# Welcome to The Propagandist

An episode of [Drilled](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1439735906), 11 Aug 2026, 2:18.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/SxlTEPDY7xDg35RXkASs/pdrl.fm/3e5572/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/9a7ab5ee-ce11-48ff-a544-b3ec00ea9b1e/f85528cd-65ca-45c0-8bfe-b4a300240e58/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=7f82f371-6316-4ea6-a108-b3ec00ea9b2d

10 years ago, rural North Dakota became the hub of one of the largest Indigenous-led protests in decades, and one of the largest climate protests ever in U.S. history: Standing Rock. What started as a protest against a pipeline turned into a political flashpoint thanks to social media. The pipeline company's private security contractors exploited the moment, using propaganda to fan the flames of long-simmering divisions in the community and amplify the voices of groups that were pro-pipeline or anti-protestor. A decade later, the community is still divided and the tactics used at Standing Rock have been used to sew division all over the country. Never-before-published documents give us a unique insight into the strategy deployed back then, and into how things got the way they are today. Drilled: The Propagandist begins on August 25. Pushkin+ subscribers can hear all three episodes early and ad-free. Find Pushkin+ on the Drilled show page on Apple Podcasts or at pushkin.fm/plus. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:17] Speaker 1: Pushkin why.
[0:25] Speaker 2: It's been a decade now since members of the Standing
[0:28] Speaker 2: Rock Zo tribe launched a historic movement to stop construction
[0:32] Speaker 2: of the Dakota Access pipeline. But ten years later, I'm
[0:37] Speaker 2: still trying to understand the links the pipeline company went
[0:40] Speaker 2: to undermine Standing Rock.
[0:43] Speaker 3: I want to create a few fault lines between all
[0:45] Speaker 3: the third party activists and the tribes.
[0:47] Speaker 2: It helps that I've got access to this giant trove
[0:50] Speaker 2: of internal documents. They contained back channel communications between two
[0:55] Speaker 2: men hired by the company's private security contractor.
[0:59] Speaker 1: I like being able to feed you targets.
[1:01] Speaker 3: I just need a little something to work with and
[1:03] Speaker 3: we can spend a tapestry.
[1:05] Speaker 2: And the more I read them, the more I think
[1:07] Speaker 2: that this pipeline battle was as much about whose story
[1:10] Speaker 2: would win as it was about any protest on the ground.
[1:14] Speaker 1: Not knowing people live here and we had strangers driving around,
[1:20] Speaker 1: I'll just sho no.
[1:22] Speaker 2: The private security contractors launched a narrative campaign, one that
[1:27] Speaker 2: would affirm local people's worst fears about the demonstrators.
[1:31] Speaker 3: We are doing heavy targeting in the North Dakota area,
[1:33] Speaker 3: mostly to focus on increasing the fracturing and creating doubt.
[1:36] Speaker 2: And provoke them to action of their own.
[1:39] Speaker 1: It's infuriating. Honestly, that's not who I am. To be
[1:43] Speaker 1: persuaded into doing something that's out of character.
[1:45] Speaker 2: Was not pleasant. There was no way all those bad
[1:48] Speaker 2: feelings were going to fade away just because the pipeline
[1:51] Speaker 2: got built. I'm Eline Brown. Welcome to The Propagandist, a
[1:56] Speaker 2: drilled mini series telling the inside story of a corporation's
[2:01] Speaker 2: narrative war against an environmental movement.
[2:04] Speaker 4: Disgusting ego terraces. It's what I call all that. I say,
[2:09] Speaker 4: everybody should be on your riptop and be protected and
[2:13] Speaker 4: take him out.
[2:29] Speaker 1: H

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