Scene on Radio

Epizódy

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  First America: It Happened Here 29.07.2026 41min

  The American Revolution wasn’t just a fight for liberty. It was also a sprawling conflict with Indigenous nations over who would control North America. To stake its claim, the United States was willing to commit genocide.  This is episode 3 of First America, a new show about how America’s current moment is 250 years in the making. Indigenous author and host Rebecca Nagle talks to Maggie Blackhawk (Ojibwe) about how our country’s early treatment of Native Americans set a template for authoritarianism in the United States.  There are more episodes in the First America season which we are not sharing with you here. Find the rest of the series wherever you get podcasts. 
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  First America: Playing Indian 22.07.2026 45min

  We’re back with Episode 2 of First America, a new show by Indigenous author Rebecca Nagle about how the United States really came to be and how we got to today’s present moment. Rebecca and historian Phil Deloria (Dakota descent) head to Boston to try to understand Americans’ obsession with playing Indian. In the early republic, pretending to be Indian symbolized freedom and helped the colonists form a new, national identity. From Boy Scouts to new agers and sports fans, the American tradition of White people dressing up like Natives never went away.  Find First America wherever you get podcasts. 
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  First America: "Merciless Indian Savages" 15.07.2026 37min

  We're sharing the first of three episodes from a new series we think our listeners will want to hear.  Americans have been told our Revolution was fought over taxation and representation. But the last entry of the Declaration focuses on the founders' contempt for the “merciless Indian savages.”  How does a whole country miss a key point of its own founding document? That's the question at the heart of First America. Hosted and reported by Rebecca Nagle, an Indigenous author and former host of the This Land podcast, and featuring leading Native historians, First America unveils how the founders’ treatment of Indigenous nations—and their resistance—shaped US democracy.  First America reveals the real story of why the colonists rebelled, what kind of government they created, and, crucially, how our current political moment was 250 years in the making. 
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  S8 E8: Making Media Democratic 08.07.2026 42min

  This season we've explored how the news media are failing the American people and our democracy. In this concluding episode, we look at solutions -- how to help good journalism survive, and how we might imagine a better, more democratic media system.  By John Biewen, with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Les High and Victor Pickard.  Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, goodnight Lucas, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.  
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  S8 E7: Can We Blame the Media For THIS? 01.07.2026 54min

  Many people in the United States and around the world view the rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement as a grave crisis. At the same time, most Americans are angry with the news media. What role did the media play in making a President Trump possible?  By John Biewen, with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Nicole Hemmer, Dan Froomkin, Michael Tomasky, and others. Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, goodnight Lucas, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.  
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  S8 E6: What Could Have Been 24.06.2026 50min

  Ever thought about whether America's overwhelmingly corporate, for-profit news system is working as it should? It didn't have to be this way. In the 20th century, reformers fought for a more democratic and more accountable news media in the United States. They won victories, including the creation of the nation's public broadcasting system. What happened next?  By John Biewen, with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with John Lowery, Dan Schiller, Victor Pickard, and Mark Lloyd.  Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.  
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  S8 E5: Follow the Money 17.06.2026 49min

  The early history of the news in Europe and the U.S. offers surprising lessons about the best traditions of journalism, and about the news we need in our own time of crisis.  By John Biewen, with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Pascal Verhoest, Rachael King, Joseph Adelman, and Victor Pickard.  Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.   For more on the relationship between democracy and journalism in the U.S., see Victor Pickard's book, Democracy Without Journalism?: Confronting the Misinformation Society.
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  S8 E4: What About Us 10.06.2026 43min

  Scene on Radio requests and receives an independent analysis of its own journalistic biases. We then return the favor, examining the examiner. The exercise leads to fresh insights into the muddled ways people often think about bias. By John Biewen, with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interview with Vanessa Otero. Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.   Link to the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart
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  S8 E3: About that Liberal Media 03.06.2026 52min

  For generations, many on the political right have claimed that major news media in the U.S. have a pronounced liberal bias. Is it true? And why does it matter? We take a fresh look.  By John Biewen with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews with Michael Massing, Peter Beinart, and William Youmans.  Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.  
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  S8 E2: When the News Dies 27.05.2026 48min

  Many people know that the journalism industry is struggling financially, especially at the local level. But the disastrous depths of that crisis, and its impact on communities and American democracy, are not as well understood. We visit a news desert in southeastern North Carolina.  By John Biewen with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews: Penny Muse Abernathy, Mark DeLap, Angelica Das, and others.  Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, Goodnight Lucas, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.   The Local Journalism Index map discussed in the episode, from Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News. 
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  S8 E1: The Myth of the Echo Chamber 27.05.2026 40min

  Americans have access to a flood of news, and yet we're in a deep information crisis. What's really wrong with the news media? Is it what we think it is? And what about news consumers? Most of us don't trust the media, but can we trust ourselves?  By John Biewen with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews: Ethan Jordan, Dannagal Young, and others.  Story editor: Diane Hodson. Assistant Producer, Arlene Arevalo. Fact-checking by Anna Pujol Mazzini. Music by Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band, Michelle Osis, Lili Haydn, Alex Weston, James Nathan Jones, Goodnight Lucas, and Jason Hill. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music.  For more info, and transcripts, go to sceneonradio.org.
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  Introducing Scene on Radio: The News 20.05.2026 2min

  Everybody's mad at the media. And Americans seem helpless to solve our problems, in large part because we have no shared narrative and few shared facts. A well informed citizenry we are not. In Scene on Radio's 8th season, producer and host John Biewen and returning co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika will examine the deep crises facing American journalism, how things got this way, and what it might mean to build a better and more democratic news and information system.  From the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University and PRX. Find more, including episode transcripts, at SceneonRadio.org.
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  Guest Episode: Drilled: Carbon Cowboys 13.05.2026 28min

  We're happy to share this episode from award-winning climate journalist Amy Westervelt, co-host of Scene on Radio's 5th season: The Repair. Amy returns with a new season of Drilled, her podcast about the deception, disinformation, and power structures keeping real climate solutions out of reach. Drilled: Carbon Cowboys exposes how Midwest Republican corn ethanol mogul Bruce Rastetter sold "sustainable aviation fuel" to world leaders, from North Dakota to Brazil. Find Drilled wherever you get podcasts and hear episodes early and ad-free with a Pushkin+ subscription. Sign up on the Drilled show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus.  
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  Historical Maturity and Cowardice: Keeping ScOR #15 22.10.2025 14min

  Host John Biewen reads an essay from his newsletter, Keeping ScOR. After a visit to his hometown, Mankato, Minnesota -- the subject of the Scene on Radio episode, "Little War on the Prairie" -- John reflects on the changes there and America's latest assault on history.  Music by goodnight, Lucas.  To read see the Keeping ScOR newsletter archive or subscribe to receive it, go here: https://buttondown.com/KeepingScOR#subscribe-form
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  Voices of Hiroshima 06.08.2025 33min

  A rebroadcast of a Scene on Radio episode, eighty years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.   The word “Hiroshima” may bring to mind a black-and-white image of a mushroom cloud. It’s easy to forget that it’s an actual city with a million people and a popular baseball team. What did the cataclysm of 1945 mean in the place where it happened, to the people who lived through it? John Biewen went to Hiroshima and interviewed A-bomb survivors in 1995.  “Voices of Hiroshima” is a production of Minnesota Public Radio, from American Public Media.
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  Making Ignorance Sacred Again: Keeping ScOR #7 14.05.2025 15min

  Host John Biewen reads an essay from his newsletter, Keeping ScOR. Reflections on the Trump Administration's attempt to wrangle control of the national story and how it's told. Will this attack on factual history succeed?   Music by goodnight, Lucas.  To read see the Keeping ScOR newsletter archive or subscribe to receive it, go here: https://buttondown.com/KeepingScOR#subscribe-form The video of David Joy referred to in the episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0g_6uidwcE
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  The New Old Racism: Keeping ScOR#4 18.03.2025 18min

  Host John Biewen teases Season 8 and reads an installment from his new newsletter, Keeping ScOR. Eight years after our "Seeing White" series, whiteness is still a helluva drug -- and a powerful tool for Trump 2.0.  Music by goodnight, Lucas
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  Bonus: Michael Kliën and the Body Politic 22.01.2025 34min

  Michael Kliën wants to help bring about profound change in the world, but not through the usual means. An Austrian-born Dance professor at Duke University, Kliën is a leading social choreographer. He sets up experiments involving people moving amongst each other -- wordlessly -- in pursuit of new ways of being and the "soul democratic."  By Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen. Music by goodnight, Lucas and Blue Dot Sessions.  Scene on Radio is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.  Links: Michael Klien’s website Video of Kliën works:  Parliament Constitution The Utopians
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  S7 E13: CAPITALISM Bonus, Live at Motorco 11.12.2024 1h 11min

  With our Capitalism season and the election behind us, now what? Can we find hope and a way forward? In a live show taped December 5, 2024, at Motorco Music Hall in Durham, North Carolina, Season 7 co-hosts John Biewen and Ellen McGirt are joined by journalism professor, podcast maker, and two-time Scene on Radio co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. They discuss how to move toward a more democratic economy and society – with the live audience, and with Camryn Smith and Courtney Smith of Durham’s Communities in Partnership.  Episode art: Photo by Summer Steenberg. Music by Michelle Osis and Lilli Haydn. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. "Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21. 
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  Post-election '24 All-Star Special 21.11.2024 1h 20min

  Host John Biewen is joined by Celeste Headlee, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Ellen McGirt, and Amy Westervelt, co-hosts of Scene on Radio's full-length seasons -- Seeing White, MEN, The Land That Never Has Been Yet, The Repair, and Capitalism -- for a free-wheeling conversation about the 2024 U.S. election of Donald J. Trump and what it all means.  Scene on Radio comes from the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.