Ire Radio Podcast

Police rely on alcohol breath tests to convict drunken drivers. But what happens when the machines they use aren’t reliable? Stacy Cowley of The New York Times looked into the problem of faulty breath test machines and found thousands of cases where the tests were thrown out. On this episode, Stacy breaks down how she discovered unreliable breath tests and the consequences they pose for real people. EPISODE NOTES: https://www.ire.org/archives/40664

Opioid addiction is a decades-long crisis that killed roughly 47,000 people in 2017 alone, largely due to the potency of fentanyl. But despite all the warning signs, Congress didn’t pass any legislation on opioids until 2016. On this week’s episode, we’ll hear how Katie Zezima of the Washington Post tracked inaction in Congress and visited a small town in rural Massachusetts to witness the consequences firsthand. EPISODE NOTES: ire.org/archives/40144

Investigative Reporters and Editors was formed in 1975, the year before Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles was killed by a car bomb. He died days before he was scheduled to speak at IRE’s first annual conference. Now, decades after his death, the team at The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com found tapes Bolles recorded before he was killed. On this special episode, we’re sharing the first installment of the their new podcast “Rediscovering: Don Bolles, A Murdered Journalist.” We hope you love it as much as we do. EPISODE NOTES: ire.org/archives/39877

On this bonus episode, we’re sharing audio from the 2016 IRE Conference. In a session on narrative storytelling, reporters T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong explain how they wrote their Pulitzer-winning story “An Unbelievable Story of Rape”. Their reporting is the basis of a new Netflix limited series called “Unbelievable". EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2PXWzLW

When protests rocked Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014, few realized the tensions could be traced to a policy-based problem — local police were fining residents at abnormally high rates to fund the city’s operating budget. Mike Maciag of Governing Magazine spent a year looking into other communities reliant on fines. He found a trend that’s destabilizing governments in low-income communities across the country. EPISODE NOTES: www.ire.org/archives/39170

When police kill civilians, the victims are often people of color. So, when Arizona Republic reporters Uriel Garcia and Bree Burkitt decided to investigate police shootings in their state, they knew their sources should be as diverse as their community. On this week’s episode, we’ll go behind the reporting to learn how they tallied police shootings, identified sources, and used data and documents to show the true scope of the problem. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2ms5dFy

On this week’s episode, we’re sharing audio from the 2019 CAR Conference. Reporters from Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, Newsy, KUT Austin and ProPublica explained how they got data on “cleared” cases from more than 100 police departments across the country. The data showed police weren’t solving as many rape cases as they claimed. EPISODE NOTES: www.ire.org/archives/38358

On this special episode, students at the Missouri Investigative Journalism Workshop discuss their experiences at the weeklong summer program. Investigative Reporters & Editors supported the workshop, which was held at the Missouri School of Journalism. Corey Johnson of the Tampa Bay Times and Paula Lavigne of ESPN served as guest instructors. Host: Matthew O'Stricker of Woodward Academy (Georgia) Guests: Renee Born of Olathe North High School (Kansas), Ellianna Cierpoit of Blue Valley North High School (Kansas) and Kaden Meyer of Washington High School (Missouri). Music: Sunday Morning by Podington Bear Production: Sarah Hutchins, IRE& NICAR

Investigations today are full of data, documents and computer programming, but that wasn’t always the case. On this bonus episode, we’re sharing audio from the 2019 CAR Conference. Data journalism pioneer James B. Steele discusses his work with longtime reporting partner Donald L. Barlett. He also offers tips for finding stories and staying curious. EPISODE NOTES: www.ire.org/archives/37860

For decades, children passed through the doors of Catholic orphanages. Some never walked out. On this week’s episode, Christine Kenneally takes us behind her work investigating hidden abuses in orphanages around the world. Her BuzzFeed News investigation uncovered that dozens of children had died violently, their deaths covered up and lost to time. EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2ZJEXWH

Think about the last time you got a call, email or direct message from someone who wanted to share a crazy story. You might have thought there was no way what they were telling you could be true. That’s what happened to Brett Kelman, a reporter at the Tennessean. A tip about military health care fraud back in 2015 seemed too wild to be true — until it wasn’t. On this episode, Brett breaks down how he reported the story years after getting the tip and how there’s still more fraud to be uncovered. EPISODE NOTES: ire.org/archives/37432

On high school graduation day, the future looks bright, especially for Boston’s valedictorians. But as years pass, things come to look quite different for the city’s top students. A quarter of them didn’t finish college within six years. Many wanted to be doctors, and today, none of them are. On this episode, Meghan Irons and Malcolm Gay of the Boston Globe take us behind their investigation into how the city’s valedictorians are fairing more than a decade after graduation. The project offered a new approach to investigating inequality and could be replicated in any community. EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2XWSLfl

In Oregon’s memory care facilities, confirmed abuse cases are more than twice as common as in other types of senior centers. Residents live in filthy conditions, develop bedsores, even die in the care of overworked and overwhelmed caregivers. But the failures of that system can be opaque unless you’re already trapped inside it. On this episode, Fedor Zarkhin walks us through The Oregonian’s investigation into memory care centers and discusses a tool his team made to help Oregonians find safe elder care facilities for their family members. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2H2CuzA

Journalism has always been a stressful job, but new challenges and pressures have made the work even more daunting. On this bonus episode, we’re reaching into our archives for audio from the 2018 IRE Conference. During a panel about managing stress, reporters Ken Armstrong, Mike Hixenbaugh and Lulu Ramadan recounted difficult experiences and talked about how they balance their jobs and personal lives. Ken also surveyed three dozen journalists to find out how they unwind. EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2TbFL2Z

Mice, mold and lead paint. Tenants in Illinois public housing complexes were doing their best to make their conditions more livable. But even after the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development swooped in and seized control, change wasn’t swift. On this week’s episode, Molly Parker, an investigative reporter for the Southern Illinoisan and a member of ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network, walks us through her deep dives into public housing. Her reporting found the federal government failed many of the citizens it was supposed to be sheltering. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2CaEHES

As podcast audiences continue to grow, more newsrooms are making the leap to telling stories with sound. Podcasts can be a great vehicle for investigations, allowing journalists to reach interested audiences around the world. But the format also presents challenges, especially when it comes to working with watchdog staples like data and documents. On this episode, Robin Amer takes us behind her USA TODAY podcast “The City” and shares how she made the 10-episode investigation work for audio. EPISODE NOTES: http://bit.ly/2LmxPbP

In 2016, nearly 2.2 million adults were behind bars. If that were a city, it would be the nation’s fifth largest. That’s a critical community and one journalists often struggle to reach. On this episode, we’ll be exploring ways journalists can amplify the voices of inmates. The Marshall Project’s Eli Hager discusses the nonprofit’s popular “Life Inside” feature that highlights first-person essays from inmates and others close to the criminal justice system. Next, Shaheen Pasha and Razvan Sibii, senior lecturers in UMass Amherst’s journalism department, walk us through their prison journalism course. Their class pairs university students with inmates to tell stories from inside and out. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2Q9q8KV

Every year, more than 2,000 women in Minnesota report to police that they were raped or sexually assaulted. So, the Minneapolis Star Tribune decided to take a look at what happens after a report is made, analyzing more than 1,000 cases. They found that in almost half, police failed to interview potential witnesses. In roughly a third, the investigator never interviewed the victim. And in a quarter, police never assigned an investigator to the case. Reporter Brandon Stahl takes us behind the investigation. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2JHBPD9

Blood delivers oxygen to our tissues. It fights off infections. It courses through our veins. But can it help us catch a murderer? A little-known arm of forensic science, known as bloodstain pattern analysis, believes it can. On this week’s episode, Pamela Colloff, a senior reporter at ProPublica and writer-at-large for The New York Times Magazine, takes us through her investigation into the case of Joe Bryan, a high school principal serving 99 years in prison for the murder of his wife. His conviction was based largely on expert testimony surrounding bloodstain patterns prosecutors argued placed Joe at the scene of the crime. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2RPFKBb

After Hurricane Harvey devastated homes and businesses in southeast Texas, construction workers began the long process of rebuilding. But when payday came, some found their checks were short or that they didn’t get one at all. An investigation from the Dallas Morning News and Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting found that Texas officials did little to protect workers, both legal and undocumented, from wage theft. On this episode, reporter James Barragán takes us through his investigation into worker exploitation after the storm. EPISODE NOTES: bit.ly/2xZ4bnt