Brian Reed
@brihreed.bsky.social
Host of Question Everything from KCRW and Placement Theory: lnk.to/khCBOC
Co-founder of Placement Theory
Host of S-Town; Co-Host of The Trojan Horse Affair (Serial/New York Times); formerly senior producer at This American Life
Signal: brihreed.45
Co-founder of Placement Theory
Host of S-Town; Co-Host of The Trojan Horse Affair (Serial/New York Times); formerly senior producer at This American Life
Signal: brihreed.45
Pinned
Brian Reed
@brihreed.bsky.social
· Oct 8
We are excited to be nominated for a Signal Award in three categories! Please vote for us, it helps the show. Go to vote.signalaward.com, search for “Placement Theory”, and vote for the three entries that pop up. Thank you!
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Senators Blumenthal and Hawley have asked the FTC and SEC to investigate Meta for knowingly raking in billions of $ on ads that are scamming its users. This is after @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social got internal documents showing the scale of the problem. Here are some wild numbers from his story 🧵:
Senators Blumenthal and Hawley have asked the FTC and SEC to investigate Meta for knowingly raking in billions of $ on ads that are scamming its users. This is after @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social got internal documents showing the scale of the problem. Here are some wild numbers from his story 🧵:
November 26, 2025 at 4:52 PM
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Senators Blumenthal and Hawley have asked the FTC and SEC to investigate Meta for knowingly raking in billions of $ on ads that are scamming its users. This is after @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social got internal documents showing the scale of the problem. Here are some wild numbers from his story 🧵:
Senators Blumenthal and Hawley have asked the FTC and SEC to investigate Meta for knowingly raking in billions of $ on ads that are scamming its users. This is after @jeffhorwitz.bsky.social got internal documents showing the scale of the problem. Here are some wild numbers from his story 🧵:
Without comment podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
November 25, 2025 at 7:42 PM
Without comment podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
We submitted a ridiculous fake ad to Facebook for a free sub-orbital trip to space. They approved it and took our money. They're making billions of dollars this way, and they know it.
November 25, 2025 at 1:54 PM
We submitted a ridiculous fake ad to Facebook for a free sub-orbital trip to space. They approved it and took our money. They're making billions of dollars this way, and they know it.
This is media capture right here
A person directly familiar with the conversations tells Semafor that Donald Trump has personally pressed Larry Ellison to revive Brett Ratner's "Rush Hour" franchise.
www.semafor.com/article/11/2...
www.semafor.com/article/11/2...
Exclusive: How Trump is trying to remake American culture — starting with his favorite buddy-cop franchise
The president is offering some creative input on potential upcoming projects.
www.semafor.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:20 PM
This is media capture right here
Yesterday a dark and crazy story came out about a secret Chinese national (possibly) who got elected mayor of a small town in the Philippines and went on to run a human trafficking operation for a "scam center" - a compound of 800 people forced to run online scams globally.
November 21, 2025 at 10:55 PM
Yesterday a dark and crazy story came out about a secret Chinese national (possibly) who got elected mayor of a small town in the Philippines and went on to run a human trafficking operation for a "scam center" - a compound of 800 people forced to run online scams globally.
Left: my spice drawer as organized by my wife.
Middle: my mother-in-law’s spice drawer.
Right: What the hell does this have to do with the recent @reuters.com scoop about Facebook’s business model?
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
Middle: my mother-in-law’s spice drawer.
Right: What the hell does this have to do with the recent @reuters.com scoop about Facebook’s business model?
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
November 20, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Left: my spice drawer as organized by my wife.
Middle: my mother-in-law’s spice drawer.
Right: What the hell does this have to do with the recent @reuters.com scoop about Facebook’s business model?
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
Middle: my mother-in-law’s spice drawer.
Right: What the hell does this have to do with the recent @reuters.com scoop about Facebook’s business model?
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
Y’all! Question Everything made one of ApplePodcasts’ best episodes of the year.
Cheesin over here. 🤩
Cheesin over here. 🤩
November 19, 2025 at 7:13 PM
Y’all! Question Everything made one of ApplePodcasts’ best episodes of the year.
Cheesin over here. 🤩
Cheesin over here. 🤩
One day, a journalist went on X and saw lots of people talking about a video they had of her. DM them, they said, and they'd send it to you.
November 13, 2025 at 7:47 PM
One day, a journalist went on X and saw lots of people talking about a video they had of her. DM them, they said, and they'd send it to you.
Tomorrow’s Question Everything episode is so good…
November 13, 2025 at 3:36 AM
Tomorrow’s Question Everything episode is so good…
WTF is going on here with Michael Wolff giving PR strategy advice to Jeffrey Epstein about how to play Donald Trump? Is this some Journalist and the Murderer shit? Or an author colluding with a sex trafficker? Or both?
November 12, 2025 at 6:12 PM
WTF is going on here with Michael Wolff giving PR strategy advice to Jeffrey Epstein about how to play Donald Trump? Is this some Journalist and the Murderer shit? Or an author colluding with a sex trafficker? Or both?
What can you do if you're the target of a deepfake? Join us for a live chat after our new episode drops tomorrow, about a journalist whose life was upended by a nightmarish AI video. substack.com/@brianhreed/...
substack.com
November 12, 2025 at 3:41 PM
What can you do if you're the target of a deepfake? Join us for a live chat after our new episode drops tomorrow, about a journalist whose life was upended by a nightmarish AI video. substack.com/@brianhreed/...
Too much news this morning. Head bursting.
November 12, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Too much news this morning. Head bursting.
A big heaping win for the journalists in the Marion County Record case: a $3M settlement from the rural Kansas county for the police raids on the journalists' home and newspaper office.
November 11, 2025 at 11:21 PM
A big heaping win for the journalists in the Marion County Record case: a $3M settlement from the rural Kansas county for the police raids on the journalists' home and newspaper office.
Help me understand: How is this the lesson Senate Democrats take from Tuesday’s elections?
November 10, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Help me understand: How is this the lesson Senate Democrats take from Tuesday’s elections?
A Colonel has come forward to say that the U.S. government investigated Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing by an Israeli soldier, and determined that the soldier likely knew he was shooting a journalist. But that finding was whitewashed and covered up by the Biden administration.
November 7, 2025 at 2:19 PM
A Colonel has come forward to say that the U.S. government investigated Shireen Abu Akleh’s killing by an Israeli soldier, and determined that the soldier likely knew he was shooting a journalist. But that finding was whitewashed and covered up by the Biden administration.
This week on Question Everything, a live interview between Ira Glass and Reality Winner — the NSA linguist who was locked up longer than any other news source in American history. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
A Government Whistleblower Trusts a Newsroom, Ends Up in Prison
Podcast Episode · Question Everything · 11/06/2025 · 40m
podcasts.apple.com
November 6, 2025 at 6:54 PM
This week on Question Everything, a live interview between Ira Glass and Reality Winner — the NSA linguist who was locked up longer than any other news source in American history. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
Frightening and exceptional.
This is a great & frightening episode of an exceptional podcast #QuestionEverything
Listen on Apple 🍎: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/q...
October 31, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Frightening and exceptional.
Thanks for listening -- we are digging and trying to gain understanding, and make improvements, week after week.
The question of what the internet (read attention economy) is doing to our media landscape is crucial to understanding the current moment. As they say, the medium is the message.
No other journalist is digging at this harder than Brian. His show Question Everything is a must listen each week.
No other journalist is digging at this harder than Brian. His show Question Everything is a must listen each week.
You see these videos all the time now — politicians and celebrities giving an influencer a tour of their apartment, or interviewing kids on a blanket in the park, or getting quizzed on music or LGBTQ+ trivia. These appearances can power album launches and political campaigns.
October 30, 2025 at 5:35 PM
Thanks for listening -- we are digging and trying to gain understanding, and make improvements, week after week.
A lot of the recent media M&A gets covered as a business story. But it's a sign of something very nefarious -- the US is likely in Stage 4 (of 4) of media capture.
October 30, 2025 at 1:55 PM
A lot of the recent media M&A gets covered as a business story. But it's a sign of something very nefarious -- the US is likely in Stage 4 (of 4) of media capture.
Reposted by Brian Reed
The Mississippi Free Press is looking for new Voices writers. Submit opinion columns to the MFP at [email protected].
October 29, 2025 at 7:30 PM
The Mississippi Free Press is looking for new Voices writers. Submit opinion columns to the MFP at [email protected].
I order the exact same groceries for my mother-in-law week after week (she has Alzheimers), and Amazon conveniently reminds me how much the prices have increased.
October 29, 2025 at 3:02 PM
I order the exact same groceries for my mother-in-law week after week (she has Alzheimers), and Amazon conveniently reminds me how much the prices have increased.
Col Steven J. Lockjaw?
October 28, 2025 at 8:34 PM
Col Steven J. Lockjaw?
My Subway take? "Influencers should have fact-checkers." I debate it with some of the biggest influencers on TikTok. Link in the thread. 👇
October 28, 2025 at 3:24 PM
My Subway take? "Influencers should have fact-checkers." I debate it with some of the biggest influencers on TikTok. Link in the thread. 👇
You see these videos all the time now — politicians and celebrities giving an influencer a tour of their apartment, or interviewing kids on a blanket in the park, or getting quizzed on music or LGBTQ+ trivia. These appearances can power album launches and political campaigns.
October 23, 2025 at 12:41 PM
You see these videos all the time now — politicians and celebrities giving an influencer a tour of their apartment, or interviewing kids on a blanket in the park, or getting quizzed on music or LGBTQ+ trivia. These appearances can power album launches and political campaigns.
I don't believe or suggest Section 230 has only resulted in harms. I've been defensive of 230, personally, until pretty recently. There would be likely downsides to a rollback, depending on the reform; but it's hard to dispute there are downsides to the current paradigm. It's time to revisit it.
To suggest that Section 230 has only resulted in harms is activism not journalism.
This purposefully ignores the *many* benefits that stem not just from the law but from the modern Internet it created.
You can't tell an honest story if you're just blatantly leaving that side out.
This purposefully ignores the *many* benefits that stem not just from the law but from the modern Internet it created.
You can't tell an honest story if you're just blatantly leaving that side out.
Their business models are built on this special liability shield in Section 230 that no other industry gets. We've seen the business model is harmful. Let's bring them on an even playing field with all other media.
October 23, 2025 at 12:33 PM
I don't believe or suggest Section 230 has only resulted in harms. I've been defensive of 230, personally, until pretty recently. There would be likely downsides to a rollback, depending on the reform; but it's hard to dispute there are downsides to the current paradigm. It's time to revisit it.