IRE Radio
IRE Radio Podcast | BONUS: The State of the FOIA
It’s been 50 years since the federal Freedom of Information Act was signed into law. A lot’s happened since then – not all of it good for the press. We’re calling this bonus episode “The State of the FOIA” because, over the next 30 minutes, we’ll be talking to three experts to figure out what…
Read MoreTranscript: Making a List, Checking it Twice
The following is a transcript of the IRE Radio Podcast episode “Making a List, Checking it Twice.” The audio version is available at: http://bit.ly/2gtrlaQ <<Begin Daniela Vidal narration>> 2016 brought us one of the most interesting election seasons in American history. President-elect Donald Trump came out on top, basing his qualifications in part on his…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Making a List, Checking it Twice
One of the biggest scoops this election cycle came from Washington Post reporter David Fahrenthold. His relentless shoe-leather reporting – and list making – revealed that Donald Trump wasn’t exactly the philanthropist he was claiming to be on the campaign trail. Instead of donating his own money to charity, Trump would give away or spend dollars donated…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Mobile Tech, Human Cost
If you’re listening to this podcast, you’re affected by the topic of our show today. The phone, computer or tablet you’re using to play this episode is likely powered by a lithium-ion battery. And one of the main ingredients in those batteries is cobalt. Much of our cobalt comes from the Congo, where miners often…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | The Killer That Got Away
How many people in the U.S. die of antibiotic-resistant infections? It seems like a simple question. But when a team of journalists from Reuters set out to gather the numbers, they realized that the answer would be anything but straightforward. They found out no one was properly keeping track of how many people die from…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Protect and Surveil
If you’ve ever been stopped by police, it’s likely an officer filled out something called a field contact report. Officials say the documents can be useful crime-solving tools, but they also have an unintended side effect: police now have massive digital databases tracking law-abiding citizens. On this episode, Glenn Smith and Andrew Knapp of The…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Fostering Disparity
Brandon Stahl has spent years reporting on foster care for the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But at a meeting with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, he stumbled across a fact he’d never heard before: Minnesota places a higher share of American Indian kids into foster care than any other state. A year-long investigation with data journalist…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Wards of Neglect
What happens when a state cuts $100 million from its mental health budget? Reporters from the Tampa Bay Times and Sarasota Herald-Tribune spent 18 months finding out. Their Pulitzer-winning investigation exposed deadly violence in Florida’s mental hospitals, where staff shortages, regulatory fumbling and years of neglect were, for years, hidden from the public eye. In…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | White Coat Criminals
A team of journalists at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution uncovered a nationwide phenomenon of sexual abuse in the medical community. Thousands of doctors, many still practicing, had a lurid history of sexual misconduct, their crimes hidden from the public. On this episode, we’re talking to reporter Carrie Teegardin and illustrator Richard Watkins about how they found…
Read MoreIRE Radio Podcast | Profiting from Prisoners
Prisons have long posed a challenge for investigative journalists. And when you’re trying to report on a private prison – one owned by a company, not the government – the situation becomes even more challenging. On this episode, we’re talking to three reporters who managed to pull back the curtain on the for-profit prison system. Shane Bauer describes…
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