On the fourth of July, Media Voices is celebrating its own Independence Day. In the inaugural episode of our new-look podcast, Esther interviews CNN's executive producer of social and emerging media Samantha Barry about its U.S. election coverage, the rise and rise of chatbots, and how the team approaches storytelling across different platforms.

In the news roundup Peter, Chris and Esther discuss the NYT making 100 copy editors redundant, the end of the 'Trump Bump', and Instagram's A.I. approach to censoring nasty comments. Peter throws cold water on Chris' dream of living in a Star Trek universe, and Esther risks the entire future of the podcast on a joke about Peter's accent.