How Border Patrol Pushed Migrants to the Deadly Arizona Desert
Radiolab reporters Latif Nasser and Tracie Hunte join Dr. Robin Reineke, Executive Director of the Colibrí Center for Human Rights, to explain how migration routes across the U.S.-Mexico border have...
View ArticleBorder Trilogy Part 1: Hole in the Fence
Border TrilogyWhile scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason De León happened upon something he didn't expect to get left...
View ArticleBorder Trilogy Part 2: Hold the Line
Border Trilogy While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason De León happened upon something he didn't expect to get left...
View ArticleBorder Trilogy Part 3: What Remains
Border TrilogyWhile scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason De León happened upon something he didn't expect to get left...
View ArticleTweak the Vote
Democracy is on the ropes. In the United States and abroad, citizens of democracies are feeling increasingly alienated, disaffected, and powerless. Some are even asking themselves a question that...
View ArticleThe Power Player Amendments with Devendra Banhart
The 25th and 26th Amendments — ratified in 1967 and 1971, respectively — are some of the newest additions to our founding document. However, they tackle some pretty basic questions: who gets to rule,...
View ArticleAsking for Another Friend
Part 2: Last year, we ran a pair of episodes that explored the greatest mysteries in our listeners’ lives - the big ones, little ones, and the ones in between. This year, we’re back on the hunt,...
View ArticleBirdie in the Cage
People have been doing the square dance since before the Declaration of Independence. But does that mean it should be THE American folk dance? That question took us on a journey from Appalachian front...
View ArticleNina
Producer Tracie Hunte stumbled into a duet between Nina Simone and the sounds of protest outside her apartment. Then she discovered a performance by Nina on April 7, 1968 - three days after the...
View ArticleBlack Trans Lives Matter
Imara Jones joins us to talk about creating a truly inclusive Black Lives Matter movement, and getting back to the roots of Pride.—Imara Jones is an award-winning journalist, and the creator of...
View Article12. Ava DuVernay Takes Us Online, Desmond Meade Leads Us to Vote
Ava DuVernay was a young teenager when she went to a U2 concert and encountered a flier for Amnesty International that changed her life. She tells host Rebecca Carroll, "it was just that little piece...
View Article13. Waubgeshig Rice Saw This Apocalypse Coming
Waubgeshig Rice is a Canadian journalist and bestselling author (Moon of the Crusted Snow) from the Wasauksing First Nation, who grew up in an Anishinaabe community. He hopes COVID will be a wake-up...
View Article14. Ira Madison III Keeps It, Kay Oyegun Gives It
As a struggling screenwriter, Twitter was exactly what Ira Madison III needed to get noticed. More than 200k followers later, he’s writing for Netflix (“Daybreak” and the upcoming “Q-Force”). He tells...
View Article15. Julián Castro's Common Census
Julián Castro served as the mayor of San Antonio, Texas before joining the Obama administration as housing secretary. And he was briefly in the race for president, the only Latinx candidate in the 2020...
View ArticleInsomnia Line
Coronasomnia is a not-so-surprising side-effect of the global pandemic. More and more of us are having trouble falling asleep. We wanted to find a way to get inside that nighttime world, to see why...
View ArticleRadiolab: What If?
We're all wondering how the 2020 election will pan out. Our colleagues at Radiolab went looking for answers.This episode was reported by Bethel Habte (who's now a producer at the Gimlet podcast...
View ArticleBloc Party
In the 1996 election, Bill Clinton had a problem. The women who came out in droves for him in ‘92, split their vote in the ‘94 midterms, handing over control of the House and the Senate to the...
View ArticleThe Ashes on the Lawn
A global pandemic. An afflicted, angry group. A seemingly indifferent government. Reporter Tracie Hunte wanted to understand this moment of pain and confusion by looking back 30 years, and she found a...
View Article56 Years
Nineteen sixty-four. Freedom Summer. Marylin Thurman Newkirk was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, in a county where just about 250 Black adults out of more than 13,000 were registered to vote. She would...
View ArticleThe Sisterhood
At the start of the pandemic, Jollene Levid and her mother, Nora, found themselves glued to Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s nightly press conferences. In a press conference late last March, Garcetti...
View ArticleThe Devastating Toll of COVID-19 on Filipino Nurses
Filipinos make up 4 percent of nurses in the U.S. but account for a third of the nurses who have died from COVID-19 nationwide. Tracie Hunte, correspondent for The Experiment — a new series from The...
View ArticleLost Cause
The Confederate States seceded from the United States over slavery. But the “lost cause” myth—the idea that the Civil War was not about slavery but about northern aggression—still has a hold on...
View ArticleThe Crime of Refusing Vaccination
In 1902, a Swedish American pastor named Henning Jacobson refused to get the smallpox vaccine. This launched a chain of events that landed the Massachusetts pastor in a landmark 1905 Supreme Court case...
View ArticleThe Problem With America’s National Parks
The national-park system has been touted as “America’s best idea.”David Treuer, an Ojibwe author and historian, says we can make that idea even better—by giving national parks back to Native...
View ArticleHere for the Right Reasons? Lessons From '90 Day Fiancé'
Dating shows often push contestants to extreme measures in pursuit of love. Reality-show producers will impose fake deadlines, physical obstacles, and manufactured drama to create the juiciest...
View ArticleHow The Evangelical Machine Got Made
These days, everyone assumes that this is just a fact of life: Evangelicals are Republicans, and Republicans are evangelicals. The powerful alliance culminated in the 2016 election of Donald Trump,...
View ArticleThe Hate-Crime Conundrum
Hate crimes in the United States have reached their highest levels in more than a decade, prompting bipartisan support for legislation to combat them and increased resources for law enforcement. But...
View ArticleCan America See Gymnasts for More Than Their Medals?
Ever since Kerri Strug and the Magnificent Seven won Olympic gold in 1996, the U.S. women’s gymnastics team has been a point of pride for many Americans. But over the past five years, athletes have...
View ArticleOliver Sipple
One morning, Oliver Sipple went out for a walk. A couple hours later, to his own surprise, he saved the life of the President of the United States. But in the days that followed, Sipple’s split-second...
View ArticleWhat Does It Mean to Give Away Our DNA?
Just as the Navajo researcher Rene Begay started to fall in love with the field of genetics, she learned that the Navajo Nation had banned all genetic testing on tribal land. Now she is struggling to...
View ArticleHow ‘Passing’ Upends a Problematic Hollywood History
Hollywood has a long history of “passing movies”—films in which Black characters pass for white—usually starring white actors. Even as these films have attempted to depict the devastating effect of...
View ArticleProtecting the Capitol One Year After January 6
On January 6, 2021, William J. Walker was head of the D.C. National Guard. He had buses full of guardsmen in riot gear ready to deploy in case Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally turned dangerous....
View ArticleWho Belongs in the Cherokee Nation?
From the time she was a little girl, Marilyn Vann knew she was Black and she was Cherokee. But when she applied for citizenship in the Cherokee Nation as an adult, she was denied. What followed was a...
View ArticleShould We Return National Parks to Native Americans?
The national-park system has been touted as “America’s best idea.” David Treuer, an Ojibwe historian and the author of The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America From 1890 to the Present, says we...
View ArticleThe End of This Experiment
The Experiment is coming to an end. For our final episode, we contemplate our strange, sometimes beautiful, often frustrating country. We go back to some of the people we met and fell in love with...
View ArticleHow Are We Grieving?
Two mothers lost their daughters to gun violence but received disparate levels of attention. Now, they’re using their stories – and their grief – to inspire others.WNYC correspondent Tracie Hunte...
View ArticleMystified by your pandemic puppy? A new book offers fresh insights into...
If you’ve ever welcomed a puppy into your home, as many New Yorkers did during the pandemic, you know it can be a cute, challenging and sometimes chaotic experience. Dr. Alexandra Horowitz is the...
View ArticleWho Gets to Be Beautiful in America?
Beauty. Everyone wants it, but only some are considered to have it. What steps can we take to democratize beauty?Journalist Tracie Hunte is trying to foster real and honest conversations about what it...
View ArticleNull and Void
This episode, first aired in 2017, has Reporter Tracie Hunte and Editor Soren Wheeler exploring a hidden power in the U.S. Court System that is either the cornerstone of our democracy or a trapdoor to...
View ArticleRadiolab’s Lulu Miller Steals All Her Best Ideas From Her Kids
Before Radiolab co-host Lulu Miller became a parent, she worried having children would zap her creativity. “I had a really patronizing view of them,” she said. “Like, you gotta use dumb, simple words...
View ArticleKeyla Monterroso Mejia is Taking the Lead
Keyla Monterroso Mejia landed her breakout role as Maria Sofia on "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Keyla’s performance as a bad actor blackmailing Larry David made a splash. She is now the star of Netflix’s...
View ArticleWhat’s Going On With This Unseasonable Winter Weather?
It’s February, and it’s winter, but at least in New York City, it hasn’t felt like winter. Several states in the Northeast had the warmest January on record. Meanwhile, California has been pummeled...
View ArticleSpy in the Sky: What to Make of China's Balloon Surveillance
Late last week a Chinese surveillance balloon flew over the continental United States until it was shot down by a U.S. military jet at the order of President Joe Biden. U.S. officials say the balloon...
View ArticleGrieving Loss From Gun Violence
A recent mass shooting at a school in Nashville added to the toll of death and injuries from the nation’s gun violence crisis. A reporter wonders if we’re grieving properly – or at all.Two mothers lost...
View ArticleHow Assata Shakur Became One of America’s Most Wanted
A deadly encounter fifty years ago between the New Jersey State Police and a group of Black activists turned Assata Shakur into a cultural icon – and an enduring political villain. In May 1973,...
View ArticleWhen Barbie Stopped Being White
Until 1980, Barbie was always white. Mattel had made Black dolls before, but they were sidekicks to the brand’s main character with facial features that didn’t really distinguish them from the other...
View ArticleAs the Bronx gentrifies, teens lose sense of stability and belonging
Radio Rookie Christina Adja loves her South Bronx neighborhood — but lately, she’s seen chain restaurants replacing small businesses and shiny apartment buildings going up. And it’s made her wonder:...
View ArticleBorder Trilogy Part 1: Hole in the Fence
While scouring the Sonoran Desert for objects left behind by migrants crossing into the United States, anthropologist Jason De León happened upon something he didn't expect to get left behind: a human...
View ArticleRaoul Peck Fights for Justice With His Movies
Raoul Peck became known as a filmmaker and vocal advocate for racial justice with the release of his 2016 Academy Award-nominated film “I Am Not Your Negro,” which attempts to complete James Baldwin's...
View ArticleBirdie in the Cage
People have been doing the square dance since before the Declaration of Independence. But does that mean it should be THE American folk dance? That question took us on a journey from Appalachian front...
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