Is that a fact?
"Is that a fact?" is produced by the non-partisan national education non-profit the News Literacy Project. It seeks to inform listeners about news literacy issues that affect their lives through informative conversations with experts working to combat misinformation.
Episodes
28 episodes
Friend or foe: The rise of the social media influencer
In today’s episode we speak with Emily Hund, author of
•
Season 3
•
Episode 9
•
32:52
The lure of health and wellness misinformation
You know the routine. You develop a physical symptom you’ve never had before and what do you do? You grab your phone and furiously Google symptoms and related medical conditions.If you land on reputable medical sources, it’s not a probl...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 8
•
35:17
Beyond hot takes: Reporting on a warming planet
Things have been heating up — literally — since Sabrina Shankman, our latest podcast guest, began covering climate change a decade ago. The scientific community ...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 7
•
30:34
Could lawsuits meant to curb disinformation hurt press freedom?
Libel laws and the First Amendment in the United States are meant to hit a sweet spot — protecting reputations and facts while also affording journalists the freedom to publish unflattering information about powerful people that the public need...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 6
•
30:07
Opinion creep: How facts lost ground in the battle for our attention
Have you ever scratched your head when reading an article or watching the news and wondered if you were getting facts or opinion? If so, you’re not alone. News organizations have not made it easy for consumers to differentiate between news and ...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 5
•
36:39
The future of newsrooms: Innovation and authenticity
In today’s episode of our podcast Is that a fact?, guest LaSharah Bunting, CEO and executive director of the Online News Association, discusses how digital innovation has allowed newsr...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 4
•
34:05
Flagrant foul: Misinformation and sports
In today’s episode of our podcast Is that a fact?, guest host Jake Lloyd digs into how misinformation manifests in the sports world with author and journalist Jemele Hill, a contributing writer for The Atlantic and host of...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 3
•
31:50
Will chatbots change how journalism is practiced?
Our guest on this episode is Madhumita Murgia, the first artificial intelligence editor at the Financial Times, based in London. We talked about how generative AI is changing journalism. Our int...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 2
•
26:04
Chatbots are supercharging search: Are we ready?
Our guest on this episode is Will Knight, senior writer about artificial intelligence at Wired magazine. We discuss how ChatGPT is being applied to search and what some of the potential an...
•
Season 3
•
Episode 1
•
30:47
Sandy Hook at 10: Tragedy, conspiracy theories and justice (Part 2)
This episode of “Is that a Fact?” is part two of a two-part episode marking the 10th anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman murdered 20 first graders and six adults. ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 7
•
45:31
Sandy Hook at 10: Tragedy, conspiracy theories and justice (Part 1)
This episode of “Is that a Fact?” is part one of a two-part episode marking the 10th anniversary of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012, when a gunman murdered 20 first graders and six adults. ...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 6
•
47:04
Are journalists getting the immigration story right?
In this episode, we interview Dr. Reece Jones, chair of the Department of Geography and Environment at the University of Hawaii at Manoa and author of
•
Season 2
•
Episode 5
•
53:29
Disinformation and Russia’s War in Ukraine
In this episode we talk to two journalists covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine to help us better understand how disinformation and propaganda are obscuring, or outright contradicting, the facts, both within Russia and beyond its borders.&n...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 4
•
1:06:53
The politicization of the pandemic
In this episode, we set out to explore whether false narratives about the pandemic and the COVID-19 vaccines have overshadowed science or whether science has managed to hold its own, particularly in light of the politicization of the pandemic.<...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 3
•
52:41
Perception or reality: Just how divided is America, really?
In this episode, we set out to explore whether the narrative of the country’s deep political polarization is fiction or reality. If you follow the news, you’ve probably heard that the country is deeply divided on political issues. Since 1992, n...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 2
•
1:05:53
How 9/11 truthers planted the seeds for QAnon
For the second season of Is that a fact?, we’re exploring the origins of false narratives and the harm they have caused. We know that sharing misinformation is misleading and leaves people poorly informed, but we wanted to go deeper an...
•
Season 2
•
Episode 1
•
42:32
Special: Is misinformation to blame for vaccine hesitancy?
In this special episode of Is that a fact? we explore why some people remain hesitant to get one of the COVID-19 vaccines, despite growing evidence that inoculation is the key to getting our lives and the economy back on track. We want...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 11
•
37:30
How much did misinformation impact the election?
This episode, which was recorded live on Zoom on Wednesday, November 18 with a panel of experts, is our season finale. Our host moderated a conversation with Enrique Acevedo of CBS’ “60 in 6,” Dr. Joan Donovan of the Shorenstein Center and Jane...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 10
•
1:07:40
Truth Decay: Why Americans are turning away from facts
Our guest this week is Jennifer Kavanagh, a senior political scientist at RAND corporation, a nonprofit global public policy think tank. Our host spoke to Kavanagh about a phenomenon she and her colleagues have dubbed “Truth Decay.” We wanted t...
•
Season 1
•
Episode 9
•
32:14