Reveal
The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRXReveal
Reveal’s investigations will inspire, infuriate and inform you. Host Al Letson and an award-winning team of reporters deliver gripping stories about caregivers, advocates for the unhoused, immigrant families, warehouse workers and formerly incarcerated people, fighting to hold the powerful accountable. The New Yorker described Reveal as “a knockout … a pleasure to listen to, even as we seethe.” A winner of multiple Peabody, duPont, Emmy and Murrow awards, Reveal is produced by the nation’s first investigative journalism nonprofit, The Center for Investigative Reporting, and PRX. From unearthing exploitative working conditions to exposing the nation’s racial disparities, there’s always more to the story. Learn more at revealnews.org/learn.
© 2024
Reveal’s investigations will inspire, infuriate and inform you. Host Al Letson and an award-winning team of reporters deliver gripping stories about caregivers, advocates for the unhoused, immigrant families, warehouse workers and formerly incarcerated people, fighting to hold the powerful accountable. The New Yorker described Reveal as “a knockout … a pleasure to listen to, even as we seethe.” A winner of multiple Peabody, duPont, Emmy and Murrow awards, Reveal is produced by the nation’s first investigative journalism nonprofit, The Center for Investigative Reporting, and PRX. From unearthing exploitative working conditions to exposing the nation’s racial disparities, there’s always more to the story. Learn more at revealnews.org/learn.
© 2024
How America’s public schools mirror the country’s debates over race, gender, and politics.
Former US Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer on Trump’s Department of Justice policies, getting fired over Mel Gibson’s gun rights, and Ed Martin.
After a horrific massacre near Santa Barbara, California, the killer’s mother has made it her mission to help experts prevent the next tragedy.
Trump’s mass deportations threaten immigrants in Springfield, Ohio.
When Roe v. Wade was overturned and abortion became illegal in Alabama, helping people get out of state came with the threat of jail time.
Nikole Hannah-Jones on Trump’s second-term attacks on DEI, Black history, and civil rights
Twenty years after the Battle of Fallujah, Marines still wrestle with what they were asked to do in Iraq.
An elementary school in Ohio has some of the best little readers in the nation. How they did it—and how a new law put it all at risk.
Sociologist Arlie Hochschild on how Trump has exploited economic decline to win over voters and push rural America further to the right.
Police talk a lot about getting guns off the street. But thousands of their own guns are ending up at crime scenes after police put them up for sale.
Economist Justin Wolfers on the looming recession risk and nostalgic fantasy behind Trump's tariff upheaval.
Expulsions based on tattoos and students targeted for supporting Gaza: Trump’s immigration actions are raising eyebrows and constitutional questions.
NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik discusses Trump’s attacks on the media.
People who experience psychosis often cycle through homelessness, emergency rooms, and jail. What happened to America’s mental health system?
“The Daily Show” co-founder Lizz Winstead discusses her abortion rights advocacy and founding Abortion Access Front.
After spending years locked in solitary confinement, a group of California men united to launch the largest prison hunger strike in US history.
Former Inspector General Larry Turner discusses Elon Musk’s DOGE and Trump’s mass firings.
A “Goon Squad” of Rankin County sheriff’s deputies spent years brutalizing people until their reign of terror was exposed.
RFK's health department under Trump is being dismantled as public health emergencies spread.
Decades before Covid-19 appeared, AIDS tore through the US, but there was little help for the most vulnerable communities.
An attack on civilians by US Marines during the Iraq War sparks outrage and a war crimes trial, but in the end, no one is held accountable.
We’re celebrating our 10-year anniversary with standout stories from the archives and interviews with the journalists behind our investigations.
Calls for reparations were ignored for decades. But in some cities, outrage turned into action and local governments started taking up the cause.
We trace “40 acres” land titles to a staggeringly beautiful sea island off the coast of Georgia that’s now a wealthy gated community.
Our historical investigation found 1,250 formerly enslaved Black Americans who were given land—only to see it returned to their enslavers.
Haitian immigrants moved to Colorado on the promise of a good job and a place to stay—only to be mistreated. Now, they fear deportation.
A police officer chased a Native teen to his death. Days later, the police force shut down without explanation.
Twenty years after the Battle of Fallujah, Marines still wrestle with what they were asked to do in Iraq.
With Joe Biden's surprise pardon of his son and Donald Trump’s pledge to free January 6ers, we look at this controversial presidential power.
Human rights defenders face growing pressure from the government of Greece as they try to support asylum seekers reaching Europe.
During World War II, top military commanders hoped to conceal an American war crime. This is the story of an incident nearly lost to history.
Valentino Rodriguez, a correctional officer in California’s most violent prison, reported misconduct by men in his unit. Days later, he was found dead.
From the podcast The Competition, as Roe v. Wade fell, high school girls at a national pageant must process what it means for them and their future.
After a pregnant woman’s murder, police searched for a Black killer. They were chasing a lie.
A Catholic boarding school on the Pine Ridge Reservation is seeking forgiveness for its troubled history. But school survivors want justice first.
After decades of stripping away Native American identity from its students, a Catholic boarding school seeks to help the community heal.
From Democrats who wouldn’t vote for Kamala Harris to families of January 6ers fighting for their release, we meet the people behind Donald Trump’s red wave.
A young mom reports a sexual assault to police—but that doesn’t solve her problem. It creates a new one.
Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris to return to the White House as Republicans captured the Senate and threatened to regain the House.
In 1898, a stolen election in North Carolina laid the foundations of the Jim Crow South and much of the structural racism that continues today.
The world’s richest person is spending millions of dollars and using his social media platform X to get Donald Trump reelected.
The Big Lie hasn’t (yet) died and how swing state officials are grappling with it. Plus, a Kamala Harris interview that’s never been broadcast.
Some Democrats, including former President Barack Obama, are worried that Black men are leaving the Democratic Party to support Donald Trump over Kamala Harris.
Mother Jones video correspondent Garrison Hayes does a deep dive into the motivations of Black Trump supporters.
Former evangelical leader Rob Schenck discusses his conversion from anti-abortion activist to opponent of Donald Trump and Christian conservatism.
A small-town pastor blurs the line between church and state. It’s all part of a growing ideology that believes Christians should control society.
America’s Founding Fathers created a political system that favored an elite minority. Today, minority rule is threatening US democracy like never before.
US policies triggered a cycle of violence in Mexico, putting innocent families in harm's way. Many have fled north to seek asylum at the border.
Host Al Letson goes home to Jacksonville to take stock of changes that have happened in the past few years and what they mean for Black Floridians.
Discover how your retirement savings might be supporting the fossil fuel industry—and what you can do about it.
You’re having a baby. A hospital drug test comes out positive. But you know the test is wrong—and you can’t control what happens next.
When addiction treatment costs moms their babies.
Did a politician’s contested adoption of a Native child follow federal law?
The last episode of our series looks at the myth of COVID-19 as “the great equalizer” and what went wrong in the CDC’s response to the pandemic.
Part two of our three-part series takes listeners inside the failed federal response to COVID-19 and explores the massive volunteer effort to collect data about the disease.
This three-part series takes listeners inside the failed federal response to COVID-19 and explores the massive volunteer effort to collect data about the disease.
People who experience psychosis often cycle through homelessness, emergency rooms, and jail. What happened to America’s mental health system?
An unprecedented look at the methods the Mormon church uses to keep evidence of child sexual abuse cases secret.
Police talk a lot about getting guns off the street. But thousands of their own guns are ending up at crime scenes after police put them up for sale.
A death row conviction in Alabama is called into question.
Calls for reparations were ignored for decades. Now, local governments are taking up the cause – and outrage is growing.
We trace “40 acres” land titles to a staggeringly beautiful sea island off the coast of Georgia that’s now a wealthy gated community.
Our historical investigation found 1,250 formerly enslaved Black Americans who were given land – only to see it returned to their enslavers.
We’re sharing a story from our friends at NPR’s Code Switch podcast about a debate over how to preserve the Lakota language.
As wells run dry in the Arizona desert, a race for profits is underway.
Our new three-part series launches June 15th, exploring the legacy of America’s broken promise to formerly enslaved Black people.
Rural communities across the U.S. push back against large-scale solar projects, sparking a debate on renewable energy and local impact.
America’s Founding Fathers created a political system that favored an elite minority. Today minority rule is threatening U.S. democracy like never before.
Ten years after a horrific massacre, the killer’s mother is trying to help experts prevent the next tragedy.
After a pregnant woman’s murder, police searched for a Black killer. They were chasing a lie.
California police are using a controversial tactic after someone dies in their custody.
Spying on journalists with software designed to capture criminals.
A brand-new police force chased a Native teen to his death – and then shut down with no explanation.
A mother in Gaza searches for a safe place to deliver her baby.
An underground network of Russian anti-war activists is helping soldiers abandon Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.
The big business of warehousing foster children.
A correctional officer is found dead days after reporting misconduct in his unit.
Psychedelic drugs show promise in treating PTSD and other mental health challenges.
In New Mexico, when the only hospital in a vast rural county turns Catholic, reproductive health care is suddenly on the line.
A detective on the rise in Philadelphia abuses his power – would he get away with it?
Secret recordings capture the brutality of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
Decades before COVID-19, AIDS tore through the U.S., but there was little help for the most vulnerable communities.
How an FBI informant infiltrated the racial justice movement.
Many women seeking help at addiction treatment centers face sexual misconduct by people who work there.
As more states move to renewable energy, Montana is doubling down on fossil fuels.
Host Al Letson goes home to Florida to find a changed state.
Photographer Ernest Withers chronicled the civil rights movement. Did he also betray it?
Resistance to solar is growing in rural communities.
How did two New York galleries sell more than $80 million in fake art?
Inside a climate solution that doesn’t hold up.
The loss of civilian life in Gaza and Israel has sparked outrage and protest, but a group of grieving parents continues quietly working for peace.
An unprecedented look at the methods the Mormon church uses to keep child sexual abuse cases secret.
Reporters from VICE World News try to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding a bizarre illness.
After the Civil War, Southern companies profited off a racist system called convict leasing.
A death row conviction in Alabama is called into question.
A controversial tactic used after the police kill someone.
A lucrative industry is built on people in need.
Psychedelic drugs show promise in treating PTSD and other mental health challenges.
How the country’s biggest psychiatric hospital chain is profiting off kids trapped in a broken child welfare system.
A young mom reports a sexual assault to police – but that doesn’t solve her problem. It creates a new one.
Many schools teach reading using strategies that can actually make it harder for kids to learn.
How an FBI informant infiltrated the racial justice movement.
Spying on journalists with software designed to capture criminals.
New revelations cast doubt on the idea that Billey Joe Johnson accidentally killed himself.
Justice in George County has never been equal.
Billey Joe Johnson was a Black boy dating a White girl. That made the story behind his death even more complicated.
A Mississippi Bureau of Investigation detective wonders whether Billey Joe Johnson’s case should be reopened.
Conflicting autopsy reports raise more questions about how Billey Joe Johnson died.
On the morning of Billey Joe Johnson’s death, crime scene tape separates the Johnsons from their son’s body.
Billey Joe Johnson Jr. was a high school football star headed for the big time.
A surprising group of investors tries to profit off a water crisis in the desert.
Inside a climate solution that doesn’t hold up.
Politicians are cracking down on independent journalists, setting back efforts to expose corruption and impunity.
The secret report that changed the Vietnam War.
When addiction treatment costs moms their babies.
We go inside a Florida college battling Gov. Ron DeSantis.
A lucrative industry is built on people in need.
The dangerous consequences of abortion bans.
As more states move to renewable energy, Montana is doubling down on fossil fuels.
The future of warfare combines computer algorithms and lethal weapons.
The fall of Roe v. Wade has ended the constitutional right to abortion, and many in the religious right have a new goal: undermining trust in hormonal contraception – including the pill.
The U.S. Border Patrol says it wants more female agents, but for decades, the number of women has been stuck around 5%.
A decade after Trayvon Martin, laws keep expanding.
The final episode of our three-part series takes listeners inside the failed federal response to COVID-19 and explores the massive volunteer effort to collect data about the disease.
Part two of our three-part series takes listeners inside the failed federal response to COVID-19 and explores the massive volunteer effort to collect data about the disease.
This three-part series takes listeners inside the failed federal response to COVID-19 and explores the massive volunteer effort to collect data about the disease.
A team of reporters from VICE World News tries to get to the bottom of the mystery surrounding a bizarre illness.
A detective on the rise in Philadelphia abuses his power – would he get away with it?
A Catholic boarding school on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is seeking forgiveness for its troubled history. But school survivors want justice first.
After decades of stripping away Native American identity from its students, a Catholic boarding school seeks to help the community heal.
A young mom reports a sexual assault to the police – but that doesn’t solve her problem. It creates a new one.
How steroid use became the biggest scandal in baseball history.
Secret recordings capture the brutality of Putin’s war in Ukraine.
How 97 years got added to one man’s prison sentence.
Many schools teach reading using strategies that can actually make it harder for kids to learn.
White nationalists around the globe are working together to disrupt multicultural societies and Western democracies.
In the 1990s, a Black doctor said he may have found a cure for AIDS – but federal regulators insisted it didn’t work. What was its true potential? This episode is a partnership with the Serum podcast from WHYY and Local Trance Media.
After the Civil War, Southern companies profited off a racist system called convict leasing.
Photographer Ernest Withers chronicled the civil rights movement. Did he also betray it?
The U.S. has promised to move away from fossil fuels, but the natural gas industry is booming.
As the threat of criminal charges for the January 6th insurrection looms over Donald Trump, a look into the case against the first insurrectionist to be prosecuted.
As COVID-19 has now claimed more than 1 million lives in the United States, we follow a rookie doctor who graduated at the height of the pandemic.
A detective on the rise in Philadelphia abuses his power – would he get away with it?
A decade after Trayvon Martin, laws keep expanding.
Sugarcane cutters protest the grueling work and living conditions.
Who is shipping out all those holiday season packages? As Amazon has made huge profits, their worker injury rates are higher than other companies.
Americans are still fighting over who won the 2020 election, and many people expected the midterms to create more chaos. But mostly they didn’t. Why?
A giant illegal dump appears in a Chicago community.
As sea levels rise, two communities in Nigeria adapt in radically different ways.
Extreme new laws built on Trump’s Big Lie crack down on a phantom problem: widespread voter fraud.
For more than a century, the U.S. took Native children away from their families and forced them into boarding schools. Today, Native students are reclaiming their heritage.
After decades of stripping away Native American identity from its students, a Catholic boarding school seeks to help the community heal.
The fall of Roe v. Wade has ended the constitutional right to abortion and many in the religious right have a new goal: undermining trust in hormonal contraception – including the pill.
How the baseball industry created an entire workforce exempt from being paid minimum wage and overtime – and why baseball players aren’t the only ones crying foul.
Mexico’s investigation into the disappearance of 43 college students is making headlines, and also ruffling feathers.
Companies across the South profited off the forced labor of people in prison after the Civil War – a racist system known as convict leasing.
The group True the Vote profits off spreading “the big lie” that the 2020 election was stolen by voter fraud.
For decades, work-based rehabs have spread across the country. No one knows how many are out there, so we counted them ourselves.
After amassing a small fortune, Synanon turns from a revolutionary rehab into a violent cult with mass sterilizations and a rattlesnake in a mailbox.
American Rehab exposes a treatment for drug addiction that turns tens of thousands of people a year into an unpaid workforce.
“Do you recognize the Taliban?”
The U.S. fails to charge alleged war criminals.
A decade after Trayvon Martin, laws keep expanding.
White nationalists around the globe are working together to disrupt multicultural societies and Western democracies.
The presidential pardon system is backlogged and broken.
Bitcoin uses enormous amounts of power, and it’s heating up the planet.
Getting organs to patients waiting for a transplant is a matter of life and death. Yet transportation errors are putting patients in danger.
The religious forces for and against abortion.
An investigation into the 1998 murder of a New York abortion provider exposed a network of violent anti-abortion activists.
How steroid use became the biggest scandal in baseball history.
How do we learn to live with wildfires?
Gun-related deaths in the U.S. are at an all-time high. Why efforts to stop the violence fall short.
Guy Reffitt is the first person to stand trial for taking part in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. His son secretly recorded him and gave the tapes to the FBI.
Workers at Amazon were getting hurt on the job more than at other companies. Those records were under wraps – until our reporting uncovered them.
How a longtime safe haven for abortion has become a battleground.
Anthony Gay was sentenced to seven years in prison on a parole violation but ended up with 97 years added to his sentence. How does that happen?
The U.S. fails to charge alleged war criminals.
Homelessness can lead to a cycle of arrests that only makes things worse.
Why do Black families make up less than 1% of American farmers?
Many Republicans are campaigning on the lie that the 2020 election was stolen and promising to change the way elections are run in the future.
Bitcoin is hot – and it’s heating up the planet, too. Making bitcoin uses enormous amounts of power.
There’s no simple cure for what’s ailing it.
Voices from the front lines in Ukraine, where the Russian invasion has forced millions to flee.
A viral video embarrassed a police captain and exposed a toxic work culture.
Sugarcane cutters protest the grueling work and living conditions.
Three investigative stories grapple with issues of power.
The most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country is now in effect in Texas. How the Lone Star State trumped Roe v. Wade.
If we want to stop the Earth from heating up, we need to deal with methane.
A mother prays that she will one day know the truth about what happened to her son.
A DEA agent in Chicago thinks he knows why Mexican students were ambushed.
A flawed investigation into 43 missing students in Mexico brings a new quest for the truth.
During World War II, military commanders tried to conceal an American war crime.
One year after conspiracy theorists stormed the Capitol, we look at how misinformation spreads.
An audio drama inspired by Reveal’s investigation into a deadly explosion at a Mississippi shipyard
Homelessness can lead to a cycle of arrests that only makes things worse.
How did two NYC galleries sell more than $80 million in fake art?
New revelations cast doubt on the idea that Billey Joe Johnson accidentally killed himself.
Justice in George County has never been equal.
Amazon knows a lot about you.
Billey Joe Johnson was a Black boy dating a White girl. That made the story behind his death even more complicated.
A Mississippi Bureau of Investigation detective wonders whether the case should be reopened.
Conflicting autopsy reports raise more questions about how Billey Joe Johnson died.
On the morning of Billey Joe Johnson’s death, crime scene tape separates the Johnsons from their son’s body.
Billey Joe Johnson Jr. was a high school football star headed for the big time.
She warned police her abusive boyfriend had an illegal gun. He still kept it.
Exclusive preview of Reveal's new 7-part series.
Exclusive preview of Reveal's new 7-part series.
The future of warfare combines computer algorithms and lethal weapons.
There’s no simple cure for what’s ailing it.
Sugarcane cutters protest the grueling work and living conditions.
On 9/11, the U.S. swore to “never forget.” But who gets remembered?
How do we learn to live with wildfires?
A reporter digs into a teen’s murder conviction.
As the Taliban take over Kabul, an Afghan poet, a journalist fielding desperate phone calls, and an American veteran reflect on the past and future of the country.
Shelter staff have called police on migrant kids – who can end up arrested, jailed or even tased.
Wyoming locks up kids at one of the highest rates in the nation. One mother tells the story of how her daughter’s fight on a school bus snowballed into incarceration and tragedy.
Three stories from local reporters who uncovered injustice.
Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez graduated from medical school during the pandemic. We follow the rookie doctor for her first months working at a hospital in Fresno, California, as she grapples with isolation, anti-mask rallies and an overwhelming number of deaths.
How steroid use became the biggest scandal in baseball history.
Thirty years ago, activists and scientists turned a fight over the spotted owl and ancient trees into one of the biggest environmental conflicts of the century. The process transformed the way we see – and fight over – the natural world.
How Public Schools Became Ground Zero for America’s Culture Wars
April 30, 202530min 57sec
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 inside hospitals, and deadly failures in the US Navy. But when his front yard was torn apart in the summer of 2020 in the wake of the George Floyd protests, he saw a story about race and politics collide at his own front door. So like any investigative journalist, he started investigating, and his reporting about the growing divides in his neighborhood soon led him to the public schools.
As more than a dozen states sue the Trump administration over its policies aimed at ending public schools’ diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, More To The Story host Al Letson talks with Hixenbaugh about how America’s public schools have become “a microcosm” for the country’s political and cultural fights—“a way of zooming in deep into one community to try to tell the story of America.”
Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Digital producer: Nikki Frick | Interim executive producers: Brett Myers and Taki Telonidis | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson
Listen: The Culture War Goes to College (Reveal)
Read: At the Heritage Foundation, the Anti-DEI Crusade Is Part of a Bigger War (Mother Jones)
Read: They Came for the Schools: One Town’s Fight Over Race and Identity, and the New War for America’s Classrooms, by Mike Hixenbaugh
Note: If you buy a book using our Bookshop link, a small share of the proceeds supports our journalism.
Listen: Southlake/Grapevine podcasts (NBC News)
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