Chicago Media Talks

Delivering local news with a twist: He finds a lot to sing about    Jacoby joins Rivet 360's Sheila Solomon to talk about what it's like hosting a one-of-a-kind daily news podcast in his hometown. Listeners hear a guy from the southside of Chicago interviewing people and talking about what he understands and doesn't understand, what's exciting and what's confusing about the news. He's curious, enjoys learning about communities and subjects new to him and almost always leaves the audience with with some good news

Fifty years of reporting in The Chicago Reporter's brought changes to housing, policing and poverty in Chicago, considered one of the most segregated cities in the country. But recently, it seemed on the verge of folding.   Join us for a discussion with Glenn Reedus, long-time journalist, and the Chicago Reporter's interim editor and publisher.   The Chicago Reporter, https://www.chicagoreporter.com/  

Peter Adams joins Rivet360's Sheila Solomon to talk about his work with the education nonprofit, the News Literacy Project, teaching media literacy to students and educators in Chicago Public Schools and throughout the world.    Get the latest on future shows: https://twitter.com/TalksChicago Rivet: https://www.rivet360.com/

She's worked for Chicago's biggest newspapers and he's worked for Chicago's most successful radio stations. And now … they do email. Joining Charlie Meyerson for this edition of the Chicago Public Square / Rivet360 podcast, Chicago Media Talks: Axios Chicago newsletter authors Justin Kaufmann and Monica Eng.

Chef, journalist, adventurer and Chicago Tribune critic Louisa Chu takes us from her time as a 4-year-old worker at her family's Chicago restaurant through her stint as a judge on Food Network's Iron Chef America to what she's working on next. Her most enduring memory through the pandemic: “Crying so much … over so many meals.”

Meet a couple of media figures whose work is increasingly shaping Chicago's news and political landscape: A.D. Quig, a rising Chicago Tribune reporter who sees local government facing “a time of big change”; and Girl, I Guess Progressive Voter Guide author Stephanie Skora—someone unafraid to call a candidate, in her words, “a slimy f***face—because there's no reason not to.”

Their groundbreaking alliance netted them and their news organizations a 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting. But that doesn't mean they always worked together seamlessly. In this edition of Chicago Media Talks, meet Madison Hopkins and Cecilia Reyes, praised by Pulitzer judges for “a piercing examination of the city's long history of failed building- and fire-safety code enforcement, which let scofflaw landlords commit serious violations that resulted in dozens of unnecessary deaths." Read The Failures Before the Fires, Pulitzer winning article by Madison Hopkins and Cecilia Reyes. 

Jennifer Kho's the first woman—and the first woman of color—ever to serve as Chicago Sun-Times executive editor. She's facing challenges like none before her, as the paper comes under the control of an organization primarily in the radio business. And she joins the Sun-Times at a critical point in the evolution of the news business.

Odds are good you didn't know their names a decade ago, when one of them was just breaking into Chicago radio news and another was barely removed from an internship at Chicago's public TV station. And now they're two of the city's most influential journalists. WTTW News' multiple-award-winning reporters and Chicago Tonight co-anchors, Brandis Friedman and Paris Schutz, talk about their careers, the challenges facing local news and some recent turbulent times at Channel 11.

When a billionaire yanked the plug on a pioneering Chicago digital news site, putting a large team of local reporters out of work, some of them banded together to start ANOTHER digital news site—for themselves, and for the people of the city. Block Club Chicago editor-in-chief Shamus Toomey joins hosts Sheila Solomon and Charlie Meyerson for another edition of Chicago Media Talks.

You could trace the evolution of the news business through Jim DeRogatis' career arc over the last 35 years—as he's moved from print to broadcast to online and podcasting, and from employer-supported to audience-funded journalism. And along the way, he broke one of the biggest stories in music history. He joins hosts Sheila Solomon and Charlie Meyerson for the Chicago Public Square / Rivet360 podcast, Chicago Media Talks—to discuss his career, the R. Kelly story and the state of the media in the 21st century.

Streetwise magazine has been a Chicago publication for almost 30 years. Before Covid 19, its vendors were ubiquitous on our streets. What happened to them when we were all forced to shelter in place? Executive director Julie Youngquist talks about how Streetwise -- which is so much more than a magazine -- found the resources that kept the vendors and the magazine (https://www.streetwise.org/the-magazine/) going until it was OK to be back on the streets. Publisher and creative director Dave Hamilton and Rivet producer Jesse Betend tell about last year's partnership between the two organizations on the podcast Where I Stay (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/where-i-stay/id1539969332). They join host Sheila Solomon for another edition of the Rivet360 podcast, Chicago Media Talks.

Columnist Eric Zorn started at the Trib in 1980; cultural critic Steve Johnson started six years later. Now, they're among the more than three dozen editorial staffers who've left—taking buyouts offered under the Tribune's new ownership. They join hosts Sheila Solomon and Charlie Meyerson for another edition of the Chicago Public Square / Rivet360 podcast, Chicago Media Talks.

Jamie Kalven—journalist, human rights activist and founder of one of Chicago's newest Pulitzer Prize winners, the Invisible Institute—says he has “deep sympathy for those who wagered their lives and their careers on the stability of legacy media,” but he says “some of the new forms that are evolving … may actually ultimately produce a healthier diet for consumers of the news.” He joins hosts Sheila Solomon and Charlie Meyerson to talk about journalism's brave new world and about his work to help citizens hold public institutions—especially the police—accountable.

Karen Hawkins—self-described “recovering mainstream media reporter and editor”— is doing a terrible job of recovering: She's now co-publisher of the Chicago Reader, the founder of Rebellious Magazine, and a leader of the upstart Chicago Independent Media Alliance. She joins hosts Sheila Solomon and Charlie Meyerson to survey Chicago's 21st-century media landscape.

Pulliam Professor of Journalism at DePauw University and former Sun-Times editor and columnist Deborah Douglas joins host Charlie Meyerson and co-host Sheila Solomon to launch the new “Chicago Media Talks” podcast with a discussion of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's decision to limit her anniversary interviews to journalists of color.

With Chicago media changing so quickly, Rivet and Chicago Public Square are teaming up for a weekly show about what it all means. And we're inviting you to participate LIVE through the Clubhouse app. I'm Charlie Meyerson, sign up now at rivet360.com/talk