Perhaps, More Than A Fairytale: Ryan Grim's "Deconstructed" Reviewed

 

When challenged with reviewing a podcast by an instructor at Lesley University, I cringed and perhaps for the first time was able to fully empathize with my shoulder shrugging, eye rolling adolescent students. Asides from being very much a visual learner quite happy to spend vast amounts of time reading books, I will admit that my understanding of podcasts was limited to defining the medium as dominated by those at the fringe of reason where conspiracy theories and personal monologues meld. Hardly the amply footnoted articles and monographs I generally rely on for political analysis. Bracing myself for three hours of listening, I selected Ryan Grim’s “Deconstructed,” which promised “the most consequential news events of the week” (2021).  

Ryan Grim’s “Deconstructed” series of podcasts in published by Intercept, which is owned and operated by First Look Media Works, a nonprofit organization founded by the EBay mogul Pierre Omidyar. While Intercept first gained notoriety publishing anti-surveillance exposes, including leaked documents from Edward Snowden and the US drone strike program, since 2016 the platform has emerged as a leading left-leaning voice attacking Democratic centrists (S. Perlberg, 2019). A supporter of Bernie Sanders in 2016, Intercept’s podcast productions, including “Deconstructed,” have emerged as important stopping points for liberal candidates hoping to reach a younger, more progressive demographic (S. Perlberg, 2019). Perhaps somewhat sanguinely, Grim’s political stance can be summarized by his quip, “I always assume that the world is going to fall apart the next day” (S. Perlberg, 2019).   

The majority of Grim’s podcasts follow a formulaic process of contextualizing a contemporary issue and then providing interviews in support of that contextualization. For example, a recent entry titled “Filibuster or Bust” suggested that Democrat members of the US Senate would either have to reform the filibuster or face gridlock for the remainder of Biden’s term (R. Grim, 2021a). Supporting that claim were interviews with Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley and author Adam Jentleson. Suggesting that Democrats with the support of President Biden will elect reform, Grim stated, “Then something strange happened: Biden met with the Republicans, heard them out, and more or less said no” (R. Grim, 2021a). The implication being that in rejecting Republican demands for compromise, Biden was indicating the Democrats willingness to reform the Senate rather than accept the stalemates of 2009. As Grim recounts, “Democrats of have no desire to relive the hell that was 2009. Back then Republicans strung Democrats along, sometimes for months, only to ditch them at the last minute, or, as they did with Obama’s stimulus, make it too small to the job effectively” (R. Grim, 2021a). While lacking an overt endorsement of reforming the filibuster, Grim’s two guests and his coverage lead listeners to decide between an unproductive stalemate with uncooperative Republicans—rather viciously described at times—and reforming the filibuster to return productivity to Congress.  

A more overt support for progressive agendas appeared in Grim’s podcast titled “Could the ‘For the People Act’ Save American Democracy?” (R. Grim, 2021b). As with the previous entry on the filibuster, Grim presents listeners with a choiceless choice: Should H.R. 1, the For the People Act, pass and with it sweeping reforms tackling voter restrictions, gerrymandering, and “out-of-control minoritarianism”? (R. Grim, 2021b). To discuss the question, R. Grim interviews the bill’s lead sponsor, Maryland Representative John Sarbanes, and progressive political scientist Jacob S. Hacker. Counter-perspectives are presented through audio clips from leading Republicans and through narrated analysis from Grim and his guests (R. Grim, 2021b). A similar format presented Puerto Rico’s bid for statehood under the Biden administration (R. Grim, 2020a), the rise of QANON within the Republican party (R. Grim, 2020b), and an analysis of Rutger Bregman’s progressive history of hope (R. Grim, 2020c). The latter, interestingly, rejects the Hobbesian view of humanity as selfish, brutal, and cruel and finds that conservative pessimism is wrong. Instead, “human beings, at their core, are ‘friendly, peaceful, and healthy’ (R. Grim, 2020c).  

While Grim’s podcast are accurate, they present information through a progressive editorial bias. These are opinion pieces. For example, Rutger Bregman’s optimistic history of humanity might have been balanced by a discussion of Y. N. Harari’s Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind (2015). Similarly, Grim could attempt to host interparty dialogues between Republicans and Democrats rather than using sound-clips for conservatives and interviews with liberals. As a speaking platform for progressives, the podcast does provide an alternative to The New York Times, The Huffington Post, and Vox. At times, particularly over coverage of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, Grim, through Intercept, has diverged dramatically from more mainstream liberal publications (R. Grim and M. Saleh, 2020). While conservative audiences would gain an alternative perspective through Grim’s “Deconstructed,” liberal listeners would benefit from exposure to rising progressive voices, frequent academic political commentary, and somewhat divergent views from the mainstream liberal press.

From a production standpoint, the podcast is exceptionally well done with seamless integration of sound-clips, a variety of well-choreographed guests, and high-definition audio. The website is relatively intuitive and uncluttered with garish—and potentially offensive—advertising content despite the relatively small footprint given to Intercept donation links. A minor critique was the inability to conduct keyword searches of the Intercept podcast library. Podcasts are obviously meant to be consumed by listeners weekly in the moment rather than accessed for analysis months or years later.

Having explored R. Grim’s “Deconstructed” have I become a convert to podcasts? No. I found the listening insufferably time consuming and eventually read most of the podcasts. Needing to take notes made the audio version of the podcast cumbersome and negated the ability to analytically engage with the content by looking for keywords and ideas. In assigning a podcast to 10^th grade World History students recently, I asked them—with this assignment in mind—how they interacted with the genre. A particularly precocious student chirped, “I don’t listen to them once I know there’s a transcript.” And, I have to agree. The limited number of sources presented by Grim—generally no more than two interview subjects—and the lack of transparent contextualizing research makes me hesitant to entrust the genre—even in transcription form—with my political consciousness. Op-Ed pieces have become dangerous and I see little evidence that podcasts ameliorate my concerns.  

References

Grim, R. (Host). (2021, February 5). Filibuster or Bust [Audio podcast episode]. In Deconstructed. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2021/02/05/deconstructed-filibuster-senate/

Grim, R. (Host). (2021, February 1). Could the “For the People Act” Save American Democracy? [Audio podcast episode]. In Deconstructed. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2021/02/01/deconstructed-hr1-save-american-democracy/

Grim, R. (Host). (2020, December 18). Puerto Ricans Voted for Statehood (Again). What Happens Now? [Audio podcast episode]. In Deconstructed. The Intercept.  https://theintercept.com/2020/12/18/deconstructed-puerto-rico-statehood/

Grim, R. (Host). (2020, August 28). Is QANON the Future of the Republican Party? [Audio podcast episode]. In Deconstructed. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2020/08/28/is-qanon-the-future-of-the-republican-party/

Grim, R. (Host). (2020, July 2). Can We Build a Politics of Hope? [Audio podcast episode]. In Deconstructed. The Intercept. https://theintercept.com/2020/07/02/deconstructed-podcast-rutger-bregman-human-nature/

Grim, R., & Saleh, M. (2020, June 30). J Street is facing new pressure to Back Conditioning aid to Israel. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://theintercept.com/2020/06/30/j-street-condition-aid-israel-annexation/

Harari, Y. N. (2015). Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. New York, NY: Vintage Publishing.

Perlberg, S. (2019, April 24). How the Intercept Is Fueling the Democratic Civil War. Politico. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/04/24/the-intercept-greenwald-grim-profile-media-politics-left-liberal-226710/