Editorial Staff
Scott Michels
Scott Michels is a Producer at Retro Report. He previously covered national legal news for ABC News. His work has also appeared in U.S.News & World Report, The New York Daily News and other publications. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism, where he has also been an adjunct assistant professor.

Racial Inequality Was Tearing the U.S. Apart, a 1968 Report Warned. It Was Ignored.
Anger over policing and inequality boiled over in 1967 in protests and violence across the United States. A landmark report warned that without major changes, it would happen again.

Unprepared: Lessons From Two Massive Oil Spills
A disastrous oil spill off the coast of Alaska and massive explosion of a rig in the Gulf of Mexico revealed a pattern of unsettled standards and inconsistent oversight that cast doubt on the oil industry’s preparedness for future accidents.

Extremism in America: Out of the Shadows
According to experts who monitor the radical right, the white supremacist ideology that police say drove the Buffalo gunman has begun moving from the extremes into the mainstream. This is the fifth episode of a five-part series produced in collaboration with The WNET Group’s reporting initiative Exploring Hate.

How the Military Response to 9/11 Led to Two Decades of War in Afghanistan
Officials who drove the decades-long war in Afghanistan look back on the strategic mistakes and misjudgments that led to a 20-year quagmire.
For teachers: This video is part of a collection of resources including four short films, each accompanied by a lesson plan and student activity.

Extremism in America: Emergence of The Order
The killing of radio host Alan Berg exposed a new kind of right-wing extremism. This is the first episode of a five-part series released in collaboration with The WNET Group’s reporting initiative Exploring Hate. This series was recognized with a 2022 Online Journalism Award for Best Digital Storytelling.

Why Waco is Still a Battleground in the 2nd Amendment Debate
In 1993, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, and generated a legacy that continues to shape antigovernment groups today.

We’re Catching More Diseases From Wild Animals, and It’s Our Fault.
Scientists who venture into rainforests and bat caves explain how viruses, like Covid-19, spill over from animals to people, and what we must do to stop the next pandemic.

Sanctuary Cities: An Uproar That Began Long Ago
As deportations of unauthorized immigrants rose under President Donald Trump, some churches and cities declared themselves sanctuaries and shielded migrants from immigration enforcement.

Is the Key to Obesity All in Your Gut?
Is there a hidden cause of obesity? A professor at Stanford thinks the answer might lie with the 100 trillion microbes living in our bodies.

Extremism in America: A Surge in Violence
Violent attacks involving extremist ideology, like the Buffalo rampage, began to rise in the last decade, but officials were slow to recognize homegrown threats. This is the fourth episode of a five-part series produced in collaboration with The WNET Group’s reporting initiative Exploring Hate.

Crime and Punishment: Three Strikes and You’re Out
After the 1993 murder of a California child, many states passed laws to lock up repeat offenders for life, but today those laws are raising new questions about how crime is handled in America.

The Back Story on Bad Forensic Science
With the Trump administration’s move to end a commission investigating flaws in forensic science, Retro Report looks at the history of one now-challenged method: hair analysis.

How Prop. 187 Transformed the Immigration Debate and California Politics
Today’s immigration policies echo an anti-immigration movement from the 1990s in California.

Poll Watchers and the Long History of Voter Intimidation
President Trump has called on supporters, including law enforcement officers, to monitor election sites. Voter intimidation tactics have a long history.

Trump’s Immigration Rhetoric Echoes a Bitter Fight from the 90s
Today’s immigration policies echo an anti-immigration movement 25 years ago in California.

The Unexpected Science of Exercise
Does exercise really make you lose weight? One scientist went to Africa and found an unexpected answer.

Bliss Point: How Food Companies Make Us Crave Their Products
How did food companies get us to crave their products? They discovered the “bliss point.”

How Zero Tolerance Blurred the Lines Between Schools and Criminal Justice
Over the last 30 years, schools across the country have enacted tough new discipline policies. Some of those schools say they went too far.

Combating the Myth of the Superpredator
In the 1990s, a handful of researchers inspired panic with a dire but flawed prediction: the imminent arrival of a new breed of “superpredators.”

Operation Ceasefire: Inside a Community's Radical Approach to Gang Violence
This is the story of cops, African-American pastors, gang members, and academics coming together to create positive change for Boston, while upending notions of traditional policing in a way that is especially pertinent today.

Extremism in America: The Oklahoma City Bombing
Anti-government propaganda, military deployment and the F.B.I. raid in Waco, Texas, radicalized Timothy McVeigh and led to the Oklahoma City attack. This is the second episode of a five-part series produced in collaboration with The WNET Group’s reporting initiative Exploring Hate.

The Domestic Violence Case That Turned Outrage Into Action
The ‘Burning Bed’ killing put domestic violence in the headlines.

E. Coli Outbreaks Changed Food Production, But How Safe Are We?
A 1993 E. coli outbreak linked Jack in the Box hamburgers sickened 700 people and acted as a wake up call about the dangers of food-borne illness. Decades later, how far have we really come in terms of food safety?

Toxic Waste in the Neighborhood: The Love Canal Disaster
In 1978, toxic chemicals leaking from an old landfill thrust an upstate New York community called “Love Canal” into the national headlines, and made it synonymous with “environmental disaster.”

Bush v. Gore: How a Recount Dispute Affects Voting Today
The dramatic controversy surrounding the 2000 presidential election led to sweeping voting reforms, but opened the door to a new set of problems that continue to affect elections today.

A New Housing Program to Fight Poverty has an Unexpected History
Some cities are trying to help poor children succeed by having their families move to middle-income, so-called “opportunity areas” – an idea that was once politically impossible.

How Watergate and Citizens United Shaped Campaign Finance Law
The Watergate campaign finance scandals led to a landmark law designed to limit the influence of money in politics. Decades later, some say the scandal isn’t what’s illegal, it’s what’s legal.

Richard Jewell: The Wrong Man
The 1996 Olympics in Atlanta were rocked by a bomb that killed one and injured more than 100. In the rush to find the perpetrator, one man became a target. There was only one problem. He was innocent.

How Segregation Influenced Evangelical Political Activism
While abortion is often cited as the motivation behind evangelical Christians becoming politically active in the 1970s, there’s another little-known reason that involves the IRS and segregated schools.

The Roots of Evangelicals’ Political Fervor
White evangelical Christians are among President Trump’s most important supporters. But more than 40 years ago, they were on the margins of American politics.

Extremism in America: Missed Warnings
In the years before Barack Obama was elected, many groups on the extreme right kept a relatively low profile. With the election of a Black president, that changed. This is the third episode of a five-part series produced in collaboration with The WNET Group’s reporting initiative Exploring Hate.

9/11 Heroes: Surviving the Biggest Attack on U.S. Soil
First responders who survived 9/11 don’t want the day to be forgotten.
For teachers: This video is part of a collection of resources including four short films, each accompanied by a lesson plan and student activity.

What Is a Healthy Diet? The Answers Are Unsatisfying
Thirty-five years after the first dietary guidelines, how much do we really know about the science behind a healthy diet?

Flawed Evidence: The Limits of Science in the Crime Lab
Before DNA testing, prosecutors relied on less sophisticated forensic techniques, including microscopic hair analysis, to put criminals behind bars. But how reliable was hair analysis?