What if there was a way to track the path of every single pain pill sold in the United States?

Well, the Washington Post found a way, and it's made the data publicly available.

So now newsrooms across the country are using this information

to explain and dissect the opioid epidemic.

I'm Brian Stelter, this is the Reliable Sources Podcast.

It is our weekly chance to go more in-depth

with media leaders and newsmakers talking about how the news gets

made and how all of us can help make it better. And today's story is really one

about collaboration, about cooperation in the news business that didn't always

just to happen this way. The Washington Post was able to acquire a drug

enforcement administration database about the selling of painkillers.

And then the post published all the data right on the web for anyone to use.

And something remarkable has happened since then.

So here to tell us all about it, and why this project matters so much,

is Jeff Leen. He's the Washington Post's investigations editor,

and he oversaw the data team's work on this

project.

Jeff, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you for having me, Brian.

This is a project that became public, became visible in July.

Now we are talking in September, but the roots of this effort go back years.

Tell me about the opioid files and how this project began?

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