‘Intercepted’ is a weekly global politics podcast hosted by The Intercept journalist and author Jeremy Scahill. The podcast, which only started this year, is already one of my favourites due to its fantastic production value and creative and confronting editing style. The episode linked below, titled ‘The Emperor’s New Cruise Missiles is one of my favourites due to the genius sound mixing and the effect it creates. The episode revolved around the discussion of President Donald Trump’s attack on a Syrian airbase, the establishment media’s blind warmongering, and the establishment democrats scorn of anyone who dared question the US march to war.

Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill: The Emperor’s New Cruise Missiles

Here are some notes I took from the episode

• The use of sponsorship at the start is quite effective to me, as it doesn’t interrupt the listening
• The use of humour in the contrast of happy songs and the media’s love of war is thoroughly confronting and effective. It creates this dichotomy between ethics and establishment love-of-war.
• as the podcast officially begins, a looming bass note comes in over the sound over the media’s war love. This is thoroughly effective in demonstrating the tone
• I like how Jeremy Scahill is calm. It works with the serious content he is discussing. He simply tells it how it is, rather than getting emotional
• Rather than use emotions, Scahill simply lets the facts tell the story
• Scahill uses history to explain the present, which is effective
• He brings in occasional humour which I think is effective in stopping the podcast from being too overwhelmingly depressing
• Scahill’s intertwining of real soundbites from the news and his own commentary makes the podcast appear more well-researched
• I think Scahill’s reluctance to tell people what to think about the soundbites he provides is fantastically respectful. It shows how he isn’t condescending and has a lot of faith in his audience.
• The placement of around 10 minutes before the first interview is a great idea, as it allows context to be provided for the audience.