Long Shadow

After Trump’s election, far-right extremism explodes, and internet racism boils over into the real world. From Charleston to Charlottesville to Christchurch, experts warn of a race war.

When the government seizes Cliven Bundy’s cattle over unpaid grazing fees, militias like the Three Percenters and the Oath Keepers—which are later at 1/6—aid a standoff on his ranch.

Using conspiracy theories and anger to amass enormous audiences in the 1990s, Rush Limbaugh and Bill Cooper pave the way for Fox News to mainstream far-right outrage. 

Experts claimed 1995’s Oklahoma City bombing was a lone-wolf event, but Timothy McVeigh’s act of retribution for the Waco siege, shows how domestic extremism has evolved. 

The government lays siege to Ruby Ridge, Idaho, where Randy Weaver and his family are hiding out in the shadow of a growing white supremacist movement, a year before Waco.

Out of the flames of a tragic government mishap—the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas—the modern far-right movement is born.

The Ruby Ridge raid, the Waco siege at the Branch Davidian compound, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Jan. 6 insurrection… they are all explosive moments in recent U.S. history. But connect the dots between these—and other—seemingly disparate, violent events, and you’ll answer some of the most existential questions facing the U.S. today: How did America get the far right so wrong? What will it take now to get it right?

In LONG SHADOW’s first season, host Garrett Graff examined the lingering questions of 9/11, the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Season two, LONG SHADOW: RISE OF THE AMERICAN FAR RIGHT, explores how the modern domestic extremist movement grew from a fatal shootout on a mountain top in Idaho, was fanned by a fiery fiasco on the plains of Texas, and ultimately led to a riot on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

Crackling with rich archival tape and riveting eyewitness and expert interviews, this seven-episode narrative podcast examines a thread of history that’s vitally relevant to our current political climate. It will help listeners understand why the fringe is overrunning the mainstream, conspiracy theorists have captured offices in Congress, and peaceful protests are turning into riots. How did we get here? Find out by following and listening to LONG SHADOW: RISE OF THE AMERICAN FAR RIGHT.

Co-produced by Long Lead and Campside Media

Out now from Long Lead, The Depths She’ll Reach, the story of how Alenka Artnik emerged from mental health struggles to become one of the world’s most elite athletes. A multimedia feature by Xan Rice and Daan Verhoeven, produced by Long Lead. 

https://onjustonebreath.com/

When we think about 9/11, we often only think of the tremendous loss of life on that day. But what we sometimes forget about are those who made it; the thousands of people who survived the attacks, but have had to carry it with them every day since. 

Firefighter Jay Jonas and Port Authority Police Officer Will Jimeno were in the Twin Towers on September 11 — 100 stories of the World Trade Center fell on top each of them. But they got back up and survived.

How did they move on from this attack? And how should we?

Fifteen of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia, which was also the home of al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama Bin Laden. In the days after September 11, dozens of his friends, family members and business associates left the U.S. on secret flights bound for The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That has led to questions that four presidents have avoided answering:

What role did the Saudi government play in the attacks? What did it know?

Even worse, did it help?