For decades, the U.S. has run private “shadow prisons” for immigrants convicted of federal crimes. Biden has ordered these contracts be wound down.

Sick on the Inside

The Body Collector

Listen to reporter Aaron Glantz’s investigation of the Department of Veterans Affairs and prescribed pain pills.

VA's pain pill habit

Reveal VA Opioids Follow Up

Culture Of Secrecy Leaves Door Open For Sex Abuse

Torture Tactics Go Beyond The CIA

Bogus Screws Ended Up In Spines Of Surgery Patients

Oklahoma now is one of the most seismically active places in America, far surpassing even California. Reveal's Michael Corey ran a decade of earthquake data in Oklahoma through a synthesizer. Listen along as the shaking increases. 

The Oklahoma Shakes

In 2014, Oklahoma had more than three times as many earthquakes as California, and this year, the state is on track for even more. A lot of them are small, but some towns are seeing a quake almost every day, and seismologists warn that large and damaging earthquakes are becoming more likely. The government in the Sooner State has only recently acknowledged the scope of the oil and gas industry’s role in the problem.

Reveal’s Michael Corey and Joe Wertz of StateImpact Oklahoma hop in a car and drive toward the epicenter of two earthquakes that had just struck near the town of Guthrie, Oklahoma, to see the after-effects for themselves and talk to the people who live in the area. Are residents troubled by or numb to the earthquakes? 

In this story, the reporters travel throughout the state speaking to experts, helping us gain a better picture of Oklahoma’s man-made earthquakes.

Oklahoma's Man-Made Earthquakes

Secret super water guzzlers

The economically depressed city of Flint, Michigan, is making headlines across the country because there’s something in its water that shouldn’t be there.

You may have heard about the problems in Flint: about how the tap water can be brownish, stinky, funny-tasting. After denying there was a problem for more than a year, state and city officials finally admitted it – there was too much lead in the water. 

On this hour of Reveal, you’re going to hear the whole story of how people in Flint went from trusting their tap water to fearing it. And thanks to Michigan Radio’s Lindsey Smith, who produced an incredible documentary called “Not Safe to Drink,” we dive right in. 


Do Not Drink: The Water Crisis In Flint, Michigan

Billion-Dollar Scam

The U.S. Supreme Court is about to make a decision that could affect college admissions across the country. And Texas’ Top 10 Percent Rule plays a starring role. On this episode of Reveal, reporter Neena Satija, of our partner The Texas Tribune, tells us how an attempt to boost diversity in Texas colleges could, paradoxically, end affirmative action. She also takes a long look at the Top 10 Percent Rule and whether it allows students from economically diverse backgrounds to attend the state's top public universities.

We’ll hear from two high-achieving young Texans: Genesis Morales and Grayson Rutherford. They’re college-bound students who attend high schools only 10 miles from one another but whose experiences are worlds apart. 
We’ll also take you to Berkeley, California, and look at that school district’s integration plan. Over five decades, that plan has worked, for the most part – Berkeley’s kindergarten through eighth grade system is a model for the rest of the country on how to integrate schools. But the city’s single high school faces unexpected challenges. 

The Price Of Admission

Find out what's happened since we first told you about 40 years of alleged abuse and neglect of people with disabilities at specialty rehab centers across the U.S.

We teamed up with New Hampshire Public Radio health and science reporter Jack Rodolico to unveil how these for-profit facilities thrived on public dollars with little oversight.

Update: A mountain of misconduct

As our newsroom worked on this week’s show about the shooting in Orlando, Reveal’s Michael Corey and Jim Briggs started thinking about a way to represent those lost in the mass shooting through sound.

This track is the result: a sonic memorial to the 49 people lost in Orlando at Pulse nightclub. The tones are meant to be funereal, but also celebratory. Each new tone in this piece represents the birth of one of the people who died that night. And that note rings again for each year of their lives.

Learn more: https://www.revealnews.org/blog/a-sonic-memorial-to-the-victims-at-orlandos-pulse-nightclub/

A sonic memorial to the Orlando shooting victims

This week’s attack on a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was the largest mass shooting in American history. Reveal goes to Orlando to hear from survivors and learn how the FBI investigates potential terrorists. We explore how security companies screen potential employees such as Omar Mateen, the nightclub shooter. We also investigate how the NRA and gun control groups use data on gun violence to shape the debate.

After Orlando

Prisons are almost impossible for reporters to get inside, and few people know what life inside is like for inmates and guards. But one journalist cracked the shell of secrecy by getting a job as a prison guard. He witnessed cost-cutting measures and reported safety concerns affecting prisoners and staff. On this episode of Reveal, we take an unprecedented look inside the multibillion-dollar private prison industry. 

Welcome to the hellhole:
Mother Jones reporter Shane Bauer gets a job as a guard at Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana. The prison is run by the private company Corrections Corporation of America, and over four months, he investigates how the prison is run. Shane buys a pen that doubles as an audio recorder and a watch that takes video. Shane makes it through training and ends up guarding suicide watch on day one of the job, documenting everything he can.

Lockdown:
Shane witnesses stabbings, beatings and prisoners threatening to riot inside a private prison on lockdown. The conditions inside Winn Correctional Center, and his duties there as a guard, are getting the better of him.

Man down:
The prison life is relentless: Shane meets a prisoner who contracted gangrene at Winn and lost his legs and fingers as a result. However, an unexpected offer and a twist of fate change Shane's status as a guard.

The man inside: Four months as a prison guard

This week, Reveal’s been working on a show about - what else - the election.

But first you need to hear this: Our host Al Letson spoke with Richard Spencer the day after the election. Like many people, Spencer was both thrilled and surprised that Donald Trump won – and he has a specific agenda. Spencer’s a white nationalist. He sees Trump’s election as the first solid steps toward a new, post-America, whites-only nation.

Listen in as Al has a frank conversation with Spencer that reveals starkly different views of the same world.

Reveal

A frank conversation with a white nationalist

This week, Reveal's bringing you an episode we first aired this summer. With Republicans in full control of the Federal government, there’s a good chance Welfare Reform will be an issue they may take on. So in anticipation of that, it is worth taking another look at what’s worked and what hasn’t.

Today, only a quarter of welfare dollars actually goes toward basic assistance – housing, transportation or essential household items. So we'll revisit a road trip we took with Marketplace's new podcast "The Uncertain Hour" and find out the surprising ways different states use welfare dollars.

A welfare check

For the past two years, Reveal reporter Trey Bundy has been uncovering how the Jehovah’s Witnesses hide sexual abuse in their congregations – in fact, it’s official policy. The religion's leaders have been going to extreme lengths to keep the details from public view. 


On the next Reveal, we track down people who know the religion’s dark secrets.

Secrets of the Watchtower

America's digital dumping ground

Next to the air we breathe, it’s the planet’s most precious resource: fresh water. And it’s disappearing. The world’s largest food company describes the lack of water as a looming catastrophe that is expected to play out in the coming decades. In this episode of Reveal, we look at what’s happening in places that already are running out of water.

Help us hold the powerful accountable and speak for the most vulnerable. Please go to www.revealnews.org/donate to support our work today. 

Head over to revealnews.org for more of our reporting. 

Follow us on Facebook at fb.com/ThisIsReveal and on Twitter @reveal.

And to see some of what you're hearing, we're also on Instagram @revealnews.

Water Wars

The U.S. Navy spends tens of billions of dollars each year building and repairing ships. But how safe are the shipyards where that work is done? Reveal investigates how lax safety has been allowed to persist at shipyards that thrive on military contracts.

This hour also will explore one of the newest warships in the Navy’s fleet and whether it’s living up to expectations. And we’ll tell the story of one man’s unexplained disappearance on the high seas.

To explore more reporting, visit revealnews.org or find us at fb.com/ThisIsReveal, on Twitter @reveal, or Instagram @revealnews.

Deadly waters

On this episode of Reveal, we look at #Pizzagate. This story takes us into the world of right-wing Twitter trolls, pro-Trump political operatives and fake-news profiteers from St. Louis to Macedonia. Reveal unravels how this conspiracy theory spread and tries to answer one big question: How did America become a post-truth country?

Pizzagate: A slice of fake news

SV03_EXECUTIVES female by race

SV02_EXECUTIVES female+male

SV01_EXECUTIVES by race

In Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, the Catholic church had a problem with Jesuit priests sexually abusing children. The church’s first solution was to send the priests to remote Native villages, but there they continued to abuse. So the church tried something else: hiding them in plain sight.

Reveal is a weekly radio program produced by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. For more, check out our revealnews.org and subscribe to our podcast:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/reveal/id886009669

Sins of the Fathers

Scientists warned this weed killer would destroy crops. EPA approved it anyway

High school junior Sarah Alli-Brown shares an audio diary of what life has been like since her Chicago high school closed its doors in mid-March. Alli-Brown has twin 8-year-old brothers. With their school shuttered and their single mom working two jobs as an essential worker, Alli-Brown now cares for her siblings full time while also trying to balance the challenges of distance learning. This story was produced in partnership with Chalkbeat.

Home School: A Day In The Life

Monumental Lies (Update)

Kimini Randall went from life in prison to life as an essential worker. This is his story.

The Ambassador

Technology Journalist Laura Sydell takes a deep dive into the trade in fake reviews that engages doctors, small businesses, and pizza shops too across Yelp, Facebook and Google. She's guided on her journey by former fraud investigator Kay Dean, whose own encounter with fake reviews took her deep into the world of Black Hat Marketing

The Lucrative, Shady Market in Fake Reviews

Reveal is a new investigative reporting program from The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX. Available on public radio and online, the show examines what governments, businesses and communities are doing behind the scenes, hidden from public view. It's for anyone who is interested in stories that change our understanding of how the world works. 



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