You can't get any purchase in someone who doesn't believe in anything. So I think the thing that

makes charlatans so interesting is that they're exploiting these vulnerabilities that are the things

that make us really human, right? And there are the things that make human beings, the interesting,

fascinating, endlessly creative creatures that that we are, is that, you know, we want to see change and we want to make a better world and we have ideas about the way the world should be.

And then there's just this parasitic elements of society that seaside says, you know what?

I can work with that. I can exploit them.

And now the good fight with Yasha Monk.

Why do some people seem to have an incredible knack for taking advantage of others?

For selling them snake oil, for promising them that they're going to

get rich any moment now, for being elected prime minister or president by making absurd promises

about how they, and they alone, can transform the country for the better.

What is the nature of a charlatan and why are charlatans seemingly more successful than ever?

Well, two old friends of Persuasion have written a book about this topic.

Moises Naim, the former editor of foreign policy and finance minister of Venezuela, and

Kiko Toro.

He is the director of climate repair at the Anthropocene Institute, the author of the

substack 1% Brighter, and of course a contributing editor at Persuasion.

The new book is Charlottons, How Grifters, Swindlers and Hucksters, Bambuze of the Media, the Markets, and the Masses, many alliterations in this lovely title.

We talked about every aspect of charlatans. And then

in the final part of the conversation that is reserved for paying subscribers, we talk about

charlatans in politics. How can we know the difference between a normal democratic politician who simply is

tooting the own horn, who is perhaps making promises, we're not really going to be able to

...