Misguided: The Podcast

In this episode of Misguided: The Podcast, I’m joined by Dr. Steve Rathje, who is a social psychology postdoc at NYU, and a soon-to-be assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Steve’s work sits at the intersection of psychology, social media, and artificial intelligence. Steve studies how platform design, attention, and emerging technologies shape political polarization, belief formation, and online behavior.
We begin by talking about Steve’s non-traditional path into psychology, which started in theater before turning into a research career focused on how people think, feel, and behave online. From there, we dig into some of his most influential work on social media, including why posts that target political outgroups are often the most likely to go viral, and what that reveals about algorithms that reward outrage, mockery, and conflict.
We then explore more hopeful findings from Steve’s research on unfollowing hyper-partisan influencers, showing how small, targeted changes to people’s information diets can reduce out-party hostility over time without requiring users to leave social media altogether.
Finally, we turn to AI chatbots and Steve’s recent experiments on “sycophancy”—when AI systems become overly agreeable. We discuss how affirming chatbots can quietly increase belief certainty and extremity while still being perceived as warm, competent, and unbiased, and what this means for confirmation bias, persuasion, and the future design of AI systems.
You can listen to the full episode here or using the links below. As always, if you find it useful, feel free to share it with someone who might benefit from the conversation.
Follow Sander on TikTok, Instagram, Bluesky or LinkedIn
Steve’s website with links to his research papers
Keywords: Steve Rathje, virality, AI chatbots, polarization, social media, psychology, science communication, TikTok
Misguided: The Podcast - Apple Podcasts
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Misguided - YouTube


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In this episode of Misguided: The Podcast, I’m joined by Sander van der Linden, who is a professor of social psychology at the University of Cambridge and one of the leading researchers studying misinformation, propaganda, and how people can build resistance to manipulation. If you’re familiar with the idea of “prebunking,” or psychological inoculation (training people to recognize misinformation before they encounter it), much of that work traces back to Sander’s research.
We begin by talking about his non-traditional path into psychology, from leaving a banking job to discovering research as a career, and how early experiences with being misled sparked a deeper interest in influence and propaganda. From there, we dig into what psychological inoculation actually is, why simply giving people facts often isn’t enough, and how tools like the Bad News game help people recognize manipulation techniques across political and cultural contexts.
We then zoom out to the broader information ecosystem, including the economics of fake social media accounts and how cheap it has become to spread inauthentic activity at scale, especially in an age of AI. Finally, we discuss what effective responses might look like, from education and platform responsibility to why Sander remains cautiously optimistic despite the very real challenges ahead.
You can listen to the full episode here or the links below. As always, if you find it useful, feel free to share it with someone who might benefit from the conversation.
Follow Sander on Bluesky or LinkedIn
Sander’s Book: Foolproof: Why We Fall for Misinformation and How to Build Immunity
Sander’s website.
Cambridge Online Trust and Safety Index
Keywords: Sander van der Linden, prebunking, media literacy, AI, fake accounts, foolproof, psychological inoculation, social media, psychology
Misguided: The Podcast - Apple Podcasts
Misguided: The Podcast | Podcast on Spotify
Misguided - YouTube


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In this episode of Misguided, I’m joined by Renee DiResta to talk about how she went from a winding career in tech, finance, and Silicon Valley startups to becoming one of the leading analysts of online influence. Renée traces the shift back to a personal moment: after having her first child in 2013, she noticed a concerning amount of anti-vaccine content across Facebook communities. She started quietly studying those communities and doing network analysis at night, work that eventually became her full-time focus.
We spend a lot of time on a core idea from her book Invisible Rulers “bespoke realities.” Renée argues that blaming everything on “the algorithm” misses what truly pulls people into false worlds. Algorithms may guide people toward certain groups, but it’s the communities themselves—identity, belonging, alternative experts, and self-contained information loops—that keep people inside and make outside institutions seem corrupt or irrelevant.
From there, we turn to AI. Renée sees chatbots and answer engines as the next major force in shaping reality. As more people skip searching and instead ask a preferred bot for the truth, the information battle moves upstream to the training and reference layer of the internet (especially Wikipedia). Influence those sources, and you can influence what AI confidently repeats back.
Finally, we talk about why scientific and medical institutions keep losing ground online. They’re limited by incentives, risk-averse cultures, and a decade-long “network debt” compared to misinformation influencers. Renée’s conclusion is direct: if institutions want to stay relevant, they need to show up where people actually are, build genuine relationships in communities, and treat communication as central to their mission, not a side task or liability.
Follow Renee on Threads
Follow Renee on Bluesky
Renee’s Book: Invisible Rulers
Renee’s articles mentioned during this episode:
For Expertise to Matter, Nonpartisan Institutions Need New Communications Strategies
Source Wars and Bespoke Realities: Wikipedia, Grokipedia, and The Battle for Truth
Free Speech Is Not the Same As Free Reach
Keywords: Renee DiResta, social networks, vaccine attitudes, AI, misinformation, AI chatbots, bespoke realities, invisible rulers
Misguided: The Podcast - Apple Podcasts
Misguided: The Podcast | Podcast on Spotify
Misguided - YouTube


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit matthewfacciani.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I talk with philosopher and author Andy Norman, founder of the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative and author of Mental Immunity. Andy shares how a provocative 1990s essay by Richard Dawkins sparked his lifelong pursuit to understand how bad ideas spread, and how we can protect our minds from them.
We unpack what it means to build mental immunity, why sketchy ideas behave like mind-viruses, and how habits of curiosity, humility, and self-reflection strengthen our cognitive defenses. Our conversation spans from the philosophy of reasoning to practical education reform, teaching students to “debug their minds,” recognize manipulation, and build communities of inquiry that value truth over tribalism.
Together we explore how critical thinking, critical ignoring, and cognitive germ theory can help us navigate today’s polluted information ecosystem, and why thinking is not only power, but freedom.
Do Minds Have Immune Systems? (article)
Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think (book)
Andy Norman’s site
CIRCE- The Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative (Institute)
Declaration of CIRCE’s Blue-Ribbon Panel (vision statement and call to action)
The Mental Immunity Project (educational resources for strengthening mental immune systems)
Keywords: Andy Norman, cognitive immunology, critical thinking, critical ignoring, education, mind viruses, inoculation, belief
Misguided: The Podcast - Apple Podcasts
Misguided: The Podcast | Podcast on Spotify
Misguided - YouTube


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In this episode, I talk with sociologist and author Barry Markovsky about his path into social science and his career studying science vs. pseudoscience. Barry shares lessons from his hit “Sociology of the Paranormal” class, previews his forthcoming book Everyday Extraordinary, which pairs front-stage stories with back-stage analysis, and explains how social networks and identity shape what we believe. We also talk about writing, AI’s effect on thinking, and finding a sense of wonder through science instead of the supernatural. I was fortunate to take several of Barry’s classes in graduate school, and he also served as an advisor on my master’s thesis, so it was very cool to have him on my podcast.
Barry’s forthcoming book: Everyday Extraordinary
Barry’s website
Keywords: Barry Markovsky, sociology, paranormal, critical thinking, education, pseudoscience, science, identity, belief
Misguided: The Podcast - Apple Podcasts
Misguided: The Podcast | Podcast on Spotify
Misguided - YouTube


This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit matthewfacciani.substack.com/subscribe