From the Archives: Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
Here's The Thing with Alec Baldwin
iHeartPodcasts
4.3 • 8.4K Ratings
🗓️ 19 May 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
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Summary
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey are the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. For five months -- perpetually in danger of losing the scoop -- they cultivated and cajoled sources ranging from the Weinsteins’ accountant to Ashley Judd. The article that emerged on October 5th, 2017, was a level-headed and impeccably sourced exposé, whose effects continue to be felt around the world. Their conversation with Alec covers their reporting process, and moves on to a joint wrestling with Alec’s own early knowledge of one of the Weinstein allegations, and his ongoing friendship with accused harasser James Toback. The guests ask Alec questions about the movie industry’s ethics about sex and “the casting couch.” Over a respectful and surprising half-hour, host and guests together talk through the many dilemmas posed by the #MeToo movement that Kantor and Twohey did so much to unleash.
Originally aired January 21st, 2020.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:06.8 | I'm Alec Baldwin, and you're listening to Here's the Thing. |
| 0:12.9 | Jody Cantor and Megan Tooy are the New York Times reporters who broke the Harvey Weinstein story. |
| 0:20.5 | For five months, perpetually in danger of losing the scoop, they cultivated and cajoled sources, |
| 0:27.2 | ranging from the Weinstein's accountant to Ashley Judd. |
| 0:31.3 | The article that emerged on October 5, 2017, was a level-headed and impeccably sourced expose whose effects continue to be |
| 0:41.1 | felt around the world. Cantor and Tui documented 25 years of sexual abuse, harassment, and |
| 0:50.2 | exploitation by one of the most important producers in the history of Hollywood. |
| 0:55.8 | The story put a definitive end to his career and his company. |
| 1:01.3 | It has also shaken the lives of some of those who supported and defended him, like |
| 1:07.7 | lawyer Lisa Bloom, who until last year had followed the path of her feminist mother, |
| 1:13.0 | Gloria Allred, in representing victims. And just as clearly the reporters documented the loose |
| 1:20.2 | network of business and creative interests that enabled rape, harassment, and casting couch coercion. |
| 1:28.3 | They revealed to America the culture in Hollywood that knew about all of this and disapproved, |
| 1:34.3 | but expected individual women, victimized and isolated, to bear the burden of exposing the powerful men who humiliated them themselves. |
| 1:50.8 | But before any of the fallout, Jody Cantor and Megan Tuey had to source up. |
| 1:55.5 | One of the first daunting tasks was to try to get in touch with these famous actresses. |
| 2:03.9 | But Megan and I were like, we don't know any actresses, you know, and getting, we're sitting there saying, okay, how do you get, you know, Ashley Judd's phone number? I'm going to ask you, what was the path to Ashley Judd? |
| 2:05.5 | Could you can't, you can't, you can't. Can you talk about that? Well, that one was pretty easy because Nick Christoph knew her, and you Christoph, the opinion columnist at the times. But we felt strongly that we could not go through publicists or agents because they're gatekeepers. |
| 2:16.9 | They're just going to shut everything down. |
| 2:18.9 | Tell me about it. |
... |
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