On the Media

It's easy to laugh at the conspiracy theories around FEMA, but when @micahloewinger.bsky.social looked into it, the suspicion around the agency made a lot more sense. “This was an agency driven by paranoia,” Micah said in a recent interview with @hankgreen.bsky.social.

Did the U.S. government actually build a secret underground city? The idea sounds like a fantasy straight out of a Cold War-era movie, but it’s actually real. @micahloewinger.bsky.social walks you through the history.

Something crazy happened to @micahloewinger.bsky.social this week while preparing the final episode of his deep dive investigation into FEMA.

For all of FEMA’s faults, and there are many, can we really afford to dramatically scale back the agency, especially with another potentially devastating hurricane season just around the corner? @micahloewinger.bsky.social investigates in a new four-part podcast series.

@micahloewinger.bsky.social spoke with Flora Lichtman, host of the @scifri.bsky.social, all about FEMA — and how the far-right militia movement has used climate disasters to gain a recruiting foothold.

@micahloewinger.bsky.social addresses the rumors on r/onthemedia about his absence.

“I don’t think that that’s something that would have been said on TV so quickly in 2017,” @melmason.bsky.social said.

"They're deregulating how drugs are approved, these kinds of supplements are being sold," said @esqueer.net. "Meanwhile, they are cracking down on gender affirming care for trans youth and launching investigations against providers of gender affirming care."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth holds regular Pentagon prayer meetings, which infuse worship with the furor of Christian nationalism. "Hegseth is trying to evangelize the military leadership with his version of Christianity,” says @briankaylor.bsky.social of @wordandway.bsky.social.

A devastating cascade of legal actions is stripping away trans rights. @brookegladstone.bsky.social speaks with @esqueer.net about why she's been looking toward a legal framework invented in the wake of Nazi Germany called "the dual state" to better understand this moment.

“Just the fact that we are seeing this massive difference between June 2025 and March 2026 really speaks to the fact that this is a train going at full speed, and there isn't very many safety features on board,” said @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social of @witnessorg.bsky.social.

“If now forensics analysis is itself going to be doubted because we have these instances, this is now a new layer to the AI doubt,” said @mahsaalimardani.bsky.social of @witnessorg.bsky.social. “We are really going towards epistemic fracture in the information environment.”

As much as you may be tired of hearing about how democracy is backsliding under Trump, according to @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social, the legibility of the threat to democracy is one of the more powerful tools we have.

@zackbeauchamp.bsky.social got fed up with reporting on “democratic backsliding,” and decided to instead investigate “democratic resilience.” One thing he learned was about how anti-ICE resistance can be a blueprint for saving democracy.

When a train crashed in Minot, N.D., and a noxious cloud of ammonia gas spread across town, there was no one at the radio stations to sound the alarm and inform residents. "This is just a glaring example of a media system that has no allegiance to local communities,” said @victorpickard.bsky.social.

Donald Trump’s FCC has been coming after the broadcast networks for their so-called political biases. @brookegladstone.bsky.social spoke with the conservative lawyer behind it all.

How did Epstein avoid accountability for so long? @brookegladstone.bsky.social spoke with @jkojournalist.bsky.social, who has been poring through the Epstein files and finding new information about how prosecutors failed to bring him to justice for so many years.

How did ICE recruit thousands of new officers? Tech reporter @drewharwell.com obtained an ICE "surge hiring marketing strategy" document, which lays out, in very precise detail, all the ways the agency wants to solicit new recruits, including producing a ton of ads.

On our latest episode, @josephcox.bsky.social of @404media.co discusses Mobile Fortify, a faulty facial recognition app that ICE uses to identify suspects. The agency says it overrides a birth certificate. Listen to the full interview here: www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

Is worrying about the independence of the Fed akin to watching your entire house burn down and worrying about your favorite rug?

In going after Fed Chair Jerome Powell, is the Trump administration trying to bully "the biggest guy in the prison”? @brookeglastone.bsky.social and @mkblyth.bsky.social break it down.

What the hell is going on with Trump's foreign policy? Brooke reflects on a new word that helps explain it:

Listen to filmmaker Laura Poitras discuss her new documentary "Cover Up" and the greatest threats to investigative journalism on the latest episode of On the Media: www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm...

On RFK Jr... 4/4

On JD Vance... 3/4

On Scalia... 2/4

Some excerpts from our latest episode, when @micahloewinger.bsky.social asked @jamellebouie.net about some of his mean posts on Bluesky: 1/4