‘ICE Sweeps Georgia’

This social video series by the Atlanta Journal Constitution documents the effects of an immigration-enforcement sweep on communities and individuals in Georgia, garnering 2.8 million views online. Through intimate vertical video, body camera footage, and firsthand accounts, it shows the human-level impact of the actions on the families of the detained and documents wrongful arrests of U.S. citizens. What began with stories of a Trump-voting family whose son was detained and a Georgia-born man wrongfully arrested as an “unauthorized alien” evolved into a portrait of federal power colliding with local lives, published in the same year the newsroom ended its 157-year print run.

Where to Watch: TikTok

‘Cleared by Fire’

In 2005, a squad of U.S. Marines in Iraq encountered an I.E.D. that killed one soldier and injured two others. For the next few hours, Marines killed 24 Iraqis in the surrounding area, all of them civilians—men, women, and children. This New Yorker interactive investigation, along with the publication’s podcast In the Dark, reveals how U.S. government inquiries into the incident failed and probes what really happened that day in Haditha despite many contradictory accounts. Drawing on hundreds of sources, the documentary uses meticulous reporting and 3D reconstruction to examine the killings in cinematic detail, unravel contradictions, and pursue the truth.

Where to Watch: NewYorker.com

‘South of Midnight’

The game South of Midnight follows Hazel, a young woman searching for her missing mother after a hurricane hits their town of Prospero, Louisiana. On her journey, she encounters mythical creatures and folklore from Southern culture while she faces generational trauma and grief in the wake of the disaster. The 12-hour action-adventure game itself features combat sequences and puzzle-solving as Hazel uses her magical weaving abilities to stop evil spirits, and an authentic blues, bluegrass, and gospel soundtrack.

Where to Play: Compulsion Games

‘Investigating War Crimes in Gaza’

In this feature-length investigation, Al Jazeera composes a clear and damning record of Israeli war crimes—by simply editing together photos and videos posted online by Israeli soldiers themselves. In its database of thousands of videos, photos, and social media posts, the news organization has, when possible, identified the posters and those who appear as they destroy entire neighborhoods, loot, and kill. This material is supplemented by the stories of Palestinian journalists, human rights workers, and residents in Gaza, as well as evidence of Western governments’ complicity in the conflict.

Where to Watch: YouTube

‘Carbon Cowboys: Stories of Soil Health and Farmer Wealth’

This 11-part online documentary video series shows how farmers are grazing cattle in ways similar to how bison herds once grazed the Great Plains of North America, a technique that results in some of the world’s richest soils. The accompanying website organizes the videos by state on an interactive map and explains in simple, accessible terms how the process works and why it’s effective. As a whole, the work offers explanations and solutions to promote the environmentally friendly practice from a group that says “it doesn’t even care if you believe in climate change,” making it a model for practical, nonpartisan action.    

Where to Watch: CarbonCowboys.org

‘Education in Ruins: Gaza’s Children on Losing their Right to Learn’

This CNN multimedia piece features children in Gaza reflecting on the loss of their prime education years to war as their schools are bombed and their educational system decimated by the widespread local destruction. Videos, maps, and photos show the children who are trying to learn despite the carnage, without internet or even electricity. “UNICEF estimated that 13% of teachers in Gaza had been killed or injured as of August 2024,” the report says. “Education, although vital, is inevitably further down the list of priorities for Gazans than ensuring their health, sustenance and shelter.”

Where to Read: CNN.com

‘Consume Me’

Consume Me takes players inside the life of a teenage girl as she struggles with body image and diet culture. It follows Jenny into her senior year of high school as she navigates homework, chores, a boyfriend, college applications, and an obsession with her appearance and weight. Developed by an indie team led by Jenny Jiao Hsia, the game simulates routine tasks like exercising, applying makeup, and walking the dog, presenting meals as Tetris-like challenges that weigh calorie counts and rules against internal and external pressures.  

Where to Play: Apple App Store

One family. One attack. 132 names. A Gaza investigation.

The last three years of Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza have brought a steady stream of reports of carnage, making it hard to pay attention to its devastating effects on a human level. This multimedia NPR investigation concentrates on one incident: an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza that killed 132 people from one extended family. Through videos, photos, interviews, and interactive family trees, NPR demonstrates the profound loss suffered by the Abu Naser family, which owned and lived in an apartment building in the targeted area.

Where to Read: NPR.org

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‘Vietnam: The War That Changed America’

Five decades after the fall of Saigon marked the end of the Vietnam War, this six-episode documentary series offers an unflinching look at the conflict’s emotional, psychological, social, and political ramifications on America. Through emotional reunions and rarely seen footage, personal war stories with echoing ramifications, accounts of social unrest back home, and remembrances of medical personnel and soldiers’ spouses, it paints a thorough portrait of the lifelong effects of any war, especially one this fraught.

Where to Watch: Apple TV

The Trailer for ‘Vietnam: The War That Changed America’

Revisiting the Vietnam War 50 years later with those who lived it.

‘Aftermath: Hunt for the Anthrax Killer’

In this eight-part investigative podcast, declassified materials and firsthand accounts illuminate the anthrax attacks that gripped the United States with terror in the weeks after 9/11. Taking a true-crime approach, the series reminds us of a huge news story that has been reduced to a footnote, examining the eight-year botched FBI investigation and answering the question: Who was actually responsible? (Yes, there is an answer, and a reason many of us didn’t pay attention to at the time.)

Where to Listen: CBC

‘Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time’

Hurricane Katrina: Race Against Time tells the stories of disaster, evacuation, tragedy, violence, resilience, and rebuilding in New Orleans with the hindsight of 20 years after the devastating storm. It begins by going back to just before the storm struck, then walks through the chaos, destruction, and aftermath. Directed by Tracy A. Curry, it does not shy away from pointing out all that went wrong, and the important lessons that have remained largely ignored. As critic Robert Lloyd wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “Curry finds her own way through mountains of material in the series that is at once highly compelling and difficult to watch, though I suggest you do.”

Where to Watch: National Geographic

‘The White House Effect’

This documentary film reveals that 30 years ago, there was a chance to stop global warming. It goes back to a time before climate change was a partisan issue, reminding us that such a thing was even possible. Entirely through archival footage, it shows how the climate crisis began with a political battle within the George H.W. Bush administration and changed the fate of the world. An infuriating retelling of history with implications stretching to today and into the future.

Where to Watch: Netflix

Further Watching: Forbes Interview with ‘The White House Effect’ Filmmakers

The filmmakers share how they sifted through thousands of archival pieces and newly uncovered White House documents to bring this telling of a pivotal historical moment to life.

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‘When We All Get to Heaven’

In 1993, more than a decade into the AIDS epidemic, the LGBTQ-friendly Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco had to navigate the intersection of sexuality and faith amid an existential crisis. This podcast dives deep into the story with an archive of 1,200 cassette recordings of the church’s services at the epidemic’s heights—recorded at the time so ailing members could listen at home. As congregants died and mourned, the community united to care for the group’s spiritual and physical health and, instead of shying away from what was still a taboo topic, identified as a “church with AIDS.”

Where to Listen: YouTube
Explore More at Peabody’s Website: When We All Get To Heaven

‘Divine Intervention’

Divine Intervention chronicles a group of Catholic priests and nuns who dedicated themselves to not just protesting the Vietnam War, but boldly flouting the law to undermine the war effort, including harboring draft resistors, breaking into draft offices, and clashing with the FBI, all of which culminated in significant trials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Additionally, the series weaves in a personal love story about a priest who left the church to marry an anti-war activist, revealing the origins of the podcast’s host, Brendan Patrick Hughes, while capturing the spirit of the Boston Irish and the era’s intense political struggles.

Where to Listen: Apple Podcasts
Explore More at Peabody’s Website: Divine Intervention

How It Happened: The Stunning New Queer Podcast When We All Get to Heaven

Podcast co-creator and religious historian Lynne Gerber told the San Francisco Bay Times that When We All Get to Heaven documents “a community that knew how to face loss and make hope in hard times … something all of us are going to need to learn how to do if we’re going to get through the existential crises in front of us” in 2026.

Where to Read: San Francisco Bay Times

FROM OUR FRIENDS

Lynne Gerber’s Peabody Acceptance for ‘When We All Get to Heaven’

“These are stories of a people living through a terrible, terrifying time, with no end in sight,” Gerber said. “They are a study in how to hold collective grief, claim joy, and keep showing up even when the path is unclear and the outcome uncertain. We are such a people living through such a time, and we have a lot to learn from these voices.”

Where to Watch: PeabodyAwards.com

Brendan Patrick Hughes’s Peabody Acceptance for ‘Divine Intervention’

“Our story is about nuns and priests in 1970s Boston who became cat burglars in order to sabotage the Vietnam War,” he said. “And they got so good at it that they began trading blows with J. Edgar Hoover. They scaled walls, they picked locks, they stole draft files. They sang songs from the witness stand in protest.”

Where to Watch: PeabodyAwards.com

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‘Adolescence’

In this gripping limited series, 13-year-old Jamie Miller (an astonishing Owen Cooper) is arrested for murdering a female classmate. What’s revolutionary is that this isn’t a crime mystery; instead, the storytelling focuses on the ways that the crime affects the investigators and his family while also revealing the online “manosphere” sources that made such an act inevitable. With an intensity that’s heightened by the series’ high-wire act of production—each episode is a single take—Adolescence provides no scapegoats or easy answers. (More on that below from co-creators Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne.)

Where to Watch: Netflix
Explore More on Peabody’s Website: Adolescence

‘Audrie & Daisy’

This 2016 documentary delves into the stories of two teenage girls who were raped in separate incidents, one in California and one in Missouri, both of whom endured cyberbullying after the assaults. Using social media and court documents, the husband-and-wife directing team of Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk tell these two related, tragic stories, which begin with the girls’ assaults being caught on camera and end in destruction, anguish, and suicide. A difficult watch with a crucial message.

Where to Watch: Netflix
Explore More on Peabody’s Website: Audrie & Daisy

‘Feminist Frequency’

Feminist Frequency was created by Anita Sarkeesian in 2009 as a video series exploring gender issues in pop culture, including video games, and it became a flashpoint in the #Gamergate online harassment campaign of the mid-2010s. Sarkeesian endured death and rape threats and doxxing all due to her “Tropes vs. Women in Video Games” series. Feminist Frequency carried on, however, and continues now as a video podcast hosted by Kat Spada, exploring works such as Hairspray, Barbarella, and the most recent Oscar nominees.

Where to Watch: YouTube
Explore More on Peabody’s Website: Feminist Frequency

‘The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram’

In this documentary, Frontline and ProPublica investigate an online network of white supremacists dubbed “Terrorgram” because it spreads extremism and violence through loosely moderated platforms like Telegram. The work reveals how the group not only disseminated propaganda but actively recruited and groomed young individuals for acts of violence, growing from a few accounts to a large community focused on far-right terror. By analyzing chat logs and conducting interviews, the report highlights how various platforms have fostered extremist ideologies and the eventual arrests of individuals linked to the Terrorgram collective.

Where to Watch: PBS
Explore More on Peabody’s Website: The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram

‘Adolescence’ on ‘We Disrupt This Broadcast’

“It takes a village to raise a child,” co-creator and star Stephen Graham said on The Peabody Awards and Center for Media & Social Impact podcast, “We Disrupt This Broadcast”. “And [co-creator] Jack [Thorne] said to me, ‘Yeah, but it also takes a village to destroy a child.’ And that was kind of what we based our whole thing on. We weren’t pointing the finger at anybody. We were just saying maybe we’re all accountable in some way, shape, or form.”

Listen to the Podcast Episode: PeabodyAwards.com

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