PODCAST · news
ProPublica Narrated
by ProPublica
ProPublica’s best long-form investigations, narrated. ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account. On this podcast, you can listen to important new investigations alongside our most compelling journalism from the archives. Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.
Episodes
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Vouchers Promise Students With Disabilities a Path to Private School. Parents Say That’s Not the Reality.
To give voucher programs a toehold in state legislatures, politicians touted how students with disabilities would gain access to private education. But those students’ families often have the hardest time finding schools that will accept them. By Jennifer Berry Hawes and Jennifer Smith Richards....
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The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way
After the FBI caught a defense contractor’s CEO making illegal campaign contributions, it sought to launch a sweeping political bribery probe involving Collins and others. Then the second Trump administration dismantled the unit handling the inquiry. By William Turton, Avi Asher-Schapiro, Molly...
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Children in a Faith-Healing Sect Keep Dying. The State Lets It Happen.
For decades, Idaho laws have allowed parents who belong to the Followers of Christ and other faith-healing sects to pray rather than seek medical care. Since 2015, at least 15 children have died of treatable conditions. By Audrey Dutton. Co-published with The Oregonian/OregonLive. Originally...
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Fiasco in the Factory: Taxpayers Funded a $533 Million Artillery Plant That Made Nothing
General Dynamics opened a Texas factory to churn out artillery shells for Ukraine, but the machines kept breaking. Robot arms smashed into things. Hunks of metal crashed to the floor. There was even a real-life dumpster fire. By Jesse Coburn. Originally published Aug. 12, 2026. Recorded by News...
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This Coach Is Banned From Working With Kids. Why Is He Still Coaching?
Even though an oversight group found that Texas girls’ volleyball coach Ryan Richardson engaged in sexual misconduct with a minor, sports organizations have failed to stop him from coaching. By Molly Hensley-Clancy. Co-published with The Washington Post. Originally published Aug. 20, 2026.…
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On This Nearly Deserted Alaska Island, You Pay to Keep Hundreds of Empty Buildings Wired for Internet
U.S. phone customers pay more than $340,000 a year for an Anchorage company to keep homes and buildings on Alaska’s Adak Island wired for obsolete internet service. All but a few of them sit empty. By Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News. Co-published with Anchorage Daily News. Originally published...
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This MAGA Influencer Runs a Charity to Teach Kids Civics. Much of the Money Goes to Him Instead.
Nick Adams’ Foundation for Liberty and American Greatness has brought in millions in donations and helped him land a State Department appointment, but records show there is almost no indication FLAG was spending that money on its stated mission. By Kali Bomeli. Originally published July 28, 2026....
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My Maddening Quest to Find Out if Blueberries Come From Farms Where Workers Were Harmed
Max Blau spent a year reporting on abuses of farmworkers. It left him wondering: Is there any way to find out whether the produce he buys at the grocery store comes from farms with a record of mistreating workers? By Max Blau. Originally published July 21, 2026. Recorded by News Over Audio.…
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A Youth Sports Giant Promised Reforms to Protect Kids From Sexual Abuse. Most Never Happened.
More than a decade after the Amateur Athletic Union promised to implement “historic child protection measures,” it still hasn’t done so, leaving hundreds of thousands of kids at risk. Some AAU athletes have had devastating experiences. By Molly Hensley-Clancy. Co-published with The Washington…
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Left in the Dust: How a Billionaire-Owned Concrete Plant Took Over a Detroit Community
After a company erected a concrete plant in a quiet neighborhood with the aid of the city, residents began battling clouds of dust and other problems. They say local and state officials have been little help. By Jena Brooker, BridgeDetroit. Co-published with BridgeDetroit. Originally published…
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This Private School Had Students Scrub Floors and Attack a Fellow Classmate. The State Still Funds It.
One of the few requirements for Arkansas private schools is that they have an American flag and a flagpole. But millions in state funds go to the largely unmonitored schools while complaints about safety and fraud have gone unanswered, parents say. By Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen....
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These Immigrant Kids Were Once Protected. Under Trump, Their Deportations Have Tripled.
As Trump cracks down on unaccompanied minors living in the U.S., a couple of traffic tickets put Elder Chavez on a path toward deportation. “I’m just waiting here,” he told ProPublica. “I really don’t know what’s going to happen to me.” By Mica Rosenberg and Jeff Ernsthausen. Originally published...
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“He Didn’t Need to Die.” How an Immigration Detention Center Repeatedly Failed to Address a Mental Health Crisis.
Geraldo Lunas Campos repeatedly raised concerns about his mental health before he died at Camp East Montana. Records paint a portrait of how the Texas facility’s staff failed to adequately respond. By Perla Trevizo, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Co-published with The Texas Tribune. Originally...
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With a Chance at Freedom, They Faced an Unexpected Obstacle: Their Own Lawyers
Pennsylvania courts allow attorneys to argue against their convicted clients’ bid for justice. It has resulted in people spending years or decades in prison before being freed based on issues lawyers overlooked or rejected. By Samantha Melamed and Dylan Purcell, The Philadelphia Inquirer....
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Beyond Denial: How Oil Execs Shaped a Landmark Climate Study
BP sponsored an elite Princeton research center to address the climate problem without getting off fossil fuels. Its key work, a paper known as “Wedges,” guided climate discourse for a generation. By Maddie Stone, Drilled, with additional reporting by Amy Westervelt, Drilled, and Katie Worth,...
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“That Guy is Still Out There”
Five years after Anthony Broadwater was belatedly cleared for the sexual assault of author Alice Sebold, the questions of how he came to be wrongly convicted and how one or more serial rapists operated for years with little consequence have only deepened. By Joaquin Sapien. Originally published...
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This Convicted Felon Gets $1 Million a Year to Sell Obsolete Internet Service. You Pay for It.
Roger Shoffstall spent three years in prison for tax evasion. Still, each year the federal government pays his Alaska company, Summit Telephone, for internet service that’s slower than in most of the U.S. By Kyle Hopkins, Anchorage Daily News. Co-published with Anchorage Daily News. Originally...
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He Was Fired for Sexually Harassing Students. California Allowed Him to Keep Teaching Anyway.
Math teacher Jason Agan was deemed “unfit to teach.” But the finding was never made public. This is how the state allowed him — and dozens of other educators found to have committed sexual harassment or misconduct — to keep their credentials. By Holly McDede, KQED, and Mollie Simon, ProPublica....
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She Faced a Life-Threatening Miscarriage. Under Arkansas’ Abortion Ban, Even Calls to the Governor’s Office Didn’t Help.
Her case shows how abortion bans have left hospital lawyers, not doctors, deciding who gets care — and how lawmakers and regulators have failed to change that. By Kavitha Surana. Originally published May 26, 2026. Recorded by News Over Audio. Support our journalism by donating at...
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In This Church, Child Sexual Abuse Has Gone Unchecked for So Long That It Spans Generations
The Old Apostolic Lutheran Church’s culture of forgiving and forgetting sins has absolved abusers and silenced victims across the U.S. and Canada, ensnaring parents, children and grandchildren in the same cycle of abuse. By Andy Mannix and Jeremy Kohler. Co-published with Minnesota Star Tribune....
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Oily Sludge Is Flooding Their Dream Home. Oklahoma Regulators Say They Can’t Help.
The Merediths were forced to abandon their house after it filled with black goo, reaching gas concentrations at explosive levels. Despite evidence of oil and gas pollution, the state “wanted to act like it would go away,” the family says. By Nick Bowlin, The Frontier, and Katie Campbell,...
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Babies Are Bleeding to Death as Parents Reject a Vitamin Shot Given at Birth
The vitamin K shot, a lifesaving injection given to newborns to prevent uncontrollable bleeding of the brain and intestines, has become collateral damage of the anti-vaccine movement. By Duaa Eldeib. Originally published May 6, 2026. Recorded by News Over Audio.Support our journalism by donating…
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Prosecutors Had a Drugs-for-Votes Scheme “Locked Up.” Under Trump, They Were Told Not to Pursue Charges.
Before the 2024 election, federal prosecutors were “full steam ahead” looking into how a prison gang in Puerto Rico gave drugs to inmates if they voted for a GOP gubernatorial candidate. After Trump’s election, the investigation evaporated. By Raquel Rutledge. Originally published May 5, 2026....
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Kids Are Being Harmed by Tear Gas, Pepper Spray Under Trump. There Could Be Long-Term Consequences.
In several cities, judges have chastised federal immigration officers, saying they used excessive force. One former Department of Homeland Security leader called ProPublica’s findings a “bright red flag.” By Lisa Song, Maya Miller and Melissa Sanchez, with research reporting by Mariam Elba....
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Meet the Mayor of a Tiny Texas Town Who Wants to Limit How Cities Can Govern
A push to restrict local governments’ ability to decide how they spend their money and which policies they can adopt is having downstream effects in tiny towns and big cities. By Tanya Eiserer and Jason Trahan, WFAA. Co-published with The Texas Tribune and WFAA. Originally published April 27…
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Unfounded Health Concerns Are Powering a Solar Backlash
Across the U.S., critics are pressuring public officials to stop or stall new solar projects, often citing unfounded health concerns. By Anna Clark. Originally published April 24, 2026. Recorded by News Over Audio. Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.
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3D-Printed Homes, an Abandoned $590,000 Deposit, the FBI: What Really Happened in This Small Town?
Two men promised a $1.1 million 3D printer could fix Cairo, Illinois’ housing crisis. More than a year later, the one duplex it printed still isn’t finished. And the more we asked questions, the weirder things got. By Molly Parker, Capitol News Illinois. Originally published April 16, 2026....
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Inside Trump’s Effort to “Take Over” the Midterm Elections
When Trump tried to overturn the 2020 election, the institutional guardrails of American democracy held. But if faced with the same tests today, those barriers — and people who held the line — would largely be missing. By Doug Bock Clark and Jen Fifield. Originally published April 13, 2026....
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Trump’s Justice Department Dropped 23,000 Criminal Investigations in Shift to Immigration
Under then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, the DOJ abandoned a record number of cases — including hundreds of investigations into terrorism, white-collar crime and drugs — in just the first six months of President Donald Trump’s second term. By Ken B. Morales and David Armstrong. Originally published...
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Trump Has Detained the Parents of More Than 11,000 U.S. Citizen Kids
A ProPublica analysis of new ICE data shows that Trump has detained parents of U.S. citizen children at about twice the rate that Biden did, and moms have been deported four times as often. By Jeff Ernsthausen, Mario Ariza, McKenzie Funk, Mica Rosenberg and Gabriel Sandoval. Originally published...
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The Drying Planet
A study finds that freshwater resources are rapidly disappearing, creating arid “mega” regions and causing sea levels to rise. By Abrahm Lustgarten. Originally published July 25, 2025. This narration was originally produced by The New York Times for ProPublica. Support our journalism by donating…
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They Didn’t Want to Have C-Sections. A Judge Would Decide How They Gave Birth.
Two Florida women had to attend virtual court hearings while in labor to argue for their right to choose their own medical care. As their state pushes to expand some types of medical freedom, it has also constricted the rights of pregnant women. By Amy Yurkanin. Originally published March 14…
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Veterans Who Depend on Mental Health Care Keep Losing Their Therapists Under Trump
Hundreds of mental health professionals have left the Department of Veterans Affairs since President Donald Trump took office, leaving staff “at a breaking point” and some veterans waiting as long as six months for help. By Vernal Coleman, Topher Sanders, Joel Jacobs and Eric Umansky. Originally...
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The Price of Remission
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I set out to understand why a single pill of Revlimid cost the same as a new iPhone. I’ve covered high drug prices as a reporter for years. What I discovered shocked even me. By David Armstrong. Originally published May 8, 2025. This narration was originally...
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The Victims Who Fought Back
An Oklahoma law was supposed to help reduce the sentences of women who killed their abusers. Why are nearly all of them still in prison? By Pamela Colloff. Originally published Feb. 22, 2026. Co-published with The New York Times Magazine. Recorded by News Over Audio. Support our journalism by...
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The Militia and the Mole: How One Man Infiltrated the Highest Ranks of American Militias
Disgusted by Jan. 6, wilderness survival trainer John Williams set out on a two-year undercover operation. The one person he told was a ProPublica reporter. By Joshua Kaplan. Originally published Jan. 4, 2025. This narration was originally produced by The New York Times for ProPublica. Support…
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The Children of Dilley
ProPublica went inside the immigrant detention center for families in Dilley, Texas. Children held there told us about the anguish of being ripped from their lives in the United States and the fear of what comes next. By Mica Rosenberg. Originally published Feb. 9, 2026. Recorded by News Over...
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“Eat What You Kill”: A Hospital Helped a Doctor’s Practice Flourish Even as It Suspected He Was Hurting Patients
Hailed as a savior upon his arrival in Helena, Montana, Dr. Thomas C. Weiner became a favorite of patients and his hospital’s highest earner. As the myth surrounding the high-profile oncologist grew, so did the trail of patient harm and suspicious deaths. By J. David McSwane. Originally published...
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Maylia and Jack: A Story of Teens and Fentanyl
Police knew she was selling fake Percocet but did not stop her. His mother sought the right treatment for his addiction but could not find it. Two teens got caught up in a system unprepared to handle kids on either side of the drug trade. This narration was originally produced by The New York…
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A Pregnant Woman at Risk of Heart Failure Couldn’t Get Urgent Treatment. She Died Waiting for an Abortion.
In North Carolina, a state that had legislated its commitment to life, Ciji Graham spent her final days struggling to find anyone to save hers. By Lizzie Presser and Kavitha Surana. Originally published Jan. 14, 2026. Recorded by News Over Audio. Support our journalism by donating at...
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Toxic Gaslighting: How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe
Decades ago, Kris Hansen showed 3M that its PFAS chemicals were in people’s bodies. Her bosses halted her work. As the Environmental Protection Agency now forces the removal of the chemicals from drinking water, she wrestles with the secrets that 3M kept from her and the world. By Sharon Lerner....
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Fighting for Breath: How the FDA’s Lax Generic Drug Rules Put Her Life at Risk
Lung transplant patient Hannah Goetz’s life depended on the generic version of a critical drug. It was supposed to be equivalent to the brand-name medication — but the FDA doesn’t always ensure that’s the case. By Megan Rose and Debbie Cenziper. Originally published Dec. 19, 2025. Recorded by…
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Young Girls Were Sexually Abused by a Church Member. They Were Told to Forgive and Forget.
In Minnesota, leaders of an Old Apostolic Lutheran Church community enabled a child abuser by telling his victims that once the sins were “washed away in the blood of reconciliation,” they could never speak of them again. By Jessica Lussenhop, ProPublica, and Andy Mannix, Minnesota Star Tribune....
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The Summer of Starvation
After the Trump administration cut off food aid from the third-largest refugee camp in the world, thousands of families faced impossible choices as their children starved. This story includes an update about Rose’s children. By Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester. Originally published Dec.…
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Inside the Trump Administration’s Man-Made Hunger Crisis
Interviews and a trove of internal documents show government officials and aid workers desperately tried to warn Trump advisers about impending disaster and death. By Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry-Jester. Originally published Dec. 17, 2025. Recorded by News Over Audio. Support our journalism…
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Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.
Behind closed doors in Washington, top advisers made a series of decisions that had devastating repercussions for the poorest country on earth. We went to South Sudan and found people who died as a result. By Anna Maria Barry-Jester and Brett Murphy. Originally published Dec. 15, 2025. Recorded…
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The Shadow President
From the wholesale gutting of federal agencies to the 2025 government shutdown, Russell Vought has drawn the road map for President Donald Trump’s second term. Vought has consolidated power to an extent that insiders say they feel like “he is the commander in chief.” By Andy Kroll. Originally...
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Sick in a Hospital Town, Part 5
Phoebe gets its way and sidelines its critics. Mrs. Parker learns what happened to her husband. Written by Ginger Thompson. Read by Eric Berryman, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Dael Orlandersmith, Amy Ryan, David Strathairn and Frankie Faison. A production of ProPublica and Theater of War Productions....
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Sick in a Hospital Town, Part 4
The board that oversees Phoebe decides not to release a report that finds the cost of care at the hospital is higher than its peers. Written by Ginger Thompson. Read by Eric Berryman, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Dael Orlandersmith, Amy Ryan, David Strathairn and Frankie Faison. A production of…
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Sick in a Hospital Town, Part 3
Phoebe pays an exorbitant sum to acquire its rival hospital, and its debt increases and patients suffer. Written by Ginger Thompson. Read by Eric Berryman, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Dael Orlandersmith, Amy Ryan, David Strathairn and Frankie Faison. A production of ProPublica and Theater of War...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
ProPublica’s best long-form investigations, narrated. ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as long as it takes to hold power to account. On this podcast, you can listen to important new investigations alongside our most compelling journalism from the archives. Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.
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How many episodes does ProPublica Narrated have?
ProPublica Narrated currently has 53 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is ProPublica Narrated about?
ProPublica’s best long-form investigations, narrated. ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism with moral force. We dig deep into important issues, shining a light on abuses of power and betrayals of public trust — and we stick with those issues as...
How often does ProPublica Narrated release new episodes?
ProPublica Narrated has 53 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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