Renee DiResta - Part 2: Pseudo-Events, More on Disinformation, and Telling Fact From Fiction

Trust Me: Cults, Extreme Belief, and Manipulation

Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts

True Crime, Talk Radio, Comedy, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 December 2025

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Renee DiResta, professor and author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality, joins the show again to dive deeper into disinformation, propaganda, and "pseudo-events," or manufactured controversies and news stories.

She explains why it’s so difficult to tell fact from fiction online, how propagandists stoke real, often legitimate tensions to create division, how American politicians are amplifying false information instead of shutting it down, and possible policies that could help reduce our culty social media silos.

SOURCES

Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality

The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-events in America

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is exactly right.
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0:39.2	Today we're going to be talking about stolen antiquities, all the weird things Melissa found at in a state sale, the crazy conversations I had with the bouncer and J.K. Rowling. We make the complicated clear and the serious, surprisingly fun. From the exactly right network, new episodes of Brief Recess drop every Thursday. Watch Brief Recess on YouTube. Listen to Brief Recess on the IHeartRadio app.
0:41.2	Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:43.7	Trust me.
0:45.3	Do you trust me?
0:47.2	Would I ever lead you astray?
0:48.2	Trust me.
0:49.2	This is the truth.
0:50.8	The only truth. If anybody ever tells you to just trust them, don't.
0:54.6	Welcome to Trust Me, the podcast about cults, extreme belief and manipulation from two
1:01.2	savvy internet users who've actually experienced it.
1:04.6	I am Lola Blanc.
1:05.9	And I am Megan Elizabeth.
1:07.4	And today our guest is once again Renee DeResta, professor and author of Invisible Rulers,
1:12.7	The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality. Last week we talked about propaganda versus disinformation
1:19.0	on the internet and how we're all living in bespoke realities. And this week, we're going to
1:24.0	chat about what she calls pseudo events or controversies or news stories that
1:28.2	are entirely manufactured, how easy it is for images and videos to be taken out of context
1:33.5	and feed disinformation and why it's so difficult to tell fact from fiction. That's right.
	...

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