceal, handguns went boom in the 2000s, the same moment when many Americans — falsely and tragically — began to equate guns with safety.
The Right to Bear AR-15s
May 07, 2024 08:00 - 48 minutes - 44.8 MBAfter a devastating, now largely forgotten, mass-shooting prompted lawmakers to take aim at assault weapons in the 1990s, their ban backfired — and caused gun sales to explode.
Scene on Radio S4E1: Rich Man’s Revolt
April 30, 2024 08:00 - 47 minutes - 108 MBIn the American Revolution, the men who revolted were among the wealthiest and most comfortable people in the colonies. What kind of revolution was it, anyway? Was it about a desire to establish democracy—or something else? Episode 1 of Scene on Radio’s Season 4 series, The Land That Never Has Been Yet, explores American democracy and the lack thereof.
The Hardliners
April 23, 2024 08:00 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBIn the 1980s, a pair of intimidating NRA leaders recast the organization in their own imposing images as the group went on an all-out offensive against gun regulations.
Shall Not Be Infringed
April 16, 2024 08:00 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MBThe Second Amendment may have begun as a Constitutional afterthought, but a late 20th-century ideological shift caused some to view it as a sacred right in the name of self defense.
A Uniquely American Problem
April 09, 2024 08:13 - 41 minutes - 37.6 MBMass shootings have plagued the U.S. for generations. But in 1999, when shots rang out in a suburban Denver school, it was different. What changed? Everything.
Trailer: In Guns We Trust
April 02, 2024 08:00 - 3 minutes - 3.21 MBThis season host Garrett Graff, in collaboration with The Trace, recounts how a very specific, carefully manufactured fear has driven explosive demand for guns across the U.S. It’s the history of how firearms went from being an ordinary part of rural American life to a menacing element in modern society — and the epidemic of gun violence that’s come with it. How did we get here — how did America get so divided over guns — and can we we find a way forward? Find out, this season on LO...
trailer
March 04, 2024 15:09 - 6 seconds - 211 KBThis is a placeholder trailer for Long Shadow s3, coming soon
January 6: Day of the Rope
May 24, 2023 08:00 - 56 minutes - 51.4 MBEmboldened by COVID lockdown protests and fighting Black Lives Matter demonstrators, far-right extremists and white power groups prepare to overthrow the government on Jan. 6… or a later date.
MAGA: American Carnage
May 17, 2023 08:00 - 51 minutes - 47 MBAfter Trump’s election, far-right extremism explodes, and internet racism boils over into the real world. From Charleston to Charlottesville to Christchurch, experts warn of a race war.
The Bundys: A Call to Arms
May 10, 2023 08:00 - 44 minutes - 40.7 MBWhen the government seizes Cliven Bundy’s cattle over unpaid grazing fees, militias like the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers—which are later at 1/6—aid a standoff on his ranch.
Info War: From the Fringe to Fox News
May 03, 2023 08:00 - 44 minutes - 40.5 MBUsing conspiracy theories and anger to amass enormous audiences in the 1990s, Rush Limbaugh and Bill Cooper pave the way for Fox News to mainstream far-right outrage.
Oklahoma City: Sic Semper Tyrannis
April 26, 2023 08:00 - 40 minutes - 37.4 MBExperts claimed 1995’s Oklahoma City bombing was a lone-wolf event, but Timothy McVeigh’s act of retribution for the Waco siege, shows how domestic extremism has evolved.
Ruby Ridge: The Revolution Begins
April 19, 2023 08:00 - 57 minutes - 52.2 MBThe government lays siege to Ruby Ridge, Idaho, where Randy Weaver and his family are hiding out in the shadow of a growing white supremacist movement, a year before Waco.
Waco: The Spark
April 12, 2023 08:00 - 39 minutes - 35.9 MBOut of the flames of a tragic government mishap—the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas—the modern far-right movement is born.
Trailer: Long Shadow: Rise of the American Far Right
March 29, 2023 08:00 - 2 minutes - 2.72 MBThe Ruby Ridge raid, the Waco siege at the Branch Davidian compound, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jan. 6 insurrection… they are all explosive moments in recent U.S. history. But connect the dots between these—and other—seemingly disparate, violent events, and you’ll answer some of the most existential questions facing the U.S. today: How did America get the far right so wrong? What will it take now to get it right? In LONG SHADOW’s first season, host Garrett Graff examined the...
Long Lead Presents: The Depths She'll Reach
November 18, 2021 20:12 - 1 minute - 1.8 MBOut now from Long Lead, The Depths She’ll Reach, the story of how Alenka Artnik emerged from mental health struggles to become one of the world’s most elite athletes. A multimedia feature by Xan Rice and Daan Verhoeven, produced by Long Lead. https://onjustonebreath.com/
How do we move on from 9/11?
September 11, 2021 04:21 - 52 minutes - 48.5 MBWhen we think about 9/11, we often only think of the tremendous loss of life on that day. But what we sometimes forget about are those who made it; the thousands of people who survived the attacks, but have had to carry it with them every day since. Firefighter Jay Jonas and Port Authority Police Officer Will Jimeno were in the Twin Towers on September 11 — 100 stories of the World Trade Center fell on top each of them. But they got back up and survived. How did they move on from...
What was the Saudi connection to 9/11?
September 10, 2021 03:59 - 30 minutes - 27.8 MBFifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia, which was also the home of al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin Laden. In the days after September 11, dozens of his friends, family members and business associates left the U.S. on secret flights bound for The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That has led to questions that four presidents have avoided answering: What role did the Saudi government play in the attacks? What did it know? Even worse, did it help?
Who was the 20th hijacker?
September 08, 2021 04:24 - 39 minutes - 36.1 MBImmediately after 9/11, investigators began piecing together the plot. In the flight manifests, they discovered a pattern: A team of five terrorists hijacked every plane that day, except for one. United Airlines Flight 93 had only four hijackers. Investigators believed one person was missing from that group. Who was the 20th hijacker — if there even was one? And is there a 9/11 hijacker still on the loose?
Could 9/11 have been stopped before it happened?
September 03, 2021 04:05 - 46 minutes - 42.5 MBBefore 9/11, FBI Special Agent John O’Neill kept setting off alarms about the emerging terrorist organization al-Qaeda and their mysterious leader Osama Bin Laden. As a result of his warnings the FBI knew terrorists were planning a big attack and the CIA even had eyes on two of the eventual hijackers prior to the attacks. So what went wrong? Why didn’t they capture the hijackers? What more could law enforcement have done to stop the attacks? And could they have been prevented? ...
Was there a “fifth plane” on 9/11?
September 01, 2021 04:18 - 34 minutes - 31.5 MBAfter the first two hijackings, the nation’s air traffic controllers quickly and efficiently grounded thousands of planes flying to and over the continental United States. Their quick thinking is said to have potentially saved countless lives. But what if another plane was meant to be hijacked that day, and never made it off the ground? What if there was a fifth plane on 9/11?
Who issued the order to shoot down Flight 93?
August 25, 2021 04:13 - 39 minutes - 36.3 MBWith the Capitol under attack, the President on Air Force One, and the Defense Secretary missing, Vice President Dick Cheney was the most powerful man in the country on the morning of 9/11. From a bunker beneath the White House, he gave fighter pilots flying above the Capitol permission to shoot down hijacked commercial planes. But did Cheney actually have the authority to issue this order? Did he and President Bush connect before or after Cheney ordered the fighters into battle? A...
What was the target of United Airlines Flight 93?
August 20, 2021 06:57 - 27 minutes - 25.6 MBEvery defense mechanism the U.S. government had on 9/11 failed except for one: the passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 93. They were on the final plane to be hijacked that day and heard reports of the attacks from loved ones on the ground. Then they rallied to stop the terrorist plot. But where was the plane headed before it crashed? What was the intended target of the Flight 93 hijackers?
Why weren’t more people rescued from the Twin Towers?
August 18, 2021 05:00 - 45 minutes - 41.8 MBAfter both towers of the World Trade Center were hit on September 11, 2001, first responders coordinated the largest emergency response in New York City’s history. But their heroism at Ground Zero was hampered by institutional bureaucracy and ultimately undone by decisions made decades earlier, when the Twin Towers were built. So why did these iconic structures and architectural marvels fall so fast? Could more people have been rescued from the towers? And could some of those death...
Trailer: Long Shadow: 9/11's Lingering Questions
July 21, 2021 03:56 - 2 minutes - 2.27 MBMany of us watched the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 unfold right before our eyes. In the years since, law enforcement, congressional inquiries and the press have successfully uncovered more about what happened that day. But now on the 20th Anniversary of the attacks, many mysteries remain. Hosted by bestselling author and reporter Garrett Graff, Long Shadow answers those lingering questions and explores other enduring mysteries that still surround 9/11, the worst terror...
Trailer: Long Shadow
July 21, 2021 03:56 - 2 minutes - 3.4 MBMany of us watched the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 unfold right before our eyes. In the years since, law enforcement, congressional inquiries and the press have successfully uncovered more about what happened that day. But now on the 20th Anniversary of the attacks, many mysteries remain. Hosted by bestselling author and reporter Garrett Graff, Long Shadow answers those lingering questions and explores other enduring mysteries that still surround 9/11, the worst terrorist attack...