Spotlight on ‘Scene on Radio,’ Award-Winning Podcast

The Duke-based documentary podcast was selected for this year’s Tribeca Festival

John Biewen dressed in black suit, poses on red carpet at the Tribeca Festival
“Scene on Radio” host and producer John Biewen at the Tribeca Festival

This is a summary of a story written by Sarah Rogers on Kenan Institute for Ethics.

The latest season of the documentary podcast “Scene on Radio,” produced by the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke University in partnership with PRX, was chosen as an official selection of this year’s Tribeca Festival.

Titled “The News,” the eight-episode series takes a deep dive into the current state of the American news media amid the ongoing decline of public trust. Several episodes highlight the collapse of local news outlets through the voices of residents living in a news desert: North Carolina’s economically challenged Border Belt, which is comprised of several rural counties along the South Carolina border.

Now in its eighth season, the breakout moment of “Scene on Radio” occurred during its second season with the series “Seeing White,” which examined the construction of race in America.

“Scene on Radio” host and producer John Biewen recently shared how he developed the podcast and why he’s happy to be at the Kenan Institute for Ethics.

Biewen had been working at the Center for Documentary Studies for 10 years, directing the audio program and teaching Duke classes in audio journalism, when he launched “Scene on Radio” in 2015. In 2023, he moved to the Kenan Institute for Ethics, where he continued his work.

In “Seeing White,” Biewen says he counts himself lucky to have discovered the format that would shape the following seasons of “Scene on Radio.”

“It .. was like, oh, this is a different approach to the work that I just love,” said Biewen. “And it became, from that point on, these deeply researched, season-long series on huge and audacious topics.”

He also describes his commitment to producing documentary work that hopes to make the world a better place.

“Ethics is just everywhere in the issues that I’m exploring,” he said. “It’s really at the core of a lot of the work that I’ve done for a long time, which is — how do we create a society in which people can live together and create a better world for ourselves?”

To read the full interview with John Biewen, visit Kenan Institute for Ethics.