What Pyongyang taught me about propaganda — theirs and ours

In Pyongyang the propaganda is honest about being propaganda. Murals, loudspeakers, portraits — nobody pretends it's anything else. It's so visible it almost stops working on you; you see the machine because the machine doesn't hide.

The uncomfortable part is landing home afterwards. You start noticing that our messaging doesn't come from one ministry — it comes from everywhere at once, dressed as entertainment, news, advertising and lifestyle. It doesn't order you to believe anything. It just decides what you see ten thousand times a year.

Travel to 'forbidden' places won't make you agree with those regimes — I certainly don't. What it does is give you a second vantage point, and propaganda of every flavour works worst on people with more than one vantage point.

That's the real reason this project exists. Not adrenaline. Vantage points. Read everything, visit what you can, and trust your own eyes over anyone's narration — including mine.