Are You Mad at Me? A Shattered Glass Podcast

Erica C. Barnett
  • 5.0 (11)
  • TV & FILM
  • UPDATED MONTHLY

Two longtime political journalists, Erica C. Barnett and Josh Feit, do a monthly deep dive on the 2003 movie Shattered Glass, about the first major journalism scandal of the digital age. Stephen Glass, who worked at The New Republic between 1995 and 1998, fully or partially fabricated dozens of stories for TNR and other publications. He was fired after a reporter for an upstart online publication, Forbes Digital Tool, exposed him. The movie is a low-budget classic, featuring outstanding performances from Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny, Melanie Lynskey, Hayden Christensen, and Steve Zahn.

Episodes

  1. 08/12/2025

    Former New Republic Editor Chuck Lane on Shattered Glass and Stephen Glass

    Send us a text Our special guest this month is Chuck Lane, the former New Republic editor who was portrayed by Peter Sarsgaard in Shattered Glass! We had a blast talking with Chuck, who left the magazine about two years after the events featured in the movie and went on to a long and illustrious career at the Washington Post. Chuck was gracious as we peppered him with questions about the events of the film, and got his take on Shattered Glass director Billy Ray's assessment of the central conflict between Lane and Glass' loyalists at TNR, which Ray described to us as "the least popular kid in high school taking on the most popular kid."  We also asked him about a story Adam Penenberg (Steve Zahn in the film) told us about Lane's decision to give the story to Howard Kurtz of the Post after Penenberg discovered Glass had fabricated  the story "Hack Heaven": "I felt all along like we should not let anybody else report on what we did without our knowledge. In other words, we shouldn't get scooped on our own wrongdoing, because it would look like a coverup." Quotes: "One of the great psychological factors in all of this is that it's very dangerous to accuse somebody of faking their stories unless you really have it nailed cold, like the way I eventually did. I think everybody's default rule is just to accept what's on the printed page until proven otherwise." " I know Adam feels to this day—and all of them, Kambiz Faruhar and [everyone]— they felt that was like doing them wrong. But on the other hand, I guess one word in my defense is—they were the internet! They should have been able to go up instantly with their own story." Recommended reading: "Praised Be Greenspan," Stephen Glass, The New Republic "New Republic Fires Writer Over 'Hoax,'" Howard Kurtz, The Washington Post Hosts: Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett Edited by: Erica C. Barnett

    43 min

  2. 07/01/2025

    Shattered Glass vs. Ordinary People, Featuring Tom Nissley

    Send us a text This month's special guest is Phinney Books owner, Jeopardy! champ, and All the President's Men superfan Tom Nissley, who witnessed the birth of our Shattered Glass obsession (and slept through a little of it.) Tom—who went to high school with Josh in Bethesda—has some theories, and they involve the movie Ordinary People, which we all watched this week (Tom dug it, Josh cried, and Erica rolled her eyes).  Is Shattered Glass just a mashup between All the Presidents' Men and Ordinary People? Is Stephen Glass a more sympathetic character than we realized? And what does Hayden Christensen have to do with Henry Winkler in Night Shift? Listen to hear us discuss those theories and more... plus a shocking revelation at the 13:50 mark! Quotes:  "What I'm going to do is this. I'm going to read to you a list of suspicious titles, one by one. If you raise an objection to a particular title, we'll fact-check it again in the hope  of removing it from the list. If you remain silent, we'll assume that piece is fabricated, either partially or entirely, and it will stay on." "You don't know how things go where I grew up, Caitlin. There are rules there. If your son's not a doctor or a lawyer, you keep your curtains closed." "You're writing for The New-f*****g-Republic. Isn't that good enough?" "Not in Highland Park." "I mean, if you can get Rosario Dawson in your movie..." Hosts: Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett Edited by: Erica C. Barnett

    44 min

  3. 05/30/2025

    Shattered Glass Director Billy Ray!

    Send us a text We're so excited to release our interview with Shattered Glass director Billy Ray, who was kind enough to indulge all our questions about our favorite movie, like: What happened between the scene where Chloe Sevigny confronts Peter Sarsgaard for firing Stephen and the next day, when she leads the team in applauding him for his brave decision?  Where does Shattered Glass rank in the pantheon of movies Ray's written over the course of his career, which include blockbusters like The Hunger Games and Captain Phillips?  And why does Ray think Stephen Glass kept digging himself deeper and deeper, inventing new lies right up until he was fired for fabricating dozens of stories? Billy Ray was a great sport, although he did give us shit for interviewing Adam Penenberg, the reporter who first busted Glass in a story for Forbes Digital Tool, before him. "I cannot understand why I wasn't your first f*****g guest," he told us—"Who the hell did you interview before me? The three grips?"  We hope you'll enjoy listening to our conversation with director Billy Ray as much as we enjoyed recording it.  Hosts: Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett Edited by: Erica C. Barnett

    45 min

  4. 04/18/2025

    Why You Should Watch Shattered Glass!

    Send us a text Chances are you aren't a journalist, and chances are even better that unlike the hosts of this podcast, you weren't a journalist in the Shattered Glass era—a time when alternative print media was being destroyed by online classified ads and folded into the templates of a few "alternative" media conglomerates—the predatory vulture capitalists of their day. We still think you'll love this movie as much as we do, and we're here to tell you why!  And if you still don't believe us by the end of this episode, just listen to the words of New York Times movie critic A.O. Scott, who called Shattered Glass both a "serious, well-observed examination of the practice of journalism" and "an astute and surprisingly gripping drama not only about the ethics of magazine writing, but also, more generally, about the subtle political and psychological dynamics of modern office culture." Quotes: "He somehow managed to slip his tongue down my throat." "I'm not going anywhere with you." "You know what could have prevented all this? Pictures." A.O. Scott review: https://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/movies/film-review-a-young-writer-s-ambition-with-loyalty-and-betrayal.html Hosts: Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett Edited by: Erica C. Barnett

    28 min

  5. 03/09/2025

    "This New Republic Piece? It's a F*cking Sieve."

    Send us a text We have a very exciting special guest for the second episode of Are You Mad At Me?: The real-life Adam Penenberg! Penenberg, portrayed by Steve Zahn in Shattered Glass, was working for an early online outlet called Forbes Digital Tool when his editor, Kambiz Foroohar, demanded to know why he'd been scooped by Stephen Glass on a story about teenage hackers.  That story, "Hack Heaven," focused on a kid named Ian Restil who had hacked into a "big-time software firm" called Jukt Micronics; instead of prosecuting him, the company hired him to provide digital security. It was part of a nationwide trend in which hackers, often represented by professional agents, were holding companies hostage and extracting huge payments in exchange for protecting them from other hackers. Of course, the story was completely fabricated—and Penenberg was the one who unraveled the fraud. In our interview, Penenberg tells us what it was like to uncover the story and reflects on what it was like to be a reporter for a digital startup going up against a venerable institution like The New Republic. He also offers his thoughts on why Glass decided to fabricate stories instead of just reporting them, and tells us what it was like talking to Steve Zahn as he was developing his character for the movie. Today, Penenberg is the director of the American Journalism Online Master's program at NYU. Quotes: "Is it pronounced 'jooked' or 'jucked'?" "No, it was an 'N.' As in 'Not working.'" "This guy is toast." Hosts: Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett Edited by: Erica C. Barnett

    43 min

  6. 02/01/2025

    Episode 1: Hack Heaven

    Send us a text In the inaugural episode of this 12-month podcast, we dissect some of our favorite scenes from Shattered Glass, and tell you why you should watch this iconic movie. Quotes: "Is anyone interested in hackers?" "The building's closed on Sundays." "He fed us fiction after fiction, and we printed them all as fact. Just because we found him... entertaining." Hosts: Josh Feit and Erica C. Barnett Edited by: Erica C. Barnett

    50 min
  • 6 Episodes

5
out of 5
11 Ratings

About

Two longtime political journalists, Erica C. Barnett and Josh Feit, do a monthly deep dive on the 2003 movie Shattered Glass, about the first major journalism scandal of the digital age. Stephen Glass, who worked at The New Republic between 1995 and 1998, fully or partially fabricated dozens of stories for TNR and other publications. He was fired after a reporter for an upstart online publication, Forbes Digital Tool, exposed him. The movie is a low-budget classic, featuring outstanding performances from Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny, Melanie Lynskey, Hayden Christensen, and Steve Zahn.

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