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

Keywords

• fake news
• speculative journalism
• democracy
• political strategy
• media
• future reporting
• One Big Beautiful Aftermath
• Insurrection

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

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