Ripped From The Wall

Ripped from the Wall: Investigating IAP

An exploration of AU’s International Accelerator Program

Helena Milburn, Blake Guterman, Grace Manson, Zoe Kallenekos, Marisa Álvarez, Alexandrea Valerio, Sia Patel, Sofia Borin, and Stella Camerlengo • November 28, 2023

This semester, the Ripped from the Wall podcast team analyzed American University’s International Accelerator Program or IAP. The team looked into whether and how the program helps to support first-year...

AU after carbon neutrality

Ripped from the Wall explores AU’s sustainability policies and how climate-focused campus groups view them.

Helena Milburn, Zoe Kallenekos, Matheus Kogi Fugita Abrahão, Caleb Ogilvie, Grace Manson, Marisa Álvarez, and Kate d'Arcy • December 23, 2022

This semester the Ripped from the Wall team looked into American University’s environmental sustainability. We explored how the university markets itself, the sustainable policies it has, and talked...

The Lost City

Grace Vitaglione, Podcast Director • December 9, 2021

The following is an abridged version of this semester’s episode of Ripped From the Wall, AWOL’s investigative news podcast. To listen to the full version of the story, including additional interviews...

AU without the PD: looking to the past to change the future of policing on campus

Shannon Durazo and Braeden Waddell • December 9, 2020

This semester, AWOL’s investigative podcast unit, Ripped from the Wall, looked into the current relationship between AUPD and students, the changes the AU community is hoping to see and the department’s perspective on their own role at the university.

Suspicious Spending in Student Government

Confidential fees, new Transparency Officers and a whole lot of quarter-zips

Shannon Durazo and Braeden Waddell • December 9, 2019

American University Student Government has an annual budget of over half a million dollars. Every student pays an activity fee of $88.50 to fund clubs, student media and AUSG. Half of these funds...

Played and Unpaid: AU Interns Speak Out

Braeden Waddell • May 6, 2019

Throughout this semester, AWOL's podcasting team has been investigating the issue of payment for AU student interns. After speaking to several students about their experiences working unpaid internships...

Ripped From The Wall, Addiction at AU, Part III: The Response

Braeden Waddell • March 29, 2019

In the third episode of Addiction at AU, Sasha Fernandez and Braeden Waddell discuss American University's administrative response.

Ripped From The Wall, Addiction at AU, Part II: The Science

Braeden Waddell • March 1, 2019

In the second episode of Addiction at AU, Veronica Del Valle and Ethan Lipka lead AWOL's research on the science of addiction.

Ripped from the Wall, Addiction at AU, Part I: The Discovery

Shane Matheu Ryden and Grace Vitaglione • December 10, 2018

In the first episode of Ripped From the Wall’s latest investigative series, Shane Matheu Ryden and Grace Vitaglione dive into the topic of substance abuse at AU. Upon discovering the fact that American...

Ripped From the Wall: Episode 3, American Gets Hazed

Veronica Del Valle, Katya Podkovyroff Lewis, Zach Vallese, Braeden Waddell, and Luci Rascher • April 17, 2018

In the newest episode of Ripped From the Wall, Maddi Cole dives into something no one at American University can stop talking about: hazing. With an undergraduate population of only 8,000, AU has such...

Ripped From the Wall: Episode 2, The Firing of Will Mascaro

Maddi Cole, Katya Podkovyroff Lewis, and Zach Vallese • November 20, 2017

In this week’s episode of Ripped from the Wall, Katya Podkovyroff Lewis and I dug into the most recent American University Student Government (AUSG) scandal. On Oct. 31, Will Mascaro, director of the...

Ripped From The Wall: Episode 1, The Mysterious Holding Cell

A Journalism Audio Experience

Zach Vallese and Sameera Rajwade • November 6, 2017

AWOL is bringing an audio component to our repertoire of subversive journalism. In our new podcast, Ripped from the Wall, we harken back to our original message of hard-hitting, investigative reporting...