Embedded

As NPR correspondent Emily Feng reported in our three-part series "The Black Gate," hundreds of thousands of Uyghur people have been detained in China. They've been subjected to torture, forced labor, religious restrictions, and even forced sterilization. In this episode from 2021, our colleagues at the history podcast Throughline explore who the Uyghur people are, their land, their customs, their...

As NPR correspondent Emily Feng reported on the Kucar family, she encountered a mysterious figure working to keep her sources from speaking out. Later, she meets another Uyghur man who - perhaps unwillingly - becomes an actor within China's systems of control. These men are accused of working to silence others, but they say they've found themselves silenced as well. To listen to this series sponso...

Abdullatif Kucar returns to China, determined to find his children, who have been sent to state-run "boarding schools," and his wife, who has spent two years in prison. They're among hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs arrested and detained over the years. Kucar is trying to do what is virtually impossible in China: bring his loved ones home for good. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support...

In the Xinjiang region of western China, the government has rounded up and detained hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups, including the wife and young children of a Uyghur businessman named Abdullatif Kucar. NPR correspondent Emilly Feng follows Kucar as he desperately searches for his missing family. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Emb...

This is the story of a people being erased, one family at a time. For almost a decade, the Chinese government has been detaining hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uyghurs in what critics call a systematic attempt to dismantle their culture. And since the beginning, NPR correspondent Emily Feng has reported on these detentions, which were described by the United Nations as possibly constituting crime...

There's a promise that all Marines make to defend the Constitution. After Sgt. Joshua Abate participated in the events on January 6, the Corps has to decide: Did he break his oath when he entered the Capitol that day? And what does his case say about the changing narrative around January 6? To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.np...

"Have you ever tried to overthrow the U.S. government?" Marine Sgt. Joshua Abate was in the middle of a routine polygraph test to receive top-secret clearance when he made an extraordinary admission: He had followed the crowd that broke into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. This admission leads to a different kind of January 6 story. Abate says he's not an insurrectionist. So why did it take h...

Sergeant Joshua Abate says that he's not a rioter or an insurrectionist. Those closest to the active-duty Marine call him "a good guy." But he was part of the mob that attacked the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. On the eve of a new presidential election, what does his case tell us, as the nation still grapples with the legacy of that day? As they look into the military's reckoning with extremism in...

Episode 6: Christine and Max are some of the most recent female athletes in this century-long history to face tests, stigma, and restrictions. But they are unlikely to be the last. In this episode, we find out whether Christine qualifies for the Paris Olympics, as well as the fate of Max's court case. And we explore the broader implications of the sex binary in sports. Is there a better way for sp...

Episode 5: A battle over science and ethics unfolds. World Athletics releases and then tweaks multiple policies impacting DSD athletes, while critics cry foul. In this episode, World Athletics doubles down on its claims, Caster Semenya challenges the rules again, and we dig deep on a big question: what constitutes an "unfair" advantage on the track? To listen to this series sponsor-free and suppor...

Episode 4: In 2009, South African sprinter Caster Semenya won gold at the World Championships. But instead of a celebration, she endured endless speculation about her body, her biology, and her gender. And soon, sports organizations would launch a new round of regulations, lead to multiple court cases, and require sporting organizations to justify their claim that DSD athletes have an unfair advan...

Episode 3: We meet Kenyan sprinter Maximila Imali, who—like Christine Mboma—has been sidelined by DSD policies. She makes a different choice from Christine: to fight the regulations in court. And we learn about a previous fight, when scientists, athletes, and journalists spent thirty years trying to end an earlier version of sex testing. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign...

Episode 2: We go back almost 100 years, to the beginning of women's inclusion in elite sports. It turns out that men had an odd variety of concerns about women athletes. Some doubted these athletes were even women at all. And their skepticism resulted in the first policies requiring sex testing. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or at pl...

Episode 1: Would you alter your body for the chance to compete for a gold medal? That's the question facing a small group of elite athletes right now. Last year, track and field authorities announced new regulations that mean some women can't compete in the female category unless they lower their body's naturally occurring testosterone levels. You'll meet one of those runners, Christine Mboma, a r...

Who gets to compete? Since the beginning of women's sports, there has been a struggle over who qualifies for the women's category. Tested follows the unfolding story of elite female runners who have been told they can no longer race as women, because of their biology. As the Olympics approach, they face hard choices: take drugs to lower their natural testosterone levels, give up their sport entire...

The end of the 113th General Assembly of Tennessee is fast approaching. Melissa Alexander, Mary Joyce and Sarah Shoop Neumann have reached a new stage in their understanding of the statehouse. But they also face a new challenge: how to square their long-held conservative beliefs with the new politics they've picked up in the year since the shooting at their kids' school. When two of the women make...

Melissa Alexander came to the Tennessee statehouse to convince members of the Republican party – her party – to adopt gun control measures after a mass shooting at her son's school. A year later, she doesn't feel like she's gotten through to many lawmakers. But there's at least one Republican senator who's made Melissa and the other Covenant moms feel welcome: Richard Briggs. Briggs has been in of...

It's been four months since the Covenant moms – lifelong conservatives Melissa Alexander, Mary Joyce and Sarah Shoop Neumann – pleaded with their lawmakers to pass gun control measures during a special session at the Tennessee statehouse. Now they're back – for months, not days – and this time, they feel prepared to face the GOP-dominated legislature. But when the 2024 legislative session begins,...

In 2023, a mass shooter attacked The Covenant School, a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, and three mothers were compelled to act. Their mission: help pass some kind of gun control in one of the reddest states in the country, a state where the Republican Party has a supermajority in the legislature. But these women aren't your typical gun control activists. They're lifelong conserv...

Supermajority is a new 4-part series from NPR's Embedded, in partnership with Nashville Public Radio. As Americans focus on national politics this election year, we zoom in on one state and its political majority. Host Meribah Knight has been following three conservative moms in Tennessee over the course of a year as they learn to navigate their Republican-controlled state legislature. These polit...

The second in a two-part special series featuring conversations between Embedded host Kelly McEvers and NPR reporters who have been on the ground during the current conflict between Israel and Hamas In this episode, Morning Edition's Leila Fadel paints an intimate portrait of displacement in Gaza. She shares voice memos she's been receiving from a college student trying to survive and the story of...

The first in a two-part special series featuring conversations between Embedded host Kelly McEvers and NPR reporters who have been on the ground during the current conflict in Gaza. In the first episode, NPR's Daniel Estrin talks about the challenges of reporting on the Israel-Hamas war and the work of his colleague Anas Baba from inside Gaza. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collecti...

In this Taking Cover update, a U.S. senator wants answers from the Marines about what went wrong - and we meet an Army soldier still serving on active duty who's been denied the truth about his war wounds. To listen to this series sponsor-free and support NPR, sign up for Embedded+ in Apple Podcasts or plus.npr.org . See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data...

Since activist Karima Baloch's mysterious death in 2020, her family has been searching for answers. Journalist Mary Lynk has, too. The documents Mary gets and the people she talks to will lead her closer to the truth of what happened that day. But is the truth enough closure for a family? For the people Karima was fighting for back home in Balochistan? For other dissidents like her, in exile or hi...

As her native Balochistan mourns activist Karima Baloch's death, we dive deeper into what Karima was fighting for and why – and learn about the intense history of the Baloch people and the state of Pakistan. Also – the story of what happens to dissidents who disappear... and then come back alive. The Kill List is a 6-part podcast from the CBC's investigative series, Uncover . To listen to this ser...