In an age where misinformation spreads faster than truth — and reality itself feels increasingly hard to define — how do information wars actually work?

In this episode, Brian is joined by Peter Pomerantsev, one of the world's leading thinkers on propaganda, disinformation, and political warfare. Peter is a journalist, author, and Senior Fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University where he co-directs the Arena Initiative. His work explores how modern power operates through narratives, identity, and emotional manipulation rather than facts alone.

We discuss how authoritarian regimes — and increasingly, decentralized digital ecosystems — use disinformation not to persuade, but to confuse, exhaust, and fragment societies. Drawing on Peter's books Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible, This Is Not Propaganda, and How to Win an Information War, this conversation traces the evolution of propaganda from Cold War radio operations to today's algorithm-driven reality distortion.

We also explore the unsettling ethical dilemma facing democracies today: Can open societies defend truth without resorting to the same manipulative tactics used against them?

In this conversation, we cover:

• How modern disinformation targets identity and belonging — not belief

• Why confusion and cynicism are often the real goals of propaganda

• Lessons from WWII "black propaganda" and their relevance today

• The limits of fact-checking and media literacy

• What actually works to defend democratic reality at scale

This is a wide-ranging discussion about power, psychology, technology, and the future of truth itself — and why the battle over information may be the defining conflict of our time.

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