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  • 28 minutes 20 seconds
    Alternate Realities: Facing the Facts
    Episode 3: After a year of waiting, the bet is finally over. Reporter Zach Mack takes stock of his father's predictions and confronts him about the future of the family.

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    21 February 2025, 8:00 am
  • 31 minutes 49 seconds
    Alternate Realities: Down the Rabbit Hole
    Episode 2: After reporter Zach Mack accepts a bet with his father over 10 politically apocalyptic predictions, he sets out on a journey to change his dad's mind.

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    21 February 2025, 8:00 am
  • 26 minutes 34 seconds
    Alternate Realities: A Strange Bet
    Episode 1: Reporter Zach Mack thinks his dad has gone all in on conspiracy theories, while his father thinks that Zach is the one being brainwashed. In 2024, after the latest round of circular arguments, they decided to try something new, an attempt to pull each other out of the spell each of them thinks the other is under. Can one family live in two realities?

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    21 February 2025, 8:00 am
  • 2 minutes 34 seconds
    Introducing Alternate Realities from NPR
    Zach Mack and his dad are living in separate realities, and it's tearing their family apart.

    Like so many Americans, Zach's dad has gotten swept up in conspiracy theories. After years of circular arguments, the father challenged his son to a bet: $10,000 on ten politically apocalyptic predictions that would all happen in 2024.

    In this three-part series, we follow Zach on an intimate journey to bring his father back from the rabbit hole.

    All episodes will be available for NPR+subscribers on February 21 and for all listeners on February 23.

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    14 February 2025, 8:00 am
  • 55 minutes 32 seconds
    Five Fingers Crush The Land from NPR's Throughline
    As NPR correspondent Emily Feng reported in our three-part series "The Black Gate," hundreds of thousands of Uyghur people have been detained in China. They've been subjected to torture, forced labor, religious restrictions, and even forced sterilization. In this episode from 2021, our colleagues at the history podcast Throughline explore who the Uyghur people are, their land, their customs, their music and how they've become such a target in China today. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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    19 December 2024, 7:24 pm
  • 41 minutes 45 seconds
    The Black Gate: Arresting Your Brothers and Sisters
    As NPR correspondent Emily Feng reported on the Kucar family, she encountered a mysterious figure working to keep her sources from speaking out. Later, she meets another Uyghur man who - perhaps unwillingly - becomes an actor within China's systems of control. These men are accused of working to silence others, but they say they've found themselves silenced as well. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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    19 December 2024, 8:00 am
  • 32 minutes 25 seconds
    The Black Gate: Like a Bullet from a Gun
    Abdullatif Kucar returns to China, determined to find his children, who have been sent to state-run "boarding schools," and his wife, who has spent two years in prison. They're among hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs arrested and detained over the years. Kucar is trying to do what is virtually impossible in China: bring his loved ones home for good. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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    12 December 2024, 8:00 am
  • 27 minutes 52 seconds
    The Black Gate: Vanished in the Night
    In the Xinjiang region of western China, the government has rounded up and detained hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups, including the wife and young children of a Uyghur businessman named Abdullatif Kucar. NPR correspondent Emilly Feng follows Kucar as he desperately searches for his missing family. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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    5 December 2024, 8:00 am
  • 2 minutes 35 seconds
    Introducing The Black Gate from NPR
    This is the story of a people being erased, one family at a time. For almost a decade, the Chinese government has been detaining hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uyghurs in what critics call a systematic attempt to dismantle their culture. And since the beginning, NPR correspondent Emily Feng has reported on these detentions, which were described by the United Nations as possibly constituting crimes against humanity. In this three-part series, Emily follows one man desperately trying to reunite with his wife and children. Along the way, she uncovers surprising new details about some of the Uyghurs enabling this massive surveillance state. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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    2 December 2024, 8:00 am
  • 34 minutes 10 seconds
    A Good Guy: Under Oath
    There's a promise that all Marines make to defend the Constitution. After Sgt. Joshua Abate participated in the events on January 6, the Corps has to decide: Did he break his oath when he entered the Capitol that day? And what does his case say about the changing narrative around January 6? To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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    31 October 2024, 9:30 am
  • 38 minutes 52 seconds
    A Good Guy: 279 Hours
    "Have you ever tried to overthrow the U.S. government?" Marine Sgt. Joshua Abate was in the middle of a routine polygraph test to receive top-secret clearance when he made an extraordinary admission: He had followed the crowd that broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. This admission leads to a different kind of January 6 story. Abate says he's not an insurrectionist. So why did it take him so long to talk openly about that day? To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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    24 October 2024, 7:00 am
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