QAA Podcast

The podcast discusses criticisms of anti-disinformation reporting, topics that were passed on, and listener stories. The Thomas Midgley Jr. series garnered a lot of interest. Themes include exploring complexity of disinformation, reflecting on the impact of podcasts, and critical reflections on truth in information warfare.

An Irish boyband accuses musicians of satanic rituals, Utah proposes ritual abuse laws, Tim Ballard faces coercion accusations. Topics include Shane Lynch's claims, satanic influences in music, and controversial allegations of exploitation. Humorous discussions on skiing mishaps, cat cafes, and imaginary roles in a satanic regime. Supernatural experiences and updates also covered.

Exploring the moral panic against comic books in the 1940s, led by Dr. Frederick Wertham. His false claims influenced laws, hearings, and censorship. His anti-comic book work was later exposed as fabricated, revealing the extent of his deception.

Dive into the Ummo mystery - a Spanish UFO hoax that fooled elites and scientists. Explore alien writings, cults, and deceit behind the Ummite symbol. Unravel the dark legacy of Umo belief with stories of cult leaders' exploitation and abuse. Witness the psychological impact of rumors and cult-like obsessions while the podcast undergoes exciting changes.

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 published bestselling books. He was constantly interviewed by national media. He even had major influence in the government. He served for two years as the Director of the US Department of Agriculture’s Center for Nutrition Policy. It’s fair to say that Brian Wasnick affected how millions of people prepared, presented, and ate food. However, his reputation came crashing down from 2016 through 2018. It was discovered, partly through an accidental confession by Brian Wansink himself, that his papers were frequently based on shaky and perhaps outright fraudulent data analysis. The scandal was so bad that Cornell determined that Wansink had committed scientific misconduct and removed him from all teaching and research positions. This is a story about what happens when someone treats science like a business with the goal of gaining the most influence and media coverage, rather than a project of gaining an empirical understanding of the real world. Subscribe for $5 a month to get an extra episode of QAA every week + access to our archive of premium episodes and ongoing series like PERVERTS, Manclan, and The Spectral Voyager: https://www.patreon.com/qanonanonymous Theme by Nick Sena (nicksenamusic.com). Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Editing by Corey Klotz. www.qanonanonymous.com

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 Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Max Weber. Editing by Corey Clotz.

Exploring Google's decline, QAnon theories, Biden's TikTok team, controversial memes, online gaming controversies, and tech industry critique. Also, discussing data collection practices and search result bias.

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 fact safer than other chemicals used in refrigeration. It wasn’t until the 1970s, years after Midgley had died, that the horrible truth was discovered: CFCs were eating away at the Earth’s ozone layer. The ozone layer is a region in the stratosphere that absorbs 97 to 99 percent of the Sun's medium-frequency ultraviolet light, which otherwise would potentially damage life. The deterioration of this protective layer threatened all life on earth with increased risk of cancer and other ecological problems. People realized the extent of the damage in 1985 when it was discovered that there was a massive hole in the Ozone layer above the Antarctic. This emergency situation led in 1987 to the creation of an international treaty called The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer. Because of this agreement, which was signed by all of the members of the United Nations and has an extremely high compliance rate, climate projections indicate that the ozone layer will return to 1980 levels between 2040 and 2066. One possible apocalypse averted because of global cooperation. This is the story of one guy who just wanted to make money for himself and the companies he worked for (specifically Frigidaire, General Motors, and DuPont), and how his second big invention eventually forced the entire world to pull off a massive effort to avoid global ecological disaster. Christie, Maureen. The ozone layer: A philosophy of science perspective. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Cagin, Seth, and Philip Dray. "Between earth and sky: how CFCs changed our world and endangered the ozone layer." 1993. McGrayne, Sharon Bertsch. “Prometheans in the Lab: Chemistry and the Making of the Modern World.” Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, 2001. Wilson, Eric Dean. After cooling: On freon, global warming, and the terrible cost of comfort. Simon and Schuster, 2021. Cox, Stan. Losing our cool: Uncomfortable truths about our air-conditioned world (and finding new ways to get through the summer). The New Press, 2010. Molina, Mario J., and F. Sherwood Rowland. "Stratospheric sink for chlorofluoromethanes: chlorine atom-catalysed destruction of ozone." Nature 249, no. 5460 (1974): 810-812. Oreskes, Naomi, and Erik M. Conway. Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2011.

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.net/ Liv Agar: https://linktr.ee/livagar Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Editing by Corey Clotz.

The podcast explores the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya, delving into the use of black magic as propaganda. It discusses the controversial figure of General Kitzen in Northern Ireland and his involvement in the Satanic Panic. The origins of the term 'Mau Mau' and the rebellion's brutality are examined. The chapter also explores the origins of mental illnesses and the quest for justice by survivors of the rebellion.