Lesbian icon Rachel Maddow has won the prestigious 2023 Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for her podcast, Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra. This is the first time a Hillman Prize has gone to a podcast.
Maddow’s Ultra is an eight-episode program that delves into efforts to spread Nazi propaganda across the U.S., and overthrow American democracy, in the 1940s. “In “Ultra,” Rachel Maddow and her team unearth a dramatic chapter of American history, nearly a century old, but with themes that echo loudly today,” the Hillman Foundation website reads.
History is a warning. The podcast’s topic is not a coincidence. “It is a forgotten story, set in the 1940s, of determined American extremists who came dangerously close to toppling American democracy in the run-up to World War II – and the serving members of Congress working alongside them. Elected officials who took an oath to defend the Constitution who, instead, became willing accessories in a plot to end it.”
The podcast asks a lot of important and pertinent questions. “When sophisticated plans to spread hate and misinformation divide Americans against themselves, and weaken our institutions to soften the country up for an armed takeover, what happens? What happens when a radical movement on one end of the American political spectrum abandons democracy altogether, arms itself, and starts making plans for a violent coup? When a rising tide of authoritarianism across the world captures not just the most extreme elements in this country, but some of its most powerful political figures as well? How does a democracy defend itself from that?”
The Hillman Award is named after a union leader Sidney Hillman, who was involved in President Roosevelt’s New Deal. The award has been presented annually since 1950. The Hillman Prize program honors contributors to the “daily, periodical, and labor press, as well as authors and broadcasters.”
Maddow’s podcast appeals to the Hillman Foundation’s mission. “The Sidney Hillman Foundation has sought to illuminate the great issues of the day—from the search for a basis for lasting peace, to the need for better housing, medical care, and employment security for all people, the promotion of civil liberties, democracy and the battle against discrimination based on race, nationality, or religion.”
