

Interview with Dan Friesen from Knowledge Fight on Alex Jones, the Sandy Hook Trial, and conspiracy ecosystems
Policy Wonk Origins
- Dan Friesen's "policy wonk" segment arose from Alex Jones' misuse of the term.
- This and other unplanned segments became popular with listeners, like a teacher using "bright spots" with her class.
Balancing Negativity
- Knowledge Fight uses positive segments like "bright spots" to counter the negativity of Alex Jones' content.
- They aim to avoid fostering a community solely focused on hating Jones.
Epstein's Prescience?
- Dan Friesen challenges the idea of Alex Jones' prescience regarding Jeffrey Epstein.
- Friesen suggests Jones retroactively applied the Epstein label to earlier Satanic Panic coverage.
A special crossover episode (long anticipated- at least by us) with one-half of the Knowledge Fight podcast. Specifically, we have Dan Friesen on to enlighten us about all things Alex Jones, the recent trial with the Sandy Hook parents, and to compare notes regarding gurus and conspiracy theorists. Not to mention to give Chris the chance to demonstrate his inner fanboy!
Dan is a guy with an encyclopaedic knowledge of Alex Jones and some very astute insights into conspiracy psychology. In fact, Matt and Chris think he might be most accurately considered as something of a rogue anthropologist doing deep ethnographic observation of the InfoWars ecosystem. Dan, meanwhile, maintains he's just a guy! Either way, Dan and the Knowledge Fight podcast are definitely our kind of bag. We hope you too enjoy the conversation and there is plenty of Knowledge Fight episodes (700+) if this leaves you wanting more.
Also, in this episode, we discuss Sam Harris' recent online travails, Jordan Peterson's appearance on Lex, and at the end of the episode, Matt finally learns what the podcast is really about!
Links
- Knowledge Fight podcast
- Jordan's live-tweeting of the trial
- Alex Jone's trial highlight
- Knowledge Fight's post-trial review episode (712) with the Sandy Hook parents' trial lawyers
- Article on Knowledge Fight in the New York Times
- Dan & Jordan on CNN
- Article on that Paul Joseph Watson audio recording
- Jordan Peterson: Life, Death, Power, Fame, and Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #313
- Sam Harris' appearance on Triggernometry