Conspiracy Theories Podcast (200 Episodes)

Episode 67: Are Social Media Algorithms Designed to Radicalise Us?

10 min · 20 de jun de 2026
Portada del episodio Episode 67: Are Social Media Algorithms Designed to Radicalise Us?

Descripción

Episode 67: Are Social Media Algorithms Designed to Radicalise Us? Facebook's own internal study found that sixty-four percent of users who joined extremist groups did so because the recommendation algorithm pushed those groups to them. Executives were shown proposals to fix it. They declined. Tonight we ask: is this a side effect of profit-seeking — or something more deliberately designed? This episode explores: * The leaked Carol Smith experiment — Facebook's fake account that received QAnon recommendations within two days * YouTube's documented rabbit hole — how recommendation systems pull users toward progressively more extreme content * A 2025 TikTok-like experiment showing that removing personalisation reduced harmful content by twenty-seven percent — but dropped usage by thirty-five percent * The European Union's Digital Services Act and why it requires platforms to assess radicalisation risk * The distinction between deliberate design for radicalisation and knowing tolerance of it for profit * What the academic research actually shows about the limits of the radicalisation narrative For believers, the leaked documents prove executives knew and chose engagement over safety — making the outcome as deliberate as if it were designed that way. For sceptics, profit-seeking and radicalisation are different things even when they overlap. What is certain: you are being shown what keeps you watching. What keeps you watching is not always what keeps you thinking clearly. Keywords: social media radicalisation conspiracy, Facebook algorithm extremism, YouTube rabbit hole radicalisation, are algorithms designed to divide us, social media manipulation truth, tech company radicalisation evidence, platform algorithm harm, TikTok radicalisation, Big Tech manipulation, engagement over safety

Comentarios

0

Sé la primera persona en comentar

¡Regístrate ahora y únete a la comunidad de Conspiracy Theories Podcast (200 Episodes)!

Prueba gratis

Empieza 7 días de prueba

$99 / mes después de la prueba. · Cancela cuando quieras.

  • Podcasts solo en Podimo
  • 20 horas de audiolibros al mes
  • Podcast gratuitos

Todos los episodios

78 episodios

episode Episode 78: Deepfakes and the Death of Truth — How Would We Know What Is Real? artwork

Episode 78: Deepfakes and the Death of Truth — How Would We Know What Is Real?

Episode 78: Deepfakes and the Death of Truth — How Would We Know What Is Real? A company employee received a video call from his CFO. The voice was right. The face was right. The mannerisms were convincing. He transferred $25 million. The CFO had never made that call. In 2026, deepfakes have crossed the threshold where humans can no longer reliably detect them. Tonight we ask what that means for truth itself. This episode explores: * The $25 million deepfake video fraud — one of the most documented cases of synthetic media financial crime * The 2026 deepfake video of missiles striking Tel Aviv — spread globally before being identified as fabricated * The liar's dividend — why the existence of deepfakes allows genuine footage to be dismissed as fake * The 2025 Irish presidential election deepfake and the Canadian election synthetic image campaign * Why 2026 is described as a threshold year — deepfakes now accessible to anyone with a smartphone * What digital watermarking, content provenance standards, and AI detection tools can and cannot currently do For believers, the deepfake era represents the most powerful disinformation infrastructure in human history — one that makes the powerful harder to document and easier to defend. For cautious optimists, every previous disinformation technology was eventually matched by verification norms. What is certain: seeing is no longer believing. Hearing is no longer believing. And the question of how we know what is real has never been more urgent. Keywords: deepfake conspiracy truth, deepfake danger 2026, how to detect deepfakes, deepfake politics manipulation, AI generated fake video, deepfake financial fraud, can we trust video anymore, synthetic media disinformation, liar's dividend deepfake, deepfake election interference

Ayer10 min
episode Episode 77: Are Food Corporations Deliberately Engineering Addiction Into Our Products? artwork

Episode 77: Are Food Corporations Deliberately Engineering Addiction Into Our Products?

Episode 77: Are Food Corporations Deliberately Engineering Addiction Into Our Products? You open a bag intending to eat a few. The bag is empty thirty minutes later. You weren't hungry. You didn't enjoy the last half. But you couldn't stop. For decades, the food industry told us this was a personal failing. Internal documents now suggest it was the point. This episode explores: * The bliss point — the precisely engineered ratio of salt, sugar, and fat that overrides the brain's natural satiety signals * The 1999 Minneapolis meeting where food industry executives were shown health data and chose to protect market share * The internal language of "heavy users" — the same terminology the tobacco industry used for its most addicted customers * Harvard, Michigan, and Duke University research comparing food industry strategy directly to Big Tobacco * A 2026 class action lawsuit against Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, and General Mills citing strategies borrowed from tobacco * Why GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic have fundamentally reframed the personal responsibility argument For believers, the documented internal research and the tobacco parallel provide evidence of a deliberate strategy to create dependency. For defenders of the industry, optimising for palatability is different from intentionally engineering addiction. What is certain: the bliss point is real. The addiction is measurable. And the people who could not stop eating were responding, predictably, to products designed to make them feel that way. Keywords: food addiction engineered, ultra processed food conspiracy, food corporations addiction truth, bliss point food industry, Big Tobacco food comparison, processed food designed to addict, is junk food deliberately addictive, food industry cover-up, Ozempic food addiction, ultra processed health risks

30 de jun de 202611 min
episode Episode 76: Hidden Military Spacecraft — Does the US Already Operate UFO-Level Technology? artwork

Episode 76: Hidden Military Spacecraft — Does the US Already Operate UFO-Level Technology?

Episode 76: Hidden Military Spacecraft — Does the US Already Operate UFO-Level Technology? The US military has hidden extraordinary aircraft behind UFO myths before — and that is confirmed, not a theory. The U-2, the SR-71, the F-117 were all real, all secret, and all generating UFO sightings the government encouraged rather than corrected. Tonight we ask: what is the government hiding right now — and could any of today's unexplained aerial phenomena be classified American technology? This episode explores: * The documented history of using UFO disinformation as cover for classified aircraft — confirmed by the Pentagon's own review * The 2023 Pentagon policy shift to declassify more classified space capabilities as strategic deterrence * David Grusch's sworn congressional testimony about reverse-engineered craft and classified retrieval programmes * Why military pilots encountering UAPs in active operational environments raises difficult questions * The 2025 PURSUE file releases — what they contained, and what they conspicuously did not * The structural problem: how do you evaluate denials from institutions with confirmed histories of lying about this subject? For believers, a country that has consistently hidden breakthrough military technology behind UFO narratives is the most obvious candidate for what pilots are seeing. For sceptics, testing classified aircraft in active operational zones without briefing the pilots creates security risks that undermine the hypothesis. What is certain: the US has hidden extraordinary aircraft before. It is hiding something now. The gap between those two facts is exactly where this mystery lives. Keywords: secret military aircraft UFO, US secret spacecraft, classified military technology UFO, is the government hiding advanced aircraft, black budget aircraft 2026, David Grusch testimony, PURSUE UFO files, reverse-engineered alien craft, US Space Force classified, UFO actually military technology

29 de jun de 202611 min
episode Episode 75: Kurt Cobain — Suicide, or Was Nirvana's Frontman Murdered? artwork

Episode 75: Kurt Cobain — Suicide, or Was Nirvana's Frontman Murdered?

Episode 75: Kurt Cobain — Suicide, or Was Nirvana's Frontman Murdered? April 1994. Seattle. Kurt Cobain was found dead with a shotgun at his home. The official ruling was suicide. Thirty years later, a peer-reviewed forensic paper published in 2025 argued the physical evidence is more consistent with homicide. The Seattle Police Department's position has not changed. Tonight we examine both sides of one of rock music's most enduring cold cases. This episode explores: * The 2025 peer-reviewed forensic paper — its specific claims about heroin concentration, organ damage, and physical positioning * The heroin concentration at time of death and the argument that Cobain would have been physically incapacitated * The suicide note controversy — was the entire note written with genuine final intent, or only the closing paragraph? * Private investigator Tom Grant's thirty-year investigation and new materials submitted to Seattle cold case detectives in 2026 * The most specific conspiracy claim — and why authorities with access to original physical evidence have consistently rejected it * Why the official ruling has been confirmed multiple times across independent reviews For believers, the 2025 peer-reviewed paper gives legitimate credentialled weight to long-standing concerns. For sceptics, the paper was conducted without access to original evidence and was specifically refuted by those who hold it. What is certain: Kurt Cobain died at twenty-seven. His music outlasted him by three decades. And the questions show no sign of ending. Keywords: Kurt Cobain death conspiracy, was Kurt Cobain murdered, Cobain forensic paper 2025, Cobain death evidence, Nirvana frontman cold case, Cobain Seattle investigation, 27 club deaths, Kurt Cobain truth, Cobain crime scene evidence, rock star suspicious deaths

28 de jun de 202610 min
episode Episode 74: Is Mainstream Media Controlled by Six Corporations — and Does It Matter? artwork

Episode 74: Is Mainstream Media Controlled by Six Corporations — and Does It Matter?

Episode 74: Is Mainstream Media Controlled by Six Corporations — and Does It Matter? In 1983, ninety percent of American media was owned by fifty companies. Today, the same ninety percent is controlled by six. That is a documented fact. The question is what it means — whether concentrated media ownership is simply an economic reality, or the infrastructure of something more troubling for democratic societies. This episode explores: * How the 1996 Telecommunications Act enabled the consolidation that created today's media landscape * The March 2026 Tegna-Nexstar merger — one company now covers eighty percent of US television households * The interlocking directorate problem — media board members simultaneously sitting on boards of banks, oil companies, and pharmaceutical firms * The death of local news — over 2,000 US counties now lack a daily newspaper * How Comcast, Disney, Warner Bros, Paramount, Sony, and Amazon control film, television, streaming, publishing, and news * Why the distinction between structural bias and coordinated narrative control matters For believers, the aligned financial interests of six corporations produce the same effect as explicit editorial control without requiring coordination. For sceptics, competitive pressures still produce vigorous journalism that damages powerful interests. What is certain: in 1983, fifty companies owned ninety percent of American media. Today, six do. Whether you call that a conspiracy or a market outcome, the result is the same. Keywords: media controlled by corporations, mainstream media conspiracy, who owns the media, media consolidation truth, six corporations control media, news media bias ownership, corporate media manipulation, mainstream media trust, media ownership 2026, local news death America

27 de jun de 202610 min