Best Daiva Repečkaitė Podcasts (2025)

1
As Pandemic Emergency Is Lifted, Have Disinformation Spreaders Moved On? 24:09

2y ago24:09

24:09

The WHO has declared that the COVID-19 pandemic is no longer a public health emergency of international concern. But does it mean that spreaders of pandemic disinformation have dispersed and gone dormant? We discuss the persistence of pandemic disinformation with Tommaso Canetta, who works at Pagella Politica/Facta in Italy. He also edits regular f…

1
ChatGPT -- What Is It and Should we Be Worried about Generative AI? 29:06

2y ago29:06

29:06

ChatGPT, a user-friendly AI tool that generates text in response to keywords, is expected to cause major disruptions in the media, education, and various creative jobs. In late March, the Italian privacy regulator effectively banned it. As societies grapple with the tool’s impact and controversies, we are looking back at our interview with AI resea…

1
Where is Russian Disinformation Headed? 35:37

2y ago35:37

35:37

In this episode, we talked to Christiern Santos Rasmussen about the possible future of Russian disinformation tactics. Together with his team he researched how disinformation actors tweak their message for the countries they operate in. For example, in Poland, claiming that Russia only wants peace would be a hard sell, so these actors double down o…

1
Why Did a Vision for a Modern City Turn into a Conspiracy Theory? 18:13

2y ago18:13

18:13

Being able to reach key facilities, like schools and shops, within 15 minutes, would make city life really comfortable, right? Not if you ask conspiracy theories, mobilizing around the world to blend opposition to the idea of 15-minute cities with anti-vaccination and far-right sentiment. They think that 15-minute cities are all about population co…

1
Why Do Far-Right and Far-Left Parties Benefit from Social Media Algorithms? 18:50

2y ago18:50

18:50

How do algorithms facilitate the rise of political fringes in Europe? And what makes it worthy for political opportunists to be radical? We invited Prof. Miguel Poiares Maduro, who has an academic background in law, governance and politics, to reflect on the various threats to democracy from social media, and to zoom in on his home country, Portuga…

1
The Inoculation’s (AI-Assisted) News Roundup: ChatGPT, Finland and Twitter 20:37

2y ago20:37

20:37

What are the latest news on disinformation and vaccine hesitancy? We discuss our top picks — and discuss the pros and cons of AI-assisted news review. Here's a link to our earlier episode on ChatGPT: Links to the news discussed: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/twitter-sudden-death-vaccine-conspiracies https://edmo.eu/2022/12/06/died-suddenly-yet-an…

1
Introducing Season 5: How Anti-Vaccine Views Reshaped Our Politics 4:59

2+ y ago4:59

4:59

This season The Inoculation is focusing on politics and activism. We will explore how anti-vaccine views have left a mark on different political and activist movements in Europe and beyond. Daiva will be focusing on these issues as a Policy Leader fellow at the European University Institute in Florence. Please subscribe to this show on Apple Podcas…

1
Does Elon Musk’s Ownership of Twitter Undermine Its Role as a Public Space? 21:58

2+ y ago21:58

21:58

Elon Musk is making sweeping changes at Twitter. Does it mean that anti-vaccine disinformation and violent extremism will flourish? This is our last episode this year. Tune in when we’re back in January! Sources: @ElonJet: https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/14/elon-jet-the-twitter-account-tracking-elon-musks-flights-was-permanently-suspended/ Musk and …

1
Twitter’s Turmoil Was Predicted By Disinformation Researchers 15:13

2+ y ago15:13

15:13

With Twitter in turmoil, we are inviting you to revisit our conversation with WF Thomas, a disinformation researcher. Eva talked to him while working on a story on audio disinformation, which was part of her Transatlantic Media Fellowship by the Heinrich Boell Foundation Washington, DC. You can read the BBC reporting on Russia’s Twitter network her…

1
Who are the Doctors Who Spread Disinformation and Why Do They Do It? 25:22

2+ y ago25:22

25:22

As Dr. Oz loses his bid for a seat in the US Senate and the American Board of Internal Medicine moves to strip a falsehood-spreading doctor’s qualifications, we look at the phenomenon of medical doctors spreading COVID-19 disinformation on both sides of the Atlantic. In this episode, we reference our earlier work: - On homeopathy: https://www.thein…

1
Conspiracy 🤝 Spirituality = Conspirituality 29:20

2+ y ago29:20

29:20

According to Pew Research, six-in-ten American adults accept at least one of New Age beliefs: psychics, spiritual energy, reincarmation and/or astrology. And overall, seven-in-ten women hold at least one New Age belief, compared to just over half of men. Research also shows that spiritual people are more likely to believe in COVID-19 conspiracies. …

1
Homeopathy – a Pseudoscientific Gateway to Anti-Vaccine Views and COVID-19 Denialism? 25:59

2+ y ago25:59

25:59

Homeopathy, the principle that ‘like cures like’ even in trace amounts, came to be at a time when opium, blood-letting and alcohol were all common treatments for illnesses. Study after study, it has been proven not to work, and testing of homeopathic products appears to often fail to follow established ethics. But many European countries allow sell…

1
How Russia Exploits Antivaxx Sentiment to Spread Energy Disinformation 26:09

2+ y ago26:09

26:09

The prospect of a cold winter makes energy a hot topic in Europe. Russia, aiming to chip away at Western support for Ukraine, has an interest in stoking people’s fears. And where does Russia find enthusiastic supporters? You guessed it — among public health skeptics. This is the first episode of our 4th season, in which we will focus on Germany and…

1
Can Robots Detect Disinformation? 23:43

3y ago23:43

23:43

We previously reported that robots can spew out new kinds of disinformation. But can they also help detect and flag it? To find out, Eva talked to researcher Giovanni Da San Martino, who is researching natural language processing at the University of Padova. Here are some links to relevant studies: https://aclanthology.org/2020.emnlp-tutorials.2.pd…

1
As Tourism Returns, These Southern European Countries Are Still Vaccine Champions 24:24

3y ago24:24

24:24

Our story from Malta has made it to the Solutions Story Tracker — a rigorously curated database run by the Solutions Journalism Network. So today we invite you to revisit this story and hear an update on what the Mediterranean island country did to vaccinate its population against COVID-19. If you’re interested in vaccine mandates, you will probabl…

1
Political Biases: What Role Do They Play in Disinformation? 29:00

3y ago29:00

29:00

Researching the benefits of situations where people come together to solve puzzles or make decisions, Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg realised that there is a dark side of collective intelligence. This led her to research fake news. When her team showed simulated social media posts, accurate or not, to a sample of Americans, it emerged that liberals more…

1
We Fact-checked VAIDS, a New Antivax New Conspiracy (Hint: It Doesn’t Exist) 13:14

3y ago13:14

13:14

In this episode, we fact-check VAIDS, a made-up syndrome anti-vaxxers are using to scare people away from getting vaccinated. Here is some background info: https://health-desk.org/articles/is-there-any-evidence-of-vaccine-acquired-immunodeficiency-in-relation-to-covid-19-vaccines-and-booster-shots Here's the list of the "Disinfo Dozen": https://cou…

1
Elon Musk and Twitter - A Disinformation Nightmare? 14:17

3y ago14:17

14:17

Elon Musk’s bid to buy Twitter has prompted the WHO to make a statement on misinformation. Misinformation costs lives, Mike Ryan, executive director of the health emergencies program at the WHO, said about the offer from Musk, a self-described free-speech absolutist. The Recode podcast has pointed out that in the past Musk was known for his trollin…

1
Wary of Russian Aggression, the Baltics Contain Political Falsehoods but Struggle with COVID Disinfo 16:18

3y ago16:18

16:18

Disinformation warfare is not new to the Baltic States - and they have been boosting their preparedness since 2014 and were lauded as successful. Then why did countering COVID-19 disinformation prove challenging? In December, Daiva and Eva spoke to Nika Aleksejeva, who is a data journalism trainer and lead researcher for the Baltics at the Atlantic…

1
Are Antivaxxers More Likely to be Pro-Putin? 21:53

3y ago21:53

21:53

As part of our data investigation, we took a look at politicians' tweets in the Netherlands. We found that far-right politicians are more likely to tweet about anti-vaccine topics, but we also saw that tweeters with antivaxx stances were more supportive of Vladimir Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. We talked to Erin Jenne, an expert on topics…

1
Portugal: Is Europe’s Vaccine Hero Losing Its “Special Balance”, Allowing Right-Wing Parties to Flourish? 27:38

3y ago27:38

27:38

After elections in January, Portuguese Socialists have secured an absolute majority, promising political continuity in the country that enjoys Europe's highest rate of vaccination against COVID-19. But the side story of the election was that Portugal's previous immunity to far-right representation in parliament has waned: the Chega party increased …

1
The French Elections are Coming up. Right-Wing Politicians Are Dominating the Vaccine Debate on Twitter. 20:59

3y ago20:59

20:59

We used a custom Twitter scraper to collect and analyse the tweets of 12 candidate's slated to run in the first round of the French presidential election on April 10. We discuss our findings and talk to Estelle Brun, an associate research fellow at IRIS - Institut de Relations Internationales et Stratégiques in Paris. This is a summary of what cand…

1
The Falsehood Firehose: How Russian Disinformation Actors Spread Propaganda 27:36

3y ago27:36

27:36

As Russia invades Ukraine, we revisited our conversation with Miriam Matthews, author of a report published last April called Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information. It describes how Russia actors use malign and subversive information efforts to target U.S. audiences from January 2020 to July 2020. While we couldn't foresee current dev…

1
Will Super-Powerful Artificial Intelligence Turbocharge Disinformation? Episode 22 23:58

3y ago23:58

23:58

Georgetown University researchers programmed a text generator to come up with disinformation on climate change and politics. Once tweeted, the computer-generated disinformation persuaded test subjects, and could even nudge the readers to change their minds on important subjects such as climate change and politics. This episode explores the power an…

1
Spotify, Disinformation and Joe Rogan – Disinformation on Social Audio, Podcasts 22:50

3+ y ago22:50

22:50

After Spotify chose to remove Neil Young's music rather than challenge its relationship with podcaster Joe Rogan (you can read more about the controversy here), the problem of disinformation in audio is rearing its head? Eva talked to WF Thomas, a disinformation researcher, and Valerie Wirtschafter, senior data analyst in the Artificial Intelligenc…

1
How Anti-Vaccination Movements Pull Parents In 21:43

3+ y ago21:43

21:43

When Daiva and Eva were starting their investigation into activism against measles vaccination, another team of journalists also set off to explore this movement in other parts of Europe. Anna Nordbeck and Malin Olofsson started investigating the Scandinavian anti-vaccination movement in 2019, and this led the team all the way to the US, where infl…

1
Happy holidays – new season – coming up in January: how people get pulled into anti-vaccination movements 2:03

3+ y ago2:03

2:03

As the year comes to an end, we look back at our reporting in 2021 and talk about the next season, which will begin in January. Our reporting is supported by IJ4EU. Please subscribe to our newsletter, and this show on Apple Podcasts, Audible, Google Podcasts, Spotify or another platform of your choice. Follow us on Facebook as @theinoculation, on T…

1
Romania‘s Covid Jab Lag: a Country Trapped in Mistrust, Faulty Infrastructure and Trauma (Episode 19) 26:40

3+ y ago26:40

26:40

As omicron cases surge, the majority of Romanians are still not fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Romania has the 2nd lowest vaccination rate in the EU. It is also the country where residents are the most likely in the EU to learn about science and technology from television as opposed to other sources. Together with Italians, they are the most li…

1
Fight Against Vaccine, Climate Disinformation Linked: Expert 21:00

3+ y ago21:00

21:00

Opportunistic politicians and businesspeople latched onto the pandemic in their quest for fame. In Latvia, where COVID-19 death counts went through the roof in October, this had dire consequences. In this episode, Daiva and Eva speak to Nika Aleksejeva, who is a data journalism trainer and lead researcher for the Baltics at the Atlantic Council's D…

1
How A WhatsApp-based Immigrant News Service Tackles Spanish-language Misinformation in Peru 21:45

3+ y ago21:45

21:45

Misinformation in languages other than English that span the globe is less policed, compared to English. Research shows that misinformation and disinformation in large languages like French and Spanish can harm people’s trust in vaccines around the world. That is especially true for communities that distrust mainstream media and are alienated from …

1
How Malta Beat Vaccine Disinformation and Hesitancy to Become a COVID-19 Overachiever 24:26

3+ y ago24:26

24:26

The tiny island of Malta is an overachiever in curbing the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Politico. Before the end of August, the Maltese government announced that 90% of the population over 12 years of age is fully vaccinated. This meant that the first phase of the vaccination programme was largely complete before rolling out boosters to vulnerab…

1
Who Believes Misinformation? Are Liberals More Susceptible? 29:17

3+ y ago29:17

29:17

Researching the benefits of situations where people come together to solve puzzles or make decisions, Cecilie Steenbuch Traberg realised that there is a dark side of collective intelligence. This led her to research fake news. When her team showed simulated social media posts, accurate or not, to a sample of Americans, it emerged that liberals more…

1
How Anti-Vaccination Movements Make Money and Serve Hostile Actors 24:48

3+ y ago24:48

24:48

After a wave of protests against vaccines and vaccine mandates in Europe, it is clear that despite very different policies across Europe, anti-vaccination movements that oppose them are remarkably alike. These movements are tightly linked, even though some of their connections are hidden. They amplify one another, and they have elaborate ways to su…

1
The Inoculation’s September Round-Up:Vaccine Mandates, Idar Oberstein Mask-Murder And More 20:19

3+ y ago20:19

20:19

A number of relevant articles, studies and data has recently come out, so Eva and Daiva review suggested readings for The Inoculation’s September round-up. You can read these sources here: “Vaccine Passports” May Backfire: Findings from a Cross-Sectional Study in the UK and Israel on Willingness to Get Vaccinated against COVID-19; The story of the …

1
Mandatory vaccination: Can it backfire? 22:51

3+ y ago22:51

22:51

In our first episode after the summer break we discuss mandatory vaccination mandates - something we have been researching before the COVID-19 pandemic began. In late 2020, we talked to former European Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis, who has a lot of experience with vaccine mandates. As a commissioner, Andriukaitis campaigned for vaccination mea…

1
Social Media, Russia, Disinformation -- GMFUS' Bret Shafer talks to The Inoculation 23:09

4y ago23:09

23:09

Summer special: Hi listeners. before we leave for our summer breaks, we are taking a look back at some of our most insightful conversations about disinformation and misinformation. This week’s conversation is with Bret Shafer, the Alliance for Securing Democracy’s media and digital disinformation fellow Parts of the interview appeared in Episode 7.…

1
‘Superspreaders of Malign‘ -- Disinformation Expert Miriam Matthews Talks About Russian Information Manipulation 28:34

4y ago28:34

28:34

In this episode, we talked to Miriam Matthews author of a report published in April called Superspreaders of Malign and Subversive Information. It describes the types of COVID-19-related malign and subversive information efforts with which Russia- and China-associated outlets appear to have targeted U.S. audiences from January 2020 to July 2020. Ou…

1
Disinformation in Spain, Heidi Larson, Social Media and EU Vaccine Hesitancy: The Inoculation’s Press Review 13:15

4y ago13:15

13:15

After listening to podcasts and reading numerous articles and reports on vaccine disinformation, Eva and Daiva have decided to share some of them. This is the first episode of The Inoculation's quarterly press roundup. You can find episode 6 on Sputnik V here and episode 8 on vaccine geopolitics here. The story on vaccine mandates in Russia is here…

1
Russian Vaccine Disinformation and the Collapse of Slovakia's Government 20:36

4y ago20:36

20:36

An elaborate media network promotes Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine by undermining the others, currently approved by the European Union. But what happens when an EU country decides to buy the Sputnik vaccine? Does vaccine disinformation adapt? Slovakia has recently started injecting the Sputnik doses it bought in winter. Daiva and Eva try to figure out …

1
On the Fence -- We talk to parents who are mulling vaccination 14:00

4y ago14:00

14:00

Across Europe, some countries are about to finish vaccinating the most vulnerable residents against COVID-19. It’s time to offer the jab to the general population -- and some are not only refusing vaccines, but also calling on others to shun them. Research shows that neither more fact-checks nor more experts will tilt the population’s attitudes tow…

1
Sputnik vs. the West: How the Russian government is discrediting Western vaccines 19:43

4y ago19:43

19:43

In this episode, we took a look at how the Russian government and its media networks used their power and reach to discredit Covid vaccines made by Western companies and how it boosted its own Sputnik V Covid jab -- and how this might backfire. Experts say that attributing anonymous or obfuscated social media profiles is tricky, but they tend to be…

1
Disinformation, Misinformation, Propaganda: What’s the Difference? 10:55

4y ago10:55

10:55

Disinformation, misinformation, propaganda: While reading the transcript of a an interview with a disinformation researcher, Eva and Daiva noticed that the distinction between misinformation and disinformation was often unclear to them. So in this episode of The Inoculation they look for clear definitions and helpful examples of disinformation, mis…

1
Who is spreading vaccination misinformation and why? 27:24

4y ago27:24

27:24

Aggressive political networks, associations of concerned parents and even state-affiliated media - many actors have been found to share misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines currently used in the EU. "Oxford seems to have created a vaccine for monkeys," a host on Rossiya 1 channel said in September. Why are they doing this? And how can we meas…

1
Vaccine communication -- how to avoid common mistakes 33:30

4y ago33:30

33:30

After a series of delivery hiccups and reports of some frontliners not showing up for their jabs, Europe - and other regions - tensely awaited the European Medicines Agency's assessment on the safety of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Its rollout was shrouded in rumours from the start. How can journalists navigate the landscape of statistics and personal …

1
Misinformation in Slovakia 26:56

4y ago26:56

26:56

The Inoculation's team has lately been looking into misinformation. Together with colleagues in Latvia and Estonia, we investigated misinformation in the Baltic States for a story published in Re:Baltica. In this episode of our podcast, we look at how authorities are combating health-related misinformation in Slovakia. Jakub Goda, an experienced so…

1
Estimating the size of anti-vaccination movements 22:54

4y ago22:54

22:54

Are 'vaccine hesitancy', 'vaccine skepticism' and 'anti-vaccination sentiment' synonyms? Do people who say they doubt vaccine safety always refuse vaccines? In this episode Eva and Daiva discuss the challenges researchers face when trying to estimate the size of the anti-vaccination movement and the number of its sympathizers. Our interviewees are:…

1
Welcome to The Inoculation 1:55

4+ y ago1:55

1:55

Hello and welcome to The Inoculation, a podcast where we tell international stories on health, misinformation, vaccines, COVID-19, public policies, and more. We, Daiva Repečkaitė and Eva von Schaper, are two journalists looking into the politics and values surrounding public health, starting from vaccination. We also publish our stories in news out…

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