Episodes

Haiti is a broken state. Since the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moise, street gangs armed with military grade weapons from the US have filled the power vacuum, taking control of 90 percent of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and swathes of the countryside. Killing and kidnapping-for-ransom are at an all-time high, and tens of thousands are fleeing to escape violence the United Nations says is on par with countries at war. Haitian officials have called for another foreign interventio...

Since declaring the War on Drugs fifty years ago, the US has spent billions in Colombia to fight cocaine. The result: more cocaine than ever before, and a black market that fuels corruption, and weakening states across most of Latin America. It also pushed Colombia into a decades-long armed conflict. Now the Colombian government is promising an end to the War on Drugs by trying new approaches like decriminalizing cocaine and giving incentives to farmers who are willing to move away from coca cro...

San Francisco: From the Gold Rush boom to the Silicon Valley era, California’s “city by the bay” has long symbolized the prosperity of the American West, and the promise of new beginnings. Today, this city at the heart of America’s largest economy is struggling to keep its population as it battles with homelessness and a drug epidemic.

The Endless Harvest is a compilation of stories from all over the world showing us that sustainable growth is not only possible but actually happening. In Florida, an NGO is linking with several companies from the hospitality industry to guarantee that the unused soap and toiletries from their guests can be reused in a circular fashion. They are not only recycling the contents but also the packages, reducing waste and keeping plastic from ending up in the landfills, and making sure the resultin...

Coping With Long COVID tells the story of three patients suffering from ongoing conditions after initially being infected with the COVID-19 virus. Each has a particular set of symptoms and wide-range of continuing health problems. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 1.13 million people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S., and approximately one in five COVID-19 patients still have Long COVID. For them, the virus continues to set the tone of their daily liv...

Racism against Asian Americans has been largely underreported until recently. But anti-Asian sentiment has existed in the U.S. for centuries. In this Big Story podcast, we travel to San Francisco to report on the increasing number of attacks on Asian Americans and explore the roots of this racism.

In the mid-1950’s, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in schools to be unconstitutional. But more than 50 years later many black students in New York City are still feeling the effects of discrimination. On this Big Story podcast, we hear some of their stories.

St. Louis, Missouri was once one of America’s most industrialized cities. Industry drew many new residents, including a large number of African Americans. But today, St. Louis has become a hub of violence where the lines of segregation are still firmly in place.

In 2001, when the U.S. led an invasion of Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, the country had less than 50 miles of paved roads. The U.S. helped invest billions to create a new Ring Road connecting major Afghan cities. On this Big Story podcast, we take a drive along Ring Road today. With the U.S. forces gone, the battered roadway now illustrates the struggles and heartbreak of a war-weary nation.

Big Story launches its podcast series with ‘Unbearable – Sandy Hook 10 years later’, an examination of the elementary school shooting that took the lives of 20 children and 6 adults. The shooting sent shockwaves across the country. This podcast takes a look back at this terrible tragedy and explores the issue of gun violence in the U.S. today.