TWO REPORTERS
David K. Shipler & Daniel Zwerdling have spent their lives investigating thorny and neglected issues, winning journalism’s top awards along the way. Now join Dave and Danny on TWO REPORTERS, as they interview stellar guests about pressing social problems and solutions - and just fascinating stuff - in ways you haven’t heard before. Advisory: Episodes may contain laughing, arguing and moments of irreverence.
Episodes
76 episodes
Have you heard what else Trump could do - perhaps legally - to dismantle America's democracy? / From the archive
Our guest warns that some of this is so secret that even members of Congress don't know it: Past Presidents have drawn up astonishing plans to wield sweeping emergency powers, possibly including seizing control of the internet. Elizabeth Goi...
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31:13
It's easy to use media to foster hate. Hear how an innovative group uses media to DEFUSE ethnic tensions
In this uplifting chat, John Marks joins us again to tell how Search for Common Ground created radio and TV programs from Africa to Asia - designed to help bring former enemies together. His case studies from Burundi, Kenya and the Democrati...
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31:10
Will Trump follow the playbook of autocrats who destroyed the democracies that brought them to power? / FROM THE ARCHIVE
Trump has already shown that when he moves back to the White House, he's likely to use the strategies of dictators he admires, such as Viktor Orbán of Hungary: pack courts and agencies with ideological cronies, intimidate and harass the pres...
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42:47
Can you get enemies to see what they share in common, and prevent war?
John Marks says yes - and he and the organization he founded, Search for Common Ground, have made it happen. He tells us surprising stories about how they get people to listen to each other, across hard lines of hatred and suspicion: Russian...
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50:26
Want to know what whales are saying with their magical sounds?
Scientist Michelle Fournet and her colleagues from the University of New Hampshire hang out with humpback whales in Alaska, recording their daily communications - and then sending whale recordings back to the giant animals to see if and how ...
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53:11
We're sad and angry that it makes sense to repost this episode - on mass shootings / FROM THE ARCHIVE
Four more have been murdered by a teen with an assault-style rifle - many more were injured - at Apalachee High School in Winder, GA. Still, this episode gives us a glimmer of hope: specialists in “behavioral threat assessment” have been qui...
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38:22
Are you sure you get how the Supreme Court ban on affirmative action could change America?
Lee Bollinger, who was president of Columbia University and the University of Michigan, predicts that the number of black students at many colleges will plummet to low levels they haven't seen since the 60s and 70s. He says Chief Justice Joh...
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51:26
When Trump praises Hungary's Viktor Orbán, do you realize exactly how Orbán has gutted its democracy? / FROM THE ARCHIVE
Trump, the Republican party and Project 2025 are echoing Orbán's autocratic playbook - along with strategies of other leaders who got elected democratically and then turned their nations into autocracies. Key steps: pack courts and agencies ...
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42:47
Can you teach kids today to tackle social issues - and make it fun? (Hint: Think protest songs from the 60s.)
Sesame Street changed TV by using music to help kids learn how to spell and how to share. Singer-songwriter Anya Rose and the group Ants on a Log write social action songs to help ...
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28:39
A prominent judge’s braided - and surprising - life of blindness and the law / Part 2
Now that Judge David S. Tatel has retired from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, he feels freer to warn us all: the Supreme Court is threatening America's democracy by inventing spurious legal doctrines and grabbing more power ...
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49:37
A prominent judge’s braided - and surprising - life of blindness and the law / Part 1
David Tatel - who retired recently from the U.S. Court of Appeals - has led what he calls a "braided life" that intertwines hardship and accomplishment. With his wife, Edie, he describes how he struggled to hide his gradual loss of sight fro...
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1:02:45
How a sniper almost killed our guest (plus other chilling tales of a foreign correspondent) Part 2 / FROM THE ARCHIVE
Lewis Simon's Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting, in collaboration with colleagues, helped spark an international scandal and topple a corrupt dictator in the Philippines; he tells us in this episode how they did it. Lew also gives us remarkab...
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44:24
How a sniper almost killed our guest (plus other chilling tales of a foreign correspondent) / FROM THE ARCHIVE
Next time you hear details of the horrific wars in Ukraine and Gaza, think about how you're learning them: journalists are risking their lives to report from the front lines. Lewis Simons won the Pulitzer Prize during decades of reporting on...
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31:57
Check out how foreign autocrats whom Trump admires gutted their democracies, step by step - legally
Now Trump and the Republican party are following their autocratic playbooks, whether by design or by instinct: pack courts and agencies with their cronies, slander and intimidate the media, and denigrate their opponents as "evil" and vermin....
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42:47
When they taught you the history of these intrepid explorers, was it pretty much a lie?
When you learned about the American explorers who claimed to discover the North Pole, the answer seems to be, "Yes." In fact, the fabled drama of Robert E. Peary and Frederick Cook was an early example of how powerful newspapers - in this ca...
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49:17
When apps ask to "share your location" or use voice ID, could it hurt you? / FROM THE ARCHIVE
It could happen to you: police mistakenly suspect or arrest you, because an app's location data show you were near the scene of a crime. The ACLU's Nathan Wessler returns to explain how geolocation, voice recognition and other high-tech trac...
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39:28
Should you worry about facial recognition at airports, malls and unexpected places? / From the archive
America's surveillance network is nowhere near as pervasive and chilling as China's, but U.S. companies and government agencies are already using high-tech tools like facial recognition to track you more than you might think. As the ACLU's N...
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39:52
OMG if Trump wins again, he could take over the internet (maybe) / FROM THE ARCHIVE
Presidents have drawn up plans to wield sweeping emergency powers - and some of those plans are so secret that even Congress has never seen them. Elizabeth Goitein, of the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, has unearthed dozens of emerg...
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31:18
Here's another episode that should boost your spirits
David K. Shipler (aka "Dave," our podcast co-host) is not only a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist: He's a poet, and just published his debut volume of poems,
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38:00
Do you know any idealistic politicians? Here's one!
Shekar Krishnan just got re-elected to the New York City Council with three times as many votes as the runner-up. And so far, he's showing how politics and government can actually make people's lives better. Shekar fights for immigrant taxi ...
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44:56
Why do Iran's leaders mistrust and even hate the US - and its allies? / FROM THE ARCHIVE
As the horrific war between Israel and Hamas continues, US and Iranian officials are sending each other warnings, just as they have for decades: Back off. When you hear this episode, it will help remind you one reason why Iran's government l...
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42:29
Will Republicans ever back a decent leader again - like this one? / FROM THE ARCHIVE
As we publish this, Congressional Republicans have just elected their new Speaker - a right-wing extremist who led the fight, which many consider seditious, to overthrow Joseph Biden’s 2020 democratic election. So it’s more astonishing than ...
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51:26
The pleasures - and perils - of driving a 2-mile long freight train / Railroads Part 2
Railroad supervisors ignore safety problems. Railroad executives lay off thousands of workers and see accident rates soar. Railroad corporations make record profits while their customers complain about lousy freight service. Marilee Taylor a...
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39:38
Do you realize that America’s railroads are probably the worst in the industrialized world? / Part 1
The freight railroad industry is crucial, but companies have slashed tens of thousands of workers in recent years while trains have become less reliable and derailments have threatened entire towns. Meanwhile, railroad companies have reporte...
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50:31
This former Russian diplomat is in hiding - since he dared to denounce Putin's war in Ukraine / Part 2 FROM THE ARCHIVE
Boris Bondarev says he wanted to quit his job as a Russian diplomat long ago, to protest Putin's policies, but it took years to gather courage to take that life-changing step. Putin's war in Ukraine pushed him to act - and now he and his wif...
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33:25