Annalee Newitz on How Stories are Weaponized

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 17 June 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As a journalist and a science fiction writer, Annalee Newitz thinks a lot about the power of narrative and how it can change minds, “if a story can make you feel better or smarter, it can also make you feel worse and more confused. And if that story can change your behavior—whether in the voting booth or on the street—it becomes a weapon.” In their new book, "Stories Are Weapons," Newitz dives into the history and practice of psychological warfare and traces how the military tools of psyops – including propaganda and disinformation – have seeped into our lives. We’ll talk about how stories are used to manipulate our politics and drive the culture wars and how we might snap out of their sway. Guests: Annalee Newitz, science journalist; science fictions writer; author, "Stories are Weapons"; Newitz is also the author of the books "The Terraformers," "Autonomous" and "Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:43.8	From KQED.
1:00.3	From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal.
1:06.3	We live in a world awash with weaponized communication, argues Annali Newitz in their new book,
1:09.9	Stories or Weapons, a short work that packs a punch. It carves a path through past and present by
1:12.5	using this idea of the psychological operation, or sciop. As a way to think about propaganda,
1:19.0	culture war, history, the public sphere, it's a brilliant conceit that takes the idea of the
1:25.2	quote-unquote culture war seriously and asks,
1:28.8	how should we evaluate the weaponry that's being used and eventually start to disarm?
1:34.3	That's all coming up next, right after this news.
1:49.6	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
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