Every company leaves a paper trail

Open Books follows it. Each episode takes a business you know and follows the money through what it actually filed: annual reports, bankruptcy petitions, court records. Who got paid, who was left with the bill, and the decision that sealed it, told in plain English.

Every story comes three ways: written here in full, as a short illustrated film on YouTube, and as a podcast episode. The written version carries every source, numbered in the text and listed at the end.

The films are illustrated with drawings made with an image model, together with photographs and footage credited to their owners. The narration is a synthetic voice. The research, the argument and every figure come from the documents.

Spotted something wrong? Email [email protected] and we will check it. Corrections are made in the article itself, and the date of the change is shown under the headline.

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