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Fluoride and its presence in public water has become a hot-button issue in the United States. More and more communities and government officials are rethinking whether the benefits fluoride provides our teeth outweigh its potential health risks. But history shows fluoride is no stranger to controversy or conspiracy theories. Over the years, the naturally-occurring mineral compound has been blamed for turning women into nymphomaniacs, populations into “moronic, atheistic slaves”, and perhaps most popularly, it’s been accused of being a weapon in a vast communist plot to overthrow democracy. What’s true and what’s not? The needle is moving. ***Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Listen to Science Vs. explore the science, including recent studies on whether fluoride affects IQ. Listen to The Journal discuss how the politics of fluoride in drinking water are playing out across the country. To check fluoride levels in your local water, visit the CDC’s My Water’s Fluoride page. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 2018, a peer-reviewed article published in Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology suggested the theory that octopuses could have extraterrestrial origins. As in, they’re not regular Earthlings. The 33 scientists who authored the paper say, the octopus could have arrived on Earth, in some form, on board a celestial body – like an asteroid. Most of the scientific community disagreed. Experts said octopuses are alien-like, but there are clues to suggest they experienced a normal, Earth-bound evolution. However…they might hold clues about what alien behavior would look like. Today, we’re joined by researcher Dominic Sivitilli, who tells us what studying octopus cognition can teach us about alien intelligence. Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

American New Age culture isn’t all crystals and Tarot cards. A New World Order? The Aryan race? Alien-human hybrids? Throughout history, New Age belief systems have so often been blended with wild, and sometimes dangerous, conspiracy theories that academics have coined the term “conspirituality.” This week, we journey into murky waters of Love Has Won, a New Age spiritual group whose leader passed away in 2021. By the time authorities found her body that April, she had been dead for weeks. Her followers had camped with her body, slept with it in tents, and crossed state lines to fashion a shine out of her mummified corpse. We’re joined by journalist and author Leah Sottile. Leah’s book Blazing Eye Sees All investigates American New Age culture and examines how self-proclaimed prophetesses, like Love Has Won’s Amy Carlson, have managed to create kingdoms for themselves. Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Alcatraz was designed to be inescapable. But in 1962, three men broke out. The FBI concluded the inmates died in the San Francisco Bay. But some family members are convinced they made it out alive – and lived secret lives for decades. Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1953, an Air Force jet took off from Michigan’s Kinross Air Force Base in pursuit of an unknown aircraft, or bogey. As the jet approached the mystery aircraft, the two dots representing them on a radarscope appeared to merge – just before the jet vanished.For years, ufologists have theorized that the bogey was of extraterrestrial origin.Today, we’re talking to two researchers from the Open Skies Project – Zach Garner and Kyle Kary – who’ve been digging into declassified files and other documents related to the Kinross Incident.See their research and follow along with their work on the Calumet Air Force Station at openskiesproject.org Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A legend tells of a cache of Civil War-era gold buried somewhere in the hills of Elk County, Pennsylvania. Over the past few decades, treasure hunters have descended upon the community of Dents Run to seek their fortune – and to find out if the stories are true. Dennis Parada’s search began in 1974. He spent the majority of his lifetime researching the tale, put years into combing the woods, and told his son bedtime stories of Union soldiers on an ill-fated trip. Then, one day, he believed he finally found it. His research was so convincing that in 2018, the FBI agreed to excavate the site Dennis pinpointed. According to the FBI, they found nothing: no gold, and no evidence that gold had ever been there. But not everybody is convinced that the FBI is telling the full truth. Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! 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 tenure as Pope John Paul I – he was found dead. Did stepping into the Vatican’s affairs cost him his life? Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After Malcolm X was assassinated, three men were arrested. Despite holes in the investigation and the prosecution’s case, all three went to prison. In the years that followed, people close to Malcolm insisted there was more to the story. But then, decades later, after new information emerged in a 2020 docuseries Manhattan’s then-District Attorney decided to re-examine the case.Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Malcolm X’s radical ideas about racial justice won him many followers, and spawned just as many enemies. When Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965, three men were promptly arrested. But for decades, questions have lingered about whether the right men went to prison, and more importantly, who told them to pull the trigger.Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Have a story to share? Email us at conspiracystories@spotify.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brazil, 1966. Two men in suits were found dead on a hill, surrounded by odd notes, and wearing lead eye masks. With no sign of violence, police were baffled. Theorists linked the men to occult rituals, criminal conspiracy, and maybe even alien contact.Keep up with us on Instagram @theconspiracypod! Have a story to share? Email us at conspiracystories@spotify.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices