The Truth Is Out There

Dearest Earthlings:

The weekly newsletter from On the Media View this email in your browser Dear Earthlings, With terrestrial news at a momentary, relative slowdown, we're finding ourselves with some much-needed time to ponder the Big Questions. Like, how, sometimes, the world seems so strange, so out there, so utterly unidentifiable that maybe... just maybe... there's something beyond. Back during 2016 campaign times, then-candidate Hillary Clinton threw Pleiadian meat to her alien-believing base during an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel. They rewarded her by dubbing her "the first ET candidate."  But while some corners of the earth have been on the alien beat for some time, others are just catching up. In the past few weeks, we've seen reports of UFOs off the coast of Ireland. Speculation about an alien probe sent from outside our solar system. A new alien world orbiting a nearby star. It's enough to send good chroniclers of the media cycle to new sources. How do we break down the narratives when we don't know a grey from a reptilian? We knew we had a big task on our hands, so we marshaled all the resources the station has to offer in order to get ourselves up to speed — and fast: some old archival tape from the "moon landing." The HR file on Flip Stewart, Brooke's original intended co-host, gone missing on a trip to Roswell back in mid-2001, never to be heard from again. A box set collection of all 11 seasons of the X-Files. It's a lot to take in, but we're on the case. You'll be hearing from us soon. Listen To The Latest Show: We're Not Very Good At This [ In Case You Missed It ] Has The Government Betrayed "The Public Trust"? Several key climate change initiatives were voted down in referendums around the country during last week's midterms. But if we shift our gaze to the courts, there's a case that could tell a different story. In Juliana v. United States, 21 young Americans accuse their government of failing to tackle man-made changes to our climate, thereby failing its duty in what is known as the "public trust doctrine" — a centuries-old principle that the government acts as a steward or trustee of our natural resources. Law professor Mary Christina Wood, the architect of the lawsuit's legal argument, joined us last week to break it all down. Listen like your life depends on it.  [ Read This ] The Storm Nobody Covered On October 25th, Super Typhoon Yutu struck the Northern Mariana Islands, a US Commonwealth (colony) located in the Pacific Ocean. It was big, and it was devastating, destroying over 3,000 houses, injuring hundreds of people and killing at least two. And yet, the storm barely factored in the US media chaos-machine. How did such a huge storm hit US soil without creating ripples in the mainland press? The Atlantic's Alia Wong and Lenika Cruz explore the reasons behind the silence, and how local media has been filling in the gaps. Read it here. [ From the Archives ] Is the Marvel Universe Anti-Capitalist? When Marvel Comics creator Stan Lee died at age 95 this past Monday, the world lost one of its most inventive and prolific superhero creators, responsible for so much of our collective comic book imagination. Back in 2015, Brooke spoke with Washington Post columnist Alyssa Rosenberg about how the then-latest string of films in the Marvel universe, including Ant Man, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Iron Man franchise, evidenced a not-so-latent anti-capitalist (and anti-tech-utopian) tendency. A not-so-out-there take on the far-out worlds so many of us know so well. Listen here! [ Podcast Extra ] The Stories Fires Tell The Camp Fire in California is the deadliest in the state's history, leaving the entire city of Paradise in ashes. Parts of Malibu were destroyed by the Woolsey Fire, which firefighters are still trying to bring under control. Every year, the press rushes to the scene to capture the fury and the heroic images of efforts to manage fires, but we may be missing a deeper, more dangerous story. In August, Bob spoke with historian Stephen J. Pyne about what the typical media narratives overlook and how we can rethink them. Check it out.  [ Coming Up... ] Amazon finally announced its HQ2 plans. When do we get to call it a monopoly? Thanks for listening, and for reading. We love feedback, so please contact us with any questions or comments. We're busy, but we read them all, promise.  DONATE TO OTM

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