FBI Behavior Expert Robin Dreeke On Radicalization in Real Time: How Online Echo Chambers Fueled the Charlie Kirk Assassination
True Crime Today | Daily True Crime News & Interviews
Tony Brueski
4.2 • 612 Ratings
🗓️ 16 September 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
How does a 22-year-old go from honor student to accused assassin? In this powerful discussion on Hidden Killers Live, Tony Brueski, Stacy Cole, Todd Michaels, and Robin Dreeke explore how online radicalization happens in real time.
Dreeke explains how social media algorithms feed vulnerable young people a steady diet of fear, negativity, and outrage — creating echo chambers where violence is normalized. The conversation explores how platforms like Discord and online gaming chats become breeding grounds for extremist thinking, not through shadowy “radicalizers,” but through peer-to-peer validation. The suspect wasn’t groomed in a cave halfway around the world — he was groomed in his own living room.
The team also examines foreign interference. Drawing on his counterintelligence career, Dreeke explains “active measures” — how Russia and other foreign powers exploit America’s freedoms to sow distrust, disinformation, and division. From bots to anonymous accounts, much of the online noise after the assassination attempt appears designed to pit Americans against each other.
Stacy raises a critical point: are today’s young people living in a constant trauma response, marinated in fear from birth, without tools to manage it? Robin agrees, pointing out how chronic fear escalates into anger, rage, and ultimately violence when curiosity and constructive outlets are missing.
This segment reveals how radicalization isn’t abstract anymore — it’s woven into the everyday online world. And without intervention, more young people may follow the same dangerous path.
#CharlieKirk #AssassinationAttempt #HiddenKillers #Radicalization #RobinDreeke #SocialMediaEchoChamber #FBI #Counterintelligence #TrueCrime #ForeignInfluence
Want to comment and watch this podcast as a video?
Check out our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/@hiddenkillerspod
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/hiddenkillerspod/
Tik-Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@hiddenkillerspod
X Twitter https://x.com/tonybpod
Listen Ad-Free On Apple Podcasts Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/true-crime-today-premium-plus-ad-free-advance-episode/id1705422872
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | A Better Help ad. |
| 0:02.3 | Lewis Capaldi partnered with Better Help to get word out about how important therapy can be. |
| 0:07.6 | I struggle most weeks to get up, get myself up and ready and go to therapy or whatever. |
| 0:13.0 | Even like to open the laptop to talk to, my therapist sometimes could be really difficult. |
| 0:17.4 | But I do it because I realise how important it is for me to continue to feel |
| 0:21.3 | good. Because I felt the best I've felt in a long time through therapy. |
| 0:25.6 | Learn more about online therapy at betterhelp.com. |
| 0:29.5 | A better help ad. |
| 0:31.5 | Lewis Capaldi partnered with BetterHelp to get word out about how important therapy can be. |
| 0:36.8 | I struggle most weeks to get up, get myself up and ready and go to therapy or whatever. |
| 0:42.2 | Even like to open the laptop to talk to, my therapist sometimes could be really difficult. |
| 0:46.6 | But I do it because I realise how important it is for me to continue to feel good. |
| 0:51.0 | I felt the best I've felt in a long time through therapy. |
| 0:54.8 | Learn more about online therapy at betterhelp.com. |
| 0:58.6 | This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Bruske, |
| 1:02.9 | Stacey Cole and Todd Michaels. |
| 1:07.6 | I've seen so many things online over the weekend, and I just, I have to turn it off and stop. |
| 1:12.9 | But are you getting the feeling that other countries are honing in on this and using it to further pit Americans against one another? |
| 1:23.3 | Because I swear to God, some of the stuff I've seen online from anonymous accounts and such are just designed to stoke anger and fear against each other. |
| 1:32.3 | It's not necessarily always coming from somebody over here with a strong opinion |
| 1:36.3 | or somebody over there with that strong opinion. |
| 1:38.2 | I'm seeing so many things that look manufactured that are put out there specifically |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tony Brueski, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Tony Brueski and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.