The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast

The terminology we use to describe new phenomena matters.  On this week's podcast, defense intellectual Frank Hoffman reviews Chinese, Russian, European, and--to the extent there is any--American writings about 'cognitive warfare.' For the uninitiated--this runs the gamut from traditional tools of influence to novel technologies, including chemical and directed energy weapons that can "alter peoples’ brains and thought processes. . . .” Co-hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also discuss the latest news about CopyCop/Storm1516 and the latest recruiting ad for the 4th PsyOp Group.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

American social media is filled with high-strung posters, outrage-addicts, and partisan players.  It's a perfect avenue for amplifying division and most platforms let anyone play anonymously.  So it came as a shock to some this week when X turned on a new geolocation service and the overseas posting of active accounts--some with hundreds of thousands and even millions of followers--proved to originate from Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia.  In this special edition of the podcast, host Jim Ludes takes us back to 2017, when Russia's use of fake personas on social media first became obvious.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Naomi O’Leary, the Europe correspondent for The Irish Times, dives into the alarming tactics of Russian hybrid warfare, including incidents like severed pig heads outside French mosques. She details the recruitment of 'Telegram agents' for small-scale sabotage aimed at disrupting unity among Western states. The discussion spans various attacks across Europe, from arson to drone incursions, and highlights how these incidents are spun in Russian media to amplify narratives. O'Leary emphasizes the importance of investigative journalism amidst a U.S. media gap on these threats.

Journalists at Sky News created an elegant experiment to assess whether content on X in the United Kingdom had political bias. From a database of 90,000 posts created by 21,690 accounts collected over two weeks in May of 2025, they were able to observe ". . . a clear imbalance of content promoted on the platform, with right-wing voices dominating and the algorithm pushing posts to new users that don't align with their interests." Digital Investigations Journalists Kaitlin Tosh and Michelle Inez Simon join hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson to discuss their experiment and its findings.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Politico's Marion Solletty (Editor-at-Large, France) and Laura Kayali (Defense Correspondent) join hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson to discuss the "Red Hands" trial in France, reports of ties to Russian intelligence, and the broader context in which France finds itself as a "hot-spot in Russia's hybrid war against Europe."  The hosts also examine Shakespeare for lessons about irregular warfare and reports that Russia will spend less on defense but more on state-run information operations. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson speak with Poppy McPherson (Special Correspondent for Southeast Asia) and Karen Lema (Philippines Bureau Chief) of Reuters whose recent reporting showed Chinese government use of a local public relations firm in the Philippines to mount a pro-China/anti-U.S. influence campaign in the country. Mark and Jim also review some of the big stories from this week's newsletter including Suzanne Nossel's case that Americans have lost sight of what 'soft power' actually is; Peter Pomerantsev on how to fight Putin in an information war; rising temperatures in the hybrid war in Europe; and the deepfake attack on Ireland's election.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special edition of the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, host Mark Jacobson explores how the disinformation lessons of the past echo in the digital age. Drawing on Mark Twain’s reflections on Gutenberg’s printing press, Jacobson traces how revolutions in communication have spread both knowledge and deception, and asks whether artificial intelligence will bring us closer to enlightenment—or to a new kind of chaos. The full podcast will return next week.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on the Active Measures Newsletter Podcast, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson speak with Georgetown University's Renée DiResta about trends in technology, social media, and disinformation.  They also discuss some of the reporting in this week's newsletter, including the U.S. Army General using ChatGPT to make military decisions, Russia's continued use of information laundering, the tendency of some victims of malinformation to wear it like a badge of honor, and news that Facebook continues to monetize sanctioned Russian entities.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson welcome Erol Yayboke of CSIS and FilterLabs.AI for a conversation about the potential of agentic artificial intelligence to contribute to effective and even ethical offensive information operations.  They also review some of the top stories in this week's newsletter, including reporting from Rolling Stone about the Macedonian national who runs popular pro-MAGA accounts from Macedonia; a new study about social media and news consumption from the Pew Research Center; an essay in The Washington Post about foreign governments exploiting America's unilateral disarmament in the information-fight; and a plea by leaders of the BBC to fund their World Service like the national security asset it is.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Stephen Clermont, Head of Polling at Change Research and author of the 'Beyond the Fringe' report, dives into America's fascination with conspiracy theories rooted in institutional distrust. He reveals how paranoid narratives spread and profile who typically believes them. The conversation also touches on the historical context of American skepticism and the alarming role of technology in amplifying misinformation. Clermont suggests that enhancing transparency and civic literacy could counteract these harmful beliefs. A thought-provoking exploration!