Brooke Gladstone

For more than 30 years Cyndi Lauper has been a creative force, as a singer, songwriter, author and now composer of the music and lyrics for a hit Broadway play. Brooke Gladstone tal...

As the Supreme Court decides whether genes can be patented, one geneticist has taken matters into his own hands. Dr. Robert Nussbaum is less worried about the owning of genes and more concerned about the monopoly that private companies have over genetic intellectual property – specifically what the mutations in a gene might mean for his patient's health. He tells Brooke how he’s challenging the stranglehold on that information one patient at a time. 

We contacted Myriad for comment and they responded:

“Nothing is more important to Myriad than helping to save and improve peoples’ lives and more than one million patients have benefitted from Myriad’s BRACAnalysis test for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.  As a result of Myriad’s $500 million investment in R&D,  today more than 95 percent of patients in the U.S. have access to the BRACAnalysis test through private insurance or other coverage, and patients’ average out-of-pocket cost is only $100.  Myriad also offers financial assistance programs or free testing for uninsured patients or those in need."

 

Modest Mouse - Here It Comes

NBA center Jason Collins drew media attention when he came out on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week. And while there were a few scattered criticisms, the response - from athletes, managers, and the general public - was mostly positive. So can we expect more active athletes to come out of the closet? Brooke talks to ESPN reporter Kevin Arnovitz about what we can expect to see from major sports teams and the journalists who cover them. 

Throughout the more than six-decade celebration of Jackie Robinson's desegregation of baseball, the journalist who brought Robinson's story to the world has remained unknown. Brooke talks to Los Angeles Times sports writer Bill Plashcke, who recently penned a portrait of writer Wendell Smith, who helped secure Robinson's place in American history. 

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that states have the right to limit public records requests to only residents of that state. Brooke talks to Mark McBurney, one of the petitioners in the case, and Mark Caramanica, Freedom of Information Director for the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

If you want to hear more on this story, listen to Brooke's interview with Michael Morisy, co-founder of open government website MuckRock on our blog.

Modest Mouse - Here It Comes

Between battling for high profile legislation on guns and immigration and consoling a nation, Obama had to walk a tightrope this week. Brooke talks to Glenn Thrush, Senior White House Correspondent for Politico, who says that reconciling what was happening inside and outside Washington, was not as hard as it might seem.  

In the May issue of Harper’s magazine, Ted Conover, a longtime undercover and participatory journalist, details his job as an undercover federal meat inspector at an industrial slaughterhouse. Conover talks to Brooke about meat safety, going undercover and why it's necessary to bring a hidden world to life. 

As a manhunt for the Boston bombing suspects unfolded in the wee hours of Friday morning, Twitter was the place to be for coverage. Brooke speaks with OTM producer Alex Goldman, who captained the late (really late) night Twitter coverage for On the Media.

 

Implode - Bottom Of A Well

Earlier in the week, we asked our listeners to let us know what they thought of the coverage they were seeing. We got many thoughtful responses on our blog. In an interview recorded Thursday, listeners Alexander Hoffman, Kat Danielsen, and Roland Dumas talk with Brooke about their experience of the Boston bombing coverage.

 

William Tyler - Country of Illusion

Should reporters lie or misrepresent themselves in order to get an important story? Undercover reporting has long been an effective, exciting and, some would argue, necessary journalistic tool. But at a time when the public's trust in the press is waning, can journalists afford to lie? In a story that originally aired in 2008, Brooke talks with undercover reporters and their critics.

 

Clive Carroll and John Renbourn - Robert's Sermon

The magazine Runner's World sent over 20 staffers to cover the Boston Marathon. After the bombs exploded, a small team stayed in Boston, transforming from sports reporters to journalists in a breaking news environment. Brooke talks with the magazine's Editor-in-Chief, David Willey, about directing the magazine's coverage during a national tragedy.

 

William Tyler - We Can't Go Home Again

Though the Boston Marathon bombing happened less than a week ago, the coverage has already had a month's worth of twists and turns. Brooke reviews the sometimes-unsteady media coverage of recent developments in the case.

After the initial surge of news on Monday, we hit a news lull, so many outlets filled their air with recycled video, speculation, sorrow on the scene, pundits, consultants and blather. We asked the best call-in host we know, WNYC’s Brian Lehrer, what you're supposed to say on-air when there isn't new information but people still want to tune in. 

As the Senate debates gun control for the first time in decades, we’re awash in stories we might never have heard but for Newtown. Brooke speaks with New York Times op-ed writer Joe Nocera, who's tracking gun violence daily on his blog The Gun Report. And Bob speaks with reporter Sheryl Gay Stolberg about why we're stuck with anecdotes instead of data in the gun discussion.

 

Lúnasa - Killarney Boys Of Pleasure

OTM producer Doug Anderson fires up Grindr and meets up with another guy for a casual, anonymous...interview.

Fred Astaire - I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket

Two years ago OTM traveled to Cairo to report on the post-revolution Egyptian media. This week, in the aftermath of the Bassem Youssef arrest, Brooke looks back on her interview with Bassem in 2011 and speaks with New York Times Cairo Bureau David Kirkpatrick about the future of the media in Egypt. 

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s escalating threats against the US earned him a prominent spot in this week’s news cycle. Charles Armstrong, Director of Columbia University’s Center for Korean Research, tells Brooke that North Korean threats are not only cyclical - they’re seasonal.

The rate of prosecution of government leakers has reached unprecedented heights under President Obama, twice that of every other president combined. It's been called a 'war on leakers'. But is it? Columbia Law professor David Pozen, author of The Leaky Leviathan: Why the Government Condemns and Condones Unlawful Disclosures of Information, tells Brooke that when you consider the total number of government leakers - less then 1% are punished.

With his cool rhymes and even cooler clothes, Basketball Hall of Famer Walt "Clyde" Frazier sat down with Brooke Gladstone for a live event to discuss basketball, broadcasting and the art of being cool.