Conspiracy, She Wrote

When deadly floods hit Texas Hill Country in 2025, chemtrails believers and cloud-seeding conspiracists baselessly blamed it on scapegoats “playing God” with the weather. Cristen unravels the post-pandemic mainstreaming of weather control conspiracism, from fringe theories about jet contrails to politicians like Marjorie Taylor Greene legitimizing the misinformation with congressional hearings, an...

After unknowingly showing up at a Capitol insurrection, ethnographer Noelle Cook spent years embedded with the women arrested for January 6th — not grifters and influencers, the true believers. Her new book, The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism and the Lure of Belonging , follows two: Yvonne, a self-proclaimed starseed and sovereign citizen who considers the J6 pardons divine vindication, and Tammy...

The DOJ’s Epstein files named names. Lots of them. But can a network of powerful elites really be held accountable? The Epstein Files Book Club cohosts comedian Jena Friedman ( @jenafriedman ) and journalist Elise Hu ( @elisewho ) join Cristen to sort real conspiracy from distracting theories, confront the messy lines between victims and perpetrators, and figure out what we non-elites can actually...

Jeffrey Epstein didn't invent his victim pipeline from scratch. Modeling agencies had already built one. For decades, agencies like Elite Model Management legally controlled girls' money, housing, and immigration status while conditioning them to smile through whatever came next. Cristen unravels the modeling agency system’s role in Epstein's operation, from the executives who normalized access to...

The First Lady’s surprise April press conference about Jeffrey Epstein raised an obvious question: WHY? Brazilian model Amanda Ungaro might be the answer. She spent nearly 20 years inside the orbit of former modeling executive Paolo Zampolli who brought Melania to America, introduced her to Donald Trump and now enjoys a role in the White House administration that allowed him to get Ungaro deported...

Yes, the Epstein files contain real, documented horrors. No, there is no confirmed baby-eating. Cristen mines the Epstein vault to answer a listener question about why QAnon moms think so anyway. Did the Justice Department's document dump actually contain evidence of satanic ritual abuse and casual cannibalism? And why all the mentions of JERKY? Cristen unravels the claims and ends up just asking...

Candace Owens didn’t invent the conspiracy that France’s First Lady Brigitte Macron is secretly transgender. Instead, she scaled it into a sprawling narrative about elite corruption, satanic power structures, intelligence-state mind control — and the assassination of Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk. In the miniseries finale, Cristen traces three moves that define Candace Owens’ independent era:...

Post Daily Wire firing, Candace Owens didn’t just go independent—she went cosmic. Converting to traditionalist Catholicism, she reframed culture war as holy war, casting politics as “team God vs. team Satan.” In part 2.5 of the miniseries, Cristen unravels how Owens’ alignment with a rising far-right tradCath movement gave her conspiracism a theological framework, baiting “Christ is King” controve...

From fringe YouTuber to “the new face of Black conservatism,” Candace Owens’ rise wasn’t inevitable, but the system that rewarded it was. In part 2 of the miniseries, Cristen traces how Charlie Kirk, Turning Point USA, The Daily Wire and a billionaire-backed right-wing media ecosystem legitimized Candace as a reactionary culture warrior—while Kanye West supercharged her celebrity. But as Candace p...

Before Candace Owens became an overnight right-wing media star, she wanted to rid the internet of trolls with her anti-bullying startup, Social Autopsy. But then, it collided with Gamergate, and a red-pilled conspiracy theorist was born. In Part 1 of this miniseries, Cristen traces the overlooked origin story Candace never stops rewriting: a high school racism scandal, a controversial Kicksta...

What do vision boards and Princess Diana conspiracy theories have in common? They both rely on a kind of magical thinking called proportionality bias. It's one of many cognitive biases that Sounds Like a Cult host Amanda Montell demystifies in her book, The Age of Magical Overthinking . From the sunk cost fallacy of toxic relationships to the halo effect of female celebs to the declinism of everyd...

What did last year's drone mystery have to do with an antisemitic myth that won't die? Medievalist and conspiracy scholar Elise Wang connects the dots between the West’s 900-year-old conspiracy theory playbook and the UFO psyops flooding TikTok today. She and Cristen also unravel the Battle of Los Angeles, hypersexual alien abduction tropes, and how conspiracy theories serve the powerful—not the p...

Before alien abduction became pop culture cliché, there was Betty and Barney Hill. Why did this couple's 1961 roadtrip define the abduction narrative for generations, and what did their biracial marriage have to do with it - or not? Historian Matt Bowman retraces the Hills' journey from the liberal mainstream to UFO microstardom, and Cristen has questions for Betty. Find out how identity, mem...

UFOs aren't a basement boys' club anymore. From Pentagon disclosures to TikTok starseeds and alien romance novels, belief in extraterrestrials is getting spiritual, feminine-coded, and algorithmically viral. Science journalist Sarah Scoles traces the gendered evolution of UFO culture and conspiracies—from Cold War-era military men to the cosmic girlies raising our consciousness to the fifth dimens...

Why does the Super Bowl sex trafficking myth persist, despite repeated debunking? In the miniseries finale, Cristen unravels this sex trafficking myth she helped spread. So, why did major sporting events like the Super Bowl, World Cup and Olympics become seen as sex trafficking playgrounds? These red strings criss-cross from Greece to the United Nations to Texas to multistate sting ops, and with p...

Why were daycare centers the prime targets of the 1980s Satanic Panic, and how did it blow up into America's longest and most expensive criminal trial? Cristen unravels the anti-cult anxieties, paranoid cowboys and "communist" childcare seeded wild conspiracy theories about devil-worshipping predators invading the suburbs. But when law enforcement (aka "police Satan hunters"), social workers, and...

In the 1970s, America’s moral panic machine found its perfect scapegoat: gay and lesbian teachers. Also bathrooms. Historian Gillian Frank unravels the roots of child trafficking and "groomer" conspiracies back to Red Scare paranoia, civil rights backlash, a conservative women's movement against the Equal Rights Amendment and the pageant queen-turned-evangelical superstar Anita Bryant. In part thr...

How did human trafficking conspiracy theories give rise to a politicized pedo panic targeting teachers, trans kids and drag queens? Researchers Daniela Peterka-Benton and Bond Benton connect the dots between QAnon's obsession with saving the children, the 2022 revival of anti-LGBTQ "groomer" rhetoric and Disney's recurring role in American culture wars. Cristen also discovers the surprising source...

Why are suburban white women so afraid of getting snatched out of parking lots and sex trafficked? Journalist Caitlin Dewey unravels the tangled threads of modern sex trafficking panic, the impact of QAnon, and the role of influencers and media in laundering misinformation as "safety" advice for women and moms. Caitlin and Cristen also highlight how these viral myths impact real trafficking victim...

Ever heard of emotional literacy? In this mini episode (a breadcrumb? red thread?), climate misinformation expert and content creator Abbie Richards explains what it is, why it pairs so well with conspiracy theories, and how we all stand to benefit from more of it. Because if debunking won’t stop the misinformation crisis, maybe it's time to start teaching feelings. Chapters: (00:00) Re-introducin...

In the late summer of 1834, a torch-wielding mob burned down a Boston convent for reasons that sound a lot like . . . Pizzagate. Fueled by rumors of kidnappings, papal paranoia and phony exposés, conspiracy theories about nuns in their convents spiraled out of control in 19th-century America. Cristen unravels why that happened and how it set the stage for contemporary culture wars over saving the...

What’s the difference between a conspiracy theory and gossip? When does joking around about Kate Middleton’s abduction turn into something much darker? Are women actually more susceptible to contemporary conspiracy theories — or are we just finally paying attention to it? Cristen joined Anne Helen Petersen on Culture Study Podcast to unpack all of that, plus Taylor Swift’s evil twin, Beyoncé’...

From cuckoo claims she’s secretly a man to attacks questioning her Blackness, Kamala Harris conspiracy theories are one of the most predictable features of the 2024 election, it turns out. Disinformation researcher Nina Jankowicz unravels the three main disinfo narratives that have targeted Kamala for years and what they sound like today, and Cristen follows the red string to the self-proclaimed "...

What can an obscure conspiracy theory involving Michelle Obama, Joan Rivers and the deep state tell us about the gender panicked rise of reactionary politics? Enter “transvestigation”—a brain-rot conspiracy genre trafficking in wonky eyes, bad photoshops and a gender-inclusive Illuminati. Digital researcher Lexi Webster unravels the nonsense and why it’s worth understanding, while political schola...

Free Britney started as fan sleuthing, which ultimately helped end Britney Spears’ conservatorship, sparked a pop cultural reckoning and galvanized a disability rights movement. Podcaster and comic Tess Barker ( Pop Mystery Pod ) unravels that journey of pursuing the truth about Britney–and its thornier consequences–while digital sociologist Naomi Smith explains the allure of conspiracy communitie...