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WNYC Studios

The Peabody Award-winning On the Media podcast is your guide to examining how the media sausage is made. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger 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.

On the Media

Host Brooke Gladstone talks with Emily Nussbaum, television critic for The New Yorker, about the forgotten story of Gertrude Berg, the woman behind the television sitcom, and the anti-communism campaign that clouded her legacy. 

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

The Forgotten History of the First Sitcom

Political debates are taking over the internet. On this week’s On the Media, hear how one viral Youtube channel is reshaping political discourse. Plus, why the Trump administration is pressuring museums, monuments, and even parks to rewrite history.

[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger delves into the meteoric rise of the YouTube channel Jubilee with technology and online culture journalist Taylor Lorenz, and the channel’s mission of fostering “radical empathy” by hosting political debates between wildly opposing groups. He speaks with Mehdi Hasan, editor-in-chief of Zeteo, about his recent Jubilee debate with far right conservatives and how the channel is transforming the meaning of political debate. Plus, Stassia Underwood, a participant of one Jubilee debate, opens up about her experience on set.

[25:17] Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Bryan Stevenson, public interest lawyer and founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, a human rights organization based in Montgomery, Alabama, to talk about the Trump Administration's war on museums, especially those that deal with our nation's history of racism. 

 Further reading / watching:

 • “
1 Conservative vs 25 LGBTQ+ Activists (feat. Michael Knowles) • ” (Jubilee)
 • “
1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives (ft. Mehdi Hasan) • ” (Jubilee)
The Worst Thing We’ve Ever Done • , On the Media (2018)

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

How Debate Took Over the Internet. Plus, a Case for Confronting the Past.

This year, Bari Weiss became the new editor in chief of CBS News. The network’s owner, Paramount, also acquired Weiss’ online publication, The Free Press, for an estimated $150 million. And unconventionally for a news executive, Weiss appeared in front of the camera in December when she hosted a town hall with Erika Kirk. This week, we’re revisiting a conversation with Peter Shamshiri, co-host of the podcast If Books Could Kill, about Weiss's rapid rise.

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

The Rapid Rise of Bari Weiss

And just like that, 2025 is coming to a close. On this week’s On the Media, hear a tour of a 12-month news blitz, from AI to the Pentagon press room to the reshaping of legacy outlets. Plus, what we can expect from the year to come.

[02:33] This week, Brooke and Micah review how legacy outlets made big changes in the wake of Donald Trump’s inauguration this year. Featuring: Oliver Darcy, author of the newsletter Status.

[11:53] Brooke and Micah take stock of the administration’s embrace of far right online personalities – in the White House and in the press room. Plus, a review of the wreckage DOGE has left in its wake, and Trump’s crackdown on free speech.

Featuring: Vittoria Elliott, senior reporter at Wired, Ryan J. Reilly, senior justice reporter for NBC News, Brandy Zadrozny, senior reporter at MS NOW, Anna Merlan, senior reporter for Mother Jones, Corey Robin, professor of political science at Brooklyn College.

[37:38] Brooke and Micah review how the press covered the deployment of the national guard; the aftermath of Charlie Kirk’s murder; and the ongoing turmoil at CBS. Plus, how to steel ourselves for the year ahead.

Featuring: Jamison Foser, media critic and author of the newsletter Finding Gravity, and Jamelle Bouie, columnist for The New York Times.

 

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

Is it Over Yet? 2025 in Review

The New Yorker turned a hundred this year. And marking the occasion is a new documentary film on Netflix titled: “The New Yorker at 100”. But with some 5000 print issues, and ten decades worth of reporting, illustrating, and editing… where does one even begin? That’s a question staff writer Jelani Cobb brought to the film’s director, Marshall Curry, and executive producer, Judd Apatow, on an edition of The New Yorker Radio Hour that we're sharing this week.

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

A Hundred Years of The New Yorker

Donald Trump has signed an executive order limiting state regulation on artificial intelligence. On this week’s On the Media, Republicans spar over AI, and what deregulating the industry means for the rest of us. Plus, how AI fakery got better in 2025.

[01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Maria Curi, tech policy reporter for Axios and author of the Axios Pro: Tech Policy newsletter, to chat about the massive bets that Silicon Valley and the White House are making on artificial intelligence. 

[13:10] Host Micah Loewinger talks with Stephen Witt, author of the book The Thinking Machine, about the massive infrastructure project, and potential problem, that is AI.

[28:54] Brooke speaks with Craig Silverman, cofounder of Indicator, about why Big Tech embraced fakeness in 2025, and what that means for 2026 and beyond.

 Further reading / watching:

 • “
States defiant in face of Trump's AI executive order • ,” by Maria Curi
 • “
MAGA scrambles to influence Trump's AI executive order • ,” Maria Curi
 • “
Inside the Data Centers That Train A.I. and Drain the Electrical Grid • ,” by Stephen Witt
 • “
2025: The year tech embraced fakeness • ,” by Craig Silverman & Alexios Mantzarlis

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

Deep Fakes, Data Centers, and AI Slop — Are We Cooked?

This year, Silicon Valley poured its collective resources in AI. Billions and billions of dollars. But behind the snazzy ads and glowing endorsements, some users and journalists are warning of bigger issues with the largely unregulated industry. Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Craig Silverman, cofounder of Indicator, a publication dedicated to understanding and investigating digital deception, to discuss his article arguing that this is the year Big Tech embraced fakeness.

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

Big Tech Embraced Fakeness in 2025

The Supreme Court appears ready to let Donald Trump fire Federal Trade Commission members at will. On this week’s On the Media, why the court’s expansion of presidential powers would impact the entire government. Plus, how two Hollywood giants are squaring off over a massive merger. 

[02:47] Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Noah Rosenblum, associate professor of law at New York University, to discuss how the Supreme Court’s pending decision in Trump v. Slaughter could radically expand the president’s power, and the history behind the case. 

[23:02] Host Micah Loewinger talks with Oliver Darcy, lead author of the newsletter Status and co-host of the podcast Power Lines, about the moguls at Netflix and Paramount Skydance battling over Warner Brothers Discovery, and what this means for the future of CNN, which is owned by Warner Brothers Discovery, and Hollywood. 

[37:41] Micah speaks with Joel Simon, founding director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, about what happened with Blake Lively’s legal team subpoenaed Perez Hilton, the gossip blogger, and why expanding the legal framework of journalistic protections is essential. 

 Further reading / watching:

The Supreme Court Is About to Hand Trump a Cudgel in the Paramount-Netflix Fight • , by Mark Joseph Stern
The CNN Sacrifice • , by Oliver Darcy
The O.G. News Influencer • , by Joel Simon

 

 

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

Trump Guns for the FTC. Plus, Are We the Losers in the Paramount v Netflix Battle?

Last summer, Perez Hilton, the gossip blogger who rose to fame for his scoopy and sometimes vicious takes in the early 2000s, was served a subpoena by Blake Lively's legal team. Perez Hilton decided to resist the subpoena under the argument that he is a journalist who is entitled to protect his sources. Micah speaks with Joel Simon, the longtime former head of the Committee to Protect Journalist and founding director of the Newmark School's Journalism Protection Initiative, about who gets included under the umbrella of journalism and why expanding the legal framework of journalistic protections is so important in today's media landscape. 

Further reading: 

"The O.G. News Influencer," by Joel Simon

 

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

How a Gossip Blogger (almost) Became the Poster Child for First Amendment Rights

The New York Times has sued the Pentagon for restricting access to journalists. On this week’s On the Media, meet the new cast of right wing influencers and conspiracy theorists replacing the press corps in the Pentagon. Plus, a new documentary examines the life and work of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. 

[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Dan Lamothe, who covers the US military and Pentagon for the Washington Post, to talk about the Trump administration’s shifting narrative around a second strike that killed two survivors on a boat in the Caribbean. Lamothe used to have a desk in the Pentagon as part of the press corps, but left alongside reporters from major news outlets after they refused to sign onto stringent new rules on how they could do their reporting. 

[16:58] Micah talks with Anna Merlan, senior reporter at Mother Jones, about the cast of right wing influencers and conspiracists now staffing the Pentagon press corps. Plus, Micah interviews Cam Higby, a member of the new press corps, about why he agreed to the Pentagon’s restrictions on access.

[30:15] Micah spoke to another of the new Pentagon press corps; Cam Higby, who reports for his independent online outlet Fearless Media. He has over 750,000 followers on TikTok and over 400,000 on Instagram.

[43:18] Micah speaks with Laura Poitras, a journalist and filmmaker whose past works include CitizenFour, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, and Risk, to discuss her newest documentary. Poitras shares the process of making Cover-Up, coming soon to Netflix, which chronicles the life of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Poitras describes Hersh's ferocious drive to uncover government wrongdoing, and what today’s press corps can learn from him.

 Further reading / watching:

 • “
Hegseth order on first Caribbean boat strike, officials say: Kill them all • ,” by Alex Horton and Ellen Nakashima
 • “
‘Signalgate’ report contradicts Hegseth’s claim of ‘total exoneration’ • ,”by Dan Lamothe
 • “
Meet the New Pentagon Press Corps, • ” by Anna Merlan
Cover-Up • , directed and produced by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus

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, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

Is it Over Yet? 2025 in Review

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