For Fact's Sake

Misogyny has existed throughout history, but in recent years a newly-packaged form has taken hold online, promoted by influencers and online communities with thousands of young, male followers including in Scotland.

The Ferret hosted a panel discussion to discuss the issues, chaired by equality campaigner and researcher Talat Yaqoob, which we recorded for a special live For Fact's Sake podcast.

On the panel were:

Lisa Sugiura: Associate Professor in Cybercrime and Gender at the University of Portsmouth, and author of The Incel Rebellion: The Rise of the Manosphere and the Virtual War Against Women

Clare Duffy: Playwright and founder of Civic Digits Theatre Company. Their new project, Many Good Men, examines the impact of incel culture and how young men can fight against it.

Iain Corbett: Youth worker and participation advisor for Strathclyde University’s Children and Young People’s Centre for Justice. He has been leading “positive masculinity” workshops inside Polmont Young Offenders Institute, looking at what it means to be a 21st century man, so-called toxic masculinity, and online misogyny.

Zero Tolerance: Scottish charity working to end men’s violence against women through tackling gender inequality

There's only a week to go until the election, and things are hotting up!

On this Election Cast, Ali and Paul delve into:

• The Scottish Labour manifesto
• Nigel Farage's promise to leave the World Economic Forum (spoiler: we aren't a member).
• Why Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile are being linked online

Thanks everyone for listening!

Credits:

Written and presented by Ali Brian and Paul Dobson

Produced by Halina Rifai

For this week's election cast, Ali and Paul are looking into the claims which are impacting the campaign over the last seven days.

• Did the Scottish Government underspend its EU funding?
• Are there more people arriving in the UK than ever?
• How are Scottish chickens being caught up in the culture war?

The answers to these questions lie within.

Credits:

Written and presented by Ali Brian and Paul Dobson

Produced by Halina Rifai

The For Fact's Sake Election Cast is here! It's our special weekly election podcast, looking at the misinformation, conspiracies and culture war flashpoints that are impacting the campaign.

For the first episode, Ali and Paul are looking at why the SNP were accused of misinformation for a claim about North Sea jobs.

We also tackle the conspiracy theories that have been connected to protests against low emissions zones (LEZ) in Scotland, and delve into the controversy aroound Rishi Sunak's claim that every working family would be £2,000 worse off under Labour's plans.

Credits:

Written and presented by Ali Brian and Paul Dobson

Produced by Halina Rifai

The election is upon us, and the For Fact's Sake podcast is back!

Starting tomorrow, Ali and Paul will be hosting a weekly show until the election comes, covering fact checks, investigations and everything The Ferret is doing over the election period.

We’ll be explaining the conspiracies and culture war wedge issues that are impacting the political conversation, and revealing who is using their money and influence to sway voters in Scotland and the UK.

It's the final episode of our three-part For Fact's Sake series on elections.

This week, we are looking at the biggest vote taking place in this election year: India.

Ali and Paul spoke to Jency Jacob, the managing editor of BOOM, a fact checking organisation based in India and also covering Myanmar and Bangladesh.

He explained the difficulties of fact-checking in an election that covers a billion potential voters, and the types of misinformation that voters in India encounter.

We also have the second of our Conspiracy Dictionary segment, where Ali and Paul discuss chemtrails.

It's part two of our mini series on the election year.

In this episode we spoke to Tori Marland, from Logically Facts, about the potential trends in disinformation that we will likely see in the election campaign in the UK.

And in our new 'Truth Tracker' segment, we discuss what is really known about Kate Middleton amid the controversy around her health and whereabouts.

For Fact's Sake is back for a brand new series, kicking off with a special three-part look at the impact of misinformation on the upcoming elections this year.

In the first episode, we spoke to Polly Curtis from think tank Demos about how AI could affect the general election, and democracy more widely.

Demos has recently produced a report on the potential of AI to alter democracy.

We also launched our newest feature, the Conspiracy Dictionary, with a look at the World Economic Forum (WEF)

Show notes:

• Demos' report into AI impacts is here.
• Follow Polly Curtis on X here.
• More information on conspiracies surrounding the World Economic Forum and the Great Reset here.

It's the final For Fact's Sake podcast of the year, and we're focusing on the conflict in Gaza, where among the thousands of civilian deaths, scores of journalists have been killed.

We speak to Fiona O'Brien from Reporters Without Borders about why so many journalists have been part of the tragic human toll of the Israeli attack on Gaza, and whether journalists in the area are being targeted by the military.

She also explains how the killing of journalists in the region amplifies misinformation and inaccurate state narrratives about the war.

Show notes:

• Reporters without Borders' work in Gaza can be seen here.
• Listen to our last podcast on misinformation in the conflict here.

On for Fact's Sake this week we're taking a look back to some historical misinformation - Scotland's witch trials.

Ali and Paul speak to Dr Zoe Venditozzi, a writer and teacher who presents the Witches of Scotland podcast. She campaigns for posthumous pardons for those prosecuted for witchcraft in Scotland.

We spoke about Scotland's witch trials, how the persecution was led from the top, and the parallels between the 'fake news' that drove women to be persecuted then and today's moral panics.

Elsewhere on the pod, Ali looks at migration statistics, and we dig into 'detox' trends on social media.

Show notes:

• Listen to all the episodes of the excellent Witches of Scotland podcast here.
• Find out more about the campaign here.
• Logically Facts have written a piece about 'detox baths' here.