The Podcaster's Guide to the Conspiracy

We tried to record a new episode and failed spectacularly, so until conditions allow for a proper recording, here's a short episode that will become more relevant once the next full episode comes out. It's a look at the life of Martha Mitchell and the Effect that bears her name. Martha Mitchell was the wife of Nixon's Attorney General, who tried to blow the whistle on Watergate. An outspoken woman standing up to the most powerful men in the world, in the early 1970s? Surely that will turn out well for all involved.

Josh and M discuss some Jeffrey Epstein conspiracy theories, and what the Epstein Files might mean for conspiracy theory theory overall.

M is still in the country, so we put another meal on the Patreon expense account and talk about recent and less recent conspiratorial happenings in Iran, while eating delicious baked goods at a Takapuna café. Good news if you like your podcasts candid and slice-of-life; if not, M will be back in China before you know it and we'll be back to recording as normal, so everyone's happy. Unless they're in the Epstein files.

Join Josh and M over dinner as they discuss the recently deceased.

M has finished Ben Vigden's "State Secrets II" and - as a punishment - Josh has to find out how it ends.

A couple of episodes ago, we looked at a paper on particularism by Kurtis, M and Charles - this episode we're looking at the paper that that paper was a response to, making it both a prequel and a sequel. Just like The Godfather Part II. This episode is the Godfather Part II of podcast episodes - you can tell people we said that.

Josh and M discuss TESCREAL, Peter Thiel, and how Silicon Valley hasn't so much found god but, rather, decided to try and create one that they are afraid of...

Aw, Particularism - why so glum? You look like you need some positive affirmation - some reaffirmation, even. Well, you're in luck, because M, Kurtis and Charles have just authored “Particularism Reaffirmed: Why Conspiracy Theories (Variously Defined) Should Be Judged on Their Own Merits”! Let's have a look through it together and see if it can't perk you up.

M chats with Melina Tsapos and Patrick Brooks, two newly minted PhD holders whose works are on or at least touch on the philosophy of conspiracy theory theory.

Josh and M are back together, so the sensible thing to do is destroy both of their brains by having M try once again to find the point to "State Secrets II" - local author Ben Vigden's book of local conspiracy theories - and communicate it to Josh. Things do not go well.