It's Not You, It's The Media

About It's Not You, It's The Media

It's Not You, It's The Media! unpacks the ways that the media manipulates narratives and makes you question your reality. You're being gaslighted. Hosts Bhakti Shringarpure, Suchitra Vijayan & Madhuri Sastry eviscerate the propaganda, set the record straight, and offer moral clarity.

Publisher

Radical Books Collective

Category

education · news · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

10 Sept 2024

Latest episode

17 May 2026

Latest episodes

38 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 May 2026

   Covering Sudan/Covering Up Sudan

   Featuring journalists Ism’ail Kushkush and Raghdan Orsud. Even as Sudan enters the 4th year of devastating war, media coverage remains abysmal. Madhuri Sastry and Bhakti Shringarpure speak to two Sudanese journalists about why the deadliest conflict in the world has become the the casualty of today’s media attention economy. Isma’il Kushkush is a journalist who has contributed to the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, The Atlantic, Granta, Guernica, Nieman Reports, Columbia Journalism Review, Smithsonian, The Nation, the Associated Press and others. He was based in Khartoum, Sudan, for eight years, and has been acting bureau chief for the New York Times in East Africa. He was a Samuel I. Newhouse Foundation Fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and an Ida B. Wells Fellowship recipient with Type Investigations. Raghdan Orsud is a digital ecosystems and media development specialist with 15+ years working at the intersection of technology, information integrity, and development programming. She’s built misinformation monitoring systems, designed digital initiatives for public-interest media, and advised organizations operating in fragile and conflict-affected contexts. As Co-founder of Beam Reports, she’s now channeling that expertise into building smarter tools for stronger information ecosystems. Listen to previous episodes of It’s Not You, It’s The Media here: https://www.radicalbookscollective.com/s/its-not-you-its-the-media (https://www.radicalbookscollective.com/s/its-not-you-its-the-media) Watch previous episodes of It’s Not You, It’s The Media here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstXMEF0r05bhdfv7yCt5V2KXTdK4cO5F (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstXMEF0r05bhdfv7yCt5V2KXTdK4cO5F)

2. 

   7 May 2026

   The October 7th Narrative and the Unmasking of Mainstream Media

   Madhuri Sastry and Bhakti Shringarpure speaking with guest Robin Andersen, author of The Complicit Lens: US Media Coverage of Israel’s Genocide in Gaza. (OR Books, 2025). They discuss why the media framing of October 7th narrative became pivotal to manufacture consent for the genocide in Gaza. Andersen explains that the New York Times, in particular, played an outsize role in framing this October 7th origin story. However, Andersen argues that this has led to the downfall of establishment media since popularity of Israel is at an all time low in the US. They also discuss the current media ecosystem, the need to dismantle existing ways in which journalism is practiced. Buy the book here: https://orbooks.com/catalog/the-complicit-lens/ (https://orbooks.com/catalog/the-complicit-lens/) “Gaming the Iran war and the Gaza Genocide Syndrome” by Robin Andersen https://mondoweiss.net/2026/03/gaming-the-iran-war-and-the-gaza-genocide-syndrome/ (https://mondoweiss.net/2026/03/gaming-the-iran-war-and-the-gaza-genocide-syndrome/)

3. 

   21 Apr 2026

   Good Wife, Bad Wife: Jackie, Diana, Michelle, Meghan, Rama, Melania

   Whether its adoration or demonization, why is the media obsessed with the wives? Madhuri Sastry and Bhakti Shringarpure unpack the ways in which first wives, first ladies or duchesses are always under scrutiny and what this says about our media ecosystem but also about us! Listen to previous podcast episodes here: https://www.radicalbookscollective.com/s/its-not-you-its-the-media Watch the previous podcast episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLstXMEF0r05bhdfv7yCt5V2KXTdK4cO5F

Who has been a guest on It's Not You, It's The Media

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Benjamin Netanyahu
• Yoav Gallant
• Rafi Berg

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

4.7 / 5

12 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 42 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

64

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

51

Contact It's Not You, It's The Media

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.