# Reveal (podcast)

Reveal is a nationally broadcast public radio show and investigative reporting podcast hosted by Al Letson. The radio program is released on Saturdays on radio stations in the Public Radio Exchange network and the show is also available in podcast form. It is part of a growing trend of investigative reporting being disseminated through audio. Its first weekly season was ranked among the top 50 podcasts by The Atlantic.
Reveal has experimented with new modes of distribution, including using SMS to provide interactivity to its podcasts. The main website for Reveal contains links to each podcast episode, video, and multimedia story shared by the outlet. Each video is also available on their YouTube channel. The outlet also has a blog where the staff posts about internal updates and how they created data-driven stories.
Reveal showcases the work of the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) and other large and small newsrooms in the US. The show sued the Trump Administration under the Freedom of Information Act for access to records related to the cost of the border wall the administration is pursuing. Its reporting resulted in the shutdown of unlicensed work camps being used as drug treatment facilities.
All of the CIR's digital reporting is available on Reveal's website where the CIR shares podcasts, videos, and many data-driven investigative projects. Reveal's CEO is Christa Scharfenberg.
Reveal's investigation into racial disparities in mortgage lending in 2018 was mentioned on the floor of the Senate by Senator Elizabeth Warren and was the subject of a lengthy op-ed in The New York Times.
In 2017, host Al Letson was photographed physically intervening to protect a right-wing protester at a rally that turned violent in Berkeley, California.

## History

Reveal is partnered with PBS NewsHour. In 2015 Reveal established a partnership with The Texas Tribune.
In 2022, financial hardship and the layoff of 14 percent of Reveal staff ultimately led to the resignation of Reveal CEO Kaizar Campwala. In 2023, Reveal employees sought recognition for the newly formed Reveal union.

## Reception and awards

In 2013, the show received a Peabody Award for its first radio episode, "Reveal: The VA's Opiate Overload (Public Radio)".
Reveal won the 2017 Edward Murrow Award from the Overseas Press Club for best News Documentary for "Dropped and Dismissed: Child Sex Abuse Lost in the System" as well as Best Sports Reporting for "Making the Team". The episode "Voting rights – and wrongs" earned a podcast Webby Award in 2017 for News & Information. In 2016, it won the Edward R. Murrow Award for Overall Excellence for a small online news organization.
Two episodes from 2018, "Monumental Lies" and "Kept Out", each won Peabody Awards, and the radio show itself won the Alfred I. duPont–Columbia University Award in 2018.

## Episodes

Reveal releases new episodes weekly on Saturdays. As of December 2020, the show has released 269 episodes.
| Episode | Title | Date | Running Time |
| 1 | "Reveal (Pilot 1: The VA's deadly pain pill habit)" | September 28, 2013 | 52:00 |
| America's worst charities, defending leaks, a history of official secrecy, the VA's pain pill habit, the drama of an investigation, policing on camera, and brotherly love. ||||
| 2 | "Reveal (Pilot 2: The Heroin Highway)" | March 1, 2014 | 52:00 |
| What's it like for teens in 'the box', investigative reporting inspires poetry, tracing Chicago's heroin supply chain, security on the border, action on the VA's pain pill habit, no animals were harmed, and sexual abuse of female farmworkers. ||||
| 3 | "Reveal (Pilot 3: The arsenic in our drinking water)" | June 28, 2014 | 52:00 |
| The Coast Guard's deadly accidents, the politics of poison, secrecy behind Missouri's execution drugs, and profiting off the GI Bill. ||||
| 4 | "China brings home the bacon with America's pigs" | Jan 23, 2015 | 17:00 |
| 5 | "Confronting love and oppression in Afghanistan" | Jan 23, 2015 | 13:00 |
| 6 | "The secrets of church, state and business" | Feb 13, 2015 | 58:00 |
| 7 | "Bogus screws ended up in spines of surgery patients" | March 16, 2015 | 17:00 |
| 8 | "Photo sparks war crimes probe" | March 23, 2015 | 21:00 |
| 9 | "Who's responsible when America's your drug dealer?" | March 30, 2015 | 17:00 |
| 10 | "Rerouted for sex" | April 7, 2015 | 11:00 |
| 11 | "Her clients may be notorious, but Judy Clarke is a mystery" | April 13, 2015 | 13:00 |
| 12 | "From detention to detainment in Virginia" | April 20, 2015 | 14:00 |
| 13 | "DIY guns? There's a site for that" | April 27, 2015 | 14:00 |
| 14 | "Dirty shooting ranges poison police" | May 4, 2015 | 18:00 |
| 15 | "Assault on justice" | May 11, 2015 | 23:00 |
| 16 | "Rodney King's accidental ally" | May 18, 2015 | 12:00 |
| 17 | "Eyes on Cops" | May 25, 2015 | 18:00 |
| 18 | "Public evidence in private hands" | June 2, 2015 | 15:00 |
| 19 | "Death in the Bakken" | June 15, 2015 | 21:00 |
| 20 | "The father of fracking, and tracking oil trains" | June 22, 2015 | 20:00 |
| 21 | "Oklahoma's man-made earthquakes" | June 29, 2015 | 17:00 |
| 22 | "Rape on the Night Shift" | July 6, 2015 | 28:00 |
| 23 | "Nuclear Bomb Industry Booming" | July 13, 2015 | 19:00 |
| 24 | "Toxic tech in America" | July 20, 2015 | 10:00 |
| 25 | "Disposable workers in Asia" | July 27, 2015 | 12:00 |
| 26 | "The long tale of the short-handled hoe" | August 3, 2015 | 7:00 |
| 27 | "Shunned and Shamed by Jehovah's Witnesses" | August 10, 2015 | 24:00 |
| 28 | "The Con Man and His Mentor" | August 18, 2015 | 14:00 |
| 29 | "Change in the air in Virginia" | August 25, 2015 | 18:00 |
| 30 | "She never left Harlan alive" | Sept 7, 2015 | 17:00 |
| 31 | "Unidentified migrants reach undignified end" | Sept 14, 2015 | 20:00 |
| 32 | "Buried in Blue Earth" | Sept 21, 2015 | 18:00 |
| 33 | "Matching the lost and the found" | Sept 28, 2015 | 17:00 |
| 34 | "Secret super water users" | Oct 6, 2015 | 14:00 |
| 35 | "But not a drop to drink…" | Oct 12, 2015 | 15:00 |
| 36 | "Growing hay a world away" | Oct 19, 2015 | 12:00 |
| 37 | "Water bills bleeding them dry" | Oct 27, 2015 | 10:00 |
| 38 | "[Update] Assault on justice" | Nov 2, 2015 | 18:00 |
| 39 | "Exposing the horrors on The Mountain" | Nov 9, 2015 | 22:00 |
| 40 | "Inappropriate love triangle blossoms at rehab" | Nov 16, 2015 | 16:00 |
| 41 | "Meet the Brennicks" | Nov 23, 2015 | 19:00 |
| 42 | "A special message from our sound designer and engineer" | Nov 25, 2015 | 2:00 |
| 43 | "The Wright family's all right (Lakeview Extra)" | Dec 1, 2015 | 9:00 |
| 44 | "The fowl business of salmonella" | Dec 8, 2015 | 21:00 |
| 45 | "From the battlefields to the strawberry fields" | Dec 14, 2015 | 13:00 |
| 46 | "When working conditions are ripe for change" | Dec 21, 2015 | 18:00 |
| 47 | "Decoding discrimination in America's temp industry" | Jan 10, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 48 | "Cat Fight" | Jan 17, 2016 | 51:00 |
| 49 | "Do not drink: The water crisis in Flint, Michigan" | Jan 25, 2016 | 54:00 |
| 50 | "Pumped on Trump" | Jan 31, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 51 | "Sick on the inside: Behind bars in immigrant-only prisons" | Feb7, 2016 | 54:00 |
| 52 | "Another look at the perilous price of American energy" | Feb 14, 2016 | 54:00 |
| 54 | "Mighty Ike" | Mar 6, 2016 | 54:00 |
| 55 | "When Mad Men meet dark money" | March 13, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 56 | "Alleged cult leader plays shell game with US foreign aid" | March 20, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 57 | "New day dawning on the night shift" | March 27, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 58 | "Billion-dollar scam" | April 4, 2016 | 50:00 |
| 59 | "Kids crossing borders – alone" | April 10, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 60 | "[Update] Decoding discrimination in America's temp industry" | April 18, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 61 | "Guns and America's murder board" | April 24, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 62 | "The price of admission" | May 1, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 63 | "Women's sports: A man's game" | May 8, 2016 | 58:00 |
| 64 | "[Update] A mountain of misconduct" | May 15, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 65 | "[Update] Alleged cult leader plays shell game with US foreign aid" | May 29, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 66 | "Lawless Lands" | June 5, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 67 | "Poison lurking in schools" | June 12, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 68 | "After Orlando" | June 19, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 69 | "Who's getting rich off your student debt?" | July 1, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 70 | "Bordering on insecurity" | July 8, 2016 | 54:00 |
| 71 | "[Update] Eyes on Cops" | July 14, 2016 | 18:00 |
| 72 | "[Update] Farm to fork: Uncovering hazards in our food systems" | July 22, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 73 | "[Update] Mighty Ike" | July 29, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 74 | "From A to Zika" | Aug 5, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 75 | "[Update] Cat Fight" | Aug 19, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 76 | "[Update] Sick on the inside: Behind bars in immigrant-only prisons" | Aug 26, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 77 | "[Update] The man inside: Four months as a prison guard" | Sept 2, 2016 | 51:00 |
| 78 | "No choice: Failing America's veterans" | Sept 16, 2016 | 51:00 |
| 79 | "Voting rights – and wrongs" | Sept 30, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 80 | "America's Ring of Fire" | Oct 7, 2016 | 52:00 |
| 81 | "[Update] Billion-dollar scam" | Oct 14, 2016 | 51:00 |
| 82 | "How to (really) steal an election" | Oct 21, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 83 | "And justice for some" | Oct 28, 2016 | 54:00 |
| 84 | "Host of problems" | Nov 4, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 85 | "A frank conversation with a white nationalist" | Nov 10, 2016 | 24:00 |
| 86 | "The secret Trump voter" | Nov 11, 2016 | 55:00 |
| 87 | "Glare of the spotlight" | Nov 18, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 88 | "A welfare check" | Nov 25, 2016 | 54:00 |
| 89 | "Secrets of the Watchtower" | Dec 9, 2016 | 51:00 |
| 90 | "Turbulent times, turbulent skies" | Dec 16, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 91 | "The Pentagon Papers: Secrets, lies and leaks" | Dec 23, 2016 | 54:00 |
| 92 | "The year in Reveal" | Dec 30, 2016 | 53:00 |
| 93 | "America's digital dumping ground" | Jan 6, 2017 | 45:00 |
| 94 | "Water wars" | Jan 13, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 95 | "Dropped and dismissed: Child sex abuse lost in the system" | Jan 21, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 96 | "Split down the middle" | Jan 27, 2017 | 52:00 |
| 97 | "Trial by fire" | Feb 3, 2017 | 55:00 |
| 98 | "School haze" | Feb 17, 2017 | 55:00 |
| 99 | "The religious freedom loophole" | Feb 24, 2017 | 55:00 |
| 100 | "Al Letson Reveals: Vicente Fox on Trump's wall" | March 1, 2017 | 18:00 |
| 101 | "Up against the wall" | March 3, 2017 | 54:00 |
| 102 | "Al Letson Reveals: Sebastian Gorka on America" | March 8, 2017 | 13:00 |
| 103 | "Richard Spencer's cotton farms" | March 17, 2017 | 55:00 |
| 104 | "Al Letson Reveals: Former NATO official imagines war with Russia" | March 22, 2017 | 11:00 |
| 105 | "Against their will" | March 24, 2017 | 55:00 |
| 106 | "The mystery of Mountain Jane Doe" | March 31, 2017 | 54:00 |
| 107 | "If you can't afford a lawyer" | April 7, 2017 | 54:00 |
| 108 | "Al Letson Reveals: The color of feminism" | April 12, 2017 | 16:00 |
| 109 | "Toxic burden" | April 14, 2017 | 52:00 |
| 110 | "Russia's new scapegoats" | April 21, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 111 | "Running from cops" | April 28, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 112 | "What cops aren't learning" | May 5, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 113 | "Standing Rock and beyond" | May 12, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 114 | "The man inside: Four months as a prison guard" | May 22, 2017 | 54:00 |
| 115 | "The kids aren't all right" | May 26, 2017 | 55:00 |
| 116 | "Misconceptions" | June 2, 2017 | 52:00 |
| 117 | "After the bubble burst" | June 9, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 118 | "America's ring of fire" | June 16, 2017 | 52:00 |
| 119 | "Trial and terror" | June 23, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 120 | "The smuggler" | July 7, 2017 | 52:00 |
| 121 | "Al Letson Reveals: Roger Stone" | July 13, 2017 | 22:00 |
| 122 | "No where to run" | July 14, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 123 | "Deadly waters" | July 21, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 124 | "No country for sanctuary seekers" | Aug 4, 2017 | 52:00 |
| 125 | "Hate on the march: white nationalism in the Trump era" | Aug 18, 2017 | 52:00 |
| 126 | "Follow the money: Citizen sleuths investigate" | Aug 25, 2017 | 19:00 |
| 127 | "Rise of a movement" | Aug 28, 2017 | 15:00 |
| 128 | "The perfect storm" | Sept 1, 2017 | 54:00 |
| 129 | "The rise of the new German right" | Sept 15, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 130 | "Street fight: A new wave of political violence" | Sept 23, 2017 | 54:00 |
| 131 | "Does the Time Fit the Crime?" | Sept 29, 2017 | 52:00 |
| 132 | "All work. No pay. Life at a rehab work camp." | Oct 6, 2017 | 55:00 |
| 133 | "Al Letson Reveals: The fight to end affirmative action in higher education" | Oct 11, 2017 | 19:00 |
| 134 | "Access Denied: The Fight for Public Education" | Oct 13, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 135 | "Too Many Pills" | Oct 20, 2017 | 36:00 |
| 136 | "Heroin Diaries" | Oct 25, 2017 | 15:00 |
| 137 | "Inside Trump's Immigration Crackdown" | Oct 27, 2017 | 54:00 |
| 138 | "The Paradise Papers" | Nov 5, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 139 | "Losing ground" | Nov 10, 2017 | 51:00 |
| 140 | "Pizzagate: A slice of fake news" | Nov 17, 2017 | 53:00 |
| 141 | "Her own devices: Is a contraceptive implant making us sick?" | Nov 24, 2017 | 51:00 |
| 142 | "Where criminals get their guns" | Dec 1, 2017 | 51:00 |
| 143 | "Institutions of Higher Earning" | Dec 8, 2017 | 51:00 |
| 144 | "The Pentagon Papers: Secrets, lies and leaks" | Dec 15, 2017 | 51:00 |
| 145 | "Fire and Justice" | Dec 22, 2017 | 51:00 |
| 146 | "A Revealing Year" | Dec 29, 2017 | 51:00 |
| 147 | "The Tide is High" | Jan 5, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 148 | "The mystery of Mountain Jane Doe" | Jan 12, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 149 | "#MeToo: Rape on the Night Shift" | Jan 19, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 150 | "Too Many Pills" | Jan 26, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 151 | "How Bernie Made Off: Are we safe from the next Ponzi scheme?" | Feb 2, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 152 | "Dropped and dismissed: Child sex abuse lost in the system" | Feb 9, 2018 | 50:16 |
| 153 | "The red line: Racial disparities in lending" | Feb 16, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 154 | "My Town, Chi-Town" | Feb 23, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 155 | "Deja Nuke: Return of the Nuclear Threat" | Mar 2, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 156 | "Warning System Down: California's Deadliest Fires" | Mar 9, 2018 | 35:13 |
| 157 | "Built to Burn" | Mar 13, 2018 | 17:08 |
| 158 | "The kids aren't all right" | Mar 16, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 159 | "Where criminals get their guns" | Mar 23, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 160 | "Poisoned, ignored and evicted: The perils of living with lead" | Mar 30, 2018 | 39:14 |
| 161 | "Full of Lead: How Bullets are Poisoning Eagles" | Apr 4, 2018 | 14:46 |
| 162 | "Checking into President Trump's Washington DC Hotel" | Apr 6, 2018 | 50:25 |
| 163 | "Trump's Mystery Mansion" | Apr 11, 2018 | 12:50 |
| 164 | "Tesla and Beyond: Hidden Problems of Silicon Valley" | Apr 13, 2018 | 50:59 |
| 165 | "Trumping Hate" | Apr 20, 2018 | 50:35 |
| 166 | "Institutions of Higher Earning (rebroadcast)" | Apr 27, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 167 | "More to the Story: Redlining" | May 4, 2018 | 17:56 |
| 168 | "More to the Story: Wildfires" | May 9, 2018 | 19:48 |
| 169 | "Reveal Presents: The View from Room 205" | May 11, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 170 | "Across the Desert and the Sea" | May 18, 2018 | 50:34 |
| 171 | "What cops aren't learning (rebroadcast)" | May 26, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 172 | "Inside a Rehab Empire" | May 30, 2018 | 26:31 |
| 173 | "Cops on a Crime Spree" | June 1, 2018 | 53:12 |
| 174 | "Reveal Answers Your Questions About Immigration" | June 8, 2018 | 51:00 |
| 175 | "Losing Ground (rebroadcast)" | June 16, 2018 | 50:04 |
| 176 | TBA | TBA | TBA |
| 269 | "When Lighting the Voids" | December 26, 2020 | 54:59 |