• 50 minutes 35 seconds
    40 Acres and a Lie Part 2

    Skidaway Island, Georgia, is home today to a luxurious community that the mostly white residents consider paradise: waterfront views, live oaks, and marsh grass alongside golf courses, swimming pools, and other amenities. 

    In 1865, the island was a thriving Black community, started by freedmen who were given land by the government under the 40 acres program. They farmed, created a system of government, and turned former cotton plantations into a Black American success story.

    But it wouldn’t last. Within two years, the government took that land back from the freedmen and returned it to the former enslavers. 

    Today, 40 acres in The Landings development is worth at least $20 million. The history of that land is largely absent from day-to-day life. But over a two-and-a-half-year investigation, journalists at the Center for Public Integrity unearthed records that prove that dozens of freed people had, and lost, titles to tracts at what’s now The Landings. 

    “You could feel chills to know that they had it and then they just pulled the rug from under them, so to speak,” said Linda Brown, one of the few Black residents at The Landings.

    This week on Reveal, with the Center for Public Integrity, we also show a descendant her ancestor’s title for a plot of land that is now becoming another exclusive gated community. And we look at how buried documents like these Reconstruction-era land titles are part of the long game toward reparations.  

    This is an update of an episode that originally aired in June 2024.

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    15 August 2026, 4:00 am
  • 31 minutes 15 seconds
    Fauci, RFK Jr., and the Latest in American Health

    More To The Story: Lettuce contaminated with cyclospora. Cruise ship passengers contracting a deadly form of hantavirus. Legionnaires’ disease (yet again) in big cities. RFK Jr. refusing any responsibility for measles outbreaks. That’s just a brief list of public health stories in America this summer. And we haven’t even mentioned Dr. Anthony Fauci being held in contempt of Congress during a hostile Congressional hearing over the Covid-19 pandemic. Public health stories are everywhere right now. So that’s why we invited epidemiologist and science communicator Jessica Malaty Rivera back onto the show. Malaty Rivera fills a vital role through her work translating medical breakthroughs and sorting through conflicting health advice. It’s a role she says the public needs now more than ever. On this week’s More To The Story, Malaty Rivera talks through the ongoing efforts to link vaccines and autism at the highest levels of the Trump administration, which produce we should (and shouldn’t) be eating right now, and the many ways the federal government’s response to public health crises today are driven by politics rather than science.

    Producers: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Intern: Joni Binder | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Digital producer: Artis Curiskis | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson

    Read: Covid Truthers Are Claiming Fauci’s Diary Was ‘Scrubbed’ (Mother Jones)

    Listen: The Covid Tracking Project (Reveal)

    Listen: How RFK Jr. Is Dismantling America’s Health Policies (More To The Story)

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    12 August 2026, 4:30 am
  • 50 minutes 28 seconds
    40 Acres and a Lie Part 1

    Patricia Bailey’s four-bedroom home sits high among the trees in lush Edisto Island, South Carolina. It’s a peaceful place where her body healed from multiple sclerosis. It’s also the source of her generational wealth.

    Bailey built this house on land that was passed down by her great-great-grandfather, Jim Hutchinson, who was enslaved on Edisto before he was freed and became a landowner. 

    “I know this is sacred land here,” Bailey says, “’cause it's my ancestors and I feel it.” 

    Union General William T. Sherman’s Special Field Orders, No. 15—better known as 40 acres and a mule—implied a better life in the waning days of the Civil War. Hutchinson is among the formerly enslaved people who received land through the field orders, which are often thought of as a promise that was never kept. But 40 acres and a mule was more than that. 

    It was real.

    Over a more than two-year investigation, our partners at the Center for Public Integrity unearthed thousands of records once buried in the National Archives. In them, they found more than 1,200 formerly enslaved people who were given land by the federal government through the field orders—and then saw that land taken away. 

    None of the land Bailey lives on today is part of Hutchinson’s 40 acres. Instead, her family’s wealth is built on her ancestor’s determination to get and keep land of his own, after losing what he thought he had gained through the field orders.

    This week on Reveal, with the Center for Public Integrity, we’re revisiting our three-part series in which we tell the history of an often-misunderstood government program. We explore a reparation that wasn’t—and the wealth gap that remains.

    This is an update of an episode that originally aired in June 2024. 

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    8 August 2026, 4:00 am
  • 30 minutes 16 seconds
    How Elon Musk Is Re-Engineering the World

    More To The Story: Boston University professor Quinn Slobodian discusses his book “Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed,” which he co-authored with Ben Tarnoff. They outline how Elon Musk’s background and political views have reshaped capitalism and coin new terms to describe the unique ways Musk has been able to forge a close and symbiotic relationship with the government. On this week’s More To The Story, host Al Letson talks with Slobodian about how the world’s richest person has reimagined the relationship between business and government, his unique brand of futurism, and how Musk’s early life in apartheid South Africa ultimately shaped his worldview.

    Producers: Joni Binder and Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Digital producer: Artis Curiskis  | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson

    Read: Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed (Harper)

    Read: Elon Musk’s Reward for Calling for a Race War? Becoming a Trillionaire. (Mother Jones)

    Listen: How Project 2025 Is Reshaping Our Country (More To The Story)

    Learn more: Quinn Slobodian's website


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    5 August 2026, 4:30 am
  • 50 minutes 51 seconds
    The Post-Roe Surprise: More Abortions

    Access to medication abortion in the years since Covid and the fall of Roe v. Wade has completely reshaped the abortion access landscape in America.


    “There's this irony that's actually happened,” says Dr. Angel Foster, an abortion provider and researcher. “Tragically, 33 to 40 percent of women of reproductive age now have less of a right to an abortion. But access for many people has increased.”
     

    Foster is the founder of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, a clinic whose work is one major player in why abortions are up. Massachusetts and almost half the states in the US have passed shield laws that legally protect abortion providers. The one Foster operates under allows her to prescribe abortion pills to patients in states with abortion bans. 

     

    And while the battleground may be shifting as medication abortions grow more common, the war is far from over. 


    This week on Reveal, we explore post-Roe America through the eyes of three women with three very different missions: Foster, who offers medication abortions nationwide; a courier who risks arrest to stockpile abortion pills for an uncertain future; and a conservative activist whose life’s work is trying to stop them both.

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    1 August 2026, 4:00 am
  • 29 minutes 39 seconds
    The Rapid Rise of Right-Wing Militias

    More To The Story: A photo went viral on Independence Day this year. It showed a Black woman on a Metro train in Washington, DC, surrounded by members of Patriot Front, a far-right white nationalist group. The picture, taken on America’s 250th anniversary, seemed to encapsulate not only the continuing story of race in America, but also this current moment when right-wing groups seem louder, prouder, and more public than they’ve been in decades. Mary McCord has been working to prosecute groups like Patriot Front for years. Following the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, the Georgetown University law professor and former federal prosecutor successfully won a consent decree that banned the rally’s lead organizer from planning future paramilitary activity in the city. Still, McCord says right-wing militias are benefiting from a friendly administration that has stretched back to Donald Trump’s earliest days campaigning for the presidency. On this week’s More To The Story, McCord sits down with host Al Letson to talk about Patriot Front’s origins, a decade of growing white nationalism in America, and the troubling direction of the US Department of Justice under the Trump administration.

    Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Digital producer: Artis Curiskis | Intern: Joni Binder | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson

    Listen: America’s New Era of Violent Populism Is Here (More To The Story)

    Read: Trump’s White Nationalist Agenda, Explained (Mother Jones)

    Listen: Main Justice (MS NOW)



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    29 July 2026, 4:30 am
  • 50 minutes 53 seconds
    ICE Took Mom and Dad. Now the Kids Are on Their Own.

    Last fall, life for the Perez children was turned upside down. Their father, Romeo Sr., was picked up on his way to work and sent to immigration detention. A few months later, their mother, Olga, was detained, too. Her daughter was driving when they were pulled over. Romeo Sr. and Olga were both undocumented and had lived in the United States for decades; their children are US citizens.

    “I just remember after he had started banging on the window, like, telling me that I have to put the windows down so my mom and my uncle can give their IDs,” says 21-year old Eliza Perez. She told the officer, “You took my dad, and now you're taking my mom.” 

    With their parents gone, Eliza, Jessica, Romeo Jr., and Cynthia had to fend for themselves in Lake Worth, Florida. Eliza, a college student, took charge of the household and the family’s landscaping business. 

    The Perezes are not alone. An estimated 205,000 kids have had a parent detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement in the last year and a half. It’s happening all over the country and, in some cases, to the same families who were separated at the border during the first Trump administration. =

    This week on Reveal, filmmakers Max Maldonado and José Jesús Zaragoza and Mother Jones reporters Samantha Michaels and Isabela Dias look into the lives of two families fighting to stay together as the Trump administration’s deportation agenda rips them apart.

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    25 July 2026, 4:00 am
  • 36 minutes 44 seconds
    Staten Island v. New York City With Revisionist History

    This week, we’re bringing you a special episode from Revisionist History, Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. Gladwell’s show recently investigated the story of what was once the biggest secession movement in the US since the Civil War: the movement by disillusioned residents in Staten Island to secede from New York City.

    The Staten Island Problem, Revisionist History’s newest five-part series, reconstructs the battle for New York during the turbulent early 1990s—the rise of Rudy Giuliani, the peak of the homicide rate, the Wu-Tang Clan, young Donald Trump, and the first Black mayor of New York—all through the prism of the city’s oft-forgotten borough. Why tell this story now? Because the island’s secession movement is an early example of the politics of resentment that dominates America today.

    The first episode of The Staten Island Problem tells the story of David Dinkins, the first Black mayor of New York, facing off with the borough president of Staten Island all while trying to hold his city together.

    Revisionist History and The Staten Island Problem are produced by Pushkin Industries. Check out their podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite podcast app.

    Listen: The Staten Island Problem (Revisionist History)


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    22 July 2026, 4:30 am
  • 50 minutes 29 seconds
    The Secret Story of FTX’s Rise and Ruin Part 2

    When the cryptocurrency exchange FTX imploded, customers around the world lost access to their money. Founder Sam Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. But the story didn’t stop there. For the past three and a half years, FTX has been in bankruptcy, a legal process that determines who will be paid back and how much they’ll receive. 

    From the start, some customers and FTX insiders have criticized the bankruptcy. Legal experts and a bipartisan group of senators objected to the law firm tapped to run it, raising concerns about potential conflicts of interest. But the bankruptcy court and an independent examiner signed off on the firm’s appointment as lead counsel.  

    Customers are now receiving compensation for their losses, but many say they’re being shortchanged. Instead of being paid in cryptocurrency, they’re receiving cash, with their claims pegged to the value of crypto when the market was at an all-time low. 

    “Under this plan, my contractual rights and my ownership rights have been trampled; my property rights have been disregarded,” says Lidia Favario, an Italian artist who argued in court that customers should be repaid in crypto, not cash.

    This week on Reveal, in the second part of our series on FTX, we examine the decisions that shaped what’s become one of the most expensive bankruptcies in US history. 

    Read the FTX bankruptcy estate’s on-the-record statement to Reveal. 

    This is an update of a show that originally aired in October 2025.

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    18 July 2026, 4:00 am
  • 33 minutes 17 seconds
    The Race to Stop AI’s Threats to Democracy

    More To The Story: OpenAI and its revolutionary chatbot ChatGPT have single-handedly accelerated AI’s boom and threatened to upend much of how we work, create, learn, and communicate in the process. But when OpenAI was founded a decade ago, the company’s approach to artificial intelligence wasn’t taken seriously in Silicon Valley. Tech journalist Karen Hao has been covering OpenAI’s astounding rise for years and is the author of Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. She says that while many in Silicon Valley warn of AI’s sci-fi-like threats, the real risks are already here. (The Center for Investigative Reporting, which produces Mother Jones, Reveal, and More To The Story, is currently suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement.) On this week’s More To The Story, Hao sounds the alarm about the risks to the planet from AI’s growth, examines the Trump administration’s efforts to deregulate the industry, and explains why the version of AI being developed by Silicon Valley could destabilize democracy.

    This episode first aired in October 2025. 

    Producer: Josh Sanburn | Editor: Kara McGuirk-Allison | Theme music: Fernando Arruda and Jim Briggs | Copy editor: Nikki Frick | Intern: Joni Binder | Deputy executive producer: Taki Telonidis | Executive producer: Brett Myers | Executive editor: James West | Host: Al Letson

    Read: America’s Worst Polluters See a Lifeline in Power-Gobbling AI—and Donald Trump (Wired)

    Listen: Is AI Pushing Us Closer to Nuclear Disaster? (More To The Story)

    Read: Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI (Penguin Press)

    Read: The Center for Investigative Reporting Sues OpenAI, Microsoft for Copyright Violations (Mother Jones)


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    15 July 2026, 4:30 am
  • 50 minutes 39 seconds
    The Secret Story of FTX’s Rise and Ruin Part 1

    Sam Bankman-Fried was once called the “crypto king.” But in November 2022, his company, FTX, imploded within a matter of days. All around the world, customers of the cryptocurrency exchange were suddenly cut off from their money. 

    “I tried to withdraw an amount, you know, and it would spin and say, your, your withdrawal is pending,” says Tareq Morad, an investor from Canada. “I remember myself doing that around 7, 8 o’clock at night, checking back, going to look: Okay, did it go through? Did it go through? No. No. No.”

    Meanwhile, inside the company, employees were panicking. “All that we were told was there's been a run on the bank and, somehow, money is missing and we don't know who to trust,” remembers Caroline Papadopoulos, part of FTX’s accounting leadership at the time. 

    This week on Reveal, through prison interviews with Bankman-Fried, his parents, FTX insiders, and customers, we take you through the frantic week of FTX’s collapse and the controversial and less well-known bankruptcy that followed. At a cost of nearly $1 billion, it has become one of the most expensive in history. 

    Read the FTX bankruptcy estate’s on-the-record statement to Reveal. 

    This is an update of a show that originally aired in September 2025. 

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    11 July 2026, 4:00 am
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