
True or False
A CIA Analyst's Guide to Spotting Fake News
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $26.08
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Erin Dion
-
By:
-
Cindy L. Otis
About this listen
"Fake news" is a term you’ve probably heard a lot in the last few years, but it’s not a new phenomenon. From the ancient Egyptians to the French Revolution to Jack the Ripper and the Founding Fathers, fake news has been around as long as human civilization. But that doesn’t mean that we should just give up on the idea of finding the truth.
In True or False, former CIA analyst Cindy Otis takes listeners through the history and impact of misinformation over the centuries, sharing stories from the past and insights that listeners today can gain from them. Then, she shares lessons learned in more than a decade working for the CIA, including actionable tips on how to spot fake news, how to make sense of the information we receive each day, and, perhaps most importantly, how to understand and see past our own information biases so that we can think critically about important issues and put events happening around us into context.
Download the accompanying reference guide.©2020 Cindy L. Otis (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
How Civil Wars Start
- And How to Stop Them
- By: Barbara F. Walter
- Narrated by: Beth Hicks
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Political violence rips apart several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan and try her for treason. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists storms the U.S. Capitol. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the start of something bigger? Barbara F. Walter has spent her career studying civil conflict in places like Iraq, Ukraine, and Sri Lanka, but now she has become increasingly worried about her own country.
-
-
Reveals the limits of a Political Science approach
- By Bill on 01-17-22
-
Awaken Your Genius
- Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary
- By: Ozan Varol
- Narrated by: Ozan Varol
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We say some people march to the beat of a different drummer. But implicit in this cliché is that the rest of us march to the same beat. We sleepwalk through life, find ourselves on well-worn paths that were never ours to walk, and become a silent extra. Extraordinary people carve their own paths as leaders and creators. They think and act with genuine independence. They stand out from the crowd because they embody their own shape and color. We call these people geniuses—as if they’re another breed. But genius isn’t for a special few. It can be cultivated. This book will show you how.
-
-
Tired tropes
- By S. Small on 04-22-23
By: Ozan Varol
-
Unwoke
- How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book both articulate and desperately needed, bestselling author Senator Ted Cruz provides a long overdue argument against the woke takeover of education, big business, the media, and Hollywood.
-
-
This is one of top listens
- By chas on 12-12-23
By: Ted Cruz
-
Untouchable
- How Powerful People Get Away With It
- By: Elie Honig
- Narrated by: Elie Honig
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
CNN senior legal analyst and nationally best-selling author Elie Honig explores America’s two-tier justice system, explaining how the rich, the famous, and the powerful—including, most notoriously, Donald Trump—manipulate the legal system to escape justice and get away with vast misdeeds.
-
-
EXCELLENT
- By W. Michael Mahoney on 02-02-23
By: Elie Honig
-
Testimony
- Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation
- By: Jon Ward
- Narrated by: Jon Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jon Ward's life is divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it. In Testimony, Ward tells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was seduced by materialism and other factors to become politically captive rather than prophetic.
-
-
True Unbiased Journalism
- By S. Schneider on 06-03-23
By: Jon Ward
-
Network of Lies
- The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for America
- By: Brian Stelter
- Narrated by: Brian Stelter
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Network of Lies, New York Times bestselling author Brian Stelter answers these questions by weaving together private texts, unpublished emails, depositions, and other primary sources to tell the chilling story of Trump’s alleged conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, and the right-wing media’s mission to put him back in office in 2024.
-
-
Eye opener .
- By catherine weaver on 11-21-23
By: Brian Stelter
-
How Civil Wars Start
- And How to Stop Them
- By: Barbara F. Walter
- Narrated by: Beth Hicks
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Political violence rips apart several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan and try her for treason. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists storms the U.S. Capitol. Are these isolated incidents? Or is this the start of something bigger? Barbara F. Walter has spent her career studying civil conflict in places like Iraq, Ukraine, and Sri Lanka, but now she has become increasingly worried about her own country.
-
-
Reveals the limits of a Political Science approach
- By Bill on 01-17-22
-
Awaken Your Genius
- Escape Conformity, Ignite Creativity, and Become Extraordinary
- By: Ozan Varol
- Narrated by: Ozan Varol
- Length: 7 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We say some people march to the beat of a different drummer. But implicit in this cliché is that the rest of us march to the same beat. We sleepwalk through life, find ourselves on well-worn paths that were never ours to walk, and become a silent extra. Extraordinary people carve their own paths as leaders and creators. They think and act with genuine independence. They stand out from the crowd because they embody their own shape and color. We call these people geniuses—as if they’re another breed. But genius isn’t for a special few. It can be cultivated. This book will show you how.
-
-
Tired tropes
- By S. Small on 04-22-23
By: Ozan Varol
-
Unwoke
- How to Defeat Cultural Marxism in America
- By: Ted Cruz
- Narrated by: Timothy Andrés Pabon
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a book both articulate and desperately needed, bestselling author Senator Ted Cruz provides a long overdue argument against the woke takeover of education, big business, the media, and Hollywood.
-
-
This is one of top listens
- By chas on 12-12-23
By: Ted Cruz
-
Untouchable
- How Powerful People Get Away With It
- By: Elie Honig
- Narrated by: Elie Honig
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
CNN senior legal analyst and nationally best-selling author Elie Honig explores America’s two-tier justice system, explaining how the rich, the famous, and the powerful—including, most notoriously, Donald Trump—manipulate the legal system to escape justice and get away with vast misdeeds.
-
-
EXCELLENT
- By W. Michael Mahoney on 02-02-23
By: Elie Honig
-
Testimony
- Inside the Evangelical Movement That Failed a Generation
- By: Jon Ward
- Narrated by: Jon Ward
- Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jon Ward's life is divided in half: two decades inside the evangelical Christian bubble and two decades outside of it. In Testimony, Ward tells the engaging story of his upbringing in, and eventual break from, an influential evangelical church in the 1980s and 1990s. Ward sheds light on the evangelical movement's troubling political and cultural dimensions, tracing the ways in which the Jesus People movement was seduced by materialism and other factors to become politically captive rather than prophetic.
-
-
True Unbiased Journalism
- By S. Schneider on 06-03-23
By: Jon Ward
-
Network of Lies
- The Epic Saga of Fox News, Donald Trump, and the Battle for America
- By: Brian Stelter
- Narrated by: Brian Stelter
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Network of Lies, New York Times bestselling author Brian Stelter answers these questions by weaving together private texts, unpublished emails, depositions, and other primary sources to tell the chilling story of Trump’s alleged conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, and the right-wing media’s mission to put him back in office in 2024.
-
-
Eye opener .
- By catherine weaver on 11-21-23
By: Brian Stelter
-
On Grand Strategy
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For over 20 years, a select group of Yale undergraduates has been admitted into the year-long "Grand Strategy" seminar team-taught by John Lewis Gaddis and Paul Kennedy. Its purpose: to provide a grounding in strategic decision-making in the face of crisis to prepare future American leaders for important work. Now, John Lewis Gaddis has transposed the experience of that course into a wonderfully succinct, lucid and inspirational book, a view from the commanding heights of statesmanship across the landscape of world history from the ancient Greeks to Lincoln, and beyond.
-
-
Interesting, but fails to offer real lessons.
- By Zack on 07-04-18
-
Collision of Power
- Trump, Bezos, and the Washington Post
- By: Martin Baron
- Narrated by: Liev Schreiber
- Length: 16 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marty Baron took charge of The Washington Post newsroom in 2013, after nearly a dozen years leading The Boston Globe. Just seven months into his new job, Baron received explosive news: Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, would buy the Post, marking a sudden end to control by the venerated family that had presided over the paper for 80 years. Just over two years later, Donald Trump won the presidency.
-
-
An Excellent Reminder Of Why We Need Journalists
- By C. Rosen on 12-12-23
By: Martin Baron
-
Legacy of Ashes
- The History of the CIA
- By: Tim Weiner
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
This is the book the CIA does not want you to read. For the last 60 years, the CIA has maintained a formidable reputation in spite of its terrible record, never disclosing its blunders to the American public. It spun its own truth to the nation while reality lay buried in classified archives. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter Tim Weiner offers a stunning indictment of the CIA, a deeply flawed organization that has never deserved America's confidence.
-
-
Flawed but Important
- By Michael on 07-18-08
By: Tim Weiner
-
Why We Did It
- A Travelogue from the Republican Road to Hell
- By: Tim Miller
- Narrated by: Josh Bloomberg
- Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the strategists behind the famous 2012 RNC “autopsy,” Miller conducts his own forensic study on the pungent carcass of the party he used to love, cutting into all the hubris, ambition, idiocy, desperation, and self-deception for everyone to see. In a bracingly honest reflection on both his own past work for the Republican Party and the contortions of his former peers in the GOP establishment, Miller draws a straight line between the actions of the 2000s GOP to the Republican political class's Trumpian takeover, including the horrors of January 6th.
-
-
No, Tim!
- By Lori Renard on 06-30-22
By: Tim Miller
-
A Sacred Oath
- Memoirs of a Secretary of Defense During Extraordinary Times
- By: Mark T. Esper
- Narrated by: Joe Knezevich
- Length: 20 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From June of 2019 until his firing by President Trump after the November 2020 election, Secretary Mark T. Esper led the Department of Defense through an unprecedented time in history—a period marked by growing threats and conflict abroad, a global pandemic unseen in a century, the greatest domestic unrest in two generations, and a White House seemingly bent on breaking accepted norms and conventions for political advantage. A Sacred Oath is Secretary Esper’s unvarnished and candid memoir of those extraordinary and dangerous times, and includes events and moments never before told.
-
-
Boring. Lots of excuses.
- By Dennis on 05-11-22
By: Mark T. Esper
-
Build for Tomorrow
- An Action Plan for Embracing Change, Adapting Fast, and Future-Proofing Your Career
- By: Jason Feifer
- Narrated by: Jason Feifer
- Length: 7 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We experience change in four phases. The first is panic. Then we adapt. Then we find a new normal. And then, finally, we reach the phase we could not have imagined in the beginning, the moment when we realize that we wouldn’t go back. Build for Tomorrow is designed to accelerate that process—to help you lessen your panic, adapt faster, define the new normal, and thrive going forward. And it arrives as we all, in some way, have felt a shift in our lives.
-
-
Jason tells great stories in his own voice
- By Bryan Eisenberg on 03-04-23
By: Jason Feifer
-
Why Buddhism Is True
- The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From one of America's greatest minds, a journey through psychology, philosophy, and lots of meditation to show how Buddhism holds the key to moral clarity and enduring happiness. In Why Buddhism Is True, Wright leads listeners on a journey through psychology, philosophy, and a great many silent retreats to show how and why meditation can serve as the foundation for a spiritual life in a secular age.
-
-
Clear Explanation of How the Mind Works
- By George on 08-10-17
By: Robert Wright
-
Holding the Line
- Inside the Nation's Preeminent US Attorney's Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department
- By: Geoffrey Berman
- Narrated by: Geoffrey Berman
- Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ascending to the leadership role of US Attorney for the Southern District, which includes Manhattan and several counties to the north, is a capstone to any legal career: it entails guiding a team of the best lawyers in America in selecting and winning cases that often have global import. Geoffrey Berman was honored to be tapped for the job by Donald Trump in 2018. The manner in which Trump had dispatched his predecessor Preet Bharara was troubling, but the institution was fabled for its independence. Surely he could manage.
-
-
Excellent Story of SDNY JD during Trump Years
- By WLC on 09-14-22
By: Geoffrey Berman
-
Atlas of AI
- Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence
- By: Kate Crawford
- Narrated by: Larissa Gallagher
- Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What happens when artificial intelligence saturates political life and depletes the planet? How is AI shaping our understanding of ourselves and our societies? Drawing on more than a decade of research, award-winning scholar Kate Crawford reveals how AI is a technology of extraction: from the minerals drawn from the earth, to the labor pulled from low-wage information workers, to the data taken from every action and expression. This book reveals how this planetary network is fueling a shift toward undemocratic governance and increased inequity.
-
-
A fascinating and thought provoking examination of
- By Tom Dawkins on 03-13-23
By: Kate Crawford
-
Trust Me, I'm Lying
- Confessions of a Media Manipulator
- By: Ryan Holiday
- Narrated by: Ryan Holiday
- Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You’ve seen it all before. A malicious online rumor costs a company millions. A political sideshow derails the national news cycle and destroys a candidate. Some product or celebrity zooms from total obscurity to viral sensation. What you don’t know is that someone is responsible for all this. Usually, someone like me. I’m a media manipulator. In a world where blogs control and distort the news, my job is to control blogs - as much as any one person can.
-
-
Wake up call
- By RML85 on 08-18-20
By: Ryan Holiday
-
Slanted
- How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism
- By: Sharyl Attkisson
- Narrated by: Sharyl Attkisson
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
We have reached a state of utter absurdity, where journalism schools teach students that their own personal truth or chosen narratives matter more than reality. In Slanted, Attkisson digs into the language of propagandists, the persistence of false media narratives, the driving forces behind today's dangerous blend of facts and opinion, the abandonment of journalism ethics, and the new, Orwellian definition of what it means to report the news.
-
-
Connecting the dots
- By Amy Cox on 11-29-20
By: Sharyl Attkisson
-
Myth America
- Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies About Our Past
- By: Kevin M. Kruse, Julian E. Zelizer
- Narrated by: Allan Aquino, Maleah Woodley, Todd Menesses, and others
- Length: 12 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The United States is in the grip of a crisis of bad history. Distortions of the past promoted in the conservative media have led large numbers of Americans to believe in fictions over facts, making constructive dialogue impossible and imperiling our democracy. In Myth America, Kevin M. Kruse and Julian E. Zelizer have assembled an all-star team of fellow historians to push back against this misinformation.
-
-
Right Wing Bashing book!! Aka a History Book
- By amy on 02-08-23
By: Kevin M. Kruse, and others
What listeners say about True or False
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Daniel Anderson
- 11-19-22
Illuminating
I will strive harder to verify sources and only rely on good information. It’s appalling how much baloney is swallowed
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Laura M. Sutton Aeling
- 02-18-23
Required reading from 12th grade on up!
Feel helpless about discerning fact from media fiction? Believe you are less-than-adequate to the task or too busy to check sources? This book lays out in engaging form how you can know. How you can find a bit of peace and security whilst walking between the dumpster fires every day. As the author points out, our freedom isn’t free - we all have to do a bit work on a regular basis to maintain and care for it. Take your time. Breathe. Check. Learn how to here.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Chima Onukwuru
- 01-17-21
Good Introduction
I enjoyed this book. I also thank the author for providing resources readers can use. I think this book serves as an introduction into the world of disinformation. I would like to read more from the author on maybe in-depth techniques and more real life examples. Very good book nonetheless
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Melanie LoPiccolo
- 10-16-22
Fantastically Informative
This book was fantastically informative. It was very well written and the audio was great. I am going to purchase the physical book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ben Tuttle
- 07-28-23
Needed in today's public school education
Spectacular read. Loaded with great information for adults and teenagers alike. We need to change our culture.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Jon M. Cefus
- 09-27-20
Disappointed
I would say that this book was written for an audience with almost no knowledge of the history of propaganda and fake news. I found it to be written at a similar level as USA Today, and therefore not helpful unless you have almost no common sense. Further, the idea that social media is something that we need to learn to just live with is as false as claiming that Morse Code is something will just need to continue to live with. The worm turns...
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- J. Terrill
- 09-21-20
Many Oysters with Few Pearls
It was fascinating to access some fake news that Otis has curated for us to serve as her case studies and how far-reaching the horrific results have been - even including an actual modern day chat-app fueled witch hunt (and subsequent death by fire) of two innocent Mexican nationals. Some examples were more absurd and even playful or silly.
History teachers will find this book safe to teach from as Otis has admirably avoided discussing the outright politically one-sided nature of fake news itself. Her shortest chapter is dedicated to the 2016 election.
For those of us who ARE already politically astute, we can see that she is meticulously dismantling everything a Fox News addict has come to believe without ever invoking the news agency by name. She goes after their sources (Gateway Pundit, Infowars, etc.) She goes after their panic-inducing style ("Breaking News", "News Alert") and even their red meat content (manipulation of statistics, polls etc.)
All of that being said, I was expecting a higher truth to be unveiled at some point. I was anticipating a "gotcha" moment that never came or at least a better explanation of the psychology of wilful liars in the media. What do they gain? What motivates them to exaggerate and lie? Why are Republicans more susceptible to believe lies than Democrats? How can our President be gaining more public confidence with every lie he tells us? And utmost importantly for this author, why is the CIA not doing a damn thing about it? Dismally, these questions are still unanswered.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful