David Runciman talks to the American historian Jill Lepore about the damage new technology can do to democracy, from the 1960s to the present. Who first tried to manipulate the minds of the electorate? Where did the money come from? What happened when the same technology was applied to fighting the Vietnam War? The episode also covers US presidential elections from 1960 to 2020: do the machines really decide who is going to win?
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