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On the Media

On the Media is a weekly show that uses the media as a lens to understand our world. On the Media listeners say the show is an essential companion, helping them survive the firehose of media coming at them 24/7. Hosted by Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger, the show does not do ‘hot takes’, instead offering listeners context, historical parallels, media analysis and often a much appreciated deep exhale. On the Media hosts have an eye on the nuances and details regularly missed by other outlets which helps listeners understand where they should be paying attention (and what they can afford to ignore). Our media diets have untruths woven in, and inconvenient truths left out. These are the bits explored every week at On the Media.

Copyright: © WNYC

Latest Episodes:

Left Wing Youtuber David Pakman **EXTENDED VERSION** Apr 23, 2025

Show notes

**EXTENDED VERSION**

Micah spoke to left-wing YouTuber, David Pakman for last week's show. This is the long version of that conversation.

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brooke and Micah Enter the MAGA-verse. Plus, Liberal YouTubers Fight Back. Apr 19, 2025

Show notes

Conservative influencers have captured a massive audience on the internet, boasting nearly five times more followers than their progressive competitors. On this week’s On the Media, the hosts spend twelve hours immersed in right wing media and report back on what they saw. Plus, why Democrats are struggling to compete for audiences online.

[00:00] According to a new study from Media Matters for America, right-leaning shows dominate on social media. Hosts Brooke Gladstone and Micah Loewinger immerse themselves in right-wing podcasts and Rumble shows to hear how these creators are covering the news of the week.

[20:26] Brooke and Micah continue their journey into the right-wing online ecosystem, where they encounter how celebrity gossip can be a gateway to controversial political takes.

[32:41] Host Micah Loewinger chats with left-leaning news content creators Brian Tyler Cohen and David Pakman about why Democrats are struggling to reach younger and working class audiences, and how the rise of independent media has left progressives in the dust.

Further reading:

“The right dominates the online media ecosystem, seeping into sports, comedy, and other supposedly nonpolitical spaces,” by Kayla Gogarty
The Echo Machine: How Right-Wing Extremism Created a Post-Truth America by David Pakman

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Coding Language Caught in DOGE's Crosshairs Apr 16, 2025

Show notes

Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has been edged out of the headlines this past week, or so, by the administration’s current flirtation with a constitutional crisis. But the DOGE team is still busy. One project on the office's agenda, originally reported by WIRED late last month, is to rewrite the Social Security Administration's code base—in other words, the agency's computer programs, which handle millions of Americans’ personal and financial data. Brooke sits down with Clive Thompson, author of Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World, contributing writer to New York Times Magazine, and monthly columnist for Wired, to discuss the coding language under DOGE's microscope.

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Tariff Week From Hell. Plus, the Bluesky CEO Reimagines Social Media. Apr 12, 2025

Show notes

The president’s on-again, off-again tariffs are wreaking havoc on the economy. On this week’s On the Media, how the press is struggling to keep up with covering the chaos. Plus, the CEO of Bluesky, an alternative to Twitter, shares her vision for a better internet.

[00:00] Host Micah Loewinger breaks down a wild week in the economy–why the press can’t keep up, and what we can learn from the rollercoaster of tariffs the Trump administration has implemented.

[00:00] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Jay Graber, the CEO of Bluesky, a competitor to Twitter/X that’s seen massive growth recently, about how Bluesky is structured in a fundamentally different way than other social media platforms, and why that might make it “billionaire-proof.” Plus, TechDirt founder and editor Mike Masnick documents the surprising role that his wonky paper played in the founding of Bluesky.

[00:00] Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Douglas Rushkoff, whose many books probe the practice and philosophy of digital technology, about whether the apocalypse survival fantasies of tech billionaires are actually viable.

Further reading/listening:

Protocols, Not Platforms: A Technological Approach to Free Speech, by Mike Masnick
Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires, by Douglas Rushkoff

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sen. Chris Murphy on the Crisis Facing Our Democracy Apr 09, 2025

Show notes

This week we’re bringing you an interview from our friends at the New Yorker Radio Hour. It's a conversation between host David Remnick and Democratic congressman Chris Murphy. Murphy is the junior senator from Connecticut and a vehement critic of leaders in his party who’ve taken a “business as usual” approach in dealing with the Trump administration. He opposed Chuck Schumer’s negotiation to pass the Republican budget and keep the government running and Murphy advocated for the democrats to skip the president’s joint address to congress en masse. He believes that his party has a winning formula if they stick to a populist anti-big-money agenda and he despairs that some in his party aren’t responding appropriately to what he sees as a crisis.

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Harvard and the Battle Over Higher Ed Apr 04, 2025

Show notes

The Trump administration has pulled funding for universities like Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, and is threatening to withhold federal dollars from public schools with diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Harvard is also fighting to retain its funding. On this week’s On the Media, hear how the distinctly American idea of “diversity” has fallen out of favor—from higher education to the Supreme Court.

Reporter Ilya Marritz explains how the Trump administration is cracking down on universities by pulling funding. Plus. how the history of Harvard and the concept of “diversity” is the hidden subtext for the Trump administration’s education policies. In the past half-century, the academy (and the business world) embraced the idea of diversity as a social good–an idea developed at Harvard and endorsed by the Supreme Court, until the latter ended race-based affirmative action in 2023.

You can find earlier installments of Ilya’s reporting for The Harvard Plan, a collaboration with The Boston Globe, here.

Further reading/listening:

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sports Media’s Big Gamble on the Betting Industry Apr 02, 2025

Show notes

According to the American Gaming Association, bets on March Madness basketball games could amount to as much as $3.1 billion. Almost every national sports outlet — ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report, NBC, CBS, The Ringer — has partnered with a major sports betting company. Big money is changing hands. What does that mean for sports journalism? On the Media producer Rebecca Clark-Callender reports in a piece that first aired a year ago.

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Latest Spin on 'Signalgate.' Plus, a Crypto President is Born. Mar 28, 2025

Show notes

When a journalist was accidentally added to a Signal chat that disclosed sensitive war plans, a controversy erupted about our national security. On this week’s On the Media, a look at how right-wing media is processing “Signalgate.” Plus, why Donald Trump is calling himself the crypto president.

[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Will Sommer, a senior reporter at the Bulwark, about the controversy surrounding “Signalgate,” or when The Atlantic’s Editor-in-Chief got added to a Signal group chat in which Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed plans for bombing Houthi militants. They discuss the response from the Trump administration, and how rightwing media have been covering the scandal.

[17:24] Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Jennifer Berkshire, co-author of The Education Wars, to explore President Trump’s plan to dismantle the Department of Education. Plus, why MAGA-backed school voucher programs have been met with fierce opposition from conservatives in red states.

[33:32] Host Micah Loewinger chats with Jacob Silverman, who covers tech, crypto, politics, and corruption, and co-authored Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud, about President Trump’s seismic shift from criticizing crypto to naming himself the “Crypto President” and launching a $TRUMP memecoin.

Further reading:

“Cruel to Your School,” by Jennifer Berkshire
“The Strange Bedfellows Fighting School Vouchers,” by Jennifer Berkshire
“In Red States, Rural Voters Are Leading the Resistance to School Vouchers.” by Jennifer Berkshire
“The President Took A $75 Million Bribe And We All Saw It,” by Jacob Silverman
Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud by Jacob Silverman

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Trouble At the EPA Mar 26, 2025

Show notes

President Trump's appointee at the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, is making a lot of changes at the EPA. Including cutting 31 environmental rules regarding climate change pollution, electric vehicles, and power plants. Environmentalists say this is a gutting of regulation.

GOP lawmakers deem the EPA a job killer that does nothing but burden businesses with regulations. In the eyes of the American public, the environment ranks low on the list of priorities the government should address.

But flash back to the late 1960s, and it's a very different story. The environment was a bipartisan issue, and a Republican president created the EPA in 1970 in response to public pressure. So how did we get here? How did the environment go from universal concern to political battleground — with the EPA caught in the crossfire?

In a piece we first aired in 2017, Brooke considered the tumultuous history of the EPA, its evolving relationship with the public, and its uncertain future.

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Voice of America Goes Quiet. And, Apocalypse Now? Mar 21, 2025

Show notes

The Trump administration has cut funding for Voice of America, the 80-year-old state media network. On this week’s On the Media, how pulling federal funds from VOA’s parent organization will imperil press freedom abroad. Plus, a Radio Free Europe journalist describes being detained for nine months in Russia until she was released alongside Evan Gershkovich.

[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Nicole Hemmer, political historian and co-host of the podcast “This Day.” They discuss the complicated history of Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda. Plus, what the funding cuts to VOA and its parent organization tell us about how the Trump administration wants the U.S. to be perceived.

[15:57] Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Alsu Kurmasheva, press freedom advocate and veteran journalist of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Tatar-Bashkir service, on what the network provides in countries lacking a free press and her own nine month detention in Russia. Plus, Bay Fang, president of Radio Free Asia, or RFA, on why authoritarians are celebrating Trump’s shutdown and how RFA’s closure will further diminish press freedom in Asia.

[33:35] Host Brooke Gladstone chats with Dorian Lynskey, cultural journalist and author of the recent book, Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World, to examine our centuries-long obsession with telling end-of-the-world stories and what they reveal about our shifting fears through history. Plus, the evolution of the apocalyptic story, from the Book of Revelation to On the Beach to Station Eleven.

Further reading:

Everything Must Go: The Stories We Tell About the End of the World, by Dorian Lynksey

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

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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