TWO REPORTERS

Apr 21 2024 10
TWO REPORTERS Podcast artwork

David K. Shipler & Daniel Zwerdling have spent their lives investigating thorny and neglected issues, winning journalism’s top awards along the way. Now join Dave and Danny on TWO REPORTERS, as they interview stellar guests about pressing social problems and solutions - and just fascinating stuff - in ways you haven’t heard before. Advisory: Episodes may contain laughing, arguing and moments of irreverence.

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How a sniper almost killed our guest (plus other chilling tales of a foreign correspondent) / FROM THE ARCHIVE

Apr 21 2024 31 mins  
Next time you hear details of the horrific wars in Ukraine and Gaza, think about how you're learning them: journalists are risking their lives to report from the front lines. Lewis Simons won the Pulitzer Prize during decades of reporting on the Vietnam war and other conflicts across Asia. He lived by a motto: "Whatever the threat or danger, I had to be there."

Check out how foreign autocrats whom Trump admires gutted their democracies, step by step - legally

Mar 30 2024 42 mins  
Now Trump and the Republican party are following their autocratic playbooks, whether by design or by instinct: pack courts and agencies with their cronies, slander and intimidate the media, and denigrate their opponents as "evil" and vermin. Harvard professor Steven Levitsky, co-author of How Democracies Die and Tyranny of the Minority, tells us why it could take many yea

When they taught you the history of these intrepid explorers, was it pretty much a lie?

Mar 08 2024 49 mins  
When you learned about the American explorers who claimed to discover the North Pole, the answer seems to be, "Yes." In fact, the fabled drama of Robert E. Peary and Frederick Cook was an early example of how powerful newspapers - in this case The New York Times and New York Herald - spread fake news (although critics still debate whether the newspaper owners knew it was

When apps ask to "share your location" or use voice ID, could it hurt you? / FROM THE ARCHIVE

Feb 16 2024 39 mins  
It could happen to you: police mistakenly suspect or arrest you, because an app's location data show you were near the scene of a crime. The ACLU's Nathan Wessler returns to explain how geolocation, voice recognition and other high-tech tracking methods - including the way you walk! - could disrupt your life in ways you hardly expect.

Should you worry about facial recognition at airports, malls and unexpected places? / From the archive

Jan 26 2024 39 mins  
America's surveillance network is nowhere near as pervasive and chilling as China's, but U.S. companies and government agencies are already using high-tech tools like facial recognition to track you more than you might think. As the ACLU's Nathan Wessler tells us, the facial recognition software sometimes goofs - and ordinary, innocent people like you end up in jail.

OMG if Trump wins again, he could take over the internet (maybe) / FROM THE ARCHIVE

Jan 05 2024 31 mins  
Presidents have drawn up plans to wield sweeping emergency powers - and some of those plans are so secret that even Congress has never seen them. Elizabeth Goitein, of the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, has unearthed dozens of emergency presidential powers. Voters should understand the potential powers they could give any president, before they cast their ballot.

Here's another episode that should boost your spirits

Dec 15 2023 38 mins  
David K. Shipler (aka "Dave," our podcast co-host) is not only a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist: He's a poet, and just published his debut volume of poems, The Wind is Invisible. Given the grim news in the world, Dave's lovely poetry - glimpses of nature, reflections on family, moving insights about love - is a refreshing antidote. It's also (according t

Do you know any idealistic politicians? Here's one!

Dec 01 2023 44 mins  
Shekar Krishnan just got re-elected to the New York City Council with three times as many votes as the runner-up. And so far, he's showing how politics and government can actually make people's lives better. Shekar fights for immigrant taxi drivers, the LGBTQ community, and minorities who need good low-income housing; he went briefly to jail and got smeared by the Proud B

Why do Iran's leaders mistrust and even hate the US - and its allies? / FROM THE ARCHIVE

Nov 11 2023 42 mins  
As the horrific war between Israel and Hamas continues, US and Iranian officials are sending each other warnings, just as they have for decades: Back off. When you hear this episode, it will help remind you one reason why Iran's government learned to hate the US long ago: The US and Britain secretly ran the plot to topple its leader in the 1950s. Why? For Iran's oil. Film

Will Republicans ever back a decent leader again - like this one? / FROM THE ARCHIVE

Oct 28 2023 51 mins  
As we publish this, Congressional Republicans have just elected their new Speaker - a right-wing extremist who led the fight, which many consider seditious, to overthrow Joseph Biden’s 2020 democratic election. So it’s more astonishing than ever to revisit the presidency of Republican Dwight D. "Ike" Eisenhower. His granddaughter, Susan Eisenhower, describes some of I