The Burden - podcast cover

The Burden

Orbit Mediawww.iheart.com

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 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run

“Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. 

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.

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Episodes

Get the Money and Run Q&A with Joe Loya - Hosted by Steve Fishman

Steve Fishman sits down for a Q&A with Joe Loya, the star of the new podcast Get the Money and Run . Listen in as Joe shares with Steve the answers to many questions from listeners and reveals some of the details that went into creating one of the finest podcasts of 2025. Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Jun 17, 202536 min

Introducing: Dakota Spotlight - A Better Search for Barbara Episode 1

15-year-old Barbara Louise Cotton vanished from the streets of Williston, North Dakota, on April 11, 1981, five blocks from her home. What happened to Barbara Cotton? In episode 1, while others called Barbara a 'runaway', a frustrated yet unyielding Sandee Evanson refuses to stop looking for her childhood friend. A Better Search for Barbara is a deep, investigative dive into one of North Dakota's longest running cold cases. Music by Wowza in Kalamazoo: https://wowzainkalamazoo.bandcamp.com/ Chec...

Jun 14, 202545 min

Get the Money and Run | Fatal Peril

Once out of prison, Joe is insulted by a stranger. His rage mounts. Will he lash out and spend the rest of his days in prison? Or will he find comfort in his once violent family? It’s his moment of fatal peril. Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 10, 202530 minSeason 4Ep. 7

Get the Money and Run | Life on the Inside

Joe is sent to solitary confinement. Alone he starts to hear voices in his head and to hallucinate. He struggles with a question: Can he be a good person? Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jun 03, 202525 minSeason 4Ep. 6

Get the Money and Run | Two Too Many

Joe is on a spree, and even arrest won’t stop him. He hires a body double to do his bidding, but things backfire. He thinks he’s blending in on a college campus when students turn on him. Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 27, 202533 minSeason 4Ep. 5

Get the Money and Run | Life and Crimes

Bank robbery is easy, profitable and…fun! But then Joe hears from a victim. Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 20, 202534 minSeason 4Ep. 4

Get the Money and Run | The Hunter

Joe’s floundering until a thought occurs to him: Murder! With that, Joe changes the arc of his life. Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 13, 202531 minSeason 4Ep. 3

Get the Money and Run | First Time Out

Getting started as a bank robber isn’t easy for Joe Loya. It takes courage … and rage. But Joe does the math. Thousands of dollars gained for a few minutes work. That’s what he figures he deserves. Meanwhile at home, losses mount. Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 06, 202531 minSeason 4Ep. 1

Get the Money and Run | Who’s Your Daddy

Young Joe was cute as a bug. The rising bank robber was also a protector of the weak though he couldn't always protect the weak who he loved most. And then he picked up a knife. Get the Money and Run is a production of Western Sound and aCast Studios in association with Orbit Media Inc. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

May 06, 202526 minSeason 4Ep. 2

Introducing: Get the Money and Run - Trailer

“Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Joe was one of California’s most daring bank robbers. He used disguises, body doubles, speeding getaway cars…and stole hundreds of thousands of dollars, even as the FBI was closing in. Joe was also a soul searcher, driven by a dark rage he set out to understand. To do that he must understand why trying to murder his father felt so good. Get the Money and Run immerses you, the...

Apr 29, 20252 min

Introducing: Get the Money and Run - Teaser

“Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run , we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Jo...

Apr 16, 202530 min

Introducing: Finding Mom's Killer

Noreen Boyle goes missing, and her 11-year-old son is determined to find her. He teams up with a homicide cop to investigate his mother’s murder. In a shocking turn of events, together, they uncover evidence that brings the killer to justice. A killer who the son knows all too well. Finding Mom's Killer is the latest series from The Binge - subscribe to listen to all episodes, all at once, ad-free right now. Finding Mom's Killer is a production of Orbit Media in association with Sony Music Enter...

Mar 18, 202526 min

Empire on Blood - Bonus Episode | The TV Show

We know that after you listened to Empire on Blood: The Director's Cut , you immediately thought: Why isn't this a TV show? Remember, Malcolm Gladwell said the podcast was “The Wire” meets Shakespeare. Well, a prestigious production company thought the same thing, optioned the podcast and hired a writer to pen a pilot. In this episode we talk to the writer and his partner about the joys and heartbreak of turning a podcast into a TV pilot. Empire on Blood is a production of Orbit Media in associa...

Jan 29, 202531 min

Introducing: Someone Knows Something

Christine Harron, a book-loving teenager from Hanover, Ontario, leaves for school in the spring of 1993 and is never seen again. A suspect emerges, confessing to her murder, but the case falls apart and Christine's family are left without answers. In Season 9 of the award winning podcast Someone Knows Something, David Ridgen, along with Christine's mother, reopen the investigation and come face to face with the man who said he killed Chrissy. Someone Knows Something is the investigative true cri...

Jan 15, 202536 min

Bonus Episode | Behind the Scenes of Avenger with Alexis Bledel and Fisher Stevens!

For Avenger , which takes place in Argentina, we recorded all interviews in Spanish, translated them into English and had them voiced by actors. Miriam, the "disappeared" who becomes a journalist and tracks down the pilots of the death flights, is voiced by Alexis Bledel, the Emmy-winning actor known for her role in Gilmore Girls and Handmaid's Tale. Her father is Argentine. Alexis is directed by Oscar-winner Fisher Stevens. Fisher has directed Al Pacino and Justin Timberlake, among others. In t...

Dec 11, 202430 min

Avenger | 8. The Bodies

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 s...

Dec 04, 202432 minSeason 3Ep. 8

Avenger | 7. The Pilots

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 ...

Nov 27, 202437 minSeason 3Ep. 7

Avenger | 6. Miriam in Court

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 ...

Nov 20, 202434 minSeason 3Ep. 6

Avenger | 5. The Flight Logs

One day, Miriam sits in her office when she gets a call from the stringer she hired to go look at one of the Skyvan planes which had been sold to a Florida businessman. The owner reveals that he has the flight logs dating back to the dictatorship. Those logs are a break. They could lead to the pilots of the death flights. With Enrique Pineyro’s help, who now joins the investigation, they decode the log’s cryptic notes. Flights that should have only taken 45 minutes were logged in at four hours. ...

Nov 13, 202423 minSeason 3Ep. 5

Avenger | 4. The Planes

Miriam and Giancarlo team up to search for the planes. She shows up at his tiny apartment every day after work at a TV station. They share pasta, cigarettes and scour the Internet for clues. One day, they stumble upon an obscure group of hobbyists who lead them to more details about the planes. Confident that they’re onto something, they try to enlist the help of a well-known Argentine pilot, actor, producer and controversial figure in Argentina. Their meeting doesn’t go well. Meanwhile, they lo...

Nov 06, 202420 minSeason 3Ep. 4

Avenger | 3. The World Cup

It’s 1978. The World Cup, the most popular sporting event in the world, is hosted for the first time in Argentina. The Argentines are losing their minds with excitement. From a small cell in the middle of the city, Miriam can hear the cheers from the stadium a mile away. Her captors recruit her to work on the junta’s media propaganda machine; she must celebrate the very regime that imprisons her. Survival is a tricky business. She may have to compromise to avoid the death flights that will kill ...

Oct 30, 202430 minSeason 3Ep. 3

Avenger | 2. The Investigation

An Italian photographer with a specialty in the horror humans do named Giancarlo Ceraudo shows up in Argentina to learn about the death flights during Argentina’s military dictatorship. He’s obsessed. Who are the pilots who flew these homicidal missions? He knows the planes will hold clues. To find them, he needs Miriam’s help. If she accepts, she will have to confront painful memories of her own torture and kidnapping. But she may also have the chance to bring the pilots of the death flights to...

Oct 23, 202428 minSeason 3Ep. 2

Avenger | 1. The Process

It’s 1977, Argentina. The military has seized power. Miriam Lewin is 19 years old, an activist, and a target of a brutal dictatorship. She’ll spend two years in prison. But Miriam is one of the lucky ones..... Her fellow prisoners will be tossed from airplanes to their deaths on the infamous “death flights.” Three decades later, Miriam is a respected investigative journalist. She steadfastly avoided doing stories about the death flights – the subject is too painful – until a phone call from an I...

Oct 23, 202433 minSeason 3Ep. 1

Introducing - 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 again...

Oct 16, 20243 min

Empire on Blood - Bonus Episode | Father Frank Meets His Maker

He was the detective who could get the confessions other cops couldn’t. Thus the nickname, Father Frank. It was Father Frank who rescued the prosecution’s case against Cal—until that conviction was overturned. And it was Father Frank who helped put away a 16-year-old for murder—until that conviction was also overturned. So how good was Father Frank really? The DA reopened his cases, and some even called him the Scarcella of The Bronx. Empire on Blood is a production of Orbit Media in association...

Oct 09, 202433 min

Empire on Blood - Bonus Episode | Calvin Buari: Family Guy

When we last heard from Calvin Buari his murder conviction had just been overturned. But he didn't have a place to live. A lot has changed in Cal's life since then -- for one thing, you won't believe where he lives now. And Cal has brand new priorities. He says he wants to be a "family guy." So Cal is looking for love after lock-up. Or maybe it's not exactly love he's looking for? Listen now and let Cal explain. Empire on Blood is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Co. No1 Se...

Oct 02, 202434 min

Introducing - Deep Cover: George Santos

George Santos, the former Republican Congressman from New York, told a lot of stories about his life and his credentials. Many of which, it turns out, were not true. Deep Cover Producer Amy Gaines McQuade, who grew up in Santos’ congressional district, speaks with insiders and experts to try to answer the question: Who is George Santos… really? Listen to Deep Cover: George Santos wherever you get your podcasts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Sep 25, 202413 min

Empire on Blood | 8. I Shot Him

Emel was a jailhouse legal maestro who had been locked up for 19 years for a murder he insisted he didn’t commit. Then he was forced to plead guilty to helping commit a murder in order to get home. But he clung to a letter. A letter that came from the real killer, and that one day might set him free. In body and mind. Empire on Blood is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Co. No1 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Sep 19, 202437 minSeason 2Ep. 8

Introducing - The Confessions of Anthony Raimondi

In 1978, Pope John Paul I was found dead in his bed just 33 days after he was elected. The official story is that he suffered a fatal heart attack. But in the years since his death, some have claimed he was murdered to cover up crimes in the Vatican. The question of the Pope’s death has never been definitively answered, but there is one man who claims to know the truth. A man from one of New York City’s crime families who has deep ties to the Italian mafia. He was there the day of the Pope’s dea...

Sep 18, 202434 min

Empire on Blood | 7. This Too Shall Pass

In the aftermath of the court’s decision, Cal must adjust to a new reality. Where can a man like Cal find peace? With a mother he hasn’t seen in a decade? In a heatless van in the dead of winter? His girlfriend has waited for Cal for a decade, but he can’t bring himself to sleep inside her house. Freedom is hard. Empire on Blood is a production of Orbit Media in association with Signal Co. No1 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information....

Sep 11, 202442 minSeason 2Ep. 7
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