The Active Measures Newsletter Podcast

Russia and Ukraine are fighting more than battles on Ukrainian soil, they are fighting a war for minds, and other governments are still playing catch-up. Thomas Kent of the American Foreign Policy Council explains how Ukraine turned a chaotic communications system into a wartime information powerhouse, appealed to Speaker Mike Johnson’s Baptist roots to unlock U.S. aid, and built an international campaign around kidnapped Ukrainian children to drive an International Criminal Court indictment against Putin and his children’s affairs commissioner. Kent explains why humor, truth, and a clear narrative can be just as powerful as military hardware when you’re trying to rally allies and sustain morale. On the other side, Russia’s most effective messaging may not be about "Nazis" or other false claims - it’s the darker, more persuasive message that Russia is unbeatable and that stopping it could trigger World War III. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also discuss DCI John Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow and mark the 100th episode of the podcast.
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AI disinformation is no longer just about deepfakes. It is now about poisoned search results, chatbot hallucinations, meme-driven propaganda, and a fast-growing economy built to exploit chaos. Sam Stockwell and Broderick McDonald from the Alan Turing Institute unpack the new playbook - and why the next information war may be won before the truth even has a chance to catch up. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also discuss evidence of Russian and American voices in the up-coming Alberta independence referendum as well as a new example of information laundering from the current war with Iran.
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TikTok is a potent tool for the Chinese Communist Party’s psychological warfare against the United States. In this conversation, the Hudson Institute’s Michael Sobolik highlights how TikTok's algorithm can shape public opinion in the U.S., particularly among younger audiences, and raises concerns about national security. The discussion also covers the potential for crisis scenarios where the CCP could manipulate information during conflicts, such as a hypothetical situation involving Taiwan. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also discuss other reporting about Russian actors trying to rhetorically divide Germany, again, while China has become active in exploiting the emerging divide over America’s future AI infrastructure.
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AI is already writing more than half of X’s helpful Community Notes, and that changes everything about who gets fact-checked, what gets fact-checked, and what happens when “the community” starts looking a lot more synthetic. Alexios Mantzarlis, co-founder of Indicator and a self-described “recovering fact checker,” breaks down the surprising rise of AI-written notes, why bots sometimes outperform humans, and the bigger danger hiding underneath the numbers: a moderation system that can look healthier on paper while quietly losing human participation, language diversity, and political coverage. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also unpack the recent migrant crisis in Ceuta, Spain, and increasing evidence of adversarial manipulation.
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Propaganda was foundational to America's independence, from the direct appeal of Thomas Paine’s Common Sense to the black-propaganda of Benjamin Franklin’s scalp hoax. Binghamton University Professor of History Robert Parkinson reveals the hidden power of newspapers, pamphlets, and even fake news in shaping independence. The patriots even consolidated early control over sources of news and information creating a strategic weapon that the British struggled to counter—a feature of the revolutionary era that might seem familiar today. Hosts Jim Ludes and Mark Jacobson also highlight the contemporary vulnerability of authoritarian regimes to information attacks and, relatedly, the cost of killing the Voice of America.
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