Claim OwnershipMission Implausible
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Do you want to know the truth behind the world’s wildest conspiracy theories? Former CIA officers John Sipher & Jerry O’Shea try to determine where misinformation is coming from, when we’re being lied to and when a conspiracy theory is an actual real conspiracy. In the world of espionage, they were part of creating conspiracies. Now they and their circle of experts probe what’s true and when we’re being manipulated.
New episodes every week.
Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
- Executive Producers: Adam Davidson, John Sipher, Jerry O'Shea & Jonathan Stern. Producer: Rachel Harner
- A production of Honorable Mention and Abominable Pictures
107 Episodes
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Will Sommer (of The Bulwark) returns to unpack threats to federalize elections to renewed efforts to “prove” 2020 was stolen. We also diagnose the strange incentives and rivalries inside MAGA world — the influencers, grifters, true believers, and opportunists. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Tara breaks down what Ghislaine Maxwell’s current treatment, legal positioning, and pardon speculation actually signal. They describe the difference between the public narrative and the private reality journalists encounter inside the MAGA ecosystem. From pardon strategy to media pressure to the survival instincts of those closest to Trump, Tara and Adam connect the dots between Maxwell’s continued silence and the political incentives surrounding it. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Our current Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was born into The Science of Identity Foundation, a secretive, authoritarian religious group led by guru Chris Butler. What are the beliefs of The SIF and how did they influence Gabbard's political career? Some believe that she's still under their direction, if not outright control. If so, the international criminal investigations of the organization, along with the local Hawaiian suspicions of it, raises serious national security questions for someone in that role. Then why does it appear that even a standard FBI background check of Gabbard was skipped? The reporting on Gabbard's origins had been sparse... until now. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
The co-host of the Knowledge Fight podcast knows too much about Alex Jones. How are conspiracy ecosystems built, monetized, and sustained? From cult psychology and propaganda laundering to Sandy Hook, supplement grifting, and political power, what are the conditions that keep figures like Jones alive and influential? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
The host of CONSPIRACY! THE SHOW has insights on why people believe wild things and how grifters and media personalities turn paranoia into profit. With questions about his own conspiracy theories: - Was an ad in The New Yorker for a board game a tipoff about Pearl Harbor? - Did the CIA want to kill Reagan? - Why are there bans on lab-produced meat? - Is there proof of The October Surprise? - Do CIA Assassination Manuals exist? - How much does the government lie to us? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Investigative journalist Leah Sottile, author of Blazing Eye Sees All, draws on years of direct reporting on anti-government movements, Christian nationalism, New Age spirituality, death cults and online radicalization to explains how fringe belief systems gain power amongst women in America. It’s very different from the path that men take. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Drawing on her leadership roles with Planned Parenthood Global and humanitarian organizations in Africa, actor & activist Stephanie March (ADA Alex Cabot on Law & Order: SVU) describes how ill-conceived policy decisions —particularly the dismantling of USAID programs — have immediate, devastating consequences. Plus, is there any actual nation-building happening in Venezuela, why CIA doesn’t use honey traps and the truth about Area 51.
From wellness culture and yoga influencers to QAnon forums and January 6, the pathways into conspiracy extremism aren’t always obvious — especially for women. Identity and meaning can quietly turn misinformation into ideology. Author and researcher Noelle Cook discuss did direct fieldwork with women involved in conspiracy movements and the Capitol attack. Extremism doesn’t always look extreme. Sometimes it looks like community. Radicalization — it’s not just for men. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Our team gives their analysis of a disturbingly familiar year in power and politics, normalization and surprises. Much of it was predictable, some was worse, and some was worse that worse. Yet conspiratorial thinking cuts both ways, and 2025 illuminated some “theories” as being actual conspiracies. What trajectories might actually improve in 2026? Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
We didn't always assume the government was hiding aliens. The Manhattan Project was a crash course in how to run a secret program. Some secrets were real and necessary. Some were real and needing exposure - The Vietnam War, The Pentagon Papers, Watergate. So now people distrust everything the government tells us -- from UFO's to 9/11. Bestselling author and historian Garrett Graff has been reporting on this phenomenon via oral histories. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
An expert on psychological manipulation and politics, including Nazi propaganda and Stassi, NYU professor Tamsin Shaw studies conspiracy theories and how they might be changing with the internet and A.I. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
1Organ transplants, ice baths, Russian propaganda, RFK Jr.'s science denialism... Scott Carney has investigated in depth about where lies the truth and who is taking advantage of our ignorance. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
"Leaving MAGA" is a community for those who have left the movement, or have doubts and remorse about staying in MAGA but are afraid to leave. Rich Logis and Erica Roach tell their stories of falling into MAGA and then climbing out. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
How CIA became the largest purveyor and owner of LSD in the world and, in the process, destroyed lives and introduced psychedelics to The Counterculture. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
" There are things we feel like we know that we we can't even say. It is even worse. worse. It is even more people." Journalist Tara Palmeri and our own Adam Davidson have been writing and podcasting about the Epstein case since 2019. There's so much new Epstein news that it's easy to overlook the overwhelming, depressing, terrifying amount of crime and coverup that involves so many people besides just Trump. How is the worldwide intelligence apparatus involved? And how do you investigate a dead man? On a macro leval... What are the limits of journalism? How protected from repurcussions are the rich and powerful? Why did they think they were immune? Is the social institution of shame obsolete? Is the legal bulwark against corruption just an illusion? It's not an uplifting episode. But you will hear things you never knew about. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
The Curator of the NSA’s National Cryptologic Museum knows if the government is watching you. He knows how to tell who’s doing hidden nuclear testing. He’s written about some of the wilder (and unsuccessful) endeavors by the CIA, and how the CIA build Miami, the second largest hub of espionage in the world. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Investigator Laura Krantz (the Wild Things podcast) knows about everything Bigfoot, including Bigfoot erotica, the CIA's supposed relationship with the cryptid, and how Bigfoot can be a gateway drug to other conspiracy theories. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Comedian Trae Crowder (aka The Liberal Redneck) is here to prove that not everyone from The South is MAGA, and tried to understand why so many are, despite the inherent contradictions with their prior attitudes and what's in their self-interest. Also, how comedians are the such a threat to authoritarians. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
MSNBC & NBC justice and inteligence correspondence Ken Dilanian predicts how the Dept. of Justice will continue to be used under Trump, and reports on the experiences of the people still working there. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
Adam is back and is now a bona fide expert on Artificial Intelligence. When it comes to conspiracy theories, it’s both our nemesis and our ally. Plus, a prediction for the upcoming misuse of The Insurrection Act. Watch Mission Implausible on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MissionImplausiblePod
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I’ve been hooked on 'Mission Implausible' from the very first episode! The blend of gripping storytelling and deep dives into extraordinary yet believable missions is absolutely fascinating. https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/canada-butcher-paper/5225675
🤣🤣 so 2 CIA operatives talking "conspiracy theories"?? Fox guarding the hen house? What next, al qaeda to give insight on 911