Pulse
The Untold Story
Pulse: The Untold Story, an Audible Original by journalist Trevor Aaronson, investigates the Pulse nightclub shooting and raises startling questions about the FBI’s culpability.
In a gay nightclub in Orlando on June 12, 2016, Omar Mateen murdered 49 people and wounded 53 others. The attack was the deadliest act of violence against the LGBTQIA+ community in US history and the deadliest terrorist attack in the United States since 9/11.
But there’s a story you haven’t heard. The FBI had a secret history with Omar Mateen and his father. To obscure that history, the FBI pushed a false story that the media dutifully carried—that the attacker was a secretly gay Islamist extremist who had chosen to target Pulse and planned the attack for weeks.
Through a relentless and thorough investigation, Aaronson uncovers the volatile relationship between Mateen and his father and how their troubled interactions with the FBI lead to a disturbing final question: Could the FBI have prevented the massacre?
Read more about Pulse: The Untold Story in Audible Blog, Orlando Weekly, GLAAD, and AudioFile.
Alphabet Boys
Season One: Trojan Hearse
Alphabet Boys reveals the secret investigations of the FBI, DEA, ATF, and other alphabet agencies. Hosted by journalist Trevor Aaronson, Alphabet Boys exposes secret undercover recordings that the government never wanted the public to hear. We explore cases that are both dangerous and absurd in order to ask this question: Are America’s top cops catching criminals — or creating them?
Season one is Trojan Hearse. During the rage-filled summer of 2020, a mysterious, cigar-smoking antifa warrior rolled into town. He wore military fatigues, spoke with a raspy voice, and drove a hearse filled with guns. He also kept a very big secret.
Read more about Alphabet Boys: Trojan Hearse in The Intercept, The Daily Beast, Democracy Now!, The Guardian, and Reason.
Alphabet Boys
Season Two: Up in Arms
Alphabet Boys reveals the secret investigations of the FBI, DEA, ATF, and other alphabet agencies. Hosted by journalist Trevor Aaronson, Alphabet Boys exposes secret undercover recordings that the government never wanted the public to hear. We explore cases that are both dangerous and absurd in order to ask this question: Are America’s top cops catching criminals — or creating them?
Season two is Up In Arms. An international weapons deal to arm rebels in Colombia tangles up the DEA, the CIA, and the FBI in the same case. But who’s the good guy? And who’s the bad guy? In this spy story, no one is who they claim to be.
Hear more about Alphabet Boys: Up in Arms on Intercepted, True Spies, The Live Drop, and Underworld.
American ISIS
American ISIS is an eight-episode documentary podcast that tells the remarkable story of Russell Dennison, an American ex-convict and Muslim convert who joined the Islamic State in Syria. As U.S. and coalition airstrikes rained down on ISIS fighters in 2018 and 2019, Dennison secretly recorded dozens of hours of audio about his past and his life with ISIS and sent them to journalist Trevor Aaronson with one condition: Nothing he said could be revealed until he was captured or — more likely — killed.
Read more about American ISIS in The Intercept. Uproxx included “American ISIS” on its Best Nonfiction Podcasts of 2021, describing it as “a strange, unforgettable, bittersweet, Heart of Darkness kind of listen.”
Hold Fast
The Unadulterated Story of the World’s Most Scandalous Website
Hold Fast is the uncompromising story of Backpage.com, the world’s most scandalous website, and the rise and fall of alternative weekly newspapers nationwide.
Reported, written, and hosted by Trevor Aaronson, Sam Eifling, and Michael Mooney, Hold Fast is a romp through the weird history and boundary-pushing culture of alternative newspapers; the controversies surrounding Backpage.com and the government investigations; and the fraught frontiers of free speech in America.
Learn more about Hold Fast in On The Media, Columbia Journalism Review, and the Dallas Morning News.
High Rollers
Season Two of Chameleon
Deceit, scandal, lies — it’s Las Vegas. It’s the FBI sting you have to hear to believe. High Rollers is a 10-episode documentary podcast that tells the stranger-than-fiction tale of a two-year FBI undercover sting that went bust, with no one convicted of crimes.
Read more about High Rollers in Entertainment Weekly, Vulture, and Deadline. “High Rollers” was listed on Apple’s and Amazon Music’s Best Podcasts of 2021.