Michelle Myers draws on her experience as a professor, activist, and poet to foster a space for listeners where it’s humanly possible to make humanity possible. Each episode, Michelle discusses difficult topics with a focus on practicing mindfulness and self-care as well as on claiming a personal space of acceptance, healing, and compassion. 

In this episode, Michelle journeys from the shadows of Plato’s cave to the glow of our modern screens to ask a timeless question: What is real - and who decides?Michelle unpacks how platforms profit from emotion, how disinformation thrives in the chaos of “breaking news,” and how the pressure to perform—to “say something,” to “be seen reacting”—turns genuine communication into spectacle.

Below are links to articles about the topics discussed in the episode. This is not an exhaustive list and our listeners are encouraged to research these topics on their own as well:

Philip Deloria, “The Myth of Thanksgiving”

David Silverman, This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving

Jon Stewart, The Weekly Show podcast, “How Social Media Exacerbates Disaster and Disinformation"

Cambridge Analytica used personal data from Facebook to create psychological profiles of voters during the 2026 election

Data showing that immigrants, including undocumented ones, are less likely to commit crimes than U.S.-born citizens:

Cato Institute

Congressional document

National Academy of Sciences

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Host: Michelle Myers

Producer: Myong McCloud