Stories that make you think, feel, and act to do good beyond your borders.
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Lethal Dissent: Iran’s hunt for its citizens abroad
On Spec’s 18-month investigation takes you inside the secret war waged on Iranian dissidents in exile. We follow poets, soldiers, politicians and ordinary folk who have escaped the Islamic Regime but still live in fear of being hunted down and forced back to Iran to be imprisoned or executed.
Lethal Dissent is produced in partnership with The World, with funding from the Pulitzer Center and Radio Zamaneh.
Hello! We’re the voices behind the mic.
We’re a small team of freelance journalists who’ve spent years chasing stories that matter. We report from places we know, in languages we speak, in communities we care about. We’re not just telling you what’s happening—we’re showing you how we got the story. The doubts, the deadends, the risks, the breakthroughs. The stuff most media rarely shares.
This podcast is personal. Every story we choose is driven by something in us—our own histories, passions, and the people we’ve met along the way.
Spec work? Not here.
We have years of experience often on shoestring budgets investigating stories out of pocket with big media organizations telling us they just might or might not take our work. They would only consider the stories “on speculation.” Our name ‘On Spec’ comes from that ethos: to report a story on spec means to report it without a guarantee of publication. And we’ve reclaimed the term. At On Spec, no one works without a commitment. We ask contributing journalists a lot of questions before we take on a story, but we won’t make them produce it without payment.
Have a story you want to work with us on?
Start your own podcast with our help.
We offer full podcast production—from storyboarding and scripting to hosting and sound design. Our team brings deep editorial experience, global reach, and language-specific storytelling in English, Turkish, Farsi/Dari, Urdu, Spanish, and Russian. We also offer consulting and training for teams looking to build their own podcasting capacity! And the best part is that by using our podcast services, you help us fund our independent journalism at On Spec.
We believe journalism should be independent, transparent, and human. Made by people who are from the communities they are reporting on. If that sounds like something worth supporting, we’d be grateful for your help.
On Spec Podcast is fiscally sponsored by the Media Alliance, a 501(c)(3) media support organization. Your contributions are tax-deductible.