Episode 37 with Anna Merlan

Anna Merlan is a senior reporter on the Features desk at Vice News and the author of Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power.”

“A riveting tour through the landscape and meaning of modern conspiracy theories, exploring the causes and tenacity of this American malady, from Birthers to Pizzagate and beyond.”

Anna is a New Mexico-born, Los Angeles-based journalist, specializing in subcultures, alternative communities, conspiracy theories, crime, belief, death, sexual violence and women’s lives. She is currently a reporter on the Features desk at VICE. She was previously a reporter at the Special Projects Desk, an investigative division within Gizmodo Media Group, a senior reporter at Jezebel, and a staff writer at the Village Voice and the Dallas Observer. Her work has also appeared in Rolling Stone, BBC Travel, Topic, and on the op-ed page of the New York Times. She has been accused of being both a lizard person and a CIA agent, but never at the same time