logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2019
14m 9s

Inside the bizarre world of internet tro...

TED
About this episode
Journalist Andrew Marantz spent three years embedded in the world of internet trolls and social media propagandists, seeking out the people who are propelling fringe talking points into the heart of conversation online and trying to understand how they're making their ideas spread. Go down the rabbit hole of online propaganda and misinformation -- and learn we can start to make the internet less toxic.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Today
A story of moral imagination and bold entrepreneurship | Sitoyo Lopokoiyit and Jacqueline Novogratz
In a conversation about visionary leadership, M-PESA CEO Sitoyo Lopokoiyit speaks with impact investor and Acumen CEO Jacqueline Novogratz about how he grew a nascent mobile payment service into Africa’s largest fintech platform — which now handles nearly 60 percent of Kenya's GD ... Show More
19m 36s
Yesterday
"Marigolds," a poem about wonder | Safiya Sinclair
Poet Safiya Sinclair performs "Marigolds: A Letter to Wonder," an original poem she created for TED that explores memory, beauty and the fragility of life. After the poem, she talks with TED's Helen Walters about her writing process — and what it feels like when the creative muse ... Show More
9m 2s
Jul 8
The miraculous device that saved my farm — and changed my life | Josephine Waweru
Exhausted from carrying water up a hill to keep her small farm in Kenya thriving, Josephine Waweru received an unexpected call that offered a nearly unbelievable solution. She shares how one simple device allowed her crops (and her dreams) to flourish — and offers a glimmer of ho ... Show More
10m 18s
Recommended Episodes
Jun 2022
Inside the bizarre world of internet trolls and propagandists | Andrew Marantz
Journalist Andrew Marantz spent three years embedded in the world of internet trolls and social media propagandists, seeking out the people who are propelling fringe talking points into the heart of conversation online and trying to understand how they're making their ideas sprea ... Show More
19m 39s
Jan 2023
Andrew Marantz doesn’t want you to give up on the internet
The internet can be a wonderful, but also a terribly unpleasant place. Andrew Marantz knows this well. He is a staff writer at The New Yorker who spent three years embedded in the world of internet trolls to understand how regular people propel fringe talking points into the hear ... Show More
35m 24s
Apr 2020
Andrew Marantz
Andrew Marantz is a journalist, staff writer for The New Yorker magazine and author of Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. Andrew sits down with the Armchair Expert (pre social distancing) to discuss working as a journali ... Show More
1h 38m
Jul 2018
Reddit's CEO on Fake News and Free Speech
Reddit just overtook Facebook to be the third biggest website in the US. Steve Huffman, Reddit's co-founder and CEO, joins Katie and Brian at the Aspen Ideas Festival to talk about everything from propaganda to Pizzagate. They discuss how Reddit handles the threat of misinformati ... Show More
47m 6s
Mar 2022
Why is everyone arguing about wheels and doors? Plus: age regression, explained
In Guardian Australia’s internet culture podcast, Michael Sun and Alyx Gorman weigh in on the week’s silliest viral question. Then ‘chronically online goblin’ and writer Charlotte Colombo joins in to talk about the largely anonymous community of people acting, and talking, like s ... Show More
31m 12s
Sep 2022
Max Fisher: How Social Media Rewired Our Brains (+ Our World)
Max Fisher is a New York Times investigative reporter, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and author of the vitally important book: 'The Chaos Machine: The Inside Story of How Social Media Rewired Our Minds and Our World'—a referendum on Big Tech and the social media platforms that that ha ... Show More
2h 24m
Apr 2023
Karen Frost-Arnold, "Who Should We Be Online?: A Social Epistemology for the Internet" (Oxford UP, 2023)
The Internet plays a central role in how we communicate, share information, disseminate ideas, maintain social connections, and conduct business. The Internet also exacerbates existing problems regarding irrationality, bias, wrongful discrimination, exploitation, and dehumanizati ... Show More
1h 5m
Mar 2021
The Growing Threat Of Disinformation And How To 'Deprogram' People Who Believe It
Disinformation isn't new. But in the last decade, the growth of social media has made it easier than ever to spread. That coincided with the political rise of Donald Trump, who rose to power on a wave of disinformation and exited the White House in similar fashion. NPR's Tovia Sm ... Show More
12m 55s
Sep 2023
Politics in the Age of Chaos with Rafael Behr
Do you ever turn away from the news in despair? Do you scroll through social media and come away feeling angry, frustrated and fearful? Have you given up on the idea that a level of sanity might ever be restored to our politics? If so, acclaimed political commentator Rafael Behr' ... Show More
37m 38s