Critical Thinking: Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, and Moral Panics

Episode 4 discusses Loose Change

One of the 1st season episodes was Poisoned Halloween Candy. Among the other moral panics, urban legends, and conspiracy theories covered: Mandela Effect, Satanic Panic, the Illuminati, Phantom Clowns, the Momo Suicide Challenge, and Teenage Sex.

Six part series within The Anthill podcast from The Conversation.

So many bastards. Most relevant here: multi-part installments on Alex Jones, Mike Adams, Andrew Wakefield & the Anti-Vaccine Movement, the Sackler Family, and Charles Koch.

Mostly two-part episodes with part 1 describing the alleged conspiracy and part 2 discussing the theories. Conspiracies and conspiracy theories include MK Ultra, Chemtrails, the New World Order, Operation Northwoods, the Phantom Dark Age, HAARP, the Moon Landing, Bohemian Grove.

Multi-episode investigation of the moral panic that swept the globe in 1999. If you lived through it, you will love this podcast. If you weren't, you will be amazed at the mania. Whether you were there or not, you will find many parallels to recent history.

Many episodes of this NPR podcast are relevant to the question of why people believe conspiracy theories. This particular episode highlights the anti-vaccine movement

Website of Mick West, author of Escaping the Rabbit Hole: How To Debunk Conspiracy Theories Using Facts, Logic, and Respect.One of the site's fora is Practical Debunking.

"Comedian Langston Kerman and his guests take a deep dive into the most exciting, groundbreaking and sometimes problematic Black conspiracy theories. They’ll cover silly conspiracies, scary conspiracies and conspiracies they learned from that uncle who used to wear jeans when he went swimming in the public pool."

The NPR podcast has run several episodes about conspiracy theories in the last few years, including one on the Boogaloo Boys and COVID conspiracies on Facebook.

One of the hosts, Dr. MRX Dentith (University of Waikato) is a prolific writer on conspiracy theories and many of the episodes, notably the series of episodes about foundational papers in philosophy journals, take an academic bent. Conspiranews is a monthly roundup of what's happening in the world of conspiracy theories. Kudos to the title's allusion to Doug Adams.

As the title suggest, the podcast covers all things QAnon but also other conspiracy theories and oddities.

Like Conspiracy Theories, this podcast is from Parcast and follows their formula. The podcast has covered the Templars, Skull & Bones, Rosicrucians, and other groups.

Points for the Doug Adams homage title. The exceptionally long episodes often touch on conspiracy theories, but the podcast bills itself as a podcast dedicated to promoting critical thinking and science literacy.

"Since 2006, the weekly Skeptoid podcast has been taking on all the most popular urban legends and revealing the true science, true history, and true lessons we can learn from each."

In addition to unsolved murders and mysterious events, the self-described Conspiracy Realists also address topics like UFOs, chemtrails, food conspiracies, and Covid-19 conspiracies.

This episode charts the idea of conspiracy theories as fundamental to American history.

From BBC Radio 4. American "[j]ournalist Leah Sottile investigates the legacy of the Oklahoma City Bombing in a series that gets into the heart of America’s far-right today. Episode 4: Don't Tread on Me discusses right-wing conspiracy theories and how they influenced Timothy McVeigh.

Season 6 of CBC podcast Uncover examines what happened 30 years ago when Satanic Panic swept through Martensville, Saskatchewan, and the lasting effects on the participants and victims.