The Kicker

Columbia Journalism Review
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The Kicker is a podcast on the media and the world today. It comes out twice a month, hosted by Megan Greenwell and produced by Amanda Darrach for the Columbia Journalism Review. It is available wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

  1. 5 DAYS AGO

    How Documented is reinventing immigration coverage.

    Some of the most interesting journalism experiments aren’t taking place on the websites of publications. Instead, they’re happening on Facebook and WhatsApp and Reddit and WeChat and even Nextdoor, which I didn’t realize was anything other than a place for Karens to complain about loitering. Documented, an eight-year-old digital outlet that covers and serves immigrants in New York City and beyond, is behind many of these experiments—from producing a Chinese-language newsletter on WeChat to starting conversations on Nextdoor with Haitian Creole speakers in Flatbush, Brooklyn. In her first eighteen months at Documented, Ethar El-Katatney, the editor in chief, has elevated the publication’s investigative work and begun an expansion into video, but she refuses to lose sight of the mission: to give immigrants the information they need on the platforms they use. I interviewed El-Katatney about the common threads between Documented’s guides to city living and its long investigations, how differently her reporters work depending on what community they serve, and why Documented is expanding its ambitions to help other newsrooms.  Show notes: Documented Gears Up for Trump, Lauren Watson, CJR The Lost Prisoners of Chinatown’s Gang Era, April Xu, Documented Fake Immigration Courts Take Advantage of Immigrants Desperate for Answers, Rommel H. Ojeda, Documented. Guide of Resources for Immigrants, Nicolás Ríos, Documented Megan Greenwell, host Amanda Darrach, producer

    53 min
  2. The Old Playbook of Power and Influence Is Different Now

    14 MAY

    The Old Playbook of Power and Influence Is Different Now

    When Ronald Reagan won the presidency, in 1980, it was a victory long in the making. For almost half a century, conservatives had plotted ways to cut taxes and undo workers’ rights. Their playbook for political influence went something like this: create a think tank, publish reputable reports, build relationships with journalists and politicians, and disseminate free-market ideas to the public, creating a new common sense.  Today, the art of political influence is rather different. Think tanks no longer claim the power they once did and, since the rise of social media, newspapers and traditional journalists have lost their grip on public opinion. Perhaps this new state of affairs was best captured by Elon Musk when, shortly after taking over Twitter, in 2023, he declared that all press inquiries would receive an automated reply with the poop emoji. That is not the move of someone who believes the press is an essential tool in influencing public opinion. In this episode of the Journalism 2050 podcast, cohosts Emily Bell and Heather Chaplin are joined by two guests: Kim Phillips-Fein is a renowned historian of American conservatism and capitalism and the author of Invisible Hands: The Making of the Conservative Movement from the New Deal to Reagan, among other books. Samuel Earle is the author of Tory Nation: The Dark Legacy of the World’s Most Successful Political Party and a PhD candidate at Columbia Journalism School. Together, they ask: How has the nature of political influence changed? What are the implications for journalism? And what, if anything, can the left learn from the right’s success? Producer: Amanda Darrach Research: Samuel Earle Production Assistant: Riddhi Setty Art Director: Katie Kosma Illustrator: Aaron Fernandez Music: Henry Crooks

    57 min

  3. 7 MAY

    The Globe’s Emily Sweeney breaks out of Boston.

    “WHOA. Ohhhh. Freaking huge,” one of my favorite recent news videos opens. Emily Sweeney, a Boston Globe reporter, stands in the Museum of Fine Arts, gazing up at a thirteen-foot-tall, thirteen-thousand-pound Roman sculpture. Sweeney can’t hide her awe at seeing the statue the museum calls Juno, but that Sweeney knows from her teenage years as Gloria. Until a month ago, Sweeney was a rank-and-file breaking news reporter and the author of three books about Boston, her hometown. On March 31, though, her video about a dramatic home invasion at an estate north of the city made her a bona fide viral star. Dressed in a navy Adidas track jacket, with spiky platinum-blond hair and two silver hoops in each ear, she looks and sounds like the Platonic ideal of a native Bostonian, dropping R’s like they’re poisonous. Nearly three thousand people, including Ava DuVernay, the director, chimed in on Instagram, many of them saying they wanted more Sweeney videos. More than ninety-six thousand liked the video on TikTok. The Globe listened: Sweeney is now a regular on the paper’s social platforms—always in a different track jacket, always reading the news in that thick Boston accent.  I talked to Sweeney about thinking she couldn’t be on camera because she doesn’t have the right look, her obsession with the weirdest parts of her hometown’s history, and what she’s learned about building relationships with readers. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes: “What’s the story behind this statue at the MFA?” Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe, Instagram video  “What we know about the mysterious Beverly mansion robbery.” Emily Sweeney, Boston Globe, Instagram video Dropkick Murphy: A Legendary Life. Emily Sweeney. Megan Greenwell, host Amanda Darrach, producer

    44 min
  4. How Elon Musk is colonizing the future.

    4 MAY

    How Elon Musk is colonizing the future.

    Before Elon Musk, there was Henry Ford: an attention-seeking car manufacturer, newspaper owner, and media celebrity who pushed reactionary views on the public and transformed society around his business interests. “Fordism” was more than a mode of production, it was a way of organizing society, involving large factories, nuclear families, stable employment, and affordable cars, refrigerators, and televisions. In a new book, Muskism, Ben Tarnoff, a technology writer, and Quinn Slobodian, a historian at Boston University, analyze Musk in similar terms, as a maverick businessman who stands for a new type of society and a new social contract. They find that “Muskism” provides a far more dystopian package than Fordism’s offering. It is a world of strict and unforgiving hierarchies where governments exist in symbiotic relationship with Silicon Valley, social welfare erodes, and Musk is a self-appointed “techno-king.” Want safety or stability? Buy a Cybertruck.  In this episode of the Journalism 2050 podcast, Tarnoff and Slobodian join cohosts Emily Bell and Heather Chaplin to discuss Muskism’s vision of society, where it came from, and what the implications for journalism are. What does Muskism offer the public besides dystopia? How did Musk’s purchase of Twitter fit into his plans? What does journalism free from Muskism look like? Producer: Amanda Darrach Production Coordinator: Hana Joy Research: Samuel Earle Art Director: Katie Kosma Illustrator: Aaron Fernandez Music: Henry Crooks

    1hr 4min

  5. 23 APR

    Taking Back Saturday: “We’re sports people. We like to score.”

    I have a galaxy-brained theory that the most effective fundraisers in the country aren’t politicians or the heads of major foundations, but a pair of Atlanta-based college football bloggers. Two decades ago, Spencer Hall—best known as the creator of Every Day Should Be Saturday, a site covering college football with a mix of analytical skills and many inside jokes—decided to raise money for refugees in the Atlanta area. Hall had worked for a refugee services organization before pivoting to writing, so he put out the call to his readers and raised a few thousand dollars. After a couple of years of this, he and Holly Anderson, his fellow blogger, had an idea: Why not use college football rivalries to raise even more money? There’s nothing fans love more than destroying their most hated opponent, they figured, so they’d make the fundraiser a competition. Fans began donating in honor of their favorite team, often choosing the amount based on a significant number, like the score of a big game. The Charitbundi Bowl was born. The fundraiser continued after Vox Media bought Every Day Should Be Saturday, and after Hall and Anderson left the company, in 2020. To say their plan worked would be a comic understatement. Last year, Hall and Anderson—who now run a subscription-based college football site called Channel 6—raised more than 1.3 million dollars for New American Pathways, becoming its largest nongovernmental source of funds. The 2026 event, which runs through this weekend, crossed the million-dollar mark Wednesday evening. (You can donate to support your favorite team—real or fictional—here and see the leaderboard here.) I talked to Hall about his career from independent blogger to SB Nation editorial director and back again, being dismissed by Vox Media as “too niche,” and what it takes for a publication’s readership to become a real community. Listen below, or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes: How we got here. Spencer Hall, Channel 6 EDSBS Charity Bowl FAQ New American Pathways 2026 EDSBS Charity Bowl Bluesky Feed Megan Greenwell, host Amanda Darrach, producer

    49 min

  6. 9 APR

    Student, Teacher: Eric Gustafson on fighting for journalistic integrity at every level.

    I’ve spent my entire professional career in journalism, but student publications are still my favorite news outlets. I broke the biggest story of my life for my high school newspaper, and I find something so infectious about the energy of students who aren’t yet jaded about the industry or the job market, who just want to write about topics that matter to their peers. Us pros can learn a lot from them. Eric Gustafson is one of the few people I’ve ever spoken to whose passion for student journalism rivals my own. A longtime journalist, he took over the journalism program at Lowell High, a prestigious San Francisco public school, in 2017. Last year, after a couple of controversial stories about student drug use, teacher sexual harassment, and AI grading—including one that the student paper, The Lowell, never even published—he was removed from the role. California, Gustafson knew, has one of the strongest laws in the country protecting the independence of student journalists and their advisers. He sued his employer, and he won: his reassignment was illegal, a state superior court found.  In this episode, I talk to Gustafson about The Lowell’s steady stream of major stories, his decision to sue, the backlash from his colleagues, and why student journalism matters. Listen below—or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes: Obtainable and addictive. Isadore Diamond and Clarabelle Fields, The Lowell Invasive and inappropriate. Ramona Jacobson, Serena Miller, and Dakota Colussi, The Lowell Know your student press rights. The Student Press Law Center Final judgment, Eric Gustafson v. San Francisco Unified School District. Superior Court for California for the County of San Francisco Judge rules that Lowell High School journalism teacher’s reassignment was illegal. Jill Tucker, San Francisco Chronicle Lowell students open up about experiences with math teacher Tom Chan. Milena Garrone and Amálie Cimala, The Lowell Megan Greenwell, host Amanda Darrach, producer

    51 min

  7. 26 MAR

    The Inside Look: Chatting with the New York Times’ trust editor.

    I must confess that initially I was a bit skeptical of the concept. The New York Times was promoting a Q&A with two technology reporters, Mike Isaac and Sheera Frankel, and their editor, Pui-Wing Tam. The headline, in 2014 BuzzFeed style, was “Reporters Seek Comment. What Happens Next May Surprise You.” Over the course of several hundred words, Isaac, Frankel, and Tam explained how they ask sources for answers, especially those who might not be inclined to respond. Who is this for? I wondered. Who is this going to convince? So I called up Mike Abrams, the Times’ deputy trust editor, who conducted that Q&A, part of a series that runs under the “Times Insider” vertical. I wanted to know why he thinks trust in media is so low and why, after twenty-two years at the Times, this was the problem he wanted to work on. We talked about how all those front-facing videos that reporters are doing relate to trust, and how his role differs from that of the outlet’s PR staff biting back at criticism on X and Bluesky. And we got into the critiques of specific storylines: Trump, Gaza, trans medical care. Listen here—or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes: Reporters seek comment. What happens next may surprise you. Mike Abrams, New York TimesTrust in Media at New Low of 28% in U.S. Megan Brenan, GallupSeen but not heard: The New York Times failed to quote trans people in two-thirds of stories on anti-trans legislation in a one-year period. Vesper Henry and Ari Drennan, Media Matters and GLAAD Megan Greenwell, host Amanda Darrach, producer

    53 min

  8. 12 MAR

    Lessons from an Early-Career Journalist

    When I took over the Kicker host chair, one of the things I was most excited to do was to interview early-career journalists, who see the changes to our industry from an entirely different perspective from those of us who’ve been around since the days when Twitter was king, or before social media existed. I’ve always loved working with young people—among my many freelance gigs, I help run a program for high school journalists—because I feel like I get smarter (and hopefully even marginally more relevant?) every time I talk to them. For going on seven years now, Sofia Barnett has been one of my favorite young journalists to talk to. From the first time I met her, when she was a high school junior outside Dallas, she’s been uncommonly driven: toward a career in journalism, toward telling the stories of Indigenous Americans like herself, toward seeing the world and writing about all of it. Now, at twenty-three, she’s covered more big stories than many people do in a full career. She wound up at the Minnesota Star Tribune fresh out of college, moving to Minneapolis just in time for perhaps the newsiest year in the city’s history. As an intern, she was the first reporter on the scene of the Annunciation Catholic Church school shooting last August. Then, while formally assigned to cover the suburbs, she was named to the five-person team covering the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on the city. In this episode, Barnett and I talk about all of that, plus about how she thinks about a career in this tumultuous time for journalism. Listen below—or wherever you get your podcasts. Show notes: He couldn’t run. So they covered him instead. Sofia Barnett, Minnesota Star Tribune‘Just another Native’: Minneapolis Indigenous women demand emergency response to violence. Sofia Barnett, Minnesota Star TribuneTexas ranks almost dead last in the nation for women’s health care, research shows. Sofia Barnett, Dallas Morning NewsThe Princeton Summer Journalism Program Megan Greenwell, host Amanda Darrach, producer

    48 min
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About

The Kicker is a podcast on the media and the world today. It comes out twice a month, hosted by Megan Greenwell and produced by Amanda Darrach for the Columbia Journalism Review. It is available wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

Information

  • Creator
    Columbia Journalism Review
  • Years Active
    2016 - 2026
  • Episodes
    328
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Columbia Journalism Review
  • Show Website
    The Kicker

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