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Society & Culture

Scene on Radio

by Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University
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Latest episodes

  • S8 E9: The News, Bonus Q&A

    September 9, 2026 · 56 min

    Co-hosts John Biewen and Chenjerai Kumanyika respond to questions sent in by listeners in response to Scene on Radio Season 8: The News. Questions about AI and propaganda, journalistic bias, America's plummeting press freedom ranking…

  • S8 E8: Making Media Democratic

    July 8, 2026 · 43 min

    This season we've explored how the news media are failing the American people and our democracy. In this concluding episode, we look at solutions -- how to help good journalism survive, and how we might imagine a better, more democratic…

  • S8 E7: Can We Blame the Media For THIS?

    July 1, 2026 · 55 min

    Many people in the United States and around the world view the rise of Donald Trump and his MAGA movement as a grave crisis. At the same time, most Americans are angry with the news media. What role did the media play in making a President…

  • S8 E6: What Could Have Been

    June 24, 2026 · 50 min

    Ever thought about whether America's overwhelmingly corporate, for-profit news system is working as it should? It didn't have to be this way. In the 20th century, reformers fought for a more democratic and more accountable news media in…

  • S8 E5: Follow the Money

    June 17, 2026 · 49 min

    The early history of the news in Europe and the U.S. offers surprising lessons about the best traditions of journalism, and about the news we need in our own time of crisis.  By John Biewen, with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. Interviews…

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  • S8 E4: What About Us

    June 10, 2026 · 44 min

    Scene on Radio requests and receives an independent analysis of its own journalistic biases. We then return the favor, examining the examiner. The exercise leads to fresh insights into the muddled ways people often think about bias. By…

  • S8 E3: About that Liberal Media

    June 3, 2026 · 53 min

    For generations, many on the political right have claimed that major news media in the U.S. have a pronounced liberal bias. Is it true? And why does it matter? We take a fresh look.  By John Biewen with co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika…

  • S8 E2: When the News Dies

    May 27, 2026 · 48 min

    Many people know that the journalism industry is struggling financially, especially at the local level. But the disastrous depths of that crisis, and its impact on communities and American democracy, are not as well understood. We visit a…

  • S8 E1: The Myth of the Echo Chamber

    May 27, 2026 · 40 min

    Americans have access to a flood of news, and yet we're in a deep information crisis. What's really wrong with the news media? Is it what we think it is? And what about news consumers? Most of us don't trust the media, but can we trust…

  • Introducing Scene on Radio: The News

    May 20, 2026 · 2 min

    Everybody's mad at the media. And Americans seem helpless to solve our problems, in large part because we have no shared narrative and few shared facts. A well informed citizenry we are not. In Scene on Radio's 8th season, producer and…

  • S7 E2: BC: Before Capitalism

    June 26, 2024 · 47 min

    To fully grasp capitalism, it helps to understand the system it replaced – and the most meaningful differences between feudalism and capitalism. We visit the British Isles of the Middle Ages.   By John Biewen, with co-host Ellen McGirt…

  • S7 E1: Market Failure

    June 26, 2024 · 37 min

    Introduction to our 7th season: Capitalism. The world’s dominant economic system is on trial as it hasn’t been for at least half a century. Millions, young people especially, now see capitalism as the problem, not the solution. Others fear…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

Scene on Radio is a two-time Peabody-nominated podcast that dares to ask big, hard questions about who we are—really—and how we got this way. Our latest is Season 7, Scene on Radio: Capitalism.  Previous series include Seeing White (Season 2), looking at the roots and meaning of white supremacy; MEN (Season 3), on patriarchy and its history; The Land That Never Has Been Yet (Season 4), exploring democracy in the U.S. and why we don’t have more of it; The Repair (Season 5), on the cultural roots of the climate crisis; and Season 6, Echoes of a Coup, the story of the only successful coup d'etat in U.S. history, in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. Produced and hosted by John Biewen, with collaborators, Scene on Radio comes from the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University.  The show is distributed by PRX.