A paranoid, red scare conspiracy theory about a Japanese ultra-nationalist gang aiming to unite the African American population and overthrow the U.S. government. A flourishing proleterian literature scene driven to madness by the FBI. This strange story is brought to us by journalist and writer Devin Thomas O'Shea and set in Saint Louis, Missouri in the 1930's. Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to podcast mini-series like Manclan, Trickle Down, Perverts...
May 28, 2024•55 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the late 19th century a Frenchman pulled off one of the greatest hoaxes of all time and inspired countless conspiracy theories about Freemasonry that still circulate today. The man, who went by the pseudonym Leo Taxil, started his career by publishing several texts smearing the Pope and the Catholic Church. But then he switched sides and claimed he converted to Catholicism. To prove his devotion he started publishing anti-Masonic texts. These new works included wild stories about a secret sat...
May 25, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, Jake and Liv break down the rap beef that took the world by storm this past month. And of course, because it’s 2024 and the universe has decided to spare none of the QAA hosts, the lyrics contained within the multiple diss tracks became the source of endless amounts of conspiracy theories and baking - with one particular poster claiming to be a “secret insider” set to expose the crimes of the elite. Sound familiar? Of course it does! We will never be free of this, and our souls cry ou...
May 22, 2024•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Mike Wendling is the National Digital Reporter for the BBC. He is the co-founder of the BBC's disinformation unit and was editor and presenter of BBC Trending. While topics related to disinformation and extremism became popular starting in 2016, he’s been covering this subject matter for decades. He is the author of the book Alt Right: From 4chan To White House as well as the brand new book Day of Reckoning: How the Far Right Declared War on Democracy. Jake and Travis chat with Mike about coveri...
May 15, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast A discussion of the corporatization of media, his departure from The Intercept, how stories get "killed" and how conspiracy theorists and MAGA supporters' claims about the media get their oxygen — with Ken Klippenstein, investigative journalist. Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to podcast mini-series like Manclan, Trickle Down, Perverts and The Spectral Voyager: https://www.patreon.com/QAA Ken Klippenstein: https://www.kenklippenstein.com/ Editing by Co...
May 10, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Transcript available on Metacast We dive into an online community hellbent on improving their physical appearance through bizarre techniques like pressing their tongue to the roof of their mouth, hitting themselves in the face, and taking experimental growth hormones. Originating in Pick Up Artist (PUA) and incel forums, "looksmaxxing" has since become a proper tiktok trend. Thanks for being a patreon subscriber! Subscribe for $5 a month to get the full episode. You'll also get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ong...
May 09, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Relatives of Michael Flynn tried and failed to sue CNN because they didn’t like being associated with QAnon (despite saying “Where we go one we go all” on camera.) The QAnon community reacts to Donald Trump’s ongoing legal woes. And Jesse Watters continues to prove that he’s the most Q pilled of all the Fox News hosts. REFERENCES CNN: Watch CNN Go Inside A Gathering of QAnon Followers https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2021/02/05/inside-qanon-culture-meeting-donie-osullivan-pkg-ctn-vpx.cnn Abov...
May 05, 2024•56 min•Transcript available on Metacast Well, here we are. The Julian loyalists are facing off against the Western Rockatansky forces as veteran journalist Mike Prysner (Eyes Left Podcast, Empire Files) remains a neutral and unwavering eye. The result? Total destruction of all three of our brains as we struggle our way through a showing of A24’s “Civil War.” We’ll look at everything from interviews with the film’s director to its reception by various audiences alike in an attempt to understand how and why this film was made. So, grab ...
May 01, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast So-called “Constitutional Sheriffs” fancy themselves as the real life version of Judge Dredd: the ultimate arbiters of the law according to their interpretation of the Constitution. Recently the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA) held a conference in Las Vegas. Among the speakers were regular features of the podcast disgraced former General Michael Flynn, convicted former County Clerk Tina Peters, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell. Our guest WIRED reporter David Gilbert a...
Apr 28, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast On June 13th, 1996, the leader of a Long Island UFO group was charged with conspiracy to poison local conservative leaders with the most absurdly deranged of methods. His motive? Retribution for the political cover-up of UFO activity in the area. Brad Abrahams joins us to tell this bizarre and melancholy tale of the alien obsessed John J. Ford. We unravel if John really was criminally insane, or if he was entrapped for getting too close to a real life, albeit more terrestrial cover-up. Jake read...
Apr 23, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Though the “chemtrails” conspiracy theory has long been dismissed by scientists, aviation experts, and other skeptics, the Tennessee legislature has taken it very seriously. On April 11th, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed into law SB2691, which bans the ‘intentional injection, release, or dispersion’ of chemicals within Tennessee ‘with the express purpose of affecting temperature, weather, or the intensity of the sunlight.” Though the law doesn’t explicitly use the word chemtrails, it was insp...
Apr 20, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Even in the early conversations discussing the rapid growth of artificial intelligence, there was always the fear that it could potentially fall into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, the QAA team is here to tell you that it has. It is definitely already in the wrong hands. And that’s mostly due to the fact that sophisticated AI algorithms are available to anyone with an internet connection. Conspiracy theorists have a brand-new tool at their disposal to further muddy the waters between what is re...
Apr 17, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast We discuss the shift in the podcast's cover art, theme song and name. Then we explore miracle cure-all 5D "med beds" and delve into the online community around "Skye Prince", a multi-faceted grifter at the nexus of QAnon, UFO disclosure, prosperity gospel and new age pseudo-medicine. Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ongoing series like Manclan, Trickle Down, Perverts and The Spectral Voyager: https://www.patreon.com/QAA Editing by Corey Klotz. Theme ...
Apr 11, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nowadays, when a horrific tragedy occurs, you can pretty much guarantee that conspiracy theorists will flood the channels with wild narratives and flat-out disinformation. This week, we’re breaking down the various theories surrounding the collapse of the Key Bridge, including a completely AI generated 911 call. Later in the episode, Jake finds a conspiracy theory influencer with such a funny name, he just had to do a story starring him. Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA ev...
Apr 08, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast According to the Tartarian Empire conspiracy theory there once existed a massive, advanced regime that stretched over much of the Asian continent. This Empire’s power was so great that they built structures all over the world, including in Africa, North America and South America. Buildings such as the White House in Washington D.C. and the Great Pyramids in Egypt were built by the great, globe spanning Tartarian empire. They were able to accomplish this in part thanks to advanced technology that...
Apr 03, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast This week, we drop Liv Agar on planet P to wade through the thousands of bug carcasses that have been discussing Starship Troopers as of late. Meanwhile, Brain Bug Travis has been captured and forced out of his comfy cave amidst the rallying cries of one million Julians. Will Liv be able to make it all the way through a pro-fascism science fiction novel from 1959? Will Jake be able to critically discuss the politics surrounding “Helldivers 2”, a video game inspired by a satirical movie adapted f...
Mar 31, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Americans sure love being paranoid. And they’re not always paranoid for sensible reasons, like ever-expanding corporate and governmental surveillance systems. Sometimes they’re paranoid about natural and predictable astronomical events. For this episode we discuss why the conspiracist world is fretting about the solar eclipse that will be seen across the United States on April 8th. We also chat with Arthur Goldwag, author of the recently published book The Politics of Fear: The Peculiar Persiste...
Mar 26, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast What if there was a videogame so indistinguishable from the real world that anyone who played it began to wonder if their entire life was nothing more than a game? What if there was a movie that, in depicting this, stumbled upon the unnerving truth of our present relationship to the internet? What if that movie came out one month after The Matrix and totally bombed while the Matrix would go on to release three sequels and establish the language of conspiracy theory culture? Get your bio-port fit...
Mar 22, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast On March 6th, 2024, the Pentagon published a sixty-three-page report on the AARO’s findings in regard to whether our own government is in possession of extraterrestrial technology. The report stretches all the way back to the 1940’s, and provides a comprehensive look into the ever transforming secret programs created to determine whether or not the truth IS, in fact, actually out there. Two Fox Mulders (Jake & Brad) and one Scully (Travis) pour through the pages of the recently de-classified doc...
Mar 17, 2024•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast The last episode of this season of Trickle Down. So we’re going to do a self-indulgent one. In this episode we discuss common criticisms of “anti-disinformation” reporting, the topics Travis wound up passing on, and listener stories. You had a lot to say about the Thomas Midgley Jr. series. Theme by Nick Sena (https://nicksenamusic.com). Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Editing by Corey Klotz. Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to our archive of premium...
Mar 15, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast An Irish boyband called Boyzone sees their bad boy accuse other musicians of doing satanic rituals on stage. In Utah, a bill is advanced to criminalize “ritual abuse of a child” that speaks of animal sacrifice, cannibalism, bestiality, corpse mutilation, bondage, coffins and open graves. Meanwhile, Tim Ballard, the heroic subject of a recent blockbuster biopic is fighting back against accusations that he coerced multiple women into sex in the course of his “missions” to save children in foreign ...
Mar 09, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast In the 1940s and 50s there was the great American comic book scare. Many serious adults warned that comic books were turning young people into illiterate, criminally violent, sexually deviant political extremists. There were several editorials in newspapers that argued as much. There were groups who organized literal comic book burnings. Local jurisdictions passed laws to limit the sale of comic books. There was even a televised congressional hearing on comic books by the United States Senate Su...
Mar 09, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast What is UMMO? The greatest hoax of all time? A secret society with a mysterious agenda? An intelligence agency psyop? Or genuine contact from space aliens? Brad and Jake will attempt to answer these questions, and they’ve kidnapped Julian and Travis to come along for the intergalactic ride. In the 1960s, a group of Spanish societal elites received a bevy of letters and phone calls from purported extra-terrestrial visitors. Each communication was tailored to their specific field and contained adv...
Mar 02, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Brian Wansink was the Head of the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University. While there, he did exciting research that suggested eating healthier and encouraging others to eat healthier was as simple as providing subtle hints and nudges towards the preferred behavior. He’s perhaps most famous for the claim that if you take a larger plate to the buffet, you’ll eat more than if you were to take a small plate. For a long time he was easily the world’s most prominent voice on food psychology. He pub...
Mar 01, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast For the final episode of season 1 of the PERVERTS podcast we explored online "sissy" communities with June AKA Juniper of the Western Kabuki and Crate Diving Podcasts. What is sissification? Sissyology? Sissy school? For access to the full episode (+ all miniseries + all premium QAA episodes) go to patreon.com/qaa and subscribe for just $5 a month. Juniper: https://twitter.com/CantEverDie / https://linktr.ee/westernkabuki / https://linktr.ee/cratedivingpodcast Liv Agar: https://linktr.ee/livagar...
Feb 28, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Google's gone to shit, Huma Abedin is dating George Soros' son, Brandon is going Dark and Epstein is out on steam. We take a jaunt through our really cool world with guest Ed Zitron, tech reporter and host of the Better Offline podcast. Subscribe for $5 a month to get access to all our premium QAA episodes + mini-series like Manclan, Trickle Down, Perverts and The Spectral Voyager: https://www.patreon.com/QAA Ed Zitron: https://twitter.com/edzitron / https://www.wheresyoured.at / https://www.bet...
Feb 24, 2024•1 hr 17 min•Transcript available on Metacast Just a couple years after Thomas Midgley, Jr. invented leaded gas in the 20s, he followed up that achievement by inventing chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs, which were sold by Du Pont under the brand name of Freon. The crown jewel of his work was the creation of Dichlorodifluoromethane, or CFC-12. This substance allowed for more people to experience the wonders of electric food refrigeration as well as indoor air conditioning. For over 40 years everyone assumed the Freon was perfectly safe, and in fa...
Feb 22, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast GOOP GOOP GOOP GOOP GOOP GOOP GOOP GOOP. GOOP. Anna Merlan — senior staff writer at Vice and author of REPUBLIC OF LIES — joins us to explore Gwyneth Paltrow's Gooposphere including her Netflix show Love, Sex & Goop. Plus Liv and Julian take a quizz to figure out their "erotic blueprints". For access to the full episode (+ all miniseries + all premium QAA episodes) go to https://patreon.com/qaa and subscribe for just $5 a month. Anna Merlan: https://twitter.com/annamerlan / https://annamerlan.ne...
Feb 20, 2024•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Around 70 years ago, a deadly counter-insurgency was carried out by the British colonial occupiers of Kenya to quell the Mau Mau Rebellion. The operation involved political propaganda stoking a panic about the freedom fighters' use of black magic — a "horror story" written by colonizers to justify their own brutal actions. Annie Kelly explores this fascinating historical moment. Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to ongoing series like Manclan, Trickle Do...
Feb 16, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Leaded gasoline could not have become a universally-used commercial product without an enforcer. Someone who was dedicated to protecting the status quo position that leaded gasoline was safe to use and not a threat to the general public. And that enforcer was named Dr. Robert Kehoe. In 1925 he was appointed chief medical consultant of the Ethyl Corporation and remained in the post until his retirement in 1958. Though he continued to fight for leaded gasoline after that and he lived until the 199...
Feb 12, 2024•11 min•Transcript available on Metacast