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THE WEEKLY REVEAL

Saturday, January 3, 2026

The Black Market for a Lifesaving Cat Drug

A closeup photo of a woman’s hand cradling the face of a short-haired brown tabby with striped fur. The cat’s eyes are half-open and relaxed, giving it a calm, slightly sleepy expression.

Krissy Krummenacker/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle/Getty

Listen to the episode

In 2023, Marlena Arjo adopted a one-eyed kitten with a penchant for destruction. She named him Otto, and over the next eight months, Otto grew into his own little chaotic personality.

“ He’s laying on houseplants, he’s tearing books out of the bookshelves, ripping the calendar off the wall…I wasn’t prepared for having a criminal in my home,” Arjo joked.

Within months, Otto got sick and stopped eating. Arjo rushed him to a vet and learned he had feline infectious peritonitis, better known as FIP, a disease that kills nearly all cats that contract it. 

The vet said there was nothing the clinic could do. But there was something Arjo could do.

“I shouldn’t tell you this,” Arjo recalled the vet telling her. “But by the way, you can get drugs for this if you go to this Facebook group.”

This week on Reveal, in partnership with the Hyperfixed podcast, we tell the story of the cat drug black market, why it was even necessary, and how cat lovers fought for big changes to make the black market obsolete.

🎧 Other places to listen: Spotify, Overcast, iHeartRadio, or wherever you get your podcasts.

How a Climate Doomsayer Became an Unexpected Optimist

A man dressed in black wearing a red hard hat crouches as he lowers one of dozens of solar panels into place.

CFOTO/Future Publishing/Getty

Bill McKibben isn’t known for his rosy outlook on climate change.

Back in 1989, the environmentalist wrote The End of Nature, which is considered the first mainstream book warning of global warming’s potential effects on the planet. His writing on climate change has been described as “dark realism.” But McKibben has recently let a little light shine through thanks to the dramatic growth of renewable energy, particularly solar power. 

In his latest book, Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization, McKibben argues that the planet is experiencing the fastest energy transition in history from fossil fuels to solar and wind—and that transition could be the start of something big. 

On this week’s More To The Story, in an update of an episode that originally aired in October, McKibben sits down with host Al Letson to examine the rise of solar power, how China is leapfrogging the United States in renewable energy use, and the real reason the Trump administration is trying to kill solar and wind projects around the country.

Find this episode wherever you listen to Reveal, and don’t forget to subscribe:

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In Case You Missed It

 Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office, holding up a large architectural rendering of a golden ballroom to other people in the room. He sits in a chair upholstered in gold brocade fabric in front of a fireplace covered in gold ornamentation.

🎧 Trump’s Gilded White House Makeover Is All About Power 

Artists are boycotting the Kennedy Center after the president renamed it to include himself. Plans for his White House ballroom are still pushing forward. Why did Donald Trump even bother with all these vanity projects? 

As art historian Erin Thompson tells us, it’s all about power.

Photo Credit: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Zuma

A colorful illustration of an African American man behind a studio microphone, with bright, painterly strokes in blue, purple, green, red, orange, and black. The man wears tightly coiled braids in a bun and has a neatly groomed beard and mustache. He’s also wearing round-framed glasses.

🎧 A Decade of Reveal


Let’s kick off 2026 right with a look at our standout investigations from the past 10 years. On this special episode, we celebrate a decade of Reveal.

Photo Credit: Illustration by Molly Mendoza
An African American woman with long hair, wearing an olive green blouse and black jeans, stands in a yard, steps in front of an area where the grass is muddy and brown, with a black tarp haphazardly covering some spots.

🎧 Why Trump Deemed Basic Sanitation Illegal DEI


Activist Catherine Coleman Flowers examines how the Trump administration’s environmental rollbacks could supercharge the movement to protect the planet.

Photo Credit: Lance Cheung/US Department of Agriculture
An illustration of a wall of gold-framed paintings in abstract bursts of orange and blue. However, inside of one frame, the eyes of a human figure behind the wall peers out to the left, as if on lookout. From another frame, that person’s left hand reaches out, holding an unfinished painting by its frame. From a third frame, that person’s hand uses a brush to paint on the canvas.

🎧 Fancy Galleries, Fake Art

It was the largest art fraud in modern US history, totaling more than $80 million. We look at how it happened and why almost no one was ever punished by the authorities. 

Photo Credit: Illustration by Brian Britigan for Reveal

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This issue of The Weekly Reveal was written by Arianna Coghill and edited by Nikki Frick. If you enjoyed this issue, forward it to a friend. Have some thoughts? Drop us a line with feedback or ideas!
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