The show will be hosted by The Intercept co-founder and best-selling author Jeremy Scahill, and will be funded by The Intercept?s parent company, Pierre Omidyar?s First Look Media. The podcast will be distributed by Panoply, a podcast network from fellow news publication Slate that works with a number of politically oriented podcasts such as Malcolm Gladwell?s Revisionist History and Vox?s The Weeds.

?Holding those in power accountable ? no matter who they are ? has always been our mission,? said Mr. Scahill. ?With Intercepted, we?ll take on a Trump Administration that has already made it clear it intends to wage war against a free press. 

?That, combined with his ambitious extremist agenda to make torture great again, target Muslims, conduct mass deportations and roll back the clock on women?s rights to the 1800s, makes our work as journalists more urgent than ever.?

A press release claims that the podcast will look to ?deconstruct the news and break open preconceptions about politics, war, government and the media,? an endeavor familiar to Mr. Scahill, who aside from his role at The Intercept, is best known for blowing the lid off of some of the most significant stories regarding U.S. foreign policy in recent years, including an in-depth look at private military company Blackwater USA. 

The podcast will also feature roundtable discussions and interviews with artists, thinkers, newsmakers and fellow journalists.

The first episode, released yesterday, deals with the chaos surrounding Trump?s inauguration, and features Mr. Scahill interviewing Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersh (famous for exposing the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War), who waxes on Trump and the CIA and his concerns about how Trump will handle himself at the helm of the U.S.?s surveillance apparatus. 

The episode also features an ?audio post card? culled from political theorist Naomi Klein?s experiences at the Women?s March, and a roundtable discussion that included founding editor Glenn Greenwald phoning in from an undisclosed location in Rio.

Mr. Greenwald is most well known for his participation, along with filmmaker Laura Poitras, in publishing Edward Snowden?s infamous 2013 leaks detailing surveillance programs held by the U.S. and United Kingdom.

With all of the talk of ?alternative facts? and fake news circulating in all strata of media today, an organization like The Intercept is almost obligated to spread its ethos across as many mediums as possible for the sake of public service. 

The series? first episode was effective in standing as a sort of thesis statement for both listeners new to The Intercept brand and those who were curious as to what the publication?s foray into audio would look like. Let?s hope Intercepted stays on track. 

?Intercepted will amplify the stories we cover at The Intercept, confronting the crucial issues of the moment, from national security to civil liberties, foreign policy to surveillance, at a time of enormous and perilous change in our political environment,? said Betsy Reed, editor-in-chief of The Intercept.