The Experiment

The Experiment Podcast: The Surprisingly Complex History Behind 90 Day Fiancé

What a guilty-pleasure reality show teaches us about immigration and democracy in America.

• May 6, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: What Makes a Murderer?

A widely criticized legal principle disproportionately puts youth of color and women behind bars. But is it the only way to hold police accountable when they kill?

• April 29, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: The Problem With America’s National Parks

The story of our national parks, sometimes called “America’s best idea,” leaves out a large group of people. The Ojibwe writer David Treuer is trying to change that.

• April 15, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: The ‘Rock Doc’ Who Prescribed 1.4 Million Pain Pills

Jeffrey Young’s patients say he helped them like nobody else could, but prosecutors indicted him following a huge painkiller bust. His case offers a unique look at the opioid crisis.

• April 1, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: The Crime of Refusing Vaccination

Where do our rights over our own bodies end and our duties to others begin? An answer lies in the story of a 1905 Supreme Court case about government-mandated vaccines.

• March 25, 2021

A Witness to the State’s Power to Kill

What a spiritual adviser saw when the federal government executed a man on death row.

• Alvin Melathe
• March 19, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: How Did This Professor End Up Witnessing an Execution?

Yusuf Ahmed Nur volunteered to counsel a man on death row. He never intended to witness the execution.

• March 18, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: Latinos Are a Huge, Diverse Group. Why Are They Lumped Together?

The answer involves Chicanos, the census, and Celia Cruz.

• March 11, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: Confronting the Legacy of Robert E. Lee

What does it take to overcome one of the oldest disinformation campaigns in American history?

• March 4, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: 4 Percent of Nurses, 31.5 Percent of Deaths

Why Filipino nurses have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

• February 25, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: The Case for Sweatpants

What a polarizing garment says about America.

• February 18, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: The Case for a Voting-Rights Amendment

American democracy is younger, and more fragile, than we’ve been taught. One woman lived through the whole thing.

• February 11, 2021

The Experiment Podcast: Inside Yellowstone’s ‘Zone of Death’

In Yellowstone National Park, there’s a glitch in the U.S. Constitution.

• February 4, 2021

Que Viva la Pepa: Introducing The Experiment

The United States started as an experiment. On this new show, we check in on how that’s going.

• January 25, 2021