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SYNOPSIS

Speaking to Dr. Ushma Upadhyay, Rachel and Dan dig into misinformation about abortion – who gets them, why they get them, and how they get them. You may be surprised by some of the answers. Dr. Upadhyay describes her research around abortion safety and abortion via telehealth. Rachel proposes the lens “Retraction” and Dan leans on an old favorite, “Personas”.

STORIES OF DISINFORMATION

Y2K hype

• The end of the world in Time
• Y2K Panic in Popular Mechanics

Fraud in Minnesota: A misinformation perfect storm

• Dave Weigel’s post on BlueSky 

 

INTERVIEW 

• Dr. Ushma Upadhyay 
• FDA directed to review the safety of mifepristone
• Mifepristone in the water

LENSES

⇒ Persona

Everyone makes assumptions about who participates, contributes to, or benefits from a system. Those assumptions are rarely challenged, and therefore become the source of or impetus for misinformation. This lens suggests unpacking assumptions is a crucial step in understanding the system.

• What are your assumptions about who is engaged with your system?
• What are your preconceived notions about who is involved?
• When you use labels to describe your users, does everyone agree on what those labels mean?

⇒ Retraction

Publishing in formal and professional venues includes the capability to correct or retract information published there. This is a crucial part of the process, as new information can change understanding. Moreover, mistakes and misinformation need to be marked as such. This lens invites you to look at the way in which your system supports retraction.

• What are the system’s built-in mechanisms that allow users to retract information?
• How is retracted information treated differently in the system?
• How does the system invite users to challenge information to kick off a retraction process?

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

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Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

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Synopsis

For the 10th episode of Unchecked, Rachel and Dan talk to Dr. Amelia B. Finaret, food economist and clinical dietitian about the state of nutrition misinformation. With the release of the latest dietary guidelines – some of which are not founded on sound nutrition science – we take a look at both the classic and newer myths around food. Dan uses the discussion to arrive at the lens of Making Hot Dogs and Rachel applies Diet Culture to our work as UX designers.

Stories

Robert Caro on Robert Moses

• Northern State Parkway (see section on 1929 compromise)

AI-Generated Disinformation in Europe

• Report for October 2025

Interview with Amelia Finaret

• Amelia Finaret
• Dr. Finaret’s book, Food Economics
• MyPlate.gov (today)
• MyPlate.gov (from Archive.org, at the time of recording)
• Dietary Guidelines published by US Government
• Healthy Hunger Free Kids Act
• What to Eat Now, by Marion Nestle
• Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
• American Diabetes Association recipes

Lenses

Diet Culture

• How does the system send signals about the user's "goodness" based on what they are consuming or acting on?
• How does the system reward “good” behavior and penalize “bad” behavior? 
• How does the system decide what is good or bad? Who gets to make that decision, whose world view is reflected in that framework?

Making Hot Dogs

• How does the system process original source material? 
• What role does it play in the "supply chain" of information?
• How recognizable is the original source material in the system’s content?

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

Send us a text

SYNOPSIS

Zanagee Artis, a climate advocate and educator with Natural Resources Defense Council, joins Rachel and Dan to talk about disinformation in arctic and coastal drilling. Zanagee describes the challenges of addressing disinformation when the time horizons of climate research spans decades. Inspired by this discussion, Rachel coins the lens of Time Feel. Dan, impressed by efforts to close the physical distance between policymakers and drilling in the arctic, suggests the lens of Distance.

STORIES OF DISINFORMATION

White House destruction photo

• Katie Harbath’s Substack

Black Death poem

• Centuries of Black Death misinformation started with a poem

INTERVIEW WITH ZANAGEE ARTIS

• Zanagee Artis
• A Kids Book About Climate Change
• Kimberly Miner’s study on alaskan arctic impacts
• Gwich’in people of Alaska
• Iñupiat people of Alaska
• Coastal Plain Caribou Alaska
• Taylor Oil Spill
• Radioactive waste water from fracking
• Oil and gas sponsoring community and social programs

LENSES

Distance

The gap between a personal context and the context of the information creates an opportunity for misinformation. (e.g. global warming isn't real when it's snowing in my town).

• How does the system help users bridge the gap between their personal context and other contexts?
• How is the information contained in the system distanced from the person consuming it? How does the system close the gap?
• How much does the system expect users to close the gap between themselves and the information?

Time Feel

In music, time feel is how the musician interprets time while playing. More than rhythm or beat, it’s how the music creates a feeling of time passing. 

• How does the system treat the passage of time?
• How does the system handle time horizons and the differing perceptions of speed?
• How does this thing support or not support the potential variations in time?
• What role does urgency play in the system?

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

Send us a text

CONTENT WARNING

This episode of Unchecked deals with the sensitive topic of gun violence.

SYNOPSIS

Nick Suplina, Senior VP for Law & Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety joins Rachel and Dan to talk about the long-standing and persistent disinformation campaign by the gun lobby. Nick highlights the main messages and techniques in use, and we explore the challenges of celebrating prevention. Rachel describes the Lens of Despair and Dan digs into the Lens of Status Quo.

STORIES OF DISINFORMATION

Did moldy bread cause the Salem witch trials?

• Debunking the moldy bread theory (Salem Witch Museum)

Pushing back against disinformation

• George Stephanopolous cuts off the VP (Rolling Stone)
• Airports refuse political video at TSA checkpoint (CNN)

INTERVIEW WITH NICK SUPLINA

• Everytown for Gun Safety
• About Red Flag laws (Everytown)
• Colorado’s new assault weapons ban (CBS News)
• 2022 Safer Communities Act (Wikipedia)

LENSES

Lens of Despair

• How does the system alleviate or exacerbate or manipulate the feeling that nothing can be improved?
• How does the system create a sense of hope?
• How does the system intentionally give agency to its users?

Lens of Status Quo

• What role does status quo play in this domain? What is this system’s role relative to the status quo?
• How does the system discourage users from questioning the status quo?

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

Send us a text

SYNOPSIS

Brandon Schauer from Rare, a conservation nonprofit, talks to Rachel and Dan about ways to modify behavior to help save the planet. Climate change and its solutions are often too big for an individual person to connect with, so Brandon has developed strategies to meet people where they are. These strategies short-circuit climate misinformation altogether.

STORIES

Banana propaganda

• Annalee Newitz’s book Stories Are Weapons 
• The 1954 Guatemalan Coup (Wikipedia)

NPS, the continuing saga

• National Park signage encourages the public to help erase negative stories at its sites
• National Parks Are Told to Delete Content That ‘Disparages Americans’
• This Is What Censorship Looks Like in a National Park: The First Park Sign That Came Down
• Park Service Is Ordered to Take Down Some Materials on Slavery and Tribes
• Trump moves to scrub national parks sites of signs that cast America in a 'negative light'

INTERVIEW

• Entities responsible for greenhouse gas emissions: By Country; 57 companies responsible for 80% of emissions
• Biden cites Will & Grace in endorsement of same-sex marriage
• Primetime in a warming world
• Hyperobjects is a term coined by British philosopher Timothy Morton in their book The Ecological Thought

LENSES

Social Awareness

Everyone can be part of a solution to large problems, and the ecosystem can help users understand how they may be connected to others.

• How does your system help people understand they are not alone?
• How does your system prioritize meaningful connection over gamified social metrics?

Hyperobjects

Based on the concept from Timothy Morton, hyperobjects are concepts that are so big they are difficult for people to understand them fully. Information ecosystems may be connected to or related to hyperobjects, introducing specific challenges.

• How does the structure of your system help users focus on the most relevant part of a large problem space?
• How does the structure of

_____________________________________________________

Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

Send a text

SYNOPSIS

Dr. Claire Wardle is a disinformation expert and communications professor at Cornell University. She joins Rachel and Dan to talk about the history of disinformation study, how new technology introduces new challenges, and about how the information ecosystem might change in the future. She offers insights into the psychology of disinformation. From the conversation, Rachel elaborates on the lens of Friction, and Dan talks about a lens he can only call “Middle of the night.” 

STORIES OF DISINFORMATION

The Propaganda of Hearst and Pulitzer

• The Spanish American War and the Yellow Press (Library of Congress)
• The Gilded Age (Wikipedia)

Bedlam and Squalor and Worse, Oh My

• Transcript of August 11 press conference (Roll Call)
• Trump exaggerates DC crime while ordering police take-over and National Guard deployment (Politifact)
• Trump’s DOJ claims credit for falling crime rate in DC (Justice.gov)

INTERVIEW

• Dr. Claire Wardle
• Australian drama series about the wellness industry: Apple Cider Vinegar
• Jim Acosta “interviews” LLM based on Parkland shooting victim
• Dr. Noc, social media science influencer, who may not be scruffy enough to be believed

LENSES

Friction

For designers, "friction" represents how much the experience intrudes on consuming information or completing tasks. Experiences increase the intrusion to discourage destructive actions (like deleting important information). Additionally, it is often said that lies are “low friction” and truth is “high friction”. That is, understanding and internalizing a lie is less cognitive demanding than doing so with the truth. 

• How does the system use friction to engage users’ critical thinking skills? 
• How does the system reduce the friction on high quality information?
• How does the system titrate the amount of friction in the experience relative to the quality of information?

Middle of the night

Users are most susceptible to disinformation when they are at their most vulnerable, like in the middle of the night with a health scare.

• How does the system support users who are agitated and vulnerable?
• How does the format of the information take into account a user who is agitated or vulnerable?
• How would the system fare if it catered to someone using it in an extreme s

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

Send us a text

SYNOPSIS
David Dylan Thomas joins Rachel and Dan to talk about cognitive biases. David explains the fundamental attribution error, the framing effect, and the confirmation bias. All of these contribute to a skewed perception in which a person’s misconceptions about the world can be reinforced or exploited. The conversation leads Rachel to suggest the lens of manipulation and Dan the lens of belonging.

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STORIES OF DISINFORMATION

Mary Toft

• Dan quotes from Mary Toft; or the Rabbit Queen, by Dexter Palmer
• The true story of Mary Toft, 18th century medical hoaxer (wikipedia)

AI Policy

• Directive to remove AI Safety from agreement on cooperative research  and development agreement (Wired)
• News story about executive order on woke AI (Wall Street Journal)
• The executive order to “prevent woke AI” (Whitehouse.gov)

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INTERVIEW WITH DAVID DYLAN THOMAS

• David Dylan Thomas
• Design for Cognitive Bias
• The Cognitive Bias Podcast
• Story from The Hill about Facebook algorithm
• White Meat, the movie

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LENSES

Manipulation

Content can manipulate a person’s hope and joy, and anger and fear, triggering a physiological reaction. But the content of a system is not solely responsible for this effect on users.

• What role does the ecosystem play in framing and presenting information in a way to garner an emotional response?
• How might someone use the system to elicit a powerful emotion?
• What emotions is the system trying to exploit?
• How does the system measure and/or classify information based on its level of physiological activation?

Belonging

The intent of disinformation is often to make someone feel like they belong to a community.

• What role does belonging play in the system?
• What aspects of the system (labeling, categorization) create a sense of belonging?
• How does the system take advantage of a person belonging to it?
• How does the system model users as information objects?
• What is the emotional component of the relationships represented in the information space?

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

Send us a text

SYNOPSIS
Dana Chisnell joins Dan and Rachel to talk about information in civic tech. Dana discusses her experience with voting systems, immigration, and homeland security. New executive orders on communicating about people directly affected Dana’s job. She explains her rationale for stepping down from her executive position. Rachel coins the lens “#influencers” and Dan describes the lens “Messaging.”

STORIES OF DISINFORMATION

The AIDS crisis

Dan’s son was in a musical called Falsettos and it brought back many memories about growing up in New York City in the 1970s and 1980s.

• AIDS denialism (Wikipedia)
• Panic, Paranoia, and Public Health – The AIDS Epidemic’s Lessons for Ebola (New England Journal of Medicine)
• Falsettos at Lincoln Center (YouTube)

Salmon fishing in the Pacific Northwest

Rachel notes a mainstream use of the term “misinformation” in, of all places, a local controversy over salmon fishing.

• Northwest Indigenous leaders recommit to alliance to bolster salmon recovery (Bellingham Herald)
• Bellingham’s SE Alaska salmon fleet threatened by lawsuits, misinformation (Cascadia Daily News) 

INTERVIEW WITH DANA CHISNELL

• Dana Chisnell
• Plain Language Makes a Difference When People Vote (Journal of User Experience)
• Resettling Afghan refugees (DOD archive)
• Executive Order 14035: Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce (Federal Register)
• Office of Homeland Security Statistics

LENSES

#Influencers

Information spaces rely on “elders” or authorities to give information merit. Designing a system needs to acknowledge that influencers have long been part of information spaces, even before they were digital.

• How does the system rely on influencers?
• How does the system enable influencers without giving them too much power?

Messaging

Microcontent in systems are meant to guide users and we’ve long focused on the the clarity and usability. In modern interconnected information environments even the smallest misunderstanding can snowball into full-fledged misinformation.

• How might microcopy spawn misinformation?
• What might people extrapolate from otherwise simple or harmless system messages?
• Ask yourself: What if someone posts this

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

Send a text

SYNOPSIS
Rachel and Dan talk to Dr. Adam Ratner, author of the new book Booster Shots, about the misinformation he encounters as a pediatric infectious disease specialist. We discuss the distinctions between vaccine hesitancy and being anti-vax, and how misinformation has an impact beyond individual healthcare. Dan uses the discussion to highlight a new “lens” called double-tagging, and Rachel is inspired to establish the lens “frenzy.”

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STORIES OF DISINFORMATION

The Fifth Column

Rachel describes how the US used the fictional threat of a “fifth column” to bolster their argument for Japanese internment camps.

• A Brief History of Japanese American Relocation During World War II (National Park Service)
• How a Public Media Campaign Led to Japanese Incarceration during WWII (GBH - American Experience)
• Of Spies and G-Men: How the U.S. Government Turned Japanese Americans into Enemies of the State (densho.org)

Reciprocal Tariffs

Dan highlights some of the more subtle and insidious misinformation about Trump’s tariffs.

• Trade deficits and truth deficits (Julian Sanchez)
• PBS interview of Justin Wolfers
• Jake Tapper interview of Ag secretary Rollins

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INTERVIEW WITH DR ADAM RATNER

• Dr. Adam Ratner
• Adam’s book: Booster Shots: The Urgent Lesson of Measles and the Uncertain Future of Children’s Health
• 2019 measles outbreak in New York City (New England Journal of Medicine)
• Brooklyn measles outbreak: How a glossy booklet spread anti-vaccine messages in Orthodox Jewish communities (NBC News)

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LENSES

Double-tagging

Seemingly innocuous labels can be turned into misinformation by applying them in a way that is technically accurate, but twists the meaning of the label. Tagging anti-vax information with the label “vaccines” is misleading, and undermines the integrity of the system.

• How might tags and classification schemes be co-opted to threaten the system’s integrity?
• How does the system’s classification scheme adapt to deal with neutral terms that have become loaded?

Frenzy

Information systems have a responsibility to help users understand what’s truly important and/or urgent. Systems must avoid contributing to the frenzy of information.

• How does the system help participants prioritize without causing a frenzy

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design

Send us a text

SYNOPSIS

Dan and Rachel talk with Cyd Harrell about the challenges of providing information to citizens that is accurate and accessible, even when it needs to be official and formal. Rachel discusses the Accuracy as a lens for evaluating information ecosystems. Dan explains the lens Accountability.

EPISODE CONTENTS

Stories of Disinformation

Dan describes misinformation from the Bush administration that provided the impetus for the US invasion of Iraq

• The Iraq Invasion 20 Years Later (Mother Jones)
• Lie by Lie: A Timeline of How We Got Into Iraq (Mother Jones)
• The Other "Big Lie" and Our Democratic Fragility (Harvard Kennedy School)

Rachel describes how the US National Park Rangers handle messaging guidelines from the Trump administration

Interview with Cyd Harrell

• Cyd's book, A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide

Lenses

Accuracy

It turns out accuracy is a spectrum, and sometimes information is "accurate enough" for the purposes of the people using it. At the same time, some domains require information that is precise, even when that isn't required by all users.

• How does the system define and uphold an acceptable threshold for accuracy? 
• How does the system ensure information is precise? 

Accountable

When information is held accountable, it is subjected to outside critique and validation. Perfectly closed systems prevent information from being scrutinized. But also, systems that appear open can be compromised.

• How does the system encourage sources to be accountable for their contributions? 
• How does the system enable outside criticism and give it equal weight to the original contributions?

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Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Personnel

• Dan Brown, Host
• Rachel Price, Host
• Emily Duncan, Editor

Music

• Turtle Up Fool, by Elliot

_____________________________________________________

Unchecked is a production of Curious Squid

Curious Squid is a digital design consulting firm specializing in information architecture, user experience, and product design