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Laine Kaplan-Levenson
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Laine Kaplan-Levenson

Host, Embedded: All The Only Ones

Laine Kaplan-Levenson is the host of All The Only Ones, a miniseries about the history of trans youth from NPR's Embedded podcast. They were previously a producer and reporter for NPR's Throughline podcast.

Story Archive

Tuesday

All The Only Ones: I can't wait

Illustration by Sally Chen for NPR Sally Chen for NPR hide caption

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Sally Chen for NPR

It's Been a Minute

All The Only Ones: I can't wait

This week we're bringing you a special episode from the Embedded series 'All the Only Ones.' The series looks at the history of trans youth next to the realities experienced by trans youth today. In this episode, we meet Parker, a senior in high school in Columbus, Ohio. Parker is a top field hockey athlete, but as a trans person, he is faced with making a difficult decision: either pursuing his dreams as a D1 trans field hockey player in college next year, or pursuing his dreams of starting hormone replacement therapy, which could get him banned from playing. We also meet two historical trans youth of the 1960s, Vicky and Donna, both facing barriers to getting the care and treatment they need after repeatedly looking for help.

All The Only Ones: I can't wait

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Thursday

All The Only Ones: No More (Gender) Drama
Sally Chen for NPR

Embedded

All The Only Ones: No More (Gender) Drama

In the final episode of the series, we meet Christine, an 18 year old from New Mexico, shortly after starting hormone replacement therapy, as she navigates her freshman year of college. We also meet Dr. Charles Ihlenfeld, who was a physician at the John Hopkins Gender Clinic, working with many young people as they transitioned in the 1970s. We spend time with one of his patients, Joanna, whose path to transition meant hiding her past, and how in 2023, being visible can be empowering, but also dangerous.

All The Only Ones: No More (Gender) Drama

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Tuesday

Sports

This trans college athlete is being faced with an impossible decision

The story of one trans college athlete who is being forced to choose between continuing his gender-affirming medical care and playing the sport he loves.

This trans college athlete is being faced with an impossible decision

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Thursday

All The Only Ones: I can't wait
Sally Chen for NPR

Embedded

All The Only Ones: I can't wait

In part 2, we meet Parker, a senior in high school in Columbus, Ohio. Parker is a top field hockey athlete, but as a trans person, he is faced with making a difficult decision: either pursuing his dreams as a D1 trans field hockey player in college next year, or pursuing his dreams of starting hormone replacement therapy, which could get him banned from playing. We also meet two historical trans youth of the 1960s, Vicky and Donna, both facing barriers to getting the care and treatment they need after repeatedly looking for help.

All The Only Ones: I can't wait

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Grenada: Nobody's Backyard (2021)

Grenadians watch a landing convoy during the Grenada Invasion of 1983. On October 25, 1983 the United States invaded the island of Grenada after the Grenadian Army, controlled by former Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard, seized power of Grenada in a bloody coup. Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption

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Shepard Sherbell/Corbis via Getty Images

Throughline

Grenada: Nobody's Backyard (2021)

A Marxist revolution, a Cold War proxy battle, and a dream of a Black utopia. In 1983, Ronald Reagan ordered the U.S. military to invade the island of Grenada. Forty years later, many Americans don't remember why — or that it even happened. This week, Martine Powers, from Post Reports, brings us a story of revolution, invasion, and the aftermath of unresolved history.

Grenada: Nobody's Backyard (2021)

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Friday

All The Only Ones: The missing piece of the puzzle
Sally Chen for NPR

Code Switch

All The Only Ones: The missing piece of the puzzle

We're bringing you something special from our play cousins over at Embedded: the first episode of a three part series about the often neglected history of trans youth in America. We meet Zen, a Mexican-American, New Orleans native, who is coming into their transness, as we learn about an historic trans person, Bernard, from Alabama in the early 1900s, fighting to be seen.

All The Only Ones: The missing piece of the puzzle

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Thursday

All The Only Ones: The missing piece of the puzzle
Sally Chen for NPR

Embedded

All The Only Ones: The missing piece of the puzzle

In our first episode, we meet Zen, a Mexican-American, New Orleans native, coming into their transness, exploring its spectrum, as we learn about an historic trans person, Bernard, from Alabama in the early 1900s, fighting to be seen. They're both navigating their identities in a world that is constantly trying to define them.

All The Only Ones: The missing piece of the puzzle

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Monday

Introducing All The Only Ones
Raquel Scoggin for NPR

Embedded

Introducing All The Only Ones

All The Only Ones is a new 3-part series from NPR's Embedded. Host Laine Kaplan-Levenson unearths the little known and often neglected history of trans youth in America. We follow the lives of young transgender people today and travel back in time to the turn of the 20th century to meet some of the earliest trans youth documented in American history. Launching on November 2.

Introducing All The Only Ones

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Thursday

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

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Illustration by Hokyoung Kim

Throughline

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

Long before it was a sugary moviefest, the Halloween we know was called Samhain. The Celts of ancient Ireland believed Samhain was a night when the barrier between worlds was thin, the dead could cross over, and if you didn't disguise yourself, evil fairies might spirit you away. Over time the holiday shape-shifted too, thanks to the Catholic Church, pagan groups, and even the brewing company Coors. From the Great Famine of Ireland to Elvira and the Simpsons, we present the many faces of Halloween.

The Dance of the Dead (2021)

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Thursday

Tenochtitlán: A Retelling of the Conquest (2021)

Retreat of Hernando Cortes form Tenochtitlan, Mexico, 1520. Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images hide caption

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Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images

Throughline

Tenochtitlán: A Retelling of the Conquest (2021)

In a sense, 1521 is Mexico's 1619. A foundational moment that for centuries has been shaped by just one perspective: a European one. The story of how Hernán Cortés and a few hundred Spaniards conquered the mighty Aztec Empire, in the heart of what's now modern Mexico City, has become a foundational myth of European dominance in the Americas. And for a long time it was largely accepted as truth. But in recent decades researchers have pieced together a more nuanced, complicated version based on Indigenous accounts: a version that challenges what one historian calls "the greatest PR job in the history of the West." In this episode, the real story of the fall of Tenochtitlán.

Tenochtitlán: A Retelling of the Conquest (2021)

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Friday

How labor unions shaped America
Photo Courtesy of TED

TED Radio Hour

How labor unions shaped America

Labor unions brought us the weekend, social security and health insurance. Political scientist Margaret Levi explains the history of unions and calls for a 21st-century revival of the labor movement.

How labor unions shaped America

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Friday

As ice melts, polar bears have to abandon their homes and move closer to us
Courtesy of TED

TED Radio Hour

As ice melts, polar bears have to abandon their homes and move closer to us

As Arctic ice melts, polar bears must leave their homes. Biologist and conservationist Alysa McCall shares lessons on how to plan for a future where climate change forces us all a little closer.

As ice melts, polar bears have to abandon their homes and move closer to us

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Thursday

By Accident of Birth (2022)

Painted portrait of Wong Kim Ark in the Asian American Community Heroes Mural, located in San Francisco's Chinatown. Julie Caine/Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco hide caption

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Julie Caine/Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco

Throughline

By Accident of Birth (2022)

In August of 1895, a ship called the SS Coptic approached the coast of Northern California. On that boat was a passenger from San Francisco, a young man named Wong Kim Ark. He was returning home after visiting his wife and child in China, and he'd taken similar trips before. But when the ship docked, officials told him he couldn't get off. The customs agent barred him according to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which denied citizenship to Chinese immigrants.

By Accident of Birth (2022)

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Thursday

The Characters That Built China (2022)

Two craftsmen printing a book in kanji (the Chinese logographic system), China, circa 1800. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images) Hulton Archive/Getty Images hide caption

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Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Throughline

The Characters That Built China (2022)

Today, China is a global superpower. But less than two hundred years ago, the nation was in a state of decline. After what became known as the 'century of humiliation' at the hands of Western imperialist powers, its very survival was in question. A movement arose to fight off foreign interference and preserve Chinese culture in the face of intense pressure from a rapidly-changing world. And the key to that movement was language.In this episode, we follow three key reformers who worked to modernize written and spoken Chinese, sometimes risking their lives to do so. Their work simplified Chinese, standardized it, and took it from an inaccessible language built for the elite to a modern language for the masses. It was a struggle that spanned generations, changed the fate of millions of people, and helped create the powerful modern nation-state of China.

The Characters That Built China (2022)

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Friday

Helicopter or hands-off parenting? The choice won't impact a kid as much as you think
Courtesy of TED

TED Radio Hour

Helicopter or hands-off parenting? The choice won't impact a kid as much as you think

Kids are their own people. And the data suggests parents' decisions don't have as much sway as we think. Psychologist Yuko Munakata says it's a good thing that there's no right way to parent.

Helicopter or hands-off parenting? The choice won't impact a kid as much as you think

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Thursday

All Wars Are Fought Twice (2022)

South Vietnamese clamber aboard barges in the port of Saigon in an attempt to escape from advancing North Vietnamese troops on the day of the Fall of Saigon that ended the Vietnam War. Nik Wheeler/CORBIS hide caption

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Nik Wheeler/CORBIS

Throughline

All Wars Are Fought Twice (2022)

"All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory," writes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen. This week on Throughline, we want to pause the news cycle to think about not just how war is experienced or consumed, but how it's remembered. A refugee from the Vietnam War, Nguyen calls himself a scholar of memory — someone who studies how we remember events of the past, both as people and as nations. As the war in Ukraine continues and conflicts around the globe displace millions, we speak with Nguyen about national memory, selective forgetting, and the refugee stories that might ultimately help us move forward.

All Wars Are Fought Twice (2022)

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Friday

How placing kids with family can radically change the way foster care works in the US
Gilberto Tadday / TED

TED Radio Hour

How placing kids with family can radically change the way foster care works in the US

Sixto Cancel experienced the failings of foster care firsthand. Now he advocates for its reform and the expansion of "kinship care" so that young people can have a say in who raises them.

How placing kids with family can radically change the way foster care works in the US

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Thursday

After Roe: A New Battlefield (2022)
Marcy Nighswander/AP

Throughline

After Roe: A New Battlefield (2022)

The Supreme Court's decision in Roe v. Wade transformed the landscape of abortion rights overnight. For the doctors, lawyers, feminists, and others who had fought for nationwide legalization, Roe was the end of a long battle. But for the growing movement against abortion rights, it was the beginning of a new battle: to protect the fetus, challenge abortion providers, and ultimately overturn Roe. This is the story of how opponents of abortion rights banded together, built power, and launched one of the most successful grassroots campaigns of the past century.

After Roe: A New Battlefield (2022)

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Friday

Why some societies successfully prepare for the future — and others fail
Ryan Lash/Ryan Lash / TED

TED Radio Hour

Why some societies successfully prepare for the future — and others fail

Journalist Bina Venkataraman says some disasters are due to a short-sighted view of the future and a shallow memory of the past. She urges us to be smarter citizens and better ancestors.

Why some societies successfully prepare for the future — and others fail

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Thursday

Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade (2022)
Library of Congress

Throughline

Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade (2022)

Abortion wasn't always controversial. In fact, in colonial America it would have been considered a fairly common practice: a private decision made by women, and aided mostly by midwives. But in the mid-1800s, a small group of physicians set out to change that. Obstetrics was a new field, and they wanted it to be their domain—meaning, the domain of men and medicine. Led by a zealous young doctor named Horatio Storer, they launched a campaign to make abortion illegal in every state, spreading a potent cloud of moral righteousness and racial panic that one historian later called "the physicians' crusade." And so began the century of criminalization.

Before Roe: The Physicians' Crusade (2022)

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Friday

Bacteria talk to each other. Decoding their signals could spot diseases sooner
Daiki Miyanabe / TED

TED Radio Hour

Bacteria talk to each other. Decoding their signals could spot diseases sooner

Bacteria coordinate attacks using their own chemical language. What if we could decode these messages and thwart their plans? Fatima AlZahra'a Alatraktchi invented a tool to spy on bacterial chatter.

Bacteria talk to each other. Decoding their signals could spot diseases sooner

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Thursday

History Is Over (2021)

Thom Yorke, the singer of the British band Radiohead performs on the stage of the "Rock en Seine" music festival in 2006. STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images

Throughline

History Is Over (2021)

As the end of the 20th century approached, Radiohead took to the recording studio to capture the sound of a society that felt like it was fraying at the edges. Many people had high hopes for the new millennium, but for others a low hum of anxiety lurked just beneath the surface as the world changed rapidly and fears of a Y2K meltdown loomed.

History Is Over (2021)

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Thursday

Meltdown (2020)

The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant two days after a meltdown forced a temporary closure of the plant. Bettmann/Bettmann Archive hide caption

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Bettmann/Bettmann Archive

Throughline

Meltdown (2020)

What happens when an accident puts the public at risk? In the early hours of March 28, 1979, a system malfunction set off what would become the worst nuclear accident in American history. What ensued punctured the public's belief in the safety of nuclear energy and became a cautionary tale about the consequences of communication breakdown during a crisis. This week, the fallout of a catastrophic event, and its ramifications for the public trust.

Meltdown (2020)

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Thursday

Of Rats and Men (2022)
New York Public Library Digital Collection

Throughline

Of Rats and Men (2022)

Rats. Love 'em or hate 'em, (though you probably hate 'em), they're part of our world. And they've been out in full force: In New York City, health data show rat sightings doubled in the past year. It turns out they're a lot like us: They've colonized the whole planet; they're incredibly adaptable; they go wherever the resources are. And, they share one-fourth of our genome—meaning that when you look in the mirror, you're kinda seeing a rat staring back at you. So for this episode, we dove into the history of our rodent doppelgängers. What we found was a story that spans thousands of years and nearly every continent on Earth, from the fields of ancient Mongolia to the palaces of Victorian England to the laboratories of 20th century Maryland... and probably to a burrow near you.

Of Rats and Men (2022)

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