The Kicker

Latest Episodes:

Margaret Sullivan Takes a New Look at Journalism Ethics Oct 23, 2025

Show notes

This summer, Margaret Sullivan, the executive director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia Journalism School, and her colleague Julie Gerstein published a series of essays in CJR exploring what a new generation of journalism ethics might look like, as the media industry evolves.

“It is conventional wisdom among journalists that while the world around us changes, our ethics do not,” Sullivan wrote, in her introduction to the project. “Yet a fresh look at our standards and practices seems a worthwhile pursuit at this moment.”

Sullivan joins The Kicker to talk about what it means for journalism ethics to evolve with the times—and how she views critical questions around transparency, media bias, and whether the public editor role might make its return.

*“A New Look at Journalism Ethics”—A special project from CJR

*“Is Objectivity Still Worth Pursuing?”

*“What Do Journalists Owe Their Sources—and Their Audiences?”

*“Can AI Tools Meet Journalistic Standards?”

Chicago’s Block Club Is Ready for ICE Oct 10, 2025

Show notes

On Thursday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring federal agents from using riot control measures like tear gas to disperse journalists seeking to cover protests outside the Broadview ICE processing center, near Chicago.

The order was the result of a lawsuit filed earlier in the week by several Chicago news organizations and reporters who had been injured or detained while trying to cover ICE activity in the city.

Stephanie Lulay is the co–executive editor and cofounder of one of them, Block Club, a seven-year-old digital nonprofit that seems almost perfectly built for this moment. She and reporter Francia García Hernández join The Kicker to talk about what they’ve seen around Chicago recently, and about what it’s like reporting on a city under siege.

*The lawsuit filed by Block Club and other Chicago-area news outlets.

*Some of Francia’s coverage for Block Club.

*A September incident during which a Block Club freelancer was shot by pepper balls while covering protests at Broadview.

*Dave Levinthal for CJR on how ICE has been routinely ignoring FOIA requests from reporters—including one from Block Club.

Elle Reeve on the Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspect’s Inscrutable Memes Sep 19, 2025

Show notes

In 2017, Elle Reeve, then a correspondent for Vice News, became a household name when she reported from the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—as neo-Nazis marched with burning torches and a white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters.

Reeve has developed an expertise on what you might call the fringe beat, covering shadowy internet groups and right-wing political movements for CNN.

Those worlds collided when a very online man assassinated the right-wing political star Charlie Kirk in a meme-drenched attack that left much of the media world mystified. Reeve joins The Kicker to help make sense of it all.

*Elle recently spoke about interviewing extreme figures with CNN’s Donie O'Sullivan

*Black Pill, Elle’s 2024 book on her journeys into the “darkest corners of the internet”

*“Charlottesville: Race and Terror,” the 2017 Vice News documentary

Garrett Graff Thinks the Press Should Be Taking Trump’s Health Much More Seriously Sep 10, 2025

Show notes

Last week, as DC reporters were patting themselves on the back for not falling for internet falsehoods claiming that Donald Trump had secretly died, Garrett Graff wrote an essay on his blog, Doomsday Scenario, saying, “It’s time to have a serious conversation about Trump’s health.”

Graff is an author and historian who’s spent more than two decades covering American politics—more recently he’s written a series of oral histories on major world events, and hosted a critically acclaimed podcast series about the early days of the internet and the culture of armed self-defense.

But today, Graff is worried that political journalists are failing to recognize the history they are already living through. He joins The Kicker to share his thoughts on what he sees as the fragile state of American democracy—and the need for DC reporters to dig a lot deeper.

*Graff’s blog post on the need for more reporting on Trump’s health

*Graff on the increasingly blurry lines between democracy and authoritarianism

*Breaking the Internet, season 4 of Graff’s acclaimed podcast series, The Long Shadow

*Liam Scott in CJR on how the White House press handled the rumors of Trump’s death

Hind Hassan Is Sorry We Didn’t Do More to Make Journalism Safe Aug 28, 2025

Show notes

Earlier this month, Hind Hassan, a decorated documentary news reporter who has covered everything from conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, and Ukraine to the bizarre underworld of the global wellness industry, spoke at a graduation ceremony for students at Columbia Journalism School.

In her address, Hassan pointedly apologized for not doing more to make the job safer for the next generation—a reference to, as she explains in this week’s episode of The Kicker, the brutality of the war in Gaza.

“We're responsible for what our industry stands for,” she said. “I think it is the responsibility of the industry, of those who have the power, of heads of news organizations, to defend journalists when they come under attack, no matter where they are.”

Watch More:

*“Starving Gaza”—Hind’s 2024 documentary for Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines

*“Inside the Wellness Industry’s Controversial Supply Chains”—Hind’s 2022 film for Vice News

*“The Business of War”—Episode One of Hind’s new series for Al Jazeera

Will the Jeffrey Epstein Scandal Break MAGA Media? Aug 01, 2025

Show notes

For the past few weeks, MAGA media and conservative podcasters have been torn apart over President Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein saga.

Anna Merlan, a senior reporter at Mother Jones, joins The Kicker to talk about right-wing media’s efforts to change the subject—and whether their audiences will go along with it.

*Anna Merlan on what happened the last time Trump’s team tried to satisfy right-wing media’s hunger for Epstein news

*Merlan on how Trump has constructed a new state media machine at the White House

*Ben Mathis-Lilley in Slate on Steve Bannon’s not-so-hidden hand in the Epstein narrative

*Charlie Warzel on the “upside down” world of right-wing media supporting Trump (2017)

Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach

What’s the Matter with the BBC? Jul 11, 2025

Show notes

Recent weeks have not been very comfortable for the BBC. A documentary about Gaza it refused to broadcast was aired instead by a competitor, to critical acclaim. A livestream of the Glastonbury Festival turned into a political nightmare, after a performer led the crowd in a chant of “Death to the IDF”—leading the network to ditch plans for future “high risk” live shows.

But Alan Rusbridger, who spent twenty years as the editor of The Guardian and is now the editor of Prospect magazine, believes the BBC’s problems go much deeper—at a moment when it’s more needed than ever. “The BBC has never really recovered its nerve,” he says.

*Listen to Media Confidential, Rusbridger’s podcast on the media, cohosted with Lionel Barber

*Rusbridger: “The BBC Claims Impartiality over Gaza but There Is a Conflict of Interest at Its Heart” — July 2025

*Rusbridger: “How the Government Captured the BBC” — January 2024

*The Gaza documentary the BBC refused to broadcast

*Controversy over an earlier Gaza documentary

*The David Kelly saga

Hosted by Josh Hersh
Produced by Amanda Darrach

The Kicker Live: Branko Brkic Wants Journalists to Wake Up Jun 25, 2025

Show notes

Last year, Branko Brkic, the founder of the Daily Maverick, a South African news outlet, left his day job to launch an advocacy campaign in defense of journalism. Called Project Kontinuum, the organization aims to sound the alarm about the global threats facing the institution of journalism—and to begin to mount a defense.

In this conversation, Brkic speaks about the admittedly “bleak” picture that he paints, and why news outlets have to stop playing defense if they want to survive.

This podcast was recorded live at ZegFest 2025, in Tbilisi, Georgia.

*Brkic’s 2024 “Call to Arms” for journalism

*Brkic’s farewell editorial to readers of Daily Maverick

*Daily Maverick reflects on the revelations of its #GuptaLeaks project

Audio producer: Levan Kurtskhalia

Audio recorder and editor: Zura Patsia

Produced by: Amanda Darrach

Hosted by: Josh Hersh

The Kicker Live: Arwa Damon on Leaving CNN and Telling Stories from Gaza Jun 24, 2025

Show notes

For nearly twenty years, Arwa Damon worked as a journalist covering conflict zones across the Middle East—much of it as a prominent correspondent for CNN.

But in 2015, amid the unending horrors of the Syrian civil war, Damon had enough. She left the network and founded Inara, a charity that helps provide treatment to children facing some of the most difficult medical conditions. Her new role has allowed her access to people and places she wouldn’t have seen as a journalist, including four visits to Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Damon joins The Kicker to talk about the transition from journalism to humanitarianism—why she reached her limit as a reporter, and how doing aid work draws on many of the same skills.

This podcast was recorded live on the sidelines at ZegFest 2025, in Tbilisi, Georgia.

*Learn about Inara, Damon’s charity

*Seize the Summit: Damon’s recent documentary about four young survivors of war attempting to climb Mount Kilimanjaro

Audio recorder and editor: Zura Patsia

Produced by: Amanda Darrach

Hosted by: Josh Hersh

The Kicker Live: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad on American Misadventures in the Middle East Jun 23, 2025

Show notes

Ghaith Abdul-Ahad is an award-winning Iraqi journalist for The Guardian and the author of A Stranger in Your Own City (2023), a reported memoir of his life as an architect turned journalist during the American war in Iraq.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Abdul-Ahad shares his journey to becoming a reporter, what he was surprised to learn about his own country, and how he approaches depicting the intimate lives of the people caught up in war—from innocent bystanders to murderous warlords.

This podcast was recorded live at ZegFest 2025, in Tbilisi, Georgia.

*Ghaith’s book: A Stranger in Your Own City

*Mustafa’s story: “The Reluctant Collaborator: Surviving Syria’s Brutal Civil War and Its Aftermath”

*Ghaith’s collected reporting for The Guardian

Audio producer: Levan Kurtskhalia

Audio recorder and editor: Zura Patsia

Produced by: Amanda Darrach

Hosted by: Josh Hersh