Maps Lie To You

Join debut host Tom Fish (cartographer and author of FishEye) on a journey into how maps are not as reliable as you think they are.

We use maps every day to find our way, understand the news, and figure out where Zanzabar is (East Africa; part of Tanzania). Through regular usage, we put our trust in them to not lead us astray. This trust, however, can be weaponized to warp how we see the world. In this salon, we are going to discuss the two most destructive uses of maps for misinformation and propaganda: war and politics.

Reading list:

Chapters 8 and 9 of How to Lie with Maps are going to be the starting place of our discussion.  I linked to the third edition, but you should be able to get by with an older version. The chapters of interest are chapters 7 and 8 of the first edition.

These might also be of interest:

• Chapters 1-4 of How to Lie With Maps – how projection, map elements, and color can be used to lead you to false assumptions
• In Putin’s War, the Map Is Not the Territory
• My map of Oceania

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