Every Other Thursday
Question Everything
Reporter Brian Reed re-examines everything about journalism, the profession he thought he knew. In the middle of making his second hit podcast, Brian got sued. Accused. Told the biggest story of his career — the Peabody Award-winning series S-Town — wasn’t journalism. Which meant he had to spend years proving that it was. Obsessing over the question, “What is journalism, anyway?”
Join Brian as he turns the tools he’s acquired over his years as a journalist on journalism itself. With gripping stories, reporting, and interviews every other Thursday, Question Everything is a show for anyone who's ever felt confused, frustrated, or misled by the news they rely on. At a time when distrust in the media is at an all time high, when so many believe that journalism is failing, Question Everything is a real-time quest to try and make journalism better. Produced by Placement Theory and KCRW.
NEWSLETTER ARCHIVES
BRIAN REED
Host and Producer
Brian Reed is the host and executive producer of the groundbreaking podcast series S-Town and co-host and executive producer of The Trojan Horse Affair, from Serial Productions and The New York Times. Reed was also a longtime staff member at This American Life, where he oversaw the show as its senior producer and created stories about the Federal Reserve’s failure to prevent the 2008 financial crisis, multiple FBI investigations gone wrong, and atrocities in Egypt and Guatemala. Reed has received the Dart Award for Reporting on Trauma, two Overseas Press Club Awards, multiple Webby Awards, an Education Writers Association Award, as well as two Peabody Awards. One of the Peabodies was for S-Town, of which Rebecca Mead wrote in The New Yorker: “Among the half-million products released in podcasting’s brief history, it is “S-Town”...that seems most likely to endure as a work of art.”
ROBYN SEMIEN
Executive Producer
Robyn is an award winning journalist and audio producer. Before founding Placement Theory, Semien spent 15 years at This American Life, where she created some of the program’s most celebrated and ambitious episodes, including listener favorite 129 Cars, the Harper High School series, which drew the attention of Barack and Michelle Obama, Talking While Black, Before the Next One, and Anatomy of Doubt, which inspired the Netflix limited series Unbelievable. Semien has produced a live show starring Lin-Manuel Miranda and Anthony Ramos, and directed audio stories with Connie Britton, Zoe Winters and Grace Gummer. She's won two Peabody Awards, two duPont Awards and an Emmy for her work on This American Life’s TV series for Showtime.
ZACH ST LOUIS
Producer
Zach St. Louis is a producer at Placement Theory, where he works on Question Everything. Previously, Zach reported and produced The Confessions of Anthony Raimondi and Crooked City: Youngstown, OH, which was named one of Vulture’s best podcasts of 2022. He produced and developed multiple shows at CNN, including the EPPY Award-winning Coronavirus: Fact vs. Fiction hosted by Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He has also contributed to podcasts from the Financial Times, Vox Media, NPR, Spotify, and Serial Productions. He is a graduate of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.
EMILY MALTERRE
Production Intern
Emily Malterre is a production intern at Placement Theory, where she works on Question Everything. Emily is currently a masters student at the NYU’s Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute and has a background in civil engineering, community engagement, and latte art. She is excited to be starting her career in journalism, and recently contributed a short piece on NYC’s trivia scene for NPR’s All Things Considered.
WHAT ARE YOU QUESTIONING ABOUT JOURNALISM?
Submit your own question using the form below. We may cover it in an upcoming episode or in our newsletter.