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Mission Implausible

Mission Implausible

All episodes.

135 episodes · showing the newest 135

Who the Dems Should Investigate and How (with Denver Riggleman)

47 min

Can House Democrats Use Inherent Contempt Against Kash Patel and Todd Blanche? Where Are the Missing January 6th Committee Hard Drives? What Did Jim Jordan Text on the Night of January 5th? Why Did the January 6th Committee Miss Ginni Thomas and Jim Jordan? Did Russian Money to Tim Pool and Benny Johnson Change Anything? The "Board of Peace." And of course World Liberty Financial. Former Republican congressman, Air Force intelligence officer and January 6th committee senior advisor Denver Riggleman argues the White House is using executive orders on foreign election interference to build a stolen-election story for 2028, and possibly an excuse for a third term. Riggleman lays out how Democrats could fight back.  (Also, some well-deserved trash-talking of Vance and Rubio) Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Operation Snow White: Scientology's Intelligence Operation (with Tony Ortega)

42 min

In the 1970's, L. Ron Hubbard and his inner circle of Scientology used espionage tacticts that would be the envy of the KGB. Their purpose: To discredit investigations, to hide their finances and to force the IRS to classify them as a religion.  Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

So You Want to Join the CIA (with Jim Burke)

36 min

The Oscar-winning producer turns the tables on John & Jerry and interviews them about their early life in CIA, from recruitment to training to assignment. With a digression into the moral components of their job. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

This Week in Conspiracy Theories: Pedophile Cannibals and Much Much More

37 min

Jerry & John’s thoughts on the latest malfeasance (Ilhan Omar’s home raid, intel on the U.S. airbase attack in England, James Talarico, the Germany spy scandal, Russian bots, etc.) and their predictions of what will come next, including potential October Surprises. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

It Was Never About Oil: Iraq, Afghanistan and the Conspiracy Theories That Followed (Toby Harnden)

51 min

The former Royal Navy officer, war correspondent for the Telegraph and the Sunday Times, and author of the Orwell Prize-winning Dead Men Risen and First Casualty — joins to discuss his new book, his covering of Northern Ireland, and the recent history of America’s time in Afghanistan. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Why Americans Are Such Suckers for Conspiracy Theories (with Jesse Walker)

46 min

The author of The United States of Paranoia and the editor of Reason sees the enemies within, outside, above and below. The true believers and the manipulators. Every religion and political affiliation in American is uniquely credulous. But maybe there’s good reason to be. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Tulsi Gabbard and The Guru: Inside Her Cult (with Rebecca Saltzburg) - Part Two

41 min

Former Science of Identity Foundation insider Rebecca Saltzburg, a source for the Washington Post's investigation into Tulsi Gabbard, goes deeper into how its guru Chris Butler shaped Gabbard's political career. Then, as Director of National Intelligence, who was she working for? Why was the deal with her and Syria, China and Russia? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Tulsi Gabbard and The Guru: Inside Her Cult (with Rebecca Saltzburg) - Part One

35 min

Rebecca Saltzburg spent years living with Tulsi Gabbard’s family, inside the Science of Identity Foundation, and in the inner circle of Chris Butler, the leader of its Hawaiian sect, of which Tulsi and her parents were long-time members. Years after leaving, Saltzburg took here archives - emails, encrypted memoranda, internal communications - and gave more than 25,000 pages to the Washington Post, which published its investigation in June 2026 — days after Gabbard resigned as Director of National Intelligence. But Saltzburg has more to say that didn’t make it into The Washington Post. The big questions: Who really wanted Tulsi to be DNI? What was their agenda? And how could she take that post without being able to pass a security clearance? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Operation Sparrow: Three Americans Who Wanted to Be Captured by the Nazis (with Jason Bell)

51 min

In March 1944, three American OSS officers parachuted into Hungary on a mission to be taken prisoner. A story that was classified for decades, the team — a Dartmouth graduate, a World War I fighter pilot and a former New York Giants lineman who became an advertising executive — planned to get caught, tortured by The Gestapo, and “confess” to an Allied invasion that was a complete fiction. The OSS (the precursor to the CIA) knew what Hitler wanted to hear and how he’d react. This is what it looks like when an actual conspiracy of deception works. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

When Did We Lose Faith in Our Institutions? (with Garrett Graff) - ENCORE

45 min

Our summer holiday is over. All new episodes coming soon. We didn't always assume the government was hiding aliens. The Manhattan Project was a crash course in how to run a secret program. Some secrets were real and necessary. Some were real and needing exposure - The Vietnam War, The Pentagon Papers, Watergate. So now people distrust everything the government tells us -- from UFO's to 9/11. Bestselling author and historian Garrett Graff has been reporting on this phenomenon via oral histories. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

What the Steele Dossier Got Right—and Why It Still Matters (with Christopher Steele) - ENCORE

1 hr 2 min

 In 2016, former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele produced a series of intelligence memos that were leaked and widely called “The Steel Dossier” containing allegations about Russia's interference in the US election and links between Trumpworld and the Kremlin. In a highly unique conversation, Steele and John & Jerry look into the many hot-button conspiracy theories and real conspiracies that Steele has intelligence on — going all the way back to the death of Princess Diana and through Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement with Russian espionage. And how Trump’s behavior has made America so untrustworthy that it can no longer function effectively at worldwide intelligence gathering.  Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The Five Eyes: Can It Survive (with Richard Kerbaj)

49 min

Investigative journalist and BAFTA-winning filmmaker Richard Kerbaj discusses The Defector, his book on Oleg Lyalin — the KGB officer who walked into a North London police station in 1971 and exposed over 200 Soviet spies in Britain, partly to escape his marriage. He and the hosts trace how MI5's decision to withhold him from the CIA broke James Angleton's decade of paranoia, then take apart the Five Eyes: its origins, its budget imbalance, and whether it survives the current moment. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

No More Secrets: AI and the Future of Espionage (with Adam Davidson)

37 min

Now that Adam Davidson is a national expert on AI, he worries about how it will change worldwide politics, military power and international economic structures. Not just the AI itself, but all its underlying physical infrastructure. When it comes to spycraft, it can help sort through the millions of pages of data collected every day, but it also makes it impossible to keep a secret. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The Corruption of American Intelligence (with Julia Curlee)

32 min

What's been done to American intelligence and what it costs: the 35 declassified documents that don't say what the president claims they say, analysts fired for accurate assessments, clearances stripped as punishment, rumored loyalty oaths, and the question of how any future administration cleans this up without another round of retribution. Looking outward — what Beijing is taking faway rom the Iran war, whether Taiwan is watching closely enough, what a protracted fight with Iran looks like, and why America's allies have stopped waiting for things to go back to normal. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The National Security Council Purge (with Julia Curlee)

32 min

Stephen Miller runs National Security now. Julia Curlee spent over 20 years as a CIA analyst, rising to being Acting Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the NSC. When Trump 2 began, she stayed on, as is custom, to help transition. Her team was fired on Day 3, and Curlee on Day 69, leaving The White House woefully uninformed to this day. But maybe that was the point.“Vulnerability isn't really a foreign adversary, but the erosion of institutions and processes that otherwise allow presidents to make decisions based on objective evidence rather than politics.” Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

CIA's Best-Kept Secret: It Was Fun (with Paul Kolbe & Doug Wise)

33 min

Two of John & Jerry’s old friends and agency colleagues swap war stories and tall tales, starting with their training at The Farm and including their time in Moscow. Some of the characters in their anecdotes: Nazi Bob, Steven Seagal and the CIA mermaids. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Trump’s Presidential Payday (with Adam Davidson)

29 min

More on Trump's $2 billion is new money in the past year -- Financial investigative journalist (and Mission Implausible producer) Adam Davidson illuminates Trump's business model: money-laundering, ass-kissing and rent-seeking. His zero-sum view of how things work doesn't just enrich himself, it damages overall world economic growth. He's more a post-Soviet oligarch than a Western capitalist. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod   Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Did the CIA Poison the World’s Best Goalkeeper at the 1970 World Cup? (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - Part 2

31 min

- Journalist Gabriel Gatehouse returns to Mission Implausible with the strange premise behind his podcast Foul Play: the claim that the CIA poisoned England goalkeeper Gordon Banks before the 1970 World Cup quarter-final in Mexico in order to help the  Brazil to support Brazil’s government. It turns out that international sporting events are hotbeds of attempted  subterfuge and quasi-governmental manipulation. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Did the CIA Poison the World’s Best Goalkeeper at the 1970 World Cup? (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - Part 1

35 min

Journalist Gabriel Gatehouse returns to Mission Implausible with the strange premise behind his podcast Foul Play: the claim that the CIA poisoned England goalkeeper Gordon Banks before the 1970 World Cup quarter-final in Mexico in order to help the  Brazil to support Brazil’s government. It turns out that international sporting events are hotbeds of attempted  subterfuge and quasi-governmental manipulation.   Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Inside the Kremlin's Playbook: How Russia Really Works (with Michael Carpenter)

44 min

Former OSCE ambassador and Pentagon and NSC official Michael Carpenter argues Russia is weaker than it appears yet keeps being rescued by a West gripped by fear of escalation. And that the newly transactional, alliance-busting American foreign policy undermines the remarkable success of NATO. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

What the CIA Knows About Iran That Washington Keeps Getting Wrong (with Mark Fowler)

52 min

Former CIA Iran ops officer Mark Fowler joins Jerry and John to explain why Iran is one of the hardest targets on earth. From running agents and sources, Fowler has insight into the Iranian worldview: a persecuted Shia minority that sees walls behind every wall, craves American attention while calling us the Great Satan, and negotiates by treating signed contracts as opening bids. He separates the educated, reform-minded Iranian people from a regime led by men forged in the trenches of the Iran-Iraq War and traces the IRGC's rise from teenage revolutionary militia to a corrupt, self-sufficient parallel army that controls Iran's missiles, ports, and economy. On the current conflict, Trump jumped in without preparation against an adversary that has spent a generation planning for exactly this. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Swinging at Curveball: When You Want It Bad, You Get It Bad (with Bob Drogin)

53 min

In 2003, a single Iraqi refugee — codenamed Curveball — fabricated stories about Iraqi weapons. The U.S. intelligence community, desperate for sources after 9/11, laundered his claims into a National Intelligence Estimate produced in under three weeks. Bob Drogin, the award-winning journalist who broke the story and wrote the definitive book on it, joins John & Jerry to examine how political will, institutional groupthink, and bureaucratic cowardice allowed a con man’s tales to be treated as fact. But history repeats itself as now, in 2026, fuzzy claims about Iranian weapons undergirds another Middle East war. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

How Everyone Else Sees America (with Gabriel Gatehouse) - ENCORE

41 min

ENCORE EPISODE - Gabriel Gatehouse is a journalist and broadcaster and author of “The Coming Storm” that looks at Q Anon and the January 6th conspiracies. And he’s British! Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The Hawaiian Cult that raised Tulsi Gabbard (with Christine Gralow) - ENCORE

37 min

In light of this week's resignation of Tulsi Gabbard, we're re-running our recent very illuminating episode about her. Also, check out John Sipher's timely piece on her in The Bullwark on May 19. https://www.thebulwark.com/p/tulsi-gabbard-office-shouldnt-exist-director-national-intelligence-9-11 Our current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was born into The Science of Identity Foundation, a secretive, authoritarian religious group led by guru Chris Butler. What are the beliefs of The SIF and how did they influence Gabbard's political career? Some believe that she's still under their direction, if not outright control. If so, the international criminal investigations of the organization, along with the local Hawaiian suspicions of it, raises serious national security questions for someone in that role. Then why does it appear that even a standard FBI background check of Gabbard was skipped? The reporting on Gabbard's origins had been sparse... until now. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Hunting Weapons of Mass Destruction (with Andy Weber)

42 min

Nuclear weapons-usable uranium, biolabs for biological warfare, secret chemical facilities -- In Operation Sapphire, Former Assistant Secretary of Defense Andy Weber found and disposed of them. Where are the current threats? What does Iran still have? Biological threats may ultimately prove even more dangerous than nuclear ones. How do we control them? https://thesteadystate.org Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

How the CIA Decides What’s Legal (with James Petrila)

49 min

Former CIA and NSA attorney Jim Petrila explains the legal decisions about covert action, presidential power, and the legal guardrails surrounding America’s intelligence agencies. He argues that the Trump-era expansion of executive power, combined with the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling and the dismantling of institutional oversight, represents a fundamental threat to the rule of law.  Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Crypto: The Trump Family Business (with Zach Everson)

48 min

Forget hotel rooms and presidential merch, this time around, the Trumps are making untraceable billions with ventures like World Liberty Financial and a Trump-backed stablecoin. It’s a new world of buying influence and access. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Serving in the Middle East, then Writing About It (with Ilana Berry)

42 min

Award-winning author Ilana Berry explores the gap between how espionage is portrayed and how it actually works. Drawing on her experience in the CIA, the Department of Defense, and er firsthand view of the Arab Spring in Bahrain. She explains why secrecy fuels conspiracy theories, and why even insiders often struggle to separate truth from manipulation. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Modern Conspiracy Culture: How Real Scandals Fueled False Narratives (with Kathryn Olmsted)

39 min

Real government secrecy, intelligence failures, and historic scandals created the conditions for today’s conspiracy culture. Pearl Harbor, The Red Scare, JFK, 9/11, QAnon - a small truth can explode into a dangerous paranoid belief in hidden power and control. Genuine conspiracies often make it harder—not easier—to separate fact from fiction. How do democracies survive when citizens no longer agree on what’s real? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The Terrible Thing People Say When They Think No One Is Listening (with Ben Palmer)

37 min

Comedian Ben Palmer (Palmer Trolls) does sort-of-pranks that have evolved from satire to social experiment. Using aliases, fake websites and a “deportation hotline,” Palmer reveals how easily ordinary people are drawn into exposing their own bad behavior and unabashed racism (he would make a terrific CIA case officer). Watch his video about pretending to be the social media person for three months for Republican Congressman Ted Yoho. Palmer’s work reveals truths about human behavior and predatory systems, exposing the parallels of American’s current experience to that of authoritarian regimes. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Havana Syndrome Is Real - and They Tried to Bury It (with Michael Weiss) - Part Two

27 min

We continue to look at Havana Syndrome and Russian intelligence operations. Investigative journalist Michael Weiss expands on evidence suggesting that a covert unit within Russian military intelligence may have targeted Western operatives, particularly those involved in countering Russian activities in Ukraine and other strategic regions. We discuss geopolitical miscalculations, including U.S. responses to Russian aggression, the war in Ukraine, and election interference. The greatest victories for adversaries like Russia often come not from their own capabilities, but from America’s tendency to overreact, politicize, and fracture from within. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod   Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Havana Syndrome Is Real - and They Tried to Bury It (with Michael Weiss) - Part One

34 min

Havana Syndrome wasn’t a mystery. It was a coverup. And it wasn’t just Havana. Investigative journalist Michael Weiss (The Insider) returns to the show to break down his explosive reporting on the unexplained brain injuries suffered by U.S. diplomats, CIA officers, and military personnel around the world. Weiss lays out compelling evidence linking these incidents to a covert Russian intelligence unit and a new kind of directed-energy weapon. But the real story may be inside CIA itself. Was this a failure of intelligence, a clash of institutional power, or something deliberate?  Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The CIA Analyst Who Knows Why Intelligence Fails (with David McCloskey)

41 min

Former CIA analyst and bestselling spy novelist David McCloskey (“The Rest Is Classified” podcast) explains how Israel manipulated Trump to get him to attack Iran and what Netanyahu’s real plan is. The new answers on Havana Syndrome and whether there was a CIA coverup. And the tragic events of Jordanian triple-agent  Balawi. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The Singularity War and How to Hack Minds (w/ Anthony Vinci)

38 min

Former senior intelligence officer and author of The Fourth Intelligence Revolution explores how artificial intelligence, big data, and information warfare are fundamentally reshaping global intelligence. He forsees the coming “Singularity War” — a future of fully autonomous intelligence and warfare systems. Now AI enables small groups or even individuals to carry out attacks once reserved for nation-states, including psychological manipulation. How do we defend against this? What tools does a democracy have that others don’t? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The Art of the Pardon: How The Dept. of Justice Became a Favor Bank (with Liz Oyer)

48 min

Former U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer was fired by Pam Bondi and Todd Blanche after she refused to recommend giving a domestic abuser back his gun. That criminal was Trump’s “Ambassador to Hollywood” Mel Gibson. Oyer explains how presidential pardons and clemency is supposed to work. With Trump’s Dept. of Justice, it’s been supercharged. Pardons seem to be driven by personal favors, political alliances and outright cash payoffs.  Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The Midterm Power Grab (w/ Will Sommer)

36 min

Will Sommer (of The Bulwark) returns to unpack threats to federalize elections to renewed efforts to “prove” 2020 was stolen. We also diagnose the strange incentives and rivalries inside MAGA world — the influencers, grifters, true believers, and opportunists. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

What Ghislaine Maxwell Knows and Why She’s Being Protected (with Tara Palmeri & Adam Davidson)

33 min

Tara breaks down what Ghislaine Maxwell’s current treatment, legal positioning, and pardon speculation actually signal. They describe the difference between the public narrative and the private reality journalists encounter inside the MAGA ecosystem. From pardon strategy to media pressure to the survival instincts of those closest to Trump, Tara and Adam connect the dots between Maxwell’s continued silence and the political incentives surrounding it. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Alex Jones and the Conspiracy Economy (with Jordan Holmes)

37 min

The co-host of the Knowledge Fight podcast knows too much about Alex Jones. How are conspiracy ecosystems built, monetized, and sustained? From cult psychology and propaganda laundering to Sandy Hook, supplement grifting, and political power, what are the conditions that keep figures like Jones alive and influential? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Eating Bugs, Shooting Bobby Kennedy, The Deadly Double: Conspiracy Theory Grey Areas (with Adam Tod Brown)

34 min

The host of CONSPIRACY! THE SHOW has insights on  why people believe wild things and how grifters and media personalities turn paranoia into profit. With questions about his own conspiracy theories:    - Was an ad in The New Yorker for a board game a tipoff about Pearl Harbor?   - Did the CIA want to kill Reagan?   - Why are there bans on lab-produced meat?   - Is there proof of The October Surprise?   - Do CIA Assassination Manuals exist?   - How much does the government lie to us? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

The Overlooked Radicalization Crisis: How Women Become Extremists (with Leah Sottile)

49 min

Investigative journalist Leah Sottile, author of Blazing Eye Sees All, draws on years of direct reporting on anti-government movements, Christian nationalism, New Age spirituality, death cults and online radicalization to explains how fringe belief systems gain power amongst women in America. It’s very different from the path that men take. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

From Hollywood to Human Rights: The Real Cost of Conspiracy Thinking (with Stephanie March)

39 min

Drawing on her leadership roles with Planned Parenthood Global and humanitarian organizations in Africa, actor & activist Stephanie March (ADA Alex Cabot on Law & Order: SVU) describes how ill-conceived policy decisions —particularly the dismantling of USAID programs — have immediate, devastating consequences. Plus, is there any actual nation-building happening in Venezuela, why CIA doesn’t use honey traps and the truth about Area 51. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Wellness to Weaponization: How Women Are Drawn into Conspiracy Extremism (with Noelle Cook)

34 min

From wellness culture and yoga influencers to QAnon forums and January 6, the pathways into conspiracy extremism aren’t always obvious — especially for women. Identity and meaning can quietly turn misinformation into ideology. Author and researcher Noelle Cook discuss did direct fieldwork with women involved in conspiracy movements and the Capitol attack. Extremism doesn’t always look extreme. Sometimes it looks like community. Radicalization — it’s not just for men. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

What Fresh Hell: 2025 in Conspiracy Theories and Disinformation

50 min

Our team gives their analysis of a disturbingly familiar year in power and politics, normalization and surprises. Much of it was predictable, some was worse, and some was worse that worse. Yet conspiratorial thinking cuts both ways, and 2025 illuminated some “theories” as being actual conspiracies. What trajectories might actually improve in 2026? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

How We're Targets for Influence Operations (with Tamsin Shaw)

51 min

An expert on psychological manipulation and politics, including Nazi propaganda and Stassi, NYU professor Tamsin Shaw studies conspiracy theories and how they might be changing with the internet and A.I.  Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Human Organs and Wellness Scams (with Scott Carney)

38 min

Organ transplants, ice baths, Russian propaganda, RFK Jr.'s science denialism... Scott Carney has investigated in depth about where lies the truth and who is taking advantage of our ignorance. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

How to Escape the Maga Cult (with Rich Logis & Erica Roach)

45 min

"Leaving MAGA" is a community for those who have left the movement, or have doubts and remorse about staying in MAGA but are afraid to leave. Rich Logis and Erica Roach tell their stories of falling into MAGA and then climbing out. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

MKUltra: CIA’s Secret Mind Control Experiments (with Stephen Kinzer)

1 hr 0 min

How CIA became the largest purveyor and owner of LSD in the world and, in the process, destroyed lives and introduced psychedelics to The Counterculture. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Epstein International (with Tara Palmeri & Adam Davidson)

53 min

" There are things we feel like we know that we we can't even say. It is even worse. worse. It is even more people." Journalist Tara Palmeri and our own Adam Davidson have been writing and podcasting about the Epstein case since 2019. There's so much new Epstein news that it's easy to overlook the overwhelming, depressing, terrifying amount of crime and coverup that involves so many people besides just Trump. How is the worldwide intelligence apparatus involved? And how do you investigate a dead man? On a macro leval... What are the limits of journalism? How protected from repurcussions are the rich and powerful? Why did they think they were immune? Is the social institution of shame obsolete? Is the legal bulwark against corruption just an illusion? It's not an uplifting episode. But you will hear things you never knew about. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

Bigfoot and Bigfoot Erotica (with Laura Krantz)

38 min

Investigator Laura Krantz (the Wild Things podcast) knows about everything Bigfoot, including Bigfoot erotica, the CIA's supposed relationship with the cryptid, and how Bigfoot can be a gateway drug to other conspiracy theories. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

How Are Comedians Such Threats to Authoritarians (with Trae Crowder)

43 min

Comedian Trae Crowder (aka The Liberal Redneck) is here to prove that not everyone from The South is MAGA, and tried to understand why so many are, despite the inherent contradictions with their prior attitudes and what's in their self-interest. Also, how comedians are the such a threat to authoritarians. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod

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