PBS fights for its future, with President & CEO Paula Kerger

Masters of Scale

WaitWhat

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management, Reid Hoffman, Mindset, Diversity & Inclusion, Jeff Berman, Bob Safian, Startups

4.6 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 8 July 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

PBS President & CEO Paula Kerger joins Rapid Response to take us inside the organization’s financial reality if federal funding is stripped, and how she’s battling to protect iconic programming — from Frontline to Sesame Street. Kerger shares the role of corporate philanthropy in PBS’ future, its relationship with streamers like Netflix, and how she handles allegations of public media bias. Whether or not you're an avid Nova or Ken Burns viewer, PBS' challenge captures critical lessons about focus, mission, and the need to evolve or die trying.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	JustWorks is the human resources platform that knows your employees are more than just employees.
0:07.4	They're your people. People like the show producer on the East Coast who's constantly juggling, schedules, studio bookings, and last minute edits before an episode drops, and sometimes has a question about payroll that they need an answer to right away. Luckily, they can reach out
0:23.4	to JustWorks for 24-7 human support and not have to wait for their boss on the West Coast to wake up.
0:29.3	JustWorks does human resources right so you can do right by your most precious asset, your people.
0:35.7	To learn more, go to justworks.com. JustWorks for your people.
0:42.4	Hey folks, Jeff Berman here. We are gathering the leaders who are building what's next at the
0:48.4	Masters of Scale Summit. You'll see visionaries like Waymo's to Kedra Mawakana, Chabani's Hamdi Ulukaya,
0:55.5	restaurateur David Chang, Patagonia's Ryan Gallert, promises Fadra Ellis Lampkins,
1:01.0	the National Women's Soccer League's Jessica Berman.
1:03.2	The list goes on and on.
1:05.6	Please join us October 7 to 9th in San Francisco.
1:08.8	The room is filling up fast, so apply now at
1:11.8	Mastersofscale.com slash apply 25. That's Mastersofscale.com slash apply 25.
1:21.5	The amount of federal money that comes into public broadcasting is about 15%. For us, the amount of money that we would lose would
1:29.5	be significant. But if you're sitting in a small community and 40% of your budget is the federal
1:37.5	support, you probably can't make that up. This is about something that's much larger than any of us.
1:44.1	I always say if you're
1:44.9	looking for a guarantee, you're living in the wrong decade because everything, I think, has
1:49.5	shifted so much. And I believe that we will succeed at the end of the day. But we're going to
1:55.2	succeed if we are, again, constantly focused on both our values as well as the mission and not letting that
2:02.7	somehow get lost in just all the noise.
2:09.2	That's Paula Kerger, CEO of PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service. I wanted to talk with
	...

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