Editorial Staff
Joshua Fisher
Joshua Fisher is a Contributing Producer at Retro Report. Joshua has produced short documentaries for Frontline/World and Newsweek, shot video for PBS and Discovery Channel, and worked as an editor on two feature-length docs. He has a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism.

Beekeepers and Scientists Join Forces to Protect the Pollinators
Honeybees, heroes in the national food supply, are under threat from parasites, exhaustion and a mysterious ailment. Here’s how beekeepers and scientists are fighting back to save the hives.

How the Cold War Arms Race Fueled a Sprint to the Moon
After the Soviet Union sent the first human safely into orbit, the U.S. government doubled down on its effort to win the race to the moon.

LSD Gets Another Look
LSD has long been associated with 1960s counterculture. Today, psychedelic drugs are back in the lab, providing hope for people who suffer from anxiety, depression and addiction.

Space Law: The Next Generation
An international treaty laid out the basics of space law in 1967. But without a lot of case history to go on, lawyers today have looked to maritime law and Arctic exploration as they lay the groundwork for how space will be governed.

Biosphere 2: A Faulty Mars Survival Test Gets a Second Act
NASA isn’t the first organization to experiment with living on Mars – in 1991 eight people sealed themselves inside a giant glass biosphere to practice space living. By the time they emerged two years later, they had “suffocated, starved and went mad.”

From Y2K to 2038, Lessons Learned from First Computer Crisis
The Y2K bug threatened to wipe out computers and disrupt modern society at the end of the 20th century. We all remember the doomsday hype, but what really happened?

Mr. Pilates
Did you know, the origins of the Pilates workout stem from WWI? Learn more about the fitness regimen Joseph Pilates developed in a British internment camp in this collaboration with PBS, American Experience.

Signal Repair
“The equipment ranges from the early 1900s to up to date present time.” Our collaboration with PBS, American Experience takes a look at the Boston “T” – the oldest subway in America.

Nikola Tesla Was a Hundred Years Ahead of His Time
Wireless power seems cutting edge, but it was actually pioneered more than 100 years ago by Nikola Tesla. We’ve teamed up with the American Experience to explore how Tesla’s technology is being used today.

LSD and Cats
The early science of hallucinogens in the 1950s and ’60s was “kind of a Wild West free-for-all.” For more info on the science of spiders and drugs, visit www.drpeterwitt.com.

A Change of Heart
The artificial heart became a media sensation in the 1980s as it both raised hopes and spread controversy. Today its impact on medical science is still playing out in surprising ways.

Free Speech VS Censorship: Warnings From Explicit Lyrics to Trigger Warnings
Offended by lyrics they deemed too sexual and violent, Tipper Gore and Susan Baker campaigned to put warning labels on albums in 1985. Years later, warning labels have ended up in some unexpected places.

When Politicians Blame Bad Behavior on Pop Culture
Every so often, Congress holds a hearing on the perils of pop culture. The “peril” has evolved from comic books, to rock and hip hop music, to violence in video games, but the proceedings follow a script.

Legendary Cartoonist Al Jaffee Recalls Comic Book Censorship
Cartoonist Al Jaffee has been causing mischief at MAD Magazine for decades and at 94-years-old, he’s as irreverent as ever. A new series of Retro Report short docs produced for Facebook.

Why Pinball Was Banned for Decades
Pinball was illegal? Really?

The Fly That Quarantined California and Pitted Environmentalists Against Farmers
In the summer of 1981, the Mediterranean fruit fly spread through California’s Santa Clara Valley, infesting backyard fruit trees and threatening the state’s $14 billion agricultural industry.

Freeing Willy
In the wake of the 1993 hit movie Free Willy, activists and fans campaigned to release the movie’s star – a captive killer whale named Keiko – and launched a story Hollywood couldn’t invent.