Red, White, and Bruised

When Donald Trump and the GOP Convention arrive in Cleveland, they will find a city with a long history of violent outbursts, racial tension—and brushes with fascism. In short, the perfect stage for the 2016 presidential campaign. Kyle Swenson explores the history of his hometown.

Source: Longreads
Published: Jul 13, 2016
Length: 13 minutes (3,440 words)

Get Freaking Huge

Inside the strange saga of Jason Genova, an amateur bodybuilder whose earnest YouTube workout videos have earned him an international cult following.

Published: Nov 3, 2015
Length: 20 minutes (5,218 words)

Valerie Bozeman Is Pardoned by Obama as America Wrestles With Fallout From the War on Drugs

Caught up in a cycle of drug use and abuse when she was sentenced to life in prison, Valerie Bozeman was no kingpin; she was just a woman struggling with addiction, dealing to further her own habit. President Obama commuted Valerie’s sentence in May, and she was free to go after serving twenty-three years. Since then, she has been struggling to adjust to life on the outside, and to understand the no-mercy laws that put her in prison in the first place.

Published: Sep 22, 2015
Length: 22 minutes (5,660 words)

A Broken System

An investigation into Florida’s laxly supervised state-contracted group homes finds teen prostitution, drug use, and zero accountability.

Published: Aug 11, 2015
Length: 19 minutes (4,800 words)

Wigs, Costumes, and ID Theft

The story of a major ID theft ring and the cops who brought them down.

Published: Mar 3, 2015
Length: 18 minutes (4,650 words)

The Real Batman

The true creator of Batman never got his due, and now his granddaughter is fighting to correct history.

Published: Feb 3, 2015
Length: 21 minutes (5,440 words)

Good Kids, Bad City

Ricky Jackson and the Bridgeman brothers were convicted of murder based on the coerced testimony of a 12-year old. This is the story of their exoneration after 39 years of wrongful incarceration.

Source: Cleveland Scene
Published: Dec 3, 2014
Length: 27 minutes (6,874 words)

Looking for Lilly

A complicated parental kidnapping cracks a window into the Sunshine State’s growing right-wing fringe, a bizarro world where Lincoln and Obama are a tag team bent on destroying America, the end times are ever nigh, and the Confederacy lives on.

Published: Aug 12, 2014
Length: 21 minutes (5,320 words)

A Sister’s Sleuthing Unravels a Teenage Love Triangle Murder Mystery

A twisted tale of teenage love and cold-blooded murder in Hollywood, Florida.

For detectives, the killing at first glance must have seemed an all-too-common crime: another dead thug, likely felled by the same drug culture that had left him homeless and broke. Yet Savage’s life and death — as told through hundreds of pages of police records, text messages, and interviews with his family and itinerant friends — were far more complex.

Published: Jun 23, 2014
Length: 26 minutes (6,501 words)