In 1938, Orson Welles’ Halloween broadcast supposedly sent America into mass hysteria over a fake Martian invasion. But the truth? Almost nobody panicked. Newspapers invented the frenzy to make radio look dangerous—because radio was stealing their audience and ad revenue.

This episode of The Hot Cut peels back the layers of the first modern media psyop: how a harmless radio play became a national myth, how a young Welles went viral before “viral” existed, and how his rise and fall mirrored the very system he exposed. From H. G. Wells to Citizen Kane, from headlines to algorithms, this is the story of how panic became a product—and how empathy became the packaging.

Eighty-six years later, we’re still running from shadows cast by the screen.

👉 Listen to the companion radio play featurette, “War of the Worlds: The Alien Psyop,” a reimagined dramatization of the 1938 broadcast.

Read the full essay here.

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