The Peabody Award's Executive Director Jeffrey Jones sits down with Stephen Graham and Jack Thorne, the minds behind the gripping mini-series Adolescence. The Emmy-winning crime drama explores the aftermath of a brutal crime committed by a young boy against a girl classmate. With its unflinching exploration of grief and confusion in the wake of such a horrific event, the show sparked worldwide conversations regarding online misogyny and teen behaviors. Graham and Thorne discuss how concern over the role that technology plays in the lives of children was a major inspiration behind the show. Graham also shares how his personal experiences shaped his character, Eddie Miller. Later, host Gabe González is joined by Dr. Harriet Over to discuss “the manosphere:” what it is, why we should all be concerned, and ways to tackle the very real rise of misogyny online. 

This week, We Disrupt This Broadcast is excited to share an epiode of American Masters: Creative Spark. In this episode, actress, comedian and writer Natasha Rothwell shares how she connects to her character Belinda’s journey of self-discovery and how she collaborated with creator Mike White to bring greater nuance to the character. She reflects on the importance of diverse storytelling in Hollywood, the inspiration she drew from actress Nell Carter, and why she believes the arts are an empathy machine. Rothwell also opens up about her experience as a neurodivergent creator, the power of destigmatizing diagnoses, and the untapped potential of art. As she puts it, “From water lilies to Lily Tomlin, it’s all awesome.”

Host Gabe González introduces us to the shocking true story of the British Post Office scandal, and how the Peabody Award-winning series Mr. Bates vs. the Post Office led to real-world justice for the victims of this horrific abuse of government power. Jeffrey Jones sits down with the show’s Executive Producer Patrick Spence to understand the scandal, what it took to bring this story to screens, and the real-world impact the series had on public outrage and calls for justice within British politics. Gabe then sits down with journalist Nick Wallis to share his decades-long journey of bringing the story to light and keeping it in the spotlight via his website, articles, and a podcast. Finally, Gabe speaks with screenwriter Gwyneth Hughes about how she was able to earn the coveted “this is a true story” designation, reserved for TV series that adhere to a strict factual code, all while still bringing the deep emotional core of the subpostmasters’ tragic stories to life in this riveting dramatization.

Host Gabe González introduces us to the brilliant, absurdist, hilarious Peabody Award-winning HBO series Fantasmas. In a funny, enlivening conversation with creator, writer, and comedian Julio Torres, they explore how Torres uses humor to uncover the real absurdity of our immigration, healthcare, and economic systems. They discuss how creating fiction – like the “proof of existence” that the fictional Julio is so desperate to avoid – can expose our even stranger realities, like the “aliens of extraordinary abilities” visa that real Julio applied for when immigrating to the U.S. In the second half, Gabe speaks with Andrew DeWaard, author of Derivative Media: How Wall Street Devours Culture. Andrew’s work focuses on the cultural cost of the financialization of media. And don’t worry, he also explains what the word “financialization” means.

The Peabody Award-winning Disney+ movie Out of My Mind employs Jennifer Aniston’s voice alongside actress Phoebe Ray Taylor’s stellar performance to reveal the lack of accessible public school education in the early 2000s. Host Gabe González speaks with director Amber Sealey about what sparked her interest in this story, the state of accommodations in public schools, and how making her sets accessible improved working conditions for everyone. Gabe then speaks with professor and Undoing Ableism author Dr. Priya Lalvani about the ways our education system fails to achieve a truly inclusive educational environment for everyone, and what it would take to change that.

Writer, comedian and showrunner Sharon Horgan joins Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact Caty Borum for an in-depth conversation regarding the themes of her critically acclaimed shows. From Catastrophe to Divorce to the Peabody Award-winning Bad Sisters, Sharon’s work is singularly focused on showcasing messy, strong women as they navigate critical junctures in their lives and chart new paths. Afterwards, Caty sits down with therapist and author Oona Metz to discuss women’s empowerment and resilience, divorce, and the insidious and often invisible nature of coercive control in intimate relationships–themes explored brilliantly by Horgan’s work.

Gabe González is joined by Soo Hugh, showrunner of the Peabody Award-winning series Pachinko, Apple TV’s trilingual series set in Japan and Korea. Pachinko is an epic family drama spanning more than sixty years of history, during and after the Japanese occupation of Korea. Through the eyes of protagonist Sunja, who moves to Japan with her husband and raises her children and grandchildren there, the series asks the question, “What is home?” We also talk to comedian and author Youngmi Mayer. In her memoir I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying, she brilliantly balances tragedy and humor as she recounts her life in Korea, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. in the wake of her family’s traumatic experiences under Japanese colonialism.

Executive Director of the Peabody Awards and resident musician Jeffrey Jones talks with Nida Manzoor, creator and writer of the Peabody Award-winning We Are Lady Parts and the action comedy film, Polite Society. They dive deep into the show’s delightful use of punk music; Nida’s musical inspirations, as well as teaming up with her siblings to write hilarious songs for the show; the joy and burden of representing muslim women on-screen; and the classic dilemma many artists face: staying true to themselves or selling out. The conversation continues as Jeff speaks with stand-up comedian and host of Hulu’s Muslim Matchmaker, Yasmin Elhady, on the role of comedy in disrupting stereotypical depictions of Muslim women.

Host Gabe González sits down with Jen Statsky, co-creator of HBO’s Peabody Award-winning series Hacks. We talk with Statsky about the complex relationship between the show’s two central characters - and their stark generational divide and friendship, while delving into broader themes of the complex history of women in comedy and the importance of female mentorship. In our second interview, the pod’s executive producer Caty Borum speaks with the ultimate Gen-X comedian, Margaret Cho, about how she’s maintained an outspoken, hilarious comedy career through various waves of American progress and regression, as well as how she’s mentoring up-and-coming queer and Asian comedians today. 

This week on We Disrupt This Broadcast, we’re talking about one of the most thrilling and politically thoughtful shows out right now - Andor. Peabody Awards Executive Director Jeffrey Jones talks with Andor creator and showrunner Tony Gilroy about the ideologies explored in the Disney+ series in the Star Wars story universe. They dive into how revolutions are formed, what pushes someone to become a revolutionary leader, and how studying historical revolutions informs Gilroy’s creative journey. Jeffrey then joins host Gabe González to unpack what can be learned from Andor as a tale of a fascist, authoritarian state, as well as how audiences might react to the show in the current political climate. 

Host Gabe González takes a dive into the unsettling corporate world of the Peabody award-winning show Severance. Through the dystopian and satirical concept of splitting one’s consciousness into an “innie” (work self) and “outie” (home self), Severance explores the lengths corporations will go to dehumanize its workforce and the ways in which workers alternate between accepting these degradations and fighting back. To take a closer look at these themes, Gabe chats with Severance executive producer and director Ben Stiller, in addition to actor Adam Scott, who portrays Severance’s protagonist Mark. Finally, to break down the theme of a dehumanized workplace, Peabody Awards executive director Jeffrey Jones speaks with professor of sociology Dr. Allison Pugh about her book The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World.