Conspiracy Theories

This July, we’re revisiting five classic topics in our Conspiracy Theories: Rewind series! Marilyn Monroe has been a cultural icon since she dominated Hollywood in the 1950s. Yet, her life was filled with turmoil. She struggled with mental health, drug addiction, and heartache– particularly during her alleged affairs with both JFK and Bobby Kennedy. But what was it that led to her untimely death?...

This July, we’re revisiting five classic topics in our Conspiracy Theories: Rewind series! First up, one of our most-requested stories: The Titanic. The “unsinkable” ship was brought down by a 6-second brush with an iceberg in April 1912. Did somebody know the world’s largest ocean liner would sink that day? Help us reach 10k followers on Instagram! @⁠theconspiracypod⁠ Play Unhinged, an new horror...

When the Allan Memorial Institute opened its doors in 1943, its founders believed it would revolutionize mental health care. Under the direction of Dr. Ewen Cameron, however, the hospital started down a dark path – barbaric treatments, patients begging to go home, and a dark place nobody wanted to enter known as “The Sleep Room.” It would take decades for the world to learn about Cameron’s experim...

Some believe that the government plants references to future global atrocities into popular media– subconsciously conditioning the public to never rise up. Their biggest brainwashing weapon? The Simpsons. The cartoon has been said to predict the future, but these “predictions” may really be clues to a bigger master plan by those that control the world. For more Simpsons lore, check out Stupid TV,...

On May 19, 1984, an ice cream truck driver from Ohio named Michael Larson wins more than $100,000 on the CBS daytime game show Press Your Luck. How he does it is a total mystery. Is he a scammer? Is he supernaturally lucky? Or has he made his own luck? Help us reach 10k followers on Instagram! @⁠theconspiracypod⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1992, UFO researcher Bob Oeschler received a strange package in the mail. It contained documents, purportedly stolen from some top-secret Canadian project, alleging a vast alien cover-up. The envelope contained something else: a VHS tape. The sender – identified only as “Guardian” – claimed to have captured footage of a UFO landing in rural Ontario. Bob found the tape credible and spent years t...

In 1986, two young British defense scientists died under mysterious circumstances, sparking theories of foul play. Not only because both specialized in underwater defense systems; they also worked for the same company, Marconi Electronic Systems. Which was one of several defense contractors working with Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative, or Star Wars. As journalists sought out connectio...

On June 16th, 2009, a dead body washes ashore on Rosses Point beach, Ireland. The Irish police force learns the deceased’s name is Peter Bergmann. Or is it? Because everything “Peter” did while alive seemed shrouded in secrecy. He gave his hotel a fake name, a fake address, and he even knew how to dodge CCTV cameras around the city. Was Peter just a private, secretive man – or was he a spy? Help u...

In 1988, a covert team operating within the Defense Intelligence Agency sought out the legendary Ark of the Covenant. Only, their search didn’t take them out in the field, Indiana Jones-style. Project Sun Streak sought out the lost relic using Remote Viewing – the reported ability to transmit one’s consciousness elsewhere. According to declassified documents… it seems like they may have located it...

The injustice and hysteria that defined the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 is so shocking, historians have spent centuries looking for an explanation. In reality, it was a perfect storm of tensions that led to the deaths of at least 24 innocent people. But in all of that confusion, who was really pulling the strings? And why didn’t elected leaders step in sooner? Help us reach 10k followers on Instagr...

In the 1950s, Adventures of Superman dominated TV screens thanks to its star George Reeves. However, while the world loved him as Superman, George reportedly felt trapped in the role. According to the Hollywood rumor mill, the resulting depression drove him to die by suicide. But is this what really happened, or an apocryphal tale that covers up the truth – that Superman was murdered? Help us reac...

A man stumbles out of the Colorado wilderness in 1873. After his traveling party ran out of food in the dead of winter, he’s the only survivor. Except he looks surprisingly well-fed. Alfred Packer’s story of what became of his companions changes not once, but twice. In the end, we know that he ate them in order to survive. The question is, did he kill them first? Help us reach 10k followers on Ins...

Does nature or nurture shape who we are? Does our personality come from our genes, or the environment we live in? Countless scientific studies on the subject have been published. But one such study – a collaboration between a psychoanalyst and a New York adoption agency – was instead hidden away for decades. Could it be because the study was founded on lies? Because it was unethical? Or might ther...

James Angleton ran counterintelligence for the CIA for 20 years. His job was to find Soviet spies hiding inside Western intelligence. He was brilliant, obsessive, and almost certainly right that the threat of a mole was real. But the hunt he launched tore the CIA apart from the inside, and the greatest deception of his career was one he never saw coming. Help us reach 10k followers on Instagram! @...

In 1915, a German U-boat torpedoed the Lusitania, sinking it off the Irish coast, and killing over 1000 people. The attack devastated the American public, and justified America’s entry into World War I. But rumors of a top-secret British navy operation, the ship’s hidden second manifest, and a decades-long cover-up all led people to ask: Was the sinking an inside job? Help us reach 10k followers o...

Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum, and Vickie’s grandson Colby claimed they encountered a diamond-shaped UFO that spit fire on their way home from B-I-N-G-O. They later suffered symptoms consistent with radiation exposure and filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government. Keep up with Conspiracy Theories! Instagram: @⁠theconspiracypod⁠ TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@conspiracy.pod⁠ Start screening for colon cancer with a Co...

John F. Kennedy, Jr. was born into the spotlight and remained a public fixture until his untimely death at the age of 38. The NTSB concluded that John crashed his private plane – with his wife, Carolyn, and sister-in-law Lauren on board – due to pilot error, bad weather, and spatial disorientation. But some still suspect foul play. Could John’s future plans… or the secrets he knew… have made him a...

They called them the "ghost girls" – young women who glowed in the dark after painting watches with radium. The company told them it was safe. They knew it wasn't. When the women started dying, the cover-up began: forged reports, fake doctors, lies on death certificates. The conspiracy nearly worked. But dying women make stubborn enemies. Keep up with Conspiracy Theories! Instagram: @⁠theconspirac...

We’ve all heard the story of John Wilkes Booth firing a bullet in Ford’s Theater… but maybe you haven’t heard the theory he was a puppet, with his strings pulled by a much bigger organization. In the 1800s, a massively popular story circulated that the Jesuit Order orchestrated the Lincoln assassination. And the theory’s biggest promoter? He claimed to be Lincoln’s close friend. Keep up with Consp...

In 1958, movie star Lana Turner was trapped in an abusive relationship with mafia bodyguard Johnny Stompanato. Until her teenage daughter Cheryl Crane ended the couple’s last argument by fatally stabbing Johnny. But many wondered: how did a teenager overpower a gangster? Or was Cheryl taking the fall for her famous mother? Keep up with Conspiracy Theories! Instagram: @⁠theconspiracypod⁠TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠...

When Juan Borgia died in 1497, his father, Pope Alexander VI, swore he’d find the killer. But just two weeks later, the Pope suddenly closed the case – without naming or punishing the murderer. The Pope might have covered up the killer’s identity for political reasons… or because it was one of his other children. Keep up with Conspiracy Theories! Instagram: @⁠theconspiracypod⁠TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@conspira...

By the time she was 25, Mary, Queen of Scots had lost her thrones in two countries, France and Scotland. And officially, she was executed for conspiring to take a third throne: England’s. But was Mary naive enough to get caught committing treason? Or was she a shrewd politician who was framed by her lifelong enemy? Keep up with Conspiracy Theories! Instagram: @⁠theconspiracypod⁠TikTok: ⁠⁠⁠⁠@conspi...

Superstar Musician Pedro Infante’s death sent shockwaves throughout Mexico. However, many fans believe he faked his death to escape the government or drug cartels. These were just rumors of course… until a new singer hit Mexico’s music scene: Antonio Pedro. He resembled and sounded so much like Infante that people thought he returned. But were they actually the same man? Keep up with Conspiracy Th...

After starring in the French New Wave classic Breathless and the American blockbuster Airport, Jean Seberg had the world’s eyes on her. But in the late 1960s, one organization watched her even more closely: the FBI. Seeing Jean’s political affiliations, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover gave the order to “neutralize” Jean. When Jean mysteriously died in 1979, people wondered exactly how far “neutraliza...

President John F. Kennedy saw his mistress Mary Pinchot Meyer as an equal during their lives. But there was one thing neither realized they’d have in common: their suspicious deaths. Police said Mary was murdered in a robbery gone awry. But some believe her death was an orchestrated hit: a move in the War on Drugs, or a way to hide her evidence that the CIA killed JFK. Keep up with Conspiracy Theo...