Topic: This American Life

NPR has launched an aggressive donation campaign following the elimination of federal funding for public media. Separately, the program "This American Life" issued a warning regarding un-beeped profanity in its podcast version, directing sensitive listeners to its website for a censored feed.

Ira Glass announced that "This American Life" is launching a premium subscription model due to a significant collapse in the podcast advertising market. The show expects ad revenue to be one-third less than in previous years, leading to staff cuts across the industry. The hosts contrast this "industrial complex" model, which requires 36 producers, with their own "value-for-value" independent funding structure.

Ira Glass of "This American Life" delivered a speech at an NPR event regarding the "limited power of fact-based reporting." Glass used the birther controversy to illustrate how voters ignore media refutations. The hosts criticize Glass for failing to acknowledge that the birther rumor originated within the 2008 Hillary Clinton campaign, calling his narrative "phony."

Ira Glass declared that the "future of journalism is podcasting," citing the massive download numbers for "Serial" and "This American Life." He mentioned an NPR producer attending the "DeploraBall" to interview Trump supporters and social media trolls. The hosts mock Glass for trying to "claim" the podcasting space as the money in traditional media dries up.

The podcast "This American Life" goes independent from distributor PRI and begins soliciting listener donations. The hosts discuss how large corporate underwriters like Boeing and Monsanto exert "soft power" over public media, ensuring that negative investigative stories about their industries are suppressed.

An excerpt from "This American Life" illustrates the pressure on doctors to perform unnecessary tests to avoid lawsuits. A physician describes a case where a father demanded a CAT scan for his daughter despite the risk of thyroid cancer from radiation. The hosts argue that the fee-for-service model and lack of tort reform incentivize dangerous medical over-utilization.