Question Everything with Brian Reed

Anna Wolfe, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter known for her work on welfare misuse, joins Lisa Halverstadt, named San Diego's Journalist of the Year for her coverage of homelessness, alongside Alissa Zhu from The Baltimore Banner, who tackled the opioid crisis and earned another Pulitzer. Also featuring Tony Plohetski, a finalist for his reporting on police and legal issues, they dive into the critical role of local journalism in fighting corruption. They share powerful stories of community struggles and the ethical challenges reporters face while striving for accountability and meaningful change.

A TV reporter from Kansas City hears about the brazen newspaper raids over in Marion. Her interest is piqued by the fact that the police chief who oversaw the raids had recently left Kansas City PD. So she heads to Marion to see what she can find out. And what she finds…is basically a Bravo reality series, small-town prairie style.  Part One of this story ran last week. Listen to it first if you haven’t already. Also: We’re now on Substack! You can weigh in on what we’re doing at Question Everything – make your pleasure or displeasure known – and talk to us about our reporting, the stories we’re working on. This week, Brian will share an outtake from the Mystery in Marion series – a moment of police bodycam footage that makes his skin crawl.  Sign up at: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On a Friday morning in rural Kansas, the publisher of a tiny local newspaper hears a knock at the door. It’s the police—with a search warrant. Within minutes, they’re inside his home, seizing his electronics. At the same time, officers are raiding his newsroom, confiscating computers and phones. No subpoena. No warning. And, according to legal experts, no right to do it. The publisher scrambles to understand: Why is this happening? Who’s behind it? He has made some enemies over the years, in this town of just 2,000 people.  And then—just as he starts to piece it together—something even more devastating happens. A tragedy that would make national news, and change his life forever. Part Two of this story drops next week. Sign up for our newsletter: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MSNBC host Chris Hayes discusses his book The Sirens' Call: How Attention Became the World's Most Endangered Resource, and reckons with his own culpability in the corruption and commercialization of our attention.  Thanks to “Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso” for sharing this interview with us.  “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A group of reporters recently uncovered a closely held secret: the identity of the Israeli soldier who shot and killed renowned veteran journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022. This is the story of how they figured it out. Sign up for our newsletter: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything You can watch the documentary "Who Killed Shireen?" on Zeteo. “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welton Chang, creator of Pyrra Technologies and former army intelligence officer, dives into the murky waters of online conspiracy theories. He reveals alarming trends in violent rhetoric and how these narratives can jump from fringe forums to real-world impact. Chang discusses troubling events like power outages attributed to cyber attacks, and the psychological effects of trauma that contribute to conspiratorial thinking. His insights highlight the urgent need to understand and counteract these emerging threats to society.

Where better to huddle up and discuss what to do about Rümeysa Öztürk and the chilling effect that is happening in journalism than on campus at Tufts University with the student journalists at The Tufts Daily? This week Brian and Question Everything co-host a live event with the editor-in-chief and associate editor from The Tufts Daily – Arghya Thallapragada and Ellora Onion-De. Together they interview journalists and attorneys, including Carol Rose, part of Rümeysa's legal team and executive director of the Massachusetts ACLU, to learn what all happened to Rümeysa and why. What did her abduction by federal agents a month ago have to do with her immigration status as a Turkish graduate student studying child development, here on a student visa? Why did Secretary of State Marco Rubio say her Op-ed was cause for incarceration? Why is she still in ICE’s custody? And what happened to the constitutional protections around free speech and a free press that we depend on in a free society?  Joined by former editor-in-chief of both the Washington Post and the Boston Globe, Marty Baron; First Amendment lawyer Robert Bertsche; and senior politics reporter at The Intercept Akela Lacey; the group wrestles in real time with the gravity of this moment, not just for Rümeysa Öztürk, but for all of us. Read the Op-ed Rümeysa and others wrote that ran in The Tufts Daily a year ago in March. Watch the video of federal agents in plainclothes, forcing Rümeysa Öztürk into an SUV on March 25, 2025. Quick thing: In our discussion Carol Rose says the ACLU has filed 100 legal actions in President Trump’s first 100 days. The specific count on those is actually higher: the ACLU filed 110 legal actions in the Trump administration’s first 100 days. Sign up for our newsletter: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last episode we discussed the campaign to overturn the Supreme Court decision that protects reporters’ ability to criticize and investigate people in power.But even with that decision still in place, reporter David Enrich has discovered a shocking wave of legal attacks that is being waged on journalists in towns and cities across the country. These are often reporters at tiny, local outlets, trying to hold people accountable in their communities. And these legal claims don’t even have to succeed - and they frequently don’t - to shut down reporters.Plus, Brian waxes poetic about the first amendment, under the night sky. This is part two of our series about David Enrich’s reporting from his book “Murder the Truth”. Listen to part one first – it’s called “Freedom of the press is great, until you’re the target.” In our newsletter this week – Brian tells a personal story about how his lawyers helped him fend off a legal threat. Check that out at:  www.kcrw.com/questioneverything“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For decades, a Supreme Court decision called New York Times vs Sullivan was widely beloved by people across the political spectrum. Hailed as a decision that gives the first amendment teeth and sets our country apart, as a place that prizes free speech.But recently, right under our noses, some of the same people who once sang Times v Sullivan's praises have turned against it. The story of the growing movement that is trying to get the Supreme Court to overturn perhaps the strongest protection for speech and the press in America.This is part one of a two part series about the book Murder the Truth: Fear, the First Amendment, and a Secret Campaign to Protect the Powerful, by Times investigative editor David Enrich.Sign up for our newsletter here to hear about one of Brian’s own legal battles: www.kcrw.com/questioneverything“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The best documentary filmmaker in America spent nearly five years of his life making a nine-hour masterpiece for Netflix. It will never see the light of day. After a nasty estate battle, the series won't be released. No one will ever see it.In his first sit-down interview about this scandal, the filmmaker Ezra Edelman seeks catharsis – if not closure – in the fight for truth and control over the life story of Prince.Thanks to “Pablo Torre Finds Out” for this incredible interview. “Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices