Sasha Issenberg: The Lie Detectives: Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age (ASL)

Room: Society, Sciences & Technology, 2nd Floor

There has never been an election season like this one: voters in the United States, India, Mexico, Indonesia, United Kingdom and European Union all go to the polls in 2024. In The Lie Detectives, a follow-up to the book Politico called “Moneyball for politics,” Sasha Issenberg pulls back the curtain on the operatives advising candidates and parties as they attempt to navigate a world awash in lies. Where do they look to determine whether a particular mistruth is a threat? How do they decide when to push back? And how do they confront a lie without further spreading and amplifying it? After he shows you their playbook, you won’t look at a political campaign the same way again.

Sasha Issenberg is a journalist and the author of four books, including The Victory Lab: The Secret Science of Winning Campaigns and, most recently, The Engagement: America’s Quarter-Century Struggle Over Same-Sex Marriage. His new book is The Lie Detectives: In Search of a Playbook for Winning Elections in the Disinformation Age. He is a correspondent for Monocle, and has written for New York, The New York Times Magazine, Bloomberg Businessweek, and Politico Magazine. He teaches in the UCLA Department of Political Science.