Scene on Radio

Latest Episodes:

S8 E5: Follow the Money Jun 17, 2026

Show notes

The early history of the news in Europe and the U.S. offers surprising lessons about the best traditions of journalism, and about the news we need in our own time of crisis.

By John Biewen, with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Pascal Verhoest, Rachael King, Joseph Adelman, and Victor Pickard.

Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

For more on the relationship between democracy and journalism in the U.S., see Victor Pickard's book, Democracy Without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society.

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S8 E4: What About Us Jun 10, 2026

Show notes

Scene on Radio requests and receives an independent analysis of its own journalistic biases. We then return the favor, examining the examiner. The exercise leads to fresh insights into the muddled ways people often think about bias.

By John Biewen, with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interview with Vanessa Otero.

Link to the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart

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S8 E3: About that Liberal Media Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

For generations, many on the political right have claimed that major news media in the U.S. have a pronounced liberal bias. Is it true? And why does it matter? We take a fresh look.

By John Biewen with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Michael Massing, Peter Beinart, and William Youmans.

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S8 E2: When the News Dies May 27, 2026

Show notes

Many people know that the journalism industry is struggling financially, especially at the local level. But the disastrous depths of that crisis, and its impact on communities and American democracy, are not as well understood. We visit a news desert in southeastern North Carolina.

By John Biewen with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews: Penny Muse Abernathy, Mark DeLap, Angelica Das, and others.

Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, Goodnight Lucas, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

The Local Journalism Index map discussed in the episode, from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News.

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S8 E1: The Myth of the Echo Chamber May 27, 2026

Show notes

Americans have access to a flood of news, and yet we're in a deep information crisis. What's really wrong with the news media? Is it what we think it is? And what about news consumers? Most of us don't trust the media, but can we trust ourselves?

By John Biewen with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews: Ethan Jordan, Dannagal Young, and others.

Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, Goodnight Lucas, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.

For more info, and transcripts, go to sceneonradio.org.

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Introducing Scene on Radio: The News May 20, 2026

Show notes

Everybody's mad at the media. And Americans seem helpless to solve our problems, in large part because we have no shared narrative and few shared facts. A well informed citizenry we are not.

In Scene on Radio's 8th season, producer and host John Biewen and returning co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika will examine the deep crises facing American journalism, how things got this way, and what it might mean to build a better and more democratic news and information system.

From the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and PRX. Find more, including episode transcripts, at SceneonRadio.org.

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Guest Episode: Drilled: Carbon Cowboys May 13, 2026

Show notes

We're happy to share this episode from award-winning climate journalist Amy Westervelt, co-host of Scene on Radio's 5th season: The Repair. Amy returns with a new season of Drilled, her podcast about the deception, disinformation, and power structures keeping real climate solutions out of reach. Drilled: Carbon Cowboys exposes how Midwest Republican corn ethanol mogul Bruce Rastetter sold "sustainable aviation fuel" to world leaders, from North Dakota to Brazil. Find Drilled wherever you get podcasts and hear episodes early and ad-free with a Pushkin+ subscription. Sign up on the Drilled show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.

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Historical Maturity and Cowardice: Keeping ScOR #15 Oct 22, 2025

Show notes

Host John Biewen reads an essay from his newsletter, Keeping ScOR. After a visit to his hometown, Mankato, Minnesota -- the subject of the Scene on Radio episode, "Little War on the Prairie" -- John reflects on the changes there and America's latest assault on history.

Music by goodnight, Lucas.

To read see the Keeping ScOR newsletter archive or subscribe to receive it, go here: https://buttondown.com/KeepingScOR#subscribe-form

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Voices of Hiroshima Aug 06, 2025

Show notes

A rebroadcast of a Scene on Radio episode, eighty years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The word “Hiroshima” may bring to mind a black-and-white image of a mushroom cloud. It’s easy to forget that it’s an actual city with a million people and a popular baseball team. What did the cataclysm of 1945 mean in the place where it happened, to the people who lived through it? John Biewen went to Hiroshima and interviewed A-bomb survivors in 1995.

“Voices of Hiroshima” is a production of Minnesota Public Radio, from American Public Media.

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Making Ignorance Sacred Again: Keeping ScOR #7 May 14, 2025

Show notes

Host John Biewen reads an essay from his newsletter, Keeping ScOR. Reflections on the Trump Administration's attempt to wrangle control of the national story and how it's told. Will this attack on factual history succeed?

Music by goodnight, Lucas.

To read see the Keeping ScOR newsletter archive or subscribe to receive it, go here: https://buttondown.com/KeepingScOR#subscribe-form

The video of David Joy referred to in the episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0g_6uidwcE

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