Nasser posed the question to Rebecca Lemov on stage at the 2025 Cascade PBS Ideas Festival live taping of Radiolab in a broad discussion about the science and history of brainwashing and what it can tell us about life in the social media and artificial intelligence era.
Lemov is a Harvard University history of science professor and author of The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyperpersuasion. The book traces several eras of history from the explicit brainwashing and reeducation of Korean War POWs, the CIA’s MKUltra program and heiress Patty Hearst to the “soft” brainwashing and behavioral shaping of doomscrolling and AI.
“I’m interested in how free are
→ Continue reading at Crosscut
