We Disrupt This Broadcast

The Peabody Award's Executive Director Jeffrey Jones sits down with Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, the minds behind the gripping mini-series Adolescence. The Emmy-winning crime drama explores the aftermath of a brutal crime committed by a young boy against a girl classmate. With its unflinching exploration of grief and confusion in the wake of such a horrific event, the show sparked worldwide conversations regarding online misogyny and teen behaviors. Graham and Thorne discuss how concern over the role that technology plays in the lives of children was a major inspiration behind the show. Graham also shares how his personal experiences shaped his character, Eddie Miller. Later, host Gabe González is joined by Dr. Harriet Over to discuss “the manosphere:” what it is, why we should all be concerned, and ways to tackle the very real rise of misogyny online.

This week, We Disrupt This Broadcast is excited to share an epiode of American Masters: Creative Spark. In this episode, actress, comedian and writer Natasha Rothwell shares how she connects to her character Belinda’s journey of self-discovery and how she collaborated with creator Mike White to bring greater nuance to the character. She reflects on the importance of diverse storytelling in Hollywood, the inspiration she drew from actress Nell Carter, and why she believes the arts are an empathy machine. Rothwell also opens up about her experience as a neurodivergent creator, the power of destigmatizing diagnoses, and the untapped potential of art. As she puts it, “From water lilies to Lily Tomlin, it’s all awesome.”

Host Gabe González introduces us to the shocking true story of the British Post Office scandal, and how the Peabody Award-winning series Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office led to real-world justice for the victims of this horrific abuse of government power. Jeffrey Jones sits down with the show’s Executive Producer Patrick Spence to understand the scandal, what it took to bring this story to screens, and the real-world impact the series had on public outrage and calls for justice within British politics. Gabe then sits down with journalist Nick Wallis to share his decades-long journey of bringing the story to light and keeping it in the spotlight via his website, articles, and a podcast. Finally, Gabe speaks with screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes about how she was able to earn the coveted “this is a true story” designation, reserved for TV series that adhere to a strict factual code, all while still bringing the deep emotional core of the subpostmasters’ tragic stories to life in this riveting dramatization.

Host Gabe González introduces us to the brilliant, absurdist, hilarious Peabody Award-winning HBO series Fantasmas. In a funny, enlivening conversation with creator, writer, and comedian Julio Torres, they explore how Torres uses humor to uncover the real absurdity of our immigration, healthcare, and economic systems. They discuss how creating fiction – like the “proof of existence” that the fictional Julio is so desperate to avoid – can expose our even stranger realities, like the “aliens of extraordinary abilities” visa that real Julio applied for when immigrating to the U.S. In the second half, Gabe speaks with Andrew DeWaard, author of Derivative Media: How Wall Street Devours Culture. Andrew’s work focuses on the cultural cost of the financialization of media. And don’t worry, he also explains what the word “financialization” means.

The Peabody Award-winning Disney+ movie Out of My Mind employs Jennifer Aniston’s voice alongside actress Phoebe Ray Taylor’s stellar performance to reveal the lack of accessible public school education in the early 2000s. Host Gabe González speaks with director Amber Sealey about what sparked her interest in this story, the state of accommodations in public schools, and how making her sets accessible improved working conditions for everyone. Gabe then speaks with professor and Undoing Ableism author Dr. Priya Lalvani about the ways our education system fails to achieve a truly inclusive educational environment for everyone, and what it would take to change that.