Citations Needed

Apr 02 2025 330 ep. 57 mins 40.6k
Citations Needed Podcast artwork

Citations Needed is a podcast about the intersection of media, PR, and power, hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson.

  News  Society & Culture
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News Brief: Dem Leaders, 'Free Speech' Warriors Mostly Shrug as Trump Disappears Political Dissidents

Apr 02 2025 28 mins  
In this public News Brief, we discuss the media and high-profile Democratic Party leaders and 'Free Speech' crowd's muted—or, in many cases, completely silent—response to the greatest attack on free speech in recent memory: Trump's kidnapping and disappearing of Palestinian solidarity students.

Episode 217: A.I. Mysticism as Responsibility-Evasion PR Tactic

Mar 26 2025 63 mins  
“Israel built an ‘AI factory’ for war. It unleashed it in Gaza,” laments the Washington Post. “Hospitals Are Reporting More Insurance Denials. Is AI Driving Them?,” reports Newsweek. “AI Raising the Rent? San Francisco Could Be the First City to Ban the Practice,” announces San Francisco’s KQED. Within the last few years, and particularly the last few months, we�

News Brief: Trump's Hollow Working Class Aesthetics and How Unions Can Lead a Real Resistance

Mar 19 2025 33 mins  
In this Citations Needed News Brief interview, we're joined by Rutgers professor Eric Blanc to discuss his new book "We Are The Union," and lay out how any meaningful resistance to Trump and Trumpism has to be grounded in a growing, strong, confrontational labor movement.

News Brief: Israel Kills Over 400 in 12 Hrs, Media Unsure if This Counts as Violating the 'Ceasefire'

Mar 18 2025 19 mins  
In this News Brief, we detail the struggle to continue framing Israel as a reluctant, defensive peace-seeking party despite its openly genocidal rhetoric and acts.

News Brief: The Disappearance of Mahmoud Khalil and the Phony 'Campus Safety' Panic

Mar 12 2025 34 mins  
In this News Brief, we detail how Center-Left institutions and media have cynically wielded "lived experience" claptrap to assist Trump's overtly fascistic crackdown on dissenting speech.

Episode 216: Sunday Morning News Shows and the Problem With 'Agenda Setting' Court Stenography

Mar 12 2025 57 mins  
“It’s fair to call the deteriorating situation at the US/Mexican border a crisis,” declared NBC’s Meet the Press in 2021. “[CNN anchor Dana] Bash presses Netanyahu on Gaza death toll: 'Is Israel doing everything possible to... avoid civilian casualties?',” boasted CNN’s State of the Union in 2023. “Principle over party… The latest high-profile Republican endorseme

Citations Needed Live Show Beg-a-Thon: Ancient Rome and the False Histories Inspiring Musk & the MAGA World

Mar 05 2025 66 mins  
In this Beg-a-Thon live show, "Ancient Rome and the False Histories Inspiring Musk & the MAGA World," with guest Dr. Sarah E. Bond, we discuss Sarah's new book, Strike: Labor, Unions, and Resistance in the Roman Empire, and how Elon Musk and everyone in his MAGA orbit appropriate the aesthetics of Rome while understanding almost nothing about the history they're seemingly so in

News Brief: Silicon Valley Patronage, How To Subtly Drift Right, and the New Conservative Media Ecosystem

Feb 12 2025 35 mins  
In this News Brief, we interview journalist and author Eoin Higgins about his new book, "Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left," discuss the new model of tech billionaire funding, and detail how some of the biggest names in Left media became MAGA-aligned, Tucker-boosting petty, score-settlers.

News Brief: Media Continues Painting Musk's Far Right Coup as Good Faith "Cost-Cutting Effort"

Feb 05 2025 24 mins  
In this News Brief we detail how The New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN took a pathological liar with a clear ideological agenda at his word he's worried about "waste" for the sole reason he’s rich and powerful.

News Brief: Trump's Anti-Migrant Terror PR Strategy, Dr Phil's ICE Reality Show & NYT's MAGA Assist

Jan 29 2025 35 mins  
In this News Brief, we detail the Trump's administration's strategy of trying to terrorize migrant communities, why it's not working as planned, how The New York Times is manufacturing a pro-mass deportation consensus and how migrant communities and their allies are fighting back. We are joined by Chris from the humanitarian aid organization No More Deaths.