NCITE Insights

In the first episode of our new case study series, we're taking a look at the 2019 mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. The festival is hosted annually in the small town of Gilroy, CA, which boasts the unique reputation as the Garlic Capital of the World. Located 80 miles south of San Francisco, the town produces thousands of metric tons of garlic annually and attracts more than 80 thousand people to the festival every year — or it did, until 2019. 

In July 2019, a gunman opened fire on the final day of the celebration. Our guest is Amanda Moeller, Ph.D., a research associate here at NCITE specializing in the psychological and organizational processes behind terrorism, extremism, and mass violence.

In this case study series, we take a magnifying glass to the coding sheets and pull out a story from the extremism trends. This case study comes from NCITE's project, "Organizational Psychology of Homeland Threat Actors", led by Sam Hunter, Ph.D.: https://www.unomaha.edu/ncite/research/research-projects/hunter-dve-landscape.php

Recommended Research Articles

▶️ https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/ncitereportsresearch/163/

▶️ https://research-ebsco-com.leo.lib.unomaha.edu/c/6zkhh2/viewer/pdf/3nbcl2dq5v?route=details&link_origin=unomaha.primo.exlibrisgroup.com&sid=Primo

▶️ https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1057610X.2025.2550031

NCITE consortium member and I-O psychologist Anthony Roberson, Ph.D., speaks with NCITE criminology graduate students Callie Vitro (doctoral) and Camden Carmichael (masters) about their research into ISIS court cases in the U.S., their journeys to graduate work, and "balancing spinning plates". This episode was originally recorded in May 2026.

Tune in for a discussion with the editors of the De Gruyter Handbook of the Psychology of Terrorism (2026), Clark McCauley, Ph.D., Sophia Moskalenko, Ph.D., and Gina Ligon, Ph.D., on terrorist case studies, the value of understanding ideology, the two pyramids model of radicalization to terrorism, the power of music in shaping extreme identity, and more. The discussion is hosted by NCITE Project Manager Sara Vetter.

"It's very easy to be led astray by the stories that terrorists tell, but as psychologists we know that people don't often understand their own motivation. And then they have incentives to misrepresent to themselves and others." — Moskalenko

"I would say the biggest picture contribution of this volume to scholars and practitioners alike is the framing of the problem as an inter-group conflict problem, and not a problem of how these weird people got these weird ideas in their heads." — McCauley

Guests

NCITE consortium member and I-O psychologist Anthony Roberson, Ph.D., chats with NCITE I-O doctoral student Emma Theobald about her research into malevolent AI, her recent workshop with members of Congress, and her academic journey. 

"The thing that people don't get about fentanyl is that almost no one seeks fentanyl ... most people who use drugs are avoiding fentanyl like the plague."

NCITE Assistant Research Professor Alex Bruens, Ph.D., sits down with Jake Braun, member of the NCITE expert consortium and author of the new book, "Fentanyl: Fighting the Mass Poisoning of America and the Cartel Behind It." They discuss how the drug created a health crisis in the United States, the Mexican drug cartels (led by Sinaloa) developing the drug, the progress that has been made to combat its manufacture and dissemination, and what remains to be done to fight the health crisis. 

Braun is the executive director of the Cyber Policy Initiative at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. He is also the CEO of Cambridge Global Advisors and served in the White House for over seven years in several capacities, including as the Acting Principal Deputy National Cyber Director and White House Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. He holds an M.A. in both international relations and education and grew up in Omaha, NE. Inquiries regarding the book can be sent to [email protected]. 

Inquiries for Bruens can be sent to [email protected]. 

Following the attack on the Annunciation Catholic School Church in Minneapolis on Aug. 27, the term "nihilistic violent extremism" has been floated to describe the attacker's motives. Ben sits down with two NCITE research associates, doctoral students Brenna Helm (ABD) and Angie Benda, to discuss the new term and soft target protection. Visit our website for a comprehensive list of NCITE research related to NVE. 

On the latest episode of the podcast, NCITE doctoral student Callie Vitro hosts NCITE research associate Michael Becker, Ph.D. to discuss all things methods. They cover 1) how they source data, 2) how they process data, and 3) Becker's work on the NCITE geospatial technologies project. To check out the unique data request form generated by Becker and his team, see the YouTube version of this episode (20:23–42). 

Curious to learn more? Email Dr. Becker at [email protected] or NCITE at [email protected].

NOTE — At 3:15, it is the National Incident-Based "Reporting" System (NIBRS), not "Response".  

Ben sits down with Erin Kearns, Ph.D., NCITE director of law enforcement partnerships, and visiting scholar Adam Ghazi-Tehrani, Ph.D., associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Indiana University. The two discuss their research into the similarities and differences in 1) the scholarship on, 2) the public conceptualization of, and 3) the public attitudes toward punishment for terrorism, hate crimes, and other forms of mass violence. 

Ben sits down with two of the authors of a new NCITE report on malign case studies of AI: NCITE Senior Scientist Sam Hunter, Ph.D., and I-O psychology doctoral student Alexis D'Amato. They discuss malign use of specialized, unconstrained LLM's, AI-generated music, autonomous weapons systems (AWS), and more. Follow this link to read the full list of case studies: "Examining the Malign Use of AI: A Case Study Report" by Emma Theobald, Alexis d'Amato et al.

For more NCITE research on AI, check out the below articles: 

Erin sits down with NCITE Research Associates Bettina Rottweiler, Ph.D., and Brenna Helm, ABD, to discuss their burgeoning research on youth recruitment and mobilization to violent extremism. They touch on the rise of nihilistic violent extremism (NVE), populations that are especially at risk, and the environments that are leading young people to seek out extreme content.