{"podcast":{"title":"The Excerpt","slug":"the-excerpt-742145","podcast_index_feed_id":742145,"rss_url":"https://rss.art19.com/5-things","website_url":"https://art19.com/shows/5-things","image_url":"https://content.production.cdn.art19.com/images/29/c4/eb/f0/29c4ebf0-b5c3-4838-9e30-d92e8d15e76d/88497752e60324195a25c5bb3f28f051091ea2a3a998fa22473d99c272b7bc8e7e9910c488c26d289891c53191b78ca85d242efd540b5897a9977660eddd300e.jpeg","author":"USA TODAY","episode_count":90,"summary":"Get context, not just headlines. Every weekday The Excerpt brings USA TODAY's award-winning journalists from across the nation together to unpack America's most pressing stories — from politics and culture to sports and entertainment — with host Dana Taylor.","last_synced_at":"2026-07-29T18:20:13.139640+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-excerpt-742145"},"episode":{"title":"PCB cleanup workers say they weren’t protected. Now Scot has cancer.","slug":"pcb-cleanup-workers-say-they-weren-t-protected-now-scot-has-cancer","published_at":"2026-06-12T09:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-excerpt-742145/pcb-cleanup-workers-say-they-weren-t-protected-now-scot-has-cancer","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-excerpt-742145","url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/d6906f06-8c84-48d8-a342-c52367cbdb5b.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","audio_url":"https://rss.art19.com/episodes/d6906f06-8c84-48d8-a342-c52367cbdb5b.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0","summary":"PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were built to last. So, beginning in the late 1920’s billions of pounds of it were produced across the country for use in construction materials, plastics and consumer goods. But over the next 50 years, evidence that PCBs were actually toxic began to mount , and the EPA eventually banned its production in 1979. That’s when the cleanup started…and when Scot Meisenheimer’s medical nightmares began. Tamia Fowlkes, a Public Investigator, and Caitlin Looby, a Great Lakes and Environment Reporter, both with The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have spent the last two years investigating the cleanup and the consequences for contractors like Meisenheimer. They join The Excerpt to share their exclusive reporting. Search for superfund sites in your area: https://www.epa.gov/superfund/search-superfund-sites-where-you-live For more on PCB cleanups: https://www.epa.gov/pcbs/managing-remediation-waste-polychlorinated-biphenyls-pcbs-cleanups Let us know what you think of this episode by sending an email to podcasts@usatoday.com .  Episode transcript available here .  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .","meta_description":"PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, were built to last. So, beginning in the late 1920’s billions of pounds of it were produced across the country for use…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":975,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-excerpt-742145/episodes/pcb-cleanup-workers-say-they-weren-t-protected-now-scot-has-cancer/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-excerpt-742145/pcb-cleanup-workers-say-they-weren-t-protected-now-scot-has-cancer.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}