For Fact's Sake The Ferret

It's the final episode of our three-part For Fact's Sake series on elections.
This week, we are looking at the biggest vote taking place in this election year: India.
Ali and Paul spoke to Jency Jacob, the managing editor of BOOM, a fact checking organisation based in India and also covering Myanmar and Bangladesh.
He explained the difficulties of fact-checking in an election that covers a billion potential voters, and the types of misinformation that voters in India encounter.
We also have the second of our Conspiracy Dictionary segment, where Ali and Paul discuss chemtrails.

It's part two of our mini series on the election year.
In this episode we spoke to Tori Marland, from Logically Facts, about the potential trends in disinformation that we will likely see in the election campaign in the UK.
And in our new 'Truth Tracker' segment, we discuss what is really known about Kate Middleton amid the controversy around her health and whereabouts.

For Fact's Sake is back for a brand new series, kicking off with a special three-part look at the impact of misinformation on the upcoming elections this year.
In the first episode, we spoke to Polly Curtis from think tank Demos about how AI could affect the general election, and democracy more widely.
Demos has recently produced a report on the potential of AI to alter democracy.
We also launched our newest feature, the Conspiracy Dictionary, with a look at the World Economic Forum (WEF)
Show notes:
Demos' report into AI impacts is here. Follow Polly Curtis on X here.More information on conspiracies surrounding the World Economic Forum and the Great Reset here.

It's the final For Fact's Sake podcast of the year, and we're focusing on the conflict in Gaza, where among the thousands of civilian deaths, scores of journalists have been killed.
We speak to Fiona O'Brien from Reporters Without Borders about why so many journalists have been part of the tragic human toll of the Israeli attack on Gaza, and whether journalists in the area are being targeted by the military.
She also explains how the killing of journalists in the region amplifies misinformation and inaccurate state narrratives about the war.
Show notes:
Reporters without Borders' work in Gaza can be seen here.Listen to our last podcast on misinformation in the conflict here.

On for Fact's Sake this week we're taking a look back to some historical misinformation - Scotland's witch trials.
Ali and Paul speak to Dr Zoe Venditozzi, a writer and teacher who presents the Witches of Scotland podcast. She campaigns for posthumous pardons for those prosecuted for witchcraft in Scotland.
We spoke about Scotland's witch trials, how the persecution was led from the top, and the parallels between the 'fake news' that drove women to be persecuted then and today's moral panics.
Elsewhere on the pod, Ali looks at migration statistics, and we dig into 'detox' trends on social media.
Show notes:
Listen to all the episodes of the excellent Witches of Scotland podcast here. Find out more about the campaign here. Logically Facts have written a piece about 'detox baths' here.

On this week's edition of the For Fact's Sake podcast, Ali and Paul talk to Dr Ian Cawood from the University of Stirling about the long history of political sleaze in the UK.
Ian explains the parallels between corruption in the early 19th century and today, how the Covid-19 pandemic sharpened the focus on scandal, and whether there is a higher bar for politicians losing their jobs than before.
Elsewhere on the pod, Ali and Paul discuss the Rwanda migration plan and controversy over a cuddly octopus toy on University Challenge.
Show notes:
Dr Ian Cawood's piece in The Conversation about the history of sleaze can be found here: https://theconversation.com/a-history-of-british-political-sleaze-and-why-we-should-worry-about-the-johnson-government-160304