Fake News for Good? Reporting from the Future to Save Democracy Today
About this episode
Jason Tester discusses speculative journalism and its implications for democracy with Michelle Meow.
When the news moves faster than we can process it, how do we grasp what any of it actually means for our lives? And what happens when that overwhelming feeling isn’t accidental, but rather a deliberate political strategy (“flooding the zone”) designed to ensure that no issue of consequence can get the sustained attention it deserves? Strategic futurist Jason Tester has pioneered an answer—“speculative journalism,” a new form of what-if reporting on high-probability, high-stakes futures before they materialize. Through two novel projects created over the past year, Tester demonstrates how this approach can make abstract or hypothetical consequences feel urgent, visceral and deeply personal. His project One Big Beautiful Aftermath: Dispatches from Near-Future America translates the sprawling “One Big Beautiful Bill” into compelling human stories, revealing the legislation’s projected impacts on everyday Americans in the coming years. His other groundbreaking scenario, Insurrection: An American Future, has proved disturbingly prescient. Published in January 2025, months before federal forces were deployed to Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and Minneapolis, it depicts an eerily similar…
People in this episode
Host: Michelle Meow
Guest: Jason Tester
Topics covered
- speculative journalism
- fake news
- democracy
- political strategy
- future reporting
- media impact
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: One Big Beautiful Aftermath: Dispatches from Near-Future America, One Big Beautiful Bill, Insurrection: An American Future
Places: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Minneapolis
More episodes of Commonwealth Club of California Podcast
- CLIMATE ONE: Medium Rare: What’s Next For Meat?
- Unfrozen: The Fight for the Future of the Arctic
- Young King: The Making of Martin Luther King Jr.
- CLIMATE ONE: ENCORE: Cities Leading the Way
- Outdoors Writer Tom Stienstra Shares His Tales of Survival … and Top Adventure Spots
- The Fight Against AI-Powered Surveillance with EFF's Cindy Cohn and Adam Savage
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Commonwealth Club of California Podcast podcast page.