Gambling is infiltrating American life. Ads for online sportsbooks are everywhere. Prediction markets – which are not legally considered gambling – now allow betting on everything from the unemployment numbers, to the war in Iran, to how many times Elon Musk will tweet this week. Lots of news outlets are getting in on the action: CNN, CNBC, the AP, and others are partnering with prediction markets to use their stats in coverage. What could go wrong?

On today’s show, we’re joined by three journalists who cover gambling and prediction markets to answer that question. They tell stories about how gambling has already transformed sports, the unsettling ways betting seems like it’s already influencing the news and politics, and the not-so-crazy arguments for how it could lead to better informed citizens.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Guests:

• Joon Lee, independent sports journalist and Youtuber. Find his channel here https://www.youtube.com/@iamjoonlee
• Danny Funt, author of Everybody Loses: the Tumultuous Rise of American Sports Betting
• Kate Knibbs, senior writer at Wired

Please support the organizations that support this show:

• Ground News is a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias, and break free from algorithms. Go to GroundNews.com/QUESTION to get 40% off the unlimited Vantage plan.
• DeleteMe makes it quick, easy and safe to remove your personal data online. Get 20% off DeleteMe consumer plans when you go to joindeleteme.com/QUESTION and use promo code QUESTION at checkout.
• Get 15% off OneSkin with the code QUESTION at https://www.oneskin.co/QUESTION #oneskinpod
• Listen to our supporter More Muslim , a narrative audio series telling deeply reported stories about the Muslim experience, wherever you get podcasts.

It’s easy to get frustrated with the charade reporters are supposed to keep up, where they pretend they don’t have opinions or feelings or any kind of human thoughts about a story they’re reporting. Plenty of journalists have been trying to break out of that charade. But the decision to do that: it can be a fraught one, with real implications.

This week, we’re re-upping a story we first ran last year about journalist Dana Ballout. Dana struggled with this personal-professional dilemma while investigating a story about Hassan Diab — a sociology professor who’s living as a free man in Canada, yet is convicted of a terrible crime in France. Dana and her co-host, Alex Atack, open up about their reporting on the series The Copernic Affair, and why Dana ultimately cut her own opinions out of the show, even though her co-host and editors wanted to include them.

This also prompts Brian to revisit his own experience dropping the charade in a previous podcast he made for The New York Times and Serial: The Trojan Horse Affair.

You can check out The Copernic Affair wherever you get your podcasts or at https://www.canadaland.com/shows/the-copernic-affair/.

Same with The Trojan Horse Affair – https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/podcasts/trojan-horse-affair.

“Question Everything” is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. We have a Substack.

Guests:

• Dana Ballout and Alex Atack, co-hosts of The Copernic Affair
• Hamza Syed, co-host of The Trojan Horse Affair

Please support the organizations that support this show:

• Ground News is a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias and break free from algorithms. Go to groundnews.com/QUESTION to get 40% off the unlimited Vantage plan.
• Get 15% off OneSkin with the code QUESTION at https://www.oneskin.co/QUESTION #oneskinpod
• Listen to our supporter More Muslim wherever you get podcasts.

This episode originally aired on March 27th, 2025.

Taylor Little was 11 years old when they lied about their age to sign up for Instagram. Now, 13 years later, they’re one of thousands of people suing the company, accusing Instagram of purposely addicting them as a child and driving them to years of mental health struggles.

Taylor takes Brian inside their dark and twisted experience with the app. They say it all started with a suggestion Instagram sent them to visit an account they didn’t follow, which they developed a morbid fascination with.

Who bears responsibility for what happened to Taylor? Is it Instagram? The users who posted the content that consumed them? Their mom?

Today’s show deals with issues of self harm and suicide. If you or someone you know are struggling with these issues, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.

Question Everything is a production of KCRW and Placement Theory. And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter.

Guests:

• Taylor Little, plaintiff in social media trial

Please support the organizations that support this show:

• Loyola Marymount University
• If you’re interested in Fabric by Gerber Life go to https://meetfabric.com/QUESTION and apply today, risk-free.
• Get 15% off OneSkin with the code QUESTION at https://www.oneskin.co/QUESTION #oneskinpod
• Ground News is a platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias and break free from algorithms. Go to groundnews.com/QUESTION to get 40% off the unlimited Vantage plan.