On average 24 tweets a day. She also indicates shes part of the rair foundation, thats resistance against islamic radicals. Now, heres the thing. It is hard to find evidence amy mek exists. If you do exist, amy, please let us know. We have directmessaged you, we have tried to contact the foundation that doesnt seem to exist either, and weve run your name through all kinds of powerful software that journalists use looking for you. Now, general Michael Flint seems to think you exist. Hes copied you in on a number of tweets, and the New York Times quoted your tweet in an article titled women who like donald trump. Maureen erwin is a liberal political consultant who started the hunt for amy and wrote about it in the San Francisco examiner online, joined by Heather Somerville of reuters, and jon swartz now of barrons. Thanks for being with us this morning. Lets make it really clear off the top amy mek, assuming she exists in the first place, hasnt really done anything illegal or anything, right . She hasnt done anything wrong. Maureen erwin no, not that im aware of, no. As far as i can tell, shesshe or whoever is behind this account just tweets all day. Scott right, and terribly distasteful tweets. And ive had herive had her twitter in my timeline for about a week, so i could just watch. I can hardly wait till the end of the show because now i can stop following her. I find that theyre distasteful tweets. Maureen theyre vile. Its some of the most racist antimuslim hatred ive ever seen. And its been going on for a long time, and it continues to scott but so what . What led you on this path of, therefore, im going to track down who she is . Maureen sure. It was actually started, i was in a car accident a year ago and laid up in bed for a couple of months, and i had some time on my hands. And so, i was looking around on twitter and looking at some of the various profiles of people who were followers of donald trump, and i came across this profile. And in her bio section, it was just sort of this pastiche of, im a vegan, but im part of the nra, and i like animals. And it just looked odd and the picture looked odd. She also said she was a psychotherapist. So, i googled her, and the only thing i found was that New York Times article from may of last year about the women who liked donald trump. She was quoted in there. I couldnt find any other information about her, i couldnt find any other profiles on social media. And i just thought it was odd. So, because my late father was a therapist, i know that they have to be licensed. So, i actually went through the state boards for every state looking for her name, not there. Ran her profile through an algorithm which detects, you know, bots or likely bots, likely bot. So, i thought, well, this isthis is interesting. So, i reached out via direct message, i said, id like to contact you for some background information. She did not reply. And of course, i wrote my article. And at the bottom of my article, at the end i said, you know, if youre out there, post a selfie with todays newspaper and just, like, put this all to bed. And thats where it started. Scott yes . Jon swartz in theduring your investigation of this, you did a lot of detective work. Did you find other people similar to her, male and female, who had similar viewpoints, in a sense almost like a coordinated effort to spread their maureen unquestionably, yeah. Its interesting there isyou know, theres these bot networks, right . We know that theres tons and tons of fake accounts on twitter. And amongst the make America Great again, the pro twitter folks, you know, the women are disproportionately blonde, tend to look like, you know, grandmas or centerfolds, and have lots of flags and Different Things in theirin their bios. And so, i came across a lot. So, i think theres a lot of it going on. Heather somerville im curious if you brought this to twitter yet. And if so, what did they say . Maureen ive brought it to twitters attention several times, and ive written about it, and theyve never actually responded to me. Heather theyve never responded to you directly . Maureen never. Jon thats the one thing i was interested in. If shes spouting hatred, is she being punished by twitter even though shes a fake . I mean, theres this whole kind of argument over trump and what he says, and the consequences. Maureen so, its fascinating. Her account is suspended in france and germany. So, those two countries have taken some sort of action and told twitter they have to take her down. So scott i saw somebody online who said, hey, could you treat me as if i were tweeting in, you know, in germany . cause then id be protected because germany has such strict laws about that. You wrote an article about this. I mean, cause somebody might be watching and say, oh my goodness, theres a fake person on twitter, so what . But you wrote an article that walked everybody through what you had done, and it was a really good one because you used reverse google image search on her picture to see if, well, maybe she shows up in other places, et cetera. It was very instructive as to how to figure out how somebody is real or not. Okay, shes not real. Why do you think people then shared your article so much . You very much went viral, thats when i gotpaid attention to it. What do you think struck a nerve there . Maureen i think theres this growing awareness of fake news and the involvement particularly of russia in our election last year, and in international politics, and people are sort of waking up over the last year to the magnitude of the problem, and trying to think about ways as news organizations how to deal with it. Jon are you looking for other people similar to her speaking out . In this instance, i guess im thinking political parties, maybe liberal causes might say, you know, these people who youve been hearing from, regardless of what they speak about, are trying to manipulate you in a certain way. I mean, youre probably looking in other areas, other topics. Maureen i am. There have been a number of accounts that have been exposed as fake. For example, one was tenn gop, which was supposedly the Tennessee Republican party, and that was exposed as a fake. So, other people are finding it too. Scott but the astonishing thing about tenn gop is lots of people assumed it wasnt fake. They assumed it was the official Tennessee Republican party twitter, and they would retweet, they would comment to it. It doesnt takeit begins to look legitimate very quickly. Maureen it does, it does. Scott do these surface during certain times during election timeframes, or do they crop up at certain times if theres ayou know, some sort of referendum or something . Maureen absolutely. You know, it is topical. So, if somethings coming up, if theres beenfor example, take frances election earlier this year. All of a sudden, amy startedamy started tweeting about macron. Jon do we know if amys a man or a woman . Do we even know that . Maureen we dont, we dont. So, you know, that came up. And you know scott you say, is amy a man or a woman . Were assuming its one person at all. I mean maureen it could be several people. Scott twentyfour tweets a day with video, et cetera. That sounds like thats a lot of people. Jon that sounds like a committee. Maureen i think its ayeah, i think its a group of people. Heather i think this really illustrates how, you know, what has been coined, you know, certain altright or other sort of cohorts with political and ideological views that many find distasteful have really leveraged Silicon Valley platforms in a way that we havent seen before, in a way that is tremendously successful. I mean, some have had to move to alternative platforms that really embrace hate speech. But in cases like twitter, no, they havent had to leave because theres not policies in place, theres not enough human intervention. Have you seen any ability to leverage Silicon Valley platforms like this in other elections, or in other cases, or is this really just brand new . Maureen well, recently, the Senate IntelligenceCommittee Held hearings and had representatives, had lawyers from google and facebook and twitter around this issue, and just trying to get a better sense of what happened and how those platforms were used last year towards the election, and are still being used for propaganda. Scott maureen, let me squeeze in one last question, weve got about a minute to go. And that is, okay, so lets say amy mek says, yeah, you know, im a real person, and i see youre in the San Francisco bay area, lets have lunch. What sort of conversation do you have with the woman that you have been hunting down for more than a year . Maureen well, she says shes a vegan nra member scott so, a vegan lunch . Maureen yeah, we would go vegan, and i would ask her, you know, does she shoot tofu . I mean, i dont know. So yeah, i would just have a ton of questions for her. You know, whats her background in psychotherapy . You know, does she know about transactional analysis . You know, i would really like to hear about her background. Scott maureen, you know whats a gooda good vegan lunch . Maureen what is . Scott borscht. Maureen i love it. Scott well leave with that. Thanks. Andy weir, author of the martian, returns to the show with a new book when press here comes back. Scott welcome back to press here. My next guest wrote a blockbuster Science Fiction novel that turned into a blockbuster Science Fiction movie. Mark watney im entering this log for the record. This is mark watney, and im still alive, obviously. Scott the martian, both the movie and the book, follow the adventures of an american astronaut stranded on mars. The work was praised for both its action and its fidelity to science. The big question this morning, can andy weir do it again . Can he follow up his debut novel with another success . Andy, his new book is artemis, the story of a smalltime space smuggler on a lunar colony. Now, usa today, which used to have some pretty good writers, calls artemis an actionpacked techno thriller of the first order. Andy weir joins us this morning. Andy weir thank you for that. Thanks for having me. Jon needed the ego boost. Scott joined by jon swartz of barrons. And Heather Somerville, yes, of reuters formerly. So, i mean, honestly that has to have gone through your head. I mean, the martian wasnt your first book or your first story, but it was so big. Andy it was just this ludicrous success that, like, no writer has a right to have, right . Its like the daydream that you have when youre fantasizing about what it would be like. And thenand then, so then i had to follow that up with another book. Scott and what do you think . Andy well, i mean, itsthe general consensus is, oh, its not as good as the martian, but its still good. Ill take it, ill take it. Scott is that on the blurb, is that on the inside . Its not as good as the martian . Andy look, lets keep our feet on the ground. No. Yeah, im really happy with how its turned out. And between the martian and artemis, i was 70,000 words into a different book that id written. Yeah, originally i was writing a different book called zhek, zhek, and i got 70,000 words into that. For reference, the entire book the martian is 100,000 words. So, its like threequarters of a book. And, i go to edit one day, and i went, oh no, this sucks. And so, i shelved the whole project and started anew with a new book, and im really glad i did. Although it hurt, you know, to do that. Jon did you ever resuscitate that 70,000 andy no, i dont think its salvageable. The plot and characters are just fighting me too much. Jon what was it about . Andy it was aboutit had aliens, and fasterthanlight travel, and telepathy, and it sounds great on paper, but in practice it was just too disjointed. But it had a couple of really cool concepts, and one really cool character in it that i might pluck out for jon yeah, i was going to ask you, could you could just pluck andy yeah, basically ill use it for parts. Heather now, correct me if im wrong, but youve said before that you had more fun writing the martian. Is that cause there was no pressure then, and all the pressure is on now . Scott yeah, i think thats a lot of it. Ive found that the Southwest Corner of my office is the best one for cowering and whimpering. But the northwest corner does get good light in the morning, so i dont know. Yeah, no, its such a huge amount of pressure. And theres a saying in writing, give a man a book, you entertain him for a night. Teach a man to write, you give him crippling selfdoubt for life. I mean, its the imposter syndrome, its strong, and just like, oh god, theyre going to find out that im not really a writer, that i just had one luckyyou know, even a Blind Squirrel finds a nut once in a while, kind of thing. And, i was talking to a writer friend of mine, and he said, yeah, that never goes away. Youll be working on your 28th book and youll still feel that way, so make your peace with it. Scott andy, we often have very successful people. Well, we always have very successful people andy you often have very successful people. Not this segment, but in general. Scott and so, the reason i bring that up is i think its terribly gauche to talk about money becausebut are you so successful with the martian that you can continue to follow your creative side for a good period of time to come . Andy yes, yes. The martian, pardon me being gauche, but yeah, the martian, i made a whole buttload of money off of that. And i can kind of do whatever i want. But i still dont want to publicly suck at writing, right . Its a matter ofits a matter of pride. And i want to do a good job, and ive always beenive always been kind of ai was a Software Engineer for 25 years. Ive always been really kind of jobfocused. I always want to do a good job at what im doing. Its not about the earnings, its about doing my job well. And so, i really want to make books that people enjoy reading, whetheryou know, regardless of the money that they bring, so. Jon do you think is there interest in this new book in terms of bringing this to the screen . Andy oh yeah, absolutely. Jon absolutely. And would you have more influence, or did you have a lot of influence on the martian . Andy i had none, no. Heather but they still brought you in, right . I mean, they couldnt have shut you out totally. Andy they chose to, they didnt have to. But as the novelist, your only job on the film is to cash the check really. But for artemis, fox has bought the movie rights, like bought outright, not just optioned, which is nice. And theyve attached the directing duo of phil lord and chris miller to direct. And theyre working oni think the next step would be to find a screenplay writer to adapt it. Scott sure. I mean, yeah, i get the movie poster, you know, from the person who brought you the martian, id go see it in a heartbeat, absolutely. Is thereyou were talking about not going and seeing the martian. When you were on, we had you on earlier a couple of years ago talking about the martian, you said something about the film where you said, you know, once theyve made it a film, its not yours anymore. And it was a very mature statement because a lot of people go and they say, oh, it wasnt exactly like the book, et cetera. Youre the books author, and it wasnt exactly like the book, but you took this mature approach of, listen, you know, i make something, i hand it off to somebody else, and they make something. Andy yeah, they paid me, they paid me for the rights, they get to do whatever they want, you know . Its as simple as that. And, but in the case of the martian, you couldnt have asked for a better, more, like, more direct adaptation. Scott its very close. Andy very, very closely follows the book. Scott mark watney is a little less smartass in the andy a little, yes, and a lot betterlooking than i imagined. Jon did you do as Much Research in artemis as you did for the martian . Andy oh, absolutely. Jon does it get easier or not . Andy i mean, it isit is fun for me. So, its not a thing that i think of as being onerous or hard. The hard part is the actual writing writing. And artemis is, i would say, even more scientifically accurate than the martian. Jon is thereis there like a phrase or concept to use for the type of books you write, like a scientifically accurate fiction or something . Andy the industry term is hard scifi. Jon okay. Heather now, you said before, i think, that its a great time to selfpublish. You have random house calling you now, so you dont have to worry about that. But im curious about your view on kind of the spectrum of ways to selfpublish, the digital age. Is thereis there more ways to do it than just, you know, post it out there in kindle, maybe have people pay a buck, whatever it is . I mean, what sort of options are there for people to selfpublish that might be more prosperous . Andy well, the main platforms are obviously theres amazon. Barnes noble also has their own platform for selfpublishing that you can do. And there are smaller ones. And of course, you can always just sell content any way you want. What youre selling is data, right . So, just like anything else that sells data, you can sell that data yourself. You could start your own selfpublishing company if you wanted. Yeah, and so its a good time to selfpublish, though, because the Old Boy Network between you and the reader is now gone. Scott andy, speaking of selling, i have to do a commercial, but andy weirs new book is artemis, its awesome, its in bookstores now. Thank you for being here. Up next, the most unusual Job Interview youll ever see when press here continues. Scott welcome back to press here. Some Companies Say they are a family, it seems like fewer and fewer these days, but few companies actually take it to the extreme that thoughtspot does. At thoughtspot, the spouse and Family Members of a potential candidate are invited into the interview process. Here, we see the spouse of thoughtspots candidate for cmo. Family members get to ask hard questions of the company to make sure the company is a good fit for their family. Ajeet singh is the founder and ceo of thoughtspot, his second startup. He also cofounded nutanix and took it public. Thanks for being with us this morning. So, you know, the funny thing is youre not supposed to ask if somebody has a family in a Job Interview. How do you then invite that family to come