You're Not Informed — You're Being Played | Kira Shishkin of informed.now

Most of us are drowning in content but starving for actual facts. This week, Jared and Ian sit down with Kira Shishkin — 4-time entrepreneur, investor, and CEO of informed.now — to talk about why the news media stopped serving readers and started serving advertisers, how misinformation is manufactured at scale, and what a genuine "information diet" actually looks like.Kira built TurboTax Full Service at Intuit, evaluated 600+ venture deals, and grew up across Ukraine, Israel, and the U.S. — giving him a front-row seat to information warfare in three different cultures. He's not just complaining about the problem; he built a solution: news by SMS, no accounts, no ads, no data collection, just facts from primary sources.Whether you still watch cable news or you've checked out entirely, this one will make you rethink how you consume information.Check out Kira's company: https://informed.now📌 CHAPTERS0:00 — Ian's overcooked intro0:43 — Meet Kira Shishkin1:46 — Why he left Intuit and TurboTax Full Service2:51 — How informed.now works: news by SMS4:15 — Sourcing only from primary sources6:46 — How news became an advertising business9:44 — Are people waking up to media manipulation?12:09 — AI in journalism: useful tool or dangerous shortcut?21:46 — The coming era of information overload25:54 — What a healthy information diet actually looks like28:51 — Growing up in Ukraine, Israel, and the U.S.33:42 — SMS, anonymity, and radical privacy36:16 — Will the world be more or less informed in 10 years?38:19 — Evaluating 600+ venture deals — does informed.now pass its own test?41:42 — Are we living in truly unique times?43:21 — Is America's division real, or manufactured by media?45:26 — Jared's 5 rapid-fire questions51:02 — Outro🎙️ CONNECT WITH USCommonX Podcast | Two Gen X dads talking to people actually doing things in the real world.#CommonXPodcast #MediaLiteracy #Misinformation #InformationOverload #GenX #NewsMedia #informed #KiraShishkin #FactsNotOpinions #MediaBiasThe CommonX Podcast features long-form conversations with musicians, cultural voices, veterans, entrepreneurs, and independent thinkers who bring lived experience to the table. Hosted by Jared Mayzak and Ian Primmer, CommonX explores music, culture, work, identity, resilience, and the systems that shape everyday life—without talking points or manufactured outrage.From iconic artists and creative pioneers to everyday people with extraordinary stories, each episode prioritizes honesty, curiosity, and meaningful dialogue. This is a Gen-X–driven show for listeners who value depth over noise and conversation over clicks. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.