Question Everything

Kate grew up believing the Sandy Hook school shooting was an elaborate false flag operation. For years she thought the 20 elementary school children and six educators who were killed that day did not actually die, but were played by crisis actors. And then, one day – in a matter of minutes – suddenly Kate realized how wrong she was.  Brian talks to Kate about what it’s like...

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 woman at the center of the story, who had confided in him as a friend and explicitly asked him not to name her. Th...

Two veteran journalists set out to document Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s healthcare system: hospitals attacked, medical workers killed, doctors detained without charge. The BBC commissioned the film. Then pulled it. Sometimes killing a story is routine. Sometimes it’s a scandal, even immoral. In this episode, producer Sophie Kazis pulls back the curtain, and goes ins...

Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes have been picked apart in headlines, documentaries, and endless conspiracy theories. And yet there have continued to be shocking new revelations in the story this year, as President Trump’s base has pressured him to release the government’s files about Epstein.  In this episode of Question Everything, host Brian Reed brings together the reporters who...

When late-night host Jimmy Kimmel was forced off the air, it raised huge questions about who really controls what we’re allowed to say. From billionaires and politicians to social media platforms and regulators, the boundaries of free speech in America are being redrawn in real time. To get a sense of the country’s mood, host Brian Reed goes to the Iowa State Fair – a carnival of...

We're back. September 25th.

A listener weighed in with some criticism on Substack . Brian (our host) got involved. Some advice for journalists ensued. It ended up inspiring an entire segment on KCRW’s show Left, Right & Center , which we’re sharing with you here. This is the kind of action that’s happening over on our new Substack – which you should subscribe to! If you do, we’ll enter you i...

After her NPR show was canceled some years back, producer and host Yowei Shaw gave herself a new title: “Emotional Investigative Journalist.” She started a podcast called Proxy, where she helps people who are facing unique emotional or personal obstacles by connecting them with a proxy who’s uniquely positioned to help them. Our host, Brian, recently went on Proxy, and got help w...

Local reporters from around the country tell stories of using the experiences of their neighbors to confront people in power.    Featuring: Anna Wolfe with Mississippi Today Lisa Halverstadt with Voice of San Diego Alissa Zhu with The Baltimore Banner Tony Plohetski with The Austin American-Statesman and KVUE Austin   Lisa is a part of the Homelessness Beat Reporters Collective, whi...

A TV reporter from Kansas City hears about the newspaper raids over in Marion. Her interest is piqued by the fact that the police chief who oversaw the raids had recently left Kansas City PD. So she heads to Marion to see what she can find out. And what she finds…is basically a Bravo reality series, small-town midwestern style.  Part One of this story aired last week. Listen to it firs...

On a Friday morning in rural Kansas, the publisher of a tiny local newspaper hears a knock at the door. It’s the police—with a search warrant. Within minutes, they’re inside his home, seizing his electronics. At the same time, officers are raiding his newsroom, confiscating computers and phones. No subpoena. No warning. And, according to legal experts, no right to do it. The publ...

MSNBC host Chris Hayes discusses his book The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource, and reckons with his own culpability in the corruption and commercialization of our attention.    Thanks to “ Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso ” for sharing this interview with us.    “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement...

A  group of reporters recently uncovered a closely held secret: the identity of the Israeli soldier who shot and killed renowned veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022. This is the story of how they figured it out. Sign up for our newsletter: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything   “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory .  

Back in December, we did an episode about Pyrra, an AI-powered software that tracks sifts through the far corners of the internet – in some places you probably haven’t even heard of – to see what narratives are emerging from the people who post there. A lot of these are conspiracy theories, and also violent threats.   This week, we check back in with the creator of that soft...

Where better to huddle up and discuss what to do about Rümeysa Öztürk and the chilling effect that is happening in journalism than on campus at Tufts University with the student journalists at The Tufts Daily? This week Brian and Question Everything co-host a live event with the editor-in-chief and associate editor from The Tufts Daily– Arghya Thallapragada and Ellora Onion-De...

Last episode we discussed the campaign to overturn the Supreme Court decision that protects reporters’ ability to criticize and investigate people in power.   But even with that decision still in place, reporter David Enrich has discovered a shocking wave of legal attacks that is being waged on journalists in towns and cities across the country. These are often reporters at tiny, local...

For decades, a Supreme Court decision called New York Times vs Sullivan was widely beloved by people across the political spectrum. Hailed as a decision that gave the first amendment teeth and made our country great.   But recently, under our noses, some of the same people who once sang its praises have turned against it.    The story of the growing movement that is trying to get th...

The best documentary filmmaker in America spent nearly five years of his life making a nine-hour masterpiece for Netflix.    It will never see the light of day.    After a nasty estate battle, the series will not be released. No one will ever see it.   In his first sit-down interview about this catastrophe, the filmmaker, Ezra Edelman seeks catharsis – if not closure...

Last year, we did an episode with Barton Gellman, who talked about the war games he was running with high-level military leaders and government officials to prepare for a second Trump term.    A bunch of you have been asking us to have Barton back, to find out what he’s doing, now that the second Trump term is here. So we called him up.   Barton works at the Brennan Center for...

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 struggled wi...

Brian tells the story of a reporting trip he took to Alabama, where two small-town journalists had been locked up in jail, that led to one of the most honest - and surprising - conversations about journalism he’s had in a long time.    Sign up for our newsletter to see some stories and pictures from a recent event Brian held in Alabama about his podcast S-Town. Including a photo of...

As trust in traditional journalism plummets, social media content creator V Spehar of Under the Desk News is ascendant, with over 3.4 million TikTok followers. But recently, V found themself in a public dustup with NPR over, in part, how the outlet had classified V in an interview. In this special episode of Question Everything––largely recorded live at On Air Fest––Brian a...

As billionaires hoard more control over our politics, it seems more important than ever to ask: What makes them tick? Four reporters gather after hours at a wine shop to discuss – over drinks – what they’ve learned from covering billionaires for years, and how it can help us hoi polloi make sense of what the ultra-rich are doing right now.   Featuring Vicky Ward, who has cov...

Ben Smith tells the story of the strange controversy over a journalism award that’s been going down in a Florida courthouse.   Ben is Editor-in-Chief of Semafor and co-host of the Mixed Signals podcast. He used to be tThe New York Times media columnist and was founding editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed News.   Sign up for our newsletter to read the lengthy listener criticism that helped...

Locked up, alone, accused of being a spy, reporter Jeremy Loffredo has to defend the fact that he’s a journalist. To the Israeli courts. And then…to our reporter.    Part two of our two-part series about Jeremy Loffredo, who in October became the first American journalist arrested by Israel. “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory .