Question Everything with Brian Reed

3: The Journalist and the Firefighter

How one of the most accomplished reporters of our time, Barton Gellman, lost his confidence in journalism.

Sign up for our newsletter to hear the one outtake from the interview that Brian wished he could get into the episode, but couldn’t. 

“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory.

Reporter Brian Reed re-examines everything about journalism, the profession he thought he knew. In the middle of making his second hit podcast, Brian got sued. Accused. Told the biggest story of his career – the Peabody Award-winning series S-Town – wasn’t journalism. 

Which meant he had to spend years proving that it was. Obsessing over the question, “What is journalism, anyway?”

Join Brian as he turns the tools he’s acquired over his years as a journalist on journalism itself. 

With gripping stories, reporting, and interviews every other Thursday, Question Everything is a show for anyone who's ever felt confused, frustrated, or misled by the news they rely on. At a time when distrust in the media is at an all time high, when so many believe that journalism is failing, Question Everything is a real-time quest to try and make journalism better. 

For more behind each episode, sign up for the newsletter: https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/question-everything

Produced by Placement Theory and KCRW.