The American Bar Association (ABA) recently announced that Cited Podcast’s mini-series “the (ir)Rational Alaskans” is a finalist for the 2025 Silver Gavel Awards for Media and the Arts, which recognizes outstanding work that fosters the American public’s understand of law and the legal system. The (ir)Rational Alaskans is nominated alongside just one other program in the radio/podcasting category, Uncommon Law from Bloomberg.
This is the ABA’s highest recognition for public understanding, and the most prestigious US-based legal journalism award. Cited Media shares this honour with 23 other finalists, PBS, ABC, NBC, the AP, USA Today, and a number of major book publishers. As a small independent podcast company, we are especially proud that our programming is continually able to reach such levels of journalistic excellence–it is a testament to strong work of our team, and the support of our partners at Canada’s National Observer and at York University’s Department of Psychology.
The (ir)Rational Alaskans was produced by Cited Media producers Gordon Katic, Katy Davis, and Jay Cockburn, with editing from Sandra Bartlett (Canada’s National Observer), and research consulting from Dr. Michael Pettit (York University). These episodes told the largely unknown research story that followed Exxon Valdez oil spill. After the unprecedented spill, a jury of ordinary Alaskans decided that Exxon had to face an unprecedented punishment–$5 billion in punitive damages. However, Exxon fought back, and was able to dramatically reduce those damages. They did so, in-part, by supporting research that suggested jurors are irrational. This work came from an esteemed group of psychologists, behavioural economists, and legal theorists–including the Nobel Prize-winning Daniel Kahneman. We critically examine how this research shaped US jurisprudence and public understanding of the jury system. Additionally, Gordon Katic published a summary of these findings in Jacobin magazine.
This honour from the ABA marks a continuation of the Cited’s long history of award-winning journalistic excellence. The podcast initially ran between 2015 and 2020, before taking a long hiatus. Our returning season, the Rationality Wars, aired in the summer of 2024, and the (ir)Rational Alaskans was part of that season. In our initial run, we were featured at the Hot Docs Podcast Festival as one of “Canada’s Podcast All Stars.” We have also won numerous national radio awards in Canada for campus and community radio programming, been a finalist for awards from the Canadian Association of Journalists, and won a Jack Webster Award–BC’s top journalism prize.