On the Media

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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:

“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

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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.

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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

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"Tough Love For Liberals" Mar 19, 2025

Show notes

This week's midweek podcast is a segment from Tuesdays episode of the Brian Lehrer show -- the legendary live call-in show that airs every weekday morning on our producing station, WNYC. The segment features Derek Thompson, staff writer at The Atlantic, author of the "Work in Progress" newsletter and host of the podcast "Plain English," and Ezra Klein, New York Times opinion columnist and host of their podcast, the "Ezra Klein Show." They are co-authors of Abundance, their new book that argues limits placed by past generations to protect jobs and the environment are preventing solving shortages.

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Mahmoud Khalil and a New Red Scare. Plus, Press Freedom Under Threat. Mar 14, 2025

Show notes

A Columbia University graduate who led protests last year has been detained by I.C.E. Even though he is a green card holder. On this week’s On the Media, hear why the case has conjured comparisons to the Red Scare of the forties and fifties. Plus, a look at the years-long campaign to dismantle press freedoms in the United States.

[01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with Corey Robin, distinguished professor of political science at Brooklyn College, on the arrest of Columbia University graduate student Mahmoud Khalil, and the parallels between now and the Red Scare of the forties and fifties.
[16:49] Brooke continues her conversation with Corey Robin, author of Fear: The History of a Political Idea. Robin explains how free speech crackdowns can change our political culture and tear at the fabric of the soul. Plus, how Humphrey Bogart betrayed the ideals of his most celebrated film.

[27:00] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with David Enrich, business investigations editor for The New York Times and author of the new book, Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful, on why a Supreme Court case that’s protected press freedoms for over half a century may now be in danger.

Further reading:

“Two Paths for Jewish Politics,” by Corey Robin
“Muskism and McCarthyism,” by Alan Dean, Charles Petersen, and Corey Robin
“There Are No Good Reasons Not to Fight,” by Corey Robin
“Can the Media’s Right to Pursue the Powerful Survive Trump’s Second Term?” by David Enrich

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The Baltimore Sun Is In Trouble Mar 12, 2025

Show notes

Last January the hedge fund Alden Global Capital sold The Baltimore Sun to David Smith, an executive at Sinclair Broadcast Group. Smith once told Trump that Sinclair was "here to deliver your message.” He is also known to support conservative causes like Moms for Liberty. It's been a year and with the release of new circulation numbers, its clear that whatever Smith is doing at the Sun, isn't working: Circulation is down, web traffic is down, journalists are leaving in the their droves.

After the sale went through last year, we spoke to Milton Kent, professor of practice in the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University and Liz Bowie, who worked at The Sun for over 30 years before making the jump to the nonprofit, the Baltimore Banner.

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Trump’s On-and-Off-Again Tariffs, and Decoding ‘Make America Healthy Again’ Mar 07, 2025

Show notes

President Trump’s on-again, off-again tariff announcements sent stock markets plunging. On this week’s On the Media, how to make sense of the ever-changing news about the economy. Plus, the policy behind the ‘Make America Healthy Again’ rhetoric.

[01:00] Host Micah Loewinger speaks with Gordon Hanson, an economist at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, about President Trump’s “America First” vision and the potential consequences of his chaotic tariff scheme.

[17:22] Micah sits down with Mark Blyth, a professor at Brown University, who explains the rhetoric about short term pain for long term gains, and what to make of the economy right now.

[35:07] Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with Helena Bottemiller Evich, Editor-in-Chief of Food Fix, to trace the complicated relationship between Republicans and food policy, from the Obama era to RFK Jr.’s “Make America Healthy Again” plan.

Further reading:

“Track One Car Part’s Journey Through the U.S., Canada and Mexico—Before Tariffs” by By Vipal Monga Follow and Santiago Pérez
“Washington’s New Trade Consensus (And What It Gets Wrong),” by Gordon Hanson
“Austerity Is Back – and More Dangerous Than Ever,” by Mark Blyth
“Republicans propel MAHA agenda with wave of state legislation,” by Helena Bottemiller Evich

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How Does Kash Patel Compare to J. Edgar Hoover? Mar 05, 2025

Show notes

Since Kash Patel was announced as the director for the FBI, pundits have warned of a return to the era of J. Edgar Hoover, who ran the bureau for 48 years. But according to Beverly Gage, the author of G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, under Patel, the FBI could be politicized in ways that even its notorious first director would have rejected. This week, Micah and Beverly discuss how Hoover established a playbook for weaponizing the FBI, and how Patel might go even further.

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