Shift Culture

Capitalism Podcast

Capitalism, is Season 7 of the award-winning Scene on Radio podcast, downloaded over ten million times and counting. Journalist John Biewen and his collaborators, with the help of expert voices, will go back to explore how capitalism emerged and transformed over centuries, how people with power shaped it the way they did, what was both gained and lost along the way, and where we can go from here.

  • Capitalism is produced by Kenan Institute of Ethics at Duke University in partnership with Imperative 21, created and hosted by Peabody nominated journalist John Biewen with co-host, Ellen McGirt, longtime business journalist and former senior editor at Fortune.

  • The podcast will feature a diverse range of perspectives and expertise, including historians, economists, journalists, movement and business leaders.

  • In prior seasons, in particular Scene on Radio’s “Seeing White” season on race, many groups in higher education, business, and communities used SoR’s content as a catalyst for hosting deeper, bridging conversations about challenging issues that tend to polarize.

    Capitalism follows the same long form, reflective, narrative storytelling that, if effectively used with supportive resources and tools, can help these same cross-sector leaders host courageous conversations, and respectful debate that transcend the poles to find higher ground.

How do we create the conditions that enable people to move into new mindsets?

There is proven transformative power when compelling content is married with conversation in community.
Leveraging the storytelling power of the podcast, Imperative 21 will be piloting facilitated cohort experiences in business and other sectors (e.g. academia, philanthropy, civil society).

These courageous conversations will open up space to be inclusive of difference as we talk about who and what we care about and how that could be better reflected in future evolutions of capitalism.

If you are interested in hosting, participating, or funding a pilot cohort, please reach out.

John has explored polarizing topics across previous seasons on topics like race, democracy and climate. In 2020, John gave a TEDx Talk in Charlottesville drawn from his research on Scene on Radio’s Season 2’s “Seeing White”; it is now posted on the main TED site and has nearly three million views.

About the hosts

  • Investigative Journalist & Scene on Radio Producer

    After 20 years as a reporter and correspondent for NPR News, American Public Media, and Minnesota Public Radio, John began working as an audio producer and educator at Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies in 2006. In 2015, John launched the podcast “Scene on Radio.” In his second season as host and producer, he chose the theme “Seeing White,” an examination of how race has been constructed throughout history.  “Seeing White” has now been downloaded over six million times. In 2017, the podcast was nominated for a Peabody Award. It is frequently included on course syllabi and racial equity resource lists.

  • Featured Co-Host and Business Journalist

    Ellen is an award-winning business journalist who for the past 7 years Ellen has been a senior editor at Fortune, where she established the race and leadership beat. Her RaceAhead column on race and inclusion in corporate life and beyond has won a New York Press Club Award, National Headliner Award, and the American Institute of Graphic Arts’s Steven Heller Prize for Commentary. McGirt is editorial director of Fortune Connect, a membership community of executives focused on making the world better through business, and co-host of Fortune’s “Leadership Next” podcast, which explores the changing rules of business leadership. A longtime journalist with experience at Fast Company and Money, among others, she recently launched Sweet Equity Media, an independent, virtual newsroom fostering a deeper understanding of the roots of inequity

Scene on Radio Season 7: Capitalism Trailer