In this special episode of extremely, Oren Segal and Jessica Reaves speak with two women who are advocating tirelessly on behalf of their family members who were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. Abbey Onn and Alana Zeitchik are responding to an unspeakable situation with endless resolve and empathy, and they are determined to keep the hostages in the spotlight. Links referenced in this episode:1) Voice for Hostages: https://voicesforhostages.org/2) Bring Our Family Home: https://www.instagram.com/bringourfamilyhome/3) Zeitchik's New York Times Op-Ed:https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/05/opinion/israel-palestinians-hostage-silence.html

Recorded two weeks after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, this month’s episode of extremely finds the ADL Center on Extremism’s (COE) Oren Segal and Jessica Reaves talking about white supremacists celebrating Hamas terror and the dangers of mis- and disinformation at a time when truth feels hard to come by. They also talk to COE’s Antisemitic Incident Specialist Rachel Sass about the spike in antisemitic incidents since the war broke out, and hear from Boston University Professor Jessica Stern about why extremism researchers need to think like terrorists.1) ADL Debunk: Myths and False Narratives About the Israel-Hamas War2) Antisemitic Incidents Map3) Glossary Entry: Hamas4) White Supremacist Leaders Applaud Hamas and Violence Against Israelis

In extremely’s triumphant return to the podcast (air)waves, the ADL Center on Extremism’s Oren Segal and Jessica Reaves talk swatting, white supremacist activity and optics. We’re also joined by Research Assistant Mason Peeples, who weighs in on his work in online threat detection. Then, Oren talks to Michael Rothschild about his new book, Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories. Fun fact: Michael’s last name is a coincidence.

In this episode of extremely, Oren Segal speaks with Elizabeth Williamson, feature writer for The New York Times and author of “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth.”Elizabeth and Oren discuss how disinformation and falsehoods inevitably follow mass shootings, and how conspiracies and lies - aided by super-spreaders like Alex Jones - increasingly lead to harassment of and threats against victims’ families. Elizabeth describes how the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting “was a foundational story of how these false narratives and misinformation have gained traction in society.”“The arbiters of truth in our county,” Elizabeth says, “are still there but they are increasingly disbelieved, and people are making other choices than to listen to them. And so consequently, your arbiter of truth is the person who echoes your beliefs rather than someone who is legitimately interested in getting to the bottom of the situation and presenting facts.”You can follow Elizabeth on Twitter @NYTLizStay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

In this episode of extremely, Oren Segal speaks with Sam Jackson, assistant professor in the College of Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security and Cybersecurity at the State University of New York at Albany, and author of, “Oath Keepers: Patriotism and the Edge of Violence in a Right-Wing Antigovernment Group.”When Sam was an undergrad religious studies major at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville, he “accidentally” took a class on religion and violence that sparked his interest in antigovernment extremism. Today, Sam emphasizes the distinctions between leaders of anti-government groups like the Oath Keepers and their subordinates.“Prominent people within the group are much more ideologically on point or ideologically disciplined,” Sam tells Oren. “They are thinking about a narrower set of ideas, and they are talking about them in a more cohesive and coherent way. Whereas rank and file members of the group might have any of a wide range of ideological motivations to join. Or even non-ideological motivations.”You can follow Sam on Twitter @sjacks26Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

In this episode of extremely, Oren Segal speaks with David Neiwert, investigative journalist, and author of, “Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump.” David, who has been reporting on extremism for decades, provides his insight into the evolution of anti-democratic movements in the U.S. and how it culminated with the January 6th insurrection.In addition to describing how he made extremism reporting a beat, David argues that to truly understand the impact of extremism on communities, media needs to “interview the people who are afraid to even raise their heads in their towns and who feel frightened and intimidated by this wave of thuggery that this tide of right-wing extremism has unleashed in their communities.”You can follow David on Twitter @DavidNeiwertStay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

In this episode of extremely, Oren Segal speaks with Lisa Kaplan, founder of the Alethea Group, which detects and mitigates disinformation and social media manipulation. Lisa explains the difference between disinformation and misinformation and highlights strategies to reduce the consequences of disinformation campaigns, which she says are "fast, cheap and easy to do."Beyond her love of dogs – repeat, Lisa loves dogs – she describes herself as an “eternal optimist when it comes to these sorts of issues.” She notes that “democracies have generally faced ​worse, and we can get around this one too” by promoting good information and education to create a more digitally savvy population.More on Lisa’s work: https://nationalsecurity.gmu.edu/lisa-kaplan-in-the-news/Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

In this episode of extremely, Oren Segal speaks with Amy Cooter, Senior Lecturer in Sociology at Vanderbilt University, about her ethnographic research on the militia movement in the U.S.Amy, who has interviewed militia members directly and observed their training firsthand, is not “a stereotypical academic.” She says that while most militias “see themselves as fundamentally local,” that started to change when they “became more willing than they had been for a number of years to quite literally bump shoulders with more extreme groups at protests and at other events they thought captured” shared concerns.Amy tells Oren she initially thought she was going to be a chemist but got bored with it and took a sociology class. She realized “people were more interesting to study because there’s always a bit of an unknown factor” and they are “not as controllable as something that we are putting in test tube and trying to figure out.”More on Amy’s work: https://as.vanderbilt.edu/sociology/bio/?who=amy-cooterStay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

In this episode of extremely, Oren Segal speaks with Mary McCord, Executive Director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.Before her national security work or serving as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Mary attended journalism school, which she describes as a "pretty good precursor to law school because essentially you become a professional question asker when you are a journalist and that's in many ways what a lawyer is."Despite describing herself as a glass half empty person, Mary provides examples of people in her life who “do the right thing in the right moment." She also talks to Oren about being part of the legal team representing the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.More on Mary's work: https://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/mary-mccord/Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

In this episode of extremely, Oren Segal speaks with Erroll Southers, Professor at USC and Director of the Safe Communities Institute. Erroll explains his pathway from being stopped by law enforcement growing up in small town New Jersey to the Santa Monica Police Department, counterterrorism with the FBI, and then academia. Erroll credits a “incredible mentor” for the tough love that helped him keep moving forward in his career. Erroll also explains how compartmentalizing has helped him cope with the heaviness of extremism work – and not talking with people about politics and religion. More on Erroll’s work here: https://priceschool.usc.edu/people/erroll-g-southers/ Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

In episode one of season two, Oren Segal speaks with Jared Holt, Resident Fellow at Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRLab), about recent media coverage of extremism and the September 18 non-event in Washington DC.Oren and Jared also discuss the importance of personal security and pathways into this field of work. Jared says his upbringing in Arkansas and spending time on the internet as a kid gave him "a better sense of what the weird stuff really was."More on Jared’s work here: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/jared-holt/Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

On the final episode of season one, we turn to previous guests for wisdom. An “Evening with the Experts” was chance to share personal strategies for managing extremist topics, which includes trash TV recommendations, the soothing sounds of basketball and rap star legacies.As we work to understand and interrupt some of the worst ideas, we also learn the value of self-care and the responsibility for taking care of those coming up in the field. And when nothing else seems to work, we have each other, and of course, the occasional key lime pie.More on our experts here: https://twitter.com/ADL/status/1409934693097693187extremely is a podcast for anyone that wants to understand and interrupt modern hate and extremism. Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

In Episode 12, Oren Segal speaks with Joan Donovan, Research Director of the Harvard Kennedy School Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Dr. Donovan leads the field in examining media manipulation, online extremism and disinformation campaigns.Joan admits to being a bit of an anarchist but describes the ways in which governments are instrumental in service delivery. Oren and Joan discuss the effects of bad regulation on journalists, how to teach people to be critical consumers, and the vital need for community in this field.As we move away from what Joan describes as “block and tackle of the past four years," the Shorenstein Center is building a tech watchdog hub of advocates, journalist, and researchers. This and more on episode 12 of extremely.More on Joan’s work here: https://www.hks.harvard.edu/faculty/joan-donovan; https://shorensteincenter.org/Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

A month following the January 6 insurrection we reflect on the sadly inevitable events and how we got here. On this episode of extremely, Oren Segal spoke to Amy Spitalnick, Executive Director of Integrity First for America, about the importance of holding extremists accountable for their actions.Oren and Amy explore: How do extremist groups use try to avoid liability? How did Amy learn how to sue Nazis from Roberta Kaplan? This and more on episode 10 of extremely.More on Amy’s work here: https://www.integrityfirstforamerica.org/about-usStay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

After decades of work together, Oren Segal speaks with Mark Pitcavage, Senior Research Fellow at the ADL Center on Extremism, about ADL's annual Murder and Extremism report. But Mark also has word of encouragement for the next generation of researchers and leaders.In this month’s conversation, we learn how getting in on the ground floor of subject matter expertise can have huge impact. Mark also talks about a career that enables one to interrupt modern hate an extremism by helping law enforcement, legislators, and civic society prevent violence.More on Mark’s work here: https://twitter.com/egavactip?lang=enStay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

This month, Oren Segal spoke to Joel Finkelstein at the Network Contagion Research Institute. “I hate my job. I don’t want to do this” says Joel. A neuroscientist by training, Joel found himself obligated to the work of dismantling hate and polarization knowing that brain science could drive solutions. In his work at NCRI, Joel tracks how hate and virtual deception spreads between social media communities and into the real world.Joel warns that we must stay connected to our purpose in this work. “If it becomes an addiction, we become defined by the things we hate.” In today’s episode, we discover the lie that humans are obsolete and the truth that we are needed now more than ever. How and why will be driven by our compassion and, of course, science.More on Joel’s work here: https://networkcontagion.us/about/First collaboration between ADL and NCRI:https://www.adl.org/blog/when-twitter-bans-extremists-gab-puts-out-the-welcome-matStay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

Oren Segal speaks with Amar Amarasingam, Assistant Professor in the School of Religion at Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. Amar has conducted years of research with foreign fighters and neo-Nazis around the world.There is no one profile for an extremist, but the value of interview-based research has brought Amar a deeper understanding of why extremists are moved to engage in transnational activism. A common thread with conspiracy theorists is a shared sense of moral urgency. Today’s episode explores what this means for the complex problems we face globally.More on Amar here: https://amarnathamarasingam.academia.edu/Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

Kathy joins Oren Segal to remember the anniversary of the Pittsburgh attack. After years of research into white supremacy, this event gripped her own community.How does white supremacy function as a political phenomenon? How has the role of women evolved? With a rich understanding of history, Kathy walks us through her top two calls to action and more on episode six of extremely.Dean Kathy Blee is a professor of Sociology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her work as a scholar, writer, and administrator spans from Women’s Studies to Sociology to History.More on Kathy’s work here: https://www.as.pitt.edu/about/kathy-bleeStay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

“Did baby Heidi always want to get into the work of combating extremism?”Oren Segal and Heidi speak about the way the research field of extremism has changed over the past few decades. Heidi shares her accidental journey from a college terrorism class to the Southern Poverty Law Center and her hopes for future interventions.Heidi Beirich currently works at the Global Project on Hate and Extremism. She is an expert on various forms of extremism, including the white supremacist, nativist, and neo-Confederate movements as well as racism in academia.More on the Global Project here: https://www.globalextremism.org Stay engaged and follow along for more:Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU

This episode of extremely covers fashion week, the war on drugs, and the work of dismantling inequality in America. Eric Ward shares with Oren Segal his take on how the white nationalist movement seeks to influence the mainstream of political discourse. How do you talk to diverse audiences about these topics? How do we understand the vulnerabilities that lead to hate group recruitment and radicalization? Eric shares his long-term vision for this important work.Eric Ward is a national expert on the relationship between hate violence and preserving democratic institutions, governance, and inclusive societies, Eric K. Ward brings nearly 30 years of expertise in community organizing and philanthropy to his role as Western States Center’s Executive Director.More on the Western States Center here: https://www.westernstatescenter.org/ Stay engaged and follow along for more:Stay engaged and follow along for more on Twitter at @OrenSegal @ADL and @PERIL_AU