Conspiracy Episodes

On Christmas Eve, 1945, a mysterious fire burned the home of George and Jennie Sodder to the ground. George, Jennie, and four of their children escaped the blaze. The five remaining Sodder children, aged 5 to 14, were not so lucky. However, no remains - of any of the five Sodder children who were lost that night - were ever found. As the years went on, it became clear there was a conspiracy of silence surrounding the Sodder case in their town of Fayetteville, West Virginia. Had George Sodder pi...

In this episode, Carrie leads a deep dive into the secretive world of Bohemian Grove. Join us as we explore the enigmatic rituals and hidden history surrounding the elusive private Bohemian Club, whose encampment sits nestled deep within the towering redwoods of Northern California. From its origins as a haven for artists and intellectuals to its contemporary reputation as a meeting ground for the world's elite, we unravel the mysteries and conspiracy theories that shroud Bohemian Grove, includ...

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart had a penchant for achieving milestones early: he composed his first pieces by age 5, his first symphony by age 8, and tragically, even died young at the age of 35. Since immediately after the seminal musical genius's sharp health decline and painful demise, rumors have swirled about the medical - or murderous - culprit. After an overview of Mozart's life and times, we run down the list of suspects, from bad pork and kidney disease to poison plots by Freemasons and caba...

We're back at it after a 2-week break to travel abroad and move house! And we're chatting another house...of worship, that is. Catholicism is a mysterious religion based in millennia of faith and worship, and of course in those hundred years, conspiracies have developed around the seat of Roman Catholic power: The Vatican. Inspired by our Patron Kate's request and a trip to Vatican City itself, Carrie takes us through some of the biggest conspiracy theories in Vatican history, from prophecies ...

At the end of our series exploring the Titanic tragedy, we "dive" into the immediate aftermath of the sinking - including legal inquiries and lawsuits - the search for the wreck on the bottom of the ocean, and the remaining theories and mysteries still surrounding the Titanic to this day. Take a seat at the US Senate hearings on the disaster, which ended in changes to maritime regulations and one thoroughly mocked senator; on the deep-sea vehicle Argo, developed by Dr. Robert Ballard to try a...

In August of 1962 the once bright light of "candle in the wind" Marilyn Monroe - Hollywood bombshell, actress, and most famous woman in the world - was snuffed out forever when the 36-year-old superstar was found dead in her Los Angeles home, possibly of suicide or misadventure due to barbiturate overdose. Or was it? What really happened to Marilyn Monroe? Was she suicidal, did she accidentally OD...or was she killed in a cold-blooded murder? And if so, why? Inspired by the release of the con...

From 1962 to 1972, the U.S. government ran a top-secret program that teleported child spies through space and time. At least, that's the claim of Andrew Basiago, former time traveler and holder of the hotly contested title of "Strangest 2016 Presidential Candidate." Join us for a tour through Basiago's meeting with George Washington, his failed presidential bid, his childhood teleportation experiments, and his jaunts on Mars with a teenaged Barack Obama. ___________________________________...

On July 17th, 1996 TWA Flight 800, a Boeing 747 jet carrying 230 passengers and crew, exploded over the Center Moriches, New York bay, setting fire to a peaceful summer night. Hundreds of witnesses along the Long Island coast watched as a strange flare-like object seemed to rise from the horizon, turn in the air, and impact on or near the plane, causing it to breakup midair and plunge into the ocean below. There were no survivors. The FBI and NTSB, however, came to the official conclusion tha...

This week we dive into one of the most persistent legends of secret U.S. military experimentation - the famed Philadelphia Experiment. In the fall of 1943 - so the story goes - highly classified government tech made the destroyer escort USS Eldridge completely invisible - and, as an unexpected side effect, displaced it in time and space and left it sitting 200 miles away in Norfolk, Virginia for several minutes before snapping back into place. In the aftermath, sailors were said to have strange,...

In November 1987, one of the weirdest moments of TV history happened right underneath the noses of the Chicago viewing public. That night a mysterious figure wearing a full-head "Max Headroom" mask invaded the broadcasts of local Chicago TV stations WGN and WTTW. Initially, on WGN, the masked marauder was only able to cut in for about 30 seconds before the transmission was re-seized by network engineers...but on WTTW, which was airing an innocuous Doctor Who rerun, the signal hijacking would ...

In the incredibly polarized times we're living in, it's comforting to know there are some things we can all agree on, even if it's just the shape of the planet we live on. Right? This week Sean digs into the history of Flat Earth belief and...

In October 1849, now-legendary horror and suspense writer Edgar Allan Poe was found in a tavern in Baltimore, delirious, with clothes that didn't appear to be his and no concrete answer for where he'd been since he left Richmond, Virginia almost a...

In honor of the Beatles documentary Get Back premiering over Thanksgiving on Disney+, Carrie takes us through one of her favorite conspiracies of all time: "Paul is Dead".  This conspiracy theory, which spread across the globe like wildfire beginning...

In 1998 - then again, in 2000 - our world got a hero, born of another reality. A man who traveled through time to warn us of coming catastrophe. Or, maybe, just one more Internet meme spun out of control. A man calling himself John Titor first faxed...

Satanic Panic is having something of a renaissance these past few years, and that's where we're ending our four-part series today!  Once again, whispers are flying around of a vast underground conspiracy of child abusing Satanists. But this time, it's...

For part 3 in our tour of Satanic hysteria, it's 1993 and the ritual abuse panic of the '80s is coughing its last gasp in Arkansas! Faced with the horrific murder of three young boys, West Memphis law enforcement, media and the community at large...

Let the panic continue! Last week we showed you the origins of the 1980s Satanic Panic within a rash of alleged Satanic sex rituals at daycare centers. This week, Unloaded Questions co-host and our actual D&D Dungeon Master Nick Salese joins us in the...

July is the month for Satanic Panic, and Sean kicks off our four-part series with a look at the cases that set the tone for ritual abuse hysteria in the 1980s. From the 1980 bestseller Michelle Remembers to the more than four-year-long satanic sex...

If you're like us, you couldn't focus on the two leads duking it out in Godzilla vs. Kong... because you just kept thinking, "Wait, they said 'Hollow Earth' just now, right? Like, 'The Hollow Earth,' like it's a place?" This week, Sean takes us...

Walt Disney built an empire on family-friendly entertainment that’s grown into a modern titan of the industry - and today we’re climbing all over its seamy underbelly. Gross! Sean zig-zags us through rumors about Walt Disney’s involvement with Nazis,...

Turin, Italy. 1960. Two enterprising young brothers have rigged up their own radio equipment to listen in on the Soviet Russian unmanned rocket launches during the Cold War Space Race. But they pick up something they never expected...something the...

The King isn't dead. At least, that's what some people think. Elvis Presley died on August 16th, 1977, after a myriad of health problems culminating in cardiac arrest. Or...did he? Some fans posit that the King of Rock 'n Roll actually faked his own...

What if we weren’t living in 2021? What if we were really living in…1724? That’s the premise behind the “Phantom Dark Age” theory, which claims that Holy Roman Emperor Otto III inserted 300 years into history that never even happened. Why would Otto...

We've hit 20 episodes! This week, Carrie is taking us through a mid-2000s internet mystery - that of LakeCityQuietPills.com. When the moderator of a sketchy sub-Reddit passes away in July 2009, a mystery is ignited. This moderator owned an image...