エピソード

  • What Are We Preserving?

    What Are We Preserving?
    2025/06/13
    “The idea of preemptively censoring, before any executive order or decision — not only do you feel violated, but I felt I could not go to any institution for potential protection or support for my independent voice.” - Michèle Stephenson

    Grace convenes fellow filmmakers Cecilia Aldarondo, Marjan Safinia, and Michèle Stephenson (see full bios and links to films in episode show notes) for a conversation on something that’s sparked serious concern for all four of them in recent months: the elimination of many educational and curriculum materials accompanying their films on the PBS LearningMedia website.

    As with all of our episodes this season, Grace and the VLU team aim to capture what's happening in real time — to document for public awareness and, hopefully, catalyze further conversation and action among independent filmmakers, multimedia storytellers, and people working both in and beyond PBS.
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    39 分
  • The Upside Down

    The Upside Down
    2025/06/13
    “I don't know if there's anything in history that we've ever seen in civic life [like] what we're seeing. But I do know, like Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, we have to speak up…we have to be willing to put ourselves on the line. At the very least, I get to use my voice and put some things on the line.”
    - Chris Hastings, president and chief executive officer of WXXI Public Media in Rochester, NY; former executive producer and editor-in-chief of GBH’s WORLD Channel in Boston

    On June 12, 2025, the House narrowly voted (214-212) to cut nearly $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR. This will significantly impact smaller stations serving rural communities nationwide. This bill now advances to the Senate.

    In our second episode of Season 2, Grace Lee talks with WXXI’s Chris Hastings about recent staff layoffs and federal funding cuts roiling public media, preserving trusted information as a vital public resource, and what innovation looks like to him while navigating the ‘Upside Down’ present.
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    33 分
  • Death by a Thousand Cuts

    Death by a Thousand Cuts
    2025/06/09
    “I'm talking about it because I think it's important for people to know the little ‘death by a thousand cuts’ that are happening. I don't think that appeasement is the way to maintain our free speech rights and our democracy.” - Alicia Sams

    In fall 2021, independent filmmaker Grace Lee launched Viewers Like Us, a six-part podcast series that asked: What will it take to restore the entire public to public media? Now, four years later, public media funding is under fire from the Trump administration, and Grace is hearing disturbing stories — directly from fellow filmmakers — of censorship within the PBS system.

    With so much of our journalism being targeted, we want to show up for our community of independent filmmakers, storytellers, and journalists, as well as document how PBS is responding to these threats.

    In the coming weeks, VLU will publish six new episodes, giving the mic to different voices — starting with Emmy-Award winning producer/director Alicia Sams — to share their experiences of this moment and figure out how we move forward together, in real time.

    To kick off season two, Grace and Alicia discuss how PBS censored her recent film on Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Art Spiegelman, how the filmmakers responded, and what these actions might mean for independent filmmakers moving forward.
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    30 分
  • Interview Excerpt: Randall Pinkston

    Interview Excerpt: Randall Pinkston
    2022/01/14
    In the United States, there’s a “public” element to all broadcasting over the federally regulated airwaves. Audiences have the right to speak up about the changes we expect on the air. That’s why a commercial broadcast license challenge — launched decades ago, yet still within living memory — intrigued Viewers Like Us’s investigative reporter Akintunde Ahmad. Special thanks to Randall Pinkston for this interview. Learn more about his life and career: https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/randall-pinkston

    Correction: An earlier version of this bonus interview excerpt misidentified the party that assumed control of WLBT’s broadcast license in 1980 as Communications Improvement Inc. CCI was the interim operator of the station for nine years after the FCC ordered the original owner to vacate the license. The excerpt has been updated for accuracy.
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    3 分
  • It’s Not Over

    It’s Not Over
    2021/12/30
    The Viewers Like Us team has spoken with filmmakers, journalists, DEI officers, a member of Congress, station managers and so many others who care about the future of public media. All provide reasons to stay energized and engaged in the work of pushing PBS to live up to its founding mission. But the exhaustion and burnout that comes with organizing for systemic change is real. In our season finale, we consider what—and who—will determine the vibrancy and sustainability of PBS and its audiences moving forward.

    This episode includes an update to Myrton Running Wolf’s story shared in Episode 4, about his painful experience in a mentorship program run out of Boston’s public television station, GBH.
    Grace talks with Jihan Robinson, who currently helps lead documentaries at Hulu’s ONYX Collective, a BIPOC-led entertainment brand. Jihan underscores that tangible change will require ongoing investment and work by white people working in media, commercial and public alike. We also hear from filmmaker Kristi Jacobson, who shares what solidarity and accountability in the fight for racial justice and equity in media looks like for her and other white people.

    Grace and Tunde reflect on what they’ve learned while making this podcast. And of course, we couldn’t end this series without hearing from you, our listeners.

    In 2022, we encourage you to continue following this project as it evolves, on Twitter (@_ViewersLikeUs_) and through our website (https://viewerslikeus.com/). Because we know what it’s going to take for PBS to finally listen: the voices, ideas, care and feedback of viewers like us.

    Explore show notes, episode transcript and more at: https://viewerslikeus.com/podcast/episode-6-its-not-over/
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    23 分
  • Don't Go Chasing Watersheds

    Don't Go Chasing Watersheds
    2021/12/17
    In the decades-long struggle toward an equitable public media system, what will it take to move from mere talk to actionable change?

    As you’ve heard throughout the series, countless BIPOC creators have dedicated themselves for decades to keeping PBS’s mission and relevance on track. Many people working within the system have done the same. With so many wanting to see PBS thrive, what's holding it back? In our fifth episode, we dig into two essential components for delivering on long-overdue change in public media: data transparency and accountability. We speak to Dacia Mitchell, Director of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion at San Francisco’s KQED, about the necessity of white leaders and media makers moving through their fear and discomfort in order to actively dismantle systemic racism. We hear from Representative Joaquin Castro on why public TV has to be front and center in terms of combating cultural exclusion in media. Darnell Hunt, Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA, shares some revealing data about PBS scripted dramas. Richard Jean So, a professor at McGill University who’s studied racial inequities in the publishing industry, guides us on taking data collection into our own hands. Plus, we embark on our own not-so-scientific study using an official PBS publication: the Shop PBS catalog.

    Explore show notes, episode transcript and more at: https://viewerslikeus.com/podcast/episode-5-dont-go-chasing-watersheds/
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    25 分
  • An American Experience

    An American Experience
    2021/11/23
    Grace and Tunde discuss what it feels like to be a token. Myrton Running Wolf, a professor of race and media at the University of Nevada, shares his experiences of participating in an aughts-era Native American mentorship program run by Boston’s GBH—and underscores the lasting harm of whitewashed narratives when telling Indigenous history. Episode 4 also uplifts the work of visionary filmmaker and producer, Henry Hampton. His essential 1987 series “Eyes on the Prize,” chronicling the civil rights movement, offers a relevant example of how to tell stories with authenticity, integrity and nuance, while ensuring that everyone contributing to the creative process is valued. Callie Crossley, veteran journalist at GBH who directed two of the original “Eyes” episodes, reflects on how this series might inform the ways PBS creates space for and invests in BIPOC-led, community-centered productions today.

    Explore show notes, episode transcript and more at: https://viewerslikeus.com/podcast/episode-4-an-american-experience/

    Viewers Like Us is committed to preserving a history of BIPOC makers and their contributions to PBS over the years. We’ve published a timeline on our website listing the ups and downs of PBS’s record with people of color. We invite you to explore our new resource and submit ideas for this work-in-progress via hello@viewerslikeus.com or through the Engage page on our website, https://viewerslikeus.com/engage/
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    32 分
  • Minority Report

    Minority Report
    2021/11/07
    The words “diversity, equity, and inclusion”—DEI for short—seem to be everywhere these days: from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and...public media. Episode 3 reveals what happened to a PBS Diversity Report filed 14 years ago, and explores the limits of a system whose leaders repeatedly promise to ‘do better’ over the years without building in true accountability and specific goals. This episode also breaks down CPB (the Corporation for Public Broadcasting), the complex system that makes public television’s structure so confusing to grasp, and examines who’s holding it accountable to meeting its mission. And after facing rejections from several PBS gatekeepers, Grace and Tunde are surprised when one major station leader responds right away to join them for a conversation.

    Explore show notes, episode transcript and more at: https://viewerslikeus.com/podcast/episode-3-minority-report/
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    23 分