Brooke Gladstone

Between battling for high profile legislation on guns and immigration and consoling a nation, Obama had to walk a tightrope this week. Brooke talks to Glenn Thrush, Senior White House Correspondent for Politico, who says that reconciling what was happening inside and outside Washington, was not as hard as it might seem.  

In the May issue of Harper’s magazine, Ted Conover, a longtime undercover and participatory journalist, details his job as an undercover federal meat inspector at an industrial slaughterhouse. Conover talks to Brooke about meat safety, going undercover and why it's necessary to bring a hidden world to life. 

As a manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects unfolded in the wee hours of Friday morning, Twitter was the place to be for coverage. Brooke speaks with OTM producer Alex Goldman, who captained the late (really late) night Twitter coverage for On the Media.

Implode - Bottom Of A Well

After the initial surge of news on Monday, we hit a news lull, so many outlets filled their air with recycled video, speculation, sorrow on the scene, pundits, consultants and blather. We asked the best call-in host we know, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, what you're supposed to say on-air when there isn't new information but people still want to tune in. 

Should reporters lie or misrepresent themselves in order to get an important story? Undercover reporting has long been an effective, exciting and, some would argue, necessary journalistic tool. But at a time when the public's trust in the press is waning, can journalists afford to lie? In a story that originally aired in 2008, Brooke talks with undercover reporters and their critics.

Clive Carroll and John Renbourn - Robert's Sermon

Earlier in the week, we asked our listeners to let us know what they thought of the coverage they were seeing. We got many thoughtful responses on our blog. In an interview recorded Thursday, listeners Alexander Hoffman, Kat Danielsen, and Roland Dumas talk with Brooke about their experience of the Boston bombing coverage.

William Tyler - Country of Illusion

The magazine Runner's World sent over 20 staffers to cover the Boston Marathon. After the bombs exploded, a small team stayed in Boston, transforming from sports reporters to journalists in a breaking news environment. Brooke talks with the magazine's Editor-in-Chief, David Willey, about directing the magazine's coverage during a national tragedy.

William Tyler - We Can't Go Home Again

Though the Boston Marathon bombing happened less than a week ago, the coverage has already had a month's worth of twists and turns. Brooke reviews the sometimes-unsteady media coverage of recent developments in the case.

OTM producer Doug Anderson fires up Grindr and meets up with another guy for a casual, anonymous...interview.

Fred Astaire - I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket

As the Senate debates gun control for the first time in decades, we’re awash in stories we might never have heard but for Newtown. Brooke speaks with New York Times op-ed writer Joe Nocera, who's tracking gun violence daily on his blog The Gun Report. And Bob speaks with reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg about why we're stuck with anecdotes instead of data in the gun discussion.

Lúnasa - Killarney Boys Of Pleasure

Two years ago OTM traveled to Cairo to report on the post-revolution Egyptian media. This week, in the aftermath of the Bassem Youssef arrest, Brooke looks back on her interview with Bassem in 2011 and speaks with New York Times Cairo Bureau David Kirkpatrick about the future of the media in Egypt. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s escalating threats against the US earned him a prominent spot in this week’s news cycle. Charles Armstrong, Director of Columbia University’s Center for Korean Research, tells Brooke that North Korean threats are not only cyclical - they’re seasonal.

The rate of prosecution of government leakers has reached unprecedented heights under President Obama, twice that of every other president combined. It's been called a 'war on leakers'. But is it? Columbia Law professor David Pozen, author of The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information, tells Brooke that when you consider the total number of government leakers - less then 1% are punished.

With his cool rhymes and even cooler clothes, Basketball Hall of Famer Walt "Clyde" Frazier sat down with Brooke Gladstone for a live event to discuss basketball, broadcasting and the art of being cool.

Anthony Lewis passed away this week at 85 after a long and storied career covering the Supreme Court for The New York Times. In a segment originally aired in 2008, Brooke spoke with Lewis about his book Freedom for the Thought We Hate, an examination of the First Amendment. He explained that the amendment that governs free speech and the press might not be as familiar as we think.

Oddisee - Frostbite

Brooke Gladstone of WNYC’s On The Media discusses how the American press corps handled the lead up to the Iraq War and the subsequent turns and scandals in the conflict.

Late last month, Bradley Manning pled guilty to 10 of the 22 charges against him for leaking a trove of information to WikiLeaks. He did not plead guilty to 'aiding the enemy,' a capital offense. Brooke talks to University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone about the validity of the 'aiding the enemy' charge.

Before sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to Wikileaks, Bradley Manning says he tried to give those same documents to the New York Times. The Times, he says, never returned his call. Brooke speaks with Bill Keller, New York Times Op-Ed columnist and former Executive Editor, who wondered this week how the Manning story would be different if the Times had worked with him directly.

Bradley Manning still faces the charge of 'aiding the enemy.' Though that charge can carry the death penalty, the government has said it won't seek it. Brooke spoke with Harvard Law Professor Yochai Benkler who says that a conviction on that charge would still set a chilling precedent for future whistleblowers. 

Modest Mouse - Gravity Rides Everything