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Marianne McCune Marianne McCune is a reporter and producer for Embedded: Buffalo Extreme.
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Marianne McCune

Marianne McCune

Reporter and Producer, Embedded: Buffalo Extreme

Marianne McCune is a reporter and producer for Embedded: Buffalo Extreme who has more than two decades of experience making award-winning audio stories. She has produced narrative podcast series for New York Magazine (Cover Story), helped start, produce and edit long-form narrative shows for NPR and public radio affiliates (Rough Translation; United States of Anxiety, Season Four), reported locally and internationally (NPR News, NPR's Planet Money and WNYC News) and produced groundbreaking narrative audio tours (SF MOMA, Detour). She is also the founder of Radio Rookies, a narrative youth radio series that is still thriving at WNYC.

Story Archive

Wednesday

How a Black cheer squad in Buffalo deals with the racist massacre blocks away

The Buffalo All-Star Extreme cheer team grapples with the repercussions from a mass shooting at a nearby grocery store. Kristen Uroda for NPR hide caption

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Kristen Uroda for NPR

Perspective

Code Switch

How a Black cheer squad in Buffalo deals with the racist massacre blocks away

This week, we're sharing the first episode of "Buffalo Extreme," a three-part series from our play cousins at NPR's Embedded. The series follows a Black cheer squad, their moms and their coaches in the year after the racist massacre at the Jefferson Street Tops in Buffalo, New York, just blocks from their gym. NPR hands the mic to the girls and women in that community as they navigate the complicated path to recovery in the year after.

How a Black cheer squad in Buffalo deals with the racist massacre blocks away

Listen · 32:47
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Monday

Buffalo Extreme: Winners
Kristen Uroda for NPR

Embedded

Buffalo Extreme: Winners

It's competition season, and the girls say they're over what happened at the Tops supermarket last year. "I'm fine!" But then the shooter has his sentencing hearing, and those feelings come flooding back. When they hit the stage — they're wobbly. And argumentative. The girls and Coach Yani open up about the hard truth: where they really stand one year later.

Buffalo Extreme: Winners

Listen · 38:42
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Thursday

Buffalo Extreme: Do Good, Get Good

It's hard enough for adults to carry on after a mass shooting. How do kids manage it? We hear from kids at a cheer team whose gym was blocks away from last year's racist massacre in Buffalo, N.Y. Kristen Uroda for NPR hide caption

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Kristen Uroda for NPR

Embedded

Buffalo Extreme: Do Good, Get Good

How do you make sense of something terrible that's happened—and move forward? From the cheer gym to the therapy office, we follow the parents, coaches and kids of Buffalo All-Star Extreme in the year after the Tops massacre. The mass shooting set back the cheerleaders' training schedule by months, and now competition is just weeks away. After everything that happened to her community, Coach Yani wants her team to win more than ever.

Buffalo Extreme: Do Good, Get Good

Listen · 48:07
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Tuesday

It's been one year since the Buffalo shooting. How has it changed the community?

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NPR

Perspective

It's Been a Minute

It's been one year since the Buffalo shooting. How has it changed the community?

It has been one year since a white supremacist drove to a predominantly Black neighborhood with an AR-15 style rifle and murdered 10 people and injured 3 others. NPR's Embedded podcast has followed a cheerleading troop over the past year to understand how the mass shooting changed the community. This week, Brittany brings you the first episode in their multi-part series.

It's been one year since the Buffalo shooting. How has it changed the community?

Listen · 42:21
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Thursday

Buffalo Extreme: Base

The Buffalo All-Star Extreme cheer team grapples with the repercussions from a mass shooting at a nearby grocery store. Kristen Uroda for NPR hide caption

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Kristen Uroda for NPR

Embedded

Buffalo Extreme: Base

Ayanna Williams Gaines is the coach and founder of Buffalo All-Star Extreme, a Black competitive cheerleading and dance team from Buffalo, New York. Williams Gaines started the gym as a space for Black girls to feel safe and to thrive in the predominantly white world of cheer. But on May 14, 2022, a white supremacist came to a predominantly Black neighborhood on the east side of Buffalo and killed ten Black people at a grocery store just a few blocks away from the gym. In the wake of the massacre, feeling like a target, Williams Gaines and her cheer families are faced with the challenge of making sure their cheerleaders feel safe and confident, on and off the stage.

Buffalo Extreme: Base

Listen · 43:05
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Wednesday

Macroeconomics 6: Trade & The Better Life
James Yang for NPR

Planet Money Summer School

Macroeconomics 6: Trade & The Better Life

International trade is the web of cross-border relationships that binds economies together. Because of trade we have access to cheaper, higher-quality goods, and we get to benefit from other countries' cultures. Economics tells us trade makes society, overall on average, better off, but that doesn't mean everyone wins. Today, the good and bad of trade through the eyes of workers in developing economies who make the things sold around the world. We follow them as they navigate the ever-shifting international trade environment. |At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Macroeconomics 6: Trade & The Better Life

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Planet Money Summer School 6: Trade & The Better Life
James Yang for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 6: Trade & The Better Life

International trade is the web of cross-border relationships that binds economies together. Because of trade we have access to cheaper, higher-quality goods, and we get to benefit from other countries' cultures. Economics tells us trade makes society, overall on average, better off, but that doesn't mean everyone wins. Today, the good and bad of trade through the eyes of workers in developing economies who make the things sold around the world. We follow them as they navigate the ever-shifting international trade environment. |At this Summer School, phones ARE allowed during class... Check out this week's PM TikTok! | Listen to past seasons of Summer School here.

Planet Money Summer School 6: Trade & The Better Life

Listen · 32:35
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Wednesday

Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)
Suharu Ogawa for NPR

Planet Money

Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)

Even if you don't own stocks, there are a lot of reasons to care about investing. We meet some of the folks left out of the stock market who deploy sophisticated economic thinking, even creating their own alternate financial systems. Our professors help us understand how consumption smoothing and life-cycle hypothesis apply to personal finance. And we meet the creator of the 401(k). | Watch this Tik Tok to learn more and subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

Planet Money Summer School 3: Smooth Spending & The 401(k)

Listen · 32:05
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Wednesday

Liberté, Égalité, French Fries... And Couscous

Kamel Guemari stands in front of the community center housed in a former McDonald's in Marseille. Eleanor Beardsley hide caption

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Eleanor Beardsley

Rough Translation

Liberté, Égalité, French Fries... And Couscous

Our favorite McDonald's in Marseille, France has reached its afterlife. It took court cases, spray paint, and the slogan you know turned upside down (literally) to get there.

Liberté, Égalité, French Fries... And Couscous

Listen · 50:11
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Wednesday

American Surrogate: 30 Months Later

A green sweater that Jessie crocheted in China while waiting for Jacquie, her American surrogate, to deliver her baby. Jessie, Reproduced With Permission hide caption

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Jessie, Reproduced With Permission

Rough Translation

American Surrogate: 30 Months Later

Back in 2017, we brought you the story of a Chinese mom who hired an American surrogate to carry her baby. Each needed something from the other that was hard to admit. Their relationship became a crash course in transcontinental communication and the meaning of family. Now, in the middle of a pandemic, we check in with them.

American Surrogate: 30 Months Later

Listen · 46:50
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Wednesday

Liberté, Égalité And French Fries

Residents of an immigrant neighborhood in northern Marseille gather outside of a McDonald's they are fighting to keep open. Eleanor Beardsley hide caption

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Eleanor Beardsley

Rough Translation

Liberté, Égalité And French Fries

What happens when the employees of a French McDonald's take the corporate philosophy so deeply to heart, that it actually becomes a problem for the company?

Liberté, Égalité And French Fries

Listen · 43:31
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Wednesday

Asia

Rough Translation: American Surrogates

Wealthy Chinese woman are hiring Americans to be surrogate moms. We explore how the relationship between a Chinese woman and her American surrogate changed during a particularly difficult pregnancy.

Rough Translation: American Surrogates

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Monday

American Surrogate
NPR

Rough Translation

American Surrogate

A Chinese mom hires an American surrogate to carry her baby. Each needs something from the other that is hard to admit. The next 9 months will be a crash course in transcontinental communication. And the meaning of family.

American Surrogate

Listen · 41:55
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Wednesday

Planet Money

A Pesticide, A Pigweed And A Farmer's Murder

One farmer's improper use of an herbicide damaged another's field and led to a shooting. The dispute reveals divisions among neighbors and economic tradeoffs over the right way to farm.

A Pesticide, A Pigweed And A Farmer's Murder

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Friday

Tuesday

Can Homemade Liquor Jumpstart A Local Economy?

Edgar Gonzalez tries to fix bugs in the bottling machine before a state inspector comes to oversee their first batch of mezcal for export. Marianne McCune/NPR hide caption

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Marianne McCune/NPR

Planet Money

Can Homemade Liquor Jumpstart A Local Economy?

Two cousins from Mexico have a dream to bring jobs to their hometown. With no experience and very little funding, they've launched their own high end brand of mezcal.

Can Homemade Liquor Jumpstart A Local Economy?

Listen · 8:08
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Monday

'Our Industry Follows Poverty': Success Threatens A T-Shirt Business

Noreli Morales (right) works on the Planet Money women's T-shirt at a factory in Medellin, Colombia. Joshua Davis for NPR hide caption

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Joshua Davis for NPR

Planet Money

'Our Industry Follows Poverty': Success Threatens A T-Shirt Business

Colombia's economy has been growing, and wages have been rising. That's good for the country as a whole, but it may wind up driving away the T-shirt industry.

'Our Industry Follows Poverty': Success Threatens A T-Shirt Business

Listen · 12:59
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Sunday

Friday

Three Ways Brush Factories Are Surviving In America

Fourth-generation owner of Braun Brush, Lance Cheney, stands next to a special-order brush his company made for the artist Richard Artschwager. Marianne McCune/NPR hide caption

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Marianne McCune/NPR

Planet Money

Three Ways Brush Factories Are Surviving In America

The cheapest place to make brushes these days is China. But there are still people pressing bristles into brushes in a factory in the Bronx, and in small plants across the country.

Three Ways Brush Factories Are Surviving In America

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Friday

When People Make Their Own Banks

Harlem funeral directors Tamara Bullock and Patricia Hamilton are going to spend their next savings-club payout on a sky-diving trip (unless Bullock can get out of it). Marianne McCune/NPR hide caption

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Marianne McCune/NPR

Planet Money

When People Make Their Own Banks

An ex-con lends money to people in need; a group of friends creates a savings club. Even without banks, people often figure out how to get the money they need, when they need it.

When People Make Their Own Banks

Listen · 4:36
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Friday

How Recalculating GDP Can Help App Designers In Nigeria
AFP/Getty Images

Planet Money

How Recalculating GDP Can Help App Designers In Nigeria

Pledge 51 creates applications for Nigeria's low-tech cellphones. The company thinks it could grow its business with help from foreign investors, but Nigeria's low GDP has made that difficult. If the country changes the way it calculates this figure, that could help Pledge 51 bring in new investment.

How Recalculating GDP Can Help App Designers In Nigeria

Listen · 4:24
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Wednesday

Friday

Demand For Ammunition Is Up. Why Aren't Prices?

"We're going to keep prices as fair as we possibly can," says Bob Viden of Bob's Little Sport Shop in southern New Jersey. Marianne McCune/NPR hide caption

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Marianne McCune/NPR

Planet Money

Demand For Ammunition Is Up. Why Aren't Prices?

Demand increased recently, leading to widespread shortages. An economics textbook would say ammo sellers should have raised prices rather than have empty shelves. But that hasn't happened.

Demand For Ammunition Is Up. Why Aren't Prices?

Listen · 3:44
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Friday

Nervous Parents In One Country Clear Supermarket Shelves In Another

A sign limiting the purchase of baby formula powder hangs on a shelf in a London supermarket April 10. Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP hide caption

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Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

Planet Money

Nervous Parents In One Country Clear Supermarket Shelves In Another

Chinese parents don't trust Chinese baby formula, so they pay a premium to have it shipped in from around the world.

Nervous Parents In One Country Clear Supermarket Shelves In Another

Listen · 4:29
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