ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Over the past few years, conspiracy theories have become a louder part of our political conversation. For many Americans, it can often seem like those who believe in this kind of misinformation are under a spell. A new series from NPR's Embedded podcast goes deep inside the conspiracy rabbit hole. It's called Alternate Realities, and it follows reporter Zach Mack as he tries to bring his father back to a reality they can both agree on. Because their story is so personal, Zach's father has asked us not to use his name. Here's Zach and his dad.
ZACH'S FATHER: We are literally living in the Matrix today.
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ZACH'S FATHER: There's an alternative reality that's being thrust upon us, and unfortunately, you've been taking the blue pill.
ZACH MACK, BYLINE: Like so many Americans, my dad has gotten swept up in conspiracies.
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ZACH'S FATHER: I think that Biden has probably three or four, maybe more, body doubles.
Obama will be found guilty of treason.
There will be a one-world government with a one-world currency.
The U.S. will come under martial law.
MACK: This mostly started during the pandemic. My dad, who has always been the lone Christian conservative in our family, bought an iPad. And that opened the door to an online world full of misinformation and self-proclaimed prophets preaching spiritual warfare and global cabals. Pretty soon after that, he started echoing their beliefs. For years now, we've barely been able to get through a family dinner without him saying something that fast-tracks us into a debate.
ZACH'S FATHER: It's called denying us freedom of speech.
MACK: No, no.
ZACH'S FATHER: It's called denying us freedom of speech.
MACK: It's misinformation.
ZACH'S FATHER: No. Who gets the right to label it misinformation?
MACK: Early last year, my dad took his conspiracy thinking to a whole new level. He revealed a list of predictions that he assured me would happen in 2024. He predicted a number of high-profile Democrats, like Barack Obama and Joe Biden, would go to prison for treason and that martial law would be imposed on the entire country.
You seem pretty confident about that?
ZACH'S FATHER: I am 100% confident. When all these things happen, then you will realize that I'm not as big a crackpot as you think I am, and that these are not conspiracy theories. These are reality.
MACK: As he prepared for the political apocalypse, Dad started buying survivalist gear and putting money into things like precious metals. As you can imagine, this has all been very hard on the family. So this past year, I decided to try bringing him back to reality a bit, to see if I could pull him out of the rabbit hole.
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ZACH'S FATHER: I read books about what happens when prophecies fail. I did research on how to change someone's mind. I spoke to people in his life to see how they felt about his beliefs. I even hit up a number of clinicians and conspiracy experts. Because Dad's beliefs are not exactly based on logic, the advice I kept hearing over and over was to appeal to his feelings.
BRADLEY ONISHI: If you can become two humans with emotions rather than two warring worldviews, you have a chance.
MACK: This is Dr. Bradley Onishi. He's a professor and former evangelical minister who studies the threat of religious extremism. He says, for people like my dad, it's all about what these conspiracies and rhetoric around spiritual warfare are doing for them emotionally.
ONISHI: It invites them into a cosmic battle. It draws someone like your dad into the belief that they're part of something big. Like, hey, my kids, my wife, my pastor, they don't get it, but they will.
MACK: All year long, I regularly checked in with my father, asking him questions, being as patient as I could. I also tried different approaches to change his mind. I warned him about conspiracies in advance. One time, I even used an AI chatbot specifically programmed for him by a team of researchers to try to convince him. Oh, and we made a bet about all those predictions he believed would take place by the end of 2024. And, well, none of them happened.
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MACK: But what did happen is that my father and I started to become closer.
ZACH'S FATHER: This is incredibly refreshing to be able to have these kind of conversations with you.
MACK: Do you feel like I know you now better?
ZACH'S FATHER: Oh, absolutely.
MACK: Ultimately, I was not able to change my dad's mind. However, I was able to get out of the circular arguments and begin to understand him better, empathize with his situation and how he got there. It's not the exact outcome I was hoping for, but it felt like a promising start in a much longer journey.
SHAPIRO: That was reporter Zach Mack. You can listen to his year-long quest to try to pull his father from the conspiracy rabbit hole in his new series Alternate Realities on NPR's Embedded podcast. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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