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
Life of the Law #14 - An Architect's Code
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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In its code of ethics, the American Institute of Architects requires members to “uphold human rights.” But what does that mean when it comes to pri...

  • Added: Jul 31, 2013
  • Length: 17:04
Life of the Law #15 - New Frontiers of Family Law
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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Today, fewer than 50 percent of American families are married. Half of the Unites States is in a non-traditional, non-nuclear family. What do these...

Bought by KVNF and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 26, 2013
  • Length: 15:18
  • Purchases: 2
Life of the Law #16 - Call NOW!
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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When things go bad, all you need to do is pick up the phone and CALL. Or so the late-night ads on basic cable tell us. Since the US Supreme Court a...

Bought by Room Tone Selects, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, KPIK-LP, WJCT, Georgia Public Broadcasting and more


  • Added: Jun 26, 2013
  • Length: 21:45
  • Purchases: 6
Life of the Law #17 - Redefining Rape (Explicit)
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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(This episode contains explicit language) Most of us have an idea of what the crime of rape is. But the legal meaning of the word rape varies wide...

  • Added: Jul 11, 2013
  • Length: 15:58
Life of the Law #18 - Forensics in Flames
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: Stills from a video made of the Lime Street Fire experiment. In four minutes, it went from a couch on fire to a room on fire, Credit: Video courtesy of John Lentini
Over the past 20 years, there’s been a revolution in the science of arson investigations. Many of the clues that had been used for decades to deter...

Bought by KMUZ, WJCT, and KALW


  • Added: Jul 23, 2013
  • Length: 16:26
  • Purchases: 3
Life of the Law #19 - Judging Steinbeck's Lennie
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: Author John Steinbeck in 1962, the year he won the Nobel Prize in Literature., Credit: Creative Commons
In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to execute people with mental disabilities. But the Court left it up to individual sta...

Bought by KPIK-LP and PRX Remix


  • Added: Dec 13, 2013
  • Length: 14:32
  • Purchases: 2
Life of the Law #20 - Justices on the Move
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: Early Supreme Court justices, including the Chief Justice, spent much of the year traveling as circuit judges in the federal court system., Credit: Public Domain
In the early days of the United States, Supreme Court justices did double duty, spending much of their time riding circuit as judges on lower court...

Bought by KISU, WEZU, and New Hampshire Public Radio


  • Added: Dec 13, 2013
  • Length: 12:24
  • Purchases: 3
Life of the Law #21 - Water Rights
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: A big thunderhead rolls in from the West toward Becky Hyde’s ranch. She says her father, also a rancher, would have called it a million dollar rain. But these days, she says, it’d be more like a billion dollar rain., Credit: Jason Albert
When a serious drought hit just months after an Oregon court awarded senior water rights to the Klamath Tribes, the tribe made a ‘call’ for water. ...

Bought by KMUZ, PRX Remix, and KALW


  • Added: Dec 13, 2013
  • Length: 15:59
  • Purchases: 3
Life of the Law #22 - A Criminal Debt
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: Fees and fines in Philadelphia, Credit: Amanda Aronczyk
It’s not unusual at all to leave prison anywhere across the country owing fees, fines, or other costs to the local court. The city of Philadelphia ...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio and PRX Remix


  • Added: Dec 13, 2013
  • Length: 16:17
  • Purchases: 2
Life of the Law #23 - Of Prison and Pregnancy
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: A woman prisoner in a cell at the Women’s House of Detention, a women’s-only prison run by the Women’s Prison Association, in the 1940s. , Credit: Women's Prison Association
The United States incarcerates six times as many women as it did thirty years ago. Many of these women are already mothers, and four percent of inc...

Bought by KFAI Minneapolis, WCAI / WNAN Cape & Islands, Mass., and PRX Remix


  • Added: Dec 18, 2013
  • Length: 16:11
  • Purchases: 3
Life of the Law #24 - Hour-Long Special
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Credit: Bitchcakes
This hour-long special hosted by Al Letson features three of Life of the Law's best stories of 2013. Letson leads listeners through the virtual wor...

Bought by Troy Public Radio, NPR Illinois, WJCT, and KOSU


  • Added: Dec 27, 2013
  • Length: 53:00
  • Purchases: 4
Life of the Law #25 - Release Day
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: Curtis Penn takes his first walk of freedom on his release day from San Quentin, at Chrissy Field in San Francisco., Credit: Nancy Mullane
For eighteen years, California’s three strikes law leveled harsh penalties against repeat felons: anyone with two felony convictions received 25 ye...

  • Added: Jan 15, 2014
  • Length: 16:06
Life of the Law #26 - School Discipline
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
Caption: Kyle Thompson, Credit: American Civil Liberties Union
Thousands of kids are arrested in school every year. About a third of U.S. schools have a regular police presence on campus; some school districts ...

Bought by KMUZ, WEZU, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 05, 2014
  • Length: 17:23
  • Purchases: 3
Life of the Law #28 - Bad Constitution
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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With more than 300,000 words and over 800 amendments, Alabama’s Constitution is 40 times longer than the US Constitution, and holds the record for ...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Feb 25, 2014
  • Length: 16:39
  • Purchases: 1
Life of the Law #29 - Best of LIVE LAW 3 "Love and the Law"
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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What’s love got to do with the law? Then again, what’s the law got to do with falling in love? From coast to coast, Life of the Law occasionally ta...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 11, 2014
  • Length: 17:26
  • Purchases: 1
Life of the Law #30 - Trouble with Profiling
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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Border Patrol agents are only allowed to stop a car if they have ‘reasonable suspicion’ that something illegal is going on. But does looking ‘Mexic...

Bought by KBCS 91.3 FM Community Radio, KMUZ, Accessible Media Inc., KALW, and PRX Remix


  • Added: Mar 26, 2014
  • Length: 12:47
  • Purchases: 5
Life of the Law #32 Privacy Issues
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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You’re driving your car down a street and as you pass, a camera takes a photo of your license plate. Who is taking the photo and what are they doin...

Bought by KMUZ and PRX Remix


  • Added: Apr 29, 2014
  • Length: 17:42
  • Purchases: 2
Life of the Law #33 - The Hardest Time: Moms In Prison and an interview with Piper Kerman
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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Mother’s Day is the one day of the year we set aside to honor mothers. Some do it with flowers and cards. For women who are in prison and their chi...

Bought by KVNF and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 11, 2014
  • Length: 24:57
  • Purchases: 2
Life of the Law #34 - Necessity Defense
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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It’s odd to think cannibals, cannabis-growers, Vietnam War protesters, and prison escapees all have something in common. But they do: the necessity...

Bought by WEZU and PRX Remix


  • Added: Jun 11, 2014
  • Length: 21:04
  • Purchases: 2
Life of the Law #40 - Abuse, Abduction and International Law
From: Life of the Law
Series: Life of the Law
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What happens when one parent takes a child across international borders without the other parent’s permission? In 1980, the United States and inter...

Bought by PRX Remix


  • Added: Oct 06, 2014
  • Length: 20:21
  • Purchases: 1

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