We’re bombarded with a lot of music, television shows, news, movies, and articles on a daily basis. For my second ever endorsement on The en, I thought I’d go with a podcast that helps me cut through all the noise: On The Media.
I’ve listened to On The Media nearly every week since 2004. Hosted by Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone, the show deep dives into topics of today and yesterday. Think of it as a collection of bite-size examinations of what we know and think we know about the headlines. Back in 2004, the show focused heavily on movies, television, and the decline of the newspaper industry.
The show still covers those things today, but Gladstone, Garfield, and the show’s producers are now aggressively taking on topics at the core of our national identity.
Busted: Poverty Myths, a series of shows in 2016 destroys how you think of wealth and the lack of it. And this is coming from someone who grew up poor.
The show went to Puerto Rico next. That episode didn’t just explore the carnage that last year’s storms left in their wake. It also examined why Americans lack a full appreciation of Hurricane Maria’s lasting effects.
My favorite episode to date is still the one where the show examines the outright lying the gas industry did about global warming. (I tried to pull links for these episodes, but their new website wasn’t cooperating at the time.)
Open up Apple Podcasts or Pocket Casts and search for On The Media if any of this sounds like something you’re interested in. On Xbox and Windows, you can listen through the NPR One app.
The show hasn’t failed to educate me or change my perception of something since I began listening all those years ago.