Show Notes
On this week's episode of Change Agents, Andy travels to Chase Hughes' new studio to break down how human behavior is manipulated at scale, from bot farms manufacturing fake consensus to the psychological framework Chase calls WOUND that explains why outrage, fear, and loneliness keep us glued to our phones.
They dig into why Chase believes the algorithm is less a sinister mastermind and more an engine optimized purely for ad revenue, how think tanks may shape policy more than most people realize, and why Walter Cronkite and Julia Child both have far stranger backstories than anyone learned in school. Andy also gets a tour of Chase's new independent news studio, Station One, built to show audiences the psyops behind the headlines rather than just the headlines themselves.
Change Agents is an IRONCLAD Original
Chapters:
(00:00:00) How the Media Actually Works
(00:05:59) Why Chase Built Station One and How It Works
(00:08:20) Unrestricted Warfare and the Chinese Playbook for Dividing America
(00:13:34) The WOUND Framework: How Social Media Gets Weaponized
(00:17:20) Do They Start With the Outcome or the Emotion
(00:19:28) The Deep State and Think Tanks
(00:23:26) Station One's Intelligence Brief Format
(00:27:55 ) The Biggest PSYOP Right Now Is…
(00:29:49) Engineered Loneliness and the Fear of Judgment
(00:38:58) Is the System Correctable From the Top Down?
(00:41:58) True vs Truth: The Coaster and the Elephant
(00:48:47) Why Chase Joined the Navy
(00:50:56) What People Actually Regret on Their Deathbed
(00:56:44) Veterans and a Broken Relationship With Money
(01:00:21) Can You Truly Bulletproof Yourself Against Manipulation
(01:03:15) Walter Cronkite Was on CIA Payroll: Operation Mockingbird
(01:05:50) How to Fight Back Against Division
(01:09:30) What Social Media Companies Will Do When Usage Drops
(01:11:57) Outro
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More from Change Agents with Andy Stumpf
Today's guest is Zachary Levi. He famously played the title role in the NBC action series Chuck, and has been in films including Shazam!, Tangled, Harold and the Purple Crayon, American Underdog, and others. His most recent movie is a remake of the John Wayne western, Angel and the Badman, and co-stars Neal McDonough and Tommy Lee Jones. Levi is also spearheading a new film studio and artist community in Texas called Wyldwood Studios.
Mariana van Zeller is an award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker renowned for her investigative reporting on global crime and black-market networks. She was the host and executive producer of National Geographic’s Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, which explores illicit trafficking networks worldwide. She hosted the podcast “The Hidden Third”, which looks at grey markets and stories from “the hidden third of the world.”
Brittany Butler is a novelist and former CIA targeting officer. Her latest book, The Patriot’s Daughter, is out now.
This interview was recorded in July. In the interview, she said, “There is a science-based history of Russia trying to develop a pneumonic plague super-weapon.” This weekend, that exact scenario may have unfolded.
Shane Smith the is the editor in chief of VICE News and co-founder VICE. He has spent his life reporting from some of the most dangerous places on earth, including, recently Iran.