Category Archives: Uncategorized

What does the science really say about how long you can wait to have a baby?

Find out on Quartz.

The toxic myth that working moms fail their kids is fueled by decades-old bad science.

Watch the short documentary on Quartz.

The killing of 12 students and a teacher at Columbine High School in 1999 continues to shape how we view and understand school shootings today.

Click here to watch the Retro Report documentary and read the corresponding New York Times article.

In 1997, a young British nanny charged with murder brought shaken baby syndrome into the national spotlight. Every year, scores of caregivers are accused of shaking a baby to death. But has there been a rush to judgement?

Click here to watch the Retro Report documentary and read the corresponding New York Times article.

Should doctors be allowed to help suffering patients die? Twenty-five years ago, with his homemade suicide machine, Dr. Jack Kevorkian raised that question. It’s an issue Americans still struggle with today.

Click here to watch the Retro Report documentary and read the corresponding New York Times article.

Weeks before Selma’s Bloody Sunday in 1965, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. urged residents of Gee’s Bend, Ala., to vote, and fed a continuing fight over a small ferry that would last for decades.

Retro Report examines the story behind this little known tale from the Civil Rights Era, illuminating the forces that took the ferry off the river in 1962 and the decades of hardships that followed for African Americans living on Gee’s Bend. An unexpected alliance finally brought the ferry back in 2006. But what’s happened since?

Click here to watch the Retro Report video and read the corresponding New York Times article.

SWAT teams were created in the 1960’s to combat hostage takings, sniper shootings and violent unrest.  Since then, the specialized teams have morphed into a force increasingly used in routine policing, most often to serve drug warrants. The media has shone a light on isolated botched raids, but it took the show of force in response to protests in Ferguson, Missouri to start a national dialogue on the appropriate role of SWAT teams in today’s police force.

Click here to watch the Retro Report on the rise of the SWAT team, and here to read the corresponding New York Times article.

Click here to listen to a radio interview on KCRW.

Click here to listen to a radio interview on Wisconsin Public Radio.

The use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War continues to cast a dark shadow over both American veterans and the Vietnamese.

Click here to watch the Retro Report on the enduring legacy of Agent Orange, and here to read the corresponding New York Times article.

The controversy over Terri Schiavo’s case elevated a family matter into a political battle that continues to frame end-of-life issues today.

Terri Schiavo’s case started long before the cameras appeared.  In February 1990, the 26-year-old suffered cardiac arrest and was left in a persistent vegetative state. Initially, Schiavo’s husband and parents cared for her together, exploring potential treatments and rehabilitation. But over time, Schiavo’s husband and parents became locked in a very public battle over whether or not to remove the feeding tube that sustained her.

Michael Schiavo petitioned to have his wife’s feeding tube removed, saying she had told him she would not want to live in this condition. But Terri Schiavo had no living will, and so it was up to the state courts to decide her fate. As the legal struggle played out, the case divided the country. Before the 15-year battle was over, the Florida legislature, the Florida governor, the U.S. Congress, the President of the United States and even the Pope were involved.

Terri Schiavo’s case also raised an issue that has long plagued the medical community: how to determine the degree of brain function in a nonresponsive patient.  Today, nine years after Schiavo’s death, new scientific research is underway to try to answer that question.

Click here to watch the documentary on The New York Times. 

The custody battle over Baby M was the first time a court considered surrogacy. Today’s families are created in many different ways. But have we resolved the question of surrogacy?

Click here to watch Baby M and the Question of Surrogacy.