Conspiracy Clearinghouse

EPISODE 167 | American Trickster: The Cults of Carlos Castaneda

Guest: Ru Marshall, American writer and artist

Carlos Castaneda made a big splash with his books about the Yaqui shaman Don Juan, but there was a lot more happening than just those increasingly fantastical tales. A LOT more. Author and artist Ru Marshall spent more than 20 years looking into what was really going on with the man who was, at one time, the most famous an...

EPISODE 166 | Sassy Squatches: Chupacabra, Bigfoot & Yeti

Some of the most famous cryptids are the bloodsucking Chupacabra (which is of fairly recent invention) and the always popular Bigfoot and their higher latitude cousins, the Abominable Snowman. Is there any truth at all to stories of these creatures, or is it all misunderstandings, misapprehensions, misidentifications, and tomfoolery?

There’s only one way to find ou...

EPISODE 165 | MAHA Mia: The Misconceptions of RFK Jr

Guest: Evan Nadler, pediatric surgeon and researcher, pioneer in childhood obesity

The conspirasphere has been weaponized so much that actual conspiracy theorists now hold important and influential positions in the US government. Perhaps the most egregious example of this is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services. What does an actual doctor think abou...

EPISODE 164 | Walk Like a Panther: The Palantir 22-Point Manifesto

A company many have heard mentioned but don’t know much about caused a stir in the interwebs when its CEO dropped a 22-point manifesto of sorts. Many felt the whole thing smacked of some sort of comic book supervillain’s shopping list, while others nodded their heads at the sage wisdom of the post of X (formerly Twitter).

Palantir is the company and the ...

EPISODE 163 | Vanishing Point: Missing Scientists & the Erosion of Certainty

Someone recently wrote that, these days, a conspiracy theory is sort of a political position. It sure does seem that way sometimes, and new conspiracy theories continue to evolve in this disinfo-rich soil we’ve scattered about the internet like so much incontinence. Plus, those in power seem to have figure out that they way to many a voter’...

EPISODE 162 | In Pursuit of D.B. Cooper

One of the great unsolved cases in FBI history is the tale of D.B. Cooper, who hijacked a commercial jet and then jumped out the door with a parachute and a bag full of cash. The story has been written about, films have been made, numerous “Mysteries of…” shows have had episodes about it, and there even a few songs that reference the famous gentleman thief of the Pacific No...

EPISODE 161 | Vroom Broom: Witches & Witch Hunts

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, or women were burned alive in Salem, MA, at the end of the 17th century. Their crime? Being witches. That’s what many of us think, anyway. But just how much truth is there in all that? And what, exactly, is a witch? Are there any still around today? 

This episode comes in time for this year’s Walpurgis Night, which happens in Central ...

EPISODE 160 | A Real Collusion

Two political parties hardly seems sufficient for a nation of 342 million, and yet that's exactly the situation in the United States. How did that come to be, and why does it persist?

Author Stu Strumwasser explores those ideas with his new novel A Real Collusion as well as in this conversation. 

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EPISODE 159 | Maritime Mysteries

It’s time to shiver yer timbers and batten down the hatches as we dive into a bucketful of mysteries at sea that have been hard to fathom in the past - the Flannan Isles Lighthouse, the Mary Celeste, and the Flying Dutchman. 

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SECTIONS

1. 01:20 - The Flannan Isles Lighthouse - Three men vanish and ...

EPISODE 158 | Nasty NASA: The Challenger and Other Spacespiracies

At 11:38 am  on January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger lifted off from Florida’s Cape Canaveral on its 10th mission and 73 seconds later exploded, killing everyone on board. This was seen live on television by millions of people because a civilian teacher was one of the crew. 

At first, it was thought an external fuel tank had exploded. But af...

EPISODE 157 | Bohemian Books: Gigas, Voynich & Soyga

Some very old books have an air of mystery and intrigue about them. Partly, that’s because they are literally hundreds of years old, and partly because of the weird things they contain. 

Today, we’ll take a look at three, all of which have a connection to the Czech Republic and Prague: the biggest book in the world, the Codex Gigas (also known as the Devil&rs...

EPISODE 156 | The Shape of Water: Loch Ness and Other Lake Monsters

People have been talking about a supposed water creature in the Scottish Highlands for at least 93 years, possible much longer. Everyone has heard of the Loch Ness Monster, and Nessie is one of the OGs of the cryptid world. But there are plenty of other, similar reports from around the world as well, like Ogopogo, Manipogo, Cressie, Kushii, Nahuelito and even one n...

EPISODE 155 | Mummy Mia: King Tut's Tomb

Guest: Neil Laird, Emmy-nominated TV producer (Discovery, BBC, PBS, History, National Geographic), author of the Prime Time novel series

Since its discovery in 1922, the tomb of King Tut has captivated people, with research simply leading to more questions? How did he die? Was he murdered? Was he really born in Arizona and later moved to Babylonia? And is there a curse?

L...

EPISODE 154 | Forgotten Languages (FL): The Most Interesting Site on the Web?

While researching a previous episode about internet rabbit holes, I came across one that was some big, so complicated, that the entry soon grew into its very own episode. It's called Forgotten Languages, and at first it seems like it's all about ancient languages. But these turn out to be ciphers which, when decoded, reveal a series of interlocking narrat...

EPISODE 153 | Broken Arrows and Other Nuclear Boo-Boos (World Is Weird 16)

One reason conspiracy theories flourish is that sometimes there really are secrets kept back from the public, only revealed later. Take Broken Arrows - accidents involving nuclear weapons, near-misses that could have become incredibly serious but, fortunately, didn’t. 

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EPISODE 152 | Internet Rabbit Holes (1)

Once in a while, someone comes across a website that creeps them out, or confuses them so much they start to ask others about it and, before you know it, an internet rabbit hole has formed.  Today, we’ll take a look at a few of these internet mysteries that sure got tongues wagging and finger flying over keyboards. Though almost always, the answer that’s found, if there is on...

EPISODE 151 | Global Warming Is Real

Guest: Thomas Schueneman, environmental journalist, founder of the PlanetWatch Group, TDS Environmental Media and GlobalWarmingisReal.com

A chat about some of the more pervasive and commonplace climate change skepticism claims and just some general kvetching about where we are in this conversation these days. 

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EPISODE 150 | Operation Gemstone & the Gemstone File

Very often sheer naked greed is hidden behind a glossy finish of virtue, something we can plainly see in the stories of two Gemstones from the conspiracy world – G. Gordon Liddy’s whacked out Operation Gemstone plans to help Richard Nixon get reelected, and the outlandish and complicated Gemstone File, which might be the very first mega-conspiracy.

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EPISODE 149 | Russian Dolls: Rasputin and Blavatsky

Russians are practical, artistic and deeply mystical. And they tend to fall under the sway of strong personalities. Like two people from the past - Rasputin, the so-called Mad Monk, and Helena Blavatsky, founded of Theosophy, which itself is the very root of the modern New Age movement.

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