Marianna in Conspiracyland 2: 3. Down the cancer conspiracy rabbit hole
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BBC
2.8 • 947 Ratings
🗓️ 23 June 2025
⏱️ 31 minutes
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Summary
What are cancer patients seeing on social media? The BBC’s social media investigations correspondent Marianna Spring goes down the cancer conspiracy rabbit hole to find out. She returns to the days Paloma spent in hospital after her cancer diagnosis to analyse the advice Paloma was being given by medical staff versus the advice she was receiving from alternative practioners and her Mum, Kate Shemirani. Marianna investigates Paloma’s mum’s platform as a conspiracy theory influencer and looks at the wider role some social media sites are playing in turbocharging accounts that promote health misinformation. Plus, she speaks to the Vice President of Royal College of Radiologists to understand how harmful content on social media is affecting patients.
Host: Marianna Spring Producer: Anna Harris Sound Engineer: Tony Churnside Editor: Sam Bonham Commissioning producer: Nathan Jones Commissioning editor: Rhian Roberts
This was a BBC collaboration with Panorama.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | A group of men ran in with machetes. |
| 0:03.8 | I'm Livy Haydock, and from BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 5 Live, |
| 0:08.6 | this is gangster, the story of Georgie Pye. |
| 0:13.2 | The scene of the killing near a Chinese bookshop is being flooded with detectives. |
| 0:17.0 | Welcome to the world of the triads. |
| 0:19.6 | If the triads are coming out of you, you're done. |
| 0:21.6 | Where loyalty is sworn in blood. |
| 0:24.6 | Gangster, the story of Georgie Pie. |
| 0:27.6 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.6 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:41.3 | Her mum was always the loudest person in the room when I did meet her. And I think you just have to look on social media to see how influential she is. |
| 0:47.3 | This is Rosie, one of Paloma Shemarani's school friends. |
| 0:51.3 | She's telling me about Paloma's mom's unconventional beliefs. |
| 0:56.0 | I met her mom a few times. |
| 0:58.0 | I think subconsciously I sort of stayed away from it. |
| 1:02.0 | I knew my views differed very dramatically from her mums, |
| 1:04.0 | and I think that was always a topic of discussion for me in Paloma. |
| 1:08.0 | Beliefs which she says were sometimes shared by Paloma. |
| 1:11.6 | I knew Paloma sided a bit more on the no vaccination side of things. And as soon as I was able |
| 1:17.4 | to get a vaccination, I was straight in there to get one. Rosie has type 1 diabetes, and her |
| 1:23.0 | mum is a qualified nurse. Two reasons she says she grew up with a strong belief in conventional |
| 1:28.8 | medicine. But generally, she and Paloma found ways around their differing views. |
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