Question Everything

Mixed in with the beauty and Love Island videos on producer Tracie Hunte’s TikTok feed, she started seeing clips that seemed to pit Black people against one another. People fighting over who’s really Black American and about dating between Black men and women. Tracie doesn’t hear these debates in real life, but online, they kept popping up. And so did a question people kept asking in the comments: “Is this a psyop?”  Howard University professor Christine McWhorter walks Tracie through real disinformation campaigns, from a Russian troll farm to a dark money group reportedly funded by Elon Musk, and explains the specific tactics used to manipulate Black voters.  Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. Guests:  Christine McWhorter, Assistant Professor of Broadcast Journalism at Howard University and author of Building Critical Race Media Literacy: Countering the Narrative See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

When a promising young freelancer pitched a good story to his magazine, editor Nicholas Hune-Brown was ready to assign it. But as he looked more closely at the pitch and the writer’s bylines across the internet, Nicholas began to realize maybe this writer wasn’t who she seemed. This episode recently won Gold and the Listener's Choice Winner in the 2026 Signal Awards for Best Writing. A version of Nick’s story first appeared in The Local – you can read it here. The UK-based magazine Press Gazette is keeping a running list of AI scandals in journalism, including Victoria Goldiee. You can see that here. Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. Guests:  Nicholas Hune-Brown, Executive Editor at The Local  Victoria Goldiee See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lying is the force that is most diametrically opposed to journalism. So why has it been so hard for journalists to combat it?  Earlier this month, Brian was asked to deliver a treatise on this question to an audience of journalists, and writing it took him in a bunch of directions he didn’t expect: from a school playground to ancient religious texts to Alex Jones. Afterwards, people kept saying that we had to run it on Question Everything. Here it is.  Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Voting in this year’s midterms is already underway. And for the past year leading up to this election, the Trump administration has been pushing to get its hands on every state’s unredacted voter rolls, saying it wants to check for noncitizens who are illegally registered.  Those rolls include personal information like driver’s license numbers, full birth dates, and partial Social Security numbers. Some state election officials agreed to hand their lists over to the federal government, but Utah’s Republican Lieutenant Governor Deidre Henderson refused.  Then the Justice Department sued her and threatened her with criminal charges.  She told Question Everything producer Zach St. Louis the story.  Also this week, The Signal Awards honored Question Everything with eight awards, including two listener choice awards. Thanks to all who voted for us! Here are two of the winning episodes you can check out: The Talented Ms. Goldiee and I Was 11 When Instagram Took Over My Life. Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. Guests: Deidre Henderson, Lieutenant Governor of Utah See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Midterm elections are around the corner, and AI is obviously an issue that’s getting a ton of attention from candidates. There are so many thorny questions around this technology, but what do politicians intend to do about it?  Today, we are sharing an interview with Texas Congressman Greg Casar from Slate's podcast, "What Next," where Casar talks about his concerns with AI and why he sees the anger that people feel about it as an opportunity to build a political movement that brings people together. You can hear Slate’s What Next wherever you get your podcasts. Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Follow us on Instagram: @questionverything.podcast. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter. Guests: Lizzie O’Leary, from Slate’s What Next Greg Casar, US Representative for Texas’s 35th Congressional District. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.