The Big Dig

The highway project known as “The Big Dig” is infamous – a shorthand for government failure – but it all started as one engineer’s dream to correct the wrongs of the past, and its legacy is far from simple.

America’s most successful state lottery – and its greatest innovation, the scratch ticket – starts with mafia bookmakers and state bureaucrats going toe to toe in a battle to own the future of gambling.

A fishing tycoon is arrested in an elaborate sting operation, but claims he’s the real hero fighting back against the state.

Healthcare is the problem American politics cannot solve. It’s the subject of screaming matches at town halls, the cause of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, the justification for political assassination in cold blood. But how did our most basic need become such a divisive issue?In Season Four of The Big Dig podcast, "Mitt & Ted", we tell the origin story of national healthcare reform. Mitt Romney and Ted Kennedy began their political journeys on opposite sides of the issue, and they ended once again on opposite sides, but for a brief period in the middle they worked together to pass a groundbreaking law – one that promised to finally transform the politics of American healthcare – the law known as Romneycare. So, what brought this odd couple together and what ultimately pulled them apart?

Two years ago, GBH News in Boston released the acclaimed podcast The Big Dig, about that city’s messy attempt to reckon with its own highways. Now host Ian Coss is taking the show on the road to do live tapings in different cities facing the same issue – in Seattle, Portland, Austin, Syracuse, Baltimore and more — looking at stories from the past, present and future. It’s called The Highway Teardown Tour.

September 11th changed the world forever; but in particular, it changed airports. In this special episode of The Big Dig, we go inside the world of Logan Airport – the place where the 9/11 attacks began – to tell the story of how that day unfolded, and how it transformed everything from security screening and terminal design, to restaurants, lounges, and luxury boutiques.