Conspiracy Cabal

A murdered family, a charismatic cult leader, children describing secret rituals, and a wave of accusations that spread across America. It sounds like the plot of a horror film. But the Satanic Panic was very real. From the 1960s through the 1980s, fears about Satanists, occult rituals and organised networks of child abusers moved from the fringes of religious communities into mainstream American...

In this episode of This Week in Conspiracy Dr. Nick Coatsworth and Richard Baker talk about Iran and Chinese intelligence ops in Australia, how Nick’s social media sabbath went, and we foreshadow this weeks full episode on Satanic Panic in the 70's 80's & 90's. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every...

A broken test tube, a dead lab worker, a Russian anti-plague institute, and a flood of alarming posts online. It sounds like the opening scene of a thriller. Yet there really was a young scientist who died after working at a facility that studied dangerous pathogens, there really was a quarantine response, and there really were questions about what authorities knew and when they knew it. This week...

Brendan Nugent has been charged over the alleged attack on independent federal MP Helen Haines outside her electorate office in Wangaratta. Police allege the incident was targeted, while investigators continue to examine the motive behind the attack. Nugent has not entered a plea, and the matter remains before the courts. Questions have since emerged about Nugent's background, his online activ...

Senator Jordon Steele-John is under-fire for alleged mistreatment of women, which he denies. However, the story also points to an alleged cover up by The Greens, and a secret dossier on how to handle the allegations against Steele-John. The Greens have denied any existence of a secret dossier. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel...

Alex Jones has said plenty of strange things, but few have travelled further than his claim that chemicals in the water are changing the sexuality of animals, and of people too. It sounds absurd. Yet there’s a real pesticide, a real scientist’s frog research, and real restrictions in Australia on where that chemical can be sprayed. Nothing makes a conspiracy go off like a sex scandal, so this week...

In the days before the attacks, traders placed unusually large bets that United and American Airlines stock would fall. Those were the two airlines whose planes were hijacked. The 9/11 Commission found no sign that anyone had advance knowledge. A finance professor, a former Australian market regulator, and a widow who testified before the Commission all saw something different. "Follow the mo...

Reports in Israel are suggesting that Benjamin Netanyahu received a warning about the October 7th attacks and failed to take action. As well, Manchester City faces punishment for mass cheating. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com . The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies...

In the mountains of southwest China sits a radio telescope big enough to swallow the MCG. It's built to listen to the cosmos. Meanwhile, Beijing has reportedly brought in a science-fiction writer to advise on what to do if something out there answers. That writer is Cixin Liu, author of The Three-Body Problem. His big idea, the "dark forest," says the universe is full of silent hunte...

Lachie Neale got off, and he's now free to play in the Grand Final. Couldn't have happened to a better bloke. Also, the PM has called a hasty press conference to detail how a rogue Open AI agent hacked into Medicare. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com . The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every st...

Ivan Milat was convicted of seven murders and died in a prison hospital bed in 2019, still insisting he didn't do it. Almost nobody in Australia believes him. But a New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into unsolved murders and missing persons is now asking a different, more uncomfortable question: were seven enough? This week, Rich and Nick dig into the growing list of cold cases with Milat&...

Dr Nick says we need to have a conversation about covid mandates (again), and Rich loses his dog mid recording. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at c...

Every Sunday morning in Benton, Arkansas, a small congregation gathers to hear a sermon from a man some of them believe is Elvis Presley. Not "sounds like him." Not "channels his spirit." Actually him — alive, aged into his eighties, and preaching under an assumed name because, as one longtime fan put it, he hopes "one day he will stand up and say who he is." Pastor Bob Joyce has said, on the reco...

Yeah, maybe we're all cooked? Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com Get in touch with us: https://forms.gle/VaZB5S32KUGcuQVb6 The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook...

On the morning Elvis Presley died, someone booked a plane ticket out of Memphis under the name John Burrows — the alias he used on every hotel rooming list for the better part of two decades. It's the detail conspiracy theorists reach for first. It's also, according to the guest on this episode, one of the least mysterious things that happened that week, because what actually emptied out Graceland...

For the best part of recorded history, it was the tallest structure human beings had ever built. 2.3 million blocks of limestone, some weighing three tons, stacked with a margin of error so small it wasn't even detectable until the 19th century. Nobody has ever fully explained how it was done - or why anyone would bother getting a tomb that precise. This week we dig into Graham Hancock's Fingerpri...

Five souls. A sailing trip in the Whitsundays. A charter flight home. And then, nothing. On the evening of 9 August 1981, a Cessna 210 carrying four Sydney workmates and their pilot who were on their way back back from a holiday in the Whitsunday Passage lost contact after flying into adverse weather, with the last known contact placing it over the Barrington Tops. More than four decades on, no tr...

Will the former Premier be forced to face the music ahead of misconduct relating to Victoria's Big Build? Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com Get in touch with us: https://forms.gle/VaZB5S32KUGcuQVb6 The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what d...

Thirteen months before Dallas, a phone rang in the U.S. embassy in Canberra. A man claiming to be a Polish chauffeur for the Soviet embassy said Iron Curtain countries had put $100,000 on the president's head. The Americans wrote it up, filed it, and moved on. Then the president was shot. And the same voice called back. This week we dig into one of the strangest footnotes in the declassified JFK f...

In the 1970s, Nestlé sent representatives into some of the poorest communities in the developing world. They wore white coats. They carried themselves like nurses. And they told new mothers, again and again, that formula was better for their babies than breast milk — knowing that once lactation stopped, that mother was a customer for as long as the baby needed feeding. There was no wreckage to poi...

Rapist Ralph Carr's name was suppressed for years under a loophole rule utilised by savvy lawyers. But why is this law in place, and what can be done to change it? Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com . The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories - we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what...

Russia has been tracking unidentified aerial phenomena since before the term existed. The Soviet military ran a classified investigation called Program SETKA from 1978 to 1990 - twelve years, thousands of filed reports, senior military personnel as witnesses - and when the USSR collapsed and the files were briefly, partially opened, what came out was strange enough that the Russian government quie...

Jacinta Allan has resigned as Victorian premier. What does this mean for a building sector royal commission? As well, Anthony Fauci faces questions and gives some rogue answers. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they suss it all out. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.co m The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth...

On the night of October 21, 1978, a 20-year-old pilot named Frederick Valentich radioed Melbourne air traffic control to report an unidentified aircraft pacing him over Bass Strait. He described a long shape with a green light, an engine that didn't sound like a normal aircraft, and then, seventeen seconds of unexplained metallic scraping. Then nothing. No wreckage. No body. No confirmed radar tra...

Barnaby goes BANG on his dog. Or maybe there wasn't a dog?? Also, a US senator dies, but then another one doesn't? Or maybe not. Who knows ffs. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they suss it all out. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com . The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how co...