It’s easy to get frustrated with the charade reporters are supposed to keep up, where they pretend they don’t have opinions or feelings or any kind of human thoughts about a story they’re telling. Plenty of journalists have been trying to break out of that charade. But the decision to do that: it can be a fraught one, with real implications.
Dana Ballout st ... Show More
Yesterday
Betraying a Friendship to Get a Viral Story
This episode of Death, Sex, and Money is a recommendation from our contributing editor Jen Kinney. When blogger AJ Daulerio broke the Brett Favre sexting scandal in 2010, it became one of the biggest stories of his career. But it came at a cost: he had betrayed Jenn Sterger, the ... Show More
55m 18s
Aug 2024
66: Teens, Cops, and Spies: The Varieties of Hysterical Experience feat. Dan Taberski
Abby and Patrick welcome Dan Taberski, creator of the brand-new podcast series Hysterical. They explore the genesis of the series and the challenges and rewards of confronting both the history and the present of “the H-word.” Tracking the trajectories of this famously “elusive ne ... Show More
1h 24m
Mar 2024
When Conspiracies Aren't Just Theories with Journalist Tom Risen
Journalist and author Tom Risen is here to tell me about some of the real conspiracies that the CIA and the FBI were involved in from the 50s to the 70s and how, in 1975, one senator finally took these agencies to task, revealing shocking truths that would be used for decades to ... Show More
1h 16m
Sep 2023
How Alex Murdaugh Was Raised To Feel No Shame
Murders, embezzlements, and shocking accusations - the tale of the Murdaugh family, once regarded as legal royalty in South Carolina, reads more like a crime thriller than real life. The newest revelations from Netflix's documentary, shining a light on the family's darkest secret ... Show More
5m 52s
Apr 2025
The power and the pitfalls of narrative | Matthew Beaumont, Ruth Padel, and Theodore Dalrymple
Lost in storiesIs life a story or a sequence of events?Our narratives enable us to make sense of the complex, often confusing, world that we live in. And yet there is a risk that rather than helping us to truly understand this world, narratives can hide reality from us, providing ... Show More
42m 34s
Aug 19
Is The Racial Reckoning Over? John McWhorter on language, art, and defunding the grammar police
This is the full version of the Aug 4 episode, now available to all subscribers. Author, New York Times columnist, and superstar linguist John McWhorter returns to the pod to catch us up on what’s been on his mind now that the Woke Emergency is over . . . or is it over? We talk a ... Show More
1h 11m
Sep 2024
69: Truth, Lies, and Conspiracy Theories feat. Liz Franczak
Abby, Patrick, and Dan welcome the incomparable Liz Franczak of TrueAnon! The topic is conspiracy theories, from real to imagined, documented to discredited, ludicrous to all-too-likely, and more. The first half of the episode is ground-clearing and working through some basic que ... Show More
2h 5m
Sep 3
E. Jean Carroll’s Vibrant Sex Life Ended 30 Years Ago. She Wants It Back.
When the writer E. Jean Carroll accused President Trump of sexual assault in 2019, she unearthed a memory she had pushed away for decades. She also admitted, for the first time, something she hadn’t fully reckoned with: She hadn’t had sex since.In this episode, Carroll tells Anna ... Show More
31m 52s