200. Ed Coper on Angertainment

Ed Coper is an expert in digital politics who helped build one of Australia’s first major online political movements and has advised advocacy campaigns around the world. His previous book, Facts and Other Lies, explored the disinformation age: how fake news spreads, why it is so difficult to stop, and what citizens can do to defend the truth. His latest book, Angertainment: How Social Media Outrage Ruined Everything, takes that story a step further. It asks why our social feeds increasingly feel less like public squares and more like pokie machines for grievance, endlessly rewarding outrage with attention. In this conversation, Ed discusses rage-bait algorithms, political demagogues, corporate platforms, and the business model that turns fury into clicks, influence and power. We explore how online toxicity is engineered and amplified, what the outrage economy is doing to democracy, and whether it is still possible to build a healthier digital life.