The media’s search for the truth has never been more important than it is today. A great interview — entertaining and informative — is one of the journalist’s most powerful tools. Award-winning podcast network MaximumFun.org and the Columbia Journalism Review are proud to announce the launch of a new podcast: The Turnaround, with NPR’s Jesse Thorn (Bullseye). The Turnaround examines the science and art of journalism with the world’s greatest interviewers, from Larry King to Terry Gross. The Turnaround will be available beginning June 22 on MaximumFun.org, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen to podcasts. Edited transcripts of the interviews will be available here on CJR.org.
Episode Listing
Ira Glass — June 22, 2017
Legendary radio host and producer Ira Glass has guided This American Life since he founded it in 1995. He started working in public radio in 1978, when he was 19, as an intern at NPR’s headquarters in DC. Over the next 17 years, he worked on nearly every NPR news show and did nearly every production job they had: tape-cutter, desk assistant, newscast writer, editor, producer, reporter, and substitute host. He spent a year in a high school for NPR, and a year in an elementary school, filing stories for All Things Considered. (Photo: Stuart Mullenberg)
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Susan Orlean — June 27, 2017
Susan Orlean has been a staff writer for The New Yorker since 1992; prior to that, she was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone and at Vogue; she has also written for the Times Magazine, Spy, Esquire, and Outside. She is the author of eight books, including The Orchid Thief, which was adapted into the film Adaptation (2002). (Photo: Noah Fecks)
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Marc Maron — June 30, 2017
Since 2009, WTF with Marc Maron has consistently topped the podcast charts, featuring revelatory conversations with iconic personalities such as Conan O’Brien, Terry Gross, Robin Williams, Keith Richards, Ben Stiller, Lorne Michaels and President Barack Obama. A stand-up comedian by trade, Maron has appeared on talk shows ranging from David Letterman and Jimmy Kimmel to Charlie Rose and Bill Maher, and he has published two books, The Jerusalem Syndrome: My Life as a Reluctant Messiah and a collection of essays titled Attempting Normal.
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Audie Cornish — July 4, 2017
Audie Cornish is host of NPR’s All Things Considered. Previously, she hosted Weekend Edition Sunday and reported from Capitol Hill. Before coming to NPR, Cornish was a reporter for Boston’s award-winning public radio station WBUR. There she covered some of the region’s major news stories, including the legalization of same sex marriage, the sexual abuse scandal in the Boston Roman Catholic Archdiocese, as well as Boston’s hosting of the Democratic National Convention. Cornish also reported for WBUR’s syndicated programming including On Point, distributed by NPR, and Here and Now. (Photo: Stephen Voss/NPR)
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Larry King — July 7, 2017
Larry King is a legendary and award-winning television and radio host. From 1985 to 2010, he hosted Larry King Live on CNN, interviewing many thousands of politicians, celebrities, authors, and newsmakers. He currently hosts Larry King Now on Hulu.
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Brooke Gladstone — July 11, 2017
Brooke Gladstone is host of WNYC’s On the Media. Among her other accomplishments, she was an NPR Moscow-based reporter, its first media reporter, senior editor of NPR’s All Things Considered, and the senior editor of Weekend Edition with Scott Simon. Gladstone has received two Peabody Awards, a National Press Club Award, and an Overseas Press Club Award.
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Errol Morris — July 14, 2017
Errol Morris is one of the most celebrated filmmakers and authors alive today. His 1988 documentary The Thin Blue Line is widely hailed as one of the best documentaries of all time, and he has won awards ranging from the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature (for Fog of War), an Emmy, the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Film Festival, the Silver Bear at Berlin International Film Festival, and many more. Roger Ebert has said, “After twenty years of reviewing films, I haven’t found another filmmaker who intrigues me more…Errol Morris is like a magician, and as great a filmmaker as Hitchcock or Fellini.”
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Jerry Springer — July 18, 2017
In addition to hosting his eponymous (and infamous) television show, Jerry Springer has served as mayor of Cincinnati, political pundit, and award-winning newscaster — winning numerous Emmys for his nightly commentaries on Cincinnati’s WLWT. (Photo: Courtesy of Artist)
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Anna Sale — July 21, 2017
Anna Sale is host and managing editor of Death, Sex & Money, WNYC’s interview show about the big questions and hard choices that are often left out of polite conversation. Before launching Death, Sex & Money, Anna covered politics for years, including the 2013 New York City mayoral race, the 2012 presidential campaign, and the statehouse beat in Connecticut and West Virginia. She has contributed to Fresh Air, This American Life, NPR, Marketplace, PBS Newshour, and Slate.
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Combat Jack — July 25, 2017
The Combat Jack Show is one of the most popular podcasts on hip-hop, music, and race. Previously, Combat Jack was a managing editor at The Source and vice president at MTV Networks. He began his career as a music industry and entertainment lawyer, representing everyone from Jay Z to Damon Dash.
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Louis Theroux — July 28, 2017
Louis Theroux is a BBC television presenter best known for making documentaries that investigate fascinating worlds and lifestyles. For more than fifteen years, he has interviewed everyone from the officers and inmates at San Quentin prison to the extreme believers of the Westboro Baptist Church, and his work has won two BAFTAs and an award from the Royal Television Society. He previously wrote for Metro and Spy.
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Katie Couric — August 1, 2017
A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Katie Couric is one of the most well-known and respected television journalists working today. She rose to prominence as host of NBC’s Today show, which she left after 20 years to become the anchor and managing editor of the CBS Evening News; she won the Edward R. Murrow award for best newscast in both 2008 and 2009. Over the course of her career, she has covered everything from the Olympics to the 2010 Haitian earthquake, and interviewed everyone from President Barack Obama to J.K. Rowling.
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Ray Suarez — August 8, 2017
Most recently host of Al Jazeera America’s Inside Story, Ray Suarez was a senior correspondent on PBS NewsHour from 1999 until 2013. Before that, he hosted the popular NPR call-in program Talk of the Nation.
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Werner Herzog — August 11, 2017
Werner Herzog has written and directed more than 60 feature and documentary films, won numerous awards, and was named one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine in 2009. He has published several books and directed more than a dozen operas.
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Terry Gross — August 18, 2017
Terry Gross has hosted Fresh Air since 1975, which makes her not only one of the longest-working interviewers today, but one of the most popular: Fresh Air is broadcast on 566 stations and became the first non-drive time show in public radio history to reach more than five million listeners each week. She has been awarded a Peabody, a Gracie Award, and the Edward R. Murrow Award. Her book All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians and Artists was published by Hyperion in 2004.
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