On the Media

With midterm elections around the corner, conspiracy theories have been planted to sow doubt in the results. On this week’s On the Media, a breakdown of what election rumors to expect on and after Election Day. Plus, how polling fraudsters are threatening trust in public opinion research. 

[00:00]  Micah sits down with Kate Starbird, co-founder of the Center for An Informed Public at the University of Washington, to sort through the rumors swirling in the final week of midterm election campaigns. 

[16:16]  Brooke chats with Mary Radcliffe, head of research at Fifty Plus One, about three fraudulent pollsters she helped catch this year, and how they muddy the waters for critical work that informs our democracy. 

[30:27]  Brooke speaks with Koleman Strumpf, professor of economics at Wake Forest University, about the history of betting on elections and what lessons carry forward to today. 

Further reading / watching:

• “Spot the Lie: 6 Moves of “Rigged Election” Rumors,” by The Center for an Informed Public
• “What to Know About Election Forecasting and Prediction Markets This November,” by The Center for an Informed Public
• “A Tale of Two Sullivans: Rumors Around a Department of Justice Lawsuit in Alaska,” by  The Center for an Informed Public
• “FiftyPlusOne just caught a pollster faking data — and they copped to it,” by Mary Radcliffe, G. Elliott Morris, Cooper Burton, and FiftyPlusOne
• “Historical Presidential Betting Markets,” by Paul Rhode and Koleman Strumpf

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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Maria Ressa, journalist, professor at Columbia University, CEO of the press outlet Rappler, and the author of "Fight Back; A Citizen's Guide To Standing Up To Dictators," talks with WNYC host, Brian Lehrer about the role of the press and individuals in maintaining democracy, especially in this age of AI.

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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With control of Congress at stake, the 2026 midterm campaigns are on track to spend an all-time record sum on this election cycle. On this week’s On the Media, how political ads are resonating, and misfiring. Plus, a look at the changing relationships between public radio stations and universities after the defunding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

[00:00] Micah speaks with Marisa Kabas, founder of the independent news site The Handbasket, about her scoop that revealed the identity of the man who attempted to heckle Democratic senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed at a campaign rally last week. She discusses how El-Sayed used this exchange for his own campaign’s gain. Plus, the aftermath of a viral, widely-panned ad deployed by Vivek Ramaswamy in the Ohio gubernatorial race.

[00:00] Brooke and Micah analyze the flood of political campaign ads in the lead-up to the midterm elections, with the help of Washington Post data reporter Lydia Sidhom, who reviewed $1.6 billion of campaign ads from the highest profile congressional and gubernatorial races. They look at the five issues that candidates and PACs spent the most money highlighting—including the economy and corruption—and review what seems to be sticking for voters, and what doesn’t. 

[00:00] Brooke sits down with Lucy Schiller, journalist and assistant professor of nonfiction writing at Grinnell College, to talk about her recent article examining universities struggling to adhere to the Trump administration's policies while supporting their licensed public radio stations. Then, Brooke speaks with Will Dahlberg, former general manager at WBHM in Birmingham, Alabama, about what led him to leave his station.

Further reading / watching:

• “'Tommy' from viral El-Sayed video is former Sen. Hawley staffer with Christian nationalist ties,” by Marisa Kabas
• “We reviewed $1.6 billion of campaign ads. Here are the takeaways,” by Luke Connors, Lydia Sidhom and Laura Beveridge
• “‘All They’re Going to Hear Is Capitulation’,” by Lucy Schiller

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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OTM producer Molly Rosen has been on a mission to find out what technology her two-year-old kid will confront when he’s old enough to go to school. Today, big tech companies permeate schools, from the Google Chromebooks that most students are using, to the apps and software that schools run on, to the computer science courses that students and teachers are taking. To understand the decades-long campaign that got so much tech into schools, Molly spoke to Natasha Singer, who covered tech in schools for The New York Times for more than a decade. She lays out the history of how big tech got into schools in her new book, Coding Kids: Big Tech’s Battle to Remake Public Schools. 

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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From ‘Blue Zones’ branded food to anti-aging peptides, the marketplace is flooded with products promising to help us live longer and better. On this week’s On the Media, a researcher calls into question the data behind some of the most popular ‘longevity science.’ Plus, why Silicon Valley billionaires are obsessed with the end of the world. 

[01:00] A new book titled Morbid: Debunking Modern Longevity Science, out this week, alleges that much of the research underpinning longevity science is hot air. Host Micah Loewinger explores the contours of this heated debate within the field, and speaks with the book’s author, Saul Newman, a research fellow at the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing, about the prevalence of fraudulent 100+ year olds, and his gripes with the popular “Blue Zones” research and the multimillion-dollar business that grew out of it. We also hear from New York Magazine writer Kerry Howley and one of the originators of Blue Zones, demographer Michel Poulain. Plus, the growing grift within the field, and the Silicon Valley tech giants spending millions to try to vanquish death.

[31:39] Micah speaks to Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, co-authors of End Times Fascism And the Fight for the Living World, about a new strain of apocalyptic fascism emerging in Silicon Valley and the White House that rejects the idea of a future on Earth, and how to fight back.
 

Further reading / watching:

• “Demographers at War: Fake centenarians, faulty data, junk science, and contested “blue zones,” by Kerry Howley
• “Supercentenarians and the oldest-old are concentrated into regions with no birth certificates and short lifespans,” by Saul Newman
• “The validity of Blue Zones demography: a response to critiques,” by Steven Austad and Giovanni Pes
• Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, Netflix

Statement from Dan Buettner, founder of Blue Zones LLC:

The Blue Zones findings are based on more than two decades of demographic and scientific research, with methods and conclusions documented in peer-reviewed literature and examined by independent researchers.

Age validation and record-keeping have already been carefully investigated, and Newman’s theories were explicitly debunked in a recent peer-reviewed article published in The Gerontologist. Presenting conspiracy theories or allegations that have already been disproven as equivalent to a large, well-established body of evidence is misleading to the public.

Email exchange with Dan Buettner:

• FROM OTM: Michel Poulain told us that there is “no proof” that Loma Linda, California is a blue zone because “we don’t have the same possibility of validation of age.” He said that “When I discussed with Dan Buettner, he admitted that he had to introduce this Loma Linda because National Geographic wanted to have a US taste in the system.” In response to those statements, we intend to paraphrase the statement you sent us via email about how Loma Linda likely no longer qualifies as a blue zone under a new formal definition you’re working on. 
• DAN BUETTNER: Before I wrote about Blue Zones in National Geographic in 2005, it was not known to anyone by a roomful of demographers and the 50 or so readers of Experimental Gerontology.  It was my idea to make it an international term and absent a clear criteria, I named Loma Linda a Blue Zone. We have not evaluated Loma Linda with the new criteria yet.
• FROM OTM: New York Magazine writer Kerry Howley told us that “Poulain says that Buettner went ahead and [trademarked] the term Blue Zones, the term Poulain had originated without his permission, without his even knowing.” Do you agree with this characterization?
• DAN BUETTNER: If you do some research, you’ll find that Gianni Pes coined the phrase Blue Zones. He has blessed my use of blue zones over the past 25 years.... I encourage you to reach out to him before you make the error of implying or saying that Michel originated the phrase or the international concept which is the foundation of my books.Gianni and I published an article identifying a new Blue Zone last week. Michel is an excellent demographer and I have appreciated his collaboration as part of our National Geographic explorer grants, in helping me validate blue zones in Costa Rica, Ikaira and Sardinia.
• FROM OTM: Michel Poulain claimed that after you asked him to testify in a case against Chanel for using the term “Blue Zone” to market a skincare product, he did not collaborate as much with you anymore. Is that how you remember it?
• DAN BUETTNER: There has been no widely agreed upon criteria for a Blue Zone until AFAR pulled together their consortium earlier this year. I named Singapore a new blue zone for the 2024 Netflix “Live to 100” documentary because, at the time, the global burden of disease project ranked Singapore #1 in health adjusted life expectancy.
   

Statement from demographer Michel Poulain, one of the originators of blue zones research: 

To summarize the [origin of the] BZ [Blue Zones] story shortly:

1. The team of Sassari and Gianni Pes presented their AKEA results on exceptional longevity in Sardinia in October 1999 in Montpellier.

2. As the demographers attending the meeting were highly suspicious on the validity of the age of centenarians in Sardinia, they charged me to go in Sardinia to validate individually the age of the centenarians expecting that I will be back with the explanation on errors in age reporting.

3. I landed in Alghero on January 22, 2000 and started the age validation of many centenarians with the support of Gianni Pes and Ciriaco Carru.

4. I was quickly convinced of the validity of the age of all centenarians and doing so the individual longevity was proved and my mission could be completed.

5. This is the moment when, in spring 2000, I switched from individual longevity to population longevity and, as demographer, I reported the number of centenarians born in a village by the total number of newborns in the same cohort. This proportion of centenarians became the Extreme Longevity index (ELI).

§. Thereafter WE (Gianni and me) marked on the map of Sardinia all municipalities with high value of ELI, using a Blue Marker. Who chose the blue is unknown except that it is my preferred color and my eyes are blue… If it was in red, the red zones will never exist. Concretely already in April 2000 I sent a message to Gianni and Ciriaco where I mentioned the term 'BLUE ZONE.’

6. It took us 4 years to publish our results as all our colleagues remained skeptical and finally were so happy to put their name in the paper published in Experimental Gerontology of whom I am the first author.

7. So I consider that Gianni, Ciriaco and the team of AKEA were the researchers that discovered the exceptional longevity in Sardinia. Personally I validated the age of centenarians with the support of Gianni and Ciriaco and thereafter I initiated the demographic concept of Blue Zone when with Gianni we used a blue marker to identify the villages with higher ELI.

8. Dan Buettner mentioned in his paper of 2005 that the team of demographers named Blue Zone the area with higher longevity in Sardinia.

9. Thereafter he asked me to find another Blue Zone and we visited Nicoya in August 2007 and validated the second BZ in early 2008 before to do the same in Ikaria in spring 2009. I was responsible for these choices.

10. He is responsible for the large popularisation of the Blue Zones.

11. As such we are equally responsible for the importance of the Blue Zone story whereas Saul Newman appeared in the story only in 2018, amazingly after he followed my talk on Blue Zones in Canberra University.

Statement from demographer Giovanni Pes, one of the originators of blue zones research: 

Regarding the origins of the term [Blue Zones], the story goes back to October 9, 1999, when I presented, for the first time, evidence of an exceptional concentration of centenarians in central Sardinia at a demographic conference in Montpellier, France. My findings were initially met with skepticism, including from Michel Poulain. However, at the end of the conference, Michel expressed his willingness to visit Sardinia and verify the data with me.

In January 2000, we began traveling through Sardinia's 377 municipalities, collecting information on centenarians from local civil registry offices. I had prepared a map of the island by hand, and whenever we identified a municipality with more centenarians than expected, I marked it with a blue felt-tip pen.

Soon, the blue dots revealed a clear geographical concentration in central-eastern Sardinia, particularly in the region of Ogliastra. As we traveled from one municipality to another, we spontaneously began referring to this area as the “Blue Zone.” We later adopted the expression in our first scientific publications.

Although the map and the blue pen were mine, I consider the term “Blue Zone” to have emerged naturally from our conversations rather than having been invented exclusively by either of us. The earliest written evidence of the expression that I am aware of is an email exchange between Michel and me dating from March 2000.

I therefore believe it would be historically accurate to say that myself and Michel Poulain jointly coined the term “Blue Zone” in 2000, building on the demographic research I had initiated earlier in Sardinia.

Regarding Dan Buettner's use of the term, I have never objected to his use of “Blue Zones” for commercial purposes. My interests have always been purely scientific and academic. Unlike Dan and Michel, who have developed commercial activities associated with the concept—the latter through the Living Blue Zone trademark—I have no commercial interests in the name.

My relationship with Dan remains excellent. In fact, we recently co-authored a scientific paper on exceptional longevity in Bolotana, Sardinia. I see no reason why he should not make use of the findings of my scientific research, provided that their scientific meaning is accurately represented.

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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A longer version of Micah's conversation with political scientist Lilliana Mason that aired on last week's show. They spoke about the most polarizing issue among Americans: who gets to decide who belongs in this country. Mason makes the case that while polarization is worrying, it is a symptom of a greater threat to democracy that demands our attention – the rise of ethno-nationalist politics.

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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During an I.C.E. operation in New York City, officers shot a man in a car while a child sat in the back seat. On this week’s On the Media, coverage of I.C.E. has decreased since the spring, while the agency’s operations have quietly surged. Plus, rightwing activists go after the H-1B visa program. 

[01:00] Micah Loewinger hears from data journalist G. Elliott Morris about how I.C.E. coverage has decreased since it exploded across our front pages earlier this year, following the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Good. However, José Olivares makes the case that I.C.E.’s operations have actually surged in the ensuing months – the agency has just been working more quietly.

[15:05] Micah interviews Christopher Mathias about how the once-fringe far-right thinker Chris Rufo (known for his critiques of DEI’ and ‘CRT’) is fomenting anti-Indian bigotry and advocating for extremist “remigration” policies.

[31:02] Micah speaks to political scientist Lilliana Mason about the most polarizing issue among Americans: who belongs in this country. Mason makes the case that while polarization is worrying, it is a symptom of a greater threat to democracy that demands our attention – the rise of ethnonationalist politics.

Further reading:

• “Gone in 90 seconds: an ‘invisibilized’ ICE is arresting more people than ever” by Maanvi Singh, Will Craft, Andrew Witherspoon and Julius Constantine Motal
• “Three deaths, three states, 24 hours: one day in ICE’s quiet but ‘gruesome’ surge,” by José Olivares
• “‘What they’re doing qualifies as torture’: new details of ICE force-feeding revealed” by José Olivares
• “Iran, prices, ICE, and Epstein are the biggest stories of 2026,” by G. Elliott Morris
• “Chris Rufo — Known For ‘DEI’ and ‘CRT’ Panics — Tries to Make ‘the Indian Question’ a Thing,” by Christopher Mathias
• “Polarization is Not the Problem,” by Lilliana Mason
  
   

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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In 2023, Evan Gershkovich was working as a young reporter in Moscow for the Wall Street Journal, when he was arrested by Russian authorities. He was eventually convicted on blatantly false charges of espionage and spent nearly five hundred days in imprisonment. Gershkovich recounts the experience in a new memoir, “This Cursed Beautiful Land,” and in an essay in The New Yorker. He spoke with David Remnick about life inside a Russian prison, the international prisoner swap that freed him, and why the difficult process of reacclimating to his former life complicated how he viewed his incarceration. 
 

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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The Supreme Court has denied a bid by the Trump administration to restrict mail-in voting. On this week’s On the Media, hear about the attempts, successful and not, to turn election conspiracies into policy. Plus, the case for literary gatekeepers. 

[01:00] Micah Loewinger speaks with Rick Hasen, law professor and director of the Safeguarding Democracy Project at UCLA, about the state of our election systems heading into midterm season, and what headlines should hold our attention.

[20:07] Brooke Gladstone speaks with Mark Krotov, the publisher and coeditor of the literary magazine n+1, about how old books are enjoying renewed popularity thanks to the flourishing “reissue” book market, and TikTokers’ penchant for hidden gems in the backlist. But what does the trend tell us about the health of the publishing industry?

[35:41] Brooke also sits down with Laura McGrath, an assistant professor of English at Temple University and the author of the book, Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction, to discuss the little-known history of literary agents, the unseen tastemakers choosing your favorite novels.  

Further reading:

• “Exorcising Justice Alito’s Voter Fraud Boogeyman,” by Richard L. Hasen
• “A Judicial Guide to Search Warrants Seeking Election Materials,” by Richard L. Hasen and Shelby Wayment
• “Old Directions: Reviving the spirit of revival,” by Mark Krotov and Lisa Borst
• Middlemen: Literary Agents and the Making of American Fiction, by Laura McGrath
   

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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American journalist Austin Tice vanished in Syria 14 years ago. A secret lead suggests he may still be alive. This week we're sharing the first episode of Where Is Austin Tice? NPR's documentary podcast, Embedded, partners with BBC Radio 4 to follow reporter Josh Baker as he travels through a changing country to attempt to uncover the truth.

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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