The FRONTLINE Dispatch

Latest Episodes:

Uncovering a Pattern of ‘Strategic Violence’ by Russia in Ukraine Nov 10, 2022

Show notes

Since 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 Aronson-Rath about working with FRONTLINE producers to trace the story of one woman’s loss to a larger pattern of strategic violence in Bucha and other Kyiv suburbs.

“Victim after victim, survivor after survivor would ask the same question, which is: ‘Why? Why did this happen?’” Kinetz said. “It didn't actually dawn on me until near the end of our reporting that there were actually patterns at play in the violence that we were seeing, and there were actually strategies motivating a lot of the violence.”

Putin’s Attack on Ukraine: Documenting War Crimes is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video App, and FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

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Evictions and the Pandemic Oct 07, 2022

Show notes

As 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 Aronson-Rath for a conversation about where tenant protections stand now, the process of making “Facing Eviction” and filming with people on the brink of losing their housing.

“We started to chronicle these people's lives and, as the months unfolded, saw the desperation and just the precariousness of their situation and this dreaded knock on the door that impacts all parts of their life,” Bertram told Aronson-Rath.

Facing Eviction is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video App, and FRONTLINE’s Youtube channel.

How American Democracy Reached a Moment of ‘Existential Crisis’ Sep 23, 2022

Show notes

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 “existential crisis for the United States of America."

Kirk discusses a series of "inflection points" in which Republican leaders embraced the rhetoric of Donald Trump even as warning signs mounted.

"This was the leadership agreeing to be silent,” Kirk says, “agreeing to think they were gonna manipulate him, and then being manipulated themselves."

Lies, Politics and Democracy is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video App and FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

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The Disconnect: Season 2, Episode 1: The Toll Sep 08, 2022

Show notes

In the first episode of Season 2 of The Disconnect, a podcast all about the Texas blackout of February 2021 from FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative partner, the Texas Newsroom, and Austin public radio station KUT, host Mose Buchele and colleagues examine the blackout’s impact on one Texas family, and the accuracy of the state’s official death count.

The Disconnect Season 2 is a project of The Texas Newsroom, the collaboration among NPR and the public radio stations in the state. It received support from FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Investigating the Texas Blackout Sep 08, 2022

Show notes

In February 2021, a powerful winter storm led to power outages — and an official tally of more than 200 deaths — across Texas. The Disconnect, a podcast from FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative partner, the Texas Newsroom, and Austin public radio station KUT, investigatess the aftermath of the storm and the state’s response.

KUT’s Mose Buchele, Senior Correspondent for Energy & Environment, joins The FRONTLINE Dispatch to talk about the state’s unique power grid, the deadly consequences when it failed and trying to hold officials accountable.

“At the end of the day,” Buchele said, “this is a system that seems sometimes intentionally set up to diffuse responsibility.”

Season 2 of The Disconnect, which is supported by FRONTLINE’s Local Journalism Initiative, is available at KUT and other streaming platforms.

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Searching for Afghanistan’s Missing Women Aug 11, 2022

Show notes

After 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 evidence,” Navai said. “We heard what was happening. We needed to see it for ourselves.”

Afghanistan Undercover is now streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video App and FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel.

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J. Michael Luttig and Adam Kinzinger on Democracy and January 6 Jul 29, 2022

Show notes

Congressional hearings into the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol have concluded for the summer after weeks of testimony. Among the key witnesses to appear before the committee was J. Michael Luttig, a former federal judge and renowned conservative legal scholar.

On this special edition of The FRONTLINE Dispatch, listen to excerpts from an extensive interview with Luttig, as well as with U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), one of only two Republicans on the House select committee investigating January 6.

The interviews with J. Michael Luttig and Rep. Adam Kinzinger are available online in full as part of FRONTLINE's Transparency Project.

These interviews were conducted by producer Mike Wiser and the Kirk Documentary Group for FRONTLINE’s upcoming documentary Lies, Politics, and Democracy.

Coming soon: The Disconnect, Season 2 Jul 18, 2022

Show notes

Coming August 4, 2022 from FRONTLINE's partners in the Local Journalism Initiative, KUT/KUTX Studios, season two of The Disconnect: Power, Politics and the Texas Blackout. In February 2021, days-long blackouts in Texas left millions of people shivering in the dark. Hundreds died. And it exposed the failures of the nation's only independent power grid. More than a year later, the lights have stayed on, but problems persist. So how has the Texas grid changed? And how has it changed how people think about this infrastructure that used to be invisible to them? Available August 4th on KUT.org and wherever you get your podcasts.

Maria Ressa on Journalism and Democracy in the Philippines (re-release) Jun 29, 2022

Show notes

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 Rappler and the subject of FRONTLINE's January 2021 documentary "A Thousand Cuts." Along with the documentary’s director, Ramona S. Diaz, Ressa talked about disinformation, the importance of press freedom, and what she and Diaz were seeing on the ground in the Philippines during the historic campaign season.

"A Thousand Cuts" is streaming on FRONTLINE’s website, the PBS Video app and FRONTLINE’s YouTube channel. Explore more reporting related to the documentary on FRONTLINE’s website: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/a-thousand-cuts/

Want to be notified every time a new podcast episode drops? Sign up for The FRONTLINE Dispatch newsletter: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/dispatch-newsletter-subscription/

A 1967 Murder and a ‘Reckoning’ with the Truth Jun 16, 2022

Show notes

American 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 the stories of lives cut short and examines a federal effort to grapple with America’s legacy of racist killings through the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act. Along with the documentary American Reckoning, Un(re)solved comprises a web-based interactive experience, a serialized podcast and an augmented-reality installation.

You can watch American Reckoning and experience the rest of Un(re)solved here: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/unresolved/

Want to be notified every time a new podcast episode drops? Sign up for The FRONTLINE Dispatch newsletter: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/dispatch-newsletter-subscription/

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