Episodes

  • Back to school with no bus

    Back to school with no bus
    Aug 6 2024
    Hey Dig listeners. It’s been a while, we know. But we’ve been working on some new stories and will be adding them here when they’re ready. Up first, our reporter Jess Clark has been following the Jefferson County Public Schools system for a while — and when the school district’s board of education voted earlier this year to cut bus service for dozens of magnet schools, Jess started talking to families. She wanted to know how this huge decision would affect them — would they have to change schools — would they miss out on opportunities?
    Show More Show Less
    12 mins
  • Dirty Business

    Dirty Business
    Sep 14 2023
    In July 2022, floods killed 45 people and caused more than a billion dollars of damage in eastern Kentucky. Then, the people who were supposed to help clean up actually made things worse for a lot of survivors. There’s big money in disaster recovery. In “Dirty Business,” we investigate the expensive, messy work of cleaning up after 2022’s catastrophic flooding.
    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
  • 6: 'Who's Gonna Be Next?'

    6: 'Who's Gonna Be Next?'
    Oct 18 2021
    So much has changed since Louisville first proclaimed itself a model city for policing reform: the police chief was fired. The city was upended by protests and grief over Breonna Taylor, and David McAtee. But some things are the same: The anger. The frustration. The disconnect between the police and the community. In our season finale, city leadership makes a very familiar set of promises. Could 21st Century Policing work this time? Is it too late?
    Show More Show Less
    26 mins
  • 5: Say Her Name: Breonna Taylor

    5: Say Her Name: Breonna Taylor
    Oct 18 2021
    “Early this morning, we had a critical incident involving one of our officers who was shot and another person at the scene who was killed.” When LMPD Chief Steve Conrad first described what happened in Breonna Taylor’s apartment on March 13, 2020, he did not mention her by name. But the city would soon learn it — then the country, and then the world. What came next demonstrated how far LMPD had fallen from its ideals. Crowd control tactics in 21st Century Policing call for de-escalation — but in the wake of a particularly violent first night of protests in Louisville, LMPD officers settled into a routine of riot gear, tear gas and arresting protesters en masse.
    Show More Show Less
    33 mins
  • 4: Might As Well Appeal

    4: Might As Well Appeal
    Oct 18 2021
    For LMPD to become the police department it claimed to want to be, the department would have to recruit the best of the best, retain experienced officers, and effectively discipline and remove problem one. But LMPD’s disciplinary system makes the latter hard to do. Former and current officers say the job can chew up and spit out people who want to do community policing — harming the most-policed communities in the process.
    Show More Show Less
    34 mins
  • 3: People, Places and Narcotics

    3: People, Places and Narcotics
    Oct 18 2021
    Even as city leaders were making big promises about the model city they claimed Louisville was going to become, they were making decisions that undermined those policing reform goals. In 2016, there were 117 homicides in Louisville — at that point, the most in decades. Police responded with a “People, Places and Narcotics” strategy that targeted some Black neighborhoods with aggressive patrols.
    Show More Show Less
    32 mins
  • 2: Promises

    2: Promises
    Oct 18 2021
    In 2016, the police chief laid out his vision: Louisville was going to become the kind of place where everyone across the city, no matter what neighborhood they lived in, would get the same treatment from the police — policing that’s about your protection, and safety. But that’s not what happened.
    Show More Show Less
    23 mins
  • 1: The Eye of the Storm

    1: The Eye of the Storm
    Oct 18 2021
    Barbecue chef David McAtee, the man they called Yaya, was a staple at 26th and Broadway in Louisville’s predominately Black West End. He was a friend to everyone who stopped by for a meal — including many police officers. For years, Louisville had claimed to be building bridges between police and Black communities. Yaya was one of those bridges. Here’s what happened to him, and how.
    Show More Show Less
    26 mins