Channels with Peter Kafka

Episode: Running a Newsroom in Minneapolis + How to Make a Game of Thrones For Less
Date: January 28, 2026
Host: Peter Kafka (Vox Media Podcast Network)

Episode Overview

This episode of Channels features two distinct interviews exploring the intersection of media, technology, and culture:

• First, Peter Kafka talks with Kathleen Hennessey, editor of the Minnesota Star Tribune, about the challenges and opportunities of running a newsroom in the high-pressure, rapidly evolving news environment of Minneapolis, particularly during a period of public unrest and viral citizen journalism.

• Then, Kafka interviews Ira Parker, showrunner for HBO’s new Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, diving into how to make a premium fantasy series on a much smaller budget, and how the expectations for "big TV" are evolving.

Segment 1: Running a Newsroom in Minneapolis

[Start: 01:32 – End: 16:14]

Setting the Scene: News in Crisis

• Kathleen Hennessey describes being at home when she heard about the latest Minneapolis shooting:

  "I was at home. I was at home talking to my mom on the phone, just trying to take a little breather." (03:24)

• Immediate shift from downtime to work mode, with communication ramping up via calls and Slack channels.

  "There are a few, few calls, few checks, slack channels to immediately sort of look in on and make sure that things are rolling." (03:39)

Newsroom Activation & Workload

• The Star Tribune operates on "high alert," with increased staffing on weekends/nights in response to ongoing unrest.
• Upon major incidents, the newsroom rapidly mobilizes—15 people activated within minutes, up to 50-60 by end of day, including designers, editors, photographers, and videographers.

  "By the end of the day, 50 or 60, all in between designers and editors and videographers, photographers. Obviously, it takes a lot." (05:09)

Community Support and Burnout

• Mental health and workload balance are major concerns.
• Hennessey emphasizes tracking reporter hours, sometimes forcing people to "go home and take a break."

  "Sometimes we have had to just not gently and forcefully and with love and respect, tell people to go home and take a break." (06:28)

• Support pours in from other journalists and newsrooms sending food and messages, creating a sense of solidarity.

Information Environment: The Social Media Challenge

• Proliferation of cell-phone videos creates a "chaotic information environment."
• The newsroom is slower but more accurate than social media, prioritizing forensic analysis and video verification.

  "We know that our job is to verify it and to watch it closely and to slow it down a thousand times and to try to get the rights to it and to call the lawyers and figure out who took it." (08:24)

• Maintaining credibility means sometimes lagging behind viral Reddit/Instagram footage.

Handling Pressure from Readers

• Readers often push the newsroom to react quickly to what they see online.

  "It never feels good to have somebody send you an account and say, like, see, look, it's. This is what happened. Right. And you're like, yeah, I guess we're not quite reporting it that way yet." (09:19-09:23)

• Hennessey prioritizes "additive" reporting: assembling facts, context, and reactions—not just aggregating viral content.

Chasing "Ghosts" and Local Intelligence

• Many report tips come from activist Signal groups, but not all pan out.

  "We're just closer to the community. We know these neighborhoods, we know what's real, what's not. We have had some luck in getting ahead of that." (10:24-11:39)

• Star Tribune’s advantage: community connections and local perspective.

On Featuring User-Generated Content

• Internal debate about aggregating all the UGC, but the paper's identity is verification and context—not unfiltered raw feeds.

  "I'm not yet at a place where I don't think people come to us for unverified information." (12:06)

What Readers Want

• Live blogs since December are the most trafficked coverage. Readers want verified news, video, interviews, updates—a holistic package.

  "People are coming back several times throughout the day. I mean, they want, they want video, but they also just want news." (13:23)

Local versus National Journalism

• Kafka asks about differences in staffing versus her previous job at the New York Times.
• Hennessey desires the Times’ video-forensics resources, but values the Star Tribune’s local knowledge and depth on the ground:

  "We are just a little bit deeper on this story than the Times can be. And I appreciate that and our readers appreciate it." (15:31-16:05)

Segment 2: How to Make a Game of Thrones For Less

[Start: 18:56 – End: 40:50]

Introducing the New Series and Its Pace

• Ira Parker discusses running A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and how the new series is intentionally smaller in scale and faster in production than its predecessors.
• HBO aims for new seasons every 18 months, a faster pace than previous major series.

  "We could do one a year... but it's probably going to end up being closer to one every 18 months." (19:26)

The New Show: Simpler, Smaller, More Accessible

• The core: following “one guy from the shittiest part of the realm”—no dragons, epic armies, or sprawling politics (21:02).

  "He's not a secret anything. He grew up with nothing... he has to figure out what he's going to do with the rest of his life." (21:02)

• Launching as a buddy comedy with broad appeal, designed for newcomers to Westeros as well as superfans.

  "It's a simpler story to become engaged with... hopefully bringing in a new generation, maybe even a younger generation to this universe." (22:36)

HBO and Franchise Strategy

• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is based on George R.R. Martin’s last unadapted prose in this universe.
• HBO expected to protect their flagship property, balancing creative freedom and franchise oversight.

  "They are very much artist first... But, of course, this is the biggest franchise that they have and you don’t want it to go off the rails." (25:22)

Making “Game of Thrones” for Cheap—But Not Looking Cheap

• The new show operates on a quarter of the typical GoT episode budget.

  "We probably have about a quarter of the amount of money that a minute of Westeros television costs." (27:00)

• Shorter episodes, less VFX, and no dragons help keep costs down.

  "A lot less vfx... We wanted to be earthy... give what the land supplied us." (29:25)

• Production leans into Belfast’s "institutional memory" of GoT to boost efficiency.

Creativity Through Constraint

• Faster shooting schedules: 5 pages a day vs. the usual 2.5.
• Star rugby player Peter Claffey cast as lead for stamina and intensity (30:08).
• Less time for scene polish and staging, more reliance on atmosphere and actor chemistry.

  "It informs everything from the cinematography to the music to how we shoot our action sequences. I suppose it has even maybe a little bit of an indie feel to it." (27:15)

What’s on Screen When You Cut the Budget?

• Fewer set-piece fantasy elements; more focus on mud, horses, stunts, and “heart.”

  "What we do have is we have a lot of heart. We have some good horses, we have some nice landscapes, and there is a certain level of, I don't know, a love that bleeds through the screen." (34:24)

• Key battle scenes remain a highlight, but are more rooted and "brutal" than high fantasy VFX.

  "We do have one of, in my opinion, the best fucking battle that's ever been done in Game of Thrones..." (34:24)

Humor, Tone, and Accessibility

• Show has more comedy than previous GoT series, including physical gags and poop jokes.

  "You put in three or four poop and fart jokes and that's all anyone wants to talk about... His humor comes from his awkwardness... he is quite low born and living in the shit in the mud..." (36:04)

• Entry point for audience doesn’t require franchise lore:

  "You could watch this show without knowing what a Targaryen is or any of the lore or backstory. You could just access this show right away..." (24:12)

Duration and Franchise Future

• Potentially ten or twelve installments, as outlined by George R.R. Martin. Showrunner Parker pitches decade-spanning mini-seasons tracking the characters' lives.

  "I'd love to do four of these right now... come back in 10 years and do four more... then 10 years from then, come back and do the final four at the end of their lives." (38:39)

Working with George R.R. Martin: Pressure and Process

• Parker prefers adapting from Martin’s roadmap over working "with a blank page.”

  "It's nice to be given a roadmap by a living legend... I get to enjoy having these major tent poles set up..." (40:06)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Kathleen Hennessey on social media pressure:

  "It never feels good to have somebody send you an account and say, like, see, look, it's. This is what happened. Right. And you're like, yeah, I guess we're not quite reporting it that way yet." (09:19)

• Ira Parker on budgeting:

  "We probably have about a quarter of the amount of money that a minute of Westeros television costs." (27:00)

• Ira Parker on tone and accessibility:

  "Hopefully that allows more people to discover the show... There’s not a lot of magic in our world, but... hopefully we are the Hound and Arya, the TV show." (24:22, 34:24)

Key Timestamps

• 01:32 – Peter Kafka introduces segment with Kathleen Hennessey
• 03:24-04:07 – Hennessey on responding to breaking news
• 05:09 – How the newsroom mobilizes after major incidents
• 06:28 – Addressing staff workload and community support
• 08:24 – On verification and the “chaotic information environment”
• 12:06 – Discussion on user-generated content vs. verified reporting
• 13:23 – What Star Tribune readers want in news coverage
• 15:31 – Comparing local and national-level reporting resources
• 18:56 – Kafka introduces Ira Parker and the new HBO series
• 21:02 – Parker explains the show’s simpler focus and character journey
• 27:00 – How the show is made with a vastly smaller budget
• 29:25 – Reducing expense: less VFX, more realism
• 34:24-35:40 – Audience expectations and show’s humor
• 38:39 – The theoretical long-term future of the series

Summary in a Nutshell

• Star Tribune: Responds to crisis with a balance of urgency, caution, and community roots. Navigates social media-driven news cycles by prioritizing verification, depth, and the mental health of staff.
• HBO’s "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms": Deliberately scaled down for budget and creative reasons—more intimate, comedic, accessible, but still delivering spectacle and heart. Designed to be both a continuation and reinvention of the "Game of Thrones" television brand.

This episode captures both the evolving demands on journalists in a hyper-connected era, and the shifting economics and creative strategies of premium television in the franchise age.