Conspiracy: July 2020 podcast listening list

This month we’re digging into conspiracies—why they are compelling, their role in shaping history, and we’ll even explore a few theories that may or may not be accurate.

Podcast Listening List on CONSPIRACY

Get the full listening list on your podcast player of choice using these platforms:

Podcast: The Anthill
Episode: Expert guide to conspiracy theories part 3 – their history (March 2020, 37 min)
The Illuminati is perhaps the most famous secret society and is blamed for everything from the French Revolution to current pop music. This episode digs into the history of the Illuminati and conspiracy theories surrounding it persist today.
Listen on app of choice (via Podkite) or via Podchaser or Podyssey
Podcast: Throughline
Episode: Conspiracy (May 2020, 43 min)
The very founding of America is based on an actual conspiracy and a conspiracy theory.
Listen on app of choice (via Podkite) or via Podchaser or Podyssey
Podcast: Future Hindsight
Episode: The New Conspiracism: Nancy Rosenblum (June 2020, 30 min)
Nancy Rosenblum, a researcher at Harvard, is the guest on this episode. She delves into “conspiracism,” which is the idea that, as a society, we have are living in a culture of conspiracy where nearly everything is seen with a lens of conspiracy with no evidence, let alone “theory,” to back it up. (This is a sponsored episode).
Listen on app of choice (via Podkite) or via Podchaser or Podyssey
Podcast: Wind of Change
Episode: 1. My Friend Michael (May 2020, 45 min)
A journalist hears a rumor that the song Wind of Change by the Scorpions, a song that became the soundtrack to the end of the Cold War, was actually written by the CIA. This is the first episode of a serialized 8-part podcast. All of the episodes are currently available to binge if you are so inclined!
Listen on app of choice (via Podkite) or via Podchaser or Podyssey
Podcast: Rabbit Hole
Episode: One: Wonderland (April 2020, 27 min)
How does someone get sucked into the conspiracy theories on the internet? This is the first in a serialized podcast from the New York Times about the rabbit hole that is the internet.
Listen on app of choice (via Podkite) or via Podchaser or Podyssey

Bonus podcasts/episodes

• Your Undivided Attention: “The Spin Doctors Are In”
• On the Media: “We Need To Talk About Poland”
• Out of Order: “Pandemic Playbook: How Beijing is Shaping its Own Story— and Learning from Moscow.”
• Beyond Binary Thinking: “Plandemic? Beyond Conspiracy Theories”
• What Really Happened?: “S3 [15] Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 (Part 1)”
• Long Shots: “George Wallace: The Segregationist”
• Jenna’s Podyssey Playlist: “Conspiracy theories, and conspiracies without the theory”
• LSE: Public lectures and events: “LSE Festival 2019 | Conspiracy Theory as Truth [Audio]”
• Big Brains: “The Science of Conspiracy Theories and Political Polarization with Eric Oliver (Ep. 25)”
• Democracy Works: “How Conspiracies Are Damaging Democracy”
• Curiosity Daily: “Inside Pseudoscience And Conspiracy Theories (Ep012)”
• Conspiracy Theories: “Are Diamonds Really Rare?”
• Cesar’s Podchaser Playlist: “This Is (NOT) A Conspiracy”
• The Constant podcast
• The Walkers Switch
• RFK Tapes podcast
• Lizard People: Comedy and Conspiracy Theories podcast

PBC Podcast Episodes about the Conspiracy Listening List

• Conspiracy Listening List Roundup
  Adela and Sara dig into the July PBC podcast listening list on Conspiracy and then share some of their own podcast recommendations and get some podcast picks from the PBC community.
  Open episode in podcast app of choice
• Future Hindsight host and executive producer, Mila Atmos
  A discussion with Mila Atmos, the host and executive producer of Future Hindsight.
  Open episode in podcast app of choice

Conversation Starter Questions

1. What did you learn from this set of podcasts?
2. How familiar were you with the origins of the Illuminati before listening to the listening list?
3. How much do you think the internet plays into conspiracy theories today?
4. How much do you think disinformation and fake news are founded on conspiracy theories?
5. Are there conspiracy theories that you believe, or used to believe? If so, why do you believe them, or why did you stop believing them?
6. On the Future Hindsight episode, Nancy Rosenblum lays out an argument that the US is in the midst of a culture of “conspiracism” and that it has created a collective disorientation. Do you agree?
7. Both Wind of Change and Rabbit Hole are first episodes in a series. Will you continue to listen to either? Why/why not?