Listen to the Top 5 ‘FRONTLINE Dispatch’ Podcast Episodes of 2025

This year, The FRONTLINE Dispatch podcast featured thought-provoking conversations with journalists and documentary filmmakers behind some of 2025’s most gripping reporting — from a deep dive into Chinese President Xi Jinping to an investigation into a global online network of far-right extremists.

In recent weeks, the podcast, which is hosted by FRONTLINE editor-in-chief and executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath, also launched an experiment: A special serialized, four-part audio adaptation of the documentary The Rise of RFK Jr., with commentary and insights from the filmmaker.

As the year draws to a close, we’ve collected the five most-downloaded new episodes of The FRONTLINE Dispatch in 2025, based on total downloads across all podcast players as of publication time.

Listen to the episodes that made the list below — and if you haven’t already, subscribe to The FRONTLINE Dispatch on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. For more smart listening as 2025 winds down and a new year begins, subscribe to our FRONTLINE Film Audio Tracks.

5. Born Poor: A 14-Year Journey Into Childhood Poverty and Its Consequences

What happens when you grow up poor in America — and stay in touch with the same filmmaker for more than a decade?

Aronson-Rath spoke with filmmaker Jezza Neumann and Kaylie Hegwood, one of three young adults Neumann has been following across 14 years. They discussed what the resulting documentary, Born Poor, reveals about hunger, loss, and the daily fight for stability in a country where opportunity can depend on the financial status of the family you were born into.

Neumann reflected on documenting three lives across more than a decade: “I have sat in a corner of a room and not moved for hours on end before, just to sort of disappear into their world,” he said. And Kaylie shared what it’s like to grow up on camera, to see her own story, and why she’s continued to share her life with the American public.

“I’ve been very committed to speaking about the poverty cycle and how hard it is, so kids who are going through it realize that they’re not being dramatic; it’s hard,” she told Aronson-Rath. “It’s not an easy task because your brain is wired a certain way. And you’re basically rewiring everything.”

4. After Hurricane Helene, Are We Ready for the Next Big Storm?

In fall of 2024, Hurricane Helene tore through multiple states, leaving millions without power, billions of dollars in damage, and more than 200 people dead. In the days that followed, NPR correspondent Laura Sullivan and a team from FRONTLINE began reporting on the ground in Western North Carolina, one of the hardest-hit areas — despite being inland and elevated far above sea level.

Sullivan and director Jonathan Schienberg joined the podcast to discuss what their reporting for the documentary Hurricane Helene’s Deadly Warning revealed about disaster preparedness and rebuilding in the aftermath, the United States’ growing vulnerability to climate change-related storms, and what can be done.

“Why after 20 years since Katrina, are we still standing in these devastated places wondering how did this happen? And how did it happen here? And why are so many people dead?” Sullivan recalled wondering. She told Aronson-Rath, “That’s when we started asking, is there a way to do this differently?”

3. Life in Tibet and What Comes Next

After 75 years of Chinese Communist Party rule in Tibet, and as Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, enters his 90s, Tibet is at a critical juncture. Gesbeen Mohammad, the producer and director of FRONTLINE’s documentary Battle For Tibet, joined the podcast to discuss what the film reveals about life in Tibet now, and the uncertain future for Tibetan Buddhism, language and culture.

Drawing on undercover footage, interviews with Tibet and China experts, Chinese government statements, and accounts from Tibetans now living in exile, Battle For Tibet examines the Chinese government’s tight control over the territory, including its system of boarding schools and a vast network of surveillance inside places like monasteries.

“Tibet is one of the world’s most tightly guarded regions,” Mohammad told Aronson-Rath. “So it felt like an important area to examine … particularly as there are various allegations that some of the policies are infringing on Tibetans’ religion and unique culture.”

2. Inside a White Supremacist Network That Encouraged Members to Kill

FRONTLINE and ProPublica spent more than a year investigating a global network of far-right extremists known as the Terrorgram Collective for the documentary The Rise and Fall of Terrorgram. Reporters A.C. Thompson and James Bandler joined the podcast to talk about the ideas and rhetoric they found inside Terrorgram, how the white supremacist network grew on anonymous, loosely-moderated platforms, and how the reporting team uncovered connections between the group and a deadly terror attack at an LGBTQ+ bar in Bratislava, Slovakia, that killed two people.

“You can find hate speech on most internet spaces,” A.C. Thompson told Aronson-Rath. What was different, he said, about  “this Terrogram community that colonized Telegram for about five years is it wasn’t just about speech. It was about actionable material.”

1. Martin Smith on China Under Xi

As President Trump vowed larger tariffs on China in his second term, China, the U.S. & the Rise of Xi Jinping director Martin Smith joined Aronson-Rath on the podcast. The longtime FRONTLINE correspondent talked about what the documentary reveals about China’s rise to economic prominence, the life and vision of its longstanding leader, and rising tensions with the United States over issues such as trade and the future of Taiwan.

“He’s the leader of our chief global rival, and I think a lot about him is not understood,” Smith told Aronson-Rath about President Xi. “We thought it was important for people to understand who he is, where he came from, what made him into the man he is.”