In Reality

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101

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Oct 2026

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About the show

“In Reality” debunks fake news and elevates the innovative researchers, entrepreneurs, journalists and policymakers who are fighting back against toxic misinformation. Co-hosts Joan Donovan, research director of the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media and Public Policy, and Eric Schurenberg, an award-winning journalist and former CEO of Fast Company, engage guests in enlightening conversations about solutions to this scourge and the path back to a shared reality.

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60 recent

October 29, 202640 min

Wait... Americans Don't Trust the Press To Say Who Won The Election? | Media Engagement Expert Stephanie Edgerly from Medill School of Journalism

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media. I'm Eric Schoenberg, a longtime journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. Americans are heading into the 2026 midterm elections with an alarming lack of faith that journalists will tell them who won. These findings come from the new Alliance for Trust, Medill Trust Tracker. A joint survey led by our own Alliance for Trust in Media and Northwestern University's renowned Medill School of Journalism. Now it's no secret that trust in news media is low, really low, a trend that's been in place for decades, but the trust tracker's focus on the midterms puts this fact in pretty stark terms. Only 32% of respondents have substantial confidence. That journalists will report election results accurately. Even fewer trust journalists to thoroughly investigate allegations of voter fraud. Now, before I totally give in to despair, I thought I'd check in with one of the researchers behind the tracker to get a gauge on the nuance behind those numbers, hoping there is nuance. So my guest today is one of the two lead researchers on the trust tracker… Stephanie Edgerly, Medill's Associate Dean for Research and a leading scholar of how audiences, particularly younger Americans, receive news. We'll explore what the trust tracker reveals about people's fears about election coverage, what journalists' responsibilities are to address those feelings, and yes, we'll get a nuanced view of the attitudes behind those seemingly bleak numbers. And we'll discover why. Stephanie sees some grounds for optimism. And now here's Stephanie Edgerley. Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

September 30, 202642 min

What It Means To Be "Media Literate" with Top Expert Dr. Michael Spikes (Northwestern University)

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media. I'm Eric Schurenberg, longtime journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. What does it mean to be media literate? It means being able to distinguish between opinion and news and being able to discern misinformation when you see it, knowing which news organizations to trust... But my guest today argues that real media literacy, or as he sometimes prefers, being media savvy, goes deeper. It means understanding how information gets made and importantly, what likely motivates the people making any particular claim. It also means understanding how your own prior beliefs can shape your sense of what's true and false without your even being conscious of it. Michael Spikes is an assistant professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and director of its Teach for Chicago journalism program. He spent most of his career understanding how to teach media literacy, this very 21st century skill, and advocating for it in education programs, which raises the harder question, is how do you make an entire country, an entire population more media literate? So we'll talk about why teaching kids isn't enough, why adults need media literacy training just as much, why our decentralized education system makes population level change especially difficult here in the US, and perhaps most relevant to every one of us citizens, is how do you know what to believe?! Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

August 26, 202626 min

What the Founders Got Right (and Wrong) About the First Amendment with Pulitzer Prize Winner Jack Rakove

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media with Eric Schoenberg, longtime journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. It's hard to imagine principles more foundational to American self-conception as a free people than the guarantees of free speech and a free press embedded in the First Amendment. Given their importance, it's strange to realize that these principles almost didn't become Part of the Constitution. Rights, after all, already existed in state constitutions and centuries of English common law, so many framers didn't think it necessary to write them down. Given how frequently those rights have been challenged since, it's a good thing they did. So, what happened to change their minds? The guest today is Pulitzer Prize winning historian and Stanford Professor Emeritus Jack Rakove. The episode is a distilled version of a longer interview covering the origins of the First Amendment, but for this episode, we'll leap right into its adoption into the Constitution. And then we'll take another great leap into whether that Constitution, for all its eighteenth century brilliance, is up to governing the country we have become today. Rakove has doubts. It's a question Eric will explore further this fall when he teaches an online course on the First Amendment open to everyone at the University of Chicago's Gram School. You'll find the sign-up link below in the show notes. But now, first, here's Jack Rakove. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the origins of the First Amendment 01:13 The absence of free speech in the original Constitution 02:24 State declarations of rights and their meanings 06:30 The political process behind adding the Bill of Rights 09:13 Madison's concerns and the drafting of amendments 17:00 Contemporary challenges to free expression and the First Amendment 20:39 The state of American constitutional norms today Eric's University of Chicago Class https://graham.uchicago.edu/course/revolutionary-origins-of-the-first-amendment Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

August 6, 202632 min

Can You Be A Journalist Without A Newsroom? Rachel Lobdell: News Creator Corps Executive Director

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media with Eric Schurenberg—longtime journalist and media executive, now founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. When Eric started in journalism, the enforcer of accuracy was the newsroom. Editors questioned your work. Fact checkers combed through it for errors. The organization you worked for held you accountable for its reputation. But as everyone knows, fewer people today get their news from this kind of institutional journalism. The growth in news consumption comes from so-called independent journalists—social media influencers, podcasters and Substackers, many of whom never set foot in a newsroom. In this media environment, people trust individuals more than organizations to tell them the truth. Rather than resisting this trend, today’s guest is trying to shape it. Rachel Lobdell is the executive director of News Creator Corps, which trains creators in the disciplines that professional reporters learned in the newsroom: sourcing, fact checking, public records, transparency, and ethics. This raises all kinds of questions for an institutionalist like Eric. Can news integrity be repotted outside the newsroom? Can creators maintain audience trust without pandering? And what happens to news gathering when journalists backed by newsrooms are replaced by individuals? So, let’s ask News Creator Corps’ Rachel Lobdell. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to Rachel Labdell and News Creator Corps 02:01 Rachel's background in traditional journalism 03:30 What is News Creator Corps and its mission 04:48 Training creators with no journalism background 05:42 Impact of creator trust in underserved communities 07:34 Different types of creators and their roles 08:02 Why focus on creators without journalism training 09:25 The importance of mentorship and community 12:42 The NCC Collective and creator accreditation 13:59 Handling monetization and ethical standards 16:33 Dealing with sponsored content and disclosures 18:21 Guarding against sensationalism and algorithm influence 20:46 Sourcing and transparency in creator content 22:50 The future of creator-driven news ecosystems 27:34 Long-term vision for trustworthy information 28:30 Measuring impact and community engagement Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

July 21, 202641 min

Heart vs. Head: How to Actually Get Things Done in a Diverse Democracy with the Civity Founders

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation and the media with host Eric Schurenberg, long time journalist, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. Over the years, he's interviewed a number of people from the so- called bridge-building community. They’ve been researchers like Matt Levendusky of University of Pennsylvania, Journalists like Amanda Ripley, bridge builders like Monica Guzman, all convinced that things would be better if Americans could just stop demonizing their neighbors. Let’s stipulate that’s a worthy goal. Still, all of these movements face a similar problem: How do you scale listening skills? How long do the effects of civil conversations across political divides actually last? I’ll put those questions to today’s guests, Malka Kopell and Palma Strand, the founders of 13-year old Civity.org. Kopell describes her background as a community organizer, but she’s also been a program officer at the Hewlett Foundation and founding managing director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society at Stanford. Strand came to Civity after a career it law, teaching law at Creighton University and the University of Marland and clerking for, among others, Supreme Court justice Byron White. The Civity insight is that relationships are key to building trust and trust is fundamental to getting things done in a diverse society. Civity’s recipe is to train local leaders—from mayors to city councils and nonprofit directors —to build relationships before tackling contentious issues. It sounds great, but perhaps still subject to the issues of scale and persistence facing all bridge builders. But let’s let Civity’s founders explain themselves why they believe their approach works. Now, here’s Malka Kopell and Palma Strand. Chapters 00:00 Introduction to the Podcast and Guests 01:03 Main Questions About Civil Conversations 02:16 Introducing Civity and Its Work 03:21 Types of Leaders Trained by Civity 04:40 Founders' Backgrounds and Epiphanies 08:31 What Makes Civity Different from Other Approaches 10:00 The 'Conversation Before the Conversation' 12:46 Relationship Building in Civic and Business Spheres 15:02 Addressing Scale and Reach Challenges 17:39 Engaging the Middle and Open-minded Communities 21:34 Storytelling Guidelines and Listening Skills 23:47 Media's Role in Societal Divides 26:44 Media Narratives and Real-Life Community Stories 29:23 Journalistic Approaches to Divisiveness 31:20 AI's Impact on Society and Connection 33:49 A Simple Civic Workshop for Neighborhoods 35:45 Focusing on Differences and Complexity in Conversations 36:20 Micro Interactions and Building Trust in Daily Life 38:36 The Power of One-on-One Conversations 39:28 Optimism vs. Pessimism About Society's Future 40:39 Closing Remarks and Final Thoughts Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

July 7, 202633 min

What Really Works To Bridge Political Divides with 'Our Common Bonds' Author Matthew Levendusky

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media with Eric Schurenberg, longtime media executive, and now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. If you've listened to this podcast more than once, you've likely heard a recurring question: What would it take to get Americans over their political alienation? Would it help to clean up and diversify our media diets? Would it help to understand where the other side is coming from? Today's guest thinks the answer might be to emphasize all we have in common as Americans, as neighbors, as friends. More important than the theory, perhaps, is that he actually tested this hypothesis in the field. Matthew Lewandusky is a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and the author of Our Common Bonds . Through a series of experiments described in the book, he tested whether reminding us of what we have in common, friendships, Sports teams, patriotism, can reduce the instinct to demonize fellow citizens. Some approaches work well, others hardly at all. His findings are especially interesting to me because they're closely related to an Alliance for Trust project in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, exploring whether shared local history can help bridge political divides. So today, as we brace for the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding. Let's dive into the power of our common bonds... Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

June 18, 202623 min

Politics Without Polarization in Iowa with Governor Candidate Rob Sand (Democrat)

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media with Eric Schurenberg, longtime journalist and media executive, now founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. When Eric interviewed Rob Sand last summer, his run for Iowa governor had more than a whiff of tilting at windmills. He remains the only Democrat to hold statewide elected office in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the governorship in more than 20 years and that Trump carried in 2024 by 13 points. Sand’s prospects have drastically improved. Nothing quixotic about it now. He has run a campaign that may be one of the most bi-partisan in the country, by accusing both parties as out of touch with Iowans. His Republican opponent, Zach Lahn, has vulnerabilities, including that he voted in Kansas until recently, allowing Sand’s campaign to label him a carpetbagger. Which is why we decided to encore last summer’s interview. We’ll hear how Sand plans to persuade Republicans to cross party lines and vote for him. We’ll hear what personal qualities he thinks can bridge political divides and how, in his own life, he manages to avoid being trapped in the filter bubbles that make America’s media ecosystem so toxic to civil discourse. Imagine an election in which the deciding principle isn't 'let’s choose the lesser of two evils', but rather, 'may the best man win'. What a concept. Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

May 29, 202622 min

The Delicate Art of Managing Reputation in the Age of AI with Featured's Brett Farmiloe

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media with Eric Schurenberg, longtime journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. When we talk about the information ecosystem on this podcast, you tend to focus on its public-facing parts, so journalists, social media platforms, influencers. But there is another player, one that acts behind the scenes: public relations. Now, PR has always been kind of a wholesaler of information, connecting clients who can pay the PR firm to make them visible with journalists who need the content. Like everything else, PR has been turned upside down first by social media and now by AI. Today's guest is Brett Farmiloe, co-founder and CEO of Featured, which uses AI to help do what PR associates used to do and still do to some extent. Full disclosure, what brought Brett to my attention is that Featured is also the company that brought back Help A Reporter Out, known by its acronym HARO, the service that journalists of Eric's generation used religiously. Brett operates at a fascinating point in the evolution of the attention economy, where reputation once built by journalists and PR, then shaped by algorithms, is now increasingly at the mercy of what AI models say. 01:40 Introduction to Featured and HARO 03:46 Reviving HARO: Trust and Quality in PR 07:11 The Role of AI in PR and Media 09:55 Navigating Native Advertising and Content Creation 12:46 The Freemium Model and Revenue Generation 15:39 Legacy Media vs. New Media in the Information Ecosystem 17:59 The Importance of Sharing Knowledge Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

May 12, 202638 min

The Way Back to Truth as We Once Knew It with 'The Future of Truth' Author Steven Rosenbaum

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media with Eric Schurenberg, longtime journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. What happened to truth in the digital age and how will AI challenge it even further? Those are the questions at the heart of today's conversation. Steve Rosenbaum, Emmy award-winning filmmaker, founder of the Sustainable Media Center, and the author of the new book, The Future of Truth. The book runs through just about every institution that was once a pillar of what Jonathan Rauch calls the reality-based community. That is media, law, science, economics, medicine, and how AI is already reshaping it. Eric and Steve talk about why those institutions lost their authority and what fills the vacuum. They'll talk about a generation raised inside the social media feed on whom we've been conducting a society level experiment whose outcome we can't predict. And we'll talk about whether there is any path back to truth as we once knew it through regulation or technology or just old fashioned media literacy. Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com

May 1, 202658 min

12 Years at War Against Misinformation - Renée DiResta. Author of 'Invisible Rulers'

Welcome to In Reality, the podcast about truth, disinformation, and the media with Eric Schurenberg, longtime journalist and media executive, now the founder of the Alliance for Trust in Media. If you want to understand how we got to this moment, a moment in which most Americans say they can't tell what's true online anymore, when loud minorities can manufacture the appearance of mass consensus, when we have retreated from a shared sense of facts to our own bespoke realities, let me introduce you to Renée DiResta. Renée has been a warrior for truth in these polarized times longer than almost anyone. She mapped anti-vaccine networks on Facebook in 2013. At the Stanford Internet Observatory, she exposed state-sponsored influence operations and for her trouble, she has been slandered before Congress, subpoenaed and doxed and harassed. Her book, Invisible Rulers, is an encyclopedic account of what happened to us all when the ancient human rumor mill met the modern machinery of networked propaganda. She's now a professor at Georgetown's McCourt School of Public Policy and she's still very much in the fight. Renée and Eric talk about how ordinary people get pulled into false narratives, how it feels to be targeted by powerful people living out fake and cynical narratives, and how AI is rewriting the rules of influence. And why, despite everything, Renée hasn't given up the fight. And now here's Renée de Resta. Website - free episode transcripts www.in-reality.fm Alliance for Trust in Media alliancefortrust.com Produced by Tom Platts at Sound Sapien soundsapien.com