The CNN Origin Story, Revisited: A Deep Cut Conversation with Lisa Napoli

CNN Helped Invent Always-On News. Then the Internet Took Over.

In this Deep Cut conversation, we speak with Meredith Artley and S. Mitra Kalita, two former CNN Digital leaders who helped guide the organization through the growth—and turbulence—of the mobile-social-platform era.

Was CNN's Business Built to Last? A Deep Cut Conversation with Steve Korn

In this Deep Cut Conversation recorded just days before Ted Turner's death, Steve Korn, who helped build the company as COO, reveals why and how mergers changed CNN’s trajectory. Korn served in a range of senior roles at Turner Broadcasting beginning in the early 1980s and has valuable insights into how the media business has evolved over decades during his long career.

If Everything is Breaking News, Nothing is Breaking News: A Deep Cut Conversation with Rick Davis

Rick Davis, former CNNer who was the longest-serving executive in cable news history, reflects on the dangers of polarization, the challenges of the slow news day, and why media mergers always seem to misfire. Rick joined the network at its launch in 1980 and spent more than four decades in a variety of roles. He was EVP of Editorial Standards and Practices when he retired in 2021.

With CNN's Fate in Flux, What Would Ted Think?: A Deep Cut Conversation with Bill Burke

Bill Burke, former Turner executive and co-author of Call Me Ted, reflects on Ted Turner’s original vision, CNN’s uncertain next chapter, and the unintended consequences of the 24-hour news revolution.

Journalism and Science Under Pressure: A Deep Cut Conversation with Miles O'Brien

This month’s conversation features Miles O’Brien, a former CNN anchor and correspondent who has spent the past decade reporting on science, aviation, and technology as an independent journalist and filmmaker for PBS News Hour, NOVA, and Frontline. We spoke with Miles in January while he was aboard a scientific research vessel in Antarctica, just miles from the Thwaites Glacier—one of the most consequential and closely watched indicators of climate change on the planet. From that literal edge of the Earth, Miles joined us to reflect not only on what science is telling us but also on what journalism must do when evidence collides with politics, polarization, and a media system built for speed and clicks rather than getting the story right.