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ProPublica Narrated

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.

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28 episodes
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Avg 26 min
English

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Friday · 40 min
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.
September 11 · 14 min
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.
September 4 · 18 min
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.
September 1 · 5 min
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?
August 28 · 44 min
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.
August 21 · 24 min
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.
August 14 · 30 min
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.
August 7 · 22 min
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.”
July 31 · 21 min
“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.
July 24 · 24 min
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.
July 17 · 44 min
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.
July 10 · 1 hr 2 min
“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.
July 3 · 26 min
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.
June 26 · 26 min
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.
June 19 · 37 min
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.
June 12 · 22 min
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.
June 5 · 10 min
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.
May 29 · 20 min
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.
May 22 · 20 min
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.
May 15 · 25 min
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.”

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