A Borrowed Time

From dating shows to police interrogation rooms, the polygraph test has long been marketed as a way to detect deception. But can it really? And who decided we needed a truth machine in the first place? In this episode, a Throughline listener sends us on a quest to uncover the sto ...  Show more

The Eighth Amendment. What is cruel and unusual punishment? Who gets to define and decide the amendment's boundaries? And how did the Constitution's authors imagine it might change? In this hour, the shifting definition of cruel and unusual punishment. This episode was originally ...  Show more

After protests convulsed Hong Kong for much of the last year, the city’s pro-democracy movement has been chilled by a new law that some say may change the semiautomonous territory forever. Today, we examine why China chose this moment to assert control, and what the new law me ...

Protesters fought pitched battles with police in central Hong Kong in an eruption of public anger against an extradition bill that critics see as a fundamental threat to the territory’s civic freedoms and rule of law. Gideon Rachman discusses the protests and the government's har ...  Show more

Each Monday this August, we're looking back at some of the stories from the past year that stuck with us.In June 2020, with the world's attention on the pandemic, Hong Kong’s freedoms were under threat as the Chinese government imposed a draconian new security law. Now, the city ...  Show more

Why are there democracy protests in Hong Kong? Anu Anand talks to Stephen McDonell.The Explanation is a snackable audio guide giving you the backstory behind the headlines. In each episode, presenter Anu Anand meets a BBC News correspondent who has lived and breathed these storie ...  Show more