On the Media
Episodes
A Likely Story
04 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The talk from the Trump team is becoming increasingly hard to follow. This week, On the Media takes a look at the conspiracy thinking that’s taken o...
Go and Get Yourself a Whistle and Blow
02 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ever present in the Snowden and Manning era, the word "whistleblower" is again dominating the airwaves. But where exactly did the word come from? Who ...
Nice Democracy You've Got There...
27 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The impeachment inquiry into President Trump is tangled up in Ukrainian politics, but few Washington reporters understand the dynamics at play. This w...
Live Streaming Truth and Reconciliation
25 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's been two years since the brutal and bloody 22-year reign of Gambian leader Yahya Jammeh ended and the country is now embroiled in a uniquely tran...
Too Hot For School
19 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Roosevelt’s New Deal remade American society, and now climate activists are pushing for a Green New Deal to do it again. This week, On the Media loo...
OTM presents Trump Inc: The Family Business
18 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week we are featuring a brand new episode from our friends at Trump Inc, a podcast produced here at WNYC. Here's a message from Trump Inc's prod...
A Very Bitter Joke
13 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Good riddance, John Bolton! By dismissing his third National Security Advisor, President Trump prompted renewed concern over White House instability. ...
Why Many Afghans Don't Understand 9/11
10 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This weekend in a series of tweets, President Trump both disclosed and scrapped secret talks with the Taliban in Camp David. Of course, the Taliban d...
Pressure Drop
06 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas, Democratic presidential candidates promised climate action in an unprecedented televised event. On this we...
Remembering Les Gelb
04 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On Saturday, Leslie Gelb died at the age of 82. Gelb was a Senate aide in his 20s, a New York Times correspondent in his 30s, an assistant Secretary ...
Whose Streets?
30 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The message from Silicon Valley seems to be that self-driving cars are the way of the future. This week, On the Media considers the history behind the...
A History of Persuasion: Part 3
28 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Silicon Valley’s so-called “millionaire maker” is a behavioral scientist who foresaw the power of putting persuasion at the heart of the tech wo...
Empire State of Mind
23 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a special hour this week, On the Media examines the history of US imperialism — and why the familiar US map hides the true story of our country. ...
A History of Persuasion: Part 2
21 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ted Kaczynski had been a boy genius. Then he became the Unabomber. After years of searching for him, the FBI finally caught him in his remote Montana ...
A Civilization As Great As Ours
16 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Indian government has revoked autonomy for the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir. This week, a close look at how Hindu nationalists are rewriting ...
A History of Persuasion: Part 1
14 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Infinite scrolling. Push notifications. Autoplay. Our devices and apps were designed to keep us engaged and looking for as long as possible. Now, we’...
The Democracy We Think We Live In
09 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The pathways and origins of white nationalist thought were a matter of deadly importance in coverage of last weekend’s shootings. On this week’s O...
Deciphering the White Power Movement
06 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When events like the shooting in El Paso happen, the elements may indeed be obvious: Guns. Sociopathy. Alienation. But the obvious is also reductive,...
Repairing Justice: How to Fix the Internet
02 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Harassment and bullying are plaguing our online lives, but social media companies seem fresh out of solutions. This week, On the Media experiments wit...
Repairing Justice: An Alternative to Prison
31 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last week on the show, we examined the power of the prosecutor in our justice system, and how voters are electing a new wave of so-called “progressi...
Repairing Justice: The Prosecutor
26 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was the week of the prosecutor, with Special Counsel Robert Mueller grabbing most of the attention. But on this week’s On the Media, a closer loo...
What, Me Worry?
24 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Earlier this month, DC Comics announced that MAD Magazine will mostly stop doing what it’s done for some six decades, which is to pointedly mock Ame...
Internal Scream
19 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Puerto Ricans packed the streets night after night this week to call for Governor Ricardo Rosselló’s resignation. On this week’s On the Media, wh...
The Right-Wing Web Goes to the White House
17 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On this show, we’ve often observed that what happens online rarely stays online. In the age of Pizzagate, Trump tweets and Wiki Leaks data dumps, i...
Uncomfortably Numb
12 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Migrants in detention centers, another assault allegation against the President, and the start to a potentially devastating hurricane season… On thi...
The Epstein Story Didn't Just Happen Overnight
10 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Julie Brown of the Miami Herald conceived, reported, and wrote one of the most explosive criminal justice stories in recent memory. She revealed the s...
Full Faith & Credit
05 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ten autumns ago came two watershed moments in the history of money. In September 2008, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers triggered a financial meltdow...
The Sound of America
03 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There are many Americas. Nowadays they barely speak to each other. But during the most perilous years of the last century, one young composer went in ...
The Scarlet E, Part IV: Solutions
28 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We have an eviction crisis, which is really just one part of a broader housing affordability crisis. Incomes are too low for rents. Rents are too high...
The Scarlet E, Part III: Tenants and Landlords
21 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This is episode three in our series, “The Scarlet E: Unmasking America’s Eviction Crisis.” It’s the dollars-and-cents episode, in which we acc...
Coming Out Posthumously
20 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
June marks LGBTQ Pride month, and fifty years since the Stonewall riots. In the past five decades, the conversation around gay rights has moved so qui...
How to Influence US Iran Policy ... Without Actually Existing
17 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Heshmat Alavi, an Iranian commentator, has been portrayed as a courageous dissident with a broad constituency and rare insight into the inner workings...
40 Acres
14 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
President Trump claims to have struck a deal with Mexico to settle a dispute of his own making. On this week’s On the Media, a look at the lives of ...
What "Running From Cops" Learned From "Cops"
12 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The first episode of the TV show "Cops" aired thirty years ago, and in the ensuing decades it's become influential enough to mold the attitudes of new...
Introducing: The Scarlet E
06 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of rent-burdened Americans face eviction filings and proceedings every year. On this week’s On the Media, what we think we know, and what w...
Making America Antitrust Again
05 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the US House Antitrust subcommittee announced a probe into the mainly-unchecked power of tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazo...
Climate Obscura
31 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to stop publishing worst-case scenario projections of climate change. This week, On the Media ex...
Hurricane Season is Nearly Here. Brace Yourself for the Coverage.
29 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tornadoes ripped across multiple states on Tuesday, killing at least one person. It was the twelfth straight day of tornado activity in the U.S. — a...
On Matters of War
24 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Controversy erupted over news that President Trump may grant more pardons for alleged war criminal Edward Gallagher and others. This week, On the Medi...
Solving the Facebook Problem at Home and Abroad
23 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When former Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes penned a New York Times op-ed calling for the breakup of the platform, he was lauded by anti-corporate ...
Constellation of Secret Evil
17 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A controversial bill in Alabama is the latest in a wave of different abortion bans sweeping the country. This week, On the Media looks at the influen...
The Past, Present and Future of Nikole Hannah-Jones
14 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we want to bring you a terrific new episode of Death, Sex and Money, another WNYC show that we think our listeners will appreciate. The...
Impossible!
10 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The political press has long used the vague notion of “electability” to drive horserace coverage of presidential candidates. This week, On the Med...
Werner Herzog on Gorbachev
08 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Renowned director and documentarian Werner Herzog's latest filmmaking endeavor examines the legacy of the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union...
A High State of Agitation
03 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After accusations that he mischaracterized the Mueller investigation’s findings, Attorney General William Barr blames the media for muddling the sto...
Is True Crime Jinxed?
02 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Whether Robert Durst confessed on camera will become a relevant legal matter in the real estate figure's upcoming trial. The supposed confession — ...
Justice Interruptus
26 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A week after the redacted Mueller report’s release, Democrats weigh the risks — and imperatives — of impeachment. On this week’s On the Media,...
How Is Lead Still A Problem?
24 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Once in a while, in this space, we offer you an episode of another podcast that we think is pretty aligned with our goals here at On the Media. This ...
Harm To Ongoing Matter
18 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
After years of waiting, journalists finally began digging into the redacted version of the Mueller report. On this week’s On the Media, how the spec...
Who Profits When You File Your Taxes?
16 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Tax Day is behind us, but the Taxpayer First Act is not. The bipartisan proposal passed the House last week and is now under consideration in the Sen...
Wake Up, Sheeple!
12 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in London, and now faces prosecution. On this week’s On the Media, a look at what Assange’s arrest m...
Spy vs. Spy
10 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
New York Times reporter Michael Schwirtz set out to investigate a series of assassinations in Ukraine with low expectations. Reporting on a homicid...
Empire State of Mind
05 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Recently, a member of the Trump administration called Puerto Rico “that country,” obscuring once more the relationship between the island colony a...
Policing the Police
02 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
California recently passed a law that eliminates some of the barriers to accessing records on egregious police misconduct and deadly use of force. Wi...
The End of Magical Thinking
28 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
With the Mueller investigation complete, talking heads have given the short public summary their usual spin. This week, On the Media looks at why the ...
The Opioid Narratives
27 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Purdue Pharma has settled a lawsuit with the state of Oklahoma for $270 million, a larger figure than two other cases the company has settled with oth...
Hating In Plain Sight
22 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the aftermath of white supremacist attacks in New Zealand, there's a tension between reporting on the shooter's motivations and not amplifying his ...
No Notoriety
19 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The details are different but the story is the same. A mass shooting, scores of people dead, another nation traumatized. Although in the aftermath of ...
Tucker Was Tucker All Along
13 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
To suggest that Tucker Carlson has a tendency to hint at deeply discriminatory tropes would be cliché — but also dead-on. Just this week, thanks ...
The Myth of Meritocracy
13 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A college admissions scandal has highlighted what people refer to as "the myth of meritocracy." But actually, meritocracy itself is a myth. This week,...
Crossing the Line
08 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Mexican officials and U.S. Customs and Border Protection are using a secret database to target journalists and advocates at the southern border. This ...
The Myth That Fuels the Anti-Vaxx Agenda
06 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This Tuesday, lawmakers in Washington heard from an 18-year-old who, against all odds, got his shots. Ethan Lindenberger, who fought with his own moth...
Look Back in Anger
01 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When President Trump’s former personal lawyer testified in front of Congress this week, it was both captivating and oddly familiar. This week, On th...
Longing for Wakanda
26 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On Sunday night, Marvel’s Black Panther film won the Oscar for three of its six Academy Award nominations: Ludwig Göransson for Best Original Score...
Twitch and Shout
22 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Twitch.tv is a video streaming platform where millions of people broadcast their lives and video game action in real-time. It's like unedited, real...
When 20,000 Nazis Gathered in New York
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Founded in 1936, the German-American Bund had approximately 25,000 members and 70 chapters around the country. While the Nazis were building concentra...
Bad Reputation
15 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The 2020 Democratic field is the most diverse ever, and five women are running to be the party’s presidential nominee. This week, we look at the se...
A Century of Free Speech
13 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For this week's pod extra, we feature a conversation from WNYC'S Brian Lehrer Show. Brian talked with Columbia University President Lee Bollinger and ...
The World's Biggest Problem
08 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At Tuesday's State of the Union, President Trump continued to call for a wall at the southern border. Meanwhile, some Democrats point to the real cris...
The Too-Good-To-Be-True Cancer Cure
05 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Despite steadily declining rates of cancer deaths over the past two decades, cancer remains responsible for 1 in every 6 deaths worldwide. It’s a sc...
Misery in the Name of Liberty
01 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Venezuelan press has been facing repression for years. This week, On the Media explores how journalists in the country are struggling to cover the...
A Tell-All Memoir And An NDA
30 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
This week, the latest tell-all memoir from a former White House staffer hit bookstores. Team of Vipers: My 500 Extraordinary Days in the Trump White H...
Close Encounters
25 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Lincoln Memorial debacle showed how vulnerable the press are to a myriad of social and political forces. This week, we examine how the outrage unf...
Rethinking MLK Day
22 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When he was still in his twenties, Martin Luther King Jr. was, among other things, an advice columnist for Ebony magazine. Writer Mychal Denzel Smi...
The Giant Referendum On Everything
18 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
For the past month, journalists have been reporting on the anxieties of furloughed federal workers. This week, On the Media learns that many reporters...
That time Brooke met Rosanne Cash
15 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Rosanne's Cash's new album features 10 new songs, all written and co-written by Cash, that find her "speaking out and looking inward" (The Boston Glob...
Everything Is Fake
11 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
On Thursday, President Trump flew down to McAllen, Texas to push his pro-wall, anti-immigrant narrative. This week, On the Media examines how the comm...
10 Things That Scare Jeff VandeMeer
09 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Is it too ordinary to be afraid of your cat dying? Jeff VanderMeer is an author based in Tallahassee, Florida. This week he is the featured guest o...
Africatown
04 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Just outside of Mobile, Alabama, sits the small community of Africatown, a town established by the last known slaves brought to America, illegally, in...
Remembering Joe Frank
01 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Frank -- the radio producer’s radio producer, the ultimate acquired taste -- died last January. He was 79. For over four decades Frank hosted ...
The Worst Thing We've Ever Done
28 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After World War II, Germany and the Allied powers took pains to make sure that its citizens would never forget the country’s dark history. But in Am...
10 Things That Scare Brooke
25 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Merry Christmas, to those who celebrate! To those who don't (and, aw heck, to those who do too) we offer a very special end-of-year gift: fear. More s...
The Seen and the Unseen
21 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Two weeks ago, a seven-year-old girl died in Customs and Border Patrol custody. This week, On the Media considers how coverage of her death has resemb...
What We Learned — And Didn't Learn — From the Pentagon Papers
19 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1971, federal investigators convened two grand juries to investigate, among other things, the publishing, by major newspapers, of thousands of page...
Plague of Suspicion
14 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been 100 years since one of the deadliest diseases... well, ever. The 1918-1919 flu pandemic (usually and mistakenly called the “Spanish Flu...
Three Years for Michael Cohen
12 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former lawyer, was sentenced Wednesday to three years in prison for financial crimes and for lying to Congress. In ...
How Quickly We Forget
07 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The death of George H.W. Bush brought us a week’s worth of ceremony, eulogy and wall-to-wall coverage. This week, a look at the choices journalist...
The Centuries-Old Practice of "Slaying Lewks"
05 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Satisfaction at the political enemy’s hypocrisy can be so rich that partisan critics strain — sometimes absurdly — to locate it. Such is the cas...
Laugh Until You Cry
30 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The White House tried to bury a devastating climate assessment on Black Friday; this week, On the Media documents how TV talk shows gave climate cha...
The Long History of Ignoring Climate Scientists
28 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A government climate change report was released last week and summarily dismissed...by the government. It was a worrying development, to be sure — b...
Whose Streets?
23 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The message from Silicon Valley seems to be that self-driving cars are the way of the future. This week, On the Media considers the history behind the...
The Civil War, One Day at a Time
20 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On the 155th anniversary of The Gettysburg Address, we bring you a conversation with Professor Adam Goodheart. He ran The New York Times blog, Disun...
Do Not Pass Go
16 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Over a week after the midterms, there's uncertainty in key races in Florida and Georgia. We examine the pervasive conspiracy theories around vote coun...
The Stories Fires Tell
13 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Camp Fire in California is the deadliest in the state's history, leaving the entire city of Paradise in ashes. Parts of Malibu were destroyed by ...
We're Not Very Good At This
09 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
America’s divisions are all the more clear after another frenzied news cycle. This week, we ask a historian and a data scientist whether we humans...
Why We're So Polarized
06 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week on our show, Bob spoke with Lilliana Mason, a University of Maryland political psychologist and author of Uncivil Agreement: How Politics ...
The Others
02 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After a week of hate-fueled attacks, we examine the "dotted line" from incitement to violence. We dig deep into tribalism and how it widens the gul...
Gab is Back in the Headlines and Off the Web
30 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The social media website Gab has faced sanction and scorn in the days since one of its active users killed 11 members of Pittsburgh's Jewish communi...
Knock, Knock
25 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With the midterms approaching, Democrats and Republicans are fighting to control the national conversation. This week, On the Media looks at how to as...
West Virginia's "Genius" Watchdog
24 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly two years since the 2016 Presidential Election, much of the press are still covering so-called "Trump country" using a series of simplistic n...