Podcast
Citations Needed
Hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson · EN
Citations Needed is a podcast about the intersection of media, PR, and power, hosted by Nima Shirazi and Adam Johnson.
34episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
News Brief: The ADL's Bogus Origin Story and Its Rise as Ideological Enforcer for Empire and Israel
Yesterday00:42:14Tap to summarizeIn this News Brief, we talk with Emmaia Gelman, author of The Anti-Defamation League and the Racial State, about how––despite posing a civil rights org––the ADL functions as defender of colonialism and enforcer for reactionary western ideologies.
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Episode 239: The Vague, Capital-Serving Co-Optation of "Affordability" Politics
1w ago01:20:38Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we detail the long history of generic "affordability" discourse and how, post-Mamdani, it's become the go-to establishment buzzword justifying tax breaks for developers, deregulation, and cosmetic tweaks to our for-profit healthcare and education systems. With guest Luke Savage.
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News Brief: The Call to Boycott—and Delegitimize—the New York Times
4w ago00:40:29Tap to summarizeIn this News Brief, we talk with Chris Mills Rodrigo from Writers Against The War On Gaza about their campaign to boycott the New York Times and remove the "paper of record" from its pedestal of alleged neutrality and editorial rigor.
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Episode 238: The Fictional, Racist, Paranoia-Sowing "Sleeper Cell" Media Construction
May 2001:30:33Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we detail the vague, baseless racism-sowing media coverage and pop culture obsession with so-called "sleeper cells," a construction that has consumed post-9/11 America but suffers from one major problem: there's no evidence it exists.
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Live Show: 'How to Sell a Genocide' Book Talk at The Word Is Change Bookstore in Brooklyn, NY
May 1301:03:50Tap to summarizeThis is a live recording between Nima and Adam at the Word is Change Bookstore May 7, 2026. In this conversation, we discuss key findings that can be found in Adam's new book, How to Sell a Genocide: The Media's Complicity in the Destruction of Gaza.
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News Brief: "Peak TV," Streamer Studio Accounting Gimmicks, and the Precarity of Hollywood Labor
May 600:47:54Tap to summarizeIn this News Brief, we talk with Miranda Banks and Kate Fortmueller, authors of the new book Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Workers, about rising inequality and precarity in Hollywood, studio consolidation, and how the dream of fame and fortune, 100 years on, is still used to concentrate power and drive down wages.
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News Brief: How the Right Invented — and Exploited — the "Liberal Media" Trope
Apr 2200:51:25Tap to summarizeIn this News Brief, we talk with A. J. Bauer, assistant professor at the University of Alabama, about his new book," Making the Liberal Media: How Conservatives Built a Movement Against the Press". In our discussion we break down the corporate and ideological forces that shaped the popular idea mainstream media was crawling with fifth columnist agitators hostile to the values of Real America.
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Ep 237: How Selective, Patronizing 'Deradicalization' Discourse Pathologizes Anti-Colonial Struggle
Apr 1501:21:51Tap to summarizeIn this episode, we break down the long history of US media reducing recalcitrant populations' grievances to "terrorism," "hate," and "radicalism" in urgent need of re-education. With guest Prem Thakker.
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Ep 236: Manufactured Austerity and the Media Assisted 'Public-Private Partnership' Rip-Off
Apr 801:06:08Tap to summarizeIn this episode we discuss how privatization was rebranded 'Public-Private Partnerships' and unleashed decades of raiding of the public coffers by Wall Street. With guest Donald Cohen, founder and executive director of In the Public Interest.
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News Brief: As American Troops Hide in Civilian Hotels, US Media Ignores Pentagon's Use of 'Human Shields'
Apr 100:17:55Tap to summarizeIn this News Brief we examine CNN, the Atlantic, Washington Post and NYT's blatant 'human shields' double standard as reports emerge of US troops hiding from Iranian attacks in civilian infrastructure.
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