Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Ben Flaherty, the director of Shuffle, a film that won the documentary jury award at the 2025 SXSW festival. 

This powerful documentary provides a look into the lives of three Florida residents who struggle to free themselves from a predatory system of for-profit recovery centers that benefit from their reliance on substances.

The film depicts a depressingly familiar pattern of institutions failing the very individuals they exist to help.

A former addict himself, Ben Flaherty uses his own sobriety journey as a starting point to discuss the ways that corrupt facilities can play with patients’ lives as a means of scamming insurance companies, ultimately making the argument that true recovery can only be accomplished through a communal effort of people who genuinely care about each other.

Learn more at www.stoptheshuffle.com

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Joining host Michael Azevedo on this episode is Rick Goldsmith, the director of the documentary “Stripped for Parts: American Journalism on the Brink.

Rick’s film offers a clear-eyed look at the current state of journalism in the United States with a focus on the insidious threat from a secretive hedge fund that has put America’s free press at risk.  

Alden Global Capital, operating in the shadows, has managed to upend countless local newsrooms in the past 15 years. But their profit-at-all-costs efforts have not gone un-checked.  

This powerful, eye-opening 90-minute documentary tracks the courageous efforts of investigative reporter Julie Reynolds, Denver Post editorialist Chuck Plunkett and a handful of others, backed by the NewsGuild union, who go toe- to-toe, at great personal risk, with Wall Street interests in a battle to save local journalism across the United States.  

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Andy has a belief that most news thrives on outrage, fear, and conflict. And he created "Granite Goodness" in order to take a different approach.

The podcast and newsletter highlights what Andy calls real progress happening across New England in science, tech, sustainability, business, economics, infrastructure, and more.

It’s Andy’s contention that when people see a better world is possible, they are more likely to build it. At the core of "Granite Goodness" is a belief that optimism is pragmatic, not naive. And it just may contagious!

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.

Making Media Now is sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting media makers from across the creative spectrum. From providing fiscal sponsorship to presenting an array of informative and educational programs, Filmmakers Collaborative supports creatives at every step in their journey.