Documentary

Millions of kids can't read well. Scientists have known for decades how children learn to read, but many schools don’t know about the research. They buy teacher training and books that are rooted in a disproven idea. In Sold a Story, Emily Hanford investigates four authors and a publishing company that have made millions selling this idea. The podcast has won some of the biggest awards in journalism. Twenty-five states (and counting) have changed their reading laws because of it.

From LAist Studios, the creators of The Big One, the second season of The Big Disaster series will provide you with a wildfire survival guide that includes not just tangible safety tips — but hope for our future.  As the world enters a new age of wildfires, science reporter Jacob Margolis hosts Season 2: The Big Burn, a deep dive into personal stories that illuminate the history of how we got here, why we keep screwing things up, and what we can do to survive and maybe even thrive while the world around us burns. Season 1: The Big One -  When The Big One hits it’ll take under two minutes for more than 10 million Southern Californians to lose internet, power, and a sense of security. Host Jacob Margolis and Producer Misha Euceph take you on a journey to understand what the catastrophic earthquake will mean for Los Angeles, the U.S., and the world. This is what you need to know to survive.  Support for this podcast is made possible by Gordon and Dona Crawford, who believe that quality journalism makes Los Angeles a better place to live, the Strelow Family, and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.

The largest oil spill in American history captivated the public's attention for the entire summer of 2010. Authorities told a story of a herculean response effort that made shorelines safe and avoided a worst case scenario. Was that really the whole picture? From Western Sound and APM Studios, Ripple is a new series investigating the stories we were told were over. In Season One, we travel hundreds of miles across the Gulf Coast to learn the ongoing effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill - which are still impacting many coastal residents more than a decade later.

For “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal, joining the Navy fresh out of college was a defining chapter in his life. It was the 1980s; the Cold War and the Soviet Union was the greatest threat. Fast-forward through 40 years — and one career change — and the threat looks different. Climate change has no face or flag, but it will fundamentally change the way the U.S. military trains and fights. It already has. “How We Survive” is an award-winning podcast from Marketplace about the messy business of climate solutions. In our sixth season, Kai Ryssdal travels to far corners of the world to shine a light on how the institution that shaped him could shape our climate future. From a small Arctic village to a remote island in the Pacific, we’ll take you to the front lines of the fight against the crisis.

Each season, we explain the weird, complicated and often unequal American economy — and why some people get ahead and some get left behind. Host Krissy Clark dives into obscure policies and forgotten histories to explain why America is like it is. The latest season examines the “welfare-to-work industrial complex” and the multi-million dollar companies running today’s for-profit welfare centers.

In Deep is a podcast about water, climate and environment from The Water Main at American Public Media. In Season 1, we tackled the strangely fascinating yet troubling world of clean water -- from tap to toilet. Season 2 shines a light on environmental equity with a rich journalistic portrait of a working-class city and its residents at a perilous moment in our planet's existence.