The Conspiracy Files

9/11 was an inside job. Aliens have already made contact. COVID-19 was created in a lab.<br /><br />Maybe you rolled your eyes at some point while reading that list. Or maybe you paused on one and thought... well... it could be true.<br /><br />Since the first Americans started chatting online, conspiracy theories have become mainstream — and profitable. It's gotten harder to separate fact and fiction. But if we don't know who we can trust, how does a democracy survive?<br /><br />On today's episode, we travel the internet from UFOs, through 9/11, to COVID, to trace how we ended up in a world that can't be believed.<br /><br /><em>To access bonus episodes and listen to Throughline sponsor-free, subscribe to Throughline+ via Apple Podcasts or at </em><a href="http://plus.npr.org/throughline" target="_blank"><em>plus.npr.org/throughline</em></a><em>.</em><br /><br />See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy">NPR Privacy Policy</a>