Question Everything

Veteran foreign correspondent Natalia Antelova has spent 15 years reporting from places where authoritarian regimes have “captured” the media. In other words, they control the dominant messages coming from the press. From Russia to Syria, Natalia has seen what it looks like when a government takes over the media, not overnight, but piece by piece.  Now, she’s moved to the U.S., and is watching that same system work on the American media. The Pentagon has dissolved its independent press pool. Donald Trump’s billionaire buddies are buying up some of the country’s biggest newsrooms and social apps. Public media has been gutted. And the loudest voices online are the ones that serve power best. Natalia sits down with Brian to explain how modern autocrats achieve capture without firing a shot – and how Silicon Valley has become their “perfect accomplice”. “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW [http://www.kcrw.org] and Placement Theory [http://www.placementtheory.com]. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. [https://questioneverything.substack.com/] Guests: Natalia Antelava, founder of Coda Story [https://www.codastory.com/]

What happens when TikTokers replace TV hosts and interviewers, and presidential candidates start begging to be on their shows? Brian Reed sits down in a Brooklyn wine shop with four of the internet’s biggest creators: Caleb Simpson, who gets people on the street to take him up to their apartments; Julian Shapiro-Barnum who interviews kids on Recess Therapy; Anania Williams of the LGBTQ quiz show Gaydar; and Jack Coyne, host of the music game show Track Star. Their videos reach more people than many major news outlets. But who gets control over what they run? When is money changing hands? What do they do when politicians like Kamala Harris and RFK Jr. come calling? A frank conversation about the blurry grey area between this new form of entertainment and journalism. Check out our Substack [https://questioneverything.substack.com/], with more reporting on the war over truth, free speech, and tech’s role in it all.  “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW [http://www.kcrw.org] and Placement Theory [http://www.placementtheory.com]. Guests: * Julian Shapiro-Barnum, Recess Therapy [https://www.instagram.com/recess_therapy/?hl=en] * Caleb Simpson [https://www.instagram.com/calebwsimpson/?hl=en] gets millions of views asking people how much they pay for their rent in New York City * Jack Coyne, Track Star [https://www.instagram.com/trackstarshow/?hl=en] * Anania Williams, Gaydar [https://www.tiktok.com/@anania00?lang=en]

Kate grew up believing the Sandy Hook school shooting was an elaborate false flag operation. For years she thought the 20 elementary school children and six educators who were killed that day did not actually die, but were played by crisis actors. And then, one day – in a matter of minutes – suddenly Kate realized how wrong she was.  Brian talks to Kate about what it’s like to realize you believed something so obviously wrong, so deeply damaging, for so long. And he argues that her story is a case study for reforming Section 230 – the 1996 law that gives tech companies massive immunity from getting sued over what people post. Without that law, platforms like YouTube, which amplified the lies about Sandy Hook that Kate once believed, could be taken to court by the Sandy Hook families.  Check out our Substack [https://questioneverything.substack.com/], with more reporting on the war on truth, free speech, and tech companies’ role in it all.  “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW [http://www.kcrw.org] and Placement Theory [http://www.placementtheory.com]. Guests: Kate, a former conspiracy believer Dr. Joan Donovan, disinformation scholar and Director of the Critical Internet Studies Institute at Boston University

This episode of Death, Sex, and Money is a recommendation from our contributing editor Jen Kinney.  When blogger AJ Daulerio broke the Brett Favre sexting scandal in 2010, it became one of the biggest stories of his career. But it came at a cost: he had betrayed Jenn Sterger, the woman at the center of the story, who had confided in him as a friend and explicitly asked him not to name her. The fallout was immediate and lasting. Jenn became the target of relentless online harassment and scrutiny that has followed her for 15 years. AJ went on to face his own reckoning when his aggressive tabloid journalism eventually led to Gawker's bankruptcy, which upended his career. In this episode of the podcast Death, Sex, and Money, both AJ and Jenn reflect on the toxic incentives of viral journalism, the lasting trauma of unwanted internet fame, and how a stray dog unexpectedly brought them back into contact after nearly a decade of silence. AJ now writes a newsletter and hosts a podcast about recovery called The Small Bow [https://www.thesmallbow.com/] and writes an addiction advice column for Slate called Ask A.J. [https://slate.com/advice/ask-aj] You can hear more of Jenn on her podcast, Not Today... with Eddie Pence and Jenn Sterger [https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/not-today-with-eddie-pence-and-jenn-sterger/id1733909410]. Thanks to “Death, Sex & Money [https://slate.com/podcasts/death-sex-money]” for sharing this episode with us.

Two veteran journalists set out to document Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system: hospitals attacked, medical workers killed, doctors detained without charge. The BBC commissioned the film. Then pulled it. Sometimes killing a story is routine. Sometimes it’s a scandal, even immoral. In this episode, producer Sophie Kazis pulls back the curtain, and goes inside the edits, the delays, and the mounting pressure that shaped the fate of this film.  You can watch the film the BBC wouldn’t air, “Gaza: Doctors Under Attack,” on Zeteo.com [http://zeteo.com]. “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW [http://www.kcrw.org] and Placement Theory [http://www.placementtheory.com]. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter [https://questioneverything.substack.com/].   Guests:  * Ramita Navai: Award-winning British-Iranian investigative journalist, documentary maker and author. * Ben de Pear: Award-winning British journalist; former editor, Channel 4 News; founder and executive producer, Basement Films.