On the Media

By WNYC Studios

History Social Sciences

What's On the Media about?

The Peabody Award-winning On the Media podcast is your guide to examining how the media sausage is made. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Bob Garfield examine threats to free speech and government transparency, cast a skeptical eye on media coverage of the week’s big stories and unravel hidden political narratives in everything we read, watch and hear.
WNYC Studios is a listener-supported producer of other leading podcasts including Radiolab, Snap Judgment, Death, Sex & Money, Nancy and Here’s the Thing with Alec Baldwin.
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OTM presents Trump Inc: The...

09.18.2019

Trump, Inc. takes a step back to make sense of the seemingly endless scandals swirling around the White House. They're not random. They fit a pattern and that has a precedent. It turns out, Trump is running the government a ...

On the Media episodes:

09.18.2019 OTM presents Trump Inc: The Family Business Trump, Inc. takes a step back to make sense of the seemingly endless scandals swirling around the White House. They're not random. They fit a pattern and that has a precedent. It turns out, Trump is running the government a ...
09.13.2019 A Very Bitter Joke Good riddance, John Bolton! By dismissing his third National Security Advisor, President Trump prompted renewed concern over White House instability. This week, On the Media makes the case that John Bolton’s outster is good news for the republic. Plus, after ...
09.11.2019 Why Many Afghans Don't Understand 9/11 This weekend in a series of tweets, President Trump both disclosed and scrapped secret talks with the Taliban in Camp David. Of course, the Taliban did not perpetrate 9/11. But they did offer safe haven in Afghanistan to Al Qaeda, ...
09.06.2019 Pressure Drop As Hurricane Dorian devastated the Bahamas, Democratic presidential candidates promised climate action in an unprecedented televised event. On this week’s On the Media, how CNN’s town hall advances the climate conversation. Plus, how the bulk of gun violence coverage fails ...
09.04.2019 Remembering Les Gelb On Saturday, Leslie Gelb died at the age of 82. Gelb was a Senate aide in his 20s, a New York Times correspondent in his 30s, an assistant Secretary of State as he neared 40, then back to the Times ...
08.30.2019 Whose Streets? The message from Silicon Valley seems to be that self-driving cars are the way of the future. This week, On the Media considers the history behind the present-day salesmanship. Plus, why transit rights mean much more than point-A-to-point-B mobility. Also, ...
08.28.2019 A History of Persuasion: Part 3 Silicon Valley’s so-called “millionaire maker” is a behavioral scientist who foresaw the power of putting persuasion at the heart of the tech world’s business model. But pull back the curtain that surrounds the industry’s behemoths, and you'll find a cadre ...
08.23.2019 Empire State of Mind In a special hour this week, On the Media examines the history of US imperialism — and why the familiar US map hides the true story of our country. Brooke spends the hour with Northwestern University historian Daniel Immerwahr, author ...
08.21.2019 A History of Persuasion: Part 2 Ted Kaczynski had been a boy genius. Then he became the Unabomber. After years of searching for him, the FBI finally caught him in his remote Montana cabin, along with thousands of pages of his writing. Those pages revealed Kaczynski's ...
08.16.2019 A Civilization As Great As Ours The Indian government has revoked autonomy for the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir. This week, a close look at how Hindu nationalists are rewriting Indian history in the world's largest democracy. Plus: what are the stories that America has told about ...
08.14.2019 A History of Persuasion: Part 1 Infinite scrolling. Push notifications. Autoplay. Our devices and apps were designed to keep us engaged and looking for as long as possible. Now, we’ve woken up from years on social media and our phones to discover we've been manipulated by ...
08.09.2019 The Democracy We Think We Live In The pathways and origins of white nationalist thought were a matter of deadly importance in coverage of last weekend’s shootings. On this week’s On the Media, how mainstream punditry launders a tolerance for xenophobia. Also, the history of American presidents ...
08.07.2019 Deciphering the White Power Movement When events like the shooting in El Paso happen, the elements may indeed be obvious: Guns. Sociopathy. Alienation. But the obvious is also reductive, and risks obscuring larger forces at play. The same goes with the vocabulary of race violence: ...
08.02.2019 Repairing Justice: How to Fix the Internet Harassment and bullying are plaguing our online lives, but social media companies seem fresh out of solutions. This week, On the Media experiments with a radical approach for detoxifying the web. Can theories of criminal justice reform rehabilitate trolls and ...
07.31.2019 Repairing Justice: An Alternative to Prison Last week on the show, we examined the power of the prosecutor in our justice system, and how voters are electing a new wave of so-called “progressive prosecutors” to try to turn the tide on mass incarceration. If you haven’t ...
07.26.2019 Repairing Justice: The Prosecutor It was the week of the prosecutor, with Special Counsel Robert Mueller grabbing most of the attention. But on this week’s On the Media, a closer look at the “progressive prosecutor” movement — from neighborhood politics to local media to ...
07.24.2019 What, Me Worry? Earlier this month, DC Comics announced that MAD Magazine will mostly stop doing what it’s done for some six decades, which is to pointedly mock American politics and culture. Barring the occasional end-of-year special, future copies of MAD will consist ...
07.19.2019 Internal Scream Puerto Ricans packed the streets night after night this week to call for Governor Ricardo Rosselló’s resignation. On this week’s On the Media, what happens when a leader’s mockery becomes too much for citizens to bear — in San Juan, ...
07.17.2019 The Right-Wing Web Goes to the White House On this show, we’ve often observed that what happens online rarely stays online. In the age of Pizzagate, Trump tweets and Wiki Leaks data dumps, it is obvious that conversations online increasingly dominate, even define, our politics — a fact ...
07.12.2019 Uncomfortably Numb Migrants in detention centers, another assault allegation against the President, and the start to a potentially devastating hurricane season… On this week’s On the Media, how painful news might be making America numb. And, why sometimes it’s okay to tune ...
07.10.2019 The Epstein Story Didn't Just Happen Overnight Julie Brown of the Miami Herald conceived, reported, and wrote one of the most explosive criminal justice stories in recent memory. She revealed the shutting down of an FBI investigation that may have been on the verge of discovering the ...
07.05.2019 Full Faith & Credit Ten autumns ago came two watershed moments in the history of money. In September 2008, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers triggered a financial meltdown from which the world has yet to fully recover. The following month, someone using the name ...
07.03.2019 The Sound of America There are many Americas. Nowadays they barely speak to each other. But during the most perilous years of the last century, one young composer went in search of a sound that melded many of the nation's strains into something singular ...
06.28.2019 The Scarlet E, Part IV: Solutions We have an eviction crisis, which is really just one part of a broader housing affordability crisis. Incomes are too low for rents. Rents are too high for incomes. The barriers to home-buying are growing, especially for younger Americans. The ...
06.26.2019 Coming Out Posthumously June marks LGBTQ Pride month, and fifty years since the Stonewall riots. In the past five decades, the conversation around gay rights has moved so quickly that it can be hard to remember where it was in the very recent ...
06.21.2019 The Scarlet E, Part III: Tenants and Landlords This is episode three in our series, “The Scarlet E: Unmasking America’s Eviction Crisis.” It’s the dollars-and-cents episode, in which we account for what we know and don’t know about those who own and those who rent. We digest some ...
06.18.2019 How to Influence US Iran Policy ... Without Actually Existing Heshmat Alavi, an Iranian commentator, has been portrayed as a courageous dissident with a broad constituency and rare insight into the inner workings of the Iranian theocracy. His columns have been printed in Forbes, The Diplomat, The Federalist, Voice of ...
06.14.2019 40 Acres President Trump claims to have struck a deal with Mexico to settle a dispute of his own making. On this week’s On the Media, a look at the lives of the people who stand to suffer most. Plus, how the ...
06.12.2019 What "Running From Cops" Learned From "Cops" The first episode of the TV show "Cops" aired thirty years ago, and in the ensuing decades it's become influential enough to mold the attitudes of new aspiring police officers. But if the show holds up a mirror to law ...
06.07.2019 Introducing: The Scarlet E Millions of rent-burdened Americans face eviction filings and proceedings every year. On this week’s On the Media, what we think we know, and what we definitely don’t know, about America’s eviction crisis. Plus, how local journalists failed the Central Park ...
06.05.2019 Making America Antitrust Again This week, the US House Antitrust subcommittee announced a probe into the mainly-unchecked power of tech giants like Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon. The investigation could include public hearings and subpoenas toward antitrust intervention into the businesses of Silicon Valley ...
05.31.2019 Climate Obscura The Trump administration has ordered federal agencies to stop publishing worst-case scenario projections of climate change. This week, On the Media examines the administration’s pattern of attacks on climate science. Plus, a look at the dark money behind environmental deregulation. ...
05.29.2019 Hurricane Season is Nearly Here. Brace Yourself for the Coverage. Tornadoes ripped across multiple states on Tuesday, killing at least one person. It was the twelfth straight day of tornado activity in the U.S. — a new record, according to the National Weather Service. But as the New York Times ...
05.24.2019 On Matters of War Controversy erupted over news that President Trump may grant more pardons for alleged war criminal Edward Gallagher and others. This week, On the Media looks at Fox News’s influence on the president’s decision. And, how the Navy may be spying ...
05.22.2019 Solving the Facebook Problem at Home and Abroad When former Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes penned a New York Times op-ed calling for the breakup of the platform, he was lauded by anti-corporate politicians and the press. Then came a series of hard questions: how exactly would breaking up ...
05.17.2019 Constellation of Secret Evil A controversial bill in Alabama is the latest in a wave of different abortion bans sweeping the country. This week, On the Media looks at the influence of Janet Porter, a little-known lobbyist who has been pushing what are misleadingly ...
05.14.2019 The Past, Present and Future of Nikole Hannah-Jones This week, we want to bring you a terrific new episode of Death, Sex and Money, another WNYC show that we think our listeners will appreciate. The show's host, Anna Sale, is on maternity leave, and an exciting cohort of ...
05.10.2019 Impossible! The political press has long used the vague notion of “electability” to drive horserace coverage of presidential candidates. This week, On the Media considers how the emphasis on electability takes the focus away from the issues and turns voters into ...
05.08.2019 Werner Herzog on Gorbachev Renowned director and documentarian Werner Herzog's latest filmmaking endeavor examines the legacy of the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev. For the film, Herzog sat down with the 88 year-old former General Secretary for a candid ...
05.03.2019 A High State of Agitation After accusations that he mischaracterized the Mueller investigation’s findings, Attorney General William Barr blames the media for muddling the story. This week, On the Media dissects Barr’s deflections. And, how a Jewish satirist uses grotesque caricatures to cut to the ...
05.01.2019 Is True Crime Jinxed? Whether Robert Durst confessed on camera will become a relevant legal matter in the real estate figure's upcoming trial. The supposed confession — "What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course." — at the end of HBO's ...
04.26.2019 Justice Interruptus A week after the redacted Mueller report’s release, Democrats weigh the risks — and imperatives — of impeachment. On this week’s On the Media, why our founders gave congress the power to oust the president in the first place. Plus, ...
04.23.2019 How Is Lead Still A Problem? Once in a while, in this space, we offer you an episode of another podcast that we think is pretty aligned with our goals here at On the Media. This week, we’re offering you the first episode of a new ...
04.19.2019 Harm To Ongoing Matter After years of waiting, journalists finally began digging into the redacted version of the Mueller report. On this week’s On the Media, how the special counsel’s findings confirm years of reporting about turmoil within the White House. Plus, what the ...
04.16.2019 Who Profits When You File Your Taxes? Tax Day is behind us, but the Taxpayer First Act is not. The bipartisan proposal passed the House last week and is now under consideration in the Senate — and one of the provisions is exactly what the for-profit tax ...
04.12.2019 Wake Up, Sheeple! WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested in London, and now faces prosecution. On this week’s On the Media, a look at what Assange’s arrest may mean for press freedom. Plus, what the new image of a black hole tell us ...
04.11.2019 Spy vs. Spy New York Times reporter Michael Schwirtz set out to investigate a series of assassinations in Ukraine with low expectations. Reporting on a homicide as a member of the foreign press is daunting enough to begin with. His assignment was formidable ...
04.05.2019 Empire State of Mind Recently, a member of the Trump administration called Puerto Rico “that country,” obscuring once more the relationship between the island colony and the American mainland. In a special hour this week, On the Media examines the history of US imperialism ...
04.02.2019 Policing the Police California recently passed a law that eliminates some of the barriers to accessing records on egregious police misconduct and deadly use of force. With the floodgates open, journalists, like KPCC investigative reporter Annie Gilbertson, are elated and terrified. Just one ...
03.29.2019 The End of Magical Thinking With the Mueller investigation complete, talking heads have given the short public summary their usual spin. This week, On the Media looks at why the framing of the report produced so much misunderstanding. Plus, how historical amnesia and old ideas ...

Older episodes

On the Media

What's On the Media about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

On the Media episodes:

OTM presents Trump Inc: The Family Business

A Very Bitter Joke

Why Many Afghans Don't Understand 9/11

Pressure Drop

Remembering Les Gelb

Whose Streets?

A History of Persuasion: Part 3

Empire State of Mind

A History of Persuasion: Part 2

A Civilization As Great As Ours

A History of Persuasion: Part 1

The Democracy We Think We Live In

Deciphering the White Power Movement

Repairing Justice: How to Fix the Internet

Repairing Justice: An Alternative to Prison

Repairing Justice: The Prosecutor

What, Me Worry?

Internal Scream

The Right-Wing Web Goes to the White House

Uncomfortably Numb

The Epstein Story Didn't Just Happen Overnight

Full Faith & Credit

The Sound of America

The Scarlet E, Part IV: Solutions

Coming Out Posthumously

The Scarlet E, Part III: Tenants and Landlords

How to Influence US Iran Policy ... Without Actually Existing

40 Acres

What "Running From Cops" Learned From "Cops"

Introducing: The Scarlet E

Making America Antitrust Again

Climate Obscura

Hurricane Season is Nearly Here. Brace Yourself for the Coverage.

On Matters of War

Solving the Facebook Problem at Home and Abroad

Constellation of Secret Evil

The Past, Present and Future of Nikole Hannah-Jones

Impossible!

Werner Herzog on Gorbachev

A High State of Agitation

Is True Crime Jinxed?

Justice Interruptus

How Is Lead Still A Problem?

Harm To Ongoing Matter

Who Profits When You File Your Taxes?

Wake Up, Sheeple!

Spy vs. Spy

Empire State of Mind

Policing the Police

The End of Magical Thinking

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