It's always exciting when you get to discover and listen to a high quality locally produced podcast.
In photo, Zero Context Podcasts hosts James Moore (L) and Andrew Zuker wrap up recording on a recent episode.
Here's their writeup presenting their recently launched podcast:
"What began as a conversation about the news between two journalism students at UNR, has now grown into a passion project for Reno locals James Moore and Andrew Zuker, co-creators of the Zero Context Podcast, which debuted in late January.
Their goal with the show is to reexamine important events and influential people in recent history and contextualize them as steps on the path to the polarized and increasingly fascist USA we find ourselves in today.
Moore and Zuker, who both graduated from UNR's Reynolds School of Journalism in 2024, began to recognize their shared values and worldview while working together on a project for an investigative reporting class. After the semester ended, they stayed in contact, brainstorming on ideas for a collaboration. The concept for Zero Context was born from a comment Moore made one day bemoaning the way major events are covered as unique novel instances, devoid of the backstory required to place them within the bigger picture. With this podcast, the pair seek to stitch seemingly disconnected and sensational events into a timeline, revealing patterns which challenge the status quo and widely accepted narratives. In doing so, the show offers a perspective from well outside of the American two party system, free from corporate media influence, and unambiguously critical of capitalism, something Moore and Zuker believe can resonate with almost everyone these days.
With three full episodes now available on Patreon and for streaming on Spotify, Zero Context is proudly taking a pro-worker, pro-humanity stance, opening Season 1 with a scathing critique of the Biden Administration and the failed promise of neoliberalism. Episode 2 profiles former Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to show how radical genocidal racists inhabit the highest levels of government in the Zionist state of Israel. In the third episode, released Monday, March 10, they examine the life and mysterious death of nuclear energy whistleblower Karen Silkwood in 1974 and the extremely perilous American tradition of standing up to big industry.
Future episodes in the works for this season will delve into topics like the terrible precedent set by the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina, how the impeachment of Bill Clinton was used to launch Fox News and the right wing outrage machine, a foreign political assassination by car bomb on U.S. soil tacitly allowed to happen by the CIA, the techno-surveillance cash grab at the southern border with Mexico, high-stakes standoffs between "sovereign citizens" and federal authorities, and much more.
Moore and Zuker say they have struck a nice balance on the project, bringing complementary sets of skills to the writing and production of the show and drawing from their surprisingly different backgrounds and even the generation gap between them. Andrew Zuker was born in the early 80s and grew up in rural Michigan, moving from northern California to Reno in 2019 with his wife and children. James Moore was born locally in the mid 90s and has always lived and worked in Reno.
The show is recorded at Zuker's home studio and hosted on the Patreon platform which allows for free and paid tiers of membership, and is geared toward helping creators build a viable career with support from their followers. Patreon does support RSS feeds, so members of the Zero Podcast Community can automatically receive new episodes in their preferred podcast apps."
Their patreon can be found here if you'd like to support this endeavor: https://www.patreon.com/ZeroContextPodcast?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=creatorshare_fan&utm_content=join_link
If you'd like to promote your own local endeavor, never hesitate to reach out.
Citizen’s Forum Contribution March 2025