Shows
The FRONTLINE Dispatch'Unprepared, Part Two: There is No Plan’ (from NPR’s Up First)From The Sunday Story on NPR’s Up First, hosted by Ayesha Rascoe.As North Carolina struggles to build back after Hurricane Helene, NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan travels to New York and New Jersey years after Superstorm Sandy to find how recovery efforts fell short. And we learn special interests are shaping how we put communities back together. This episode was produced by Graham Smith and Andrew Mambo. It was edited by Jenny Schmidt and Robert Little. Kwesi Lee mastered the episode.This series was co-reported with NPR and FRONTLINE, Jonathan Schienberg, Kate McC...2025-06-1426 min
The FRONTLINE Dispatch‘Unprepared, Part One: Hurricane Helene’s Deadly Warning’ (from NPR’s Up First)From The Sunday Story on NPR’s Up First, hosted by Ayesha Rascoe. NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan examines how the nation is failing to rebuild after major storms in a way that will protect them from the next one. As climate-related storms become more frequent and severe, NPR and FRONTLINE investigate the forces keeping communities from building resiliently, and the special interests that profit when communities don’t. Despite billions in federal aid, outdated policies, weak building codes, and political resistance are putting lives and homes at continued risk.This episode was produced by Gra...2025-06-1424 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchAfter Hurricane Helene, Are We Ready for the Next Big Storm?Last fall, Hurricane Helene tore through multiple states, leaving millions without power, billions of dollars in damage, and more than 200 people dead. In the days that followed, NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan and a team from FRONTLINE began reporting on the ground in Western North Carolina, one of the hardest-hit areas — despite being inland and elevated far above sea level. Over the course of several months, the team documented the community’s early attempts to recover and debates around how to build back. Hurricane Helene’s Deadly Warning is the latest in a series of films from FRO...2025-06-0622 min
Boston Public Radio PodcastBPR Full Show 4/30: Trading Politics For PopcornGBH executive arts editor Jared Bowen discusses an Edvard Munch exhibit at the Harvard Art Museum and Francis Ford Coppola at a 'Megalopolis' showing at the Coolidge Corner Theater.Patty Tahalongva is director, producer and writer of PBS Frontline's latest film "Alaska's Vanishing Native Villages." She joins via zoom to discuss the film, which follows the immediate impacts of climate change on indigenous communities forced to relocate.Naturalist and author Sy Montgomery talks about crows with math skills, booze-fueled feasts for wild chimps and the Cape Ann woodpecker.Former Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea...2025-04-302h 36
The FRONTLINE DispatchInside a White Supremacist Network That Encouraged Members to KillFor more than a year, FRONTLINE and ProPublica have been investigating a global network of far-right extremists known as the Terrorgram Collective.The recent documentary The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram explores how this white supremacist network grew on anonymous, loosely-moderated platforms — and the violent consequences. Reporters A.C. Thompson and James Bandler join The FRONTLINE Dispatch to talk about the ideas and rhetoric they found inside Terrorgram, and how they uncovered connections between the group and a deadly terror attack at an LGBTQ+ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, that killed two people. “You can fi...2025-04-1027 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchLife in Tibet and What Comes NextAfter 75 years of Chinese Communist Party rule in Tibet, and as Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, approaches his 90th birthday, Tibet is at a critical juncture. FRONTLINE’s documentary Battle For Tibet goes inside the long-running struggle over the future of the mountainous region.Award-winning producer and director Gesbeen Mohammad joins The FRONTLINE Dispatch to discuss what the film reveals about life in Tibet now, and the uncertain future for Tibetan Buddhism, language and culture. Drawing on undercover footage, interviews with Tibet and China experts, Chinese government statements, and accounts from Tibetans now livin...2025-02-2117 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchMartin Smith on China Under XiLongtime FRONTLINE correspondent and director Martin Smith returns to talk about his latest documentary, China, the U.S. &the Rise of Xi Jinping. With President Trump vowing larger tariffs in his second term, the documentary examines China’s rise to economic prominence, the life and vision of its longstanding leader, and rising tensions with the United States over issues such as trade and the future of Taiwan. Smith sat down with FRONTLINE Editor-in-Chief and Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath to talk about the challenges of making the documentary — including not being able to film inside China — and why...2025-01-1723 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchWho Is the Rebel Leader Who Ousted Assad?On December 8, 2024, Syrian rebels stunned the world when they seized Damascus and toppled the government of Bashar al-Assad, more than 13 years into the country’s brutal war. Spearheading the rebel offensive was Abu Muhammad al-Jolani, the leader of the Syrian militant group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) — and a man who has been designated a terrorist by the U.S. since 2013. In 2021, FRONTLINE correspondent Martin Smith became the first Western journalist to interview Jolani. Following Assad’s fall, Smith sat down with FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath to talk about what he learned from his conv...2024-12-1319 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe VP Choice: Vance vs. Walz (Full-length film audio track)In this audio-only version of FRONTLINE's documentary The VP Choice: Vance vs. Walz, FRONTLINE investigates the lives and views of Sen. JD Vance and Gov. Tim Walz as they run for vice president. In a historic election, those who know the candidates best reveal the influences and ideas they would bring to the White House.Stream the documentary on FRONTLINE's website, FRONTLINE's YouTube channel, or the PBS app. Plus, read additional interviews from the making of this documentary as part of the FRONTLINE Transparency Project.Want to be notified every time a new p...2024-10-3057 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Choice 2024: Harris vs. Trump (Full-length film audio track)FRONTLINE investigates the lives and characters of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump as they seek the presidency. In a historic election, those who know the candidates best reveal key moments that shape how they would lead America.Award-winning filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team, who have made five prior installments of The Choice over the past 25 years, sat down with Trump and Harris’ friends, advisors and critics, as well as authors, journalists and political insiders to present deeply reported narrative arcs of both candidates’ lives, going all the way back to their childhoods.What emerges in T...2024-10-041h 59
The FRONTLINE DispatchBehind ‘South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning’In the decades after the Korean war, around 200,000 children born in South Korea were adopted by families in Western countries. As adults, some of those adoptees have returned to South Korea to learn about their origins — only to discover that what they had been told wasn’t true.A new documentary from FRONTLINE and The Associated Press, South Korea’s Adoption Reckoning, details the stories of adoptees and birth parents searching for answers, charts the history of foreign adoption out of South Korea, investigates allegations of wrongdoing including falsified papers and switched identities, and reveals the forces that h...2024-09-2730 minBoston Public Radio PodcastBest Of BPR 9/24: Denouncing Dehumanizing Rhetoric & The PBS VeepstakesToday:It’s not just Ohio: Around the country, Haitian communities are facing threats of violence after incendiary lies made by former president Trump and JD Vance. We talk with former State Rep -- the first Haitian-American to hold public office in Massachusetts -- Marie St. Fleur. And, we speak with two award-winning GBH filmmakers about their work highlighting the role of Vice Presidents past, present and future… Cameo George, Executive Producer for American Experience and Rainey Aronson-Rath from Frontline will discuss their new documentaries on the VEEP-stakes.2024-09-2438 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchInvestigating the Rise of the Far Right in GermanyIn recent EU elections, far-right parties made major gains across the continent, including Germany's AfD party. FRONTLINE correspondent Evan Williams has been reporting on the rise of the far-right in Germany for years. In 2021, he examined a wave of violence targeting Jews, Muslims, immigrants, and politicians in FRONTLINE’s documentary Germany’s Neo-Nazis and the Far Right. He returned to the country this year to report Germany’s Enemy Within, a deep look at the rise of the far-right AfD party and its vision for the country, ahead of state elections in September. “What we not...2024-08-1525 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchBill Moyers on Three Decades Documenting 'Two American Families' With Tom Casciato and Kathleen HughesFor more than 30 years, and over the course of five documentaries, correspondent Bill Moyers and filmmakers Tom Casciato and Kathleen Hughes have returned to Milwaukee again and again, to follow two families: one Black, the Stanleys, and one white, the Neumanns. The newest installment of the project, released this summer, chronicles the families’ struggle to stay afloat in a changing economy across three decades and six presidential administrations.Moyers, Casciato and Hughes join host Raney Aronson-Rath to discuss how the project began and evolved over time, documenting moments they’ll never forget, what Two American Families says about...2024-08-0242 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe ‘Dangerous Assignment’ That Sent a Venezuelan Journalist Into ExileWhen Venezuelan journalist Roberto Deniz began investigating problems with a government food program with his colleagues at the investigative news site Armando.info, he didn’t know that the reaction to his reporting would one day drive him to flee his home country. For the past six years, he has been living and reporting in exile, helping to uncover a corruption scandal reaching from Venezuela to the U.S. and beyond. A Dangerous Assignment: Uncovering Corruption in Maduro’s Venezuela is a new documentary from FRONTLINE and Armando.info that follows Deniz as he investigates the co...2024-05-2422 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchInside the Investigation into Police Use of ForceA new investigation reveals that over nearly a decade, more than 1,000 people died following encounters where police employed tactics known as “less-lethal force,” which ranged from Tasers or physical restraint to forced sedation and other methods meant to stop people without killing them. Police say they are often responding to volatile and sometimes violent situations, and deaths are rare.Drawing on police records, autopsy reports, and footage from cellphones and body-worn cameras, The Associated Press, in collaboration with FRONTLINE and the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism, compiled a database that serves as the most extensive accounting ever of d...2024-05-0918 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Search for Ukraine’s Missing ChildrenSince Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine began, thousands of Ukrainian children have been taken and held in Russian-controlled territory. A new documentary from FRONTLINE, Children of Ukraine, examines the fate of some of these young Ukrainians, following families and investigators as they search for missing children and collect evidence of alleged abductions. Director Paul Kenyon joined The FRONTLINE Dispatch to talk about dueling Ukrainian and Russian narratives about what’s happened to the children, interviewing young survivors of war and trauma, and ongoing efforts to reunite Ukrainian families. You can watch Children of Ukraine...2024-04-1923 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchInvestigating a Massive Online Leak of Government SecretsOn March 4, 2024, Air National Guard member Jack Teixeira pleaded guilty to charges related to one of the country’s largest leaks of classified information. How did Teixeira manage to go without notice for months as he leaked hundreds of pages of government documents on Discord, the online chat platform popular with teenage gamers? Shane Harris and Sam Oakford were part of a team of Washington Post reporters who set out to investigate, and who partnered with FRONTLINE director Tom Jennings. The FRONTLINE/Washington Post documentary The Discord Leaks investigates Teixeira’s online world, his massive leak o...2024-04-0624 min
Mentors on the Mic: Your guide to pursuing a career in the Entertainment industryNYWIFT Muse Awards RED CARPET: Kyra Sedgwick, Alex Borstein, Tantoo Cardinal & moreBonus Episode LIVE from the RED CARPET of the New York Women in Film and Television Muse Awards.
First ever red carpet interviews with:
- Tantoo Cardinal (04:41)
- Michele Stephenson (05:31)
- Raney Aronson-Rath (07:40)
- Sibyl Reymundo-Santiago (09:32)
- Alex Borstein (11:00)
- Pat Swinney Kaufman (14:31)
- Kyra Sedgwick (16:55)
- Latasha Gillespie (18:30)
Bios:
Tantoo Cardinal is an award-winning actress of Indigenous descent, who was most recently on screen with Robert DeNiro and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s newest feature, Ki...2024-04-0222 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchStuck in a ‘Fractured’ SystemWorking as a health care reporter in North Carolina, WFAE’s Dana Miller Ervin heard about jail inmates living with serious mental illnesses who cycled for years between jails and psychiatric hospitals. The courts deem them too sick to stand trial – incapable to proceed or ITP – but they often wait months to get the care they need just so their cases can move forward.
Ervin detailed her investigation in an 11-part WFAE radio series, “Fractured,” made with support from FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative. Now, a documentary by the same name follows Ervin as she chronicles the plight of ITP...2024-03-1519 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchDemocracy on Trial, Part Four: Inside the White House on Jan. 6FRONTLINE investigates the roots of the federal criminal case against former President Donald Trump stemming from his 2020 election loss in a special audio version of the new documentary Democracy on Trial.
In this final installment, the Jan. 6 Select Committee examines what happened inside the White House on Jan. 6, 2021. What was former President Donald Trump doing for 187 minutes during the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, when some in the crowd were chanting, “Hang Mike Pence”? What did Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to then-President Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, testify that she witnes...2024-03-0130 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchDemocracy on Trial, Part Three: An “Invitation” for Jan. 6FRONTLINE investigates the roots of the federal criminal case against former President Donald Trump stemming from his 2020 election loss in a special audio version of the new documentary Democracy on Trial.
In part three, the Jan. 6 Select Committee examines the pressures mounting on the Justice Department and then-Vice President Mike Pence to intervene on Trump’s behalf. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger recalls a phone call in which the former president tells him, “I just want to find 11,780 votes” — the number of votes needed to win the 2020 presidential election in the state. And the former president sends a n...2024-02-2339 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchDemocracy on Trial, Part Two: A Pressure Campaign and a WarningFRONTLINE investigates the roots of the federal criminal case against former President Donald Trump stemming from his 2020 election loss in a special audio version of the new documentary Democracy on Trial.
In part two, Georgia election official Gabriel Sterling issues a stark warning about the potential for violence. Rusty Bowers, former Arizona House speaker and a lifelong Republican, testifies in front of the Jan. 6 Select Committee about former President Donald Trump’s campaign of pressure on local officials. And two Georgia election workers, Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, face racist threats after being named in a conspiracy the...2024-02-1633 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchDemocracy on Trial, Part One: A Blueprint For the Case Against TrumpWith the 2024 presidential race underway, FRONTLINE investigates the roots of the federal criminal case against former President Donald Trump stemming from his 2020 election loss. In this special audio version of Democracy on Trial, veteran political filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team examine the House Jan. 6 committee’s evidence, the historic charges against Trump and the threat to democracy.
In this first installment, former President Donald Trump is charged with crimes in office — an unprecedented event in American history. The Jan. 6 Select Committee report starts to build a case against former President Donald Trump, which will go on to b...2024-02-0945 min
The FRONTLINE Dispatch‘Democracy on Trial’ Director on the Roots of Federal Charges Against TrumpDemocracy on Trial is a 2.5-hour documentary special from FRONTLINE that examines the roots and implications of the unprecedented charges against former president Donald Trump in connection with the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Drawing on interviews with elected officials, former government lawyers, House Select Committee witnesses and former committee staffers, authors and journalists, the documentary — which is being released in audio form via The FRONTLINE Dispatch podcast in the coming weeks — shows how the work of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack forms a blueprint for the federal indictment brought by Special Counsel Jack...2024-02-0919 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchReconstructing the Uvalde Shooting ResponseThe May 2022 gun massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas left 19 children and two teachers dead. It was one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history. Inside the Uvalde Response, a recent documentary from FRONTLINE, ProPublica and The Texas Tribune, probes the chaotic police response to the shooting and sheds new light on law enforcement’s thoughts and actions as the tragedy unfolded.
Among the revelations: Students and teachers at the school had practiced active shooter drills and knew what to do, but scores of law enforcement officers who responded that day did not....2024-01-0417 minThe FRONTLINE DispatchDocumenting the Siege of Mariupol (re-release)20 Days in Mariupol is an unflinching, first-hand account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of the port city of Mariupol, which remains under Russian occupation to this day.
Ukrainian-born director and journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues from the Associated Press were the last international journalists to remain in Mariupol as Russian troops attacked. His new film, from FRONTLINE and the AP, draws on Chernov’s news dispatches and his reflections as he documented the devastation of his home country for the world to see.
Chernov sat down with FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive produ...2023-11-3022 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchLooking Back at the Houston Astros Cheating ScandalThe Houston Astros didn’t make the World Series this year. But they’re still widely considered one of the best teams of the past decade. FRONTLINE’s documentary The Astros Edge: Triumph and Scandal in Major League Baseball examines how the team used cutting-edge techniques to rise from the bottom of the league to the top, and what happened in 2017 when they went too far in what would become one of the worst cheating scandals in MLB history.
The Astros Edge correspondent Ben Reiter has covered the team extensively for Sports Illustrated and boldly predicted the Astros...2023-10-2723 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchFrom Russian Newspaper Editor to ‘Foreign Agent’When filmmaker Patrick Forbes decided to make a documentary about Russian newspaper editor Dmitry Muratov, Muratov had just won a Nobel Prize. Over the course of the next year, Russia would invade Ukraine, and Russian President Vladimir Putin would intensify his government’s crackdown on the press – a crackdown in which Muratov and his newspaper, Novaya Gazeta, would be caught up.
In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, Forbes joins host Raney Aronson-Rath, editor-in-chief and executive producer of FRONTLINE, to discuss Putin vs. the Press, the new documentary that follows Muratov as he as he faces personal atta...2023-10-0521 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchLocked Up for Life After ‘Two Strikes’Two Strikes, a documentary from FRONTLINE, The Marshall Project, and Firelight Media, tells the story of Mark Jones, a former West Point cadet serving a life sentence in Florida after an attempted carjacking.
The film’s director and producer Ursula Liang, a 2021 FRONTLINE/Firelight Filmmaker Fellow, and reporter Cary Aspinwall of The Marshall Project, join The FRONTLINE Dispatch to unpack the story behind Jones’ sentence — and a law that increases prison time for certain repeat offenders. Florida’s so-called “two-strikes” law allows prosecutors to seek the maximum sentence for people found guilty of felonies within three years of a prison...2023-09-1421 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchStruggling for Breath in Coal Country (re-release)A new rule proposed by the Labor Department could help limit coal miners' exposure to a toxic dust called silica.
“The purpose of this proposed rule is simple: prevent more miners from suffering from debilitating and deadly occupational illnesses by reducing their exposure to silica dust,” Chris Williamson, assistant secretary for mine, safety and health, said in a statement. “Silica overexposures have a real-life impact on a miner’s health.”
Williamson has said the proposal was inspired, in part, by FRONTLINE and NPR’s 2019 investigation, which exposed a link between silica dust and an epidemic of severe bla...2023-08-1715 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchDocumenting the Siege of MariupolNow playing in select theaters and coming to PBS this fall, 20 Days in Mariupol is an unflinching, first-hand account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of the port city of Mariupol, which remains under Russian occupation to this day.
Ukrainian-born director and journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues from the Associated Press were the last international journalists to remain in Mariupol as Russian troops attacked. His new film, from FRONTLINE and the AP, draws on Chernov’s news dispatches and his reflections as he documented the devastation of his home country for the world to see...2023-07-2127 min
The FRONTLINE Dispatch‘Dangerous Trucks’ on America’s RoadsCorrespondent A.C. Thompson joins the FRONTLINE Dispatch to discuss America’s Dangerous Trucks, an investigation in partnership with ProPublica.
The film examines a particularly devastating type of traffic accident involving trucks – underride crashes — and how for decades, federal regulators inside the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) failed to enact new safety measures to prevent them.
“In the 1960s, the federal safety regulators, they start looking at this issue and they're saying, this is a problem,” Thompson recounts. “They do studies, and it then takes them more than 30 years to do anything. And that was shocking...2023-07-0722 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchTexas After UvaldeIn the year following the shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 19 children and two adults, how has the community in Uvalde, Texas grieved — and what do they want to see happen?
In the recent documentary After Uvalde: Guns, Grief, and Texas Politics, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Maria Hinojosa examined the Uvalde community’s efforts to heal, its history of activism, and where the fight over assault rifles stands today.
Hinojosa, host of Latino USA and founder of Futuro Media, joins Raney Aronson-Rath to talk about her reporting in Uvalde and at the Texas Capitol as the...2023-06-1624 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchFor Women, ‘A Very Different Afghanistan’In the third and final installment of the documentary series America and the Taliban, FRONTLINE looks at the months leading up to the Taliban takeover and the consequences of the group’s return to power — including the return of harsh restrictions for women.
In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch podcast, released on World Press Freedom Day, filmmakers Marcela Gaviria and Martin Smith joined host Raney Aronson-Rath to share observations from their reporting on the ground about the reversal of women’s rights in Afghanistan.
“It just feels like half the population is in hiding,” Gaviria told...2023-05-0312 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchDocumenting America’s 20 Years in AfghanistanDrawing on decades of on-the-ground reporting in Afghanistan, the new three-part series America and the Taliban traces pivotal moments in America’s longest war, and how it culminated in Taliban victory.
Award-winning producers Marcela Gaviria and Martin Smith join FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath for a discussion on their decades of reporting in Afghanistan, and what it was like to revisit people and places from past coverage for this new series.
"There's one basic thing that they all knew, and that was that the Taliban were not going to go anywhere permanently," Smith to...2023-04-2020 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchBehind the Bank FailuresIn the aftermath of the second and third-largest bank failures in U.S. history, correspondent James Jacoby joins the FRONTLINE Dispatch to talk about Age of Easy Money, a documentary examining the power of the Federal Reserve and our current economic uncertainty.
The film draws on over two years of reporting on the Fed’s so-called “easy money” policies, with Jaocby and team charting the start of the Fed’s economic experiment after the 2008 financial crisis and again during COVID; the Fed’s decision to start raising interest rates in 2022; and what’s happened since — including recession fears, bank mar...2023-03-3132 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchA Year of War in Kharkiv, UkraineDuring the early months of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, filmmakers Mani Benchelah and Patrick Tombola documented the lives of civilians and first responders trying to survive in Kharkiv, a Ukrainian city near the border of Russia. Their work became the FRONTLINE film Ukraine: Life Under Russia’s Attack, released in August of 2022.
An updated version of the documentary, released in February 2023, revisits many of the Ukrainians Benchelah and Tombola first profiled and takes us to the present day — a year after Russia’s invasion began.
Joining FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath after their mo...2023-02-2321 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchBehind the Explosive Investigation into Pegasus SpywareWhen a leaked list of more than 50,000 phone numbers came to the attention of Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud of the journalism non-profit Forbidden Stories, along with Amnesty International, they suspected the list contained phone numbers potentially targeted for surveillance using the powerful spyware known as Pegasus, which gives its operators access to targets’ mobile devices.
Richard and Rigaud teamed up with journalists from sixteen other outlets, including FRONTLINE, to investigate. What the reporting consortium found, with technical support from Amnesty International’s Security Lab, was explosive: Pegasus had been used on journalists, human rights activists, the wife...2023-01-1922 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchPutin’s Crackdown on Dissent Inside RussiaIn the new documentary Putin’s War at Home, FRONTLINE tells the stories of Russian activists and journalists defying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on dissent – from a young woman documenting protests and propaganda on TikTok, to a duo of reporters investigating the Ukraine war’s death toll among Russian soldiers.
Director Gesbeen Mohammad joins FRONTLINE’s executive producer and editor-in-chief, Raney Aronson-Rath, to discuss what it took to gather these stories — and what the documentary’s subjects risked by speaking out about the Ukraine war, including arrest and imprisonment.
“People were very, very afraid to speak to...2022-12-0123 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchUncovering a Pattern of ‘Strategic Violence’ by Russia in UkraineSince the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, FRONTLINE and the Associated Press have been investigating mounting evidence of war crimes. The two organizations’ recent documentary, Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes, found that in many instances the violence was far from random.
AP Global Investigative Reporter Erika Kinetz, the documentary’s correspondent, joins The FRONTLINE Dispatch to talk about this months-long collaborative investigation. From reporting on the ground in Ukraine, to piecing together hours of CCTV footage and audio intercepts of Russian soldiers’ conversations, Kinetz spoke with FRONTLINE’s editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronso...2022-11-1027 min
Marketing InsightsExecutive Perspective on Career in Marketing: Interview with Tina Cassidy, Chief Marketing Officer at GBHAs Chief Marketing Officer at GBH, Tina Cassidy is the steward of a legacy brand at a time of massive change in how audiences consume media. In this edition of the Marketing Insights Podcast Series, Dr. Shane Hunt of Idaho State University visits with Tina about her role in growing audiences and support for public media, as well as repositioning a brand that produces iconic PBS programs such as American Experience, Frontline and Antiques Roadshow. Tina and Shane provide insights that can help marketers navigate a rapidly changing media environment. @DrShaneHunt @TinaCassidy2 #McGrawHill @Marketing Shane Hunt, LinkedIn: https://www...2022-11-0209 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchEvictions and the PandemicAs COVID-19 swept the country in 2020, millions of people in the U.S. were out of work and at risk of being evicted. An unprecedented federal ban on evictions and billions of dollars in rental assistance helped keep people in their homes — but some people were still evicted.
In FRONTLINE and Retro Report’s documentary “Facing Eviction,” director Bonnie Bertram and a team of filmmakers from across the country examined why — finding that the effectiveness of pandemic housing protections depended almost entirely on how local officials enforced them.
Bertram joined FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aron...2022-10-0724 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchHow American Democracy Reached a Moment of ‘Existential Crisis’As the midterms draw near amid continuing false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, FRONTLINE examines how American democracy reached this point. Veteran filmmaker Michael Kirk joins host Raney Aronson-Rath, FRONTLINE’s editor-in-chief and executive producer, for a special live recording of The FRONTLINE Dispatch to discuss what FRONTLINE’s season premiere, Lies, Politics and Democracy, reveals.
The two-hour documentary, structured as a countdown to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, illuminates critical decisions that have profoundly undermined faith in the electoral process, leading to what journalist Tim Alberta says in the film is an “exi...2022-09-2332 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchSearching for Afghanistan’s Missing WomenAfter U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan last year and the Taliban swept into power, FRONTLINE correspondent Ramita Navai and colleagues traveled the country, investigating the Taliban regime’s treatment of women. The resulting documentary, Afghanistan Undercover, revealed the harrowing realities women faced in Afghanistan.
In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, Navai talked with FRONTLINE executive producer and editor-in-chief Raney Aronson-Rath about reporting a story the Taliban didn’t want told, including secretly filming on the grounds of a prison in Herat, Afghanistan, where women said they were being held without trial.
“We needed that e...2022-08-1128 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchMaria Ressa on Journalism and Democracy in the Philippines (re-release)On June 30, 2022, the Philippines inaugurates a new president: — Ferdinand Marcos Jr., son of the former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. who ruled for a time under martial law and was overthrown in 1986. Marcos Jr., also known as Bongbong Marcos, was voted into office in a May 2022 landslide victory alongside vice presidential candidate Sara Duterte, daughter of the outgoing President Rodrigo Duterte.
In 2021, as the race was heating up, FRONTLINE executive producer and host of The FRONTLINE Dispatch Raney Aronson-Rath sat down with Maria Ressa: a winner of the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize, founder of the independent Philippine news site Ra...2022-06-2930 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchA 1967 Murder and a ‘Reckoning’ with the TruthAmerican Reckoning, a feature-length documentary from FRONTLINE and Retro Report, traces the life and death of Wharlest Jackson Sr., a 'foot soldier' of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. The film explores the history of Black resistance in his hometown, Natchez, Mississippi, as well as his family’s decades-long struggle for justice.
Host Raney Aronson-Rath sits down with Dawn Porter, her fellow executive producer on both the American Reckoning documentary and FRONTLINE's Un(re)solved initiative, as well as American Reckoning directors Brad Lichtenstein and Yoruba Richen. Un(re)solved is a multiplatform investigation that tells th...2022-06-1624 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchCovering Minneapolis in the Wake of George FloydSince the murder of George Floyd two years ago, FRONTLINE's local journalism partner the Star Tribune has chronicled the aftermath of that pivotal event — from the protests that spread globally, to documenting the trial and murder conviction of former police officer Derek Chauvin, to ongoing struggles for police accountability and reform in Minneapolis. The new documentary “Police on Trial,” from FRONTLINE and the Star Tribune, draws on unique on-the-ground reporting and filming to examine the police department at the center of the story.
In this new episode of "The FRONTLINE Dispatch," Star Tribune Editor Suki Dardarian in Minneapolis joins ...2022-06-0324 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchPulitzer Winner Corey G. Johnson on Tampa’s Lead Problem (re-release)For years, hundreds of workers at the Gopher Resource lead smelting plant in Florida were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in the air. “Poisoned,” a series from the Tampa Bay Times, in collaboration with FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, uncovers the consequences of what happened.
Times reporters Corey G. Johnson, Rebecca Woolington and Eli Murray gained access to thousands of pages of regulatory reports, company documents and employee medical records. In March 2021, Johnson joined FRONTLINE’s executive producer, Raney Aronson-Rath, on The FRONTLINE Dispatch to discuss the project and what the reporters found after months of investig...2022-05-1916 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchInside Big Oil’s Push Against Climate Change ActionThe fossil fuel industry cast doubt on climate change for decades, even as the scientific evidence grew stronger and the warnings more dire.
In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, investigative reporter Russell Gold joins executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath to discuss FRONTLINE’s new three-part documentary series, The Power of Big Oil, and the role of the fossil fuel industry in delaying action on climate change.
Gold, a senior editor at Texas Monthly, served as an editorial consultant on the docuseries. The author of two books, he previously spent nearly 20 years reporting on energy for Th...2022-05-0425 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Making of an Election MythMore than a year after President Joe Biden's inauguration, around two-thirds of Republican voters believe his election was illegitimate. How did a stolen election myth make its way to the center of American politics? Director and producer Samuel Black and correspondent A.C. Thompson, part of the team behind the 2022 FRONTLINE and ProPublica documentary "Plot to Overturn the Election," sit down with FRONTLINE’s executive producer, Raney Aronson-Rath, to discuss how a handful of people have had an outsized impact on the current U.S. crisis of democratic legitimacy.
The legacy of misinformation extends beyond the 2020 U.S...2022-04-1529 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchJulia Ioffe on Putin's Road to WarJournalist Julia Ioffe recently sat down with producer Mike Wiser for the March 2022 FRONTLINE documentary “Putin’s Road to War.” In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, we hear an excerpt of that interview, in which Ioffe discusses Russian President Vladimir Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine and how he, and the world, reached this tipping point.
“What he has opened up with this invasion is unthinkable,” Ioffe tells FRONTLINE. “And because he is losing, and because the sanctions and the Ukrainians are humiliating him, because he is backed into a corner, he is the most dangerous he has ever bee...2022-03-1126 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchA Conversation with Nobel Peace Prize Winner Maria RessaJournalist Maria Ressa, a 2021 Nobel Peace Prize winner and the subject of the documentary A Thousand Cuts, joined director Ramona S. Diaz and FRONTLINE’s executive producer, Raney Aronson-Rath, for a special conversation prior to the Nobel ceremony.
Ressa and her fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dmitry Muratov are the first journalists to receive the prestigious award since 1935. Ressa and her staff at the independent news site Rappler in the Philippines have been at the forefront of reporting on both President Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody drug war and the rapid-fire spread of online disinformation in support of Duterte...2021-12-0930 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchWhat the Pandora Papers RevealIn October 2021, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — with 150 partner news organizations around the world, including FRONTLINE — began publishing the results of an investigation based on a massive leak of confidential documents. The leaked files, known as the Pandora Papers, exposed a secretive financial system that enables the world’s wealthy and powerful to hide their money and assets from creditors, taxing authorities and governments. The revelations have reverberated across the globe.
In this episode of The FRONTLINE Dispatch podcast, FRONTLINE producer Evan Williams and ICIJ reporter Will Fitzgibbon, both featured in the November 2021 short documentary Pandora Papers, fr...2021-12-0227 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Federal Reserve’s Big ExperimentAs the U.S. Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell, confront concerns over inflation and the impact of the Fed’s pandemic-era policies, we take a deep dive into the country’s central bank, which financial journalist Dion Rabouin calls “the most powerful and least understood institution in the country.”
James Jacoby, a producer of the FRONTLINE documentary “The Power of the Fed,” and Rabouin, who was featured in the film, join FRONTLINE Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath for a conversation about how the Fed’s actions to avert crisis when COVID struck were the latest chapter in an experiment the...2021-11-1127 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchHow Boeing's Flawed 737 Max Made It Into the AirWhat did Boeing know about the potential for disaster with its 737 Max passenger jet, and when did the company know it? Tom Jennings, director of the FRONTLINE/New York Times documentary “Boeing’s Fatal Flaw,” and Times reporter David Gelles detail what their findings reveal about the lead-up to the two 737 Max plane crashes in 2018 and 2019 that killed 346 people.
In conversation with FRONTLINE Executive Producer Raney Aronson-Rath, Jennings and Gelles discuss what they learned about the technical issues with Boeing’s fastest-selling commercial jet, as well as how market pressures, corporate culture and failed regulatory oversight ushered a plane with a...2021-10-2827 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Case of the Liberty City SevenDan Reed (“Leaving Neverland”) discusses his new FRONTLINE documentary, “In the Shadow of 9/11,” the story of how seven Black men from Miami were accused of planning an Al Qaeda plot to blow up American buildings.
Their indictment marked the federal government’s first major post-9/11 counterterrorism sting within the U.S. Yet the men, who came to be known as the Liberty City Seven, had no weapons and had never communicated with anyone from Al Qaeda.
Reed joins “The FRONTLINE Dispatch” to discuss why this was a story he wanted to tell; how he built trust with sourc...2021-09-1622 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchSept. 11 to Jan. 6As the nation marks the 20th anniversary of Sept. 11, the legacy of the terror attacks and their aftermath continues to unfold, from insurrection at the U.S. Capitol to the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team have been chronicling 9/11 and its impact for two decades in multiple FRONTLINE films, including America After 9/11, an epic re-examination of the decisions that changed the world and transformed the U.S. across four presidencies. The two-hour documentary is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video app and YouTube.
Kirk joins The F...2021-09-1035 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchPolicing the Police in MinnesotaAs Derek Chauvin’s murder trial nears its end and Minnesota roils over the killing of Daunte Wright, calls for police accountability continue. Brooklyn Center Police officer Kim Potter shot and killed Wright, 20, during an April 11 traffic stop. Potter has since resigned and faces charges of second-degree manslaughter.
FRONTLINE correspondent and New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb has been on the ground in Minnesota, covering the Chauvin trial. He joins The FRONTLINE Dispatch to discuss the latest from Minneapolis and Brooklyn Center — and what the last few weeks could mean for the future of police accountability in America.
2021-04-1919 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchAn Impeachment and An InaugurationThe Biden administration is set to begin as America copes with a chaotic start to the new year: from an insurrection to a second impeachment of President Trump, all while the COVID-19 death toll reaches new heights.
Veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker Michael Kirk and his team have been chronicling the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing fallout for multiple FRONTLINE films, including President Biden, airing January 19 on PBS.
Kirk joins The FRONTLINE Dispatch to talk about this moment in American history and what lies ahead for President-elect Joe Biden. "Is he right for the times? If he is, it...2021-01-1922 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchMaking "The Choice"Before America votes, what can Biden and Trump’s responses to past crises — both personal and political — tell us about how they might lead the United States through a time of national turbulence?
In this episode, Michael Kirk, veteran FRONTLINE filmmaker and director of The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden, reflects on how the candidates have confronted challenges and setbacks throughout their lives and careers, and how the stakes in this election cycle feel especially high. Having conducted nearly 50 new interviews for this film, his fifth installment of The Choice, Kirk says: "Most people can't remember a starker choice. I really think everybo...2020-09-2232 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Transparency Project: John BoltonAs part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden airs on PBS and online Tuesday, September 22nd. Read more about Frontline’s Transparency Project at frontline.org.
In this episode, John Bolton is interviewed by FRONTLINE’s Gabrielle Schonder. Bolton served as national security adviser to Donald Trump from 2018 to 2019. He was previously the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and is the author of The Ro...2020-09-2149 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Transparency Project: Yusef SalaamAs part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden airs on PBS and online Tuesday, September 22nd. Read more about Frontline’s Transparency Project at frontline.org.
In this episode, Yusef Salaam is interviewed by FRONTLINE’s Gabrielle Schonder. Salaam was falsely accused of rape and assault of a jogger in Central Park in 1989 in what became known as the “Central Park Five” case. He was exonerat...2020-09-1835 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Transparency Project: Rudy GiulianiAs part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden airs on PBS and online Tuesday, September 22nd. Read more about Frontline’s Transparency Project at frontline.org.
In this episode, Rudy Giuliani is interviewed by FRONTLINE’s Michael Kirk. Giuliani is a politician and attorney who serves as one of Donald Trump’s personal lawyers. He was the mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. Giuliani ta...2020-09-1730 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Transparency Project: Valerie Biden OwensAs part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden airs on PBS and online Tuesday, September 22nd. Read more about Frontline’s Transparency Project at frontline.org.
In this episode, Valerie Biden Owens is interviewed by FRONTLINE’s Jim Gilmore. Valerie Biden Owens is Joe Biden’s sister and has managed his seven senatorial campaigns, as well as his presidential campaigns. She talks about Joe Biden’...2020-09-161h 02
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Transparency Project: Carol Moseley BraunAs part of FRONTLINE’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. The Choice 2020: Trump vs. Biden airs on PBS and online Tuesday, September 22nd. Read more about Frontline’s Transparency Project at frontline.org.
In this episode, Carol Moseley Braun is interviewed by FRONTLINE’s Jim Gilmore. Carol Moseley Braun is a Democrat from Illinois who was the first African American woman Senator. She served on the Senate Judiciary Committee under the leadersh...2020-09-1527 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchThe Transparency Project: Mary TrumpAs part of Frontline’s Transparency Project, all this week we’re publishing key interviews conducted as part of the reporting for The Choice 2020, a two-hour documentary special about the major-party political candidates. The Choice 2020 airs on PBS and online Tuesday, September 22nd. Read more about Frontline’s Transparency Project at frontline.org.
In this episode, Mary Trump is interviewed by Frontline’s Gabrielle Schonder. Mary Trump is a psychologist and businesswoman, and the niece of President Donald Trump. She wrote the bestselling book about her uncle: Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World...2020-09-1448 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchRace, Police & The PandemicAs streets across America erupt into clashes over racism during the coronavirus pandemic, Jelani Cobb of The New Yorker examines a connection between George Floyd's death and the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 deaths among African Americans: "the thing that ties them together is empirical evidence of a phenomenon that had been dismissed otherwise.”
Cobb describes how the relationship between black Americans and the police has become a "barometer" for race relations in the country, drawing on his years of covering explosive tensions that he says are “overwhelmingly” in response to an issue of police use of force. "…Once you loo...2020-06-0230 min
The FRONTLINE DispatchCovering Coronavirus: A Midnight RescueAs COVID-19 ran rampant through the adult care facility, family members struggled to learn the truth of how the coronavirus outbreak was hitting their loved ones. Reporter Joaquin Sapien takes us inside the story of a daughter’s midnight rescue of her father from Queens Adult Care Center, which he says is in an area that became “the epicenter of the epicenter” of the outbreak in New York. Natasha Roland describes rushing her father from the facility to a hospital, where he tested positive for COVID-19 — though not long before she'd been told he was safe and that the center h...2020-05-0222 minThe FRONTLINE DispatchStruggling for Breath in Coal CountryIn Appalachia, more than 2,000 coal miners are suffering from advanced black lung disease, caused by toxic dust in the mines and part of an epidemic federal regulators failed to prevent. Reporter Howard Berkes spoke with dozens of sick and dying miners with varying stages of the disease about how it has irrevocably changed their lives. For Berkes, the story is a culmination of nearly four decades of reporting on rural America. Today, he shares some of his most intimate interviews with them.
Find the full FRONTLINE and NPR investigative documentary here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/co...2019-01-2414 minThe FRONTLINE DispatchKIDS' SPECIAL: Muzamil's DayIn this special episode for kids, FRONTLINE follows a day in the life of Muzamil, a 12-year-old Somali boy growing up Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Camp. Producer Bianca Giaever and Reporter Roopa Gogineni bring him questions from American kids about what it’s like growing up in a refugee camp. Are there dentists? A fire department? What is your dreamland? Muzamil takes us through his daily life, answering questions from American kids along the way.
This episode was produced in partnership with Firelight Media. You can see pictures of Dadaab, Muzamil, and his friends here: https://to.pbs...2018-12-2722 minThe FRONTLINE DispatchComing November 29thThe second season of The FRONTLINE Dispatch launches on November 29th.
The FRONTLINE Dispatch comes to you from the producers and reporters of the PBS investigative documentary series FRONTLINE. New episodes biweekly. Subscribe now.2018-11-1401 minThe FRONTLINE DispatchNotes from an Invisible WarChildren describing the sounds that bombs make as they fall. Streets covered with rotting garbage. Doctors and nurses who have gone months without pay, at hospitals struggling to care for an influx of cholera patients and malnourished infants.
In Yemen, two-plus years of airstrikes by a coalition being led by Saudi Arabia and receiving weapons and tactical assistance from the United States, have led to what the United Nations has called the “largest humanitarian crisis” in the world. FRONTLINE filmmaker Martin Smith and his team witnessed chaos on a rare trip inside the country, a peek inside a la...2017-10-2616 minThe FRONTLINE DispatchBoom TownIn 2016, a 5.0 magnitude earthquake hit the small town of Cushing, Oklahoma, severely damaging the town. Cushing isn’t the type of place that’s supposed to have such a problem with earthquakes. Until about 2009, they only had one or two a year. But in the last few years, tied to an increased use of wastewater disposal (a by-product of the oil industry) the number of earthquakes has risen dramatically, and now Cushing, along with much of Oklahoma, shakes hundreds of times a year.
Cushing is a major hub of American oil — known as “the pipeline crossroads of the worl...2017-09-2835 minThe FRONTLINE DispatchChild Marriage in AmericaIn the summer after 9th grade, 14-year-old Heather discovered she was pregnant. Her boyfriend Aaron was 24. At the time, marriage seemed like it could be a solution to their problems — and maybe a way to keep Aaron out of jail.
In this episode of the FRONTLINE Dispatch, reporter Anjali Tsui and producer Sophie McKibben go inside a battle playing out over child marriage in America.
Anjali Tsui is an Abrams Journalism Fellow through the FRONTLINE/Columbia Journalism School Fellowships.
For more on child marriage in America – visit pbs.org/frontlinedispatch.
Editor’s Note...2017-09-1452 minThe FRONTLINE DispatchComing September 14thSome stories are meant to be heard. A new narrative podcast from the producers and reporters of the PBS investigative documentary series FRONTLINE. New episodes biweekly. Subscribe now.2017-09-0502 min