Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko on the QAnon Rabbit Hole

In this episode of "Keen On", Andrew is joined by Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko, the co-authors of "Pastels and Pedophiles", to discuss how the conspiracy theory ensnared countless Americans, and show us a way back to sanity.

Mia Bloom is a Professor of Communication and Middle East Studies. She conducts ethnographic field research in Europe, the Middle East and South Asia and speaks eight languages. Author of Dying to Kill: The Allure of Suicide Terror (2005), Living Together After Ethnic Killing [with Roy Licklider] (2007), Bombshell: Women and Terror (2011), and Small Arms: Children and Terror [with John Horgan] (2019), Bloom is a former term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has held research or teaching appointments at Princeton, Cornell, Harvard and McGill Universities. Bloom is the editor for Stanford University Press’ new series on terrorism and political violence. She is regularly featured as an expert contributor on CNN, CNN International, MSNBC and Fox News for terrorism and national security issues. Bloom is a member of the UN terrorism research network (UNCTED) and a member of the radicalization expert advisory board for the Anti- Defamation League (ADL). Bloom holds a Ph.D. in political science from Columbia University, an M.A. in Arab Studies from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and a B.A. from McGill University in Russian, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies.

Sophia Moskalenko got her Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research on terrorism and radicalization has been presented in scientific conferences, government briefings, radio broadcasts, and international television newscasts. As a research fellow at the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (NC-START) she has worked on research projects commissioned by the Department of Defence, Department of Homeland Security, and Department of State. With Clark McCauley, she authored Friction: How conflict radicalizes them and us (2011, David E. Sears award for best book in political psychology) The Marvel of Martyrdom: the power of self-sacrifice in a selfish world (2019) and Radicalization to terrorism: what everyone needs to know (2020).