On the Media

Immigration is one of the most important issues in this year’s presidential election. This week, On the Media traces how root causes of mass migration from Central America to the United States over t…

In January 2023, a TV show called In the Know debuted on Peacock. The comedy is a parody of a daily NPR show produced in New York City, with rather cringey characters portrayed by stop-motion puppets…

Every year on the Fourth of July, households across America embrace the aesthetics of patriotism. On this week’s On the Media, find out how the early country music industry got a major boost from the…

Last month, Clarence Thomas acknowledged several luxury trips that were gifted to him by billionaire Harlan Crow. But the pair’s financial ties had long been public knowledge, thanks to a bombshell r…

Some of the most outrageous stories about President Biden are originating from a single, unverified source. On this week’s On the Media, hear about the shadowy organization that’s influencing electio…

This week, we turn away from the media for a moment, to a realm thousands of feet beneath the ocean’s surface – where sperm whales swim. These behemoths spend most of their lives in complete darkness…

Why does every social media platform seem to get worse over time? This week’s On the Media explores an expansive theory on how we lost a better version of the internet, and the systems that insulate …

Over the past few months, The Washington Post has weathered a slate of unfavorable news. In May, publisher and CEO Will Lewis revealed the Post lost 77 million dollars last year. Lewis also announced…

Over the past two decades, 900 British postal workers were wrongfully prosecuted for fraud. On this week’s On the Media, hear how a TV show about the Post Office Scandal sparked a political reckoning…

This week's midweek podcast comes from our colleagues at the New Yorker Radio Hour:

On the Netflix reality-TV dating show “Love Is Blind,” contestants are alone in windowless, octagonal pods with no a…

This week, the Department of Justice accused one of the most influential right wing outlets of laundering tens of millions of dollars. On this week’s On the Media, a former reporter on his progressio…

Something happened on the internet this week that was at once HUGE and also kind of a foregone conclusion. Jimmy Donaldson better known as Mr. Beast has been for many years basically the king of YouT…

When Donald J. Trump was found guilty on all counts in the hush money trial, some in the press were caught off guard. But the former president and conservative pundits primed for this result with a s…

Micah breaks down media hype about AI. According to Sam Harnett, a former tech reporter, journalists are repeating lazy tropes about the future of work that once boosted companies like Uber, Airbnb, …

A majority of Americans believe that the economy is in a recession even though it’s not. On this week’s On the Media, hear why there’s a mismatch between facts and feelings about the economy. Plus, h…

Immigration consistently polls as one of the most important topics for voters. According to a recent Gallup poll immigration is the most polarizing issue of the last 25 years, with 48 percent of Repu…

On this week’s On the Media we revisit another fraught moment in American democracy: the contested  election between Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000. Hear about the extraordinary legal battle that…

This week, President Biden announced major new tariffs on $18 billion worth of imports from China. The goods that will be affected include batteries, steel, aluminum, and semiconductors. Tariffs on e…

In reports about pro-Palestinian college encampments, comparisons to the anti-war demonstrations of 1968 abound. On this week’s On the Media, hear how historical analogies distract us from what makes…

Last week, news broke that writer Paul Auster died from complications related to lung cancer. The New York Times called him “the patron saint of literary Brooklyn;” elsewhere he was dubbed "the dean …