Decoding the Web: Understanding the Facts Online

Featuring

• Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Dr.

  

  Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a Professor in the School of Public Affairs and in the School of Education at the American University in Washington, DC, where she is also the founding director of the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab (PERIL). She is a Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation Entrepreneur and recently served as the inaugural creative lead for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation’s residency program on social cohesion in Berlin, Germany. Dr. Miller-Idriss regularly testifies before the U.S. Congress and briefs policy, security, education and intelligence agencies in the U.S., the United Nations, and other countries on trends in domestic violent extremism and strategies for prevention and disengagement. She is the author, co-author, or co-editor of seven books, including ‘Just Grab the Bitch’: How Misogyny Fuels Mass Violence, forthcoming in 2025 from Princeton University Press and Hate in the Homeland: The New Global Far Right (Princeton University Press, 2022), and is currently at work on a new co-authored book (with Pasha Dashtgard) on evidence-based prevention of hate-fueled violence. Dr. Miller-Idriss writes frequently for mainstream audiences, as an opinion columnist for MSNBC and in other recent by-lines in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Politico, USA Today, The Boston Globe, and more. 

• Ali Breland

  

  Ali Breland is a staff writer at The Atlantic.  His writing has also appeared in The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Logic(s) Magazine, and elsewhere. He was a 2024 Livingston Award finalist for his reporting on the impact of the far right’s resurgence in Germany. At The Atlantic, he writes about the internet, politics, and technology.