Stage Talks with Bellingcat

We speak to Bellingcat researcher Youri van der weide about his latest article looking into incidents from the IDF raid of Jenin, West Bank produced alongside Bellingcat discord members. Youri discusses how the discord community members got involved in the research and how Bellingcat hope to work with our wider community in the future. The talk was hosted in the Bellingcat discord server on Thursday 10th August 2023.Please note this stage recording had a technical error causing feedback from Youri's mic in the recording.

In this Stage Talk episode, Narine Khachatryan, a Bellingcat researcher and trainer, spoke honestly to the Bellingcat discord audience about her recent experience of burnout and follow up therapy. During the talk, audience members also shared their own experiences and concerns. This talk was not intended to provide medical advice to anyone currently suffering from mental health issues but to raise awareness of the impact trauma can have on your work/life balance and to start a conversation on how we can look out for one another in the open-source research space.This is a recording of a Discord Server Stage Talk that took place in the Bellingcat Discord Server on July 27, 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat .Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Bellingcat researcher and trainer Tristan Lee joined an audience in the Discord server to discuss his latest investigation, "The Mainstream Publishers, Distributors and Bookshops Selling Satanist Neo-Nazi Books ". Tristan unpacked what the group 'The Order Of Nine Angles (O9A)' represents and how he discovered that material affiliated to them were on sale in major bookstores. He also discussed methods of covering far-right groups as an open source researcher and how to protect yourself from harm. You can find Tristan's investigation on the Bellingcat website here: https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2023/06/30/the-mainstream-publishers-distributors-and-bookshops-selling-satanist-neo-nazi-books/?utm_source=soundcloud This is a recording of a Discord Server Stage Talk that took place in the Bellingcat Discord Server on July 13 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat.Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Aiganysh Aidarbekova, an investigator and researcher at Bellingcat returns to the Bellingcat discord server to unpack her recent investigation into the destruction of civilian homes and buildings along the border of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, following clashes between the two countries in September 2022.

Bellingcat researchers Charlotte Godart, Logan Williams, Aiganysh Aidarbekova and Tristan Lee came to the discord server to discuss their experiences of Rights Con, a large human rights conference that took place in Costa Rica at the start of June. The conference features an array of different speakers, from tech companies to government representatives to human rights defenders , with a focus particularly on human rights in a digital age.

Dr. Jason Stanley came by the Discord server to talk to us about his book, "How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them". During the talk, Dr. Stanley provided an overview of the main ideas in his book, and began his conversation by arguing that fascism and fascist politics are experiencing an "acceleration" at the international level. Dr. Stanley is the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, This is a recording of a Discord Server Stage Talk that took place in the Bellingcat Discord Server on May 25 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Bellingcat's Aric Toler came by the Discord server to talk about how to teach open source research methods. As Bellingcat's Director of Research and Training, Aric is responsible for overseeing the development of Bellingcat's teaching materials, which have reached thousands of people across the world since 2015. During his talk, Aric gave advice on how to structure lessons and activities, and answered questions from the audience. This is a recording of a Discord Server Stage Talk that took place in the Bellingcat Discord Server on May 11, 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat.Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Our guest this week was Bellingcat Founder and Creative Director Eliot Higgins. Eliot came by our Discord server to talk to us about his book, "We Are Bellingcat", and to answer questions from our community about the current state of open source digital investigations. Eliot also spoke about where he thinks the field is headed in the future. This is a recording of a Discord Server Stage Talk that took place in the Bellingcat Discord Server on April 17, 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat.Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Michael Colborne, the lead of Bellingcat's Monitoring Project, dropped by the Discord server to talk to us about a recent article in which he explained how to make sense of far-right symbols online. During the talk, Michael provided practical advice to researchers who might come across these symbols, and answered questions from the community on how to carry out this type of work. This is a recording of a Discord Server Stage Talk that took place in the Bellingcat Discord Server on April 13, 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat.Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.

Alex Ștefănescu spoke to us about internet censorship in the European union within the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022. During her talk, Alex discussed EU Commission mandates to block Russian media outlets, which she says have had "mixed" results at best. Alex also spoke about how to monitor internet censorship.Alex is a Bellingcat Tech Fellow for 2022, and is currently a Python Developer for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project. She is also an activist and advocate for human rights and digital rights in Romania.This is a recording of a Discord Server Stage Talk that took place in the Bellingcat Discord Server on March 23, 2023. To join the server, download discord and visit www.discord.gg/bellingcat.Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.