CONSPIRACIES DECLASSIFIED: WHATS TRUE, WHATS CRAZY, AND WHATS COVERED UP W BRIAN DUNNING
PODCAST SHOW NOTES
CONSPIRACIES DECLASSIFIED: WHAT'S TRUE, WHAT'S CRAZY & WHAT'S COVERED UP?
Conspiracy theories are irresistible.
Did we really land on the moon? What about chemtrails? Government mind-control experiments? Fluoride? Secret organizations pulling strings behind the scenes? And what happens when a conspiracy theory that sounds completely crazy turns out to contain a grain of truth?
Today we're reaching back into the 1001 archives for a fascinating interview with science writer, author and professional skeptic Brian Dunning, host and producer of the long-running Skeptoid podcast and author of Conspiracies Declassified: The Skeptoid Guide to the Truth Behind the Theories. [simonandschuster.com]
And I'll warn you right now: I have my own nickname for Brian...
"THE GRINCH THAT STOLE SANTA CLAUS."
Why?
Because if you've got a favorite unexplained mystery, paranormal story, conspiracy theory, or supposedly impossible event that you've treasured for years, Brian is exactly the guy you don't want showing up at your front door carrying a briefcase full of facts.
He's made a career of asking that annoying little question:
"But what does the evidence actually say?"
In Conspiracies Declassified, Brian Dunning examines 50 famous conspiracy stories, separating documented history from exaggeration, misinformation and outright invention. The subjects range from the moon-landing hoax theory, chemtrails and fluoride fears to government conspiracies, suspicious deaths, suppressed science, wartime conspiracies, strange urban legends and, perhaps most interesting of all, conspiracy theories that turned out to have truth behind them. [simonandschuster.com], [perlego.com]
That's what makes our conversation interesting.
This isn't simply a matter of laughing at people who believe unusual things. It's about how we decide what to believe in the first place. What constitutes evidence? Why are some explanations so much more attractive than mundane reality? And when governments and institutions really have concealed things in the past, how do we distinguish legitimate skepticism from a theory that has outrun its evidence?
So pull up a chair for one of my favorite kinds of conversations. I bring the mysteries and the questions...
...and Brian Dunning,"The Grinch That Stole Santa Claus," arrives to tell us why we probably shouldn't believe half of them.
But every once in a while...
even the Grinch has to admit that something strange really did happen.
