Hey, everybody. And welcome to the Weekender edition of the Muckering podcast. I'm Jared

Jade Sexton. Unfortunately, Nick Halsman isn't here. We are both traveling for separate projects right now.

So this episode of The Weekender is actually going to feature an interview between me and Carl Folk, the creator and director

of the Institute of Unreality, a researcher in the weaponization of information.

I really enjoyed this conversation, and I wanted everybody to hear it and just learn from it.

Carl is a really special researcher and thinker, and I thought our conversation

about what's going on right now in the information space, but also with the documented rise

of authoritarianism. I think it's an illuminating one. It's one I've been looking to have for a long time now.

So that's coming up here in just a second. You know, Nick and I are traveling, like I said,

and continuing to monitor what's happening in the Middle East and what's happening with the

world's reaction in those regards.

It's a tough time.

I think there is a real need when looking at this to sort of zoom back a little bit,

because we have a tendency,

especially when things are really rough in tough situations,

to sort of focus on the pain of the moment

or maybe the hectic nature of the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the

and the world, the, the, the, in the past, in the show in bourbon talks, in, in, in books, whatever, I've talked about how

there's going to be more turmoil as we reach these moments of truth.

You know, we can celebrate what's happening in the labor space, what's happening in the

organizing space, what's happening in the labor space, what's happening in the organizing space,

what's happening in the political space. Those are victories. But those, those conflicts in those

...