Signal Fire

Peter Pomerantsev is one of the world's leading experts on propaganda, authoritarianism and information warfare. Born in Soviet Ukraine, his father was arrested for sharing banned books and exiled. Peter grew up studying how authoritarian governments control information and now researches political manipulation and disinformation at Johns Hopkins University.

Peter Thiel and Silicon Valley billionaires believe voters mess up democracy and their wealth proves they should be governing instead. Trump just made a deal giving Saudi Arabia what they wanted while the Saudis had billions invested in the Trump family business. And corruption is now merging with the US government at a scale that has never existed before in American history.

Jon and Lisa break down the Saudi Arabia deal, why billionaires like Peter Thiel want to replace democracy with themselves, and how Hungary shows exactly where this ends.

Both the supplement industry and big pharma profit from your fear. Dr. Nicholas Jackson is a PhD immunologist who built an audience on Instagram and TikTok by making complex science fun and accessible. In this episode he breaks down how to spot a fake doctor online, why fear drives sales on both sides of the health debate, and what red flags to look for before you trust anyone giving you health advice.

Follow Nick:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nick.immunologist/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@nick.immunologis

Carrie Scharbo spent years as an Emmy winning network TV anchor covering the darkest stories in the news. She became so desensitized to suffering that she stopped feeling anything. So she walked away and built something better. Now she sits down with Jon and Lisa to talk about how algorithms decide what news you see and what you never see, why social media is intentionally keeping Americans in separate realities, and what it means that understanding is now more scarce than information.

Trump increased his personal wealth by 2 billion dollars last year while running the federal government. He profited from crypto while his administration eliminated crypto regulation. Three Supreme Court justices voted against birthright citizenship even though the Constitution clearly allows it. And Trump is sending people back to Haiti while his own State Department has it listed at the highest danger level warning for Americans. Jon and Lisa break down how the Supreme Court just had one of its most consequential terms in years, why Trump's financial disclosures should alarm every American, and what is actually happening to the people being sent back to Haiti.

The president of the United States has 1500 nuclear weapons and the power to use them in under 28 minutes and most Americans have stopped thinking about that. Trump just walked away from the Iran war with nothing and called it a win. Iran kept its missiles, got billions of dollars, and now controls the Strait of Hormuz. Jon and Lisa sit down with Tom Nichols from The Atlantic and the US Naval War College to break down the Iran nuclear deal, what America actually lost, and why voters are treating the most dangerous job in the world like a TV show.

This week on Signal Fire, Lisa and Jon examine the aftermath of the Iran conflict and the agreement President Trump is calling a victory. They explore what the deal actually contains, what it means for American credibility abroad, and why allies may be rethinking their dependence on the United States.The conversation also explores the growing influence of billionaires and technology companies in global decision-making. From AI executives at the G7 to the increasing role of private wealth in public policy, they ask whether democratic governments are losing control to unelected power centers.Finally, they discuss corruption, accountability, and why periods of extreme concentration of wealth have historically sparked political backlash. The result is a wide-ranging discussion about power, sovereignty, and who really shapes the future.

Local news is dying and no one is replacing it. Newsrooms have shut down across the country. No one is sitting in on your city council meetings anymore. No one is filing public records requests on your school board. The platforms that filled that gap were built to spread the most engaging content, not the most accurate. Misinformation travels 70% farther than truth on social media and the people running these platforms are not going to fix it.

Jon and Lisa talk with Rachel Lobdell, founder of News Creator Corps, about why local news is collapsing, what independent creators are doing to fill the gap, and why your media diet is harder to control than you think.

Why do corporations pay no taxes? 88 of the biggest companies in America paid zero in federal taxes last year. Some got money back from the government. Tesla made $5 billion in profit and paid nothing. Pepsi and Yum Brands did the same thing. This is completely legal.

Jon and Lisa break down how companies avoid taxes by moving billions through Ireland, Malta and the Cayman Islands. They cover the SpaceX IPO and why everyday people are going to lose money on a $1.75 trillion company that has never turned a profit. They get into the housing crisis and why working people keep getting blamed for problems created by the ultra wealthy.

Katherine Stewart has spent 17 years going inside the rooms where the movement to dismantle American democracy operates. Her newest book Money Lies and God documents the machinery, the money, and the people behind it. And she says it is further along than most people realize.

Christian nationalism is not a religion. It is an anti-democratic political ideology that exploits faith for power. It has a billionaire funded legal machine, voter turnout operations, dark money networks, and a disinformation infrastructure that has been building for decades. And it is now operating at the highest levels of the American government.

Katherine breaks down who is funding it, why rank and file believers are being used to advance an agenda that works against their own economic interests, why the Supreme Court is not a firewall against authoritarianism, and how public schools became a deliberate target for the movement.

This is not a conversation about religion. It is a conversation about power, money, and the deliberate dismantling of American democracy.