The Kicker

There is a long tradition of imperial denial in the United States. After all, Americans fought the British Empire and have always thought of themselves as different from European colonialists. They are Empire Slayers — why else would “Star Wars” and its fight against the Galactic Empire have such a hold on the popular imagination? In this episode, two scholars explain how, from the nation’s birth, imperial expansion — first westward into Indian Country and later, overseas —was a defining character of these United States. The echoes of empire can be heard in today’s news. It’s impossible to talk about immigration, drone strikes, the attacks on Asian Americans, the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, etc., without understanding the history and projection of American power. What would journalism informed by the history of empire look like? Guests: Daniel Immerwahr & Vernadette Vicuna Gonzalez

Whiteness in America isn’t just the neutral norm against which racial minorities, particularly Black people, are measured. Whiteness in America means having the privilege and power that go along with being part of that supposed norm. And becoming white – not in terms of pigment but of social status – is a choice that nearly every immigrant or refugee group in America has had to embrace or reject. We talk with two scholars in the field of Whiteness Studies about how understanding the construction of white identity in this polyglot country gives us keen insights into its troubled racial history.

The issue of police violence and racism is a familiar one. It’s been present in the United States since the Republic's beginnings. And the stories of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tamir Rice and others cannot be understood if we do not know and comprehend that history. In this episode, we discuss race, crime, criminal justice, violence and the kind of cyclical dynamic that we have seen repeatedly over the decades with Harvard historian Dr. Khalil Muhammad. The conversation gives greater context and an insight into the shattering events of today by illuminating the roots of injustice and violence against Black Americans by those in authority.

How We Got Here is a podcast for journalists about how history and identity shape narrative. As journalists, we like to say we’re writing the first draft of history. But if we don’t know our own history, we run the risk of misinterpreting what we see and what we hear. Of failing to connect the dots. George Floyd’s murder, the Black Lives Matter movement, the election, the attempted coup - they’ve all brought America to a reckoning with its national character. Six professors from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism take a step back to examine the historical context of today’s news. They look at how race, gender, class, immigration and American empire impact the stories we cover and how we tell them. How We Got Here is a production of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism in partnership with Columbia Journalism Review.

When Samuel Getachew was a sixth grader in the Oakland public school system, Akintunde Ahmad was a “hometown hero,” headed to Yale. On this week’s Kicker, Ahmad, now a CJR contributor and Ida B. Wells fellow, and Getachew, a rising first year at Yale, discuss the media’s misuse of successful Black students.

How do we report and contextualize the January 6 insurrection, or the largest efforts to suppress the vote since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965, or the way political power is wielded in the US without understanding the racial history of our country? On this week’s Kicker, Hannah-Jones, the new Knight chair in race and reporting at Howard University, and a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter for the New York Times Magazine, joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, to talk about her decision to decline tenure at the University of North Carolina, and her plan to turn Howard’s journalism program into a “firewall for democracy.”

The pandemic’s limits on primary candidates and the journalists who cover them; a drastically shorter campaign season; and all but absent public polling thanks to the new ranked choice voting. This has been a New York City primary season like no other.On this week’s Kicker, Errol Louis, who is the anchor of NY1’s “Inside City Hall,” the host of the podcast “You Decide with Errol Louis,” and a professor of urban reporting at CUNY’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, joins Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss the ability of the city’s already fragile local news ecosystem to cover a high-stakes election season, and what Eric Adams’ treatment of the press so far means if he becomes the next mayor of New York City.

At the start of the pandemic, the UK government’s suppression of data prompted Carole Cadwalladr and her colleagues at All the Citizens to found Independent SAGE, a group of scientists who shadow official government scientists. Now, as the UK hurtles towards a June 21 reopening that now looks unlikely to happen, the group’s findings are more concerning than ever. On this week’s Kicker, Cadwalladr, a feature writer for The Observer, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, discuss what US journalists can learn from the UK’s Covid fight, and how misleading euphoric Covid-19 coverage in the US has become.

With over ten thousand athletes from more than two hundred countries, the Olympics are typically a sports writer’s dream. But with Covid protocols in Tokyo this summer, and heightened awareness that players no longer need the press to connect with their fans, is spontaneous sports access also obsolete?On this week’s Kicker, Andrew Keh, a sports reporter for the New York Times, and Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR, the shift of power from press to athletes.

About half of daily local newspaper circulation in the US is now controlled by hedge funds. On this week’s Kicker, Rebecca Lurye, a reporter for the Hartford Courant and unit chair for the Hartford Courant Guild, and Danielle Ohl, a reporter for the Capital Gazette and chair of the Chesapeake News Guild, join Kyle Pope, editor and publisher of CJR. They discuss what comes next after Alden Global Capital bought Tribune Publishing, and how reporters and their communities can advocate for journalism.