On a vast plantation in the Dominican Republic, Haitian migrants still use machetes to harvest sugarcane that’s exported to the U.S. The workers are protesting poor working and living conditions.
Fernando Arruda
Sound Designer, Engineer and Composer
Fernando Arruda is a sound designer, engineer and composer for Reveal. As a multi-instrumentalist, he contributes to the original music, editing and mixing of the weekly public radio show and podcast. He has held four O-1 visas for individuals with extraordinary abilities. His work has been recognized with Peabody, duPont-Columbia, Edward R. Murrow, Gerald Loeb, Third Coast and Association of Music Producers awards, as well as Emmy and Pulitzer nominations. Prior to joining Reveal, Arruda toured as an international DJ and taught music technology at Dubspot and ESRA International Film School. He worked at Antfood, a creative audio studio for media and TV ads, and co-founded a film-scoring boutique called the Manhattan Composers Collective. He worked with clients such as Marvel, MasterClass and Samsung and ad agencies such as Framestore, Trollbäck+Company, BUCK and Vice. Arruda releases experimental music under the alias FJAZZ and has performed with many jazz, classical and pop ensembles, such as SFJAZZ Monday Night Band, Art&Sax quartet, Krychek, Dark Inc. and the New York Arabic Orchestra. His credits in the podcast and radio world include NPR’s “51 Percent,” WNYC’s “Bad Feminist Happy Hour” and its live broadcast of Orson Welles’ “The Hitchhiker,” Wondery’s “Detective Trapp,” MSNBC’s “Why Is This Happening?” and NBC’s “Born to Rule,” to name a few. Arruda also has a wide catalog of composed music for theatrical, orchestral and chamber music formats, some of which has premiered worldwide. He holds a master’s degree in film scoring and composition from NYU Steinhardt. The original music he makes with Jim Briggs for Reveal can be found on Bandcamp.
Forever Wars
On 9/11, the U.S. swore to “never forget.” But who gets remembered? We hear from reporters on Afghanistan, Iraq and Yemen, where the aftermath of 9/11 is acutely felt two decades later.
Fighting Fire With Fire
As climate change continues making wildfires worse, how do we learn to live with fire?
The Jail Tapes in the Dumpster
A murder conviction sent Myon Burrell to prison for life when he was a teenager. An investigative reporter dug into what seemed a hopeless case. What she found helped free him.
For 20 years, I saw no peace
As the Taliban take over Kabul, an Afghan poet, a journalist fielding desperate phone calls and an American veteran reflect on the past and future of Afghanistan.
Minor violations
Kids who cross the border alone are held in government-funded shelters. When they misbehave, staff sometimes call police. And kids are getting arrested, jailed – sometimes even tased.
Juvenile (in)justice
Wyoming locks up kids at one of the highest rates in the nation. A mother tells the story of how her daughter’s fight snowballed into incarceration and tragedy.
The teen reporter, the evictions and the church
Three stories from local reporters who uncovered injustice and inequality in their hometowns, from an Ohio eviction crisis to Kentucky state police training materials that quoted Adolf Hitler.
Into the COVID ICU
Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez graduated in the middle of the pandemic. We follow the rookie doctor through her first months working on the front lines.
Baseball strikes out
Baseball’s home run surge in the late ’90s and early 2000s was fueled by anabolic steroids. But fans didn’t want to hear the difficult truth about their heroes – and Major League Baseball refused to deal with a growing scandal.