Phil Tinline is the author of the new book Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax of the Century, Its Enduring Impact, and What It Reveals About America Today. Over the course of twenty years working for the BBC, Tinline has made and presented many acclaimed documentaries about how political history shapes our lives. He has also written for The Times (London), The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, The New Statesman, BBC History Magazine, and Prospect.

In this wide-ranging conversation, Phil Tinline explores how conspiracy theories and conspiracism helped to birth the Age of Trump and its authoritarian populism and anti-intellectualism, the allure of the conspiracy theory subculture, and why the most obvious and simple explanation(s) for complex and terrifying events may be more frightening and disturbing than the most elaborate conspiracy theories.

Tinline explains why the agitprop satirical Iron Mountain conspiracy theory from the 1960s endures and is one of the most compelling and fascinating stories he has ever encountered.

Chauncey DeVega reflects on the meaning of Mother’s Day, aging parent(s), and personal landmark moments in this time of great troubles and crisis.

Chauncey also sorts through the overflowing latrine of political waste that is “flooding the zone” to highlight some important news items that you may have missed -- including a horrible story about how a poor Black rural community in Alabama is literally drowning in sewage and the funding to help clean it up was cut by the Trump administration because it was supposedly a bogeyman phantasm white racial paranoiac “DEI” program.

On this week’s episode of the podcast, there is also some fun and levity to balance out the seriousness and dire challenges of this very difficult time in America and around the world.

Chauncey DeVega goes on a journey around his neighborhood and ponders the sacred and the profane. He also shares his thoughts on last weekend’s WWE Backlash pay-per-view event and John Cena’s first title defense as a heel.

Chauncey is an unapologetic devotee of TLC network’s many human zoos and offers up his professional judgement about the great mystery of our era: Was Amy on 1,000-Lb Sisters actually bitten by a camel or is it all an elaborate hoax?

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