Calvin Buari, who once drove BMWs and dealt crack from a violent corner in the Bronx, has served 22 years of a life sentence. The charge: double homicide. Cal insists he’s no murderer —  someone else even confessed to the crime. Things are looking up for Cal when a legendary defense lawyer agrees to take on his final appeal. But then it all comes crashing down. 

Empire on Blood is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Co. No1

Calvin Buari, who once drove BMWs and dealt crack from a violent corner in the Bronx, has served 22 years of a life sentence. The charge: double homicide. Cal insists he’s no murderer —  someone else even confessed to the crime. Things are looking up for Cal when a legendary defense lawyer agrees to take on his final appeal. But then it all comes crashing down. 
Empire on Blood is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Co. No1

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. 

Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger

Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. 

Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country.

Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood 

Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. 

This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago.

Season 1 - The Burden 

In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname.

Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance.

For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. 

Welcome to The Burden.

The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. 
Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger
Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. 
Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country.
Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood 
Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. 
This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago.
Season 1 - The Burden 
In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname.
Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance.
For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. 
Welcome to The Burden.

The Burden

Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. 

Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country.

Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. 
Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country.

The Burden: Avenger

Empire on Blood | 1. Calvin's Last Shot

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/d41536ba-1638-49b5-9dd2-b1c40113a0be/transcript

After thirty years of government impunity, the amnesty laws that helped bury Argentina’s horrific past are overturned. The trials against the junta commanders are reopened, and slowly, one after another, they are brought to justice. The trial against the pilots begins with Miriam and Enrique Piñeyro as key witnesses. It is the moment Miriam had been waiting for. The culmination of the investigation to avenge the deaths of her friends. And to answer the question that has plagued her: Why did I survive? Maybe to bring justice to the fallen.

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

After thirty years of government impunity, the amnesty laws that helped bury Argentina’s horrific past are overturned. The trials against the junta commanders are reopened, and slowly, one after another, they are brought to justice. The trial against the pilots begins with Miriam and Enrique Piñeyro as key witnesses. It is the moment Miriam had been waiting for. The culmination of the investigation to avenge the deaths of her friends. And to answer the question that has plagued her: Why did I survive? Maybe to bring justice to the fallen.
Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

Avenger | 8. The Bodies

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/d0ee995f-2e53-4ec0-9ee1-b220001f1125/transcript

It’s 1979, Miriam is free, but living in exile in New York City where she is surveilled by the junta. She’s among the few to survive imprisonment. In the years that follow, unidentified bodies start to wash up on the shores of Argentina. The bodies are swollen and bloated, but the perpetrators are unknown. Years later, democracy returns to Argentina, but still no one is held to account for the crimes against the disappeared. In 1985, the new president promises a historic trial against the junta commanders. Miriam bravely returns to Argentina to testify, but the judicial process drags on. Eventually, the forensic team examining the flight logs Miriam and Giancarlo found, link them to the bloated bodies that washed ashore during the dictatorship. The pilots of the death flights could finally face justice. 

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

It’s 1979, Miriam is free, but living in exile in New York City where she is surveilled by the junta. She’s among the few to survive imprisonment. In the years that follow, unidentified bodies start to wash up on the shores of Argentina. The bodies are swollen and bloated, but the perpetrators are unknown. Years later, democracy returns to Argentina, but still no one is held to account for the crimes against the disappeared. In 1985, the new president promises a historic trial against the junta commanders. Miriam bravely returns to Argentina to testify, but the judicial process drags on. Eventually, the forensic team examining the flight logs Miriam and Giancarlo found, link them to the bloated bodies that washed ashore during the dictatorship. The pilots of the death flights could finally face justice. 
Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

Avenger | 7. The Pilots

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/fc3bc53e-f016-49d9-a958-b220001ebb81/transcript

The lack of media attention on the TV story is disheartening, but Miriam has a bigger plan up her sleeve and redirects all her energy to the courts. With the help of Nobel Laureate Adolfo Pérez Equivel, who himself survived a death flight, they file a formal accusation against the pilots at the federal prosecutor’s office. The evidence is mounting, the Argentine Navy hands over thousands of pages from the original flight logs to the prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor assigns a special unit to investigate crimes against humanity, and it includes an elite forensic team that links Miriam and Giancarlo’s investigation to a long unsolved crime.

Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

The lack of media attention on the TV story is disheartening, but Miriam has a bigger plan up her sleeve and redirects all her energy to the courts. With the help of Nobel Laureate Adolfo Pérez Equivel, who himself survived a death flight, they file a formal accusation against the pilots at the federal prosecutor’s office. The evidence is mounting, the Argentine Navy hands over thousands of pages from the original flight logs to the prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor assigns a special unit to investigate crimes against humanity, and it includes an elite forensic team that links Miriam and Giancarlo’s investigation to a long unsolved crime.
Avenger is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sonoro Media and Signal Co. No1.

Avenger | 6. Miriam in Court

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/376bab29-d425-4982-a183-b220001e5e38/transcript

Empire on Blood | 1. Calvin's Last Shot

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