Long Shadow

Reacting in the middle of one nightmare, the U.S. government created another — an apparatus that in the wrong hands has become one of the most terrifying tools in the history of the country.

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil, 'Long Shadow: 9/11's Lingering Questions' returns with this special episode hosted by bestselling author and journalist Garrett Graff. Listen to the Signal Award-winning first season of 'Long Shadow' now, and download the full episode on September 1, 2026, from Long Lead and PRX, wherever you get your podcasts.

Long Shadow listeners: Today we’re sharing a great episode of the Question Everything podcast in our feed because it's the perfect crossover between "In Guns We Trust" and "Breaking the Internet."

Propagandist? Truth teller? Influencer? Question Everything unravels the contested work of journalists and the moral complexities surrounding the stories that impact us all.

Episode description:  
Kate grew up believing the Sandy Hook school shooting was an elaborate false flag operation. For years she thought the 20 elementary school children and six educators who were killed that day did not actually die, but were played by crisis actors. And then, one day – in a matter of minutes – suddenly Kate realized how wrong she was. 

Question Everything host Brian Reed talks with Kate about what it’s like to realize you believed something so obviously wrong, so deeply damaging, for so long. And he argues that her story is a case study for reforming Section 230 – the 1996 law that gives tech companies massive immunity from getting sued over what people post. Without that law, platforms like YouTube, which amplified the lies about Sandy Hook that Kate once believed, could be taken to court by the Sandy Hook families. 

“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

Guests: 

Thanks for listening to Long Shadow and be sure to listen and subscribe to Question Everything wherever you get your podcasts.

Long Shadow listeners: Today we’re sharing a great episode of the Panic World podcast in our feed because we think you’ll like it.

Panic World is a weekly chat show that explores how the internet warps our minds, our culture, and eventually reality — which is pretty much the story of Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet, only we do it in a longform narrative format. 

The show's host, Ryan Broderick, knows a lot about the web, but he doesn’t quite know what to think about Russian interference in the 2016 election. So for a recent episode, he invited Garrett Graff to re-examine the truth behind the scandal. This is a great listen for Long Shadow fans because it dives deeper into Russiagate and all consequences of that moment in history. 

Thanks for listening to Long Shadow and be sure to listen and subscribe to Panic World wherever you get your podcasts.

A toxic army of trolls goes after women in the gaming industry, giving birth to an online movement of disaffected men. This "manosphere" contributes to the resurgence of Donald Trump and a constitutional crisis that holds American democracy in the balance.

After the twin disasters of the massacre in Myanmar and the 2016 election, social media undergoes a reckoning in the halls of Congress… until a novel virus uncorks a global pandemic and a contagion of hoaxes, conspiracies, and lies online.

North Korea hacks a movie studio over a screwball comedy, inspiring America’s enemies to launch cyberattacks against the U.S. To roil an election, one even unleashes a network of trolls pitting ordinary Americans against each other, online and in the streets.

With the dawn of the newsfeed, Facebook begins a mass experiment on the human psyche — what we like and hate, what makes us happy and angry. Over the course of a decade, its algorithm drives the world to like, comment, and eventually, kill.

In Egypt, a ragtag group of young activists uses social media to spark a revolution and remove a dictator from power. They credit Facebook with the fall of the regime… until the platform is turned against them.

At the dawn of the new millennium, the internet yields powerful tools for coordinating and organizing online. From the 9/11 hijackers to flashmob pranksters to activists, it puts power in the hands of the people, for better and for worse.