Have you heard On the Media’s Peabody-winning series The Divided Dial? It’s awesome and you should, and now you will. In this episode they tell the story of shortwave radio: the way-less-listened to but way-farther-reaching cousin of AM and FM radio. The medium was once heralded as a utopian, international, and instantaneous mass communication tool — a sort ... Show More
Apr 3
Life in a Barrel
This week, in an episode we first aired in 2022, we flip the Disney story of life on its head thanks to a barrel of seawater, a 1970s era computer, and underwater geysers. It’s the chaos of life. Latif, Lulu, and our Senior Producer Matt Kielty were all sitting on their own littl ... Show More
54m 42s
May 2025
S2 THE DIVIDED DIAL EPISODE 3: World's Last Chance Radio
<p>EPISODE 3</p><p>Today, in the internet era, much of the shortwaves have been left to the most extreme voices — including a conspiratorial flat earth ministry, and an ultra-conservative cult complete with everything from sexual abuse to dead infants and illegal burials. In the ... Show More
41m 58s
May 2025
S2 THE DIVIDED DIAL EPISODE 4: Wall St. Wants Your Airwaves
<p>EPISODE 4</p><p>In recent years, creative, often music-focused pirate broadcasting has been thriving on shortwave. But these surreptitious broadcasters are up against a surprising ideological foe: Not the FCC, but a deep-pocketed group of finance bros that is trying to wrestle ... Show More
40m 6s
Sep 2025
Winter is Coming from Throughline
Welcome to September. Public media has had a rough summer. On July 18th, Congress passed the Rescissions Act of 2025, which eliminated $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Then on August 1st, CPB announced they would be winding down operations.When ... Show More
52m 10s
Apr 2025
100 Days of Trump (Part 4)… Has Elon Musk Changed Government Forever?
This is a special Americast mini series, looking at five ways Donald Trump has changed America in his first 100 days back, as President of the United States. In our fourth episode, Matt Chorley joins Justin and Marianna to discuss large scale cuts to federal government by Elon Mu ... Show More
13m 5s