That’s right.
Over the past four years, the federal government has spent $8.5 million of your money producing dozens of podcasts, some of them progressive, according to a spending report obtained exclusively by The Post. It promoted important priorities.
Taxpayer watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com found that at least 58 podcasts were produced between February 2020 and September 2023 at a total cost of $8,535,556 through grants and other federal funds.
A whopping $323.7 million was spent on comprehensive projects, including podcasts, over the same period, and both foreign and domestic entities received that funding, the watchdog noted.
“We pay a lot of taxes, from income to inheritance to capital gains,” said Adam Andrzejewski, founder of OpenTheBooks. “But who knew we paid podcast taxes?”
The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) are the primary funders of audio content, which covers topics related to history, art, literature, science, language, and religion, among others.
The NEH website says it awards grants “to the highest-rated proposals reviewed by a panel of independent external reviewers.”
“Because democracy requires wisdom, the NEH serves and strengthens our republic by promoting excellence in the humanities and imparting the lessons of history to all Americans,” the agency said. states.
The report says that while many podcasts are even-handed in their topics, some appear to be “agitprop for left-wing ideology.”
$370,000 podcast on Southern history funded by NEH and NEA Features episodes The title is “Bedfellows Forever: How 19th-Century Male Romantic Friendships Queer Our Understanding of Historical Masculinity.”
NEH also spent $227,420 on linguistics programs. broadcasted An episode about “relatively new gender-neutral pronouns that challenged Swedish grammatical norms.”
Another $228,546 NEH-funded program involves the recent history of Queens during the COVID-19 pandemic. talk “About the Black Lives Matter movement and participating in protests,” “Continuing self-education about racism.”
The National Science Foundation awarded $556,544 in funding for a third podcast with pandemic-related content for children. It contains “Superheroes are ready to help us beat the coronavirus: Sergeant Socially Distant, Masked Mentor, Test Master, and Vaccinator!”
$5,000 podcast Funded solely by the State Department, the organization “addresses issues and stories that impact transgender and intersex lives in Zimbabwe.” Currently on Apple Podcasts he has his highest five-star rating from one reviewer.
fulbright forwardThe paper, which was funded with $20,000 by the State Department, not only describes the scholarship program but also features a discussion of “identity, language education, and the exploration of white influence.”
The Department of Agriculture is spending $446,353 on podcasts about “beginner farmers.” be interested In “Building a Queer Farmer Community.” The show also has a five-star rating on Spotify from four reviewers.
More than $171,000 is being spent in Brazil, Bulgaria, and Yemen to train journalists, artists, and others how to produce their own podcasts. Meanwhile, he will receive an additional $89,000 for the same training in Rhode Island, Alaska, and Texas.
“Americans are accustomed to receiving vast amounts of free content through podcast platforms, and the federal government should not be involved in the podcast content business,” Andrejevsky said.
“This is a thinly veiled propaganda campaign used to trumpet foolish concepts and extremist ideologies paid for by the American people.”
NEH and NEA’s combined budgets last year were about $207 million, an increase of more than $45 million from 2020.
The newspaper asked each agency for comment.
