This month a federal watchdog raised the alarm over thousands of staffing cuts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. On this week’s On the Media, an episode from our miniseries American Emergency, all about FEMA: the agency that steps in when large-scale catastrophes like wildfires, floods, and hurricanes strike. Despite its vital work, the agency is widely despised and mythologized – and it’s fighting to stay alive under the Trump administration.

In this episode, which first aired in the spring, OTM co-host Micah Loewinger tells the origin story of FEMA — which initially focused less on disaster relief and more on plans to save the government from nuclear attack. The agency’s secrecy inspired wild conspiracy theories and paranoia among far-right groups, including the fear that FEMA is building camps to detain citizens and stifle political dissent. The episode culminates with a never-before-told story of a plot to stalk FEMA’s top brass in the nineties.

Further reading:

• Sound of Impact, by Adam Shaw
• Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan to Save Itself--While the Rest of Us Die, by Garrett M. Graff
• "FEMA and Disaster – a Look at What Worked and What Didn’t From a FEMA Insider," by Leo Bosner

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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The sports journalist Pablo Torre recently won the 2026 Pulitzer Prize for audio reporting for an investigation on his podcast, “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” Torre talks with the New Yorker Radio Hour's David Remnick about the challenge of investigative reporting in professional sports—where leagues, owners, players, and sometimes even fans don’t welcome hard questions. “As much as I am doing that and urging people to join me in the pool,” he says, “it kind of feels like I’m the guy who is the proverbial turd” in that pool. But as private equity invests massive sums in teams, he says, the work is even more necessary—and that fans do care when misdeeds are revealed.

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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President Trump has some of the worst approval ratings of any president in modern history, second only to Richard Nixon the week before he resigned. On this week’s On the Media, what the polls say about Americans’ perceptions of Trump and his policies. Plus, a look at the polarized propaganda being beamed into Iran. 

[01:00] Brooke Gladstone interviews G. Elliott Morris, journalist, statistician, and author of the data-driven news website Strength In Numbers, about public perceptions of President Trump and his policies, and what Trump’s historic unpopularity could mean for the upcoming midterm elections. 

[19:14] Micah Loewinger speaks with Nancy Scola, a reporter covering tech, policy, and politics, about her recent profile of Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr, tracing his trajectory from “spectrum nerd,” to MAGA insider. 

[36:23]  Micah sits down with Nahid Siamdoust, an assistant professor of media and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas at Austin, to discuss the state of the Iranian media landscape, and how a newer anti-regime channel, Iran International, is contributing to intense polarization among Iranians around the world. 

Further reading / watching:

• “What's behind Donald Trump's record-low approval rating?” By G. Elliott Morris
• “How Brendan Carr Became MAGA’s Media Watchdog,” by Nancy Scola
• “Spreading Static,” by Nahid Siamdoust

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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Brooke speaks with Garrett M. Graff, journalist, historian, and author of the newsletter Doomsday Scenario, about Trump’s damage to the United States’ standing as a world power and his dismantling of core pillars of American policy. 

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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The race to build the most advanced artificial intelligence continues to dominate the headlines. On this week’s On the Media, who does this new technology actually serve? Plus, how even critical media coverage can feed into the AI hype.

[01:00]  Host Brooke Gladstone sits down with Cory Doctorow, journalist, activist, and author of Enshittification, on his new guide to seeing through the relentless, $16 trillion AI hype machine and understanding the technology for exactly what it is, rather than the outlandish stories told about it.

[16:47] Brooke continues her conversation with Cory, and they discuss how the hype itself is keeping the AI industry afloat. 

[28:47] Brooke asks Cory about his rejection of the notion that AI domination – of our jobs, our lives, our art, and more – is inevitable. Plus, they interrogate the role of the tech in a creative’s life, and why AI art leaves us cold.

Further reading / watching:

• The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI by Cory Doctorow

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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At the start of 2026, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, was top of mind for many Americans. There were nationwide protests, congressional hearings, and plenty of headlines. But as the weeks went on, ICE faded some from the spotlight. This month, two fatal shootings involving ICE officers have reignited protests and renewed questions about tactics, training, and recruitment for the agency at the heart of Trump's anti-immigration efforts. Host Micah Loewinger sits down with Joseph Cox, investigative reporter and co-founder of 404 Media, to talk about the array of tactics and surveillance tech ICE had been using.  

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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This week, the State Department published a report accusing Cuba of being the “capital of 21st-century communism,” and of plotting an anti-American revolution. On this week’s On the Media, why the Trump administration can’t stop invoking Cuba as its “communist” bogeyman. Plus, hear from a former flight attendant turned independent journalist, who is doggedly covering ICE’s removal flights.

[01:00]  Brooke Gladstone looks at how President Trump and his allies are using dehumanizing language and the specter of communism — seemingly inspired by far right provocateur Jack Posobiec — to try to discredit all Democrats leading up to the midterm elections. Gil Duran, journalist and author of The Nerd Reich, explains the connection. 

[08:47] The State Department released a report this week about the threat that Cuba poses to the United States, listing everyone from Mayors Zohran Mamdani and Karen Bass, journalist Amy Goodman, to a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s as agents of Cuban influence. Brooke sits down with Michael J. Bustamante, associate professor of Cuban and Cuban-American history at the University of Miami, to talk about the cherry-picked historical scholarship in the report, and the role that the Cuba bogeyman plays in American politics today.

[31:25] Micah Loewinger speaks with Gillian Brockell, independent journalist and former flight attendant who is covering ICE flights and third-country removals. Brockell explains why all ICE flights, domestic and international, are unsafe, and how the Trump administration is trying to skirt around judges’ orders by sending asylum seekers to countries, often far-flung, that they didn’t come from.    

Further reading / watching:

• “Why Trump Keeps Talking About Communism: The 'Unhumans' Playbook,” by Gil Duran
• Cuban Memory Wars: Retrospective Politics in Revolution and Exile, by Michael J. Bustamante
• “ICE Deportation Flights Are Getting Longer and Crueler,” by Gillian Brockell
• “Tracking All of Trump’s Known Third-Country Removals,” by Gillian Brockell
• “Video proves Delta flew Liam Ramos and his dad to ICE detention center,” by Gillian Brockell

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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After the BBC ran a segment that edited to sections of a speech by President Trump, implying he called on his supporters to violently attack the Capitol, the president sued the British broadcaster for $10 billion in damages. The BBC apologized and retracted the segment. The BBC did not, however, cut him a check, opting instead to hire a top American media law firm to fight the suit. 

This week, Brooke talks to Liz Dye, host of the Law and Chaos podcast about how Trump bit off more than he could chew with this lawsuit against the BBC, and his tried-and-tested strategies against U.S. broadcasters don't work as well for him in this case.

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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This week, several New York Times reporters were subpoenaed by the Justice Department for their reporting on Air Force One. On this week’s On the Media, how a fifty-year-old Supreme Court ruling left journalists exposed to this kind of legal challenge. Plus, hear how Ebay employees launched a bizarre harassment campaign against a couple of e-commerce reporters.

[01:00] Micah Loewinger interviews Matt Gertz, senior fellow at Media Matters, about Todd Blanche’s recent confirmation hearings, his track record of being a Trump loyalist and frequent Fox News guest, and what his appointment reveals about the shifting independence of the attorney general from the White House. 

[16:39] Micah speaks with Lee Levine, media lawyer and author of the upcoming book  In Bad Faith: Earl Caldwell and the Fight for a Free Press, about the Justice Department delivering subpoenas to New York Times journalists for reporting on security concerns regarding the president’s new Air Force One, and what we can learn from the history of past presidential administrations weaponizing subpoenas against the press.

[32:11]  Brooke Gladstone sits down with Jenny Carchman, director of the documentary Whatever It Takes: Inside the eBay Scandal, to discuss the harassment and intimidation campaign carried out against Ina and David Steiner, the authors of an online e-commerce trade publication, using tactics straight out of horror movies. 

Further reading / watching:

• “With Todd Blanche, MAGA media is finally getting its dream AG,” by Matt Gertz
• “The Subpoenas Are Coming! The Subpoenas Are Coming!” by Lee Levine
• In Bad Faith: Earl Caldwell and the Fight for a Free Press by Lee Levine.
• Whatever It Takes: Inside the eBay Scandal

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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As Director of National Intelligence, Gabbard presided over the nation’s top intelligence agencies, including the CIA, the NSA, and the intelligence branch of the FBI. Her tenure was brief but embattled. In addition to advising the president on things like Iran’s nuclear capabilities, Gabbard regularly released tranches of declassified documents in reports with headlines like, “New Evidence Uncovers Obama-Directed Creation of False Intelligence Report Used to Launch Years-long Coup to Undermine President Trump and the American People.”

But last month, a remarkable story from Washington Post reporter Jon Swaine brought us one step closer to understanding the enigma that is Tulsi Gabbard. His investigation, Tulsi Gabbard, her guru and the mysterious messages that helped shape her political career, helps explain why, for instance, Gabbard has shapeshifted over the years, from liberal Democrat to Bernie Sanders ally to Trump insider. Why she’s flip-flopped on same-sex marriage and war with Iran. As Swaine uncovered, Gabbard’s public persona may have been shaped and re-shaped, in part, by a mysterious guru and his followers. 

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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ABC has enlisted the help of its audience to defend The View and Jimmy Kimmel against attacks from the Federal Communications Commission. On this week’s On the Media, hear about the MAGA movement trying to shift television to the right. Plus, the legal theory that the FCC is using to put pressure on the networks.

[01:00] Host Brooke Gladstone speaks with  Jim Rutenberg, writer-at-large for the New York Times, about how Trump’s FCC is reviving a nearly century-old rule to crack down on late-night talk shows. Rutenberg explains why MAGA’s embrace of the FCC’s regulatory powers to go after “liberal bias” in the media signals a shift within the Republican party.  

[26:47] Brooke sits down with Daniel Suhr, the president of a legal advocacy group called the Center for American Rights and the architect behind the legal theory that the FCC is using to put pressure on TV networks. They discuss his goal to make network TV look more like the AM radio band. 

Further reading:

• “How a Century-Old Rule Is Scrambling Late-Night TV,” by Jim Rutenberg
• “The MAGA Plan to Take Over TV Is Just Beginning,” by Jim Rutenberg
• “The FCC’s Public Notice on ‘Bona Fide News,’” by Daniel Suhr
• “The end of an agency,” by Daniel Suhr
• “Straight Talk on FCC 'Jawboning'” by Daniel Suhr

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Bluesky, TikTok and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing [email protected].

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