Live theater tells the story of how Mongabay detected narco airstrips in the Amazon
Release Date: 02/24/2026
Live theater tells the story of how Mongabay detected narco airstrips in the Amazon
Mongabay Newscast
’s multiyear, *award-winning ** that uncovered 67 clandestine airstrips in the Peruvian Amazon used for drug trafficking sent waves across the local media landscape. It drew attention to the Indigenous communities impacted by these illegal airstrips and the 15 Indigenous leaders who were killed defending their territory. To communicate this story to a wider audience, Mongabay Latam director Maria Isabel Torres and managing editor Alexa Vélez adapted it into an interactive live theater performance for an audience of 100. They join this week’s podcast to tell the “story behind the...
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Mongabay Newscast
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On plastic pollution, we have all the evidence — and solutions — we need
Mongabay Newscast
Judith Enck is a former regional administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, appointed by President Barack Obama, and the founder of , an organization dedicated to eradicating plastic pollution worldwide. She joins Mongabay’s podcast to discuss how governments can implement policies to turn off the tap on plastic pollution, which harms human health and devastates our ecological systems — solutions she outlines in her new book with co-author Adam Mahoney, . “We now have all of this evidence. We have no choice but to act. Because who's going to stand by and let us turn the...
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Mongabay Newscast
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Russ Feingold on the nonpartisan nature of conservation
Mongabay Newscast
Bill Gates recently claimed that protecting nature or improving human health is an either-or choice, but former national leaders like Russ Feingold, a retired U.S. Senator, and Mary Robinson, former Ireland President, . As chair of the Global Steering Committee of the , a nonprofit organization uniting prominent politicians in support of nature protection, Feingold emphasizes that supporting both nature and people is essential, and that these are not mutually exclusive goals. On this episode of Mongabay’s podcast, Feingold discusses the campaign’s mission and why he believes nonpartisan...
info_outlineMongabay Latam’s multiyear, *award-winning **investigation that uncovered 67 clandestine airstrips in the Peruvian Amazon used for drug trafficking sent waves across the local media landscape. It drew attention to the Indigenous communities impacted by these illegal airstrips and the 15 Indigenous leaders who were killed defending their territory. To communicate this story to a wider audience, Mongabay Latam director Maria Isabel Torres and managing editor Alexa Vélez adapted it into an interactive live theater performance for an audience of 100.
They join this week’s podcast to tell the “story behind the story” of what they, their reporters, and Indigenous leaders experienced during this investigation, and how their play adaptation brings that to the eyes and ears of a theatrical audience.
“I think that all the journalists in these times, we are very worried [about] trying to find ways to understand our audience and to get their attention. We know that there are news avoiders. We know that there are fake news. So we are trying to look for different ways,” Torres says.
*This story was first published by Mongabay Latam in Spanish on Nov. 12, 2024, and won the 2025 Global Shining Light Award for investigative journalism and the Digital Storytelling prize given by the 2025 Future of Media Awards.
**This investigation was conducted in partnership with the Consortium to Support Independent Journalism in the Region (CAPIR), which leads the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) in Latin America.
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Image: In the Indigenous community of Galilea, drug traffickers abandoned this airstrip a year ago. But they could revive it at any time. Image by Mongabay Latam.
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Timecodes
(00:00) Chasing answers on narco airstrips
(13:38) Ground-truthing the data and building relationships
(18:41) Risks, impacts and beyond
(28:55) Bringing the story to the stage
(36:13) “The story behind the story”
(44:48) Plans for the future