Seattle Nice

Are You Mad At Me? Episode 2: We Talk to Adam Penenberg, Who Uncovered the Deception at the Heart of "Shattered Glass"

David Hyde, Erica Barnett, and Sandeep Kaushik

Check out a preview of the latest episode of Are You Mad at Me?, the podcast about the movie Shattered Glass hosted by PubliCola co-founders Erica Barnett and Josh Feit. Shattered Glass, starting Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, Chloe Sevigny, and Steve Zahn (among many other names you'll recognize), is about a journalism scandal in the late 1990s in which a reporter, Stephen Glass, was found to have fabricated dozens of stories for The New Republic, Harpers, and many other traditional media outlets. 

Our guest for this month's show, Adam Penenberg (portrayed by Zahn in the film), was working for an early online outlet called Forbes Digital Tool when his editor, Kambiz Foroohar, demanded to know why he'd been scooped by Stephen Glass on a story about teenage hackers. 

As we now know, the story was completely fabricated—and Penenberg was the one who unraveled the fraud. In our interview, Penenberg tells us what it was like to uncover the story and reflects on what it was like to be a reporter for a digital startup going up against a venerable institution like The New Republic. He also offers his thoughts on why Glass decided to fabricate stories instead of just reporting them, and tells us what it was like talking to Steve Zahn as he was developing his character for the movie.

Listen, like, and subscribe to Are You Mad at Me? on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.


Send us a text! Note that we can only respond directly to emails realseattlenice@gmail.com

Support the show

Your support on Patreon helps pay for editing, production, live events and the unique, hard-hitting local journalism and commentary you hear weekly on Seattle Nice.

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.

Blue City Blues Artwork

Blue City Blues

David Hyde, Sandeep Kaushik
The Ezra Klein Show Artwork

The Ezra Klein Show

New York Times Opinion
The Daily Artwork

The Daily

The New York Times