Zach Mack on Trying to Rescue His Father from ‘Alternate Realities’

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 4 April 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Has someone you love ever been enmeshed in online conspiracy theories? Podcast host Zach Mack’s father fell deep into a rabbit hole and wagered Mack $10,000 that 10 of his far-fetched political and apocalyptic beliefs would come true within the year. Mack created a podcast about the experience called “Alternate Realities,” which New York Magazine has already named one of the best of the year. We talk to Mack about what he learned from the bet and what it was like trying to disentangle his father from the conspiracy theories he embraced. And we’ll hear from UCSF clinical psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Pierre about how to talk with loved ones in the grips of conspiratorial thinking. Guests: Zach Mack, producer of the podcast, "Alternate Realities" Dr. Joe Pierre, health sciences clinical professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, UCSF; he is the author of “False: How Mistrust, Disinformation, and Motivated Reasoning Make Us Believe Things That Aren't True" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:00.0	Support for Forum comes from Rancho La Puerta, boated the number one wellness resort and spa by readers of travel and leisure magazine in 2024.
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0:26.6	Support for Forum comes from Broadway S.F. presenting Parade, the musical revival based on a true story.
0:34.4	From three-time Tony-winning composer Jason Robert Brown comes the story of Leo and Lucille Frank,
0:40.6	a newlywed Jewish couple struggling to make a life in Georgia. When Leo is accused of an
0:46.3	unspeakable crime, it propels them into an unimaginable test of faith, humanity, justice, and
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1:02.1	The riveting and gloriously hopeful parade plays the Orpheum Theater for three weeks only, May 20th through June 8th.
1:06.4	Tickets on sale now at Broadway, sF.com.
1:09.0	From KQED.
1:27.2	From KQED in San Francisco. I'm Leslie McClurg in Fermina Kim.
1:30.2	Coming up on forum, conspiracy theories aren't fringe anymore, and they're not just crazy notions.
1:36.5	They're influencing real relationships.
1:39.3	Zach Mack knows what that's like.
1:41.3	His own father became consumed by apocalyptic predictions so much so
1:45.6	he made Zach a $10,000 bet that 10 of his most extreme political predictions would come true
1:52.4	within the year. Zach joins us and we'll hear from you. Has a loved one been enmeshed in
1:57.8	online conspiracy theories? Join us. That's next after this news.
2:06.3	This is Forum. I'm Leslie McClurg. I'm in today for Mina Kim. And I think most of us have
2:17.3	someone in our lives, maybe a friend, maybe a parent,
2:20.3	who is lost in the land of conspiracy theories. For me, that was my dad, unfortunately, and I tried
	...

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