Question Everything
Episodes
The Story She Reported, the View She Buried
16 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
***Question Everything has been nominated for a Webby Award! Please click here to vote for us. The episode that was nominated is the event we hel...
I Was 11 When Instagram Took Over My Life
09 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Taylor Little was 11 years old when they lied about their age to sign up for Instagram. Now, 13 years later, they’re one of thousands of people ...
Meta Knew They Were Addicting Kids. Now They’re Paying for It.
02 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In the span of two days, juries handed down landmark verdicts against Meta and Google. In New Mexico, a jury ordered Meta to pay the state $375 millio...
A Video So Real It Looks Fake
26 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Brian sits down with expert fact-checker Sofia Rubinson who spends hours every day tracking lies online, and together they dissect a single lie that&r...
The Case Against Jeremy Loffredo (Ambie Award-winner for Best Reporting of the Year)
19 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Locked up, alone, accused of being a spy, reporter Jeremy Loffredo has to defend the fact that he’s a journalist. To the Israeli courts. And the...
Blindfolded and Arrested on Assignment in Israel (Ambie Award-winner for Best Reporting of the Year)
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Part one of a special, two-part series, about Jeremy Loffredo, the first American journalist ever arrested by Israel, and the questions that were rais...
Are We Captured Yet? Now Trump’s Pals Are Taking Over CNN
10 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
News recently broke that Paramount, which is newly controlled by David Ellison and his billionaire dad Larry Ellison, won the bid to buy Warner-Brothe...
The Talented Ms. Goldiee
05 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
When a promising young freelancer pitched a good story to his magazine, editor Nicholas Hune-Brown was ready to assign it. But as he looked more close...
A Reporter Fights for his Freedom (Part Two)
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
After journalist Mario Guevara was arrested while covering an anti-ICE protest, ICE moved him into their detention. As his lawyers and the ACLU tried ...
Why did ICE Lock Up this Pro-Trump Reporter? (Part One)
19 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In June, journalist Mario Guevara was arrested while covering an anti-ICE protest in Georgia, transferred to ICE detention, and locked up by the feder...
The Dangers of Being a Journalist
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A little message from host Brian Reed about a scary incident he’s dealing with. And much scarier incidents other journalists are dealing with. Q...
A Minnesota Dad Takes on ICE
31 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Our managing editor, Kevin Sullivan, had a conversation this week with an old colleague in Minnesota that we wanted to share with you as quickly as we...
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker on How He Fought ICE’s Messaging War
29 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
As ICE agents have continued to threaten and kill people in Minneapolis and Minnesota’s governor and other state officials plead with the agency...
Inside ICE’s Push to Go Viral
22 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Many people were surprised that ICE officer Jonathan Ross was filming with his phone when he shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis. But Washington...
How One Tweak to the Internet Led This Guy to a BDSM Dungeon
15 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The story of an adult performer, Davin Strong, whose life was upended by a seemingly small change to Section 230. Question Everything is a production ...
When Lies Spread Like Wildfire
08 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
At a bar that survived the destruction, a group of reporters get together a year later to talk about the personal impact the LA wildfires had on them....
Host Brian Reed Confronts his Toughest Critic
01 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We’re taking a quick break for the holidays, but in the spirit of New Year reflection, we’re sharing our very first episode of Question Ev...
When Hollywood Tells The Truth - with the directors of Spotlight, The Staircase, Reality, and The Investigation
25 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We’re taking a short break over the holidays and will be plopping in front of the TV to watch some movies and shows. Maybe you’re doing th...
The Funky Court Ruling That Led to the Modern Internet
18 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past few months, our host Brian Reed has been reporting on Section 230 – the law that shields online platforms and websites from lawsui...
The Loophole That Could Keep the Epstein Files Hidden
11 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
By December 19th, the Department of Justice is supposed to release all DOJ and FBI files related to Jeffrey Epstein. But through Freedom of Informatio...
‘Let Him Hang Himself’
04 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When the recent slate of Jeffrey Epstein emails dropped, one line immediately jumped out: “I think you should let him hang himself.” It wa...
Can Satire Save Democracy? w/ The Onion CEO Ben Collins
27 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A nice treat for the holiday – an interview with the guy who runs the country’s funniest fake newspaper. Ben Collins became CEO of T...
Call 202-255-3501 To Fix The Internet
25 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Next week, the House is expected to hold a hearing on kids’ online safety. They plan to release several bills to protect kids from harmful conte...
How Meta Is Making Billions From Scam Advertising
20 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It seems like Meta just can’t lose. The Facebook parent company won a huge victory in court this week. The federal government was claiming Meta ...
'We Don't Hate Journalists Enough': The Story of an F-ed Up Deepfake
13 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When journalist Julia Mengolini criticized her country’s president, Javier Milei, she didn’t expect to be targeted with one of the more di...
A Government Whistleblower Trusts a Newsroom, Ends Up in Prison
06 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When NSA contractor Reality Winner leaked proof that Russia had tried to break into the U.S. election system, she thought she was helping her country....
How Trump is Capturing America’s Media – Without a Coup
30 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Veteran foreign correspondent Natalia Antelava has spent 15 years reporting from places where authoritarian regimes have “captured” the me...
TikTok Stars on the Politicians Begging Them for Exposure
23 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when TikTokers replace TV hosts and interviewers, and presidential candidates start begging to be on their shows? Brian Reed sits down in...
‘I Believed Sandy Hook Was a Hoax’
16 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Kate grew up believing the Sandy Hook school shooting was an elaborate false flag operation. For years she thought the 20 elementary school children a...
Betraying a Friendship to Get a Viral Story
09 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of Death, Sex, and Money is a recommendation from our contributing editor Jen Kinney. When blogger AJ Daulerio broke the Brett Favr...
The Film the BBC Wouldn’t Air
02 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Two veteran journalists set out to document Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system: hospitals attacked, medical worke...
Brian Takes on Big Tech
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was forced off the air, it raised huge questions about who really controls what we’re allowed to say. From bil...
The Epstein Files
25 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes have been picked apart in headlines, documentaries, and endless conspiracy theories. And yet there have continued to be...
Question Everything Returns, Raring for a Fight
18 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
We're back. September 25th.
A Listener on What Journalists Should do Better
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A listener weighed in with some criticism on Substack. Brian (our host) got involved. Some advice for journalists ensued. It ended up inspiring an ent...
Brian Can't Stop Fact-checking His Mother-In-Law (from “Proxy with Yowei Shaw”)
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After her NPR show was canceled some years back, producer and host Yowei Shaw gave herself a new title: “Emotional Investigative Journalist.&rdq...
Badass Local Journalists on How to Fight Corruption
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Local reporters from around the country tell stories of using the experiences of their neighbors to confront people in power. Featuring:A...
Who’s Behind the Raids? A Mystery in Marion (Part Two)
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A TV reporter from Kansas City hears about the newspaper raids over in Marion. Her interest is piqued by the fact that the police chief who oversaw th...
A Mystery in Marion (Part One)
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On a Friday morning in rural Kansas, the publisher of a tiny local newspaper hears a knock at the door. It’s the police—with a search warr...
The Fight for Your Attention with MSNBC’s Chris Hayes
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
MSNBC host Chris Hayes discusses his book The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource, and reckons with his own culpab...
The Hunt for a Journalist’s Killer
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A group of reporters recently uncovered a closely held secret: the identity of the Israeli soldier who shot and killed renowned veteran journali...
From the Fringe Web to Real Life: How Seriously Should We Be Taking Conspiracy Theories?
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Back in December, we did an episode about Pyrra, an AI-powered software that tracks sifts through the far corners of the internet – in some plac...
Rümeysa Öztürk is Locked Up for an Op-ed: An Urgent Summit with the Student Newspaper that Published It
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Where better to huddle up and discuss what to do about Rümeysa Öztürk and the chilling effect that is happening in journalism than on c...
Pounding Beers in a Shed, and Other Dispatches from the War on Free Speech
25 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last episode we discussed the campaign to overturn the Supreme Court decision that protects reporters’ ability to criticize and investigate peop...
Freedom of the press is great, until you're the target
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, a Supreme Court decision called New York Times vs Sullivan was widely beloved by people across the political spectrum. Hailed as a decisi...
The masterpiece Prince documentary Netflix won’t let the public see.
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The best documentary filmmaker in America spent nearly five years of his life making a nine-hour masterpiece for Netflix. It will never s...
He quit journalism to fight authoritarianism. How’s that going?
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, we did an episode with Barton Gellman, who talked about the war games he was running with high-level military leaders and government offici...
A Rant or a Slant: When Should Reporters Speak From the Heart?
27 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It’s easy to get frustrated with the charade reporters are supposed to keep up, where they pretend they don’t have opinions or feelings or...
A Teen, a Reporter, and a Grand Jury Leak (Over BBQ)
20 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brian tells the story of a reporting trip he took to Alabama, where two small-town journalists had been locked up in jail, that led to one of the most...
The News is Coming from Under the Desk… on TikTok (live from On Air Fest)
06 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As trust in traditional journalism plummets, social media content creator V Spehar of Under the Desk News is ascendant, with over 3.4 million TikTok f...
Not Like Us: How Billionaires Think
27 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As billionaires hoard more control over our politics, it seems more important than ever to ask: What makes them tick? Four reporters gather after hour...
And The Award Goes To...The Circuit Court Of The Nineteenth Judicial Circuit In and For Okeechobee County, Florida
13 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Smith tells the story of the strange controversy over a journalism award that’s been going down in a Florida courthouse. Ben is Edito...
A reporter? A spy? Or something else? Israel arrests its first American journalist.
31 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Locked up, alone, accused of being a spy, reporter Jeremy Loffredo has to defend the fact that he’s a journalist. To the Israeli courts. And the...
Blindfolded and Arrested on Assignment in Israel
16 Jan 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Just a few months ago, Israel did something it has never done before. It arrested an American journalist. His name is Jeremy Loffredo. This is ...
When Hollywood Tells The Truth: with Tom McCarthy, Antonio Campos, Tina Satter, and Tobias Lindholm.
19 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Four Hollywood directors gather after hours at a wine shop to drink and commiserate about the perils – and power – that come when you&rsqu...
Can AI tell us what stories to look out for? A live experiment.
05 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Our team at Question Everything has been playing around with a new technology that sucks up tons of social media posts, and then uses AI to figure out...
Getting Ready to Interview Trump: An Exercise
21 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A journalist tries to get his wrestling buddy to trust in journalism. You can find more work by Sam Eagan here. “Question Ev...
Special Election-Eve Episode: The Story of a Story Untold
04 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A special election-eve episode from Brian: Ruminations on a story that never was, and a late night conversation with the source he was supposed to mak...
When To Call A Thing What It Is
24 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Brian stops doomscrolling and starts doom-living. He brings two journalists he saw duking it out on Twitter into a studio, where they debate how to re...
Can Journalism Save a Marriage?
10 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A married couple finds themselves fighting miserably over the news. So they set out on a quest for the seemingly impossible: to find a news source tha...
The Journalist and the Firefighter
26 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How one of the most accomplished reporters of our time, Barton Gellman, lost his confidence in journalism. Sign up for our newsletter to hear t...
Drinks for Five: Ira Glass, Zoe Chace, Jonathan Eig, Astead Herndon
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Brian puts four journalists together in a room, gives them drinks, and starts rolling tape. Their only instructions: show up with questions for each o...
The Critic
12 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Brian talks to a fellow journalist who called his most well-known work “morally indefensible.” You can read Gay Alcorn’s colu...
Question Everything is out now!
30 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Brian Reed of S-Town is questioning everything, even his own work. Season premiere Sept 12.