Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds {signals} in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
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My guest today is Nina Jankowicz.
Nina Jankowicz is an internationally-recognized expert on disinformation and democratization and one of TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence.
Her debut book, How to Lose the Information War (Bloomsbury 2020), was named a New Statesman 2020 book of the year; The New Yorker called it “a persuasive new book on disinformation as a geopolitical strategy.” Her second book, How to Be A Woman Online (Bloomsbury 2022), an examination of online abuse and disinformation and tips for fighting back, was deemed “essential” by Publisher’s Weekly. She was recognized for her Distinguished Professional Contributions to Media Psychology and Technology in 2024 by Division 46 of the American Psychological Association.
Jankowicz’s expertise spans the public, private, and academic sectors. She is the co-founder and CEO of the American Sunlight Project, a bipartisan group increasing the cost of lies that undermine democracy. She has advised governments, international organizations, and tech companies; testified before the United States Congress and the UK, Canadian, and European Parliaments; and led accessible, actionable research about the effects of disinformation on women, minorities, democratic activists, and freedom of expression around the world.
In 2022, Jankowicz was appointed to lead the Disinformation Governance Board, an intra-agency best practices and coordination entity at the Department of Homeland Security; she resigned the position after a sustained disinformation campaign caused the Biden Administration to abandon the project. Between 2017-2022, Jankowicz held fellowships at the Wilson Center, where she was affiliated with the Kennan Institute and the Science and Technology Innovation Program. In 2016-17, she advised the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on disinformation and strategic communications under the auspices of a Fulbright-Clinton Public Policy Fellowship. Prior to her Fulbright grant, she managed democracy assistance programs to Russia and Belarus at the National Democratic Institute.
You can find her on Substack at:
You may have noticed that the quality of your digital life has been on the decline—in tandem with the ongoing attacks on (whatever’s left of) democratic function in the United States. It’s important to remember that this is not something that has simply happened, like the weather. These are systems that have been designed, albeit by many different people across many different industries (and with varying degrees of awareness). Key to all of it is the unholy marriage between algorithmic social media and those who exploit its features to foster division and consensus breakdown.
This is why disinformation remains a vital topic in 2025, even though the term itself doesn’t capture public attention the same way it did back in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Paradoxically, it’s actually far more pervasive in our lives now than it was before—especially given that these playbooks are now in the hands of state and private actors all around the world. And of course, now we have to account for the role generative AI plays as a force multiplier.
Thus, it felt like an important moment to stop back in with Nina to recap some key aspects of her past work and turn our eyes toward the present and future. What’s happening and what can we do about it? Watch/listen on!
Another episode you might like:
Nina Jankowicz: Why Disinformation Is Still a Critical Issue for Democracy | Urgent Futures #24
Welcome to the Urgent Futures podcast, the show that finds signal in the noise. Each week, I sit down with leading thinkers whose research, concepts, and questions clarify the chaos, from culture to the cosmos.
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CREDITS: This podcast is edited and produced by Adam Labrie and me, Jesse Damiani. Adam Labrie also directed, shot, and edited the video version of the podcast, which is available on YouTube. The podcast is presented by Reality Studies. If you appreciate the work I’m doing, please subscribe and share it with someone you think would enjoy it.
Find more episodes of Urgent Futures at: youtube.com/@UrgentFutures. Past conversations include Taylor Lorenz, Lisa Messeri, Legacy Russell, William E. Rees, Renée DiResta, and more. Here is another recent episode with author and critic
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