The Kicker

Dec 12 2024 283 ep. 26 mins 3.7k
The Kicker Podcast artwork

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

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The Unraveling of Ozy Media: Episode 3: The Verdict and the Pain

Dec 12 2024 63 mins  
In the finale, Carlos Watson takes the stand—and the jury reaches a verdict.“The Unraveling of Ozy Media” is a special three-part series of The Kicker, on the trial of Carlos Watson and the excesses of the digital media age, presented by the Columbia Journalism Review.Hosted and coproduced by Josh Hersh and Susie BanikarimProduced and edited by Amanda Darrach

The Unraveling of Ozy Media: Episode 2: Built on a Bluff

Dec 10 2024 53 mins  
How inflating traffic data went mainstream in digital media—and a key witness takes the stand.“The Unraveling of Ozy Media” is a special three-part series of The Kicker, on the trial of Carlos Watson and the excesses of the digital media age, presented by the Columbia Journalism Review.Hosted and coproduced by Josh Hersh and Susie BanikarimProduced and edited by Amanda Darrac

The Unraveling of Ozy Media: Episode 1: Truth and Mythmaking

Dec 09 2024 42 mins  
Carlos Watson’s media startup arrives on the scene—and insiders reveal a dark reality under its glossy veneer.“The Unraveling of Ozy Media” is a special three-part series of The Kicker, on the trial of Carlos Watson and the excesses of the digital media age, presented by the Columbia Journalism Review.Hosted and coproduced by Josh Hersh and Susie BanikarimProduced and edite

Coming Soon: The Unraveling of Ozy Media

Dec 05 2024 2 mins  
Starting on December 9, the Columbia Journalism Review presents a special three-part series of The Kicker: “The Unraveling of Ozy Media,” on the dramatic rise and fall of Carlos Watson, the cofounder of the digital media company Ozy. In 2023, Watson was charged with fraud after it was revealed that one of his partners had masqueraded as a YouTube executive, during a call with p

How Trump Won the Latino Vote: A Deep Dive with CJR Contributor Jack Herrera

Nov 08 2024 28 mins  
Nearly half of all Latino voters put their support behind former president Donald Trump this week, according to exit polls—a 14 percent increase from 2020.Those results surprised many, but not Jack Herrera, who has been reporting on the shifting voting habits of Latino communities across the country for years.Herrera joins The Kicker to talk about what he’s learned from his jou

Martin Baron on Jeff Bezos, the Post, and the role of presidential endorsements

Oct 30 2024 24 mins  
Martin Baron was the executive editor of the Washington Post from 2013 until his retirement, in 2021—which meant he was there for the arrival of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos as owner and publisher of the paper.He’s long praised Bezos for taking a firm line against any interference with the paper’s journalism, but Bezos’s sudden decision, announced last week, to torpedo the pap

How Trump’s team could craft ‘the narrative’ after the election: NBC’s Ryan Reilly on 2020, and the road ahead

Oct 25 2024 33 mins  
The so-called Big Lie—that the 2020 election was stolen out from under Donald Trump—was more than just a series of individual false facts and misleading videos. It was a narrative, carefully constructed by people affiliated with the Trump campaign, and disseminated through friendly news outlets and social media channels.Four years later, that story still convinces millions of T

Hell Gate's Chris Robbins on a manic news cycle in New York

Oct 09 2024 26 mins  
New York City is the media capital of the world, but the number of people and outlets covering the city locally has taken a hit recently. Over the past few years, the Wall Street Journal dropped its independent metro section, the New York Times announced it would stop endorsing local races, and the all-news radio station WCBS went off the air. But a number of scrappy upstarts have

The power of uncomfortable ideas: Jina Moore Ngarambe on her time at Guernica

Sep 18 2024 39 mins  
In March, the digital literary magazine Guernica published a personal essay by a British Israeli writer and translator, about her experiences in the aftermath of the October 7 Hamas terror attacks.It was raw and honest and painful to read. The writer, Joanna Chen, had spent years before the attacks and subsequent war on Gaza volunteering for an organization that transported Palesti

‘That’s how you run a debate!’: 9News’s Kyle Clark on holding politicians accountable

Sep 04 2024 28 mins  
In late May, Kyle Clark went viral after he moderated a debate featuring six Republican candidates for Colorado’s Fourth Congressional District, including Rep. Lauren Boebert.He refused to allow the candidates to evade his direct questions with waffling, rambly answers, instead repeatedly cutting them off: “You didn’t make any attempt to answer the actual question,” he said