Host Joseph Rodota discusses the making of the podcast “HILLSIDE” and the NBC Studios Documentary “THE HILLSIDE STRANGLER: DEVIL IN DISGUISE." With KCRA Anchor Edie Lambert and special guest, former KFWB and CBS Los Angeles reporter Jim Mitchell. Recorded at The Sofia, Home of B Street Theatre, in Sacramento, California.…

The jury returns its verdicts. Meika Mercado reflects on her journey to learn more about her late mother, Yolanda Washington.

Prosecutors develop a strategy for presenting their case, despite problems with a key witness. Angelo Buono’s lawyer makes a strategic choice of co-counsel.

Prosecutors grapple with a defense motion to bar the testimony of three witnesses.

Kenneth Bianchi confesses to 10 murders in Los Angeles and agrees to testify against his cousin. A woman sees Bianchi on the evening news and reaches out to him.By Last 5 Percent Media

Police discover the bodies of two women in Bellingham, Washington. An investigator calls the LA County Sheriff’s Department on a Saturday, triggering a search of Hillside Strangler Task Force files.By Last 5 Percent Media

The operator of an escort service becomes concerned when a sex worker fails to check in. A woman is startled by two cars driving up the Angeles Crest Highway late one night.By Last 5 Percent Media

As the bodies of more women are discovered, Los Angeles is engulfed in fear. Citizens flood the Hillside Strangler Task Force with clues.By Last 5 Percent Media

When the bodies of three young women are discovered in Los Angeles over a period of three weeks, detectives wonder whether their deaths are connected.By Last 5 Percent Media

Over five months in the fall of 1977 and the winter of 1978, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi committed a series of crimes known as the Hillside Strangler murders. In the new podcast HILLSIDE, author Joseph Rodota revisits the investigation into these slayings, followed by the longest murder trial in U.S. history. Rodota interviewed more than 40 pe…

In the season finale of OPPO FILE, we solve a mystery: Who set in motion the oppo research into Geraldine Ferraro’s family finances? Host Joseph Rodota interviews John Roberts, former Reagan aide and author; Sheila Tate, former press secretary to Nancy Reagan; and author Kate Andersen Brower.

On July 12, 1984, Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale made history when he named Representative Geraldine Ferraro as his running mate. The next day, New York lawyer Roy Cohn arrived in the offices of the Reagan re-election campaign. First of two parts.

Oppo research nearly ended Vice President Mike Pence’s political career before it began. Host Joseph Rodota interviews author and journalist Craig Ferhman and former congressional aide Billy Linville about Pence’s 1988 and 1990 congressional campaigns.

Opposition research isn’t just a tool for understanding your opponent. It’s also a tool for understanding yourself. Host Joseph Rodota interviews Chris Lyon, who wrote a “vulnerability study” on Rudy Giuliani in 1993. Nearly two decades later, Fred Smith solves a mystery.

Why do some campaigns wait for just the right moment to unveil their opposition research, while others decide to dump it all at once? Host Joseph Rodota interviews Pat Dennis, Trump War Room Research Director at American Bridge 21st Century.

Gary Maloney was the first GOP opposition researcher to dig into the record of a rising star in Illinois politics, a young man named Barack Obama. In this bonus episode, Gary shares insights from that assignment – and an oppo researcher’s view of a now-infamous meeting that took place in Trump Tower in 2016.…

Heading into Labor Day weekend, host Joseph Rodota recaps the 2020 Democratic and Republican conventions. GOP oppo researcher Gary Maloney and press aide Jeff Nesbit describe the chaotic roll-out of George H.W. Bush’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. Dan Quayle. Democratic opposition researcher Shauna Daly leaps into action after Sen. John McCain se…

In 1988, George H.W. Bush overcame a 17-point deficit in the polls and won the election. In this bonus episode, journalist and author Tom Rosenstiel looks back at Bush’s campaign manager Lee Atwater – and why Donald Trump survived an avalanche of oppo in 2016.By Last 5 Percent Media

Is oppo research stranger than fiction? Who killed Dr. Death? Joseph Rodota interviews author and journalist Tom Rosenstiel; speechwriter, business consultant and author Mark Davis; and Dr. Jonathan Cullick, professor of English at Northern Kentucky University.

Host Joseph Rodota interviews Sonia Van Meter, the managing partner of Stanford Campaigns, a Democratic opposition research firm based in Austin, TX. They cover interesting ground – and not just on Planet Earth.

What is the legacy of the bitter 1988 presidential campaign? How are oppo researchers approaching their work amidst the current national reckoning over race and policing? Host Joseph Rodota interviews Susan Estrich, the Dukakis campaign manager; Jack Corrigan, deputy campaign manager; Dr. Jack Pitney, professor of politics at Claremont McKenna Coll…

What happens when opposition researchers unearth something that touches a racial nerve? Host Joseph Rodota interviews Susan Estrich, campaign manager for Michael Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign, about the Massachusetts prison furlough program and the case of William Horton. Georgetown professor and historian Dr. Marcia Chatelain looks back at t…

Political attacks have been around as long as democracy itself, but where exactly does the history of “oppo research” begin? Hosts Kate Andersen Brower and Joseph Rodota interview historian and author Susan Swain about a campaign in which the target of opposition researchers wasn’t the candidate – it was the candidate’s wife. And in 2016, Liz Mair …

OPPO FILE digs deep into the shadowy world of opposition research -- the art of digging into the background of a political opponent in order to identify weaknesses that can be exploited in a campaign. Hosts Kate Andersen Brower and Joseph Rodota interview oppo researchers from both parties and ask them why they chose this profession and how they pa…