Explainers Video Archive
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How a Billionaire Team Owner Pays a Lower Tax Rate Than LeBron James — and the Stadium Workers, Too
Pro sports teams pretty much always increase in value. But our tax laws allow the owners to claim that their teams’ assets lose value, lowering their tax bills through amortization. The government misses out on billions in revenue. Here’s how.
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How the .001% Use Retirement Accounts as Tax-Free Piggy Banks
A retirement account designed for the middle class is being exploited as a giant tax shelter — legally — by some of the wealthiest Americans. Billionaire tech mogul Peter Thiel, a Paypal co-founder, has grown his Roth IRA to more than $5 billion.
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Buy, Borrow, Die: How America’s Ultrawealthy Stay That Way
Some of the wealthiest Americans use a strategy called Buy, Borrow, Die to dramatically reduce their tax bills while their fortunes continue to grow. This video is part of ProPublica’s series, “The Secret IRS Files” which reveals, using a trove of never-before-seen records, how the wealthiest avoid income tax.
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Black Men Have the Shortest Lifespans of Any Americans. This Theory Explains Why.
The unrelenting stress of fighting systemic racism can alter a body’s normal functioning until it starts to wear down. The theory, known as John Henryism, helps explain racial health disparities.
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How the Climate Crisis Will Force A Massive American Migration
The climate crisis will profoundly interrupt the way we live and farm in the United States. Extreme heat, massive floods and more fires may force millions of people to move — and millions may be left behind.
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Why You Can’t Always Trust Your Coronavirus Antibody Test Results
In some situations, antibody tests generate more false positives than real ones. It’s because of math.
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Seattle Allowed 33,000 Fans to Attend a Soccer Game as COVID-19 Cases Increased
Hundreds of pages of emails show officials debating how seriously to take the spreading virus.
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Why This Coronavirus Is Not Like the Flu, or Even the Swine Flu
COVID-19 is unlike anything in our lifetime. But the president has repeatedly compared it to the H1N1 swine flu outbreak of 2009. Here's why it's different, and much more dangerous.
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How Quickly Hospitals Could Fill Up if We Don’t Slow Coronavirus Down
How soon regions run out of hospital beds depends on how fast the novel coronavirus spreads, and how many open beds they had to begin with.
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Watch: Test Videos Reveal How Evenflo Put Children at Risk
There’s no government oversight of side-impact tests, so Evenflo made up its own and gave itself passing grades.
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Here’s How a Foreign Official Ended Up Writing Part of Trump’s Campaign Speech
We have the texts and emails.
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Americans Dodge $660 Billion in Taxes Each Year — And It’s Probably Getting Worse
The IRS is underfunded and understaffed. One result: audits of the wealthy are rapidly declining.
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How “Levee Wars” Are Making Floods Worse
High levees come at a high cost, often pushing water into communities that can’t afford the same protection. To demonstrate, we built a giant, scientific model of a river with levees — complete with adorable tiny houses.
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Treating a Common Children’s Ailment Isn’t Cheap
When Aviva Williams’ daughter got pinworms, her doctor prescribed albendazole, a prescription treatment that has been around for decades. Williams thought little of it, until she checked the price: $724 for a four-tablet treatment.
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Walking While Black
After watching a viral video of a Jacksonville cop stopping a young black man for jaywalking, reporters Ben Conarck and Topher Sanders examine how “walking while black” can come at a high price.
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How Ivanka and Donald Trump, Jr. Avoided Criminal Indictment
New York prosecutors were preparing a case. Then the D.A. overruled his staff after a visit from a top donor.
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The Big Problems with Testing Tiny Bits of DNA
New York City’s crime lab has been a pioneer nationally in analyzing especially difficult DNA samples. Now these DNA analysis methods are under the microscope, with scientists questioning their validity.
