EDITORIAL STAFF

Victor Couto

Victor Couto is the production manager and former associate producer at Retro Report. He has produced a short documentary film and written for Newsday. Victor graduated from Purchase College with a B.A. in Journalism.

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Coronavirus Has a Playlist. Songs About Disease Go Way Back.

Coronavirus songwriting has gone as global as the pandemic itself, creating a new genre called pandemic pop. It’s a tradition with a long history.
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How Biden vs. Sanders Echoes a 1964 Republican Party Split

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are the icons of an ideological split among today’s Democrats, echoing a similar split in the Republican party of 1964.
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Meatless Burgers Are on Trend. Eating to Save the World Has a Long History.

Plant-based meats may be high tech, but the ideas behind them have been around for decades.
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Political Debates: What Unforgettable Moments Reveal | Retro Report

High-stakes debates put candidates in the hot seat. But are they helpful to voters?
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Do Whistleblower Protections Work? Ask This One.

A case from almost a decade ago reveals the peril faced by whistleblowers seeking to expose wrongdoing.
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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.
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The Surprising Legacy of the Boy in the Bubble

Newborns today are tested for genetic and immune disorders that might not be apparent at birth. The tests evolved from the treatment of a patient with a rare diagnosis who became known as “the Boy in the Bubble.”
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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.
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Israel Survived an Early Challenge With War Planes Smuggled by U.S. Vets

In 1948, World War II aviators risked their lives in a secret operation to smuggle weapons and planes to the Israeli military.
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Rehab Rarely Works for Opioid Addicts. Could a Vaccine?

Overdose deaths are skyrocketing, forcing researchers to find new ways to think about and treat addiction.
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Conspiracy Theories and Fake News from JFK to Pizzagate

Retro Report explores decades of conspiracy theories -- from the John F. Kennedy assassination to Pizzagate -- and what they can tell us about how we view the world today.
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Upheaval at the 1860 Democratic Convention: What Happend When a Party Split

Some issues are too fundamental for a party to withstand, and the consequences can last for a generation.
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Lessons from the 2004 Democratic Convention: Obama's Speech

Sometimes the most important speech at the convention isn't delivered by the nominee.
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Lessons from the 1924 Democratic Convention: An Immigration Debate's Impact

Immigration has been a defining issue in a campaign before, and the consequences transformed the Democratic Party.
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Lessons from the 1912 Republican Convention: Birth of the Modern Primary

The animosity between William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt changed the primary process forever.
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Lessons from the 1912 Republican Convention: Birth of the Modern Primary

In 2016, some Bernie Sanders supporters complained that the delegate process wasn’t fair. In 1912, a battle over the primary process transformed American politics.
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How It Started (1831): Conventional Wisdom

In 1831, a radical third party had a new idea for selecting a presidential candidate, and it’s still in use today: the national nominating convention.
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Lessons From the 1964 Republican Convention: Declaring War on the Establishment

Donald Trump's candidacy wasn't the first time the Republican Party was split by an outsider declaring war on the establishment elite.
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Lessons from the 1968 Democratic Convention: Under the Shadow of Protests

There are important lessons to be learned from the Democrats' 1968 Chicago convention.
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Lessons from the 1976 Republican Convention: Why Ronald Reagan Lost the Nomination|

In 1976, Ronald Reagan found owning the soul of a party isn't the same as taking home its nomination.
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Atomic Vets

The story of the veterans who witnessed secret atomic testing and how their decades-long struggle for recognition affects soldiers today. This story is a coproduction with Reveal, from The Center for Investigative Reporting.
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Transgender Rights: A Decades-long Struggle for Equality

This #PrideMonth, 50 years after Stonewall, many transgender people are still struggling for inclusion, even amongst the LGBT community.
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