How to Know What’s Real

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Now that the internet, social media, and AI are integrated into much of our lives, it’s easy to lose our grip on reality. In this season of How to Know What’s Real, co-hosts Megan Garber and Andrea Valdez explore the proliferation of misinformation and the rise of deepfakes and even illusions, hoping to understand what’s real and what’s not.

SEASON 6, EPISODE 1 TRAILER

Introducing: How to Know What's Real

What is “real life,” now that the internet and AI are integrated into so much that we do? In the new season of The Atlantic’s popular How To series, co-hosts Megan Garber and Andrea Valdez explore deepfakes, illusions, and misinformation, and how to make sense of where things are really happening. How to Know What’s Real examines how technology has altered our sense of connectedness and how to determine what is authentic and true. Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 min
EPISODE 1

How to Know What's Real: How to Know Who’s Real

Social media has made it easier to build more parasocial relationships with celebrities and influencers. What impact are those connections having on our relationships IRL? And how do they shift our understanding and expectations of intimacy and trust? Florida State University assistant professor Arienne Ferchaud defines parasocial relationships and discusses how new technologies are changing the role of entertainment in our lives. Music by Forever Sunset (“Spring Dance”), baegel (“Cyber Wham”), Etienne Roussel (“Twilight”), Dip Diet (“Sidelined”), Ben Elson (“Darkwave”), and Rob Smierciak (“Whistle”). Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

29 min
EPISODE 2

How to Know What's Real: How to Live in a Digital City

While the vibrance, innovation, and cacophony of online life can feel completely unlike anything humanity has ever created before, its newness isn’t wholly unprecedented. Humans reckoned with many similar challenges to life as they knew it while navigating a different kind of social web: the city. In this episode, Danah Boyd, a partner researcher at Microsoft Research and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Georgetown University, explains how the sociological work conducted during a time of rapid urbanization in the United States reveals a lot about human behavior and what we need to feel safe, secure, and inspired. Music by Forever Sunset (“Spring Dance”), baegel (“Cyber Wham”), Etienne Roussel (“Twilight”), Dip Diet (“Sidelined”), Ben Elson (“Darkwave”), and Rob Smierciak (“Whistle Jazz”). Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

28 min
EPISODE 3

How to Know What's Real: How to Trust Your Brain Online

This episode explores the web’s effects on our brains and how narrative, repetition, and even a focus on replaying memories can muddy our ability to separate fact from fiction. How do we come to believe the things we do? Why do conspiracy theories flourish? And how can we train our brains to recognize misinformation online? Lisa Fazio, an associate psychology professor at Vanderbilt University, explains how people process information and disinformation, and how to debunk and pre-bunk in ways that can help discern the real from the fake. Music by Forever Sunset (“Spring Dance”), baegel (“Cyber Wham”), Etienne Roussel (“Twilight”), Dip Diet (“Sidelined”), Ben Elson (“Darkwave”), and Rob Smierciak (“Whistle Jazz”). Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

33 min
EPISODE 4

How to Know What's Real: How to Keep Watch

With smartphones in our pockets and doorbell cameras cheaply available, our relationship with video as a form of proof is evolving. We often say “pics or it didn’t happen!”—but meanwhile, there’s been a rise in problematic imaging including deepfakes and surveillance systems, which often reinforce embedded gender and racial biases. So what is really being revealed with increased documentation of our lives? And what’s lost when privacy is diminished? In this episode of How to Know What’s Real, staff writer Megan Garber speaks with Deborah Raji, a Mozilla fellow, whose work is focused on algorithmic auditing and evaluation. In the past, Raji worked closely with the Algorithmic Justice League initiative to highlight bias in deployed AI products. Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com. Music by Forever Sunset (“Spring Dance”), baegel (“Cyber Wham”), Etienne Roussel (“Twilight”), Dip Diet (“Sidelined”), Ben Elson (“Darkwave”), and Rob Smierciak (“Whistle Jazz”). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

28 min
EPISODE 5

How to Know What's Real: How to Win at Real Life

Games can serve as an escape from reality—but they can also shape our understanding of trust, collaboration, and what might be possible IRL. Megan Garber talks with C. Thi Nguyen, an associate philosophy professor at the University of Utah, to better understand how games can help us safely explore our current reality and shape new realities, too. Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com. Music by Forever Sunset (“Spring Dance”), baegel (“Cyber Wham”), Etienne Roussel (“Twilight”), Dip Diet (“Sidelined”), Ben Elson (“Darkwave”), and Rob Smierciak (“Whistle Jazz”). How to Know What's Real is produced by Natalie Brennan. Our editors are Claudine Ebeid and Jocelyn Frank. Fact-check by Ena Alvarado. Our engineer is Rob Smierciak. The executive producer of audio is Claudine Ebeid, and the managing editor of audio is Andrea Valdez. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

32 min
EPISODE 6

How to Know What's Real: How to be Immortal Online

With digital spaces regularly evolving and updating, and the infinite scroll beckoning to us at all times, this episode questions if we have, as a culture, fully embraced the end of endings. Hanna Reichel, an associate professor of reformed theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, helps illuminate how the emergence of godlike AI and the rise of creator culture compare with the reformations and transformations through which people lived (and died) in the past. Write to us at howtopodcast@theatlantic.com. Music by Forever Sunset (“Spring Dance”), baegel (“Cyber Wham”), Etienne Roussel (“Twilight”), Dip Diet (“Sidelined”), Ben Elson (“Darkwave”), and Rob Smierciak (“Whistle Jazz”). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

37 min
EPISODE 7 BONUS

How to Know What's Real: How to Know What’s Really Propaganda

Peter Pomerantsev, a contributor at The Atlantic and author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, is an expert on the ways information can be manipulated. For this special episode, Megan talks with Peter about the role of propaganda in America and how to watch out for it. Looking for more great audio from The Atlantic? Check out Autocracy in America, hosted by Peter Pomerantsev and staff writer Anne Applebaum. Subscribe wherever you listen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

24 min

See All Season 6 (8)

4.2

out of 5

1,323 Ratings

So excellent!

Nov 2

Lone Resident

Absolutely spot on series. Puts out great questions and allows for balanced interactions to begin answering them. I wish the eps were longer but that’s just because I’m sad when they’re over.
Love the informative host chatter

Sep 23

PianogirlGHG

Love how the hosts balance nice banter with information in a smooth and thoughtful way :)
Pro Israel? Great.

Jul 1

.><

Responding to another reviewer: If you understand the truth of what’s REALLY going on, you will fully support Israel.
Exactly! What is real?

Sep 22

Mrsteevee

So after the debate debacle where ABC admitted to giving the Harris team sample questions ahead of time and agreeing to their demands without informing the Trump campaign-I am exhausted. And so is everyone else not involved in what y’all are calling journalism or reporting currently. We’ve reached a place where absolutely no one trusts the media. Right or left. The lies are on both sides but really seem to be the strongest coming from the left. I am an Indeoendent and free thinker. A student of history as well. What scares me the most is not just the blatant disinformation parroted by networks like MSNBC (the worst) but really its the casual non reporting of important events, facts and details that shape our opinions. And so now we get to your podcast supposedly telling us how to know what’s real. And I knows the Atlantic would be left leaning because well you are. But I know that so in turn I can form my opinions (pre-bunking I think you call it) in an educated way. However, when we got to the online episode (how does our brain know what’s real online) my brain finally figured out what’s real. While you talk of helping us wade through disinformation you are actually spoon feeding that very thing! If you truly want to be a light of truth in a world of bias and actual disinformation then you must do it in an ethical way. Use examples of both parties (or both sides to a story) instead of promoting (once again) your agenda. Do better Atlantic! Just label yourselves as what you are. Because to your point-uninformed and uneducated people will believe that you are speaking about How To know What’s Real and not the reality- Think What We Think. I’ll hand it to you, it took this informed and educated listener several episodes before the veil was lifted. I hope you care and I hope you make strides to change the direction of your podcast and in turn start to change the narrative around this topic. We’re tired, skeptical and deserve better.

Now that the internet, social media, and AI are integrated into much of our lives, it’s easy to lose our grip on reality. In this season of How to Know What’s Real, co-hosts Megan Garber and Andrea Valdez explore the proliferation of misinformation and the rise of deepfakes and even illusions, hoping to understand what’s real and what’s not.