We're Fighting Disinformation with Annalee Newitz and STORIES ARE WEAPONS

Featured : ANNALEE NEWITZ, Stories are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American MindJoining us for a second time, Annalee Newitz, best-selling author of Four Lost Cities, returns with a critical look at NOW—and the way Stories have become WEAPONS. How have disinformation, propaganda, and violent threats—the essential tool kit for psychological warfare—evolved from military tactics deployed against foreign adversaries into tools in domestic culture wars? Newitz delves into America’s deep-rooted history with psychological operations, beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s Revolutionary War–era fake newspaper and nineteenth-century wars on Indigenous nations, and reaching its apotheosis with the Cold War and twenty-first-century influence campaigns online. America’s secret weapon has long been coercive storytelling. And there’s a reason for that: operatives who shaped modern psychological warfare drew on their experiences as science fiction writers and in the advertising industry. Now, psyops have found their way into the hands of culture warriors, transforming democratic debates into toxic wars over American identity. Newitz zeroes in on conflicts over race and intelligence, school board fights over LGBT students, and campaigns against feminist viewpoints, revealing how, in each case, specific groups of Americans are singled out and treated as enemies of the state. Better yet, Newitz offers a counternarrative, speaking with the researchers and activists who are outlining a pathway to achieving psychological disarmament and cultural peace. As you can imagine, this book is RIGHT up our street—so join us for a riveting night!

Episode was recorded live July 10, 2025.

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