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Critical Frequency

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Channel • 10 Shows

Documentary

Documentary

Updated Weekly
History

History

Updated Weekly
History

History

Updated 10/01/2020
TV & Film

TV & Film

Updated 01/06/2019
History

History

Updated 05/27/2019
Music Commentary

Music Commentary

Updated Daily
News Commentary

News Commentary

Updated 02/26/2020

08/01/2023

Herb, Ep 3: The Next Citizens United Will Be a Climate Case

In more than 30 climate cases making their way through U.S. courts today, oil companies are using an argument they've been laying the legal groundwork for since the 1970s: that since everything they've ever said about climate change was in the interest of shaping policy or blocking regulation, it's protected speech, even if it was misleading. In this episode we take a look at how those cases are playing out and the likelihood that this new take on "corporate free speech" could make it all the way to the Supreme Court. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

08/01/2023

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27 min
10/15/2019

The View from Nowhere

“Objectivity is dead, and I’m okay with it.” That’s what public radio journalist Lewis Raven Wallace wrote in a blog post just after Donald Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Wallace called on other journalists to stand up to Trump’s racism and transphobia. His employer, Marketplace, fired him for this post—on this episode, he talks to producer Ramona Martinez and journalism historian David Mindich about what he’s learned since. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10/15/2019

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23 min
07/21/2023

Herb, Ep 1: The Panic

In the 1970s, Mobil Oil had invented the advertorial and was aggressively pursuing an entirely new type of marketing, branding the company as a person with a unique personality and opinions that deserved to be heard. When public backlash threatened to undermine their approach, they launched a campaign that would change the course of U.S. history. Transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

07/21/2023

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35 min
06/09/2020

The End of Extractive Journalism

Extractive journalism—reporting on communities without input or accountability—is the model for a lot of journalism in the U.S., especially journalism about low-income people and communities of color. But lots of people are and have been actively resisting this model. We hear from Sarah Alvarez of Outlier Media in Detroit and Bettina Chang of City Bureau in Chicago about building journalism organizations based on power-sharing rather than extraction, how information can save lives in pandemic times, and how the COVID-19 crisis has changed their work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

06/09/2020

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42 min
06/03/2025

SLAPP'd Ep 1: How did we get here?

Greenpeace, which was only tangentially involved in the Standing Rock protests, has been slapped with a $666 million bill for damages...despite the fact that the Dakota Access Pipeline was built, and has been making Energy Transfer millions of dollars for years. How did we get here? Cody Hall, an Indigenous water protector who was a key figure during the Standing Rock protests and was initially also targeted in Energy Transfer's suit, walks us through how things went down back in 2016 and 2017, and where this suit began. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

06/03/2025

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43 min
08/01/2023

Herb, Ep 2: A Legal Strategy

Worried that all their work creating Mobil's personality and a multi-pronged issue advertising campaign to go with it would go to waste if the TV networks deemed it all "propaganda" Herb and his boss looked to the courts for protection. In this episode we follow the "corporate free speech" movement through the courts, where it got a big assist from tobacco lobbyist-turned-Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

08/01/2023

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31 min
12/07/2021

S1 Ep6 | How a Standard Oil PR Guy Shaped Post-War America

In 1944 the greatest threat to American industry wasn't World War II, it was convincing Americans to fall back in love with free-market capitalism after having experienced government systems that actually worked for the greater good. In the season finale of Rigged, we lay out the strategy contained in a never-before-published confidential document from the archive of Earl Newsom, Standard Oil of New Jersey's (today ExxonMobil) top PR guy from the late '30s to the late '60s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12/07/2021

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35 min
SEASON 6 TRAILER

New Drilled Season: SLAPP'd

This season on Drilled, an Indigenous nation fighting for its water, an international environmental movement finding its voice, and an industry attempting to crush its political opposition. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

S6 Trailer

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4 min
12/02/2024

The Massive Climate Case that Shell Both Won and Lost, and What It Means for the Future of Global Climate Litigation

In November, a Dutch court ruled in Shell's favor on an appeal in a big international climate case. It got loads of headlines around the world, but it wasn't quite the win for Shell that a lot of media coverage has made it out to be. Although it walked back some things, the court reaffirmed a key component of the original ruling: that Shell is legally required to reduce its global emissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12/02/2024

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21 min
10/22/2019

How Black Lives Matter Changed the News

Before 2014, police killings of unarmed Black people weren’t a huge news story. Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery, Ferguson activist Johnetta Elzie, and host Lewis Raven Wallace look at how media reacted after police killed Michael Brown in 2014, and how #BlackLivesMatter changed the news. Wallace and Lowery reflect on how “objective” outlets failed to cover Black death at the hands of police until activists forced their hand. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

10/22/2019

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37 min

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