Paper Trail - ProPublica - TopPodcast.com

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Latest Episodes:

How Microsoft’s “Little Workaround” Created a Major Pentagon Threat Jul 09, 2026

A source told reporter Renee Dudley something she found hard to believe: that Microsoft was running tech support for the Department of Defense through China, the country’s biggest cybersecurity adversary. The arrangement was called “digital escorting.” She thought it sounded like a conspiracy theory — until she started looking into it. This is the story of what she found and how her investigation changed government policy.
Read More: www.propublica.org/article/microsoft-digital-escorts-pentagon-defense-department-china-hackers
Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

Should People Who Killed Their Abusers Walk Free? Jun 25, 2026

In 2024, Oklahoma legislators passed an unusual law: It would create a pathway to freedom for people who could prove that domestic violence was a substantial contributing factor to their crime — even if that crime was first-degree murder. Members of a “survivor sisterhood” who’d found a connection in their shared histories of abuse hoped that, perhaps, they would all soon be going home. But, as reporter Pamela Colloff discovered, nothing would play out as expected.
Reporter: Pamela Colloff
Read More: https://www.propublica.org/article/oklahoma-survivors-act-domestic-violence
Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

How a 25-Cent Pill Became a Hundred-Billion-Dollar Business Jun 11, 2026

Reporter David Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer and soon learned that one of his drugs would cost almost $1,000 per pill. He set out to discover why, and uncovered financial records and legal filings that shocked him. The drugmaker’s strategy to raise the price over and over again helps explain why our healthcare system is the most expensive in the world.
Read the original reporting: https://www.propublica.org/article/revlimid-price-cancer-celgene-drugs-fda-multiple-myeloma
Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

How to Fight a Health Insurance Denial With a Little-Known Tool May 28, 2026

ProPublica got a tip from a reader named Teressa. Her husband was having a severe mental health crisis, and her health insurance company was denying coverage for his hospital and inpatient treatment. She was fighting back against the denials — and recording every phone call with the company as she did. She brought reporter Duaa Eldeib along for the journey, which ended after Teressa was able to deploy what one source called the industry’s “best-kept secret.”
Reporter: Duaa Eldeib
How to file an external appeal: https://www.propublica.org/article/health-insurance-denial-external-review
Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

How to Lose a Car in 15 Days May 21, 2026

Local reporters at The Connecticut Mirror heard story after story of drivers having their cars towed and then sold out from underneath them, sometimes in just 15 days. They teamed up with ProPublica to investigate why, how often this was happening and who was profiting from it.
This episode traces the history of the 100-year-old law that made all of it legal and follows the reporters as they try to track down drivers’ cars and confront the bureaucrats allowing a flawed system to take advantage of vulnerable people.
Reporters: Ginny Monk and Dave Altimari
Read More: https://www.propublica.org/series/on-the-hook
Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.

What the FDA Won’t Tell You About Your Medications May 14, 2026

For years, the Food and Drug Administration told the public that generics are just as safe and effective as brand-name medications. But ProPublica reporters uncovered reports from the FDA’s own inspectors detailing everything from pigeons pooping onto boxes of sterilized equipment to evidence of a factory cheating on quality testing. Even though the FDA knew about these reports, it let some of those troubled factories overseas keep shipping their drugs to the U.S. — some of which might have ended up in your medicine cabinet.
This episode details why and how a secretive group inside the FDA made the decision to keep this information from the public and how you can find out where your own medications are made.
Reporters: Debbie Cenziper and Megan Rose
Read More: https://www.propublica.org/article/fda-drug-loophole-sun-pharma
Look up your own drugs: https://projects.propublica.org/rx-inspector/
Support our journalism by donating at propublica.org/donate.