The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast

This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson review the decision by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to shutter the surviving office countering foreign disinformation on the grounds that it was actually censoring American voices.  The conversation then turns to the nominee for the U.S. Attorney in the District of Columbia and his failure to disclose more than 150 appearances on Russian s...

This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson search the tea-leaves left behind by DOGE cuts to try to understand the grand-strategy and intention behind gutting American soft-power and threatening NATO allies. Then, they turn their attention back overseas for a reminder that America's adversaries continue to operate political warfare campaigns despite America's unilateral disarmament.  Final...

This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson dissect a raft of moves by the U.S. government that can't be explained as either accident or intentional act, but paint a picture of a strategic realignment with Russia. They also discuss a new report from CSIS about foreign governments targeting corporations with mal-information, while China increasingly employs so-called "Gray Zone" tactics.&nb...

This week hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson welcome Matt Armstrong, a former member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors that oversaw the U.S. government's international media, for a discussion of the late breaking moves by the Trump administration to shutter America's overseas broadcasting and the impact those closures might have on international audiences, American alliances, and the ambitions of America's adversaries.

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This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson tackle news that the Secretary of Defense has instructed U.S. Cyber Command to cease planning for offensive cyber operations against Russia; an American think-tank reports on disinformation in every American state; AI can help audiences resist disinformation; while one American scholar notes that right-wing populist information campaigns have the...

In the aftermath of his party's election victory, Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz charted a course for Germany in a Europe that must be independent of the United States, telling an interviewer that the pre-election  “intervention from Washington was no less drastic, dramatic, and ultimately no less outrageous, than the intervention that we have seen from Moscow,”--a reference to forays by Elon Musk and Vic...

In this week's episode, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson examine Trump Administration decisions to unilaterally disarm the United States of its ability to exert influence around the world, including: the effort to shutter USAID, slash funding for the National Endowment for Democracy, eliminate Justice Department efforts to counter Russian influence, and suspend DHS programs to protect American elections--all while Vice President J...

On this week's Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson discuss the pattern that emerges when you look at the divisive issues being injected into diverse Western media environments--including Canada, Switzerland, and Germany--where a looming election in February is liberal-democracy's next test against a familiar pattern of ethno-nationalist grievance and promises of national renewal.  They also discuss ...

In this week's episode of the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson reflect on recent reporting on Russian interference in the German and Romanian elections, the threat of AI-enabled individualized information campaigns, and the growing specter of tech billionaires operating in the information space in the same way we typically think of nation-states.  Ultimately, the two hosts consider a couple...

This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson reflect on China's use of social media 'influencers' to target Taiwan and the risk of escalation in Russia's hybrid war against Europe before turning to a consideration of Facebook's decision to end third-party fact-checking. Ultimately, the discussion turns to whether the disinformation framework--trying to correct lies and mistruths--is the mos...

In the premier episode of the second season of the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, Mark Jacobson and Jim Ludes discuss a tremendous amount of end-of-year reporting on Russian hybrid warfare efforts in the West, look ahead to Germany's upcoming elections, discuss the U.S. Treasury Departments new sanctions on Russian and Iranian entities for interfering in American elections, look at new country profiles from the EU Disinfo Lab,...

In this week's Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson conclude the year and the first season of the podcast with a discussion of Romanian efforts to protect their presidential election from Russian interference; a look at Congress de-funding the U.S. Global Engagement Center; and then some context for the flurry of drone sightings in the Northeastern United States.  They end with a look back at d...

In this episode of the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson review the latest reporting on Chinese cognitive warfare, Russia's multi-pronged efforts to undermine Western support for Ukraine, the limits of fact-checking to counter disinformation, and the unprecedented moment when the President of the United States and his principle funder both own popular social media networks--effective instruments ...

In their first episode back since election day 2024, Mark Jacobson and Jim Ludes take stock of the impact of foreign disinformation and generative AI in the U.S. election, turn their attention to various efforts to fight back, including for-profit companies and education, and then dive into the sabotage campaign Russia appears to be running across Europe, most recently taking the form of undersea cable cutting.

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Voting in the 2024 U.S. election concludes this week with a race still too close to call. Steven Lee Myers, correspondent for The New York Times, joins hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson for a discussion of the foreign and domestic disinformation plaguing American politics. Those attacks include a sustained Russian effort to cast doubt on the integrity of American democracy while both Russia and Iran look intent to stoke political d...

On this week's Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson discuss new reporting on disinformation targeting Spanish-language voters in the United States; anti-Semitic disinformation on the Spamouflage network; big trends in disinformation targeting Western Democracies, Russia undermining public health efforts in Africa, and what to make of EU election results and Moldova's referendum.
The companion pod...

Graphika Chief Intelligence Officer Jack Stubbs joins Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson for a discussion of the Spamouflage campaign and Graphika's most recent report "The #Americans."  Stubbs explains Graphika's most recent reporting, the evolution in the network's tactics, and the fine-line between informing the public and needlessly doing the work of adversarial information warriors.  In addition, Ludes and Jacobson unpack Thomas Rid'...

Best-selling author Annalee Newitz joins hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson for a discussion of Newitz's new book, Stories are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind. The discussion races from early cold warrior Paul Linebarger and his other life as a science-fiction author, to similarities between psyops and advertising, and the transfer of these technologies between military and civilian entities, culminating in a le...

In this week's Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson discuss the recent report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center documenting "synchronized shifts" in three consecutive U.S. presidential elections in which Russian assets sought to denigrate Democratic candidates within 90 days of election day. They then discuss a Tech Policy Press report on how the U.S. government struggles to counter these th...