Short Run
Episodes
Jaws Island, Part 3: The Test of Time
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Steven Spielberg faced serious challenges making “Jaws” — from unpredictable weather to mechanical shark troubles — but ultimately created the...
Jaws Island, Part 2: The Amity Effect
29 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
See Edgartown through the eyes of the man who chose Martha’s Vineyard for the set of “Jaws” back in 1973. Production designer Joe Alves walks us...
Jaws Island, Part 1: The Finatics
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Embark on a journey to Martha’s Vineyard, the real-life “Amity Island,” for the 50th anniversary celebration of the blockbuster film “Jaws.”...
Introducing Jaws Island, a new series from WBUR
27 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When Jaws premiered in June 1975 on movie screens nationwide, it wasn’t just a movie release — it was a cultural event. Audiences were captivated ...
Reverse Course: This machine creates drinking water ‘from thin air’ in driest parts of the world
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People are taking steps big and small to move the dial on climate change. This week, in Here & Now's Reverse Course series, senior editor Peter O’Do...
Reverse Course: Detroit debuts 'road of the future' with wireless EV charging
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People are taking steps big and small to move the dial on climate change. This week, in Here & Now's Reverse Course series, senior editor Peter O’Do...
Reverse Course: Shipbuilders harness the wind to clean up global shipping
24 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People are taking steps big and small to move the dial on climate change. This week, in Here & Now's Reverse Course series, senior editor Peter O’Do...
Reverse Course: Planes pollute the planet, but new technology could clean up the aviation industry
23 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
People are taking steps big and small to move the dial on climate change. This week, in Here & Now's Reverse Course series, senior editor Peter O’Do...
Reverse Course: Battery-powered big rigs could haul the future of trucking
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Short Run presents Here & Now's climate series "Reverse Course". Today's episode is about how the trucking industry is responsible for almost a quart...
The Gun Machine presents: "Beyond All Repair," a new murder mystery podcast
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Introducing Beyond All Repair, a new WBUR podcast from producer emeritus of Dear Sugars, Amory Sivertson. This series tells the story of a murder, bu...
Short Run: Introducing "Elements of Energy" from WBUR's On Point
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
On Point's special series 'Elements of energy: Mining for a green future,' explores the environmental and human cost of mining, and asks what it would...
'The Gun Machine' Ep. 8: The Leftovers: How do you account for the true cost of gun violence?
22 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Growing up, host Alain Stephens bonded with his dad over guns — an interest Alain still holds today. But more than a decade ago, his family experien...
'The Gun Machine' Ep. 7: What the ATF — Why it’s so hard for the federal law enforcement agency in charge of guns to do its job
08 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is supposed to regulate the gun industry and protect the American public from gun crime. But t...
'The Gun Machine' Ep. 6: Why it's nearly impossible to sue gun companies – and the city that still has a case
01 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1999, at the end of a decade in which Gary, Indiana, had endured being labeled as the “murder capital of the nation,” then-Mayor Scott King fil...
'The Gun Machine' Ep. 5: How the police became one of the gun industry’s biggest customers
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When criminals have access to some of the most powerful weapons in the world, how will police match or outgun them? What role does the gun industry pl...
‘The Gun Machine’ Ep. 4: Springfield was once the center of the gun industry. Now, many guns on the street are illegal.
17 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The byproduct of producing the world's most lethal guns is that criminals have them, too. We go back to the birthplace of the industry, Springfield, M...
'The Gun Machine' Ep. 3: How U.S. civilians were spurred to buy guns
11 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Gun Machine host Alain Stephens and producer Grace Tatter dig into the scandal-ridden biography of the man who cracked the mass civilian market fo...
'The Gun Machine' Ep 2: Fear sells guns. Here's how that culture was created
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In episode two of The Gun Machine, host Alain Stephens travels down to Florida to attend the Pew Party, where he talks to Black gun owners about why t...
'The Gun Machine' Ep. 1: The U.S. gun industry's surprising origin story
04 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Our country would look very different without the gun industry. And without the federal government? The gun industry might not exist at all. The pre...
TRAILER: Introducing ‘The Gun Machine,’ a podcast about how America was forged by the gun industry
20 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every time there is a mass shooting in America, the first question is why. When we look for answers, we tend to focus on the incident itself - who t...
Coming Soon to Short Run: "The Gun Machine"
31 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This September, we're bringing you a story that most Americans never learned in history class — a new podcast about the gun industry’s grip on our...
Short Run: 'The power of populism' | Episode 5
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Some experts say that while populism can metastasize into authoritarianism, it doesn't have to. They argue that the roots of American populism made t...
Short Run: 'The power of populism' | Episode 4
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
America’s urban-rural divide. It’s easy to think of American populism as disempowered rural residents versus the urban elite. But when it comes ...
Short Run: 'The power of populism' | Episode 3
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
It felt for a while like Wisconsin was ground zero in American politics. How has populism flourished in the Badger state? In the third episode of On...
Short Run: 'The power of populism' | Episode 2
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Populism is on the rise across the globe, from Turkey to Hungary to Brazil. And in the world's largest democracy, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Mod...
Short Run: 'The power of populism' | Episode 1
28 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Populism is a defining force in American politics, and around the world. But what exactly is populism? Where does it come from, and where does it tak...
Short Run introduces Violation, a new podcast about who pulls the levers of power in the justice system
15 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We want to share a first listen of a new podcast we're working on at WBUR. Violation tells the story of two families bound together by an unthinkabl...
Short Run: 'The Great Wager' | Episode V
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
All of a sudden, it’s less clear if Nixon’s wager is paying off. After years of collaboration and mutual economic benefit, relations between China...
Short Run: 'The Great Wager' | Episode IV
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The relationship between China and the U.S. is off and running — and now the two countries are collaborating on secret, sensitive intelligence. Th...
Short Run: 'The Great Wager' | Episode III
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The news of Nixon’s trip to China is public, and he’s getting credit for pulling off such a historic event. Now, he and his advisers have to work ...
Short Run: 'The Great Wager' | Episode II
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Nixon and his national security adviser Henry Kissinger make contact with China. But in the midst of the Cold War, they don’t want anyone to know. H...
Short Run: 'The Great Wager' | Episode I
22 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
President Richard Nixon has a plan: He wants to go to China. The only problem? The U.S. and China have had zero contact since the Communist Party took...
'Good Bot, Bad Bot': Episode VI
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the final episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Dean Russell visit Google, the frontier of AI, to ...
'Good Bot, Bad Bot': Episode V
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the fifth episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Nora Saks dive into the ways artificial intellige...
'Good Bot, Bad Bot': Episode IV
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the fourth episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Quincy Walters share a cautionary tale about Tay,...
'Good Bot, Bad Bot': Episode III
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the third episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson explore a growing field of artific...
'Good Bot, Bad Bot': Episode II
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the second episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson consider the possibilities of bot...
'Good Bot, Bad Bot': Episode I
18 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the first episode of Endless Thread's series "Good Bot, Bad Bot," co-hosts Ben Brock Johnson and Amory Sivertson delve into the history of ELIZA, t...
Short Run: 'Essential trust: Episode V'
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Trust — in our institutions, our leaders, in each other — can erode away. But trust can also be rebuilt, even after devastating events. How can hu...
Short Run: 'Essential trust: Episode IV'
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Trust is essential for survival, for relationships, for a civilized society. But trust needs an unexpected ally: skepticism. But what happens when you...
Short Run: 'Essential trust: Episode III'
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Brazilians don't trust each other. Some studies find that more than 60% of Brazilians don't trust the people in their own communities. In the thir...
Short Run: 'Essential trust: Episode II'
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What happens in our brains when we trust someone? In the second episode of On Point's series Essential trust, neuroscientists explain how our brains p...
Short Run: 'Essential trust: Episode I'
14 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Goodall formed incredible bonds with chimpanzees in the wild. "First they were afraid. Then they became belligerent. And then when I wouldn't go...
Short Run: 'Smarter health: Episode IV'
01 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The final episode of On Point's series Smarter health gets up close with the people working and developing AI technology, and the patients receiving A...
Short Run: 'Smarter health: Episode III'
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Health care is heavily regulated. But can the FDA effectively regulate AI in health care? It's episode three of On Point's series “Smarter health."
Short Run: 'Smarter health: Episode II'
29 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
There is a sophisticated computer model that can estimate a patient's chance of dying in the next year. It's being used at a Stanford hospital to enco...
Short Run: 'Smarter health: Episode I'
28 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
American health care is complex. Expensive. Hard to access. Could artificial intelligence change that? In the first episode of On Point's series Sma...