Viewers Like Us
Viewers Like Us explores who gets to tell America’s multitude of stories in public media today. Host and independent filmmaker, Grace Lee, along with reporter and filmmaker Akintunde Ahmad, investigate a history of systemic inequities at PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, and envision what the future could look and sound like if PBS centered a diversity of experiences and perspectives. Explore our website at https://viewerslikeus.com/
Episodes
June 30, 2025 • 43 mins
“Making some noise can make a difference, and I hope that would be encouraging to people who are afraid, especially in this political climate.” - Jane M. Wagner
Grace speaks with filmmaker and television producer Jane M. Wagner about her debut feature documentary, Break the Game (2023). Jane’s film, centered on world-record-holding gamer Narcissa Wright and her experience coming out as a trans woman, explores “gamer culture, the rea...
Grace speaks with filmmaker and television producer Jane M. Wagner about her debut feature documentary, Break the Game (2023). Jane’s film, centered on world-record-holding gamer Narcissa Wright and her experience coming out as a trans woman, explores “gamer culture, the rea...
Mark as Played
June 13, 2025 • 38 mins
“The idea of preemptively censoring, before any executive order or decision — not only do you feel violated, but I felt I could not go to any institution for potential protection or support for my independent voice.” - Michèle Stephenson
Grace convenes fellow filmmakers Cecilia Aldarondo, Marjan Safinia, and Michèle Stephenson (see full bios and links to films in episode show notes) for a conversation on something that’s sparked ser...
Grace convenes fellow filmmakers Cecilia Aldarondo, Marjan Safinia, and Michèle Stephenson (see full bios and links to films in episode show notes) for a conversation on something that’s sparked ser...
Mark as Played
June 13, 2025 • 33 mins
“I don't know if there's anything in history that we've ever seen in civic life [like] what we're seeing. But I do know, like Frederick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony, we have to speak up…we have to be willing to put ourselves on the line. At the very least, I get to use my voice and put some things on the line.”
- Chris Hastings, president and chief executive officer of WXXI Public Media in Rochester, NY; former executive producer ...
- Chris Hastings, president and chief executive officer of WXXI Public Media in Rochester, NY; former executive producer ...
Mark as Played
June 9, 2025 • 30 mins
“I'm talking about it because I think it's important for people to know the little ‘death by a thousand cuts’ that are happening. I don't think that appeasement is the way to maintain our free speech rights and our democracy.” - Alicia Sams
In fall 2021, independent filmmaker Grace Lee launched Viewers Like Us, a six-part podcast series that asked: What will it take to restore the entire public to public media? Now, four years later...
In fall 2021, independent filmmaker Grace Lee launched Viewers Like Us, a six-part podcast series that asked: What will it take to restore the entire public to public media? Now, four years later...
Mark as Played
January 14, 2022 • 3 mins
In the United States, there’s a “public” element to all broadcasting over the federally regulated airwaves. Audiences have the right to speak up about the changes we expect on the air. That’s why a commercial broadcast license challenge — launched decades ago, yet still within living memory — intrigued Viewers Like Us’s investigative reporter Akintunde Ahmad. Special thanks to Randall Pinkston for this interview. Learn more about h...
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December 30, 2021 • 22 mins
The Viewers Like Us team has spoken with filmmakers, journalists, DEI officers, a member of Congress, station managers and so many others who care about the future of public media. All provide reasons to stay energized and engaged in the work of pushing PBS to live up to its founding mission. But the exhaustion and burnout that comes with organizing for systemic change is real. In our season finale, we consider what—and who—will de...
Mark as Played
December 17, 2021 • 24 mins
In the decades-long struggle toward an equitable public media system, what will it take to move from mere talk to actionable change?
As you’ve heard throughout the series, countless BIPOC creators have dedicated themselves for decades to keeping PBS’s mission and relevance on track. Many people working within the system have done the same. With so many wanting to see PBS thrive, what's holding it back? In our fifth episode, we dig i...
As you’ve heard throughout the series, countless BIPOC creators have dedicated themselves for decades to keeping PBS’s mission and relevance on track. Many people working within the system have done the same. With so many wanting to see PBS thrive, what's holding it back? In our fifth episode, we dig i...
Mark as Played
November 23, 2021 • 31 mins
Grace and Tunde discuss what it feels like to be a token. Myrton Running Wolf, a professor of race and media at the University of Nevada, shares his experiences of participating in an aughts-era Native American mentorship program run by Boston’s GBH—and underscores the lasting harm of whitewashed narratives when telling Indigenous history. Episode 4 also uplifts the work of visionary filmmaker and producer, Henry Hampton. His essen...
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November 7, 2021 • 22 mins
The words “diversity, equity, and inclusion”—DEI for short—seem to be everywhere these days: from Fortune 500 companies to government agencies and...public media. Episode 3 reveals what happened to a PBS Diversity Report filed 14 years ago, and explores the limits of a system whose leaders repeatedly promise to ‘do better’ over the years without building in true accountability and specific goals. This episode also breaks down CPB (...
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October 14, 2021 • 24 mins
Grace Lee and fellow Beyond Inclusion members meet with PBS leaders in spring 2021. Latinx organizers, journalists and filmmakers confront PBS about the erasure of Latinx voices and stories in Ken Burns’ 2007 seven-part series, The War. And in 1987 at a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing, Chinese American filmmaker Loni Ding asks a prophetic question: “Where is the public in today’s public broadcasting?”
Explore show notes, episode tr...
Explore show notes, episode tr...
Mark as Played
September 29, 2021 • 16 mins
Since its founding in the late 1960s, PBS has presented itself as a trusted home for America’s multitude of stories and experiences. An inclusive space of exploration and education, for all. So when independent filmmaker Grace Lee published an essay in 2020—calling out public broadcasting’s overreliance on “America’s storyteller,” documentarian Ken Burns—her words set off a chain of events that reached the highest levels of PBS lea...
Mark as Played
September 21, 2021 • 1 min
Viewers Like Us explores who gets to tell America’s multitude of stories in public media today. Host and independent filmmaker, Grace Lee, along with reporter and filmmaker Akintunde Ahmad, investigate a history of systemic inequities at PBS, the Public Broadcasting System, and envision what the future could look and sound like if PBS centered a diversity of experiences and perspectives.
Listen and learn more at viewerslikeus.com; ...
Listen and learn more at viewerslikeus.com; ...
Mark as Played
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