Underreported with Nicholas Lemann

This is episode one of a three-part series This season of Underreported is a three-part series on The Subplot: What China Is Reading and Why It Matters, by journalist and critic Megan Walsh, where will explore not only the content of the book, but why it is worth our time and attention. Before we speak to the author herself in upcoming episodes, we want to set the stage. Jeffrey Wasserstrom is one of America's leading China specialists and has published several important books, including...

Acclaimed Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto joins the podcast. Her most recent book, New Kings of the World, examins the new arbiters of mass culture ―India’s Bollywood films, Turkey's soap operas, or dizi, and South Korea's pop music.

Journalist Bethany McLean digs deep into the cycles of boom and bust that have plagued the American oil industry for the past decade, from the financial wizardry and mysterious death of fracking pioneer Aubrey McClendon, to the investors who are questioning the very economics of shale itself. McLean finds that fracking is a business built on attracting ever-more gigantic amounts of capital investment, while promises of huge returns have yet to bear out. Saudi America tells a remarkable story...

In 2008, the U.S. Treasury put Fannie and Freddie into a life-support state known as “conservatorship” to prevent their failure—and worldwide economic chaos. The two companies, which were always controversial, have become a battleground. Today, Fannie and Freddie are profitable again but still in conservatorship. Their profits are being redirected toward reducing the federal deficit, which leaves them with no buffer should they suffer losses again. China and Japan are big owners of Fannie...

From the Underreported dispatch archives: Atossa Araxia Abrahamian travels the globe to meet these willing and unwitting "cosmopolites," or citizens of the world, who inhabit a new, borderless realm where things can go very well, or very badly. The story of twenty-first-century citizenship is bigger than millionaires seeking their next passport. This episode was recorded on October 3, 2017, at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in New York City.

Journalism is in crisis. The heart of the crisis isn't what most people think it is—the bitter struggle between Donald Trump and news organizations. The heart of the crisis is economic. Quite rapidly in the twenty-first century, newspapers, traditionally the major generators of original journalism, have gone into a downward spiral that has resulted in the disappearance of about half of their editorial jobs. Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan is back again to talk to us about her...

There was a time, and it wasn't that long ago when newspapers could easily have a 30% profit margin. Places like car dealers and grocery stores were able to get their message out. But then, the internet happened and kicked the legs out from under the entire business model. Washington Post media critic Margaret Sullivan joins our podcast to talk about her first book, GHOSTING THE NEWS: LOCAL JOURNALISM AND THE CRISIS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. The story Sullivan tells is not a happy one, but...

The second part of our interview with Krithika Varagur. In her new book, The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project, Varagur traverses three continents to tell the story of the Saudi religious campaign from Indonesia, Nigeria, and Kosovo. She finds Saudi money in all kinds of places, from universities to political parties to extremist and jihadist groups. She meets the people who were swept up in its Cold-War-era peak and those who are still holding up its tarnished international...

Krithika Varagur's new book, The Call: Inside the Global Saudi Religious Project, chronicles the House of Saud’s vast project to systematically transform the Muslim world in its own image by spreading abroad Wahhabism, its brand of ultraconservative Islam. Using billions of dollars, thousands of personnel, and institutions both governmental and unofficial, "Saudi money" is both more complex and more influential than is commonly believed.

On the frontlines of the battle for democracy in China. Vigil: Hong Kong on the Brink represents a rare example of deep historical, cultural, and political context produced on deadline about a major ongoing news event. Drawing on a rich store of knowledge and wisdom, and writing with literary power as well as analytic rigor, Jeffrey Wasserstrom makes us understand the deep roots and the broad significance of the tragedy we see unfolding day by day in Hong Kong.

The Story of MS-13 and Its American Roots. "State of War: MS-13 and El Salvador’s World of Violence" makes vividly clear why Salvadorans are fleeing their country, and why Trump’s harsh immigration and asylum policies may only empower the gangs more. Writer and "Detours" podcast host William Wheeler discusses the process of reporting his new book for Columbia Global Reports.

Host Nicholas Lemann sits down with Columbia University law professor, and author of The Curse of Bigness: Antitrust in the New Gilded Age Tim Wu to discuss the politics of Louis Brandeis and Theodore Roosevelt as antitrust has reemerged this year as a major issue in the run-up to the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election.

Part two of Nick's conversation with acclaimed Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto. Her most recent book, New Kings of the World, examines the new arbiters of mass culture ―India’s Bollywood films, Turkey's soap operas, or dizi, and South Korea's pop music. Published with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Acclaimed Pakistani writer Fatima Bhutto joins the show. Her most recent book, New Kings of the World, examines the new arbiters of mass culture ―India’s Bollywood films, Turkey's soap operas, or dizi, and South Korea's pop music. Published with support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Nick speaks with Columbia Global Reports author and veteran reporter John B. Judis about his new book, The Nationalist Revival that examines the worldwide wave of nationalism and how U.S. Democrats can win against Donald Trump in 2020.

We're kicking off season two of UNDERREPORTED with guest Joel Simon, who in nearly two decades at the Committee to Protect Journalists has worked on dozens of hostages cases, to delve into the heated hostage policy debate. We Want to Negotiate is an exploration of the ethical, legal, and strategic considerations of a bedeviling question: Should governments pay ransom to terrorists?

In the last few years, the fracking industry has boomed, leading many—including the President—to declare that soon America will be energy-independent, and free of the influence of foreign oil and gas suppliers such as Saudi Arabia and Russia. Not so fast, writes business journalist Bethany McLean in her book Saudi America: The Truth About Fracking and How It's Changing the World. Just as she revealed that Enron looked too good to be true in her 2003 bestseller The Smartest Guys in the Room,...

Via "The Investor's Field Guide" podcast | I’ve often heard that good investors are a bit like journalists: doggedly collecting evidence and building an understanding of how all the pieces of a company or investment fit together. My guest this week is one of my favorite writers and journalists, Bethany McLean.

Less than a decade ago, China did not have a single high-speed train in service. Now, the Pan-Asia Railway portion of the One Belt One Road initiative could transform Southeast Asia. Will Doig, author of High Speed Empire, traveled through Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore to chronicle the dramatic transformations taking place. Do ordinary people have a voice in this moment of economic, political, and cultural collision?

Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen is an outspoken critic of Putin and Trump, and was just named one of the Five Most Important Intellectuals in America Today by The Washington Post. Her new book Never Remember with photos by Misha Friedman, commemorates those who died in the gulags and explains how Putin’s totalitarian state is whitewashing Russia’s past. This discussion, moderated by Nicholas Lemann, is a can’t miss opportunity to hear one of the leading experts on Russia today speak...