In this episode of DISARMED, Nina Jankowicz speaks with longtime Voice of America journalist Steve Herman about the stories he covered, the audiences VOA serves, and what happened when the administration he covered turned against him and his newsroom. From Washington to audiences around the world, this episode explores what America loses when its international broadcasters go silent, and why protecting access to reliable information also means protecting the journalists who report it.
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Episode 103: The People Who Tell the Story of Democracy | Show Notes
Steve Herman is a veteran news correspondent, whose positions included White House bureau chief and chief national correspondent of the Voice of America. He is a senior fellow at the University of Mississippi Center for Information Advantage and Effectiveness, an assistant professor of practice in the School of Journalism & New Media and was the executive director of the Jordan Center for Journalism Advocacy and Innovation.
Steve spent more than a quarter of a century in Asia, including years of reporting from Tokyo and subsequently as a VOA correspondent and bureau chief in India, South Korea and Thailand. Steve also served in 2016 as VOA’s senior diplomatic correspondent, based at the State Department, traveling internationally with Secretary of State John Kerry. He has covered in the field the past three consecutive U.S. presidential elections.
Nora Benavidez is a civil rights and free speech attorney. She works at the intersection of law, tech, and democracy, elevating interdisciplinary solutions to complex threats facing our society. In all her work, Benavidez fights to eliminate barriers that may diminish the ability for communities to engage in democracy and with each other.
Benavidez serves as Senior Counsel and Director, Digital Justice & Civil Rights at Free Press. She leads the organization’s democracy, free speech and tech initiatives, including policy, legal, advocacy, and corporate engagement portfolio. Her team fights for winning reform solutions that blunt disinformation, hate, and other manipulation online while protecting digital civil rights, privacy, and equitable speech. Benavidez has appeared before the the White House, U.S. Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, Canadian House of Commons, and other regulatory bodies.
Benavidez has authored several original research reports to shape the fields of democracy and tech. Most recently, she was the lead author of Free Press research reports CHOKEHOLD: Donald Trump’s War on Free Speech & the Need for Systemic Resistance (2025), examining the Trump administration’s hostile treatment of the First Amendment and attempts to muzzle dissent; Big Tech Backslide (2023), examining how tech companies’ retreat from platform integrity harms democracy as well as Empty Promises (2022), analyzing the role social media platform policies play in elections.
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DISARMED is hosted by Nina Jankowicz and produced by Emily Malina. Our theme song is by Steve Lakawicz. Thanks our facility manager, production, and post production crew who dedicated their time and energy to this project, as well as the anonymous donor whose generosity took it to the next level. DISARMED wouldn’t have been possible without all of them!
