Immigration consistently polls as one of the most important topics for voters. According to a recent Gallup poll immigration is the most polarizing issue of the last 25 years, with 48 percent of Republicans saying it’s the most important issue compared to just 8 percent of Democrats. This probably has something to do with the coverage of immigration in conservative media. And recently, right pundits have begun to focus on one of the most dangerous parts of a migrants’ journey north from South America.

In March, New York Times reporter Ken Bensinger reported a story from the Darien Gap in Panama, which was once thought to be too perilous to cross but which now sees thousands of migrants make their way through every month. For this week's podcast extra, we bring you a recent episode of the podcast What Next, hosted by our former WNYC colleague Mary Harris. Mary spoke to Ken Bensinger about the right wing media obsession with the Darien Gap.

Further reading / listening:

• Right-Wing Influencers Descend on the Darien Gap

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

On this week’s On the Media we revisit another fraught moment in American democracy: the contested election between Al Gore and George W. Bush in 2000. Hear about the extraordinary legal battle that ensued, and what it can teach us about partisan politics today.

Leon Neyfakh, host of the podcast Fiasco, takes us back in time to witness how the Gore and Bush campaigns fought for recounts; how “chads” and “military ballots” became central to the contest; and the role of the so-called Brooks Brothers riot.

Further listening:

• Fiasco: Bush v Gore

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.

This week, President Biden announced major new tariffs on $18 billion worth of imports from China. The goods that will be affected include batteries, steel, aluminum, and semiconductors. Tariffs on electric vehicles will go up from

25 percent to 100 percent. These new tariffs signal a reversal from Biden’s messaging on tariffs during the 2020 campaign, and also a reversal of a decades-long consensus in Washington that lower tariffs are better for the American economy. To understand how we got here, Micah spoke with Gordon Hanson, an economist and a co-director of the Reimagining the Economy Project at Harvard University’s Kennedy School.

Further reading:

• Help for the Heartland? The Employment and Electoral Effects of the Trump Tariffs in the United States
• Washington’s New Trade Consensus

On the Media is supported by listeners like you. Support OTM by donating today (https://pledge.wnyc.org/support/otm). Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @onthemedia, and share your thoughts with us by emailing onthemedia@wnyc.org.