Shooting conspiracies, breakup texts, and Dana White's cortisol spike
Top Comment
BBC
4.0 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 1 May 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Following an apparent assassination attempt at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday night, dozens of high-profile conservative accounts posted almost identical reactions on X. On this episode, Matt and Marianna explain why some people think these posts are coordinated, and debunk false claims the event itself was staged.
Also this week, why are conspiracy theories surrounding the tick-borne infection Lyme disease receiving so much online attention? And, the AI songs TikTok users are creating with texts from their ex.
Top Comment is hosted by Marianna Spring and Matt Shea. The series producer is Laurie Kalus. The social producer is Sophie Millward. The technical producer was Mike Regaard. The editor is Justine Lang. The senior news editor is Sam Bonham.
If you want to get in touch about something that's popped up on your feed, our email address is topcomment@bbc.co.uk or you can send us a WhatsApp on +44 330 123 9480.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Shall we get cracking? |
| 0:08.7 | You've got a BBC podcast coming up. |
| 0:10.8 | These were immensely popular. |
| 0:13.0 | But if you also like looking back, |
| 0:14.7 | then the BBC has loads of history podcasts to offer. |
| 0:17.6 | Proof that being a historian is a very exciting job. |
| 0:19.7 | Covering everything. |
| 0:20.7 | From epic events. |
| 0:21.6 | It was the year 1666. |
| 0:23.6 | Two personal stories. |
| 0:24.6 | It was an anxiety that people felt even in the ancient world. |
| 0:27.6 | So in future, for more history podcasts, |
| 0:29.6 | free people making a free choice about what they wanted. |
| 0:33.6 | Search History on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:40.2 | Okay, Mariana, why were you late today? |
| 0:51.3 | Professor Shea, I was, I've been busy doing a new documentary that's all about AI and the kinds of stuff we talk about on Top Comment. |
| 0:52.4 | That sounds very exciting. |
| 0:58.6 | So today on Top Comment we're going to talk about mainly the White House Correspondents' Dinner assassination attempt, |
| 1:03.8 | some of the conspiracy theories behind it, the MAGA line around it, and why the story may be deeper than everyone realizes on that. |
| 1:07.6 | Yeah, and speaking of conspiracy theories, we're going to be getting into a new breed of |
| 1:11.6 | conspiracy theory that's going super viral about Lyme disease and ticks. |
... |
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