Bad Watchdog

In this award-winning investigative podcast, host Maren Machles explores how accountability failures in Washington D.C. impact the lives of people all over the country, and she showcases the investigators, experts, and activists who keep our government working for the people. 

In the first season, Maren focused on the department’s Office of Inspector General, revealing a shocking pattern of misconduct   that resulted in a failure to investigate some of the most troubling events in recent history. 

In 2024, Bad Watchdog won a silver medal for investigative journalism podcasting at the New York Festivals Radio Awards and was nominated for the Ambie Awards' Best Politics or Opinion Podcast. 

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Bad Watchdog is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what’s broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it.