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Depolarization in the age of misinformation

Depolarization in the Age of Misinformation | Jonathan Rauch, David Blankenhorn & Ciaran O'Connor

Braver Angels has never been shy about engaging our nation’s most sensitive political issues. Last year, we held a public debate on the 2020 election exploring themes of voter fraud, voter suppression, and disagreements about the outcome. Recently, we hosted a podcast with a guest who claimed that the January 6th riots were incited by liberal activists working in collusion with the FBI.

After initially taking down the podcast for violating its terms on misinformation, YouTube reinstated the episode after reviewing it in the context of our larger mission. On this episode of the podcast, Ciaran O’Connor hosts David Blankenhorn, president of Braver Angels, and Jonathan Rauch, author of The Constitution of Knowledge, for a wide-ranging discussion on depolarization in the age of misinformation, bridge-building across the epistemological divide, and the Braver Angels approach to controversial content.

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People voting at booths.

AI is reshaping politics like social media did for Obama. From relational organizing to deepfakes, explore how technology will define the 2026 elections.

Getty Images, adamkaz

Who Will Be the First American Candidate To Harness AI

Social media has been a familiar, even mundane, part of life for nearly two decades. It can be easy to forget it was not always that way.

In 2008, social media was just emerging into the mainstream. Facebook reached 100 million users that summer. And a singular candidate was integrating social media into his political campaign: Barack Obama. His campaign’s use of social media was so bracingly innovative, so impactful, that it was viewed by journalist David Talbot and others as the strategy that enabled the first term Senator to win the White House.

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Paramount-WBD Deal: Antitrust, Consumers, and the Future of Media
a remote control sitting in front of a television
Photo by Pinho . on Unsplash

Paramount-WBD Deal: Antitrust, Consumers, and the Future of Media

After much speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) finally announced that the media giant is for sale. Given the company’s reach, there will be government hurdles to clear that, in part, will examine the many effects and implications for consumers. All points to be considered initially by Warner Bros. shareholders and its board.

Among the rumored suitors are Amazon, Netflix, Comcast, and Paramount Skydance—with the last one offering a more realistic, regulation-friendly path forward that also makes sense for a wide array of audiences.

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As AI reshapes jobs and politics, America faces a choice: resist automation or embrace innovation. The path to prosperity lies in AI literacy and adaptability.

Getty Images, Andriy Onufriyenko

You Can’t Save the American Dream by Freezing It in Time

“They gave your job to AI. They picked profit over people. That’s not going to happen when I’m in office. We’re going to tax companies that automate away your livelihood. We’re going to halt excessive use of AI. We’re going to make sure the American Dream isn’t outsourced to AI labs. Anyone who isn’t with us, anyone who is telling you that AI is the future, is ignoring the here and now — they’re making a choice to trade your livelihood for the so-called future. That’s a trade I’ll never make. There’s no negotiating away the value of a good job and strong communities.”

Persuasive, right? It’s some version of the stump speech we’re likely to hear in the lead up to the midterm elections that are just around the corner--in fact, they’re less than a year away. It’s a message that will resonate with Americans who have bounced from one economic crisis to the next — wondering when, if ever, they’ll be able to earn a good wage, pay their rent, and buy groceries without counting pennies as they walk down each aisle.

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