Award-winning podcaster Brian Dunning joins Josh to discuss conspiracy theories and their impact on our political climate.  Whether it’s allegations that Trump and Putin rigged the 2016 elections, Obama isn’t a natural-born citizen, or Bush and Cheney blew-up the twin towers to justify going to war in the oil-rich Middle East, our political conversations are often bedeviled with conspiratorial thinking.  How do we discern the truth from alternative facts or fake news?  And how do we tell if we’re in danger of conspiratorial thinking ourselves?

 

Brian Dunning hosts Skeptoid, a weekly science podcast that has been revealing the true science behind popular misinformation and urban legends since 2006.  His latest book, Conspiracies Declassified: The Skeptoid Guide to the Truth Behind the Theories explores, debunks—and sometimes proves—the wildest conspiracies to ever exist, from mind control experiments to lizard people.  Dunning provides some authoritative insight into humanity’s crazy impulse to engage in conspiratorial thinking and offers a hopeful path for those who seek the truth.