After 10 seasons of the award-winning GroundTruth Podcast, we’re excited about what might come next. But to find the best way forward, we want to hear from listeners like you: What stories do you feel are under-reported and need to be told? What questions do you have about the podcast? Give us your feedback and ask us questions about the GroundTrut…

In war, truth is the first casualty. It's a military maxim attributed to Aeschylus, the father of Greek tragedy. In the lead up to the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and ahead of the withdrawal from a war that became the longest in American history, GroundTruth's founder Charlie Sennott returns to Afghanistan and revisits a conflict he has covered on the…

A class of college students at UMass Amherst became the first group of researchers to take on Daniel Ellsberg's vast archive. For two students, it's more than a history project: It's a family story. We’d like to hear your thoughts about the podcast. Call us and leave a voice message with your feedback at (339) 365-3754. We listen to everything you …

Before he was helping plan the Vietnam War, Ellsberg was working at Rand Corporation as a nuclear war planner. In the late 1950’s and early 60’s, he came across a classified policy document that called for killing a fifth of the human population. “This, to me, was pure evil.” When he was facing trial for releasing the Pentagon Papers, he held anoth…

Now facing a possible 115 years in prison, Daniel Ellsberg awaits his federal espionage trial. Meanwhile, Nixon unleashes his Plumbers in an attempt to silence Ellsberg, and Barbra Streisand sings for the defense! In this episode we trace the series of events that tied Daniel Ellsberg’s espionage trial to the fate of Richard Nixon’s presidency. Thi…

On September 30, 1969, Daniel Ellsberg opened his newspaper to a story out of Vietnam that would act as the trigger for copying the Pentagon Papers. We pick up on this wild ride when he offers the papers to members of Congress, who shrugged him off. He then went to the New York Times, the first publication of the papers landed on the front page on …

Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers to the press knowing he could face the rest of his life in prison. But what turned this Cold War hawk into an anti-war dove? What were the motivating events and people who influenced his transformation? At 15, a tragic car accident would shape his sense of responsibility to the wider world. His time in the…

In the series premiere, we pick up on Ellsberg’s first day at the Pentagon, the day he became acquainted with what he came to call the “lying machine.” It was August 4, 1964. Contradicting accounts of an attack in The Gulf of Tonkin would give President Johnson the green light to lead the country into war in Vietnam based on a lie. We follow this t…

Americans across the country opened their newspapers to the first reports based on classified documents leaked by a government insider, Daniel Ellsberg. Consisting of 7,000 pages of top secret documents, the Pentagon Papers revealed in cold, analytical detail how four presidential administrations lied to the American public: the reasons for enterin…

The turmoil of the 2020 presidential election campaigns has raised questions about just what it means to vote. Who gets to pull the lever? How can someone cast their ballot? Will all of the votes be counted in time? GroundTruth’s Voting Rights Fellows share local stories of voters, activists and election officials working to preserve the process th…

When you think about Kentucky's deep red politics today, it's likely the face of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his laconic drawl that comes to mind. But one northern corner of this solidly Republican state is streaked blue by its state house representation. Covering local government in northern Kentucky through our Report for America p…

The origins of Blues music is a complex weave of traditions, and the genre echoes suffering and endurance through centuries of hardship. Evolving from blended musical forms brought to the United States by enslaved Africans, then taking on the rhythm of work in the fields and heart of spirituals, the oppressive environment of the Jim Crow South ulti…

For most of us, it's hard to ignore the rising threat of climate change. But the sheer magnitude of the devastation it could cause is daunting. For those journalists trying to convey the sense of urgency to the public, it can become overwhelming. Living on Cape Cod, where towns and residents are trying to beat back rising tides with seawalls and sa…

For many growing up in Chicago, the barber shop is a refuge. Raised on the Windy City's West Side, Report for America corps member Manny Ramos knows that fact well. "Barbers do more than just cut hair," he says, "they record history." They hear about the aspirations of the people whose hair they trim, and whose major life events they mark together.…

In August 2018, well before any thought of a pandemic sweeping the country, Mississippi’s prison system saw a spike in inmate deaths. Correctional officials attributed many of these to “natural causes.” But these deaths aren't the only concerns for inmates and their families. Conditions in some of these prisons – men sleeping five to a cell or the …

Bird Singing is an oral tradition that has been passed down for centuries among the tribes across the American Southwest. These stories are sung by male members of tribes – from young boys to elders – whose only accompaniment is a gourd fashioned into a shaker. But the threat of COVID-19 has forced these traditions online, in isolation. See video o…

“Deadly Force,” a new podcast series from Report for America host newsroom WPLN in Nashville, focuses on the trial of the first Nashville police officer to be charged with murder for shooting someone in the line of duty. Through newly uncovered documents, original interviews and audio footage, Deadly Force gets a glimpse into the mind of a police o…

July 3, 2018. It was almost Independence Day. Lee Eric Evans straightened a flag pole on his aunt’s front porch. He carefully unfurled an American flag so that it hung properly, making sure it didn’t touch the ground. Lee, who is 26 years old, was fussing over the flag for the 4th of July celebrations in the Farish Street Historic District which wo…

Report for America corps member Chris Ehrmann continues on his road trip across America, picking up in St. Louis, where economic recovery depends on where you live. Chris listens to protesters from Denver to Los Angeles, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd, who are wondering, is this a tipping point? https://thegroundtruthproject.org/on-the-…

Report for America corps member Chris Ehrmann embarked on a road trip across America, literally, from Times Square to Los Angeles, California. He traced the new landscape of COVID-19 across time zones and state lines. He spoke to those whose loved ones have been directly impacted by the virus, squaring off against those impacted by a devastated eco…

The 9th season of the GroundTruth Podcast is a playlist of stories from across America. We shadow our Report for America corps members as they bring us into their communities, and share the stories of people who’ve often felt unheard. Amid a pandemic and nationwide demands for justice and reform, the audio road trip begins with an actual road trip …

As a thick morning fog was still lifting over the hills here above the San Francisco Bay, Ellsberg sat at his dining room table, sipping a cup of coffee and reading The New York Times. It was Friday, December 13th, the House Judiciary Committee had just sent the articles of impeachment for a full house floor vote. It feels like deja vu, 50 years on…

As Donald Trump took the oath of office and became the 45th President of the United States, journalists’ role of covering the White House and the presidency was turned upside down. It started day one with the inauguration and the very first press conference. Sean Spicer: “This was the largest audience to ever watch an inauguration, period. Both in …

LGBT communities face challenges in all parts of the world. But in Poland, the right-wing populist Law and Justice party spent the last year insisting that pro-LGBT stances were a western import meant to weaken Poland internally. They claim that progressive social values have no place in polish identity, and refer to values pertaining to the LGBT c…

In August, 1947, British colonial rule officially ended in India. Within 6 months, Mahatma Gandhi, the leader of India’s independence movement, was assassinated by a Hindu nationalist who rejected Gandhi’s openness to India’s Muslims. For more than 70 years, India more or less remained a constitutional democracy granting religious equality to all. …

It is often said that journalism is the first draft of history. Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s dominance of Hungarian media gives him the power to not only write the first draft, but to rewrite history, in step with his own nationalist narrative. Over the past 9 years, media outlets in Hungary have fallen victim to Orban’s campaign to expand governm…

In September, 2016, Juan Manuel Santos, the President of Colombia, and Timochenko Jimenez, the rebel leader of the FARC--the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia--signed a historic agreement that formally ended more than 50 years of conflict. It was a remarkable scene. Guests were dressed in white to symbolize peace, and a childrens’ choir sang B…

Matteo Salvini is one of Italy’s most popular politicians. His harsh rhetoric against migrants, the media, and cultural integration has resonated with Italians, especially the youth. His party is the Lega, or league in English, and in the last 6 years, their support among Italians under 35 has grown from 8% to over 20%. And even more broadly, Lega …

Since taking office in January, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has weaponized the fear of widespread crime, and tapped into the country’s anger with the rampant corruption. The former army captain has given the police carte blanche to fight violence with violence. But his policy of “the only good criminal is a dead criminal” has also taken the l…

The hallmarks of populist nationalism are gaining ground in many of the world’s largest democracies, from Modi’s India to Bolsonaro’s Brazil and Trump’s America. In these, and many other countries, elected leaders are flirting with aspects of authoritarianism in an extreme era of mass migration, digital disruption and the looming threat of climate …

Crossing the Divide is a collaboration with WGBH that brought together a team of five reporters from red states and blue states to travel across the country in a van, exploring issues that divide us and stories that unite us. In this episode, Unheard in Appalachia, we take you through beautiful, mountainous Eastern Kentucky, where local economies a…

Somalia is often called a land of poets, a place where everything from teenage romance to legal disputes has been recorded and passed down through poems. As conflict and drought have driven hundreds of thousands of Somalis from that homeland, the poetry has travelled with them. But here in the U.S., Somali-American poets must find new words and met…

In honor of Memorial Day, we’re looking back at World War 1, the Great War. It’s been a century since the world powers gathered in Paris to hammer out terms for peace. No Germans were present. In fact, they were not invited to participate in the deliberations. But their worst fears were realized in the punishing terms of the treaty: Germany would p…

The Dead Sea lies at the lowest elevation on earth. And in the arid valley that stretches to the salt lake's western shore sits Ein Gedi, a nature preserve and oasis that ranges from lush, spring fed gardens, to parched craggy rock, dotted with palm trees. Here, among this barren but beautiful landscape, a massive stage is perched amid the dusty ro…

In the second chapter of this series, we go inside the Christian Zionist community in Jerusalem and the settlements in the West Bank. Micah Danney, our GroundTruth Fellow and guide for this episode, was a unique choice for this reporting assignment. He grew up steeped in Christianity. His father was a mainline Protestant preacher in Nyack, New York…

Twenty years ago, a movement known as Christian Zionism was on the furthest fringes in the land of Israel. Back then, mainstream theologians — Christian and Jewish alike — dismissed Christian Zionism as a dangerous interpretation of biblical prophecies; the ideology was flawed at best, at its worst, inherently anti-Semitic. Today, Christian Zionism…

After four years of fighting, 20 million soldiers and civilians dead, and three collapsed empires, World War One ended and a new world order emerged. But the armistice held only temporarily and the promise to end all wars was repeatedly broken over the last 100 years. Charlie Sennott has been tracing how this war is the source of so many modern con…

A year after the city of Mosul was liberated from ISIS rule, kids across Iraq are not alright. The most vulnerable are often overlooked: orphans, the wounded, the kidnapped and returned, and those who fought for ISIS — whether by force or by choice. Boys are most at risk for future violence and recruitment to extremist groups.…

Before Hurricane Maria, the Zika crisis was already pushing Puerto Rico’s health care system to the limit. Then the storm came and crippled it completely — no more testing pregnant mothers for Zika, and no more tracking babies born to Zika-infected mothers. A year later, things are still not back to normal. And it’s becoming clear that many babies …

When Bill and Frank Watson were kids, their grandfather told them a ghost story. Decades later, the brothers discovered the source of that story in their grandfather’s old railroad company documents. It raised questions about what happened to 57 Irish migrant workers in Pennsylvania in 1832, and it sent the Watson brothers on a search for a mass gr…

On a South Korean island just eight miles from the shores of North Korea, Jung Gwang-il is trying to save lives with rice and USBs. He’s a North Korean defector who survived torture and concentration camps, and is now smuggling food and information, to try to help his starving people and weaken the dictatorship — even if it puts his own life in dan…

GroundTruth's founder and CEO Charles Sennott traveled to Jerusalem to witness the traditional Jewish holiday Sukkot, or the Feast of the Tabernacles, as experienced by Christian Zionists, a group that comes around the idea that the return of Jews to the Holy Land and the establishment of the state of Israel are in accordance with Biblical prophecy…

*Refugees Lost in Translation * Three refugees — from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq — are working as interpreters for other refugees coming into Europe. With a foot in both worlds, they see things that refugees and Western media don’t: what’s being lost in translation, the profound consequences, and how the biggest barrier for refugees often isn’t a …

In beautiful, mountainous Eastern Kentucky, local economies are struggling, coal jobs continue to disappear, and people are frustrated by decades of failed government programs that have done little to help with problems connected to poverty, hazardous work conditions and poor nutrition. On a reporting road trip across America, we hear from those wh…

From Puerto Rico to Pennsylvania, a new generation of journalists is reporting on the ground, documenting the most important stories of their time. Hosted by Charles Sennott, founder of The GroundTruth Project, in partnership with WGBH News.Von The GroundTruth Project

For Omar Naré, mariachi is in his blood. His grandfather, a Mexican farm laborer, brought the music with him to California’s Central Valley, where he settled his family. Omar grew up hearing mariachi at family get-togethers and had a childhood career as a mariachi singer. After a hiatus and period of disillusionment with the music of his childhood,…

For Omar Naré, mariachi is in his blood. His grandfather, a Mexican farm laborer, brought the music with him to California’s Central Valley, where he settled his family. Omar grew up hearing mariachi at family get-togethers and had a childhood career as a mariachi singer. After a hiatus and period of disillusionment with the music of his childhood,…

At age 20, percussionist George Lernis sought to travel halfway around the world from Cyprus, to follow in the footsteps of the American jazz masters. He navigated a series of obstacles, and once his student visa expired, he faced an even more difficult challenge: qualifying for an O-1 visa — a special designation for “extraordinary artists.” It’s …

At age 20, percussionist George Lernis sought to travel halfway around the world from Cyprus, to follow in the footsteps of the American jazz masters. He navigated a series of obstacles, and once his student visa expired, he faced an even more difficult challenge: qualifying for an O-1 visa — a special designation for “extraordinary artists.” It’s …

HMI stands for Haitian Music Industry, but its artists and fans are spread around the globe. Vladimir Mead immigrated to Boston 10 years ago at age 16. Since then, he’s built up a music career under the name Masterbrain — largely through YouTube and Facebook. His Creole freestyles and music videos have accumulated tens of thousands of hits, but he’…