The New Yorker’s Head of Fact Checking on Our Post-Truth Era

The New Yorker’s Head of Fact Checking on Our Post-Truth Era

Author: The New Yorker September 11, 2025 Duration: 42:40
Fergus McIntosh, the head research editor at The New Yorker, joins Tyler Foggatt to discuss how the magazine is approaching fact -checking in the second Trump era. They talk about how the spread of disinformation and deepfakes has changed the work of verifying facts; why Trump has been more aggressive, in his second term, about restricting the release of government data; and what makes his particular style of spreading falsehoods so difficult to counter. This week’s reading: “The Latest Phase in Trump’s War on Data,” by Fergus McIntosh “Inside the Chaos at the C.D.C.,” by Charles Bethea “Social Media Is Navigating Its Sectarian Phase,”by Kyle Chayka  “Brazil Braces for a Verdict on Its Ex-President—and on Its Democracy,” by Jon Lee Anderson “Does Society Have Too Many Rules?,” by Joshua Rothman Tune in to The Political Scene wherever you get your podcasts. The Political Scene draws on the reporting and analysis found in The New Yorker for lively conversations about the big questions in American politics. Join the magazine’s writers and editors as they put into context the latest news—about elections, the economy, the White House, the Supreme Court, and much more. New episodes are available three times a week. 

Each week, The Political Scene | The New Yorker brings the magazine’s signature depth and clarity directly to your ears. This isn’t just a recap of headlines; it’s a sustained conversation with the people who spend their days investigating the forces shaping our world. You’ll hear from the publication’s own writers and editors, whose reporting and analysis provide essential context for understanding today’s complex political landscape. The rhythm of the week structures these discussions: Mondays feature editor David Remnick in thoughtful conversations and narratives about unfolding events. Then, on Wednesdays, senior editor Tyler Foggatt selects one consequential story and explores it thoroughly through interviews with both New Yorker staff and leading outside voices. Fridays round out the week with contributions from the magazine’s staff writers, offering their distinct perspectives. Tuning into this podcast means getting behind the scenes of the journalism itself, listening as sharp minds dissect power, policy, and the human stories at the heart of it all. It’s for anyone who wants to move beyond the noise and find a more nuanced, informed take on American politics and global affairs.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 100

The Political Scene | The New Yorker
Podcast Episodes
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U.S. intervention in other countries, whether overt or covert, is by no means new, and Daniel Immerwahr notes that the open embrace of expansionism by the President and associates such as Stephen Miller goes back to the…
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Across the country, data centers that run A.I. programs are being constructed at a record pace. A large percentage of them use chips built by the tech colossus Nvidia. The company has nearly cornered the market on the ha…
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The writers Charles Duhigg, Cal Newport, and Anna Wiener join Tyler Foggatt for a conversation about artificial intelligence and the promises, myths, and anxieties surrounding it. The discussion was recorded before a liv…
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The Republican Susan Collins has held one of Maine’s Senate seats for nearly thirty years, and Democrats, in trying to take it away from her, have a lot at stake. Graham Platner, a combat veteran, political activist, and…
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The New Yorker staff writer Isaac Chotiner joins Tyler Foggatt to reflect on several of the most notable interviews he conducted in 2025. They discuss competing theories about the origins of political violence over the p…
Leon Panetta on the Trump Administration’s Venezuelan Boat Strikes [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:48
In the course of his long career, Leon Panetta was a lieutenant in the Army, a congressman from California, Bill Clinton’s White House chief of staff, Barack Obama’s director of the C.I.A., and later, his Secretary of De…
The Washington Roundtable’s 2025 in Review [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

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The Washington Roundtable discusses what surprised them in 2025, reflecting on the major shock-and-awe events that defined the first year of Donald Trump’s second term: the capitulation of major law firms, universities,…