Under what conditions do people trust the news, if at all? How did Covid lockdown change news consumption? What are we to think of journalists who leave establishment news organizations and build their own following on platforms like Substack? And does our mistrust of news organizations mirror mistrust of other professional sectors, like health care and higher education?

Jake Nelson, Associate Professor of Communication at the U and former journalist, discusses these issues and more, based on his extensive interviews with news audiences. With Seth Lewis (University of Oregon), he is working on a book project, Why We Distrust: American Skepticism toward Media, Medicine, and Higher Education.

Sources mentioned in this episode:

• Jeff Bezos on X, about the editorial mission of The Washington Post
• Glenn Greenwald, on Locals
• Bari Weiss, The Free Press
• Ken Klippenstein, Substack
• Taylor Lorenz, User Mag

Jake’s recommended media:

• City Cast Salt Lake
• Axios
• The Hollywood Reporter

Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.

Matt Basso and Megan Weiss discuss the iconic film, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. They explore the film’s historical context, its satirical take on Cold War politics, and its depiction of gender. The Red and Lavender Scares, consumerism, and militarization all helped set the stage for the Cold War culture lampooned in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 film.

Matt Basso is Associate Professor of History and Gender Studies, and Megan Weiss is a doctoral candidate in History, at the University of Utah.

This episode was recorded in anticipation of the Tanner Humanities Center’s screening of the London National Theatre’s production of Dr Strangelove, starring Steve Coogan. You can find out more about the Center’s NTL screenings, and other public programming, at tanner.utah.edu.

Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.

Louis Chude-Sokei, author of Floating in a Most Peculiar Way, discusses the Black diaspora, sound, accent, masculinity, Afrofuturism, dub music, and AI with Scott Black. Links:

• Louis Chude-Sokei, Floating in a Most Peculiar Way
• Louis Chude-Sokei, The Last “Darky”: Bert Williams, Black-on-Black Minstrelsy, and the African Diaspora
• Louis Chude-Sokei, The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics
• Carnegie Hall’s Afrofuturism festival
• Anarchic Artificial Intelligence

Louis Chude-Sokei is George and Joyce Wein Chair in African-American and Black Diaspora Studies, and Director of the African-American and Black Diaspora Studies Program, at Boston University. Scott Black is Director of the Tanner Humanities Center.

Episode edited by Ethan Rauschkolb. Named after our seminar room, The Virtual Jewel Box hosts conversations at the Obert C. and Grace A. Tanner Humanities Center at the University of Utah. Views expressed on The Virtual Jewel Box do not represent the official views of the Center or University.