What group, other than a cult, convinces you to wear the same colors every Saturday, learn secret hand signals, plan your life around a weekly gathering, and develop an irrational hatred of strangers because they went to the wrong school? This week, our managing producer Katie Ep ...Show more
The Cult of Reborn Dolls
BOO! We’re bringing back one of our favorite Halloween episodes from the SLAC crypt. This week’s re-air takes us back into the deeply uncanny world of reborn dolls with Corrine Vien (@corrinevien) and Sabrina Deana-Roga (@sabbertoothtiger) of Two Girls One Ghost (@twogirlsoneghos ...Show more
Last week we explored the science behind vaccine safety. This week we try to understand where these fears came from, and why they persist. We speak to three historians: Prof. Nadja Durbach, Prof. Elena Conis, and Prof. Robert Johnston. And a concerned mom named Noelle. Check out ...Show more
A new culture war is playing out in public in the form of antivax protests and an avalanche of social media posts from vaccine skeptics. But the divide is also playing out in private. And it's exploding relationships between people who've chosen to get vaccinated and those who ha ...Show more
We Don't Need No Thought Control: The Psychology of Disinformation and Cult Mentality
On this episode of the pod we are joined by a special guest, Dr. Jay Van Bavel, who is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University, to discuss the anti-vaccine movement, cult-mentality, and the predilection for conspiratorial thinking. We summar ...Show more