You're Curious, You Want to Know What's Going on in Here?

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i find being around people with weird beliefs surprisingly relaxing. When i was first starting out in t v, it was really only my curiosity that i had in my locker as a sort of professional asset. I don't know quite why i've been given this job as a network correspondent. One of the things that kept me together, you know, temperamentally, that managed to cot afd, maintain my equanimity is the idea that i'm really excited to meet these guys. And so i held on to that, and thatsort of really been my watchword ever since,. To try and follow stories that i have a genuine enthusiasm about.

Shermer and Theroux discuss: how documentary films are made • religious fanaticism and why people believe • UFO cults, end-times sects, and cognitive dissonance • Scientology: religion or cult? • neo-Nazis and anti-Semitism • prisons, pornography, and prostitution • Jeffrey Epstein and Jimmy Savile • self-help movements and gurus • deception and self-deception • social proof and human conformity • are humans naturally rational, irrational, or both?

Louis Theroux is a genre-defining documentary filmmaker best known for his explorations of controversial and complex topics. Using a gentle questioning style and an informal approach, Louis has shone light on intriguing beliefs, behaviors, and institutions by getting to know the people at the heart of them — from the officers and inmates at San Quentin prison to the extreme believers of the Westboro Baptist Church; from male porn performers in California to young women with eating disorders in London.