Ronan Farrow launches Catch and Kill podcast: ‘A reservoir of raw material’
Ronan Farrow’s work helped spawn #MeToo, a social movement that fundamentally changed how we talk about sexual harassment and rape, and led to concrete changes in the way allegations are investigated across the world.
But the investigative reporter is quick to say that none of it would have been possible without his sources: the victims who shared their stories despite the emotional cost and steep personal and professional risks.
Many of those women have chosen to speak again – and this time you can hear their voices. On Tuesday, Farrow launched a podcast based on his bestselling book Catch and Kill, which told how his investigation of Harvey Weinstein unfolded in the face of an army of lawyers and spies wielded by the media mogul.
Produced by Pineapple Street Studios, the team behind Missing Richard Simmons, The Clearing and other wellknown podcasts, each episode of the Catch and Kill podcast is built around an interview with a subject from the book, combined with audio recorded in real time during the initial investigation.
Farrow shared a Pulitzer prize for breaking the Weinstein story but when he started interviewing victims in the case, many were guarded. When he returned to interview them for the podcast, he found there had been a shift.
“The podcast was a wonderful opportunity to have conversations that were much more direct and much more frank,” Farrow told the Guardian. “They’re very raw, they’re very emotional, they’re very real. And I’ve been very grateful for how the people I’ve interviewed for this have opened up.”
Farrow said the podcast idea came early. Like many investigative reporters he records as much as he can. He had also obtained police recordings of Weinstein. So he had a “huge reservoir of raw audio material” that now serves as a key part of the podcast, providing what he called “pops of sound” and realtime dialogue that “transport you into the events as they happen”.
Some of the dialogue promises to be both dramatic and still all too relevant. Farrow began his investigation of Weinstein when he was a reporter at NBC News. He claims he was repeatedly stymied by a network unwilling to pursue the story.
In his book, Farrow alleges that NBC execs killed the Weinstein investigation because they feared it would make them vulnerable to sexual harassment issues closer to home: allegations of rape and sexual harassment against the former Today anchor Matt Lauer, which had yet to become public.
In the lead-up to publication of
Catch and Kill, the NBC News president, Noah Oppenheim, called Farrow’s work a “smear”. He failed to convince many of his own staff. MSNBC hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes have called for an independent investigation and last month a group of NBC digital employees cited discontent with the handling of the issue as one of the reasons they are seeking to form a union.
At least one episode of the podcast may be of interest to such organizers: Farrow says it will feature conversations with his producer Rich McHugh as frustration with their bosses grew.
“We recorded hours of our conversations in real time as the story was getting killed by our network executives,” Farrow said. “And you can hear the real moments about reacting to those pieces of news and how we reacted in the moment.”
The podcast will include interviews with a broad cast from Farrow’s book, including behind-the-scenes actors like factcheckers and lawyers as well as those in the spotlight, like Ambra Gutierrez, who describes the police sting operation she participated in to ensnare Weinstein. In the first episode, Farrow interviews Igor Ostrovskiy, an operative who was hired to spy on him, only to end up a whistleblower and a source.
Another episode will feature an interview with a woman who was not ready to go on the record for Farrow’s initial reporting: Weinstein’s former assistant Rowena Chiu, who eventually told her story in a New York Times column. Farrow said Chiu’s retelling of her struggle over whether to come forward made her important to include.
“I think that both the sources who spoke and the sources who didn’t can teach us about just how high the stakes are when someone tries to out the truth on a subject like this,” he said, “and confront a person as powerful as some of the people that I report on in Catch and Kill. And by hearing directly from them about the effect it had on their lives, I hope it can inspire more compassion.”
Asked to assess the impact of his work, Farrow points to shifts in journalism and culture as well as moves by state legislatures – and parliament in the UK – to pass laws changing how non-disclosure agreements are applied in cases of sexual violence.
But he quickly turns back to the women whose decisions to come forward made his reporting possible, and whose voices are the foundation for his new project.
“I think there are still good days and bad days for a lot of these sources and particularly ones who went through a great deal of trauma, and none of this is easy and there’s still a long way to go,” he said.
“I come away from both the book and the podcast feeling that the fight for the free flow of information about these topics is only just beginning, but also feeling very galvanized and optimistic because these sources, that you will get to know if you listen to this podcast, show absolutely no signs of backing down or shutting up.”
The Catch and Kill Podcast is available on Radio.com, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all other podcast platforms
The podcast was a wonderful opportunity to have conversations that were much more direct and much more frank