For decades, work-based rehabs have spread across the country. No one knows how many are out there, so we counted them ourselves.

Laura Starecheski
Senior Radio Editor
Laura Starecheski is a former senior radio editor for Reveal. Their radio work at Reveal has won a national Edward R. Murrow, a duPont-Columbia, and a Peabody, among other awards. Previously, they reported on health for NPR’s science desk and traveled the United States with host Al Letson for the Peabody Award-winning show “State of the Re:Union.” Their Radiolab story “Goat on a Cow” won a silver award for best documentary from the Third Coast/Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, and SOTRU's “The Hospital Always Wins” won a national Murrow Award. They have been a Rosalynn Carter fellow for mental health journalism and a Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan. Starecheski is based in Philadelphia.
American Rehab: A Venomous Snake
After amassing a small fortune, Synanon turns from a revolutionary rehab into a violent cult with mass sterilizations and a rattlesnake in a mailbox.
American Rehab: A Desperate Call
Penny Rawlings is relieved to finally get her brother into rehab at a place called Cenikor. She doesn’t realize that getting him out of treatment is going to be the bigger problem.
How the pandemic changed us
Racial justice, police accountability, mutual aid, climate activism, warp-speed vaccines – we look at ways our COVID-19 year changed American society.
Trump’s global echoes
Over the last four years, as Americans were consumed by endless Trump news, our partners at Coda Story have tracked his echoes on the global stage.
United, we’re not
Where does America go from here? We talk with an asylum-seeking family, Georgia women on abortion and West Virginians on the impact of Black Lives Matter.
Whose vote will count?
From problems with vote-by-mail systems to voter suppression, we examine the potential for chaos in the 2020 elections.
COVID-19 in confinement
Self-isolation may protect us from COVID-19, but what if you’re forced to live with strangers? This week, we look at nursing homes and prisons.
American Rehab Chapter 8: Shadow Workforce
For decades, work-based rehabs have spread across the country. No one knows how many are out there, so we counted them ourselves.
American Rehab Chapter 7: The Work Cure
One man’s journey into Cenikor leads to almost two years of hard labor. The program will change him. But can it help Chris Koon with his addiction?