Life of the Law

Series produced by Life of the Law

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A podcast offering documentary stories and investigations of people's relationship to the law.

Life of the Law publishes a new, unique episode every other Tuesday morning on our website - www.lifeofthelaw.org, Panoply, iTunes and on most podcast apps.

Investigative reports
Audio diaries
Live storytelling events (recorded)
In-Studio discussions


127 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: Warren McCleskey's last words, Credit: Sarah Marshall
Part 2 of Sarah Marshall’s report on Warren McCleskey’s life after the Supreme Court ruling and his execution on September 25, 1991 by the state of...

  • Added: May 23, 2017
  • Length: 32:44
Caption: A photo of Warren McCleskey at his sister Betty Myers' house., Credit: Sarah Marshall
America is a country plagued by racism. Culturally, socially, economically. But what about in the courts? 30 years ago, Warren McCleskey, a black m...

  • Added: May 03, 2017
  • Length: 56:32
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Join us for In-Studio, when our team gets together in the studios of KQED in San Francisco to talk about our recent episodes, the law in the news a...

  • Added: Apr 19, 2017
  • Length: 46:32
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What’s it like to be a teenager sent to prison for what may be forever, and what’s it like to be his mom? Our story is Mother and Son.

  • Added: Apr 05, 2017
  • Length: 37:45
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Want to know how heroin treatment centers in Canada, the Affordable Care Act, President Trump’s new budget, and Henrietta Lacks all fit into one co...

  • Added: Mar 27, 2017
  • Length: 53:54
Caption: addiction, alexander kim, canada, cited podcast, Crosstown Clinic, Dave Murray, diacetylmorphine, Dianne Tobin, fentanyl, gordon katic, Health Canada, Helsinki declaration, heroin, heroin addiction treatment, Kevin Thompson, legal heroin, NAOMI, NPA, over, Credit: Travis Lupick
Doctors usually treat heroin addiction with methadone, but it doesn’t work for everyone. So what do you do? At a small clinic in Vancouver BC, they...

  • Added: Mar 08, 2017
  • Length: 48:30
Caption: Senior Producer, Tony Gannon, and Post Production Editor, Kirsten Jusewicz-Haidle, Credit: Nancy Mullane
What do radio silence, the FCC, net neutrality, President Trump's first solo press conference, and Richard Wagner have in common? Welcome to In-Stu...

Bought by KTSW 89.9


  • Added: Mar 08, 2017
  • Length: 53:16
  • Purchases: 1
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In April of 2014, federal agents raided the studios of 106.1 TOUCH FM in Boston, Massachusetts. The reason was simple: the radio station was operat...

Bought by KUER


  • Added: Feb 08, 2017
  • Length: 41:13
  • Purchases: 1
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At Life of the Law, we’re going to shake things up a bit so our team can jump into the national conversation that’s taking place about the law. We’...

  • Added: Jan 25, 2017
  • Length: 41:52
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To celebrate Life of the Law’s 100th Episode, Life of the Law and the National Science Foundation brought five NSF funded scholars to the NSF Headq...

  • Added: Jan 11, 2017
  • Length: 01:07:16
Caption: Babyland
Eighteen-year-old Tonia Miller was accused of shaking her baby to death. A jury in Michigan convicted the young mother of second-degree murder and ...

  • Added: Dec 20, 2016
  • Length: 30:58
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The 2016 elections are over but what did we learn from the results? Over the past 11 months, Life of the Law’s team of reporters, editors and schol...

  • Added: Nov 21, 2016
  • Length: 59:57
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The 2016 elections are over but what did we learn from the results? Over the past 11 months, Life of the Law’s team of reporters, editors and schol...

  • Added: Nov 21, 2016
  • Length: 55:48
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In the fact of the fear, confusing and despair many Americans feel after the election, one group of individuals joined together to share stories of...

Bought by KALW


  • Added: Nov 16, 2016
  • Length: 52:51
  • Purchases: 1
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Races for seats on state supreme courts have gotten more negative, more partisan, and much more expensive. And that leaves sitting justices in a t...

Bought by Marfa Public Radio


  • Added: Nov 13, 2016
  • Length: 17:57
  • Purchases: 1
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Never before has a sitting justice on the Kansas Supreme Court not won a retention election. But as we all bear witness, 2016 is a different sort o...

  • Added: Oct 19, 2016
  • Length: 18:42
Caption: Douglas Collier outside his cell, Credit: Greg Eskridge and Elisabeth Fall
Douglas Collier is a life-term inmate at San Quentin State Prison. For years he shared a 9'x4' foot cell with his friend Tony, a fellow inmate -- u...

  • Added: Oct 04, 2016
  • Length: 17:52
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Each summer, people from all around the country gather for the Soros Justice Fellowship Conference -- three days of meetings, conversations, and wo...

  • Added: Oct 04, 2016
  • Length: 39:16
Caption: Arminio Órtiz Pérez, Credit: Eilís O’Neill
Working on a dairy--especially a small dairy--is one of the most dangerous jobs in the country, more dangerous even than construction. Over the pas...

  • Added: Sep 15, 2016
  • Length: 20:18
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The US Supreme Court issued a series of decisions that teens can’t be sentenced to death and they can’t be given an automatic life sentence without...

Bought by KRZA


  • Added: Aug 23, 2016
  • Length: 29:43
  • Purchases: 1