Question Everything

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 inspire Brian to do this episode: www.kcrw.com/questioneverthing “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

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.

Just a few months ago, Israel did something it has never done before. It arrested an American journalist. His name is Jeremy Loffredo.   This is his story.    Part one of a special, two-part series.  “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

Four Hollywood directors gather after hours at a wine shop to drink and commiserate about the perils – and power – that come when you’re straddling fact and fiction. With behind the scenes stories about documentary romance, regret, and pirates.   Featuring Tom McCarthy, who won an Oscar for Spotlight; Antonio Campos, creator of The Staircase for HBO; Tina Satter, who directed and co-wrote Reality starring Sydney Sweeney; and Tobias Lindholm, director and writer of HBO’s The Investigation.   As we know alcohol is not always conducive to factual precision, so here are some corrections and clarifications from our fact-checker, Maggie. Though honestly the crew this time did impressively well! All we have is that the name of the New York Magazine story that inspired Tina Satter to dramatize Reality Winner is called “The World’s Biggest Terrorist Has a Pikachu Bedspread" (not “America’s Biggest Terrorist Has a Pikachu Bedspread”). And it was a National Security Agency contractor, not a former FBI agent, who alerted the FBI about Reality’s leak.   Here’s the NY Mag story. And here’s a Vanity Fair interview with Sophie, the editor of The Staircase documentary. “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

Our team at Question Everything has been playing around with a new technology that sucks up tons of social media posts, and then uses AI to figure out what ideas are forming in the shadows of the internet before they hit the mainstream. Brian interviews a journalist who uses this tech, to see what conversations are brewing right now that we might want to keep an eye out for in the coming weeks. “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.  

A journalist tries to get his wrestling buddy to trust in journalism.    You can find more work by Sam Eagan here.   “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.  

A special election-eve episode from Brian: Ruminations on a story that never was, and a late night conversation with the source he was supposed to make it about.  “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

Brian stops doomscrolling and starts doom-living. He brings two journalists he saw duking it out on Twitter into a studio, where they debate how to report on lies and racism in the Trump era. Then he finds a journalist who’s putting their big theoretical questions into practice – at a personal cost – as she covers one of the most messed up stories of the election cycle.   Watch the unedited conversation between Jeff Jarvis and David Folkenflik.   Subscribe to the Question Everything newsletter: https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/question-everything “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

A married couple finds themselves fighting miserably over the news. So they set out on a quest for the seemingly impossible: to find a news source that both a self-admitted “bleeding heart liberal” and a Trump supporter can trust.   Check out Tangle News here.    “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.  

How one of the most accomplished reporters of our time, Barton Gellman, lost his confidence in journalism.   Sign up for our newsletter to hear the one outtake from the interview that Brian wished he could get into the episode, but couldn’t.  “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.