Book this speaker: Justin Ling

About This Speaker: Justin Ling

Justin Ling is a freelance investigative journalist and analyst who focuses on politics, national security and geopolitics. Over the past decade, he has come to be a leading voice on misinformation, extremism, political polarization, the rise of conspiratorial politics — and how technology enables all those trends.

At a time when modern society is increasingly defined by fake news and paranoia, understanding what drives these trends, who’s pushing them, why they succeed, and how to counter them is more important than ever. That’s where Ling comes in.

As a contributor to CBC’s The National, Foreign Policy, The Globe & Mail, WIRED, The Guardian, and a host of other publications — Ling has traced disinformation campaigns from their inception to explosion.

From the streets of Ottawa during the notorious Freedom Convoy to the streets of Kyiv during the war in Ukraine, Ling has set himself apart as uniquely qualified to understand how politics and conflict works in our modern age.

In 2023, Ling published Far and Widening: The Rise of Polarization in Canada with the Public Policy Forum, an in-depth investigation into how politics in Canada has become hyperpartisan and unproductive.

Ling has received numerous recognitions for his work, including gold from the New York Festival Radio Awards; multiple Amnesty International Canada media awards; the Brass Knuckles Award for Best Nonfiction Crime Book; and been selected as a finalist for the National Newspaper Awards award for political writing.

Ling has been cited, disapprovingly, by Tucker Carlson and banned by the Russian government — both things he wears as badges of honor.

His first book, Missing From the Village, tracked the existence of a serial killer in Toronto’s Gay Village, even as police had abandoned their investigation. His second book, on policing and crowd control, is in the works. He has also hosted the CBC podcast The Flamethrowers, a history of how right-wing radio radicalized America. His newsletter, Bug-eyed and Shameless, is a Substack best-seller.

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