From claims that AIDS was engineered to shrink the global population, to the insistence that the Earth must be flat because otherwise the oceans would spill over, to the idea that Michael Jackson is secretly alive, conspiracy theories are everywhere.

A study by Arcom, the French media regulator, found that 60% of people in France believe at least one of them. We might be tempted to ignore these stories or laugh them off, but their impact on democracy and social cohesion is real. The challenge is that these arguments can sound surprisingly convincing, and they spread incredibly fast online.

So what do you do when someone starts sharing these ideas? And what if that still doesn’t work? What if you just don’t have the energy to respond? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions!

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A Bababam Originals podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue.

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