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This week on the show, BJ is joined by Nina Jancowitz, the former executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board of the United States. Meanwhile, Rosie and Amanda talk about disinformation and all the different ways there are to spot it in the wild. This is going to be a must listen. Learn more by visiting us at https://www.stupidsexyprivacy.com
Creators and Guests
Host
Host
Rosie Tran
Rosie Tran is one of the fastest rising stars in the entertainment business! Originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, she moved to Hollywood to pursue her career as a professional entertainer. The stand up comedian, writer, podcast personality, and actress has toured internationally, at comedy clubs, colleges, and overseas for the USO in Europe and the Middle East.
Editor
Andrew
I am the Editor of all things on the Stupid Sexy Privacy Podcast.
What is Stupid Sexy Privacy?
Stupid Sexy Privacy is a miniseries about how to protect yourself from fascists and weirdos. Your host is comedian Rosie Tran, and the show is written by information privacy expert B.J. Mendelson. Every episode is sponsored by our friends at DuckDuckGo. Tune in every Thursday night —or Friday morning if you're nasty — at 12 am EST to catch the next episode.
DuckDuckGo Commercial #2
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Announcer: Wow, that's not funny. Now I'm definitely switching to DuckDuckGo.
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DuckDuckGo is built for data protection, not data collection. That's why it's used by millions to search and browse online. Don't wait. Download the free DuckDuckGo browser today. Visit DuckDuckGo.com or wherever you get your apps.---
Stupid Sexy Privacy Intro
Rosie: Welcome to another edition of Stupid Sexy Privacy.
Andrew: A podcast miniseries sponsored by our friends at DuckDuckGo.
Rosie: I’m your host, Rosie Tran.
You may have seen me on Rosie Tran Presents, which is now available on Amazon Prime.
Andrew: And I’m your co-producer, Andrew VanVoorhis. With us, as always, is Bonzo the Snow Monkey.
Bonzo: Monkey sound!
Rosie: I’m pretty sure that’s not what a Japanese Macaque sounds like.
Andrew: Oh it’s not. Not even close.
Rosie: Let’s hope there aren’t any zooologists listening.
Bonzo: Monkey Sound!
Rosie: Ok. I’m ALSO pretty sure that’s not what a Snow Monkey sounds like.
*Clear hers throat*
Rosie: Over the course of this miniseries, we’re going to offer you short, actionable tips to protect your data, your privacy, and yourself from fascists and weirdos.
These tips were sourced by our fearless leader — he really hates when we call him that — BJ Mendelson.
Episodes 1 through 33 were written a couple of years ago.
But since a lot of that advice is still relevant, we thought it would be worth sharing again for those who missed it.
Andrew: And if you have heard these episodes before, you should know we’ve gone back and updated a bunch of them.
Even adding some brand new interviews and privacy tips along the way.
Rosie: That’s right. So before we get into today’s episode, make sure you visit StupidSexyPrivacy.com and subscribe to our newsletter.
Andrew: This way you can get updates on the show, and be the first to know when new episodes are released in 2026.
Rosie: And if you sign-up for the newsletter, you’ll also get a free pdf and mp3 copy of BJ and Amanda King’s new book, “How to Protect Yourself From Fascists & Weirdos.” All you have to do is visit StupidSexyPrivacy.com
Andrew: StupidSexyPrivacy.com
Rosie: That’s what I just said. StupidSexyPrivacy.com
Andrew: I know, but repetition is the key to success. You know what else is?
Rosie: What?
Bonzo: Another, different, monkey sound!
Rosie: I’m really glad this show isn’t on YouTube, because they’d pull it down like, immediately.
Andrew: I know. Google sucks.
Rosie: And on that note, let’s get to today’s privacy tip!---
This Week's Privacy Tip
Welcome back. This week on the show, BJ interviews Nina Jankiewicz, the former executive director of the Disinformation Governance Board of the United States. Nina is also the author of one of our favorite books, How to Be a Woman Online, which we've linked to in the show notes of today's episode. Before we get to the interview, Amanda and I want to share some suggestions on how you can detect and protect yourself from disinformation. This is a problem that's going to get way, way worse this year thanks to generative AI tools like chat GPT. So.
Let's start first with confirmation bias. What that is and how it affects the way we all think. For our purposes, confirmation bias occurs when you see or hear something that conforms to your way of thinking. And because of this, you don't stop to question whether that something is legit. It's okay, we all do it. Our brains are always looking for shortcuts to interpret the vast amounts of information we're exposed to every day. The trick is to be mindful of what information you're taking in.
even if it's something you agree with. One way to do that is to ask yourself, does this seem realistic? If you hear or read something and your spidey senses start to tingle, you should always look into it further. This sounds obvious, but it's not. That's because the modern internet is built around keeping you from thinking. Millions of dollars are spent each year by app and website developers to present as smooth and frictionless experiences as possible. And those highly optimized experiences lull us into a state where our brain isn't stopping to think about the information.
it's consuming. So the important thing here is to stop when we see something kind of crazy and ask ourselves if it's real or not. In most cases, it won't be. Speaking of realistic, we should also talk about deep fakes, another problem that will also get worse as the technology becomes more accessible and easier to use. The good news is that deep fakes tend to give themselves away. The trick is knowing what to look for, like unnatural eye movements, awkward postures and weird facial movements. Here's one example. If the person doesn't turn their head sideways at
all in a potentially shady video, you know it's fake. That's because deepfakes only work right now if the person on camera is looking straight ahead. You'll also be able to spot deepfakes from their weird ass lighting, odd shadows, or coloring issues of the speaker. Another example, as MIT points out, is if someone is wearing glasses in a video, you'll notice in a deepfake that there is no glare from the light on their glasses. I mean, I know my glasses always glare over.
There's also been a rise in deepfake voices, so people may call you using the voice of someone you know and you will be able to tell the difference. If something sounds off or you're unsure if you're talking to the right person, we encourage you to use an old sci-fi trope. Ask that person a question that only they would know how to answer. And if that's too awkward for you, you can always hang up and then text that person to see if they just called you or not.
You also want to consider the source. Like in those deepfake videos, pay special attention to audio because more often than not the audio will give away if something is deepfaked because it'll look out of sync with what the speaker is saying or their words sound weird. Plus, if it's a news source that you've never heard of, mean, come on, like check a news source that you know at least, right? But speaking of always considering the source as well, earlier in the show we suggested you stay off Twitter.
And we want to reiterate that, especially now that anyone can buy a blue checkmark, Twitter is a place for rampant disinformation and it's best to stay off of it whenever possible. Putting Twitter aside though, you should always look at the source of information you're reading or viewing, especially places like YouTube, where their algorithm is prone to suggest content from Nazis, white supremacists and other members of the far right. You might have also encountered news and information from websites and apps passing themselves off as legit news sources.
They're actually propaganda outlets made to look like local newspapers. This is what in journalism is called pink slime. So if you come across statements or stories that seem crazy, make sure to look at who's behind them and see if that information is being verified by other sources more than just Wikipedia. A good rule to follow is that if you haven't heard of the media outlet or source, then you can safely ignore it. Just one more thing on the social media front. Look carefully at the username.
and when the account was created if you come across something that doesn't sound right. Lots of new accounts get created by Russian propagandists and other bad actors. The closer we get to each election. Another good trick is to look and see who's following that account. If it's a bunch of people you recognize as noted journalists or other public figures, then the source is probably okay. Look at the handle name and when it was created on social. Then look at who's following it. Are they crazy people? A good telltale sign is if the people following an account are all white guys with sunglasses to take a picture of themselves while driving.
If you see them all following an account, you can safely disregard whatever that account is saying. Looking at the date of the creation also applies to news stories and other articles you might come across. Oftentimes, bad actors will try to recycle old information about someone in order to smear them. And please, please, please read the whole article before sharing it. I feel like this should go without saying. But again, the internet today isn't designed for us thinking critically or even deeply. It just happens to me, Amanda, I read an article that was such a click bait.
and I clicked on it and the article had nothing to do with what the title was. Oh, but you didn't share it, did you? I did not. There you go, right? And I'm sure we've all experienced it like myself and Rosie. Sometimes reading an article all the way through is the only way to tell if it's actually sponsored content, since websites are also being increasingly shady about identifying that kind of content because they want to make money.
And also in the B2B space, right, you have a lot of guest posts that exist for no other reason than to look useful, but really promote services provided by the company who wrote it. So don't share anything that you haven't read all the way through. I can tell you sometimes I'm guilty of this, I look at the headline and it's from someone that I know and I'm just like, oh, I'll share it. But then that very well could have been a sponsored article, right?
This is much, much easier if you control your news consumption as well. Most of us are drowning in information that we don't need. So if you can prune the sources you go to for information, it'll give you more of an intention span to work with to actually finish the stuff that you're reading, limiting your news consumption to no more than half an hour a day, maybe, and cut down the number of sources you go to in order to fit within that content. And one last point.
reading or watching all the way to the end is a good way to identify if the article or video is meant to be a joke. You may find a label at the bottom that says parody, for example. Oh my God, that is such a good one. I've definitely clicked on something and I'm like, is this real or not? And then I'm like, okay, obviously this was a satire. So that was good to know. Yeah, it's not always the onion, right? Yeah, exactly.
If you have doubts or questions about something you're reading or watching, take a moment and Google the author. This is a good way to see if first the person is real or not, and second that the person has previously written about this sort of topic and has demonstrated experience in the area. You can also do a reverse image search of their author photo to make sure they're real person. Reverse image search is one of the most important tools we have for spotting disinformation, especially regarding AI-generated photos.
Like deep fakes, as the technology gets better for the AI image generators, there'll be more and more of these fake author photos being used by bad actors. If you do a reverse image search, you can see if anyone else has run this photo or identified any potential issues with it. It's also a good way to see if someone has kind of taken your own content, right? You can use reverse image search, but that's that's a whole nother. That's a whole nother thing, right?
10:56
But on all of this, we want to recommend sites like factcheck.org and PolitiFact. Both are great resources to see if an image, video, or news story that's making the rounds is actually real or not. Scopes is also a long running and reputable source too. Either way, we hope some of these tips will help you deal with the flood of misinformation heading our way.
Now let's go to BJ and his interview with Nina Jankowitz to talk about her own experience with being the subject of a disinformation campaign. In next week's episode, we'll cover how to protect yourself if you become the target of a disinformation campaign. ---
Our Interview With Nina Jancowitz Part 1
This interview was recorded in 2023.
11:38
So let me ask you, I speaking of, I think a good way to segue it into what I want to talk to you about was your two books, How to Be a Woman Online and How to Lose the Information War. I figured we would start with How to Be a Woman Online. Sure. It came out just as the pandemic was starting to erupt. So I'm curious if there's anything that you wish you can go back and add to it. So the second one, How to Be a Woman Online, actually came out later. That one came out just in April.
12:07
um How to the Information War came out at the beginning of the pandemic. so the um audio version of that, I think, includes the prologue, which I wrote on the inauguration day for Joe Biden a couple of weeks after January 6th. So I was able to add a little bit, but certainly I think there has been a lot and a lot of work done in particular on COVID disinformation and
12:36
um And that sort of stuff that that would be kind of a whole different book. And I'm sure there are people writing books on disinformation related to the pandemic. But I think, you know, surprisingly, even though I started the research for how to lose the information war in twenty seventeen, it has held up really well. And I'm saying that because it's my book. But like a lot of the research was done at twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. It was all finished by twenty nineteen and published in twenty twenty and.
13:04
You know, I think I stand by a lot of the conclusions that like we're not going to be able to fact check our way out of this. Government agencies need to communicate transparently when they're trying to do counter disinformation work. And frankly, that, you know, we all need to uh think about our role in spreading disinformation and governments and civil society organizations, et cetera, need to think about how we arm people to be.
13:32
equipped to be on the front lines of the information war. So I think all of that still really holds true and it is maybe even more borne out by the pandemic. And then the second book was kind of a child of the pandemic, you might say. And I think, again, if anything, you know, the tools that are in how to be a woman online are more important as
13:55
our online selves become an extension of our offline selves. And like that line, which probably never existed between the online and offline gets even more blurred uh in times when we're all stuck at home to some extent. I mean, we're heading into another winter. I hope that vaccines keep us safer, but I think there will probably be a retreat into the more private spaces and we'll be relying on the internet for a lot again.
14:21
Yeah, I just have to say, How to Lose an Information War. It sounds like it was written yesterday. Like it's very, it holds up. I appreciate that. It's I found it's but what I found like it's almost like you're in a horror movie. Right. And you're and you're yelling at the screen for us to do something as you're describing like the killer creeping up on everyone. That's that's sort of the vibe that I got from from the book.
14:48
Yeah, a lot of people, you know, said I was kind of a Cassandra early on for these topics. And unfortunately, I don't think a lot has changed since then. I've been giving a couple of speeches this fall and I've been drawing very heavily on that book and the experience that I had earlier this spring with my appointment to the Department of Homeland Security and kind of the way that the rollout of the organization that I was meant to lead went and how.
15:15
The lessons that I brought to bear at DHS just nobody listened to. You know, despite my best efforts, the rollout went very untransparently, unofficially, and frankly, you know, just ignored many of the things that I write about in that book and some of the other work that I've done. I'm not super optimistic about where we stand right now as a country in terms of fighting disinformation. And I think the fact that we are
15:45
you know, headed into a midterm season in which 60 percent of Americans will have someone who denies the 2020 election results on the ballot shows that we're not in a good state when it comes to kind of the truth in America. That's my congressional race right now is there's a gentleman. There's a gentleman who's, of course, draping himself with I love the cops. I'm pro cops. But he was on the bus the morning of January 6th uh rallying the troops.
16:13
that they were people on their way to stop the steal. He didn't go himself, but he was there to jazz them all up before they left for Washington. that yeah, that's sadly, as you mentioned, the case for more than half of all Americans. Let me let me ask you what was because the thing that stuck out to me is that as I finished how to lose information war was OK, what happens when when we do try to act? What happens when we do bring this up to the government? What?
16:41
What was the biggest challenge you think was it just the size of the organization? Like what do you think the challenges are of actually making change to stop this stuff from happening? Yeah, I mean, it's our polarization around this issue in particular is so entrenched right now that anytime you bring up the disinformation word, the D word among kind of
17:04
um bipartisan company, it automatically becomes like this dimming rod for like a uh party purity test. And it shouldn't be that way. um In every congressional testimony I've ever done, I've always talked about how disinformation is not a partisan threat. It's a democratic threat. It's a threat to the system.
17:25
Just because it's favoring one party right now doesn't mean it might shift soon. And then, you know, we're all going to wish that we had found a little bit more bipartisanship at this time. And instead, we have people who are profiting off of the very tactics that Russia used in 2016. They're entrenching themselves in power that way. And then we have a Democratic Party. So so let's be clear. That's the Republicans, not all Republicans, but but most Republicans.
17:51
um And then we have the Democrats who just don't seem, and I think, you know, the experience that I went through as part and parcel of this, don't seem to be willing to stand up to those lies. um They don't seem to be willing to call them out. And I think it's very different to say, okay, you know, let's find a bipartisan pandemic relief package, or like, let's find a way to arm Ukraine and do that together. That's very different than calling out.
18:19
lies, right? And I think we got so comfortable during the Trump administration with these very outlandish, totally incorrect things that the president was saying and not calling them by their real name, not saying they were lies. We'd be like, oh, like falsehoods or misstatements, right? They were lies and they were deliberate. um And we hoped that things would just kind of go back to normal.
18:45
in 2020 after the election results and, as Joe Biden became president. instead, what happened is this became even further entrenched. And I think, you know, the Democrats don't know what to do about it now. They don't know how to. I'm not saying we should fight fire with fire. I'm not saying that we should hit Republicans with their own medicine. I don't I don't want to do that. And I've frankly written about that and why we can't do that in Russia. I don't think that that is the way that any.
19:11
small d democrats who care about democracy should operate, but I do think we need to get better at countering the lies as they come out. um in DHS's case, I mean, it was was a failure of communication across the department. It was a failure of communication within the interagency and up to the White House. um It was a failure on the part of the department by not listening to the person that they hired.
19:39
to lead the effort and talk about, I had spent the entire time I was in DHS trying to get us to do a transparent rollout of the board because it really was just an anodyne working group. But I knew that if it were taken out of context and we didn't communicate properly about it, this is exactly what would happen. So there's no one reason, but I think there's a broad misunderstanding of how governments communicate and the way that the internet works.
20:07
which is like a sad thing to come to the realization of, uh that, you know, our government is so huge and so hulking, it's just not set up for the most part to counter these industrial strength lies that move at the speed of light right now. Other governments can do it, but they're much smaller than we are. And so I think we need a concerted effort to get our heads out of our asses.
20:33
And that hasn't happened yet, no matter how many times me and people like me have rung the alarm bell.
---
Amanda's Book Ad Text
Hey everyone, this is Amanda King, one of the co-hosts of Stupid Sexy Privacy.
These days, I spend most of my time talking to businesses and clients about search engine optimization.
But that's not what this is about.
I wanted to tell you a little bit about a book I've co-authored with BJ Mendelson called How to Protect Yourself from Fascists and Weirdos. And the title tells you pretty much everything you would want to know about what's in the book.
And thanks to our friends at DuckDuckGo, we'll actually be able to give you this book for free in 2026.
All you need to do is go to the website stupidsexyprivacy.com and sign up to our newsletter.
Again, that website is stupidsexyprivacy.com and then put your name in the box and sign up for our newsletter. We'll let you know when the book and the audiobook is ready.
If you want a PDF copy that's DRM free, it's yours. And if you want an MP3 of the new audiobook, also DRM free, you could get that too.
Now, I gotta get outta here before Bonzo corners me because he doesn't think that SEO is real and I don't have the patience to argue with him. I got a book to finish. ---
Our Interview With Nina Jancowitz Part 2
Let me ask you, do you think, and this is something you hear a lot, is that the age plays a factor of the people in government versus people.
22:07
outside of the government that are kind of rallying and pushing for things that there's, you know, the people think about Zuckerberg lying basically to Congress and getting away with it because the level of technological expertise was what's a Facebook, right? Or what's an Instagram? Did you did you encounter that at all? Yeah, I mean, I think in general, the Biden administration communicates like it's the 1980s and
22:35
They've done some really interesting um kind of memetic engagement online. I'm thinking in particular of uh when the student loan relief package came out. And we had so many um members of Congress uh who had benefited from loan relief during the pandemic uh being called out by the White House Twitter account. But that was a millennial who was running the Twitter account at that time, um
23:04
you know, more power to her that she was able to get that through. She's actually from New Jersey like me. And she used to run the New Jersey Twitter account, I believe. Oh, that's awesome. I thought that that was good. But um but when it comes to an agency like DHS, yeah, there's a lot of people who have never thought about the Internet before. In general, our federal departments communicate in a very
23:29
boring, professional, 10 times sign off has gone through every policy iteration and every edit possible. And I think we need to learn how to get out of our own way. And that's improved somewhat since Twitter came on the scene and Obama was the first Twitter president. So let's not forget that this hasn't been forever. em But yeah, there's a lack of understanding of how technology works.
23:57
and frankly, what the downside is, what the kind of effects can be if you don't anticipate and proactively communicate online and communicate creatively where your target audiences are gonna be. So just, mean, from my own example, the way that the DHS board was rolled out.
24:23
with so little information left a vacuum of information, then they didn't fill that vacuum when there started to be kind of hubbub online. And as a result, the people who were aghast, whether that was, you know, fake incredulity or true feelings, because I'm sure some people thought that, you know, this actually was a ministry of truth, because that's what they were told by news organizations like Fox. Right. I think that led to a lot of um
24:53
intense scrutiny over me and my personal life. And that's what was like really difficult, frankly, because the administration didn't have my back and didn't realize that by not saying anything about the work that we plan to do, it was putting me in a really difficult and frankly unsafe position at eight and a half months pregnant, uh you know, just for having taken a job in my area of expertise. So um
25:22
That's what they didn't understand. And I think they hopefully learned a lesson, a hard lesson. And I hope that, you know, for the next young woman who tries to take a position, whether it's related to disinformation or not, they're ready to stick up for that person. But my fear is that having seen what happened to me, fewer people and especially women and women of color are going to want to take positions that are in the public eye, in public service.
25:51
Because frankly, it's not that lucrative, right? Don't get paid that much. There's a lot of BS that goes along with it. And then, you know, in addition to all of that, you might get doxed and get hate mail for the rest of your life. it's a really unfortunate way that things turned out. uh
26:12
I'm doing everything in my power now to try to make things better for those who come after me. So I'm not, I'm not going to shut up, you know, like I'm clearly here talking to you. I've done other media. I'm going to continue writing and I'm working uh now with an organization called the Center for Information Resilience, which is based in the UK. And they do open source investigations to counter disinformation, document human rights abuses and combat online harms against women and minorities. And we've launched something called the Hypatia Project.
26:39
So Hypatia of Alexandria was a teacher in ancient Alexandria, mathematician, philosopher, kind of one of those all around thinkers back in the day. And she was this really well-respected woman ahead of her time. Very few women were in those fields back then. And she would teach in the ancient Agora and teach tolerance and coexistence between all the different religions in Alexandria.
27:07
and she found herself kind of a counselor to the city's governor and then found herself uh essentially being um really somebody who bore uh unfortunately a lot of society's ire. So there were clashes between the different religions and they pinned all of the problems in the city on her because she had the ear of the governor and literally tore her from her chariot and ripped her limb from limb.
27:36
A mob of men did this. And uh so we named the project after her. uh The digital agora, the internet is uh important just as the ancient agora and kind of open-air classroom was. And so our hope is that we can make the internet safer and more civil for everybody, but with a special focus on women and minorities. So looking at exposing the operations that are meant to drive women out of public life and silence us.
28:06
looking at the link between online and offline violence, not only here in the United States, but in places like Myanmar and Afghanistan, where we've done research that shows that in Afghanistan, for instance, there is a link between women protesting in the streets and online violence against women, harassment of women online. And then in Myanmar, there's a link between political violence and the doxing of women activists.
28:32
We're going to continue doing research like that and hopefully, you know, working toward accountability for the people who launch these campaigns online. That's amazing. Tell me where can people get involved? How can they contribute? How can they support us? Yeah, sure. So our website is info-rez.org. And I think on Twitter, we've got a bit of a weird Twitter handle. It's at...
28:57
Sen number four info res. One of the other things that we do is crowdsource a lot of open source investigations into conflicts around the world. So uh Ukraine is one of the ones that we're focusing on right now. And we've got a Ukraine monitor map that has crowdsourced, I think something like 12,000 different incidents in Ukraine since the beginning of the second invasion, the one that started this February. And so
29:26
you can look there and find uh incidents that have been triple verified by our investigators. So people will upload, know, troop movements or a missile strike or targeting of a humanitarian convoy or infrastructure, et cetera. And our investigators will verify that it happened, which is a really powerful tool because here we have, you know, just this week when Kiev was attacked with a bunch of missiles by the Russian Federation.
29:53
We had the Russian Federation saying, oh, you know, it's possible that Kiev staged this. Similar, have, you know, folks who carry water for the Russians suggesting that the huge crater in the middle of a park that I used to go running in in Ukraine when I lived there was actually a failed missile defense system. And I'm like, no, it's clearly a missile crater and we can verify that with our investigators. So we like to throw cold water on the...
30:19
the lies that the Russian Federation is telling about Ukraine and about other conflicts around the world. That's awesome. Let me ask you real quick, I just parted. That's the puppy. That's all right. She's very excited, my sister is home. Let me ask you, how much of this is Russia versus how much of this is just people acting on the Russian tactics once it became known? uh We mentioned earlier the Republican operatives. I think it's important for people at home to understand
30:48
Just as you detailed in your book, like this goes back years, this goes back to 2010 with Putin. How much of it is him versus other bad actors? Yeah, I mean, so it's hard to kind of unpick the relationships between Russian propagandists and the people who are authentic Western actors who tend to kind of be what we'd call in Russian fellow travelers, right? So.
31:14
they might um distrust the US government. so getting their news from RT or Sputnik or listening to what Maria Zakharova, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson says, you know, it makes more sense to them. And so they're they're more likely to kind of amplify that stuff organically, as it were. But I wouldn't put it past Russia, because we've seen these sort of relationships before where Russia is actually paying PR companies.
31:42
um in Africa or paying influencers in France in order to launder their disinformation narratives about Ukraine and about other conflicts and other issues as well, um and paying for that content to appear online. So um I think the most important thing to do is just to kind of cross-check your sources, particularly when it comes to Ukraine. There's a wealth of open source evidence that's being shared right now. And um I think it's...
32:11
I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's a lot easier than it used to be to verify what's going on on the ground, especially when you compare it to the beginning of the conflict back in 2014, when Crimea was illegally annexed. We didn't have a lot of social media footage. The smartphone was a lot less ubiquitous and people weren't uploading easily footage to YouTube, to TikTok, to Twitter. And that has really changed. This conflict might be one of the most documented conflicts in the world in all time.
32:40
you know, by virtue of the fact that it's eight years later. But we have a lot of information about what's actually going on on the ground. And so if people want to look at that, it's easy to uncover the truth. Let me ask you for people at home who are frustrated that the government might not be as quick or as quick to help. What is something they can do to help fix that? Is there anything they can do to help fix that? Well,
33:06
But you know, I think there's a couple of things. Good old participatory democracy has its benefits, right? So definitely go out and vote in November. Vote for candidates that you feel are being truthful. That's really important. Donate to your local public media station. I think that's critical as well. We know that NPR and PBS are still among the highest trusted outlets in the United States.
33:32
You know, you might think they're they're supported just by taxpayer taxpayer funding, but it's actually something like a dollar and thirty nine cents per person per year em that goes to the corporation for public broadcasting from our taxes. So I think we can all afford more than a dollar and thirty nine cents. So if you can kind of support those those public broadcasters, they do such important work connecting.
33:54
local news to local audiences. So they often cover news deserts all around the country where there's no other local news. They cover Washington through the lens of whatever local network that they're working through. It's just such important work. that would be another thing that they can do. And then, know, write to your representatives. If you think this is a problem, people often forget that,
34:21
These folks in Washington and at the State House are serving at the pleasure of their constituents. And when there is a letter that comes in, somebody on Capitol Hill, somebody in your capital city has to read that. Yeah, they might be an intern, right? But if you and your fellow citizens and your jurisdiction are...
34:42
writing letters about how you'd like them to support a particular bill or you'd like them to bring something like that up on the agenda or if you are unlucky enough to live in a district of one of the people who were defaming me, for instance, you could say, you know, it really dismayed me to see how you attack to this woman. I'm not saying I'm not asking you to do that. Just an example, right? um But when you see something like that, it's worth registering either your approval when they're doing something you like.
35:11
your disapproval or asking them to advocate on behalf of you. And if truth is something that you care about, I think that's worth registering with your representatives. I know I've said this before. I hope you sue each and every single one of them. it's interesting, BJ. You know, can't sue representatives for stuff that they've done in their official capacity.
35:35
And so the fact that they were doing that in their official capacity on the floor of Congress, they are protected. And that is something I learned this year. Oh man. I think that's good for people to know as well. I'm sorry, I have time for one more question. I wanted to make sure I asked. What I found the most powerful about How to Be a Woman Online is that you're talking to future women that want to get involved in roles like this.
36:03
that might come under the same sort of BS that you had to deal with. What's something that you want to say to them? Yeah, I mean, the most important thing is to hold your ground, right? um It can be really difficult to be a woman on the internet, to be a woman in the world, frankly, can be really difficult. And there are people who don't want us in fields that are male dominated, national security, journalism, academics, whatever.
36:31
And it's important for us to be there. So I'm going to keep doing this work to make sure that I hold that space for you and hopefully push the envelope a little bit farther. And I hope that they'll do the same. We need their voices. I don't want them to disengage because of what happened to me, because of what happens to other women on the internet. In fact, it shows that we need them even more. So I hope they will put their voices out there and contribute to our democracy, because it's not a real democracy if we don't have the participation of women.
37:01
I agree. And from one musical theater to another, I couldn't thank you enough for the work that you do. Well, it's my pleasure. And I'm glad somebody out there likes my TikTok video. I still stand by it, by the way. Thanks, Tucker Carlson, for all the millions of views you gave to me. Yeah, this was wonderful.---
This Week's Live Read
Rosie: In a world of notice and consent, the onus on protecting yourself from fascists and weirdos falls on you, and not the greedy tech oligarchs.
The problem is, we don’t all have $110 million dollars, to buy 11 homes, in one of America’s most expensive zip codes.
Just so you can have your privacy.
So, whether it’s buying a brand new Macbook Pro.
Or purchasing a used vehicle, all in cash, that was built before 2015.
This stuff can get real expensive. Real fast.
And when most Americans live paycheck to paycheck, this situation can be disheartening.
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That’s less than the cost of virtually every streaming service these days. Especially because those services now routinely raise their prices every six months.
Congratulations everyone, we re-invented cable.
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The DuckDuckGo subscription is currently available to residents of the U.S., U.K., E.U., and Canada. Feature availability will vary by region. But your piece of mind will not. Because supporting companies like DuckDuckGo is one of the key ways we can defeat the fascists and weirdos.
Don’t support companies that support the fascists and weirdos.
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Stupid Sexy Privacy Outro
Rosie: This episode of Stupid Sexy Privacy was recorded in Hollywood, California.
It was written by BJ Mendelson, produced by Andrew VanVoorhis, and hosted by me, Rosie Tran.
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After you watch Rosie Tran Presents on Amazon Prime, right?