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NPR's original documentary podcast unearths the stories behind the headlines. Police shootings. Towns ravaged by opioids. The roots of our modern immigration crisis. We explore what's been sealed off, undisclosed, or never brought to light. We return with a deeply-reported portrait of why these stories, and the people behind them, matter.

Support in-depth storytelling that matters by subscribing to Embedded+ and unlock early access to new episodes and sponsor-free listening. Learn more at plus.npr.org/embedded

Most Recent Episodes

Taking Cover: Finding David

David Costello stands in his parents' home near Cleveland, Ohio. Claire Harbage/NPR hide caption

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Claire Harbage/NPR

Taking Cover: Finding David

As Tom and Graham work to track down the men in the courtyard, one of the wounded Marines has long remained elusive. His former comrades wonder if he's even still alive. Eventually, with help from Carlos, the team finds David. His chilling story reflects the lingering wounds of war.

Taking Cover: Finding David

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Taking Cover: JAGMAN

Elena Kennison-Zurheide and a photo of her and husband Marine Lance Cpl. Robert Zurheide Jr., who was killed in 2004. Graham Smith/NPR hide caption

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Graham Smith/NPR

Taking Cover: JAGMAN

Hoping to get their hands on the official investigation, the NPR team flies to Tucson. But problems begin shortly after arrival. The widow of a man who died in the explosion wants to know why the Marine Corps lied to her. Tom and Graham want to know why the recommended punishments were overturned. The team finally confirms a crucial detail from the original tip.

Taking Cover: JAGMAN

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Taking Cover: Stand-To

Marines share descriptions of the horrors of treating and evacuating more than a dozen men — all in the middle of a massive firefight that kicked off after the explosion in Fallujah, Iraq in 2004. Angelica Alzona for NPR hide caption

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Angelica Alzona for NPR

Taking Cover: Stand-To

The wounded are evacuated. The battle subsides. Now the men of Echo 2/1 begin to wonder: What happened? The Marine Corps says "no records exist" but Tom and Graham find testimony before an obscure Congressional subcommittee that says otherwise. The team also finds that promises made — to Congress, to the families of the dead and to wounded Marines — have been broken. And, they hear from one man who knows exactly what happened in the courtyard of that schoolhouse — but they still have to wonder, why was this covered up?

Taking Cover: Stand-To

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Taking Cover: Danger Close

Crosses honoring fallen Marines stand at the top of Horno Ridge at Camp Pendleton, Calif. Graham Smith/NPR hide caption

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Graham Smith/NPR

Taking Cover: Danger Close

NPR's Pentagon Correspondent, Tom Bowman, receives a shocking tip from a trusted source: A deadly explosion during the Iraq War was an accident—friendly fire, covered up by the Marine Corps—and the son of a powerful politician may have been involved.

Taking Cover: Danger Close

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White Lies: The Excludables

Matias Prieto-Campos (left) and Ernesto Aciego-More were detained in the U.S. after arriving from Cuba in 1980. Chip Brantley/Chip Brantley/NPR hide caption

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Chip Brantley/Chip Brantley/NPR

White Lies: The Excludables

In our final episode of the season, we start researching the names on the secret list of 2,746 Cuban excludables. What we find confirms many of our suspicions about the arbitrariness of how the U.S. government created the list. Our reporting takes us — where else? — to Cuba, to finally track down the men on the roof and hear them tell their own stories. What had they hoped to find in this country and what had they found instead? Finally, our journey takes us to one last interview in a high rise in Vancouver, Canada, where we hear from the man who led the uprising at Talladega, and made the decision to take to the prison's roof to display banners made from bedsheets that read, Pray for Us and Please Media: Justice, Freedom, or Death. Want to hear the first episode of Embedded's next series a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded.

White Lies: The Excludables

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Introducing Taking Cover
Jesse Brown for NPR

Introducing Taking Cover

Hosted by NPR's Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman and Graham Smith of the Investigations unit, Taking Cover isn't just a show about the worst Marine-on-Marine friendly fire incident in modern history. It's a story of betrayal, brotherhood, and what's owed—to families, the wounded, and to the American public—when we send our young to war. Coming soon, after this week's conclusion of White Lies.

Introducing Taking Cover

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White Lies: The List

Prison employee Phil Little tours the prison yard at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary after a riot in 1987. The wall behind him has messages from Cuban detainees. Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Courtesy of Georgia State University Library hide caption

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Atlanta Journal-Constitution/Courtesy of Georgia State University Library

White Lies: The List

Since we began reporting this story, we've been after a list. A secret list. On it are the names of 2,746 people whom the US government deemed excludable, including the men on the roof. The government has kept this list so secret that at one point it went so far as to classify it. None of the Mariel detainees knew if their name was on the list or not. In fact, nobody knew what names were on the list. Until now. In Episode 7, the story of a list that sparked uprisings, separated families, and changed the trajectory of U.S. immigration policy. And the story of what we learned when we finally got our hands on it. Want to hear the next episode of White Lies a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded.

White Lies: The List

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White Lies: The Trial

Headstones of Cuban men who died while they were detained at the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. According to a document compiled by the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, 32 Cuban men died in the prison between 1980 and 1987. There were homicides, heart attacks, the vague "natural causes." But nearly a third of them died by suicide. Chip Brantley/NPR hide caption

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Chip Brantley/NPR

White Lies: The Trial

In Episode 6, we sneak into the graveyard of the Atlanta federal penitentiary with a radical peace activist to learn more about what happened in the prison in late 1984. A peaceful protest by detainees held in the Atlanta pen resulted in a violent crackdown, and one of the detainees, a man named Jose Hernandez-Mesa, was charged in federal court with inciting a riot. We tell the story of his trial — and the surprising verdict that began reshaping public opinion about the Mariel Cubans who were being detained. Want to hear the next episode of White Lies a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded.

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White Lies: The Pen

The Atlanta Federal Penitentiary in 2020. (John Bazemore/AP) hide caption

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(John Bazemore/AP)

White Lies: The Pen

On May 18, 1980, a man named Genaro Soroa-Gonzalez arrived in Key West from the port of Mariel. With no family waiting to sponsor him, he was sent by plane to a resettlement camp at an army base. There he was interviewed by the INS and, a few days later, he boarded another plane, this one bound for the federal prison in Atlanta. But wait - he'd committed no crime, so why was the US government detaining him? And how long could they hold him? In Episode 5, the story of Genaro Soroa-Gonzalez and the beginning of the indefinite detention of Mariel Cubans. Want to hear the next episode of White Lies a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded.

White Lies: The Pen

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White Lies: The Entry Fiction

Cubans who arrived in the U.S. during the Mariel boat lift in 1980 are housed at Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, on April 19, 1981. The fort first housed German prisoners during World War II and Vietnamese refugees in 1975. AP hide caption

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AP

White Lies: The Entry Fiction

When President Carter promised to welcome the men and women arriving on the Mariel boatlift with "an open heart and open arms," he had referred to them as refugees. But technically speaking, they weren't refugees. They were classified as entrants, an immigration status with a peculiar legal standing in the United States. While entrants are physically allowed to enter the country, legally they're still at the border, asking to come in. Their presence in the country is known as a legal fiction — specifically, the "entry fiction." So even as Cubans were disembarking boats in droves through the summer of 1980, they were officially still floating off the coast of Key West. And this immigration status followed them to where they went next: an army base in rural Arkansas. In episode 4, the curious case of the militarized border in the middle of the Ozark Mountains. Want to hear the next episode of White Lies a week before everyone else? Sign up for Embedded+ at plus.npr.org/embedded.

White Lies: The Entry Fiction

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