Lawfare Daily: Why We Fall for Charlatans, with Quico Toro

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4.7 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 30 October 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

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Summary

On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sits down with Quico Toro, global opinion columnist at the Washington Post and Director of Climate Repair at the Anthropocene Institute, to talk about his new book, “Charlatans: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Hucksters Bamboozle the Media, the Markets, and the Masses,” which he wrote with his co-author, Moisés Naím.

They discuss what defines a charlatan, the cognitive biases they exploit to take people in, and how technological and societal changes have made charlatanism one of today’s most urgent crises.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	That's what Mamunya did, but that's what charlatans always do, and that's what all charlatans do.
0:07.0	That is, in a way, what defines the charlatans.
0:09.0	They interpose themselves between you and your dreams, right?
0:12.4	And they convince you that if you want your dream to become true, you need them.
0:16.6	It's the Lawfare podcast.
0:18.6	I'm Tyler McBrion, managing editor of lawfare, with Kiko Toro,
0:23.0	Global Opinian columnist at the Washington Post, and director of climate repair at the Anthropocene
0:28.5	Institute. The victims or the potential victims are all of us, right? Like, we, if you're a normal
0:36.4	person, you're a potential victim.
0:39.0	It's a charlatans that are different.
0:40.5	It's a charlatans that are weird.
0:42.9	And of course, we won't gock at them because they get away with amazing stuff.
0:47.5	Today we're talking about a new book, Kiko wrote, along with his co-author, Moisnaim,
0:52.4	called Charlottans, how grifters, swindlers, and hucksters,
0:56.1	bamboozle the media, the markets, and the masses.
1:00.1	So, Kiko, I want to start where the book starts.
1:02.9	That is to say, in the 16th century, a character named Mamunya, if I'm saying that, correctly?
1:08.9	Probably not. Mamunya.
1:10.4	That's it.
1:11.6	Can you describe that story where you start and why you started with this particular charlatan?
1:16.6	So, Mamunia was a fascinating guy.
1:18.6	He was from the east, the mystical unknown Cyprus, which was a colony of Venice at the time,
	...

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