America in the Age of Conspiracy: Q-Anon, JFK, Aliens, and More

Plain English with Derek Thompson

The Ringer

News, News Commentary

4.7 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2022

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Americans are unusually conspiratorial as a nation. But in the last week, we have really outdone ourselves. The beating of Paul Pelosi—husband of the Speaker of the House—by a Q-Anon conspiracy theorist led to even more unhinged conspiracies about the media. Kanye West has been all over the news spreading nonsense theories about Jewish control of the world, and in basketball Kyrie Irving published a social media post about a book and movie that featured antisemitic tropes and questioned the Holocaust. What makes certain conspiracy theories so successful? Why do conspiracy theories thrive in 21st century America? And aren't some conspiracy theories ... actually true? Like, what's the deal with aliens, and 1950s UFOs, and the assassination of JFK, and government projects on astral projection and military psychic powers? It's all here in today's episode, featuring the hosts of the popular podcast Stuff They Don't Want You to Know. Host: Derek Thompson Guests: Noel Brown, Ben Bowlin and Matt Frederick Producer: Devon Manze Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	An Instagram post gets an unexpected boost. A TikTok catches in the algorithm.
0:05.0	Sometimes that's all it takes to launch someone into internet fame.
0:09.0	But then what?
0:11.0	This blew up is a new podcast documentary that reveals how social media
0:15.0	start and is made. It's a different kind of fame.
0:18.0	It's not always as glamorous as it looks.
0:20.0	From Spotify and the Ring or Podcast Network, I'm Alyssa Bereznek.
0:24.0	You can listen to this blew up on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.0	Today's episode is about conspiracy theories.
0:34.0	A couple months ago, I received in the mail the book Stuff They Don't Want You To Know,
0:38.0	the new offering from the podcast by the same name, which covers the history of
0:42.0	conspiracies in a way that I really enjoyed, intelligent, informed, lighthearted,
0:47.0	but appropriately serious.
0:49.0	And I reached out to the podcast and I said, hey guys, the podcast three guys.
0:53.0	I said, hey guys, I'd love to talk to you about my favorite conspiracy theories,
0:57.0	aliens, the JFK assassination, your favorite conspiracy theories.
1:02.0	And maybe we can bat around some grand overarching theories for why conspiracy
1:07.0	theories seem to be especially buoyant in America today.
1:10.0	And so we scheduled an interview for this week and holy shit.
1:15.0	What a week to schedule an interview on the state of conspiracy in America today.
1:21.0	If you only follow politics or if you only follow music or if you only
1:26.0	follow basketball, one of the biggest stories in the world in your
	...

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