Conspiracy Theories

She was told to find the future King Charles VII, get him crowned, and liberate France from the English. Or so we've been told. But many think Joan of Arc didn't live the life history tells us. Was she actually part of the French royal family? Did she belong to a witch cult that opposed the Catholic Church? Was she even really burned at the stake? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a teenager, she had divine visions. She was thrust into the spotlight when she became a military leader and French national icon. But are all the things written about Joan of Arc actually true? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After World War II, the U.S. government hoped to use LSD as a “truth serum” against its enemies. The CIA called it Operation Midnight Climax. But once it was apparent what the drug’s true effects were, it turned into a party for agents — all on the taxpayer’s dime. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A century ago, a secret society conspired to strip the power from Hawaii’s queen, and force the independent kingdom to become a U.S. territory. Today, we’re looking back on how a cabal of businessmen — backed by the U.S. government — toppled a monarchy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Have popes throughout centuries signed off on secret intelligence programs designed to spy on revolutionaries, curb the influence of Modernism, and help the Catholic Church regain international power? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the early 1970s, when he was still an Archbishop, Albino Luciani caught wind of a shady banking scheme involving Italian banker Roberto Calvi and the Vatican. Years later – and just 33 days into his reign as Pope John Paul I – he was found dead. Did stepping into the Vatican’s affairs cost him his life? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The fate of the lost colonists has been debated for hundreds of years. Did they abandon their settlement of their own free will, or did they fall victim to sabotage and murder? Some historians are asking a different question altogether: What if the colony was never “lost” at all? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It’s a mystery that’s endured for centuries: When the English first began colonizing America, they established a small settlement off the coast of present-day North Carolina. Within three years, it was gone, leaving few clues behind. What really happened to 100+ inhabitants of Roanoke Island? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a dozen major campaigns and thousands of planted bugs and wiretaps, COINTELPRO was finally exposed to the public. But the job of untangling its impact would take decades. Was J. Edgar Hoover’s belief that Communists instigated the civil rights movement true? And how far did the FBI go to sabotage the leaders of the movement? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A secret intelligence project led by the FBI used illegal methods to spy on organizations and people from the mid-1950s to the early 1970s. It claimed to be acting in the name of U.S. security — but was it really? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices