On the Media
Episodes
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...
Bloodlines
19 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In using a genetic test to try to prove her Native ancestry, Senator Elizabeth Warren inadvertently stepped into a quagmire. This week, we examine th...
The Radical Catalog
17 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Another chapter in the history of American consumerism came to a close this week when the retail giant Sears announced it was filing for bankruptcy an...
Full Faith & Credit
12 Oct 2018
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...
Reimagining History
10 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, the MacArthur Foundation awarded genius grants to 25 creatives in art, literature, science and music. John Keene, a writer of poetry, ficti...
The Victimhood
05 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Thursday in the Wall Street Journal, Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh acknowledged his sharp tone in recent hearings. This week, we examine ...
Trump, Inc.: The Business of Silence
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
President Donald Trump has had many roles in his life: Real estate scion, reality show star, Oval Office holder. But through it all, one thing has rem...
What Goes Around, Comes Around?
28 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Kavanaugh-Ford hearings this week felt like a watershed moment — but it’s not yet clear what long-term impact they’ll have. This week, we e...
It's Time for Justice
26 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Tuesday, nearly four years since a viral comedy routine helped usher a long list of rape and sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby into ...
Make Amends
21 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Senators are weighing serious allegations of attempted rape as they consider Judge Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, McDonald's ...
An Obit, This Time For Real
18 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This past week’s coverage of Hurricane Florence has had all the trappings of a terrible storm: the satellite images, the sandbags and empty grocery ...
Doomed to Repeat
14 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The anniversary of a disaster gives us a moment to reflect on whether we have learned the right lessons — or any at all. This week, we examine the n...
FEMA Time
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Wednesday, as Florence swirled ominously off the coast of the Carolinas, and states prepared for imminent disaster, Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) tho...
O See, Can You Say
07 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Between the Kavanaugh confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill and an anonymous op-ed from within the Trump White House, a wave of rule-bending and -brea...
CNN's Lanny Davis Problem
05 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Six weeks ago, CNN broke a blockbuster story: According to several anonymous sources, President Trump had advance knowledge of the infamous Trump Towe...
Face the Racist Nation
31 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For more than a year, Lois Beckett [@loisbeckett], senior reporter at The Guardian US, has been showing up at white nationalist rallies, taking their...
Summer Series Episode 4: Tectonic Edition
29 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After an earthquake struck Nepal in April of 2015, the post-disaster media coverage followed a trajectory we'd seen repeated after other earth-shaking...
Fallout
24 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
End-of-times narratives themselves are nothing new; only the means have changed. While once a few horsemen and a river of blood were enough to signal...
Summer Series Episode 3: Airline Crash Edition
22 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When a commercial plane goes down, media speculation ensues. With the help of The Atlantic's James Fallows, we give you some tips that can help yo...
Twitch And Shout
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Twitch.tv is a video streaming platform where tens of thousands people broadcast their lives and video game game-play in real-time. It's like unedite...
Summer Series Episode 2: Military Coup Edition
15 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the summer of 2016, Turkish putschists shut down highways, attacked government buildings and took broadcasters hostage, world media outlets s...
Planet Fire
10 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
People like neo-nazi Andrew Anglin and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones have long tested the limits of permissible speech. On this week’s On the Media...
Summer Series Episode 1: US Storm Edition
08 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For media professionals, hurricanes offer the very best kind of bad news because the story arc is predictable and invariably compelling. In this summ...
Enemy of the People
03 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
At a rally in Tampa, Florida, Trump supporters attacked CNN reporter Jim Acosta, prompting the president to double down on his anti-press "Enemy of th...
Journalism To The Rescue
02 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This summer, in a project designed by ProPublica, 10 news organizations are sharing information to flesh out the hidden details of families separated...
The Center Folds
27 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Socialism is having a moment in the sunlight — that is, on daytime television. Yet at the same time that the left earns a closer look from political...
On the Media presents Episode 1 of The Realness
25 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week On the Media recommends a new podcast from our colleagues at WNYC. Check it out. Prodigy and Havoc begin laying down rhymes together in high...
Blah Blah Blah... BANG
20 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In a matter of months, we've moved from bipartisan immigration talks to calls to abolish ICE. On this week’s On the Media, a look at how leftists ar...
I Can't Breathe
17 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Four years ago this week, on July 17, 2014, Eric Garner died in Staten Island at the hands of a New York City police officer. We probably wouldn't hav...
Russian Dressing On Everything
13 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Reporting on the Russia investigation is not for the faint of heart. This week, a look at how a journalist became entangled in the investigation whe...
Big Sky, Dark Money
10 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With President Trump's nomination of federal judge Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court will likely be locked up by the political right for a generati...
Blame It On The Alcohol
06 Jul 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we devote an entire hour to what one important scholar deemed “the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.” From its earlies...
Polite Oppression
29 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Following a string of landmark Supreme Court rulings and a surprise retirement, this week On the Media examines the conservative culture on the bench ...
A Guide To SCOTUS News
27 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a reason why Supreme Court reporters know to never to take a vacation in June. The end of this season’s term brought us a head-spinning ...
Chaos Agents
22 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Family separation, a re-framed immigration debate and Trump's misleading executive order: why news fatigue about the border isn’t an option. This we...
The Rise and Fall of Elizabeth Holmes
19 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 2014, Fortune magazine ran a cover story featuring Elizabeth Holmes: a blonde woman wearing a black turtleneck, staring deadpan at the camera, with...
Using My Religion
15 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
More than two thousand reporters went to Singapore to cover the summit between President Trump and Kim Jong-un. This week, we examine how so much ...
Seymour Hersh Looks Back (extended mix)
12 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, Seymour Hersh has been an icon of muckraking, investigative reporting: his work exposed such atrocities as the massacre of Vietnamese c...
Perps Walk
08 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Justice for whom? President Trump’s controversial pardoning spree has benefited political allies and nonviolent drug offenders alike. This week, we ...
Hurricane Season
06 Jun 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Puerto Rico was (briefly) back in the news this week when a Harvard study shed more light on many people died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Th...
The Worst Thing We've Ever Done
01 Jun 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...
Fact Checking #WhereAreTheChildren
30 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We talk a lot about right wing news outlets picking up out-of-context facts and amplifying them in their outrage machine, so as to infuriate and valid...
Technical Foul
25 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Rudy Giuliani has been warning the press that the president may not testify in the Russia investigation, but Trump has signaled otherwise. This week, ...
Glenn Beck Reverses His Reversal
24 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In November 2016, Bob spoke to Blaze bloviator Glenn Beck to hear about how he was a changed man. More compassionate, a better listener and very opp...
Africatown
18 May 2018
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...
The Recording of America
16 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Studs Terkel, born 106 years ago on this date, May 16, spent the majority of his life documenting the lives of others – very often everyday, working...
This Is America
11 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today, more than 45 million Americans live in poverty. The problem has been addressed countless times since the nation’s founding, but it persists, ...
An Extended Trip Through Wild Wild Country
08 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Back in the early 1980s, thousands of followers of the Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh descended upon a 64,000 acre piece of land in central Oregon...
Dark Twisted Fantasy
04 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After last month’s terrorist attack in Toronto, the media attempted to make sense of the term “incel,” or involuntary celibate. We situate the...
Mayday, May Day
02 May 2018
Contributed by Lukas
International Workers' Day is celebrated with rallies and protests all over the world on May 1st, but it's not a big deal in the United States. In thi...
Dog Whistle
27 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we explore the ways white Americans — in the voting booth, and on T.V. — deal with a changing society. A new study finds that many whit...
Introducing Nancy: a podcast about all things LGBTQ
24 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week we want to introduce you to some friends of ours at WNYC. Nancy is a podcast hosted by best friends Tobin Low and Kathy Tu and its about all...
Moving Beyond the Norm
20 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Alex Jones built his Infowars brand on conspiratorial thinking and table-pounding rage. This week, we look at the three lawsuits testing whether Jones...
The One and Only, Carl Kasell
18 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week the venerable Carl Kasell, legendary newscaster and Wait, Wait Don’t Tell Me scorekeeper, died aged 84, from complications related to Alzh...
Who's In Charge Here?
13 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
After Mark Zuckerberg's two-day testimony before Congress, we consider whether a reckoning for the social media giant might finally be on the horizo...
Trump Inc.: Trump, the Ex-Lobbyist and 'Chemically Castrated' Frogs
10 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
From our colleagues in the WNYC newsroom who produce Trump Inc.: This week, we’re doing a couple of things differently on Trump, Inc. Instead of f...
Paved With Good Intentions
06 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
With a caravan of activists making its way through Mexico, President Trump signed a proclamation to send troops to defend the border. This week we exa...
TV News Anchors Speaking From the Heart — Uh, TelePrompter
03 Apr 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Did you see the video that was making the rounds this weekend? It features a seemingly endless parade of Sinclair Broadcast Group TV news anchors —...
We, the Liberators
30 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In March of 2003, U.S.–led coalition forces invaded Iraq, sparking a seemingly endless conflagration that claimed tens of thousands of lives and c...
Iraq's Accidental Journalists
28 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week marked the fifteenth anniversary of the night of “Shock and Awe” exploding across the night sky over Baghdad, the opening salvo in an o...
Big, If True
23 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Cambridge Analytica claims that, with the help of 50 million Facebook users' data, it was able to target ads so specifically and so effectively that i...
Crowdsourcing Justice: The Truth Behind the Steubenville Rape
20 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Five years ago, two high school football players in Steubenville, Ohio were found responsible in juvenile court for the rape of a 16-year-old girl. ...
The Past Is Never Dead
16 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we look at how selective coverage shapes our view of foreign borders, conflicts and historical figures — from Syria to Winston Churchill....
Did Farhad "Unplug"?
13 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week we spoke with New York Times tech columnist Farhad Manjoo after he published an article titled, “For two months, I got my news from prin...
Like We Used To Do
09 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In an age of constant breaking news, it can be hard to tell what matters and what’s just noise. This week, a look at what we’ve learned from recen...
Everything You Love Will Burn
07 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Last week, we put out a special show hosted by The Guardian US’s Lois Beckett, devoted to how reporters should approach the alt-right, and white sup...
Face the Racist Nation
02 Mar 2018
Contributed by Lukas
For the past year, Lois Beckett [@loisbeckett], senior reporter at The Guardian US, has been showing up at white nationalist rallies, taking their pic...
Follow The Money
28 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The podcast Trump Inc. is a collaboration between WNYC Studios and ProPublica. A team of investigative reporters is examining whether and how the Tru...
Back to the Future
23 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Since the Parkland school shooting, the student-led #NeverAgain movement has kept gun control in the headlines. This week, we look at how the movemen...
Rinse and Repeat
22 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the wake of the school shooting in Florida we are recycling two interviews that we recorded following two other mass shooting tragedies. The first ...
Devil in the Details
16 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we dive headfirst into the uncomfortable and the untrue — on the international stage, in the White House, and in your local newspaper. Ho...
The Safety Net Just Got a Little Less Safe
14 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On Monday, Donald Trump released the second budget proposal of his presidency. There’s lots in it — more money for defense, veterans and border s...
Blame It On The Alcohol
09 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This week, we devote an entire hour to what one important scholar deemed “the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.” From its earlies...
Trump Inc.
07 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Back in January last year, Donald Trump, newly elected, not yet sworn in, tried to quell concerns about his many conflicts of interest by declaring ...
This Is Not A Test
02 Feb 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It was yet another week of will-he-won't-he: Will President Donald Trump authorize the release of the House Intelligence Committee's "memo," in spite ...
Gitmo Is Back in Business
31 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In his State of the Union speech this week the president announced - to rapturous applause from congressional Republicans, that he had just signed an...
Rallying Cry
26 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
A year into the Trump Administration, thousands continue to take to the streets but has the press lost interest? This week we look at the nature of pr...
Unsettled: A Story from the Global Refugee Crisis
23 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Over these last few months, WNYC reporter Matt Katz has been reporting the story of a congolese man named Andre and his wife, Lisette. They were livin...
The End Is the Beginning
19 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Recent accusations of sexual misconduct have led some to claim that the #MeToo movement has gone too far. We break down the arguments and look back at...
A Journalist of Consequence
17 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
During his career as a national security reporter for The New York Times, James Risen reported several major scoops about the CIA. Risen exposed the B...
Outrage Machine
12 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The book that took D.C. by storm; evaluating our first year under President Trump; the story of the Pentagon Papers, from someone who helped write the...
What 'The Post' Missed
11 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Leslie Gelb, the man who supervised the team that compiled the Pentagon Papers, wasn't a character in the new Hollywood drama, "The Post." He is rare...
"Shmashmortion"
05 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The surprising political history of abortion in America; how the language of the abortion debate impacts us all; state lawmakers are tightening the ru...
The Man Behind Black Mirror
03 Jan 2018
Contributed by Lukas
When the British TV show Black Mirror first arrived in the US in late 2014, it was applauded for imagining dystopian, technology-centric scenarios tha...
The Feelings Show
29 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Father Time — his 2017 sash bloodied and muddied, no doubt — will soon hand off the baton to Baby New Year and, like the reluctant old fellow reac...
Fire With Fire
21 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to fighting fire with fire, common knowledge would have us leave the pyrotechnics to the trained professionals. This week, though, we ta...
Don't Expect Filing Your Taxes to Get Any Easier
20 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
In selling their new tax bill to the public, Republicans have leaned heavily on the theme of simplification. According to them, one of the primary be...
After the Storm
15 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Three months after Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico's recovery story is far from over and far from simple. For some, it's a story of resilience. Others, r...
Power Trip
08 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
From Capitol Hill to the workplace to the darkest corners of the internet, it can feel like our world is increasingly being manipulated by threats an...
A Reckoning in Our Own House
05 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Update: On Wednesday, following the release of this pod extra, New York Public Radio announced that Jonathan Schwartz and Leonard Lopate had been plac...
Flim-Flam Nation
01 Dec 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It was yet another week of outrageous and consequential stories piling on top of one another at a head-spinning pace. A failed attempt to discredit t...
About that Nazi Next Door
27 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
The New York Times' profile of Tony Hovater, a white nationalist and Nazi sympathizer, set Twitter on fire last weekend — and not in a good way. Bob...
Apocalypse, Now
24 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Science fiction has always been an outlet for our greatest anxieties. This week, we delve into how the genre is exploring the reality of climate chang...
Brooke Gets Mindful
21 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
If you find yourself fuming at the Thanksgiving table this week when the conversation turns political, rather than losing your cool in front of your f...
The Reckoning
17 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
As allegations of sexual misconduct continue to dominate the news, a look at how we are dealing with high-profile offenders and who is being ignored....
Rebecca Traister Says 'the Anger Window' Is Open
14 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister says that every new revelation about sexual harassment confirms what women have always known. In her most ...
The Ecstasy of Gold
10 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Another massive data leak has cast scrutiny on the world of the ultra-wealthy, but some doubt whether much will change. A look inside the Paradise Pa...
12 Months Later: Brooke and Bob on Covering Trump
08 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
It's now a year since Election Day 2016, and a year since we gathered in our office the day after Election Day to figure out what exactly had happened...
Off the Radar
03 Nov 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Following the announcement of the first indictments in Robert Mueller's special investigation, the media were scrambling to put together the pieces......
Monumental Questions
31 Oct 2017
Contributed by Lukas
Speaking this week on Fox News, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly warned against the removal of Confederate monuments on the grounds that it woul...