Long Shadow
Long Lead & PRX
Through a series of riveting, complex narratives, LONG SHADOW makes sense of what people know — and what they thought they knew — about the most pivotal moments in U.S. history, including Waco, Columbine, Y2K, 9/11, COVID-19, January 6, and beyond. Hosted by Pulitzer-finalist historian, author, and journalist Garrett Graff, this Peabody-nominated podcast has been called “rigorous, authoritative, and an electrifying listen” by the Financial Times and honored as one of the year's best podcasts by The Atlantic, Audible, Mashable, and The Week. A winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award and the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award, it has also been honored with five Signal Awards, including for Best History, Best Documentary, and Best Activism, Public Service, & Social Impact Podcast.The second season of LONG SHADOW has been added to the history program at the University of Houston and the third season has been integrated into Harvard Law School's curriculum on the Second Amendment.Season 4LONG SHADOW: BREAKING THE INTERNETWhen was the last time you felt good about the internet? Today’s online landscape is a harrowing one. People screaming at each other on social media. Violent videos going viral. Cyberbullying, racism, misogyny. Back in the day, the web gave power to the people, and going online could actually be fun.LONG SHADOW: BREAKING THE INTERNET retraces 30 years of web history — a tangle of GIFs, blogs, apps, and hashtags — to answer the bewildering question many ask when they go online today: “How did we get here?”It’s the story of mankind’s greatest invention, a tool that gave everyone access to all the world’s information and unlocked democracy across the globe. But LONG SHADOW: BREAKING THE INTERNET is also about the biggest crisis facing society today: how the web's unlimited feed of data morphed into a firehose of hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and lies that divided Americans over things we once agreed on, like science, diversity, and even democracy itself.Chronicling innovations, revolutions, cyber attacks, and meltdowns across seven episodes, this limited series podcast untangles the web in a way you’ve never considered before. Featuring memes and moments you know — like when the world became transfixed by the color of a dress — and others you don’t, but should — like how people sent death threats to the woman who posted that meme online — LONG SHADOW: BREAKING THE INTERNET both scales the heights of internet virality and plumbs the depths of social media's depravity.Within weeks of its launch in 2021, LONG SHADOW became a No. 1 history show on Apple Podcasts, and its first season, 9/11’s LINGERING QUESTIONS, won Best History Podcast at the inaugural Signal Awards. Its second season, RISE OF THE AMERICAN FAR RIGHT, was named Best Podcast at the 2024 Edward R. Murrow Awards. IN GUNS WE TRUST, the show’s third season produced in collaboration with The Trace, was nominated for a Peabody Award and awarded the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award for its coverage of America’s gun violence epidemic.LONG SHADOW: BREAKING THE INTERNET premiered June 24, 2025 and will release new episodes the following six Tuesdays, wherever you get your podcasts.LONG SHADOW is produced by the award-winning journalism studio Long Lead and distributed by PRX.For more visit www.longlead.com and www.longshadowpodcast.com.
Episodes
Mentioned books
12 snips
Apr 19, 2023 • 57min
Ruby Ridge: The Revolution Begins
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.
Apr 12, 2023 • 39min
Waco: The Spark
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.
Mar 29, 2023 • 3min
Trailer: Long Shadow: Rise of the American Far Right
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
Nov 18, 2021 • 2min
Long Lead Presents: The Depths She'll Reach
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/
Sep 11, 2021 • 53min
How do we move on from 9/11?
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?
Sep 10, 2021 • 30min
What was the Saudi connection to 9/11?
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?
Sep 8, 2021 • 39min
Who was the 20th hijacker?
Immediately after 9/11, investigators began piecing together the plot. In the flight manifests, they discovered a pattern: A team of five terrorists hijacked every plane that day, except for one. United Airlines Flight 93 had only four hijackers. Investigators believed one person was missing from that group.Who was the 20th hijacker — if there even was one? And is there a 9/11 hijacker still on the loose?
Sep 3, 2021 • 46min
Could 9/11 have been stopped before it happened?
Before 9/11, FBI Special Agent John O’Neill kept setting off alarms about the emerging terrorist organization al-Qaeda and their mysterious leader Osama Bin Laden. As a result of his warnings the FBI knew terrorists were planning a big attack and the CIA even had eyes on two of the eventual hijackers prior to the attacks.So what went wrong? Why didn’t they capture the hijackers? What more could law enforcement have done to stop the attacks? And could they have been prevented?
12 snips
Sep 1, 2021 • 34min
Was there a “fifth plane” on 9/11?
After the first two hijackings, the nation’s air traffic controllers quickly and efficiently grounded thousands of planes flying to and over the continental United States. Their quick thinking is said to have potentially saved countless lives.But what if another plane was meant to be hijacked that day, and never made it off the ground? What if there was a fifth plane on 9/11?
15 snips
Aug 25, 2021 • 40min
Who issued the order to shoot down Flight 93?
With the Capitol under attack, the President on Air Force One, and the Defense Secretary missing, Vice President Dick Cheney was the most powerful man in the country on the morning of 9/11. From a bunker beneath the White House, he gave fighter pilots flying above the Capitol permission to shoot down hijacked commercial planes.But did Cheney actually have the authority to issue this order? Did he and President Bush connect before or after Cheney ordered the fighters into battle? And was the U.S. even ready to shoot down any hijacked flights?
