Conspiracy Clearinghouse

EPSIODE 91 | Tartaria Sauce : The Great Tartarian Empire and 15-Minute Cities One day, I wondered if there were any conspiracy theories about architecture, which is something I am quite keen on, so I fired up the laptop and did a Google search, and sure enough, there is. One. One that’s weird and funny and just a little bit sad. While researching this, a new conspiracy pops up on the interwebs, th...

EPISODE 90 | Oh, Canada!  The Great White North, the Just Society - Canada is a cold place filled with reasonable people. For the most part. But not even they are immune to the pull of the conspirasphere, and have hatched some wacky ideas all their own.  This episode is by request of a Canadian fan of the podcast. So enjoy! Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on  Buy Me a Cof...

EPISODE 89 | JBS BS: The John Birch Society History is full of those who became tyrants or aspired to become one. Even in a country like the United States in the fairly enlightened 20th century, there were those who thought that, well, actually, their vision of how things should be was the best one, and that they should probably just be in charge. And if you opposed them, they said all sorts of di...

EPISODE 88 | Weird AI Yankovic (Not-So-Scary AI Futures) Guest: Josh Bachynski, AI consultant AI is here and it's here to stay. And despite all the hand wringing and doom-and-gloom predictions, the AI-powered future actually looks pretty bright. AI is already being used in a number of applications, and more are on the way.  Josh Bachynski and I talk about the inherent ethics of intelligence; AI/ro...

EPISODE 87 | CSI: Conspiracy: Three Cold Cases (World Is Weird 9) True crime is a popular genre, mainly because people love mysteries. Here are three cases from the conspiracy world that fit the bill, from three different decades and three different countries, where the weird and the unexplained meet head on.  We’ll look at the Lead Masks Case from Brazil, the UK’s Zigmund Adamski case (sometimes...

EPISODE 86 | The Skynet Matrix: AI Goes Rogue Guest: Josh Bachynski, AI thought leader and programmer AI seems to be everywhere, and plenty of folks have freaked out about it over the years. AI expert Josh Bachynski talks about doomsday scenarios, their likelihood and what's probably coming in the near future.  Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on  Buy Me a Coffee . #Conspi...

EPSIODE 85 | Project Pegasus: Mars and Beyond! The United States has secret bases on Mars, which they may or may not share with aliens. This base is there, but also not there, because it might only exist in the future, accessible using time travel technology, or maybe in a bubble universe. People, such as a young Barack Obama, are sent to this base to perform various tasks, like fighting a vast wa...

EPISODE 84 | Sound Advice: A440 vs. A432 Guest: Andrew Currie, Owner & Lead Sound Engineer of Mechanizer Studios Today, most musicians use 440Hz as the reference pitch for orchestras, but they use to use all sorts of different ones, especially 432Hz. Wow, that’s interesting, I guess. But even something as seemingly innocuous as international musical pitch standards can be fair game for the conspir...

EPISODE 83 | Play Ball!: Sportspiracies Guest: Mark Fitzhenry, EFL teacher in Prague, co-founder of the Imperfectionists improv group Sport seems to almost lend itself to rumor, innuendo and conspiracy thinking with accusations of wrongdoing, curses that plague a team for years and even the occasional crossover of the geopolitical and athletic worlds. Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three v...

EPISODE 82 | Reptiles of the Mind: The Reptilian Conspiracy (Big 'Uns 7) The conspirasphere thrives on the idea that things are not what they seem to be on the surface. And for some, the very people around us are not what they seem. Why, they might not even be human, at all. Some of the supposed “people” you see are actually shapeshifting aliens, possibly from somewhere in Orion, maybe from inside...

EPISODE 81 | The Logos Prophecy Guest: Martin Treanor, author of The Logos Prophecy (Fall of Ancients 1) What if all the conspiracy theories were true? That's what writer Martin Treanor used as the starting point for an ambitious trilogy of novels that starts in the present day (with a conspiracy theorist and a science guy), then travels back 13,000 years, and finishes thousands of years in the fu...

EPISODE 80 | Fair Dinkum: 4 Mysteries from Down Under Australia - a land with a checkered past where everything, it seems, wants to kill you (even the magpies). It's the land of the Dreamtime, and vegemite, and Zooper Dooper ice blocks, and shopping trolleys dumped in car parks. It's also a land of mystery and the unexplained. Sometimes. Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on...

EPISODE 79 | Film Flam: JFK & Stone Guest: Fred Litwin, author of Oliver Stone's Film-Flam: The Demagogue of Dealey Plaza Former JFK conspiracy theorist turned JFK conspiracy debunker Fred Litwin has written a new book, this time taking aim at Oliver Stone's 1991 film "JFK" and his 2021 four-part TV series defending that movie, JFK: Destiny Betrayed. Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or thre...

EPISODE 78 | Khazar Love Triangle An obscure 10th century confederation of Turkic-speaking peoples between the Caspian and Black Seas gets transformed through the power of imagination into anything and everything. The Khazars become symbols for a number of claims, including being the origin of the Cossacks (or at least some of them), the real Jews, fake Jews and more. Today, the Khazar Myth is oft...

EPISODE 77 | Monster Mash: Werewolf? There Wolf! Tales of shapeshifters go back many moons in human history, and wolves seem to be especially in the spotlight. When people get accused of this, they often find themselves in serious trouble. And once in a blue moon, someone claims that they are actually a werewolf. This is often a mental disorder known as clinical lycanthropy. And then there are tho...

EPISODE 76 | Klown Kar: The KKK Can KMA (World Is Weird 8) We're always products of the time and place we live in, so when a Southern group of friends got together in the wake of the American Civil War to start a fun club, it’s really not that big a surprise that it quickly transformed into the largest racist organization in the country. We’re talking about the Ku Klux Klan, a terrorist group that...

EPISODE 75 | Org Chart: Insidious Institutions Men with power meeting behind closed doors - an idea that makes some people pretty suspicious. Perhaps memories of old star chambers, which carried out extra-judicial proceedings, are what worry people. Or maybe it’s just an inherent distrust of powerful people plotting to influence the world and reshape it to their own benefit, which just might also...

EPISODE 74 | Red Alert: UFOs as Threat! Some think UAPs might be a "threat" and there have been a few incidents that might be indicative of intent to harm. Or at least, encounters that we interpret as maybe not so friendly, though that might say more about us than about any glowing orbs flying around in the sky. Like what we do? Then buy us a beer or three via our page on  Buy Me a Coffee . #Consp...

EPISODE 73 | My Chemtrail Romance Planes go by in the sky and leave white trails behind them. Some of us see this and think, wow, ice crystals. Other think it’s a nefarious evil plot to take away our minds or our virility or something else. As soon as someone starts talking about chemtrails, you sort of know where you stand with them. They're a conspiracy nut and can be easily dismissed. Especiall...

EPISODE 72 | Everywhere Is Haunted Guest: Bob LeMent, creator and host of the Static Radio podcast and Everywhere Is Haunted YouTube channel The unseen world is intriguing to many of us, especially those of us embroiled in pop culture. Plenty of people believe in ghosts, spirits, shades, spectres, shadows, phantoms, eidolons, or whatever you want to call them. We talk with Bob LeMent, who runs the...

EPISODE 71 | The Starfighter & the Condor (World Is Weird 7) The story of the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter starts fine, but then takes a turn into comedy, then tragedy before veering into corporate malfeasance, corruption, far-right ultranationalism, secret agents, a modern kamikaze attack, a finance giant and a bag lady, MK-ULTRA Manchurian Candidates and South American state-sponsored terror.  Bec...

EPISODE 70 | Monster Mash: Vampires With Halloween just around the corner, it’s natural to start think about the supernatural. While superheroes and characters from TV and movies are increasingly popular costumes, it’s very often the classics we turn to when choosing what to dress up as for All Hallow’s Eve. Vampire is still a popular choice, and the idea of undead blood-drinking fiends frightens...

EPISODE 69 | Electoral Collage: Voter Fraud, Election Interference & Other Shenanigans (The World Is Weird 6) The US midterms are coming up and there's lots of chatter about fraud. Are they legit? Has there been fraud and interference in the past? Yes, but not every time foul has been cried. A look at claims and scandals 1792-1982, plus a thumbnail history of American political parties. Like w...

EPISODE 68 | Persistent Illusion: Time Travellers We are accustomed to thinking of time as a fourth dimension, though Einstein says space and time are really, when you get down to it, the same thing. As he once said, “The distinction between the past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.” This makes us wonder – will it one day be possible to travel in time the same way we...

EPISODE 67 | Pixels & Paranoia: Video Game Conspiracies From its humble beginnings, the video game industry has expanded from cabinet arcade games to PCs and home consoles. Two-thirds of adults in the US and three-quarters of children play them. It makes more than the film industry, which got to around $21 bn last year; and music, which made almost $26 billion in 2021. Globally, gaming hit $19...