When a promising young freelancer pitched a good story to his magazine, editor Nicholas Hune-Brown was ready to assign it. But as he looked more closely at the pitch and the writer’s bylines across the internet, Nicholas began to realize maybe this writer wasn’t who she seemed.

A version of Nick’s story first appeared in The Local – you can read it here.

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Guests:

• Nicholas Hune-Brown, Executive Editor at The Local 
• Victoria Goldiee

After journalist Mario Guevara was arrested while covering an anti-ICE protest, ICE moved him into their detention. As his lawyers and the ACLU tried to get Mario free, ICE argued again and again that he shouldn’t be let out, because his journalism made him too dangerous. 

Mario was behind bars for 111 days. Then deported to El Salvador.

If you’re wondering where the hell the first amendment is in all this, so are we! 

In the second episode in our special two-part series about Mario Guevara, we look into how the federal government targeted and detained a reporter, and ultimately fast-tracked his deportation–his first amendment rights be damned.

Please take 5 minutes to fill out this survey about Question Everything – it’ll help us know who’s listening and what you want from us! Thank you. 

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Sign up for our Substack newsletter, where we’ve been covering the big landmark lawsuits against social media companies for harming people with their products. 

Guests:

• Mario Guevara, MG News
• Giovanni Diaz, ESQ.
• Scarlet Kim, ACLU
• Curtis Clemmons, former Gwinnett Sheriff's Deputy and Retired Assistant Chief of Gwinnett County Police

This episode has been updated to reflect the fact that the news outlet Mario did an interview with from El Salvador was not Fox News -- it was a local Fox affiliate in Atlanta.

In June, journalist Mario Guevara was arrested while covering an anti-ICE protest in Georgia, transferred to ICE detention, and locked up by the federal government for more than 100 days. And that wasn’t even the worst of it. 

But Mario is not the kind of ICE-criticizing reporter you might be picturing. He was a Trump-supporting, Republican-identifying, law-and-order-sympathizing immigration hawk, who knew ICE well and had covered them favorably for years. Why did the Trump administration still go after him?

This is the first in a special two-part series about Mario Guevara. 

Please take 5 minutes to fill out this survey about Question Everything – it’ll help us know who’s listening and what you want from us! Thank you. 

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Sign up for our Substack newsletter, where we’ve been covering the big landmark lawsuits against social media companies for harming people with their products. This week: Mark Zuckerberg’s rare testimony in an LA courtroom.

Guests: 

• Mario Guevara, MG News
• Emily Wu Pearson, WABE
• Giovanni Diaz, ESQ.
• Scarlet Kim, ACLU

This episode has been updated to reflect the fact that Mario Guevara had a Social Security card before his immigration case was administratively closed, not after. His subsequent green card petition was also unrelated.

A little message from host Brian Reed about a scary incident he’s dealing with. And much scarier incidents other journalists are dealing with.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Sign up for our newsletter to see Brian’s interview with Senator Dick Durbin about his effort to repeal Section 230.

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Our managing editor, Kevin Sullivan, had a conversation this week with an old colleague in Minnesota that we wanted to share with you as quickly as we could. He’s a former data journalist, Michael Corey, who lives with his family in St. Paul. As ICE agents have flooded Mike’s state as part of a massive federal immigration enforcement operation, he started getting involved in grassroots efforts to track and document ICE’s conduct. He’s been following and filming agents during tense encounters, including one where they chased an American citizen into a building, pinned him against a wall, and arrested him. 

Mike takes us inside what it’s like to live in Minnesota right now, and tells us how he and his neighbors are getting and trying to verify information with the encrypted messaging app, Signal, which he thinks deserves a Pulitzer.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Sign up for our Substack.

Guests: 

• Mike Corey, Minnesota dad & public historian

As ICE agents have continued to threaten and kill people in Minneapolis and Minnesota’s governor and other state officials plead with the agency to leave, we share an interview with the governor of another state that was recently targeted by ICE: JB Pritzker of Illinois. 

In October, as ICE agents were descending on Chicago in “Operation Midway Blitz”, Ben Smith and Max Tani of the Mixed Signals podcast from Semafor spoke to Governor Pritzker about the novel communications tactics he was using to combat ICE’s incursion into his city. Eventually he was successful in stopping President Trump from sending in National Guard troops, and Border Patrol agents left the city.

It was an urgent and timely conversation with lots of significance as we watch a similar situation unfold daily in Minnesota.

Thanks to Semafor for letting us share this interview with you. Find all episodes of Mixed Signals here.  

Sign up for Semafor Media’s Sunday newsletter here. 

The hosts are on X: @semaforben, @maxwelltani

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.Please rate and review our show – on this very app that you’re in right now! And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Many people were surprised that ICE officer Jonathan Ross was filming with his phone when he shot and killed Renee Good in Minneapolis. But Washington Post reporter Drew Harwell was leaked thousands of internal ICE messages that show the agency is obsessed with creating viral videos, and is using arrests of immigrants slapped with “hooky” captions and pop music to feed their content machine.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Please rate and review our show – on this very app that you’re in right now! And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Here are Drew's Washington Post stories:

• ‘It’s a War’: Inside ICE’s media machine
• ICE Plans $100 million ‘wartime recruitment’ push

Guests:

• Drew Harwell, Washington Post technology reporter

The story of an adult performer, Davin Strong, whose life was upended by a seemingly small change to Section 230.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. For more of our coverage of how the internet and press shape our reality, sign up for our newsletter.

Guests: 

• Davin Addison (aka Davin Strong), adult performer whose livelihood was upended after FOSTA-SESTA.

• Sam Eagan, Producer, Question Everything

At a bar that survived the destruction, a group of reporters get together a year later to talk about the personal impact the LA wildfires had on them. And some of the harrowing – and surprising – requests they got from people to check if their homes were still standing.

Thanks to Good Neighbor Bar and West Altadena Wine & Spirits for hosting us.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Sign up for our newsletter please!

Guests: 

• Tony Briscoe, environmental reporter, Los Angeles Times

• Jacob Soboroff, senior political and national correspondent, MSNOW and author of “Firestorm: The Great Los Angeles Fires and America’s New Age of Disaster”

• Leanne Suter, reporter, ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles 

• Michelle Zacarias, reporter, CALÓ News

• Randy Clement, co-owner, Good Neighbor Bar in Altadena, California

We’re taking a quick break for the holidays, but in the spirit of New Year reflection, we’re sharing our very first episode of Question Everything. 

Brian talks to fellow journalist, Gay Alcorn, who called his most well-known work – the hit podcast S-Town – “morally indefensible.”

You can read Gay’s column here. Subscribe to our newsletter to read Gay’s full reaction to this episode. 

You can listen to S-Town here. 

If you’re having thoughts of suicide, please reach out for help by dialing 988 or clicking here. 

“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. 

This episode originally aired on September 11th, 2024.

We’re taking a short break over the holidays and will be plopping in front of the TV to watch some movies and shows. Maybe you’re doing the same? Check out one of our favorite episodes of Question Everything, where Hollywood directors gather after hours at a wine shop to drink and commiserate. They talk about the perils – and power – that come when you’re straddling fact and fiction. 

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. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

This episode originally aired on December 18th, 2024.