Moonrise

Ava Wallace, sports reporter at The Washington Post, is in France to report on the Summer Games — and eat a lot of croissants. Join her through the entire run of the games, for several episodes a week as she captures the highs, the lows and the Paris of it all, along with other Post colleagues. Follow The Sports Moment podcast on  Apple Podcasts ,  Spotify ,  Amazon Music  or&n...

Grenada’s Black revolutionary leader, Maurice Bishop, was executed in a coup in 1983, along with seven others. The whereabouts of their remains are unknown. Now, The Washington Post’s Martine Powers uncovers new answers about how the U.S. fits into this 40-year-old Caribbean mystery. “The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop” is an investigative podcast that delves into the revolutionary history of Grena...

To hear the rest of the series, follow “Field Trip” wherever you listen.  California’s Sierra Nevada is home to a very special kind of tree, found nowhere else on Earth: the giant sequoia. For thousands of years, these towering trees withstood the trials of the world around them, including wildfire. Low-intensity fires frequently swept through groves of sequoias, leaving their cinnamon-red ba...

Journey through the messy past and uncertain future of America’s national parks. The Washington Post’s Lillian Cunningham ventures off the marked trail to better understand the most urgent stories playing out in five iconic landscapes today. “Field Trip” is a new podcast series that will transport you to five national parks: Yosemite, Everglades, Glacier, White Sands and Gates of the Arctic. Follo...

Apollo 11 lifts off from Earth, fulfilling but also waking us from a longtime science-fiction dream. In the finale of “Moonrise,” we find ourselves on the moon.

The United States confronts race riots and the Vietnam War. Science fiction wrestles with its purpose now that space travel has become real. And NASA investigates its own failings. In the 11th chapter of “Moonrise,” we look inward.

Lyndon Johnson takes over the presidency following John F. Kennedy’s assassination, while rocketeer Sergei Korolev watches his fate rise and fall in the Soviet Union. In the 10th chapter of “Moonrise,” both countries hit setbacks in the race to the moon.

John F. Kennedy announces the moonshot. Then the doubts creep in …In the ninth chapter of “Moonrise,” old White House recordings reveal the president’s true views on the space race.

John F. Kennedy goes from senator to president. Space cowboys go from fiction to reality. And the United States chooses to go to the moon — in the eighth chapter of “Moonrise.”

Congress investigates the Sputnik launch. Lyndon Johnson seizes the spotlight. And President Eisenhower gets backed into a corner. In the seventh chapter of “Moonrise,” space gets political.

A top-secret memo in the Eisenhower administration. A plan to make space the new military high ground. And a Soviet beep heard from above. In the sixth chapter of “Moonrise,” humans launch the very first object into orbit.

Nuclear fears haunt the American psyche. Fascination with aliens is on the rise. And the U.S. government begins secret rocket experiments. In the fifth installment of "Moonrise," the best and worst of science fiction's predictions start to spring to life.

A Russian rocket dreamer is sent to a Siberian prison. And the road to redemption stretches more than 5,000 miles. On this episode of "Moonrise," a look at the maestro behind the Soviet space effort.

A German rocket scientist with a secret mission and dark past. A science fiction editor under the watch of the FBI. In the third chapter of Moonrise, weapons of war lay the groundwork for space travel.

A tiny New York office fills with big ideas. A group of sci-fi writers bring space travel into popular culture. American rocketry begins to take flight. On this episode of Moonrise, the dream of the moon starts to become reality.

A man who meets himself on the moon. A blue orb that bursts into flames. The quest to explain the unexplained. In the first chapter of "Moonrise," the journey to space begins.

You’ve heard about how we landed on the moon, now find out why we went there. Host Lillian Cunningham introduces a new Washington Post podcast that will explore the real story behind the moonshot — a wild tale of nuclear brinkmanship, backroom politics and sci-fi influence ... Coming summer 2019. We’ll be doing an exclusive preview of “Moonrise” at Chicago’s Adler Planetarium on Thursday, July 18,...