You’ve been listening to the Prospect Podcast, Media Confidential’s sister podcast. To subscribe on Spotify, click HERE. For Apple podcasts, click HERE. Has Trump's America become an autocracy?While Media Confidential is on a short break, we’re bringing you the best of our sister podcast, the Prospect Podcast. Back in April, Ellen and Alona were joined by scholar of authoritarianism, Ruth Ben-Ghiat. Ruth analyses the Trump administration’s rapid shift towards authoritarianism. She talks about Trump’s personality cult, how strongmen portray machismo and the potential for a female strongman figure.She also discusses how autocrats use corruption, violence and propaganda to stay in power, and how ICE roundups echo the past, resembling a “secret police force”. Ruth answers: can the Democrats can learn anything from Trump? What’s the best way to challenge an illiberal president? And how does this end?Plus, Ellen and Alona discuss their bookshelves for this week's “banger or dud”. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Ethan Zuckerman: How to escape the internet hellscape
To subscribe to the Prospect Podcast on Spotify, click HERE. For Apple podcasts, click HERE. Will AI achieve superintelligence—and, if so, when? While Media Confidential is on a short break, we’re bringing you the best of our sister podcast, the Prospect Podcast. In June, Prospect’s tech columnist Ethan Zuckerman joined Ellen and Alona to talk about billionaire tech bros, social media, and how to resist the ‘enshittification’ of the internet. He answers: is AI transforming our world for the worse? But he also explains how to seek out better, more wholesome corners of the internet, and why his students give him hope. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mehdi Hasan: ‘The media doesn’t want to hear certain people’
You’ve been listening to the Prospect Podcast, Media Confidential’s sister podcast. To subscribe on Spotify, click HERE. For Apple podcasts, click HERE. Has mainstream media failed? While Media Confidential is on a short break, we’re bringing you the best of the Prospect Podcast. Back in February, broadcaster and author Mehdi Hasan visited Prospect HQ. After MSNBC cancelled the Mehdi Hasan Show in November 2023, Mehdi founded the independent media company Zeteo. He joined Prospect’s Ben Clark to talk about his departure from mainstream media, Gaza, cancel culture, and the press in an age of Trump. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Slavoj Žižek: ‘Elon Musk lives like a communist’
You’ve been listening to the Prospect Podcast, Media Confidential’s sister podcast. To subscribe on Spotify, click HERE. For Apple podcasts, click HERE. Does the Left need its own Trump? While Media Confidential takes a short break, we’re bringing you the best of our sister podcast, the Prospect Podcast. In April, Prospect’s Ellen Halliday and Alona Ferber were joined by Slavoj Zizek, the philosopher and public intellectual, who spoke to them about fatherhood, the “obscenity” of Donald Trump, and whether he’s hopeful about the future of the left. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Q&A: Has the media contributed to ‘tinderbox Britain’?
Has the media contributed to “tinderbox Britain”? Alan and Lionel discuss in this week’s Q&A episode, in light of protests outside a hotel housing asylum seekers in Epping, as authorities anticipate a summer of unrest.The hosts also explore whether journalistic freedoms are under threat, and the responsibility of the press when reporting—or speculating on—medical diagnoses. Do we need a UK equivalent of the “Goldwater rule”?Plus, Media Confidential sets the record straight, having accidentally broadcasted fake news... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
You’ve been listening to the Prospect Podcast, Media Confidential’s sister podcast. To subscribe on Spotify, click HERE. For Apple podcasts, click HERE. Alan Rusbridger and Lionel Barber—two of the world’s greatest editors—dive into the hugely important world of media. What—and who—drives it? What do they get right... And what do they get wrong?Lionel, former editor of the Financial Times, and Alan, editor of Prospect and former editor of the Guardian, will bring you revealing, high profile interviews and in-depth discussion.Media Confidential is produced by Prospect Magazine.Subscribe to Prospect and enjoy our rigorously fact-checked, truly independent analysis and perspectives. No commitment—you can cancel at any time. Currently you can SAVE up to 50% on a digital subscription: https://subscription.prospectmagazine.co.uk/JN5025/prospect-magazine/JN5025G Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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