Unspun

Latest Episodes:

Episode 11: Open secrets: FOIA and other ways to get information from the government. (feat: Katie Anthony and AltFDA) Jan 23, 2024

Show notes

Every fact can matter, but you wouldn’t know it from the way some newsmakers act. It’s tempting to ignore facts that don’t support what you want to believe, but that’s a logic crime called cherry picking. Dr. Sturg goes through several examples. Then she and then she and American Oversight’s Katie Anthony talk about how FOIA and other records laws can help keep the government accountable. Your taxes pay for the data that the government keeps, and knowing what goes on can help everyone to save democracy. Finally, while a FOIA request about FDA information can take many months to get answered, an anonymous Twitter account can apparently get an answer straight from the top. AltFDA talks about a time when that happened related to concerns about inspections at a facility that makes a lot of a generic painkiller that’s probably in your medicine cabinet right now.

Guests

Follow American Oversight

@weareoversight

@alt_fda

Follow Dr. Sturg

Twitter -Prof. Amanda Sturgill (@DrSturg) / X
Websites -Sturg says|Unspun’s Substack

Questions and Tips

TheUnspunPodcast@gmail.com

Dr. Sturg’s Books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We are #AltGov

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Is polling dead? (feat. Ken Fernandez) Jan 09, 2024

Show notes

Do high-profile debates truly shift opinions or votes? On this episode, Dr. Sturg gets into the studies to see if debates produce real changes. From Kennedy-Nixon to Romney-Obama, she looks at famous debates and explores what the research says about impacts on voters.

She also looks the logical flaw of hasty generalization, using debate slip-ups as case studies. See how speakers and listeners both frequently overgeneralize from single examples.

Plus, she talks about polling with political scientist, Dr. Ken Fernandez. Can polls be trusted after 2016? We separate polling facts from fiction on topics like margin of error. Ken shares his insider take on how campaigns use polls and why solid polling matters for a functioning democracy.

Find out whether debates live up to the hype. Learn how to catch hasty generalizations. Get an expert take on improving polling for future elections. Get UnSpun.

Follow Ken

Twitter

Follow Dr. Sturg

Twitter - Prof. Amanda Sturgill (@DrSturg) / X
Websites - Sturg says | Unspun’s Substack

Questions and Tips

TheUnspunPodcast@gmail.com

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538141045/Detecting-Deception-Tools-to-Fight-Fake-News

We are #AltGov

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538162095/We-Are-#ALTGOV-Social-Media-Resistance-from-the-Inside

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Dealing with difficult people (Aunt Gladys rides again) Dec 26, 2023

Show notes

It's the holidays, and that means visits with those challenging relatives and chance encounters when you travel. In this episode, Dr. Sturg reviews some ideas from communication studies about how to have productive conversations with people you disagree with.

Why do grown adult politicians call other people mean names? Personal attacks are designed to make you trust the other person less, and they are deceptive. In this episode of UnSpun, learn about how those attacks work, and how a little laughter can make politics easier to take, as Dr. Sturg and Canadian comedy influencer Brittlestar talk about the power of comedy in news.

Send us your questions and comments at theunspunpodcast@gmail.com and don't forget to like and subscribe!

Follow Dr. Sturg

Twitter - Prof. Amanda Sturgill (@DrSturg) / X
Website - Sturg says

The Book - We are #AltGov
https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538162095/We-Are-#ALTGOV-Social-Media-Resistance-from-the-Inside

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The Fabled First Amendment Dec 12, 2023

Show notes

Free speech is on the menu this week as guest Israel Balderas and Dr. Sturg talk about the First Amendment and the ways newsmakers misrepresent it. The first word is Congress, and that word matters a lot in what it does and doesn't mean. Plus! Listener questions and the wild story of the time the ACLU and the New York Times defended the rights of American Nazi wannabes.

Follow Israel Balderas

https://www.elon.edu/u/directory/profile/?user=ibalderas

https://twitter.com/jisraelbalderas

https://www.youtube.com/israelbalderas

Follow Dr. Sturg

https://twitter.com/DrSturg

https://www.instagram.com/drsturgill/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandasturgill/

Check out my books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We Are #AltGov; Inside the Social Media Resistance

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Trending science: From Labs to Likes (feat. Dr. Ben Rein) Nov 28, 2023

Show notes

People rely on some bad cues for how to make choices, and sometimes newsmakers don't help. In this episode, learn why "we've always done it this way" can be a bad thing. Then, Dr. Sturg talks with Dr. Ben Rein, a neuroscientist and social media star who myth busts and explains science for everyone.

Follow Dr. Ben Rein

https://www.benrein.com

https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.brein?lang=en

https://www.instagram.com/doctor.brein/?hl=en

https://twitter.com/dr_brein

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCn3KN9-HZ0y_kgZWlkhOPtQ

https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=xjXaTY4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao

Follow Dr. Sturg

https://twitter.com/DrSturg

https://www.instagram.com/drsturgill/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandasturgill/

Check out my books

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

We Are #AltGov; Inside the Social Media Resistance

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What are you so afraid of (feat. Seth Norrholm) Oct 31, 2023

Show notes

"Nothing happened" doesn't make for much of a headline, and newsmakers know it. When they want to get your attention or get you to do something, sometimes they deliberately use fear. Dr. Sturg talks about how how the powerful use fear deceptively to keep their followers engaged.

Then, she and Dr. Seth Norrhom, a psychiatry professor and fear researcher, discuss how your brain interacts with the news that you get, both from media and from social media.

Follow Dr. Norrholm:

On Slate.com

Seth Norrholm on Twitter

Follow Dr. Sturg

Twitter - Prof. Amanda Sturgill (@DrSturg) / X
Websites - Sturg says | Unspun’s Substack

Questions and Tips

TheUnspunPodcast@gmail.com

We are #AltGov

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538162095/We-Are-#ALTGOV-Social-Media-Resistance-from-the-Inside

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

https://www.amazon.com/Detecting-Deception-Tools-Fight-Fake/dp/1538141027

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Who's watching the watchers? (feat. William Moner) Oct 17, 2023

Show notes

What about what HE did? If there’s one thing politicians love, it’s calling an opponent a hypocrite. But two things can both be bad. In this episode of UnSpun, see how newsmakers try to distract from their own bad deeds by pointing out problems with others. Then, Dr. Sturg talks with analytics expert William Moner about how and why companies track your online behavior and what they do with that data.

Follow William:

William on Twitter

Follow Dr. Sturg

Twitter - Prof. Amanda Sturgill (@DrSturg) / X
Websites - Sturg says | Unspun’s Substack

Questions and Tips

TheUnspunPodcast@gmail.com

We are #AltGov

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538162095/We-Are-#ALTGOV-Social-Media-Resistance-from-the-Inside

Detecting Deception: Tools to Fight Fake News

https://www.amazon.com/Detecting-Deception-Tools-Fight-Fake/dp/1538141027

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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The last straw, man (feat. Brooke Binkowski) Oct 03, 2023

Show notes

What do deceptive people do when they don’t have a good argument? They make things up and act like someone else said them. In this episode of UnSpun, see how people put words in someone else’s mouth and try to debate them. Hear counter disinformation journalist Brooke Binkowski explain how people click themselves into their own conspiracy theories and and how leaders use disinformation to seed ideas that they then pretend came from the public .

Follow Brooke:

TruthorFiction.com

Brooke on Twitter

Brooke on Blue Sky

Follow Dr. Sturg

Twitter - Prof. Amanda Sturgill (@DrSturg) / X
Websites - Sturg says | Unspun’s Substack

Questions and Tips

TheUnspunPodcast@gmail.com

We are #AltGov

https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538162095/We-Are-#ALTGOV-Social-Media-Resistance-from-the-Inside

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Privacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Funny Thing About Politics (feat. Brittlestar) Sep 19, 2023