Never has it been so easy to connect with others, but political, cultural or other considerations shepherd us into spaces that privilege a narrow range of perspectives. Ninad Bondre combines commentary and interviews to offer an independent and critical take on contemporary issues in science, society, politics and economics. If you are straining to transcend your bubble or are simply curious to explore new perspectives, then this podcast is for you.
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Tuesday Jul 05, 2022
Tuesday Jul 05, 2022
Johan Farkas mapped post-truth discourses comprehensively and subjected them to a searching examination in his book with Jannick Schou. In this episode and the previous one, we touch upon the understanding of democracy that is implicit in the mainstream post-truth narrative, the predicament and role of journalism, social media and filter bubbles, the lessons of Covid-19 and a host of related issues.
Highlights
Regulating social media and big-tech
Role of the elites
How discourses influence politics
A critique of the information-deficit model
What Covid-19 tells us about science, truth and democracy
Links
See my article in The Philosophical Salon for links to many of the sources discussed in the episode.
Post-truth, Fake news and Democracy: Mapping the Politics of Falsehood. Johan Farkas and Jannick Schou. Routledge.
Tuesday Jul 05, 2022
Tuesday Jul 05, 2022
Johan Farkas mapped post-truth discourses comprehensively and subjected them to a searching examination in his book with Jannick Schou. In this episode and the one that follows, we touch upon the understanding of democracy that is implicit in the mainstream post-truth narrative, the predicament and role of journalism, social media and filter bubbles, the lessons of Covid-19 and a host of related issues.
Highlights
Democracy is not first and foremost about truth
The real crisis of liberal democracy
The predicament and role of journalism
Filter bubbles and echo chambers: real or metaphorical?
Misdiagnosis leads to the wrong remedy
Links
See my article in The Philosophical Salon for links to many of the sources discussed in the episode.
Post-truth, Fake news and Democracy: Mapping the Politics of Falsehood. Johan Farkas and Jannick Schou. Routledge.
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Wednesday Jun 29, 2022
Catherine Happer has sought to use her understanding of the sociology of the media to explore the post-truth narrative ever since it emerged. In this wide-ranging conversation, we discuss the role of journalism and academia in driving the narrative, the issue of public trust in the media, modes of media engagement, and much more.
Highlights
Public trust, journalism and the emergence of the post-truth story
Possible reasons for the uncritical adoption of the notion
Modes of media engagement, role of elites
Social media: past, present and future
Dangers of universalizing the US experience
Links
See my article in The Philosophical Salon for links to many of the sources discussed in the episode.
The post-truth crisis of mainstream media (Catherine Happer, Research in Sociology, University of Glasgow)
Monday Jun 27, 2022
Monday Jun 27, 2022
Kathrin Braun was amongst the first scholars to subject the notion of post-truth to critical scrutiny. In this conversation, we discuss how post-truth serves as an ordering device, what it tells us about the self-understanding of liberal elites, what was problematic about the March For Science movement and much more.
Highlights
Questioning the fact/value and other dichotomies
Problematizing the March for Science
Exploring the roots of the mainstream post-truth narrative
Links
See my article in The Philosophical Salon for links to many of the sources discussed in the episode.
Critical policy studies and the politics of post-truth politics (Kathrin Braun, Critical Policy Studies)
Unpacking post-truth (Kathrin Braun, Critical Policy Studies)
Saturday Jun 25, 2022
Saturday Jun 25, 2022
In mid-to-late 2016, an emerging narrative began to claim that we had entered a world in which truth no longer carried the weight and significance that it once did. This short episode presents a brief introduction to, and criticism of, the notion of post-truth. It serves as a useful background for the next three episodes, in which I interview three academics about various facets of post-truth.
Highlights
The mainstream take on post-truth
Problematizing the narrative
Critical takes
What now?
Links and additional information
Putting the brakes on the post-truth bandwagon
My article in The Philosophical Salon, with links to many of the sources discussed in the episode.
Oxford Dictionaries word of the year 2016
Many thanks to Laura Kökkö for encouraging me to take this step.
Cara Harrison put in a tremendous amount of research early on and was a source of great encouragement. Her feedback has been invaluable. Of course, her design of the logo is fantastic, as usual.
Thanks also are due to Ricardo Atienza for his generous help with, and tips regarding, editing.