In the spirit of the season, Dr. Ben Gross and I channel Ebenezer Scrooge and detail our favorite conspiracies past and present. We also predict future conspiracies. How far into dystopia did we go? Listen to find out.

Also, Ben and I embraced the season and shared some favorite holiday movies as well as the best gifts we've ever gotten and what we resolve for the new year.

Fun was had by all. Why would you miss this?

Welcome back to Dr. Ben Gross in our ongoing series of talks about conspiracy theories. This week we talk about voting, election and political conspiracy theories. Why do people believe these conspiracies? What are some of the common conspiracies? How do we handle them? What do we think?

We reference the following in our discussion:

Pew Research Survey

Conspiracy mentality and political orientation across 26 countries

Making an impression: the effects of sharing conspiracy theories

The Big Lie: Expressive responding and conspiratorial beliefs in the U.S.

Welcome back to Dr. Ben Gross in our ongoing series of talks about conspiracy theories. This week we talk about alien conspiracy theories. How and where did they originate? How long have people believed in aliens? Is it a problem that what was once a conspiracy now has some truth to it - or may have some truth to it? We discuss why people may believe in aliens from distrust of government to narcissism, to a need to belong, to a need for answers and certainty. We also have a message for aliens....if they are listening.

Shout out to @BillMaher @DavidDuchovny for a theory we are calling Duchovian.

We reference the following in our discussion:

UFO Sightings in the U.S. GIS Map

Mental Floss: https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/ufo-facts-history-sightings

NPR Article: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/04/1003262749/how-ufo-sightings-went-from-conspiracy-theory-to-a-serious-government-inquiry

The Hill Article: https://thehill.com/opinion/3610916-congress-implies-ufos-have-non-human-origins/

Vice Article: https://www.vice.com/en/article/3adadb/congress-admits-ufos-not-man-made-says-threats-increasing-exponentially

NBC News Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZA-h3dIeD_A&ab_channel=NBCNews

60 Minutes Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtMbBPzqHY&ab_channel=60Minutes

Media Logic & Social Interaction (David Altheide): https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/si.1987.10.1.129

Self-Perception Theory (Wiki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-perception_theory

Echo Chamber Media Effect (Wiki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echo_chamber_(media)#:~:text=The%20echo%20chamber%20effect%20occurs,declining%20exposure%20to%20other's%20opinions.

Boomerang Effect (Wiki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boomerang_effect_(psychology)

Spiral of Silence (Wiki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_of_silence

Confirmation Bias (Wiki): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

This podcast episode is an introduction to my upcoming disinformation clinic. Find out what disinformation and misinformation are. Learn what strategies are used by disinformers to draw you in and to encourage you to share. Find out how to combat disinformation.

My ARS - arbitrary random stat - takes us on a tour of odd museums of the world.

Sources for this episode:

News Literacy Project

Skeptical Science

The Brookings Institute

CNN

What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. Or does it? Medical practices have certainly changed over the years – and one hopes for the better. Where did we come from medically speaking? That’s this week on the podcast.

I've been reading some books about pandemics and epidemics. It is damn fascinating.

One of things I am finding most fascinating is the evolution of science, health and medicine. Things didn’t just happen – much research goes into scientific discovery. Certainly there is some luck or just being in the right place at the right time, but much of it is laborious, painstaking, tedious work.

This week I take a look at the history of "modern" medicine from a western point of view. Witty commentary included.

References this week:

Common causes of death worldwide: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death

Western medical history timeline: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4379645/

Medical oddities: https://www.history.com/tag/medicine

This week is the first in an ongoing series of talks about conspiracy theories. The idea came to me as I was chatting with a friend and colleague, Dr. Ben Gross, an associate professor of sociology at St. Bonaventure University. The two of us have similar interests in that we want to teach media literacy – among other literacies.

Somehow in one of our conversations we started talking about conspiracy theories. We see them all over the news in any number of areas – particularly in politics and science and health. We then started talking about some of our favorites – those that are fun to think about but basically harmless. And those that are not fun and are harmful.

This works very well with what I am trying to do here at the Data Doyenne podcast and in my own online classes. How do we take information that’s out there and determine what is real or not? What’s accurate? What’s false? Ben and I plan to take two conspiracies each month – one current and one historic and unpack it. Where is the kernel of truth – if there is one? How did it spread? Who believes it? How can you prevent falling into a conspiracy theory trap? All of this and more is the fun we plan to have on PB&J.

This week we discuss what a conspiracy theory is, who believes them, why, how they spread, and are they harmful.

We reference two articles and a website:

• Interactive conspiracy chart
• Belief in Conspiracy Theories: Basic principles of an emerging research domain: https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2530
• Understanding Conspiracy Theories: doi: 10.1111/pops.12568

This week I talk about fear messaging and hype. Why? After my conversation last week, it occurred to me that there is much research out there about the role of fear in developing messages as well as the role hype plays in our understanding of events.

Why now? Well, if you read the inaugural issue of my LinkedIn newsletter (also available on my Substack page), you know that I am very interested in educating everyone about disinformation and misinformation. In addition to recognizing it, I want to make sure people know how to dispel it. It is not an easy task.

I have also been thinking quite a bit about how completely tired I am of hearing about certain topics like Covid and inflation. Both of those topics are important to me but when is it too much?

I discuss common fears that communicators use in developing messages as well as the theory of reasoned action and cognitive dissonance.

Curiosity required.

This is my first in – what I hope to be – a series in which I have conversations with the data nerds and the data nervous. Why do you love data? Why do you hate it – or fear it? What can we learn from one another?

This week is also the debut of my LinkedIn newsletter WTF – What the Facts. You may subscribe through my personal page on LinkedIn – PWHoffmann. If you’ve already subscribed to my website newsletter, you will get a copy of this newsletter emailed to you. It will be the same – for now. I encourage everyone to subscribe to the LinkedIn newsletter. Each week I hope to discuss how to determine what is real and what is not. I may also discuss a conspiracy theory or some news that is making the rounds that is blatantly false or just damn misleading.

This week I welcome very special guest – a former student, Lauren Guerrieri from House of Lo joins me. She took my graduate-level research class and several others over a decade ago. This episode is a bit self-aggrandizing but still enjoyable and informative. It’s Lauren and me telling you more about me, my approach to teaching, coaching, consulting and mentoring, and what you will get by working with me in any number of ways.

If you are a data nerd or data nervous and want to chat with me on an episode of the Data Doyenne podcast, please reach out!

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