
Scene on Radio
A documentary podcast from the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University
Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University · Scene on Radio
Show overview
Scene on Radio has been publishing since 2015, and across the 11 years since has built a catalogue of 138 episodes, alongside 4 trailers or bonus episodes. That works out to roughly 85 hours of audio in total. Releases follow a monthly cadence, with the show now in its 7th season.
Episodes typically run thirty-five to sixty minutes — most land between 24 min and 51 min — though episode length varies meaningfully from one episode to the next. It is catalogued as a EN-US-language Society & Culture show.
The show is actively publishing — the most recent episode landed 5 days ago, with 11 episodes already out so far this year. The busiest year was 2024, with 22 episodes published.
From the publisher
Scene on Radio is a two-time Peabody-nominated podcast that dares to ask big, hard questions about who we are—really—and how we got this way. Our latest is Season 7, Scene on Radio: Capitalism. Previous series include Seeing White (Season 2), looking at the roots and meaning of white supremacy; MEN (Season 3), on patriarchy and its history; The Land That Never Has Been Yet (Season 4), exploring democracy in the U.S. and why we don’t have more of it; The Repair (Season 5), on the cultural roots of the climate crisis; and Season 6, Echoes of a Coup, the story of the only successful coup d'etat in U.S. history, in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898. Produced and hosted by John Biewen, with collaborators, Scene on Radio comes from the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. The show is distributed by PRX.
Latest Episodes
View all 138 episodesS8 E6: What Could Have Been
S8 E5: Follow the Money
S8 E4: What About Us
S8 E3: About that Liberal Media
S8 E2: When the News Dies
S8 E1: The Myth of the Echo Chamber
Introducing Scene on Radio: The News
Guest Episode: Drilled: Carbon Cowboys
Guest Episode: Master Plan: The Kingmakers
Guest Episode: More Muslim

Proxy: Nicole Can't Stop Being Aggro
A guest episode from the podcast Proxy: Nicole is an organizer who's good at channeling her anger. The trouble is she can't always downshift -- or even allow herself to feel sad about the problems she's fighting against. That doesn't seem healthy. Maybe it'll help if Nicole can talk with someone who's been there -- years before, in a movement Nicole idolizes. With Proxy host Yowei Shaw. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Historical Maturity and Cowardice: Keeping ScOR #15
Host John Biewen reads an essay from his newsletter, Keeping ScOR. After a visit to his hometown, Mankato, Minnesota -- the subject of the Scene on Radio episode, "Little War on the Prairie" -- John reflects on the changes there and America's latest assault on history. Music by goodnight, Lucas. To read see the Keeping ScOR newsletter archive or subscribe to receive it, go here: https://buttondown.com/KeepingScOR#subscribe-form Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Revisionist History: The Alabama Murders
We're sharing an episode from another podcast that asks big questions about who we are and how we got here: The Alabama Murders, a new series by bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell's Revisionist History podcast. Entangled in an affair with a parishioner, a Northwest Alabama minister made a devastating choice. Eventually, the consequences led to the center of a hot national debate about who should be allowed to live, who should die, and how the state should kill them. Malcolm asks: why, in our efforts to alleviate suffering, do we so often make it worse? Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Voices of Hiroshima
A rebroadcast of a Scene on Radio episode, eighty years after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The word “Hiroshima” may bring to mind a black-and-white image of a mushroom cloud. It’s easy to forget that it’s an actual city with a million people and a popular baseball team. What did the cataclysm of 1945 mean in the place where it happened, to the people who lived through it? John Biewen went to Hiroshima and interviewed A-bomb survivors in 1995. “Voices of Hiroshima” is a production of Minnesota Public Radio, from American Public Media. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Lever Time: Trump, Colbert, And The War On Truth
A bonus episode from the Lever Time podcast: Their latest, exploring the decision by CBS to cancel The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the wider context for that move -- Donald Trump's effort to crush dissent through lawsuits and other attacks on media corporations. With host David Sirota and his guest, New York Times journalist David Enrich. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Making Ignorance Sacred Again: Keeping ScOR #7
Host John Biewen reads an essay from his newsletter, Keeping ScOR. Reflections on the Trump Administration's attempt to wrangle control of the national story and how it's told. Will this attack on factual history succeed? Music by goodnight, Lucas. To read see the Keeping ScOR newsletter archive or subscribe to receive it, go here: https://buttondown.com/KeepingScOR#subscribe-formThe video of David Joy referred to in the episode is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K0g_6uidwcE Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The New Old Racism: Keeping ScOR#4
Host John Biewen teases Season 8 and reads an installment from his new newsletter, Keeping ScOR. Eight years after our "Seeing White" series, whiteness is still a helluva drug -- and a powerful tool for Trump 2.0. Music by goodnight, Lucas Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Bonus: Michael Kliën and the Body Politic
Michael Kliën wants to help bring about profound change in the world, but not through the usual means. An Austrian-born Dance professor at Duke University, Kliën is a leading social choreographer. He sets up experiments involving people moving amongst each other -- wordlessly -- in pursuit of new ways of being and the "soul democratic." By Scene on Radio host and producer John Biewen. Music by goodnight, Lucas and Blue Dot Sessions. Scene on Radio is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Links:Michael Klien’s websiteVideo of Kliën works: ParliamentConstitutionThe Utopians Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

S7 Ep 13S7 E13: CAPITALISM Bonus, Live at Motorco
With our Capitalism season and the election behind us, now what? Can we find hope and a way forward? In a live show taped December 5, 2024, at Motorco Music Hall in Durham, North Carolina, Season 7 co-hosts John Biewen and Ellen McGirt are joined by journalism professor, podcast maker, and two-time Scene on Radio co-host Chenjerai Kumanyika. They discuss how to move toward a more democratic economy and society – with the live audience, and with Camryn Smith and Courtney Smith of Durham’s Communities in Partnership. Episode art: Photo by Summer Steenberg. Music by Michelle Osis and Lilli Haydn. Music consulting by Joe Augustine of Narrative Music. "Capitalism” is a production of the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University, in partnership with Imperative 21. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Post-election '24 All-Star Special
EHost John Biewen is joined by Celeste Headlee, Chenjerai Kumanyika, Ellen McGirt, and Amy Westervelt, co-hosts of Scene on Radio's full-length seasons -- Seeing White, MEN, The Land That Never Has Been Yet, The Repair, and Capitalism -- for a free-wheeling conversation about the 2024 U.S. election of Donald J. Trump and what it all means. Scene on Radio comes from the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices