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The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Diving headfirst into 'Conspiracyland' with the BBC's Marianna Spring

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

Politics, Government, Society & Culture, News

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 12 March 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The world of online conspiracy theorists is daunting and bewildering. The BBC’s Marianna Spring knows that better than most. In today’s Bunker, Ros Taylor sits down with the disinformation and social media correspondent to discuss her new book Among the Trolls: My Journey Through Conspiracyland.    • “The internet normalises aggression and abuse and that is reflected in the real world too.”  – Marianna Spring  • “In the absence of religion or local communities, people turn to the internet for that sense of meaning and purpose.”  – Marianna Spring    Buy Marianna Spring’s book Among the Trolls: My Journey Through Conspiracyland   through our affiliate bookshop and you’ll help fund The Bunker by earning us a small commission for every sale. Bookshop.org’s fees help support independent bookshops too.    Support us on Patreon: www.patreon.com/bunkercast     Written and presented by Ros Taylor. Producer: Liam Tait. Audio editor: Jade Bailey. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production.    Instagram | Twitter  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved

0:05.5

photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.

0:11.8

Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?

0:13.0

I loved going to college.

0:14.0

It's good you can retrain and do something.

0:16.0

Yeah, yeah.

0:17.0

Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.

0:22.0

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0:28.0

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0:30.0

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0:32.0

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0:36.7

so give a little love back with dental life from Purina a range of delicious chues made for dogs and tasty snacks for cats that help clean and support your pets, teeth and gums, essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so

0:55.3

look after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker your need to know on news and politics five days a week. I'm Ros Taylor.

1:14.0

Most of us, and I'm guessing most of the listeners to this podcast,

1:18.0

regard people who fall for conspiracy theories with a mixture of amusement and contempt, there have been remarkably few attempts to find

1:25.3

out who these people are, why they start believing in these theories, and how social media

1:31.1

has encouraged them. But one woman who has been doing that is

1:35.1

Mariana Spring, the BBC's disinformation and social media correspondent. She

1:40.0

spent the past four years digging deep into the worlds of trolls, grifters, malevolent influences

1:46.2

and the people who follow them. And she joins me in the studio today.

1:49.7

Welcome to the bunker, Mariana. Thanks so much for having me.

1:52.4

It was really striking to me so much for having me.

...

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