Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Embedded from NPR.

Earlier this year, we put out a series called Alternate Realities.

And if you haven't listened, you will want to go back and do that before listening to this episode.

Just to remind you what happened in the series, reporter Zach Mack was struggling with his father,

who had gone deep into a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories.

Zach's family was kind of bawling apart because of his dad's beliefs.

And then one day his father gives him a list of ten conspiracy theories that he said would come true by the end of 2024.

And Zach took the bet, hoping it would be a way of understanding

his father better and maybe getting him to change the way he thinks. But when his dad lost the

bet, he refused to believe he was wrong in any way. Still, Zach has not given up on changing his father's mind.

And today, Zach is here to update us with a one episode follow-up.

Zach will take the story from here.

After alternate realities was out for the world to hear. Pretty much everyone I've ever met

and a lot of people I've never met

reached out to me to ask about the series.

The question I got over and over,

how's your family doing?

And what did they think when they listened?

It helped me make the break that I needed to make.

I called my mom right away.

Hearing it really confirmed that I was making the right decision for me.

My sister was in town visiting me in Brooklyn, and she went on a long walk to listen.

...