BORDERLANDS is the tall-but-true tale of a charismatic outlaw, an iconic small-town sheriff, and the record-setting drug bust that ensnared them both. Set in the rugged Texas borderlands, host Rob D'Amico transports listeners back to the opening salvos of the War on Drugs, when Mexican cartels were first emerging as hyper-violent mega-corporations, the US government was engaging in draconian narcotics crackdowns, and there was so much dirty money swirling across the Rio Grande that even the most incorruptible citizen would be tempted. But as much as BORDERLANDS is the story of guns, briefcases full of cash, and daring smuggling runs — and it is — the show also unearths the secret, hallucinatory, and utterly unique world of remote Far West Texas, where on the right night you might spy naked women wearing only hiking boots dancing in the full-moon light, meet a guitar-strumming Lothario leading a leashed mountain lion into a honky tonk — or even stumble upon a billion-dollars worth of cocaine sitting unguarded in a horse trailer in the center of town. In the tradition of films like No Country for Old Men and novels like Charles Portis's Gringos, BORDERLANDS mashes up the shockingly real and the deeply surreal, chronicling not just the events of a crime, but digging deep into the mystery and aura of one of America's most myth-soaked regions.
Episodes
CREDITS
HOST Rob D'Amico
SUPERVISING PRODUCER Eric Benson
EXECUTIVE PRODUCER David Waters
FIELD PRODUCERS Ryan Katz and Travis Bubenik
ASSOCIATE PRODUCERS Leo Schick and Lydia Smith
FACT-CHECKING Alex Yablon
SCORING AND SOUND DESIGN Iain Chambers
ENGINEER Rod Sherwood
ORIGINAL MUSIC Julian Lynch
Special thanks to Rajiv Golla and Ashleyanne Krigbaum.