Hello and welcome to the ninth podcast episode made by Ceiba Dick-Read, Max Alexandre and Gijs Mesman. This is the final episode in our podcast series and includes an interesting twist at the beginning, as you might have guessed by the title. In this episode, Gijs is host and introduces the topic of conspiracy theories, their online presence and credibility, digital echo chambers and misinformation disinformation. Hopefully you have enjoyed listening to this podcast series as much we have enjoyed making it. For those who do and want more of our content, below the regular edition there is an extended edition, where we discuss another conspiracy theory and I even think of one of my own. Enjoy the listen!
Sources we used in the podcast:
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/QAnon
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Modern_flat_Earth_beliefs
RationalWiki debunking 9/11 conspiracy
Your podcast is so pleasant to listen to! The topic of conspiracy theories is such a interesting topic to me, and very contemporary. For me when I think of conspiracy theories I immediately think of the internet and social media, since this is the place where all of these theories spread so vastly nowadays. This is also what Gijs said as well. The danger of these conspiracy theories in combination with the internet is that algorithm comes into play. The algorithm makes it so that people will only encounter content that they will agree with. And when this personal idea is being confirmed again and again by what you are reading online, than this theory becomes more and more reality within you bubble/world. This, like we saw with the riot at the capitol, can lead to real action and protest. And that is the real danger of these conspiracy theories, they can result in people losing complete touch with the fact in reality. Then again what is “reality” that is a discussion I could talk for hour about. 🙂