The PR Machine is Destroying Reality: Amy Westervelt

September 24th, 2026

”Every single issue that is fighting for civil rights and democracy is connected.”

We discuss how the interlocking web of public relations, think tanks, and university research funding by private actors and corporations have polluted the information ecosphere. Warping the truth is destroying reality and eroding democracy. 

Amy Westervelt is an award-winning investigative climate journalist and the host of Drilled, a true-crime podcast about climate change. Her new book is Brought to You By: How Corporations Warped the Truth, Conned the Public, and Broke Democracy.

Your civic action toolkit recommendations from Amy are:

  1. Be a trusted source of information

  2. Be a missionary for good civic actio

Let’s connect! Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram: 

https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/

Listen to Occupy! An Unfinished Uprising:  

https://www.futurehindsight.com/occupy

Follow Mila on X: 

https://x.com/milaatmos

Follow Amy on BlueSky: 

https://bsky.app/profile/amywestervelt.bsky.social

Read Brought to You By

https://bookshop.org/shop/futurehindsight

Discover new ways to #BetheSpark: 

https://www.futurehindsight.com/spark

Sponsor: 

Thank you to Shopify! Sign up for a $1/month trial at shopify.com/hopeful.

Early episodes for Patreon supporters:

https://patreon.com/futurehindsight

Credits:

Host: Mila Atmos 

Guest: Amy Westervelt

Executive Producer: Zack Travis

Executive Editor: Mila Atmos

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Our Constitution, Our Laws: Julie Suk