Can Satire Save Democracy? w/ The Onion CEO Ben Collins

A nice treat for the holiday – an interview with the guy who runs the country’s funniest fake newspaper. 

Ben Collins became CEO of The Onion after a long career working in traditional news, so he's got major thoughts about speaking truth to power. On this episode of fellow KCRW podcast The Sam Sanders Show, Ben lays out the role of satire in our current politics and what journalism is getting wrong about free speech. 

Ben also talks about relaunching The Onion’s print newspaper (to great success), his attempts to buy Alex Jones’s extreme right-wing outlet InfoWars out of bankruptcy after the Sandy Hook lawsuits, and why AI will never write a good joke. 

This episode originally aired on October 3, 2025. Check out more conversations and takes on The Culture with journalists, critics, and tastemakers on The Sam Sanders Show from KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions. 

Guest: 

• Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion.