Q drops, deep state campaigns, 9/11 intelligence failures, mysterious web movies, and tales from the perimeter: To be American is to continually be bombarded by the brand new conspiracy theories. Which ones are harmful? which of them are price giving a second thought? Which of them are simply weird?
These 10 podcasts climb down into the conspiratorial muck to inform the tales they don’t need us to find out about.
American Hysteria
American Hysteria explores how fantastical considering has formed our tradition. Suppose: ethical panics, city legends, hoaxes, crazes, fringe beliefs, and nationwide misunderstandings. Host Chelsey Weber-Smith retells the strangest tales from American historical past with a robust humorousness, and examines the forces that create the fact we share, and generally, the fact we don’t. Chelsey simply began a really cool phase referred to as the City Legends Hotline that permits folks (like you!) name in and share native city legends. For those who’re fortunate, Chelsey will go to in actual life to research them. (Name the City Legends Hotline right here.)
Stuff They Don’t Need You To Know
Stuff They Don’t Need You To Know sheds the mild of analysis and sober evaluation on the world of conspiracy theories. It’s the good present for folks with a curiosity for hidden information and a curiosity about tinfoil hat views. Ben Bowlin, Matt Frederick, and Noel Brown are partaking storytellers, diving deep into authorities secrets and techniques, paranormal phenomena, hidden historical past, and unexplained occasions, backing them up or debunking them by way of verifiable information, historic information, and credible sources. Some episodes really feel tremendous well timed (a current interview with Gilbert King of the ground-breaking true-crime collection Bone Valley) and a few are extra evergreen, as a result of conspiracy theories by no means actually go away. Ben, Matt, and Noel have been at it since 2013 and have constructed an enormous group of people who find themselves dying to know what they shouldn’t.
Data Battle
Dan Friesen and Jordan Holmes hold shut tabs on Alex Jones so that you don’t need to. Every week on Data Battle they evaluate current clips from Jones’ Infowars programming and attempt to make sense of all of it. They go deep, and a few of the content material is darkish, however Dan and Jordan are humorous sufficient to make it each a wild experience and an pleasant hear. There’s no higher solution to study conspiracy theories than to review the folks steeped in them, and this present is like Cliff’s Notes for the supply of lots of the wildest theories taking maintain of America.
Lizard Individuals
Generally conspiracy theories are harmful and terrifying. Generally they’re simply hilarious. Comic Katelyn Hempstead’s Lizard Individuals is all concerning the latter. The present brings on humorous folks and permits them to air their obsessions with the wackiest conspiracy theories you’ve by no means heard. Is New Zealand faux? Is Rivers Cuomo actually Kurt Cobain? Are octopuses aliens? Is The Strolling Lifeless a documentary? The reply to the entire above: Probably not, however isn’t it enjoyable to consider? On every episode, a guest presents their nutty perception and Katelyn tries to debunk it. On the finish, she passes judgement: how satisfied is she that the conspiracy principle is true? And the way a lot does she wish to imagine it’s?
QAnon Nameless
QAnon has been creeping into the mainstream and attracting increasingly followers (together with some sitting members of congress) who imagine within the Deep State Principle, which posits that a worldwide cabal of democrats and celebrities is sexually abusing kids and working towards cannibalism. All of this information is delivered to these within the know by way of “drops” by the nameless “Q.” It’s onerous to maintain up with this ever-evolving internet of disinformation, however on QAnon Nameless, Julian Feeld, Travis View, and Jake Rockatansky function your QAnon correspondents, explaining all the important thing tenants of the conspiracy: the Storm, the Nice Awakening, and each drop of incredulous ideology in between. It’s not a lot that the theories themselves are terrifying (although they’re definitely unsettling); it’s that so many individuals apparently imagine them.
My Momma Advised Me
On My Momma Advised Me, comedians Langston Kerman and David Gborie take a deep dive into the funniest (and, usually, most problematic) Black conspiracy theories. Company come on to speak about what the tales their momma advised them, kicking off a dialog concerning the validity and/or nonsense concerned. Must you burn your individual hair so folks don’t forged a spell on you? Is Church buildings Rooster owned by the KKK and attempting to sterilize Black males by way of their meals? Does all the things kill your sperm rely? Langston and David don’t know, however they’re all the way down to entertain every notion for a short time.
Net Crawlers
Fall down the rabbit gap with Ali Segel and Melissa Stetten, hosts of Net Crawlers, the present about unsolved mysteries, creepy cults, scammers, and unsettling conspiracies gathered from round the online. Alie and Melissa inform wild histories, share “bimbo” information updates, and open up the mailbag, the place their devoted listeners write in with their very own unusual findings on-line. It’s a podcast about creepy stuff, but additionally about friendship; the hosts’ chemistry could make you smile together with tales about most cancers scams, authors who faux their very own deaths and kill their husbands, Wendy the Snapple girl’s cocaine behavior, and extra. These girls are falling down the rabbit gap, laughing all the best way.
Final Podcast on the Left
On Final Podcast on the Left, Ben Kissel, Marcus Parks and Henry Zebrowski ship over-the-top retellings of the loopy issues folks truly imagine. The analysis that goes into every episode (about subjects as various as UFO crashes, intelligence failures round 9/11, Jeffrey Epstein, and smaller information tales in between) is intense, and the tales themselves are so loopy, you’ll be left hoping the present is simply making all of it up. (Sadly, no.) Even in case you’ve heard the identical story on 20 different podcasts, you’re lacking out in case you don’t hear the Final Podcast on the Left’s take.
Pink Net
Pink Net tells tales of the internet’s most intriguing mysteries, conspiracies, and supernatural occasions. Trevor Collins and co-host Alfredo Diaz think about the tales that go away us with extra questions than solutions, and do their greatest to fill within the gaps. Trevor comes with the information and Alfredo with the comedian reduction. Collectively they provide an entertaining mixture of reporting and comedy, protecting the creepiest video on the web, ooze falling from the sky, the world’s most mysterious telephone quantity, a literal field of loopy, and a lot extra.
Jordan Klepper Fingers the Conspiracy
Jordan Klepper rolls round within the muddy world of pizzagate, Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, and the Italian satellites that gained the Biden election on Jordan Klepper Fingers the Conspiracy, a six-episode podcast that places his boots on MAGA floor as he wades by way of the conspiracy theories which have formed fashionable American politics and tradition. On The Every day Present, Jordan’s interviews and commentary had been essential in understanding the acute proper, and for six little episodes we get him again. Be a part of him in stepping away from the desk and into the unknown. You’ll binge them quick and need for extra.
