The Kicker
The Kicker is a podcast on the media and the world today. It comes out twice a month, hosted by Megan Greenwell and produced by Amanda Darrach for the Columbia Journalism Review. It is available wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.
Episodes
326 episodes
Ruth Ann Harnisch on life as the fairy godmother of newsletters, podcasts, and blogs.
If you had lots of money to give away, what kind of journalism would you fund? City hall reporting? Big-swing investigative projects? Detailed coverage of your favorite sports team? The magazine of every narrative writer’s dreams? <...
So Are Nonfiction Books Dead or Not?
Anna Sproul-Latimer, a literary agent, on what a shrinking market means for journalists.After a boom time for nonfiction books during the pandemic, sales have been flat or down for multiple years running. Even veteran nonfi...
Kenya Hunter took a terrifying leap out of journalism. She couldn’t be happier.
One of my favorite dive-bar conversations with fellow journalists is “What would you do if you couldn’t do this anymore?” We’ve all thought about it; the tough economics of our industry haven’t left us any choice. It’s such an interesting wi...
Twenty Years of Food Blogs: Smitten Kitchen’s Deb Perelman has never needed AI to develop a recipe.
A friend recently posted a photo on Instagram of a giant zucchini harvested from her backyard in Chicago, with a caption that she needed recipes that use a ton of zucchini. I knew exactly where to send her. The best fo...
What Went Wrong: A first-time editor in chief reflects on a startup that didn’t work
When The Barbed Wire debuted, in 2024, it promised “something different: a site that combines the best of savvy, new-model online journalism with Texas’s deep—and very old—association with progressive ideas.” Its goal,...
Welcome to Hell: A site with personality big enough for the city it covers.
Since last year’s uber-competitive New York City mayoral primary, my favorite election night activity has been watching Hell Gate’s live broadcasts. CNN it is not. The Hell Gate show is available...
Why Do You Have to Run from Us? Local reporters are struggling to get answers from the politicians they cover.
Generations of local journalists mostly took for granted their ability to access elected officials. Talking to the local newspaper or TV station was one of the only ways to get the word out, so politicians didn’t have much choice—even if the...
No Fanboys Need Apply: Wired bares real teeth.
For a certain type of tech executive, and a certain type of fan of tech ...
Sports Illustrated’s Emma Baccellieri on covering the changing world of women’s basketball.
One of the most fascinating sports business stories of the moment is the explosive growth of the WNBA. TV viewership is up dramatically, multiple teams sell out regularly, and stars like Caitlin Clark and A’ja Wilson have become household na...
How Documented is reinventing immigration coverage.
Some of the most interesting journalism experiments aren’t taking place on the websites of publications. Instead, they’re happening on Facebook and WhatsApp and Reddit and WeChat and even Nextdoor, which I didn’t realize was anything other t...
The Globe’s Emily Sweeney breaks out of Boston.
“WHOA. Ohhhh. Freaking huge,” one of my favorite recent news videos opens. Emily Sweeney, a Boston Globe reporter, stands in the Museum of Fine Arts, gazing up at a thirteen-foot-tall, thirteen-thousand-pound Roman scu...
Taking Back Saturday: “We’re sports people. We like to score.”
I have a galaxy-brained theory that the most effective fundraisers in the country aren’t politicians or the heads of major foundations, but a pair of Atlanta-based college football bloggers.Two decades ago, Spencer Hall—best kn...
Student, Teacher: Eric Gustafson on fighting for journalistic integrity at every level.
I’ve spent my entire professional career in journalism, but student publications are still my favorite news outlets. I broke the ...
The Inside Look: Chatting with the New York Times’ trust editor.
I must confess that initially I was a bit skeptical of the concept. The New York Times was promoting a Q&A
Lessons from an Early-Career Journalist
When I took over the Kicker host chair, one of the things I was most excited to do was to interview early-career journalists, who see the changes to our industry from an entirely different perspective from those of us ...
A Look Back at Covering Gaza for the Post
Since October 7, 2023, Miriam Berger has been on assignment in Jerusalem, covering Israel, Palestine, and war. A few weeks ago, she learned she and hundreds of colleagues were being laid off.One perk of hosting an inte...
The Letter of the Law, and the Law in Practice
Experts discuss the risks posed to journalism as the courts test the limits of press freedom law.If I recall correctly, the original news peg for a live Kicker recording about threats to the free...
A Veteran of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette—and its Long Strike—Prepares for What’s Next
At first, January 7 felt to Bob Batz Jr. like a triumphant day. The U.S. Supreme Court had declined to consider an appeal from Batz’s longtime employer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the latest in a long string of legal...
Defector’s Jasper Wang and His Unvarnished Truth
Annual reports are generally pretty boring documents, bogged down with numbers taken out of context and marketing-speak about “thriving in the face of unprecedented challenges.” Not Jasper Wang’s. At the end of 2025, the cofounder and v...
Why You Should Never Marry a Journalist—and Other Lessons from Decades in Media
The Kicker returns with our former host, Josh Hersh, and our new one, Megan Greenwell, in conversation.Between President Trump’s legal battles against news outlets, the defunding of public media, the rise of creator jo...
Margaret Sullivan Takes a New Look at Journalism Ethics
This summer, Margaret Sullivan, the executive director of the Craig Newmark Center for Journalism Ethics and Security at Columbia Journalism School, and her colleague Julie Gerstein published a series of essays in CJR exploring what a new gener...
Chicago’s Block Club Is Ready for ICE
On Thursday, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order barring federal agents from using riot control measures like te...
Elle Reeve on the Charlie Kirk Shooting Suspect’s Inscrutable Memes
In 2017, Elle Reeve, then a correspondent for Vice News, became a household name when she reported from the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia—as neo-Nazis marched with burning torches and a white supremacist drove hi...
Garrett Graff Thinks the Press Should Be Taking Trump’s Health Much More Seriously
Last week, as DC reporters were patting themselves on the back for not falling for internet falsehoods claiming that Donald Trump had secretly died, Garrett Graff wrote an essay on his blog, Doomsday Scenario, saying, “It’s time to hav...
Hind Hassan Is Sorry We Didn’t Do More to Make Journalism Safe
Earlier this month, Hind Hassan, a decorated documentary news reporter who has covered everything from conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon, and Ukraine to the bizarre underworld of the global wellness industry, spoke at a graduation ceremony for student...