Comedian, writer and actor Mo Amer joins host Gabe González to talk about his Peabody-award winning show Mo. The show is a heartfelt yet hilarious glimpse into the lives of a Palestinian-American family waiting to be granted asylum in the US. The show explores grief, trauma, and our complicated immigration system while also depicting Amer’s deep love of his hometown, Houston, Texas. They talk about Amer’s comedy roots, his personal experiences as a refugee as well as writing season 2 of his show in the wake of October 7th and its aftermath. Following their conversation, Gabe considers broader questions of immigration and its representation on TV with Saket Soni, a labor organizer and human rights strategist working at the intersection of racial justice, migrant rights, and climate change.

Jeffrey Jones, Executive Director of the Peabody Awards, dives into the topic of men’s mental health with guests Bill Lawrence and Brett Goldstein. Bill Lawrence is the showrunner and creator of the Peabody-award winning series, Scrubs and Ted Lasso, as well as the current Apple+ hit Shrinking. His series have a central focus on the importance of male friendships in redefining traditional masculinity and on the importance of community to healing and building healthy relationships. Brett Goldstein is a writer, performer, and comedian who writes and stars in Ted Lasso as the gruff but bighearted Roy Kent and co-created Shrinking with Bill Lawrence and appears in the second season as the drunk driver responsible for the death of the protagonist’s wife.

We are back for season 2. Join us as we talk to the risk takers that help reinvent and reimagine the kinds of stories we see on TV and who disrupt what we’ve come to expect on our screens and in our culture. We Disrupt This Broadcast, a podcast from The Peabody Awards and Center for Media & Social Impact is produced and distributed in partnership with award-winning audio production group PRX and hosted by comedian Gabe González. We Disrupt This Broadcast explores how the minds behind critically-acclaimed TV shows are re-imagining the world and tackling the big issues that move us forward. From intimate interviews with award-winning TV creatives to real talk with experts and social movement leaders, join us as we explore the inner workings and cultural significance of the shows that are changing all the rules and shaping our future. Listen to We Disrupt This Broadcast - back for its second season on February 6th. Available wherever you get your podcasts.

Joe Brumm, creator of the beloved children's series Bluey, discusses the show's heartwarming approach to family dynamics and the essence of play. He highlights how crafted stories impart valuable life lessons, including resilience and empathy. Joining him is Crissle, a passionate Bluey fan, who shares her insights on the show’s groundbreaking portrayal of female characters and the transformative power of playful parenting. Together, they emphasize the crucial role of unstructured play in nurturing creativity, emotional intelligence, and positive familial relationships.

In this episode, we ask the question, “Why is normalizing the experiences of adolescence, especially for young girls, so disruptive?” Caty Borum, WDTB Executive Producer and Executive Director for the Center for Media & Social Impact, interviews legendary author and disruptor Judy Blume, author of Are You There God? It’s Me Margaret, Blubber, Forever, and the center of the recent Peabody Award-winning documentary about her life, Judy Blume Forever. Caty and Judy discuss her inspiration, using writing to find a way to a better life, puberty as a time to celebrate girlhood, and finding community through fighting book bans. After their interview, Caty speaks with Chelsey Goodan, author of Underestimated: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls, about the untapped power of teenage girls and the importance of feeling seen. 

Host Gabe González speaks with Ron Nyswaner, creator of Peabody-Award winning historical romance, Fellow Travelers. In a far-reaching, in-depth conversation, Gabe and Ron discuss the evolution of gay identity, how to write complex queer characters, and why foot-licking scenes are an important part of getting young folks interested in queer history. After their interview, Gabe dives deeper into the history of queer representation on TV with documentary filmmaker and professor Katherine Sender.

In this episode, host Gabe González introduces us to the loving, incisive, and decidedly off-beat humor of Somebody Somewhere, a show that is redefining home, friendship, family, and even traditional narrative structure. He interviews the series’ stars Bridget Everett and Jeff Hiller and they discuss the importance of making friends after 40, found family, why queerness and faith are not contradictory, and how platonic love can sometimes be the one that helps us become fully ourselves.

Gabe González has an intimate and wide-ranging conversation with Bobby Wilson and Ryan Redcorn, writers on the two-time Peabody Award-winning show Reservation Dogs. They talk about the groundbreaking series, which features an all Native cast and crew, and how an all-Native writers’ room contributes to the accurate representation of reservation life on screen. Gabe is then joined by Dr. Philip Deloria, Native historian, to talk about the alternately hilarious and horrifying path for Native representation on TV, why flawed characters are important, and why Native folks might be the funniest people you’ll ever meet.

In this episode, we ask the question, “Why are women in midlife somehow still the ultimate taboo in this industry?” Caty Borum, Executive Director of the Center for Media & Social Impact, interviews Pamela Adlon, the creative powerhouse behind the Peabody Award-winning series Better Things, and director of the feature film Babes. Caty and Pamela discuss disrupting the narratives around women in midlife, menopause having an “it girl” moment and the necessity of divorce doulas. They also dive into her commitment to mentoring the next generation of women creators.

In this episode, Peabody Awards executive director Jeffrey Jones interviews Black Mirror’s showrunner and creator Charlie Brooker. They discuss the importance of interrogating technology’s role in our life, disrupting the “tech as savior” narrative, the way both satire and sci-fi imagine our potential (and potentially disastrous) futures and the clash between the ideals of technology and our very human flaws. In the second half, Gabe González talks to tech journalist Carole Cadwalladr about the limitations of journalism to affect change, and the importance of entertainment narratives such as Black Mirror to help the public see and understand the imminent dangers posed by a world increasingly shaped by “Big Tech.”