UnHerd with Freddie Sayers UnHerd

Following an explosive investigation into the Global Disinformation Index, viewed 8 million times on X/Twitter, UnHerd has been contacted by dozens of lawmakers and activists raising concerns about rating agencies like the GDI. In this update podcast, Freddie Sayers addresses government officials on the chilling effect of censorship and makes a case to defund the 'disinformation industry'.




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UnHerd's Flo Read meets Jonathan Haidt to discuss the dangers of modern technology for younger generations.
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Since 2012, youth mental health across the West has steadily declined. Jonathan Haidt is an American social psychologist, co-author of bestseller The Coddling of the American Mind and author of the new book The Anxious Generation. His theory is simple: the introduction of smartphones to children around 2011 accelerated the crisis of social media addiction. He joins UnHerd's Florence Read to discuss parenting, porn and the age of anxiety.


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The verdicts of “ratings agencies” such as the GDI, within the complex machinery that serves online ads, are a little-understood mechanism for controlling the media conversation. In UnHerd’s case, the GDI verdict means that we only received between 2% and 6% of the ad revenue normally expected for an audience of our size. Meanwhile, neatly demonstrating the arbitrariness and subjectivity of these judgements, Newsguard, a rival ratings agency, gives UnHerd a 92.5% trust rating, just ahead of the New York Times at 87.5%.
So, what are these “ratings agencies” that could be the difference between life and death for a media company? How does their influence work? And who funds them? The answers are concerning and raise serious questions about the freedom of the press and the viability of a functioning democracy in the internet age.


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Since October 7th, old divides between Right and Left on support for Israel were predictably resurfaced. Less expected, however, was a new civil war on the online Right. Compact founder and key figure in the so-called ‘New Right’ Sohrab Ahmari joined UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers to discuss it.
UnHerd's Freddie Sayers talks to Sohrab Ahmari

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Law Professor Randall Kennedy has taught at Harvard University for 40 years and written hundreds of thousands of words on race politics and the legal system. He is a vocal defender of affirmative action, so why this week did he write an essay about the 'resentment' caused by compulsory diversity statements? He spoke to UnHerd's Freddie Sayers about DEI, meritocracy and how good intentions so often turn into social coercion.
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UnHerd's Giles Fraser chats to author and historian Michael Taylor about his new book ‘Impossible Monsters’, and what the war between rationalism and religion have to tell us about our future...
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