Episodios
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There's only a week to go until the election, and things are hotting up!
On this Election Cast, Ali and Paul delve into:
The Scottish Labour manifestoNigel Farage's promise to leave the World Economic Forum (spoiler: we aren't a member).Why Keir Starmer and Jimmy Savile are being linked onlineThanks everyone for listening!
Credits:
Written and presented by Ali Brian and Paul Dobson
Produced by Halina Rifai
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For this week's election cast, Ali and Paul are looking into the claims which are impacting the campaign over the last seven days.
Did the Scottish Government underspend its EU funding? Are there more people arriving in the UK than ever?How are Scottish chickens being caught up in the culture war?The answers to these questions lie within.
Credits:
Written and presented by Ali Brian and Paul Dobson
Produced by Halina Rifai
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The For Fact's Sake Election Cast is here! It's our special weekly election podcast, looking at the misinformation, conspiracies and culture war flashpoints that are impacting the campaign.
For the first episode, Ali and Paul are looking at why the SNP were accused of misinformation for a claim about North Sea jobs.
We also tackle the conspiracy theories that have been connected to protests against low emissions zones (LEZ) in Scotland, and delve into the controversy aroound Rishi Sunak's claim that every working family would be £2,000 worse off under Labour's plans.
Credits:
Written and presented by Ali Brian and Paul Dobson
Produced by Halina Rifai
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The election is upon us, and the For Fact's Sake podcast is back!
Starting tomorrow, Ali and Paul will be hosting a weekly show until the election comes, covering fact checks, investigations and everything The Ferret is doing over the election period.
We’ll be explaining the conspiracies and culture war wedge issues that are impacting the political conversation, and revealing who is using their money and influence to sway voters in Scotland and the UK.
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It's the final episode of our three-part For Fact's Sake series on elections.
This week, we are looking at the biggest vote taking place in this election year: India.
Ali and Paul spoke to Jency Jacob, the managing editor of BOOM, a fact checking organisation based in India and also covering Myanmar and Bangladesh.
He explained the difficulties of fact-checking in an election that covers a billion potential voters, and the types of misinformation that voters in India encounter.
We also have the second of our Conspiracy Dictionary segment, where Ali and Paul discuss chemtrails.
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It's part two of our mini series on the election year.
In this episode we spoke to Tori Marland, from Logically Facts, about the potential trends in disinformation that we will likely see in the election campaign in the UK.
And in our new 'Truth Tracker' segment, we discuss what is really known about Kate Middleton amid the controversy around her health and whereabouts.
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For Fact's Sake is back for a brand new series, kicking off with a special three-part look at the impact of misinformation on the upcoming elections this year.
In the first episode, we spoke to Polly Curtis from think tank Demos about how AI could affect the general election, and democracy more widely.
Demos has recently produced a report on the potential of AI to alter democracy.
We also launched our newest feature, the Conspiracy Dictionary, with a look at the World Economic Forum (WEF)
Show notes:
Demos' report into AI impacts is here. Follow Polly Curtis on X here.More information on conspiracies surrounding the World Economic Forum and the Great Reset here.
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It's the final For Fact's Sake podcast of the year, and we're focusing on the conflict in Gaza, where among the thousands of civilian deaths, scores of journalists have been killed.
We speak to Fiona O'Brien from Reporters Without Borders about why so many journalists have been part of the tragic human toll of the Israeli attack on Gaza, and whether journalists in the area are being targeted by the military.
She also explains how the killing of journalists in the region amplifies misinformation and inaccurate state narrratives about the war.
Show notes:
Reporters without Borders' work in Gaza can be seen here.Listen to our last podcast on misinformation in the conflict here.
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On for Fact's Sake this week we're taking a look back to some historical misinformation - Scotland's witch trials.
Ali and Paul speak to Dr Zoe Venditozzi, a writer and teacher who presents the Witches of Scotland podcast. She campaigns for posthumous pardons for those prosecuted for witchcraft in Scotland.
We spoke about Scotland's witch trials, how the persecution was led from the top, and the parallels between the 'fake news' that drove women to be persecuted then and today's moral panics.
Elsewhere on the pod, Ali looks at migration statistics, and we dig into 'detox' trends on social media.
Show notes:
Listen to all the episodes of the excellent Witches of Scotland podcast here. Find out more about the campaign here. Logically Facts have written a piece about 'detox baths' here.
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On this week's edition of the For Fact's Sake podcast, Ali and Paul talk to Dr Ian Cawood from the University of Stirling about the long history of political sleaze in the UK.
Ian explains the parallels between corruption in the early 19th century and today, how the Covid-19 pandemic sharpened the focus on scandal, and whether there is a higher bar for politicians losing their jobs than before.
Elsewhere on the pod, Ali and Paul discuss the Rwanda migration plan and controversy over a cuddly octopus toy on University Challenge.
Show notes:
Dr Ian Cawood's piece in The Conversation about the history of sleaze can be found here: https://theconversation.com/a-history-of-british-political-sleaze-and-why-we-should-worry-about-the-johnson-government-160304
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Populist leaders are gaining prominence across the globe, and Argentina is no different.
Javier Milei, a self-described "anarcho-capitalist" who gained fame as a staple on Argentinian TV, is set to face-off against Peronist candidate Sergio Massa on November 19.
He is an avowed admirer of Donald Trump, has been supported by Brazilian former president Jair Bolsonaro, and has used misinformation and wild claims to propel himself to the precipice of power.
We spoke to Olivia Sohr from Argentinian fact-checkers Chequeado about his rise to power, his use of right-wing tropes, and how misinformation has helped to define the current election.
Also on this week's pod, Ali and Paul discuss the Scottish Government WhatsApp controversy, and unpick the myth that alcohol warms you up.
Show notes:
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On For Fact's Sake this week, we are looking at the role of fact-checking in the Israel-Gaza conflict.
Ali spoke to Lucy Swinnen, who is an editor at Bellingcat, which is using publicly available videos, images and data to tackle some of the propaganda and disinformation swirling around since October's escalation.
But with so many people online now using publicly available footage to attempt to debunk narratives in the conflict, is there a danger that open-source investigation can be used to mislead?
Elsewhere on the podcast, Ali and Paul look at Margaret Thatcher's alleged views on independence, and the disinformation spreading alongside bedbugs in France.
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On episode 19 of For Fact’s Sake, Paul talked to freelance journalist Sian Norris about her work exposing disinformation around abortion and reproductive rights.
Sian explained the growing threat to abortion rights around the world, how anti-abortion rhetoric can act as a ‘gateway drug’ into far-right and conspiracy views, and the pipeline that carries fringe views about reproductive rights from online spaces to the halls of power.
Elsewhere, Ali explains why a recording of Keir Starmer from the Labour Party conference is almost certainly fake, and on Paul’s Curiosity Corner the boys discuss claims that the Covid-19 vaccine was going to turn millions of Americans into zombies.
Show notes:
You can read more of Sian Norris’ investigations on abortion and disinformation here and here
She is also the author of Bodies Under Siege: How the Far-Right Attack on Reproductive Rights Went Global
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On this week’s edition of For Fact’s Sake, Ali and Paul talked to Daniel Jolley from the University of Nottingham about how experiencing workplace bullying can make people more likely to believe in conspiracy theories.
Daniel explained what psychologists consider conspiracy beliefs, the psychological impacts of bullying that can make people more prone to them, and why conspiracy theories are damaging to individuals as well as society at large.
Elsewhere, the boys discussed the ban on XL bully dogs, and looked at Rishi Sunak’s wild claim that Brits will soon need to have seven bins.
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On this week's podcast we are talking online scams. Things have moved on from the generous Nigerian Prince offering to share his fortune with you, now there are lots of different ways that scammers can separate you from your money.
Ali spoke to Professor Oli Buckley, cyber security expert at the University of East Anglia, about the state of scams today, and how artificial intelligence is used by scammers to play on your deepest fears and anxieties.
Elsewhere on the podcast, Ali and Paul look at a Scottish Labour claim on child poverty, and examine the Tiktok phenomenom of mouth taping.
Show notes:
Oli Buckley has written about scams and AI here. Our child poverty fact check is here
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An independent film released in the UK this week has taken the US box office by storm, but has run into controversy.
Sound of Freedom is the story of anti-child trafficking campaigner Tim Ballard, who founded charity Operation Underground Railroad (OUR).
But the credibility of the claims made by Ballard and the organisation he once led have been called into question, and troubling links have been unearthed with conspiracy theories perpetuated by the US far-right.
Vice News journalists Anna Merlan and Tim Marchman have been digging into the facts behind Ballard and OUR for a number of years, and explained to Ali and Paul what is going on.
Elsewhere on the podcast, we explain why Ferret Fact Service fact-checked a video about Patrick Harvie, and Ali's credibility is tested in an impromptu quiz.
Show notes:
Anna and Tim's work on OUR and Tim Ballard can be found here.Our fact check on the Patrick Harvie video is here.
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As the World Cup reaches its climax, For Fact's Sake podcast looks at the abuse that some women footballers face online.
We spoke to Dr Beth Fielding-Lloyd from Sheffield Hallam University, an expert on women's sport and its representations in media.
She explained how abuse suffered by women footballers differs from men, how certain 'trigger' events can lead to misogynistic pile-ons, and why myths and misinformation about women's sport stoke the hateful abuse that athletes and pundits face.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Ali and Paul look at a dodgy claim about the education attainmemt gap in Scotland, and have a look at some myths about dieting and exercise.
Show notes:
Dr Fielding-Lloyd's research on 'trigger events' that lead to pile-ons of gendered online abuse is here.Our fact check on the attainment gap is here.
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After our fact-checking series, Scotland and the Climate Crisis, came to an end, Ali and Paul spoke to climate systems expert Professor Gabi Hegerl from the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh Climate Change Institute.
She explained how the climate is already being impacted by human-caused climate change, and how we can tell that the current impacts on the world are directly attributable to greenhouse gases pumped out by human activity.
Then, in Paul's Curiosity Corner, we looked at the controversy over the Ultra Low Emissions Zone in London, and how some of the opposition has been hijacked by conspiracy theorists.
Show notes:
Professor Hegerl's University of Edinburgh research page.Our Scotland and the Climate Crisis work is here.
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This week, The Ferret has been separating fact from fiction around climate change in our series, Scotland and the Climate Crisis.
But false narratives are being pushed on social and more traditional media everyday, with hashtags like #ClimateScam being used on thousands of posts promoting climate denial and junk science.
With the consequences of climate chage becoming more apparent, why is climate change scepticism so popular, and is it even increasing?
We asked Mikey Biddlestone, a researcher from University College London, about how climate conspiracy beliefs develop, and why they might even be more likely as the effects of climate change become more obvious.
Show notes:
Mikey Biddlestone's Twitter is here. His article in The Conversation on how to combat climate misinformation is here. Check out the rest of Scotland and the Climate Crisis here.
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Images and videos of the unrest in France have dominated international news in recent weeks.
But many of the claims shared on social media about the protest have been false and deliberately misleading.
Ali and Paul spoke to Sam Doak, fact checker at Logically Facts, about how and why this disinformation is being spread by far-right activists in the UK.
Elsewhere on the For Fact's Sake podcast, Ali fact checks Mhairi Black MP, who has announced she will stand down, and we look into whether Orkney really wants to join Norway.
Show notes:
Logically's fact checking on the French unrest is here.Our Mhairi Black fact check is here.More information on Orkney exploring a new home here.
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