Podcasting’s Politics of Empathy with Jason Loviglio

Today we talk radio, podcasting, and democracy with Jason Loviglio. Jason is an expert on the history of National Public Radio and a key theorist of how audio media have changed the public sphere. He traces the politics of radio down to the smallest details, like the kinds of mics that are used, the way radio personalities use their voices, even the fan mail that comes in.

In this episode, Jason Loviglio discusses everything from FDR's fireside chats to the politics of NPR to his new book, Empathy Machines: This American Life, Podcasting and the Public Radio Structure of Feeling, the first full-length book on This American Life. He argues that TAL was designed from the start to function as an empathy machine, but over the years, the politics of that empathy have changed substantially.

Jason Loviglio is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Jason is the author of Radio's Intimate Public: Network Broadcasting and Mass Mediated Democracy. He's the co-editor of Radio Journal and he has edited three different volumes on radio.

Cited Media:

Books:

• Jason Loviglio - Radio's Intimate Public: Network Broadcasting and Mass-Mediated Democracy (2005)
• Jason Loviglio - Empathy Machines: This American Life, Podcasting and the Public Radio Structure of Feeling (2026)
• Benedict Anderson - Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983)
• James Tobin - The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency (2014)
• Eric Nuzum - Make Noise: A Creator's Guide to Podcasting and Great Audio Storytelling (2019)
• Sara Ahmed - The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2004)
• Raymond Williams - Marxism and Literature (1977)

Podcasts / Radio Programs:

• This American Life (1995–present)

Essays / Speeches:

• Newton Minow - Television and the Public Interest "Vast Wasteland" Speech (1961)
• Theodor Adorno - The Culture Industry Reconsidered (1975)

Chapters:

0:00 Intro
5:15 Intimate Public
10:35 FDR's Radio Voice
17:00 Radio & Affect
27:41 NPR's Origins
39:31 This American Life
44:40 Ira Glass's Formula
52:59 Empathy & Its Limits
1:02:27 Podcast Explosion

To read the full transcript click here.

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