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Long Lead & PRX

Long Shadow

A History podcast Explicit

#104 in History · 🇸🇬 #128 in History · 🇺🇸
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About the show

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, Rolling Stone, and The Week. A winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award and the RFK Human Rights Journalism Award, it has also been honored with eight Signal Awards, including for Best History, Best Documentary, Best Technology, 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. OUT September 2026: “'Never again' / What is the legacy of 9/11?" a new episode of LONG SHADOW: 9/11's LINGERING QUESTIONS, commemorating the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. EPISODE DESCRIPTION: In the wake of the September 11 attacks, a promise echoed through the halls of the U.S. government: "Never again." Fueled by post-9/11 fear, the country’s leadership embarked on the largest bureaucratic overhaul in half a century, consolidating 22 federal agencies under the banner of the Department of Homeland Security.  The new bureau’s mission was simple: Keep the nation safe and stop the next attack at all costs. But over the years, the obligation to safeguard the homeland slowly laid the groundwork for a different kind of terror — one we’re seeing on America’s streets today. In this special episode of LONG SHADOW, released 5 years after 9/11's LINGERING QUESTIONS premiered and became the #1 history podcast on Apple Podcasts, Garrett Graff traces how the government’s response to the events of September 11 led to the buildup of a massive federal police force, an apparatus that was overtaken by a wave of corruption and criminality amounting to one of the most destructive scandals U.S. law enforcement has ever faced. "In the wake of 9/11," Graff says in the episode, "we couldn't see what was being created." What was constructed, he says, is a “national secret police force stronger and larger than our country could have imagined in August of 2001.” Listen today, and find out how we got here. 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.

Newest episodes

America in 25 Revolutions (Audiobook sample chapter)

41 min

A bonus for subscribers of LONG SHADOW, Long Lead presents a sample chapter of the audiobook of Garrett M. Graff's lates book, America in 25 Revolutions. From historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff, America in 25 Revolutions follows America’s 250-year quest to fulfill the founders’ promise of a nation where all are created equal, introducing us to the ordinary champions who moved progress forward.The Founding is only the start. America’s history is one of revolutions, plural.Today we recognize that America’s founding creed, “all men are created equal,” was imperfect and incomplete in 1776, but the story of how subsequent generations made those words real is more dramatic and more unpredictable than you ever guessed. As the country marks its 250th birthday, Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff offers an inspiring and challenging new account of our past—and what it means for our future.As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, acclaimed historian Garrett M. Graff immerses us in the legendary—and the forgotten—milestones in Americans’ ongoing quest to create a more perfect union. Since our founding in 1776, Americans have never stopped fighting for revolutionary advances to get closer to our founding promise of a nation where all are created and treated equal. America in 25 Revolutions tells their stories.The rights, freedoms, and opportunities so many of us now enjoy began as creative acts of imagination by individuals and groups excluded from the country’s founding principles. Progress has often been hard and come at great cost; many times, efforts to enshrine new rights and freedoms failed multiple times and efforts continued for years. From the Reconstruction Amendments in the 1860s to the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, from Brown v. Board of Education to the end of Jewish quotas at elite universities, from the Social Security Act to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the stories in America in 25 Revolutions offer critical lessons for...

“Never again” / What is the legacy of 9/11?

1 hr 9 min

Reacting in the middle of one nightmare, the U.S. government created another — an apparatus that in the wrong hands has become one of the most terrifying tools in the history of the country.

Trailer: Long Shadow: “Never again” / What is the legacy of 9/11?

3 min

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil, 'Long Shadow: 9/11's Lingering Questions' returns with this special episode hosted by bestselling author and journalist Garrett Graff. Listen to the Signal Award-winning first season of 'Long Shadow' now, and download the full episode on September 1, 2026, from Long Lead and PRX, wherever you get your podcasts.

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All episodes

America in 25 Revolutions (Audiobook sample chapter)

41 min

A bonus for subscribers of LONG SHADOW, Long Lead presents a sample chapter of the audiobook of Garrett M. Graff's lates book, America in 25 Revolutions. From historian and Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff, America in 25 Revolutions follows America’s 250-year quest to fulfill the founders’ promise of a nation where all are created equal, introducing us to the ordinary champions who moved progress forward.The Founding is only the start. America’s history is one of revolutions, plural.Today we recognize that America’s founding creed, “all men are created equal,” was imperfect and incomplete in 1776, but the story of how subsequent generations made those words real is more dramatic and more unpredictable than you ever guessed. As the country marks its 250th birthday, Pulitzer Prize finalist Garrett M. Graff offers an inspiring and challenging new account of our past—and what it means for our future.As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, acclaimed historian Garrett M. Graff immerses us in the legendary—and the forgotten—milestones in Americans’ ongoing quest to create a more perfect union. Since our founding in 1776, Americans have never stopped fighting for revolutionary advances to get closer to our founding promise of a nation where all are created and treated equal. America in 25 Revolutions tells their stories.The rights, freedoms, and opportunities so many of us now enjoy began as creative acts of imagination by individuals and groups excluded from the country’s founding principles. Progress has often been hard and come at great cost; many times, efforts to enshrine new rights and freedoms failed multiple times and efforts continued for years. From the Reconstruction Amendments in the 1860s to the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s, from Brown v. Board of Education to the end of Jewish quotas at elite universities, from the Social Security Act to the Americans with Disabilities Act, the stories in America in 25 Revolutions offer critical lessons for...

“Never again” / What is the legacy of 9/11?

1 hr 9 min

Reacting in the middle of one nightmare, the U.S. government created another — an apparatus that in the wrong hands has become one of the most terrifying tools in the history of the country.

Trailer: Long Shadow: “Never again” / What is the legacy of 9/11?

3 min

Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the worst terror attacks on U.S. soil, 'Long Shadow: 9/11's Lingering Questions' returns with this special episode hosted by bestselling author and journalist Garrett Graff. Listen to the Signal Award-winning first season of 'Long Shadow' now, and download the full episode on September 1, 2026, from Long Lead and PRX, wherever you get your podcasts.

The Red Pill

1 hr 4 min

A toxic army of trolls goes after women in the gaming industry, giving birth to an online movement of disaffected men. This "manosphere" contributes to the resurgence of Donald Trump and a constitutional crisis that holds American democracy in the balance.

Going Viral

55 min

After the twin disasters of the massacre in Myanmar and the 2016 election, social media undergoes a reckoning in the halls of Congress… until a novel virus uncorks a global pandemic and a contagion of hoaxes, conspiracies, and lies online.

Weapons of Mass Distraction

44 min

North Korea hacks a movie studio over a screwball comedy, inspiring America’s enemies to launch cyberattacks against the U.S. To roil an election, one even unleashes a network of trolls pitting ordinary Americans against each other, online and in the streets.

Enragement Equals Engagement

36 min

With the dawn of the newsfeed, Facebook begins a mass experiment on the human psyche — what we like and hate, what makes us happy and angry. Over the course of a decade, its algorithm drives the world to like, comment, and eventually, kill.

The Facebook Revolution

41 min

In Egypt, a ragtag group of young activists uses social media to spark a revolution and remove a dictator from power. They credit Facebook with the fall of the regime… until the platform is turned against them.

Establishing Connection

48 min

At the dawn of the new millennium, the internet yields powerful tools for coordinating and organizing online. From the 9/11 hijackers to flashmob pranksters to activists, it puts power in the hands of the people, for better and for worse.

The End of the World as We Know It

42 min

The internet as we know it today is a harrowing landscape. But in its quirky infancy, the web changed everything about how we lived, shared, shopped, and communicated. Then a computer bug threatened to shut it all down forever.

Trailer: Long Shadow: Breaking the Internet

3 min

When 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. In LONG SHADOW: BREAKING THE INTERNET, Pulitzer-finalist historian, author, and journalist Garrett Graff 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, but it's 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.  LONG SHADOW: BREAKING THE INTERNET is produced by Long Lead and is distributed by PRX.

Generation Lockdown

1 hr 8 min

Raised on active shooter and lockdown drills, Gen Z has endured an onslaught of violence — and emerged inspiring a wave of activism, a powerful gun safety movement, and hope.

A Good Guy with a Gun

48 min

Easy to handle and easy to conceal, handguns went boom in the 2000s, the same moment when many Americans — falsely and tragically — began to equate guns with safety.

The Right to Bear AR-15s

48 min

After a devastating, now largely forgotten, mass-shooting prompted lawmakers to take aim at assault weapons in the 1990s, their ban backfired — and caused gun sales to explode.

The Hardliners

46 min

In the 1980s, a pair of intimidating NRA leaders recast the organization in their own imposing images as the group went on an all-out offensive against gun regulations.

Shall Not Be Infringed

33 min

The Second Amendment may have begun as a Constitutional afterthought, but a late 20th-century ideological shift caused some to view it as a sacred right in the name of self defense.

A Uniquely American Problem

41 min

Mass shootings have plagued the U.S. for generations. But in 1999, when shots rang out in a suburban Denver school, it was different. What changed? Everything.

Trailer: Long Shadow: In Guns We Trust

3 min

This season host Garrett Graff, in collaboration with The Trace, recounts how a very specific, carefully manufactured fear has driven explosive demand for guns across the U.S. It’s the history of how firearms went from being an ordinary part of rural American life to a menacing element in modern society — and the epidemic of gun violence that’s come with it. How did we get here — how did America get so divided over guns — and can we we find a way forward? Find out, this season on LONG SHADOW. LONG SHADOW: IN GUNS WE TRUST is produced by Long Lead and Campside Media in collaboration with The Trace, and is distributed by PRX.

January 6: Day of the Rope

56 min

Emboldened by COVID lockdown protests and fighting Black Lives Matter demonstrators, far-right extremists and white power groups prepare to overthrow the government on Jan. 6… or a later date.

MAGA: American Carnage

51 min

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.

The Bundys: A Call to Arms

44 min

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.

Info War: From the Fringe to Fox News

44 min

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. 

Oklahoma City: Sic Semper Tyrannis

40 min

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. 

Ruby Ridge: The Revolution Begins

57 min

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.

Waco: The Spark

39 min

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.

Trailer: Long Shadow: Rise of the American Far Right

2 min

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

Long Lead Presents: The Depths She'll Reach

1 min

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/

How do we move on from 9/11?

52 min

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?

What was the Saudi connection to 9/11?

30 min

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?

Who was the 20th hijacker?

39 min

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? 

Could 9/11 have been stopped before it happened?

46 min

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? 

Was there a “fifth plane” on 9/11?

34 min

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?

Who issued the order to shoot down Flight 93?

39 min

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?

What was the target of United Airlines Flight 93?

27 min

Every defense mechanism the U.S. government had on 9/11 failed except for one: the passengers and crew aboard United Airlines Flight 93. They were on the final plane to be hijacked that day and heard reports of the attacks from loved ones on the ground. Then they rallied to stop the terrorist plot. But where was the plane headed before it crashed? What was the intended target of the Flight 93 hijackers?

Why weren’t more people rescued from the Twin Towers?

45 min

After both towers of the World Trade Center were hit on September 11, 2001, first responders coordinated the largest emergency response in New York City’s history. But their heroism at Ground Zero was hampered by institutional bureaucracy and ultimately undone by decisions made decades earlier, when the Twin Towers were built. So why did these iconic structures and architectural marvels fall so fast? Could more people have been rescued from the towers? And could some of those deaths have been avoided? 

Trailer: Long Shadow: 9/11's Lingering Questions

2 min

Many of us watched the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001 unfold right before our eyes. In the years since, law enforcement, congressional inquiries and the press have successfully uncovered more about what happened that day. But now on the 20th Anniversary of the attacks, many mysteries remain. Hosted by bestselling author and reporter Garrett Graff, Long Shadow answers those lingering questions and explores other enduring mysteries that still surround 9/11, the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Premiering this August, produced by Long Lead and Goat Rodeo.

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