The Kicker

The Columbia Journalism Review has been the industry's conscience since 1961, and The Kicker is its podcast arm. Currently hosted by Megan Greenwell, the show drops twice a month and runs about 30 to 40 minutes per episode. Each installment typically focuses on one big question about how journalism works or fails to work in the current moment. They've done standout episodes on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette strike, Defector's worker-owned model, the political legacy of the Gawker trial, and what innovative local news outlets like Outlier Media are doing differently. With 318 episodes and a 4.6-star rating, it's built a loyal following among people who think seriously about the news industry. The conversations tend to feature working journalists, media scholars, and newsroom leaders, and Greenwell is good at pressing guests beyond surface-level answers. She has a talent for connecting a specific story to the bigger structural forces reshaping how news gets funded and distributed. It's not a breaking news show; it's more like the conversation you'd want to have after the news cycle settles down and you're ready to think about what it all means. If you're a journalist yourself, or just someone who reads a lot of news and wants to understand the machinery behind it, The Kicker provides that informed, measured perspective that's surprisingly hard to find elsewhere in the podcast world.