Introducing: How to Know What’s Real

What is “real life,” now that the internet and AI are integrated into so much that we do? In the new season of The Atlantic’s popular How To series, co-hosts Megan Garber and Andrea Valdez explore deepfakes, illusions, and misinformation, and how to make sense of where things are really happening. How to Know What’s Real examines how technology has altered our sense of connectedness and how to determine what is authentic and true.

Listen to the trailer here:

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The following is a transcript:

Andrea Valdez: We have agreed that we live in some sort of shared reality. So what is that? And does that exist anymore?

Megan Garber: Oh my goodness.

Valdez: Did it ever exist?

Garber: These are the questions of being human.

Hanna Reichel: “Real” is what has an impact, what makes a difference in our lives.

Valdez: I’m so interested to learn more about how things like reality television and influencers and deepfakes and even magic impact the way that we trust.

Garber: What are your findings when it comes to how our brains respond?

Lisa Fazio: If something makes you feel a really strong emotion, that's typically a time to pause and kind of double-check: Is this true or not?

Garber: Andrea, AI is getting so advanced and so much more integrated into our everyday lives. How do we navigate as our digital and physical worlds collide?

Garber: If you were an urban planner, basically, for the internet, what would you advise us to do?

danah boyd: I think you’re going to see different kinds of resistance, because that’s the thing about a city. You know, what does it mean to maintain morality, in a way of recognizing the dignity and humanity of the collective?

Valdez: Okay, Megan, we’ve got six episodes to examine what’s authentic, what’s fake, and what lives in the murky middle.

Reichel: Our time is limited; our capacity is to maximize it by whatever metric is limited. And we have to learn to live as finite and mortal beings.

Valdez: I’m Andrea Valdez.

Garber: And I’m Megan Garber. From The Atlantic, listen to “How to Know What’s Real.” Coming this May.

Click here to listen to additional episodes in The Atlantic’s How To series.