We Disrupt This Broadcast

We are back for season 2. Join us as we talk to the risk takers that help reinvent and reimagine the kinds of stories we see on TV and who disrupt what we’ve come to expect on our screens and in our culture. We Disrupt This Broadcast, a podcast from The Peabody Awards and Center for Media & Social Impact is produced and distributed in partnership with award-winning audio production group PRX and hosted by comedian Gabe González. We Disrupt This Broadcast explores how the minds behind critically-acclaimed TV shows are re-imagining the world and tackling the big issues that move us forward. From intimate interviews with award-winning TV creatives to real talk with experts and social movement leaders, join us as we explore the inner workings and cultural significance of the shows that are changing all the rules and shaping our future. Listen to We Disrupt This Broadcast - back for its second season on February 6th. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

In this episode of We Disrupt this Broadcast, Gabe González introduces us to the Peabody Award-winning series, Bluey, an outstanding animated children’s show that has become renowned as the best family co-viewing experience. WDTB Executive Producer Caty Borum interviews creator and writer Joe Brumm about how he developed a series that is funny, heartwarming, realistic (despite its dog characters), and tackles some of life’s toughest issues in each 7-minute episode. They discuss the power of play in the lives of children (and adults), the strategy to make both parents and kids laugh and why it’s important to have a girl character lead the show. Gabe then chats with The Read host and podcasting legend Crissle, a vocal Bluey fan, about what makes the series so disruptive, changing the way we see children’s television.

In this episode, we ask the question, “Why is normalizing the experiences of adolescence, especially for young girls, so disruptive?” Caty Borum, WDTB Executive Producer and Executive Director for the Center for Media & Social Impact, interviews legendary author and disruptor Judy Blume, author of Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, Blubber, Forever, and the center of the recent Peabody Award-winning documentary about her life, Judy Blume Forever. Caty and Judy discuss her inspiration, using writing to find a way to a better life, puberty as a time to celebrate girlhood, and finding community through fighting book bans. After their interview, Caty speaks with Chelsey Goodan, author of Underestimated: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls, about the untapped power of teenage girls and the importance of feeling seen.

Host Gabe González speaks with Ron Nyswaner, creator of Peabody-Award winning historical romance, Fellow Travelers. In a far-reaching, in-depth conversation, Gabe and Ron discuss the evolution of gay identity, how to write complex queer characters, and why foot-licking scenes are an important part of getting young folks interested in queer history. After their interview, Gabe dives deeper into the history of queer representation on TV with documentary filmmaker and professor Katherine Sender.

In this episode, host Gabe González introduces us to the loving, incisive, and decidedly off-beat humor of Somebody Somewhere, a show that is redefining home, friendship, family, and even traditional narrative structure. He interviews the series’ stars Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller and they discuss the importance of making friends after 40, found family, why queerness and faith are not contradictory, and how platonic love can sometimes be the one that helps us become fully ourselves.