Spoken Word - Interviews
Interview with When It Mattered - Good Story
Ep. 26 - Barbara Bradley Hagerty
A Christian Scientist forsakes her religion after taking meds for the stomach flu and takes a life detour to uncover the science of spiritual experiences
December 2019 | When It Mattered
Interview with Today, Explained - Vox
The warehouse of forgotten evidence
Reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty set out to investigate why police across the country often fail to catch serial rapists. August 2019 | Today, Explained
Photo: Paul Spella / Katie Martin
Interview with On Point:
Police Fail To Catch Sexual Predators Because They Don't Believe Victims
A major investigation by The Atlantic finds that the police are still skeptical of women who report a rape. The reporter says a "subterranean river of chauvinism" is to blame.
July 2019 | On Point (WBUR)
Photo: Bill Smith (CC-BY 2.0)
Podcast: No Way Out
A Texas man who was convicted of murder in 1987 without any physical evidence spent his time in prison building a case to prove his innocence. Listen to his story—including new exculpatory evidence gathered by Barbara Bradley Hagerty’s investigation—on the first installment of a new Radio Atlantic series.
Note: This installment is split into two audio clips, which are below. You can listen to the full file uninterrupted on The Atlantic's website or on your favorite podcast player.
LISTEN: Part 1A and Part 1B
February 2018 | Radio Atlantic
Photo: Nathan Bajar
Podcast: Who Killed Jeffrey Young?
(No Way Out)
In the second episode of 'No Way Out' for Radio Atlantic, Barbara explores an alternate theory of the crime. She talks with friends of another man who they say boasted about committing it. Their story, coupled with the shoddiness of the evidence that convicted Spencer, was enough to secure a recommendation that Spencer be given a new trial, "on the grounds of actual innocence."
LISTEN
February 2018 | Radio Atlantic
Photo: Nathan Bajar
Podcast: How Innocence Becomes Irrelevant
(No Way Out)
For the final installment of 'No Way Out,' for Radio Atlantic Barbara looks at how the story of Benjamine Spencer shows a legal system that prefers naming someone guilty over figuring out who really is.
Note: This installment is split into two audio clips, which are below. You can listen to the full file uninterrupted on The Atlantic's website or on your favorite podcast player.
LISTEN: Part 3A and Part 3B
February 2018 | Radio Atlantic
Photo: Nathan Bajar
Drowning at Midlife? Start Swimming
”I had just read “Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife” by the NPR reporter Barbara Bradley Hagerty. She writes about midlife as a gold mine of opportunity and possibility. I had accidentally stumbled upon her book, bleary-eyed and depressed after reading an Oprah piece about how so many Generation X women like myself were having midlife crises.”
May 17, 2018 | The New York Times
Photo: iStock
Interview: The Life of an Ex-President After Leaving Office
Jimmy Carter was the trailblazer, Bill Clinton the moneymaker, George W. Bush the laid-back painter. So what’s next for Barack Obama?
January 2017 | PBS Newshour Interview
Photo: George David Sanchez
Interview with Forum:
Investigation Reveals Disturbing Info about Rape Prosecution and Serial Rapists
"Rape - more than murder, more than robbery or assault - is by far the easiest violent crime to get away with." So writes Barbara Bradley Hagerty in a new article for The Atlantic in which she explores why the assailant goes free in 49 out of 50 rape cases. Hagerty talks with host Michael Krasny about her reporting and new information about sexual predators, including that serial rapists are far more common than previously thought.
July 2019 | Forum (KQED)
Photo: Paul Spella / Katie Martin
Interview: The possibilities and pleasures of middle age
In America, the word “midlife” is so often followed by the word “crisis” that we’re likely more inclined to dread entering this phase of life, rather than relish it. In the book "Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife, Barbara Bradley Hagerty uses emerging information from neurology, genetics, sociology—as well as her own story—to reimagine the possibilities, purposes, and pleasures of middle age.
March 2016 | WHYY'S Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane
Photo: Ken Sutton (CC-BY-SA)
Guest Host: Debating the Meaning of Near Death Experiences
For many of us, tales of white lights, tunnels and journeys to other worlds offer hope – hope that death is not the end, hope that we will see friends and family who have died before us, hope that life has meaning beyond the length of our human days. And for scientists, near-death experiences tap into one of the great mysteries of our day: what is consciousness? Can the mind operate when the brain is off-line – and does that suggest a soul?
June 2016 | Interfaith Voices
Photo: Mike Kniec (CC-BY)
Guest Host: A Skeptical News Anchor Finds Meditation and Hiking as Spiritual Exercise
If an anxious, ambitious television star who worries about a theoretical receding hair-line can find some relief, the book suggests, maybe you can, too. Guest interviewer Barbara Bradley Hagerty finds out how ABC's Dan Harris did it.
May 2015 | Interfaith Voices
Photo: prodigy130 (CC-BY-NC-ND)
Guest Host: Wandering in the Spiritual Desert
Some say it's like the common cold, or a run-of-the-mill dry spell in an intimate relationship. There are times when people of faith feel, for a while, far from God. Guest host Barbara Bradley Hagerty sits down with two spiritual scholars to talk about their own experiences with "the dark night of the soul" and how they get through it.
November 2016 | Interfaith Voices
Photo: michael_swan (CC-BY-ND)
Interview: The Art and Opportunity of Midlife
When Barbara Bradley Hagerty hit her 50s, she braced herself for a midlife crisis. Exhausted by her career as an NPR correspondent and scrambling to pay off a mortgage, Hagerty reached the final straw when her father died and her mother suffered a stroke. Instead of collapsing, Hagerty embarked on a quest to grow and thrive in the second half of her life.
March 2016 | KQED's Forum
Photo: Kevin Dooley (CC-BY)
Interview: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife
Midlife is a time supposedly defined by crisis. But as Barbara Bradley Hagerty learned during a two-year exploration, midlife is really a time of renewal, a time to shift gears.
March 2016 | KUER'S RadioWest Podcasts
Photo: Will Folsom (CC-BY)