Journalist Will Sommer joins co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell to discuss his new book Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America, a history of the rise of the cultish right-wing group. Sommer, a reporter for The Daily Beast, has covered QAnon since its inception and explains its origins, what—and who—drives it now, and how he handles interviewing people who believe the world is controlled by a satanic cabal of celebrity pedophiles. He also reads an excerpt from the book.

To hear the full episode, subscribe through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Check out video versions of our interviews on the Fiction/Non/Fiction Instagram account, the Fiction/Non/Fiction YouTube Channel, and our show website: https://www.fnfpodcast.net/

This episode of the podcast was produced by Cheri Brisendine and Anne Kniggendorf.

Trust the Plan: The Rise of QAnon and the Conspiracy That Unhinged America
“Fever Dreams” (The Daily Beast)

Others:

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
“What is QAnon, the Viral, Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theory?” by Kevin Roose
Thomas Pynchon
George Soros
T.S. Eliot
The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot
Ezra Pound
Wallace Stevens
Q by Luther Blissett
Bhagavad Gita
Wu Ming Foundation
“Who is Behind QAnon? Linguistic Detectives Find Fingerprints” by David D. Kirkpatrick
Clerks
Army of Darkness
Franklin Leonard
Slumdog Millionaire
Ron Paul
“The only guide to Gamergate you’ll ever need to read,” by Caitlin Dewey, The Washington Post
David A. Fahrenthold at The Washington Post; David A. Fahrenthold at The New York Times

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S6 Ep. 26: The Literature of QAnon: From 4chan to January 6, Will Sommer on Reading the Authors of Conspiracy Theories