Explore a seminar on the relationship between social networks, protests, and repression. Delve into a model connecting the distribution of connections in social networks to the size of protests. Examine simulations that vary mass mobilization based on connection distribution and repression levels. Discover unintuitive findings, including the lack of dependence on initial protesters' network density and nonlinear relationships between connection scaling and protest scaling. Investigate how the model explains state repression tactics and addresses the repression-dissent puzzle. Learn about degree distribution of networks, Twitter data analysis, protest size statistics, and experimental results. Gain insights from Zachary Steinert-Threlkeld's research at the University of California, Los Angeles, presented at the Santa Fe Institute.