“Truer, but also darker.” This is the real origin story behind America’s decision to go to the moon. The story we learn starts with Sputnik, then President Kennedy’s challenge, and ends with triumph: an American flag on the lunar surface. But in the 50 years that have passed since the moon landing, as presidential documents have been declassified and secret programs have been revealed, a wilder story has begun to emerge. “Moonrise,” a new Washington Post narrative mini-series, digs into the nuclear arms race of the Cold War, the transformation of American society and politics, and even the birth of science f...
Latest episodes
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59 sec
Introducing, "The Sports Moment"
Ava Wallace, sports reporter at The Washington Post, is in France to report on the Summer Games — and eat a lot of croissants. Join her through the entire run of the games, for sev…
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4 min
Introducing “The Empty Grave of Comrade Bishop”
Grenada’s Black revolutionary leader, Maurice Bishop, was executed in a coup in 1983, along with seven others. The whereabouts of their remains are unknown. Now, The Washington Pos…
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56 min
Listen to the first episode of “Field Trip”: Yosemite National Park
To hear the rest of the series, follow “Field Trip” wherever you listen. California’s Sierra Nevada is home to a very special kind of tree, found nowhere else on Earth: the giant s…
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3 min
Introducing “Field Trip”
Journey through the messy past and uncertain future of America’s national parks. The Washington Post’s Lillian Cunningham ventures off the marked trail to better understand the mos…
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49 min
The Dark Moon
Apollo 11 lifts off from Earth, fulfilling but also waking us from a longtime science-fiction dream. In the finale of “Moonrise,” we find ourselves on the moon.
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50 min
Magnificent Desolation
The United States confronts race riots and the Vietnam War. Science fiction wrestles with its purpose now that space travel has become real. And NASA investigates its own failings.…
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57 min
The Beyond
Lyndon Johnson takes over the presidency following John F. Kennedy’s assassination, while rocketeer Sergei Korolev watches his fate rise and fall in the Soviet Union. In the 10th c…
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46 min
JFK and the Secret Tapes
John F. Kennedy announces the moonshot. Then the doubts creep in …In the ninth chapter of “Moonrise,” old White House recordings reveal the president’s true views on the space race…
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48 min
A New Frontier
John F. Kennedy goes from senator to president. Space cowboys go from fiction to reality. And the United States chooses to go to the moon — in the eighth chapter of “Moonrise.”
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49 min
Nightmare on the Hill
Congress investigates the Sputnik launch. Lyndon Johnson seizes the spotlight. And President Eisenhower gets backed into a corner. In the seventh chapter of “Moonrise,” space gets…
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41 min
SPUTNIK!
A top-secret memo in the Eisenhower administration. A plan to make space the new military high ground. And a Soviet beep heard from above. In the sixth chapter of “Moonrise,” human…
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39 min
The Bomb and the Saucer
Nuclear fears haunt the American psyche. Fascination with aliens is on the rise. And the U.S. government begins secret rocket experiments. In the fifth installment of "Moonrise," t…
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39 min
Inside the Gulag
A Russian rocket dreamer is sent to a Siberian prison. And the road to redemption stretches more than 5,000 miles. On this episode of "Moonrise," a look at the maestro behind the S…
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42 min
The Shapeshifter
A German rocket scientist with a secret mission and dark past. A science fiction editor under the watch of the FBI. In the third chapter of Moonrise, weapons of war lay the groundw…
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37 min
Visionaries of the Void
A tiny New York office fills with big ideas. A group of sci-fi writers bring space travel into popular culture. American rocketry begins to take flight. On this episode of Moonrise…
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20 min
The Tale of the Blue Light
A man who meets himself on the moon. A blue orb that bursts into flames. The quest to explain the unexplained. In the first chapter of "Moonrise," the journey to space begins.
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4 min
Introducing Moonrise
You’ve heard about how we landed on the moon, now find out why we went there. Host Lillian Cunningham introduces a new Washington Post podcast that will explore the real story behi…