In a live taping of Radiolab, co-host Latif Nasser and guest Rebecca Lemov discuss prominent examples of indoctrination and their modern implications.

As part of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival in late May, Latif Nasser, co-host of WNYC’s Radiolab, sat down with Harvard historian Rebecca Lemov to dig into her new book, The Instability of Truth: Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion.

The book chronicles the fascinating and traumatic history of brainwashing – how the term originated, its chilling permutations over the decades and what it could mean now in an age of artificial intelligence.

In this episode of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast, Nasser and Lemov discuss the origin story of the term, following the experiences of American POWs during the Korean War. They then delve into the remarkable story of the heiress Patricia Hearst, who survived kidnapping and violence by adopting the perspectives of her captors. Finally, they discuss the “mass emotional contagion” of social media events and the AI chatbots with whom many people have formed very real relationships.

This conversation was recorded on May 31, 2025.

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Credits

Host: Paris Jackson

Producer: Sara Bernard, Scot Michael

Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd

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If you would like to support Cascade PBS, go to cascadepbs.org. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Cascade PBS.

In a live taping of ‘The Gist’ podcast, the authors of “Original Sin” — a book questioning the former president’s health — share their findings.

One book has been stirring up a lot of political controversy this spring: Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson’s deep dive into President Biden’s health during his last year in office.

As part of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival in May, Tapper and Thompson got on stage with Mike Pesca, host of The Gist podcast, to dig into the reporting behind Original Sin: President Biden’s Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again.

In this episode of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast, Tapper and Thompson detail how, according to their reporting, an ever-tightening inner circle worked to conceal Biden’s sparse schedule, failing memory and other signs of serious decline. Tapper describes an atmosphere of unquestioning loyalty, not unlike that of the current Trump White House, that supported Biden’s decision to run for a second term. Thompson and Tapper also get into the politically polarized feedback on the book, which has, at least from the far left and far right, been “ferocious.”

This conversation was recorded on May 31, 2025.

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Credits

Host: Paris Jackson

Producer: Sara Bernard, Scot Michael

Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd

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If you would like to support Cascade PBS, go to cascadepbs.org. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Cascade PBS.

In a live taping of the ‘Open to Debate’ podcast, commentator Brandi Kruse and legal scholar Nadine Strossen examine the state of the First Amendment.

From funding cuts at universities to restrictions on the press, critics of Trump 2.0 point to a long list of potential threats to the freedom of speech. But in these polarized times, perception is everything.

As part of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival in late May, Nick Gillespie, editor-at-large of Reason Magazine and guest moderator of Open to Debate, sat down with political commentator Brandi Kruse and legal scholar and civil liberties advocate Nadine Strossen to dig into the evolving boundaries of free speech in 2025.

In this episode of the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival podcast, Strossen and Kruse take a deep dive into a range of thorny topics, including the Trump administration’s actions against Harvard University; early executive orders banning DEI policies; hypocrisy, bias and objectivity in the media; and how far this or any administration should be allowed to go.

This conversation was recorded on May 31, 2025.

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Credits

Host: Paris Jackson

Producer: Sara Bernard, Scot Michael

Event producers: Jake Newman, Anne O'Dowd

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If you would like to support Cascade PBS, go to cascadepbs.org. In addition to supporting our events and our daily journalism, members receive complete access to the on-demand programming of Cascade PBS.