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Conspiracy Cabal
Southern Ocean Media
The sh*t that's in your group chat...just a fair bit more fact checked and a lot more explained.
Big Pharma. The deep state. The crisis actors. Alien life. Spy agencies and cover ups. Whatever it is, award winning journo Richard Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth are your guides on the search for the kernel of truth.
Conspiracies are everywhere right now. But, we don’t peddle theories, we go to their point of origin and follow the breadcrumbs to sort the bullsh*t from the verified, while keeping an open mind to things that can’t be explained.
Rich has spent years exposing the crooked and corrupt, and Nick has copped death threats from people who thought he was one of THEM. They know what real cover-ups look like, and they also know what happens when paranoia meets the algorithm.
Sometimes the conspiracy is real. Sometimes it's designed to sell you on something. Often, it's both.
Our mission is to entertain and inform. Rather than condemn and judge.
Hear the Conspiracy Cabal every week, and contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com
Conspiracy Cabal is proudly supported by WholeLife. Use code CABAL10 for $10 off your first order of $50 or more.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- 20 episodes
- weekly
- Avg 26 min
- English
- CCSeptember 8 · 40 min
28: Elvis Presley | Part 1 | ft. Greg 'Yellow Wiggle' Page (Special Guest)
On the morning Elvis Presley died, someone booked a plane ticket out of Memphis under the name John Burrows — the alias he used on every hotel rooming list for the better part of two decades. It's the detail conspiracy theorists reach for first. It's also, according to the guest on this episode, one of the least mysterious things that happened that week, because what actually emptied out Graceland in the days that followed makes the fake-death theory look almost quaint by comparison. This week — part one of two — Rich Baker and Nick Coatsworth sit down with Greg Page: former Wiggle, lifelong Elvis collector, and the man who ended up owning (and later returning) the tag cut from the pajama pants Elvis was wearing when he died. The alias problem: John Burrows, a same-day plane ticket, and why a real escape plan probably wouldn't reuse a name that was already on every tour document he'd ever signed The Graceland problem: the "Rape of Graceland" — staff who realized their paychecks had just ended looting the house and selling relics to fans at the front gate before the funeral had even happened The autopsy problem: three toxicologists, one pathologist, and a finding of cardiac arrhythmia from coronary artery disease — "therapeutic" drugs only, despite the enduring Dr. Nick theory The provenance problem: a $50,000 brooch scam run on Priscilla Presley, an ongoing estate dispute over one of Elvis's jets, and how you actually authenticate a piece of memorabilia when the market is full of fakes Some of this is provable — federal aviation records, a certified autopsy report, a chain of custody that runs back through Graceland itself. Some of it, like whether Elvis really did engineer his own disappearance, is just a story people want to be true, seven arcminutes short of anything you could call evidence. This week, Rich and Nick let Greg do most of the talking — high tea with Priscilla, a "rediscovered" pair of jeans that got shot down by Elvis's own road manager, and the moment a piece of his collection went back to Graceland because it felt too close to the day itself. Part two lands next week. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- CCSeptember 2 · 46 min
27: Pyramids | The Alien Theory
For the best part of recorded history, it was the tallest structure human beings had ever built. 2.3 million blocks of limestone, some weighing three tons, stacked with a margin of error so small it wasn't even detectable until the 19th century. Nobody has ever fully explained how it was done - or why anyone would bother getting a tomb that precise. This week we dig into Graham Hancock's Fingerprints of the Gods and the case for a lost civilization behind the Great Pyramid of Giza. No wheels, no scaffold, and an eastern face aligned to true north within 0.015 percent — tight enough that mainstream Egyptologists still don't fully agree on how it was done, let alone why it needed to be that precise. The construction problem: a 24-man haul team, 7,100 newtons of force, and the maths on laying a block every three to six minutes for 20 years The precision problem: an eastern face aligned to true north within three arcminutes, and how anyone got there without modern instruments The flood myth problem: why civilizations with zero contact — Sumer, the Maya, the Inca — all tell a strikingly similar story about a bearded stranger and a catastrophic deluge The Hancock problem: a journalist who covered dictators in Somalia and Ethiopia before turning theorist, and got accused of racism by the Egyptologists he challenged Some of this is measurable, sitting in the dimensions of the pyramid itself. Some of it, whether remnant knowledge from a lost civilization explains it, or it's just very good pattern-matching on ancient numbers, may never be settled. This week, Rich Baker and Dr. Nick Coatsworth work through what the construction math actually supports, why Hancock's flood-myth argument is harder to dismiss than it sounds, and land on opposite sides of a 7-out-of-10. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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August 27 · 19 minFEATURE: The Disappearance of Flight VH-MDX | Barrington Tops
Five souls. A sailing trip in the Whitsundays. A charter flight home. And then, nothing. On the evening of 9 August 1981, a Cessna 210 carrying four Sydney workmates and their pilot who were on their way back back from a holiday in the Whitsunday Passage lost contact after flying into adverse weather, with the last known contact placing it over the Barrington Tops. More than four decades on, no trace of the aircraft or its occupants has ever been found, despite extensive searches. This week we go through the last known minutes of VH-MDX. The flight had already refuelled at the Gold Coast and was tracking down the coast toward Sydney when things started going wrong. Just after passing the CRAVN waypoint, the pilot reported severe turbulence and downdrafts, and that his artificial horizon and gyroscopic direction indicator had both failed, the two instruments a pilot needs most when the ground disappears into cloud. Radar had the aircraft roughly 40 kilometres northwest of its planned track, near the Barrington Tops. The pilot then reported ice building on the airframe and difficulty holding altitude. His last transmission, at 7:39pm, put him at 5,000 feet. The instrument failure: why both the artificial horizon and heading indicator dying at once, in cloud, over mountains, at night, is about the worst combination a pilot can face The track that doesn't add up: how a plane on a coastal flight plan ended up dozens of kilometres inland and off course before anyone on the ground knew something was wrong Forty years of searching: satellite imagery, aerial photography, magnetometer sweeps, and even chemical sampling of streams running out of the search area — and still nothing The wreck that refuses to be found: competing theories on where MDX actually went down, why the terrain itself may be swallowing the evidence, and the amateur search teams still combing the Tops today The rational explanation vs. the folklore: how a straightforward, tragic weather accident became one of the enduring unsolved mysteries of Australian aviation — and what people have filled that vacuum with ever since Some of this is a matter of official record. Some of it, where MDX actually rests, genuinely isn't known. This week, Rich Baker, Dr. Nick Coatsworth and special guest Dean Frith go through the flight data, the search history, and the terrain that's kept a Cessna and five men hidden for over forty years. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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August 21 · 9 minTHE WEEK IN CONSPIRACY: Big Build Royal Commission feat. Dan Andrews?
Will the former Premier be forced to face the music ahead of misconduct relating to Victoria's Big Build? Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com Get in touch with us: https://forms.gle/VaZB5S32KUGcuQVb6 The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E33August 18 · 42 min26: This Australian Predicted JFK's Assassination | Canberra Chauffeur
Thirteen months before Dallas, a phone rang in the U.S. embassy in Canberra. A man claiming to be a Polish chauffeur for the Soviet embassy said Iron Curtain countries had put $100,000 on the president's head. The Americans wrote it up, filed it, and moved on.Then the president was shot. And the same voice called back. This week we dig into one of the strangest footnotes in the declassified JFK files: an anonymous tipster in suburban Canberra who predicted an assassination over a year in advance, then rang the day after it happened to remind everyone he'd been right. Australian intelligence and the CIA spent years trying to run him down — and couldn't. No Polish national ever worked the Soviet motor pool. No plates matched. No name, no face, no paper trail. Just a voice, twice, exactly when it mattered. The first call: October 15, 1962 — a warning about a Soviet-financed hit, filed and nearly forgotten The second call: November 23, 1963 — the same voice, back within a day of the murder, naming Moscow's money The chauffeur problem: why ASIO and the CIA agreed Soviet embassies didn't hire local nationals as drivers — so who was he? The vehicle that wasn't there: a described car and plates that matched no registry, and the claim that Soviet officials kept spare plates on hand to swap on demand Some of this is documented in black and white in the National Archives. Some of it — who this man actually was — may never be known. This week, Rich Baker and Dr. Nick Coatsworth work through what the files really say, why a minor Cold War tip got flagged all the way to Helms' desk, and what it means that a mystery caller from Canberra got the timing right twice. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#31August 11 · 31 min25: Robert F. Kennedy Jr's War on Health | The Nestle Baby Formula Scandal
In the 1970s, Nestlé sent representatives into some of the poorest communities in the developing world. They wore white coats. They carried themselves like nurses. And they told new mothers, again and again, that formula was better for their babies than breast milk — knowing that once lactation stopped, that mother was a customer for as long as the baby needed feeding. There was no wreckage to point to, no single smoking document, just a pattern of behavior so consistent that Nestlé's name still hasn't fully recovered, fifty years on. Now the man auditing the food industry's sins is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — an avowed anti-vaxxer who spent decades as a litigant against corporate polluters, somehow now running the U.S. Department of Health under Trump 2.0, and somehow uniting MAGA diehards with the public-health establishment he used to fight. So is "Make America Healthy Again" a genuine reckoning with an industry that's been running the tobacco playbook with better marketing, or one more unlikely coalition that won't survive contact with a Big Mac? - RFK Jr.'s seismic and paradoxical shift: how a man who built his name suing corporations for environmental harm became Secretary of Health, and why food, not vaccines, is the fight that's actually uniting his strangest allies - The Nestlé Baby Formula scandal: the reps dressed as medical professionals, the mothers in developing nations told a lie that suited a business model, and why the damage to Nestlé's name still hasn't fully faded fifty years later - The corporate anatomy of Big Food: the handful of conglomerates — Associated British Foods, Mondelez among them — that control everything from the sugar refinery to the supermarket shelf, and what a $30-billion snack company's own sustainability report reveals when you actually read it - The tobacco and pharma parallel: unconstrained profit motive, monopoly power, no real competition — the exact conditions the hosts have already traced through Big Tobacco and Big Pharma this season, now applied to what's in your pantry - Where "big" stops being neutral: the hosts try to draw the line between ordinary corporate scale and the kind of deliberate deception that turns a company into a conspiracy Some of this is documented fact. Some is where reasonable people land on different sides. And if you want the chapters that set this one up, go back to the tobacco and pharma episodes earlier this season. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they suss it all out. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com Get in touch with us: https://forms.gle/VaZB5S32KUGcuQVb6 The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- CCAugust 9 · 12 min
THE WEEK IN CONSPIRACY: Convicted Rapist Ralph Carr & Victoria's Suppression Order Bias
Rapist Ralph Carr's name was suppressed for years under a loophole rule utilised by savvy lawyers. But why is this law in place, and what can be done to change it? Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories - we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#30August 4 · 38 min24: Putin's Secret UFO Documents | What is he hiding?
Russia has been tracking unidentified aerial phenomena since before the term existed. The Soviet military ran a classified investigation called Program SETKA from 1978 to 1990 - twelve years, thousands of filed reports, senior military personnel as witnesses - and when the USSR collapsed and the files were briefly, partially opened, what came out was strange enough that the Russian government quietly closed them again. That was 1993. Nobody in the western press followed up. And Putin, who knows where every other body is buried, has never once been asked about it on the record. So what does it mean when the country with the second-largest nuclear arsenal and a seventy-year history of UAP investigation has said almost nothing - while the Americans have said just enough to make you stop asking? This week, Richard Baker and Dr. Nick Coatsworth go through what the evidence actually shows, what's been conveniently overlooked, and what the gap between those two things tells us. Program SETKA: what the Soviet military was actually investigating, the rank of the officers filing reports, and what the partially declassified files described before the archive door closed again in 1993 The Petrozavodsk incident: the 1977 event over a major Russian city witnessed by hundreds of people including police and harbour workers, reported on the front page of Tass, and never officially explained by any government that was asked Putin and the disclosure question: every on-record statement he has made about UAPs, what a former Russian defence minister said publicly in 2012 that would have ended any western official's career, and why neither statement got a follow-up The military overlap: the specific coordinates where Russian UAP sightings cluster, what else is at those coordinates, and whether the phenomenon respects the same boundaries that nuclear infrastructure does on both sides of the iron curtain The coordination problem: what it would mean if Russia and the United States have been aware of the same phenomenon for seventy years and chosen independently to say nothing, and which explanation for that silence is actually more unsettling Some of this is documented. Some is genuinely unknown. And almost none of it is as settled as the people who control the archives want you to believe. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they suss it all out. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories - we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#29July 31 · 12 minTHE WEEK IN CONSPIRACY: Jacinta Allan departs, Fauci questioned
Jacinta Allan has resigned as Victorian premier. What does this mean for a building sector royal commission? As well, Anthony Fauci faces questions and gives some rogue answers. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they suss it all out. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E28July 28 · 51 min23: Where is Fred Valentich? | UFOs over Bass Strait
On the night of October 21, 1978, a 20-year-old pilot named Frederick Valentich radioed Melbourne air traffic control to report an unidentified aircraft pacing him over Bass Strait. He described a long shape with a green light, an engine that didn't sound like a normal aircraft, and then, seventeen seconds of unexplained metallic scraping. Then nothing. No wreckage. No body. No confirmed radar trace. The Department of Transport's official finding, filed years later, was "reason for disappearance: unknown." Forty-eight years on, that stretch of water between Victoria and Tasmania has become one of the most argued-over patches of sky in the southern hemisphere. So was this a young, inexperienced pilot who became spatially disoriented and flew upside down into the sea — or did Bass Strait swallow something the official transcript still can't explain? The full radio transcript, and the line investigators still can't agree on: was Valentich describing a UFO, or panicking about engine trouble he didn't have the hours to diagnose? Why no wreckage from a Cessna 182 has ever washed up, in a strait that has surrendered debris from other crashes within days The competing theory that he staged his own disappearance to fly on to a new life, and the family members who have always rejected it A 1982 photograph, taken the same night by a witness on the ground, that some analysts say shows an engine intake — and others say shows nothing at all Why the Bureau of Air Safety Investigation closed its file without ever determining a cause, an outcome almost unheard of in Australian aviation history Some of this is documented. Some is genuinely unknown. And almost none of it is as settled as the people who closed the file want you to believe. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they suss it all out. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#28July 24 · 14 minTHE WEEK IN CONSPIRACY: Barnaby says SIT DOWN, US Senator isn't alive?
Barnaby goes BANG on his dog. Or maybe there wasn't a dog?? Also, a US senator dies, but then another one doesn't? Or maybe not. Who knows ffs. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they suss it all out. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E27July 21 · 39 min22:The Gerson Diet | Curing Cancer with Coffee Enemas
Every morning at the Gerson clinic in Tijuana, patients wake up and drink juice. Then they drink more juice. Then they have a coffee enema. Then more juice. Thirteen glasses before dinner, every day, for weeks - at a cost that runs to thirty thousand dollars a month. The people doing it are not gullible. He also prescribed coffee enemas and carrot juice to cancer patients, charged them a significant amount of money, and kept his own records in a way that made independent verification essentially impossible. Both of those things are true, and the wellness industry has spent seventy years making sure you only hear about one of them. So what does it mean when a protocol this easy to debunk has this many true believers — and some of them have the scans to back it up? This week, Richard Baker and Dr. Nick Coatsworth go through what the evidence actually shows, what's been conveniently overlooked, and what the gap between those two things tells us. The Albert Schweitzer problem: why the most credentialled endorsement in alternative medicine history doesn't actually say what people think it says, and what Schweitzer was and wasn't claiming when he called Gerson a genius The biology of the protocol: what the sodium-potassium hypothesis actually proposes, where it intersects with legitimate cellular research, and where it quietly stops making sense before the brochure notices Survivorship bias and the testimonial economy: why every alternative cancer clinic in the world has a wall of thank-you letters, what that data looks like when an epidemiologist runs it, and why the people who didn't get better aren't at the reunion The peer review gap: why Gerson's results have never been independently replicated, what it would actually take to run a clean trial, and whether the absence of evidence here is as suspicious as the true believers insist Coffee enemas and the detox myth: what the liver actually does, what "detoxification" means in a clinical versus a marketing context, and why the same word is doing very different work depending on who's using it Some of this is documented. Some is genuinely unknown. And almost none of it is as settled as the people selling the protocol want you to believe. Join Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth as they suss it all out. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories — we examine them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E26July 19 · 8 minTHE WEEK IN CONSPIRACY: One Nation x Alex Jones? New Smoking Data.
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts is in the spotlight after his chemtrails take, alrighty Malcolm go off? Plus, some more UFO gear from Trump and a whole heap of new smoking data drops. HUFF IT UP! Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories- it examines them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E25July 14 · 42 min21: The World Cup Cartel Murder | Australia's FIFA Dealings
The murder of Andres Escobar rocked Colombia. Plus, did Australia try to bribe their way to a world cup? In 1994, Colombia entered the World Cup tipped as one of the favorites to win it all. But after a shocking own-goal by beloved defender Andrés Escobar led to their early exit, the national tragedy turned fatal. Just days after returning home to Medellín, Andrés was gunned down in a nightclub parking lot. It remains one of the darkest and most scrutinized moments in sporting history, exposing a terrifying intersection of athletic passion, high-stakes gambling, and cartel violence. This week, Richard Baker and Dr. Nick Coatsworth examine the tragic death of the "Gentleman of Soccer" to separate urban legend from the grim reality of 1990s Colombia, exploring how a simple game became a matter of life and death. The rise of "Narco-Football": How the billions of drug kingpins like Pablo Escobar (no relation to Andrés) bankrolled Colombian football, transformed local clubs into international powerhouses, and deeply entangled the sport with organized crime. The fateful mistake: The high-pressure environment of the 1994 World Cup in the US, the chilling death threats sent to the team's hotel rooms, and the split-second own-goal against the United States that sealed Colombia’s elimination. The murder and the betting syndicates: The night of July 2, 1994, the confrontation outside a Medellín nightclub with figures linked to drug trafficking, and the persistent theory that Andrés was executed because his mistake cost powerful cartel gamblers millions. Why it matters: How the tragedy decimated Colombian football, the chaos that gripped Medellín after the fall of Pablo Escobar, and what the tragedy reveals about the dangerous vulnerability of sports when criminal enterprises take control. Some aspects of the tragedy have been verified by criminal investigations, while other details- including who ultimately ordered the hit- remain shrouded in cartel secrecy and decades of speculation. Throughout this episode, we distinguish between established historical facts, credible theories, and the myths that still surround the tragedy. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories- it examines them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E24July 10 · 15 minTHE WEEK IN CONSPIRACY: TELSTRA f**ck up or Chinese attack? Yes, FIFA is corrupt - we're not surprised.
Donny's on the phone, and FIFA is listening! What's the DJ? No red card? Yes sir no problem sir. Half of Australia can't pay for a flat white because Telstra went down, Beijing is just "testing the waters," right? Hosted by Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth, the Conspiracy Cabal is on the hunt for the kernel of truth. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories - it examines them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies begin, why they endure, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E23July 7 · 45 min20: Labor's BIG BUILD Corruption 'Conspiracy' | ft. Nick McKenzie (Special Guest)
Are bikies running the Labor government? And how big is the CFMEU influence? For years, the Big Build has been promoted as the largest infrastructure investment in Victorian history. But behind the billions of dollars in public spending, allegations have emerged of intimidation, organised crime infiltration, corruption, and extraordinary failures of oversight. For decades, rumours about the influence of the CFMEU circulated throughout the construction industry. This week, Richard Baker and Dr. Nick Coatsworth are joined by award-winning investigative journalist Nick McKenzie to separate political rhetoric from documented evidence as they examine the allegations surrounding the CFMEU, the Victorian Big Build, organised crime infiltration, and what Australia's biggest corruption scandal could mean for the future of the construction industry. The official history: how the CFMEU became one of Australia's most powerful unions, the rise of Victoria's Big Build, the relationship between government, unions and major construction companies, and the events that led to unprecedented government intervention. Nick McKenzie's investigation: the reporting that exposed allegations of corruption, criminal infiltration, intimidation, coercion and misconduct, the evidence uncovered during months of investigative journalism, and the impact those revelations had across Australia. The scandal: allegations involving outlaw motorcycle gangs and organised crime figures, claims of violence and threats on major projects, questions surrounding procurement and oversight, the official investigations now underway, and what has- and hasn't- been proven. Why it matters: how corruption allegations can affect taxpayers, workers, businesses and public confidence, why major infrastructure projects can become vulnerable to criminal influence, and what reforms may be needed to restore trust in one of Australia's most important industries. Some of the allegations surrounding the CFMEU have been supported by extensive investigative reporting and prompted official inquiries and government action. Other claims remain contested or are still the subject of ongoing investigations. Throughout this episode, we distinguish between established facts, credible allegations, and matters that have not been proven. This episode is sponsored by Blackmores. More health, more life. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories—it examines them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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#22July 3 · 7 minTHE WEEK IN CONSPIRACY: UFOs near Geelong, World Cup Match-fixing and Russian spies in Australia
Geelong is the place to go for many things, but UFOs? Well, apparently so. Plus, more World Cup match-fixing controversy (Sepp are you there?) and some Aussies have been charged with spying on behalf of the Russians. What is this, 1979? Hosted by Rich Baker and Dr Nick Coatsworth, the Conspiracy Cabal is on the hunt for the kernel of truth. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories - it examines them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies begin, why they endure, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E21June 30 · 36 min19: The Wizard of Oz | Abuse, Tragedy and The Hanging Munchkin
Released in 1939, it transformed Judy Garland into an international star and became a defining piece of Hollywood history. But behind the Technicolor magic was a production marked by exhausting schedules, dangerous working conditions, and an industry that abused women and children. For decades, stories surrounding the film have grown into something much darker. Because when a movie is surrounded by on-set injuries, cast members who suffer extraordinary personal tragedies, urban legends that refuse to die, and one of Hollywood's greatest stars spends a lifetime battling the consequences of childhood fame, people begin to wonder whether The Wizard of Oz was simply an unlucky production, or whether it carries a curse. This week, Richard Baker and Dr. Nick Coatsworth separate Hollywood myth from historical fact as they explore the so-called Curse of The Wizard of Oz, the brutal realities of the Golden Age studio system, and the heartbreaking treatment of Judy Garland. The official history: the making of The Wizard of Oz, the gruelling production, dangerous special effects, frequent cast injuries, multiple directors, and the realities of filmmaking in 1939 that created one of cinema's greatest classics. Judy Garland's story: the pressures placed on a teenage star, the strict studio control over her appearance and weight, the widespread use of stimulants and sleeping pills, relentless working hours, and how those experiences shaped the rest of her life. The curse theory: the tragedies that befell members of the cast and crew, enduring urban legends—including the infamous "hanging Munchkin" myth—the mysterious stories that continue to circulate, and why so many people believe the film was somehow doomed. Why the legend endures: Hollywood's hidden history, our fascination with fallen stars, the blurred line between documented abuse and exaggerated myth, and whether the real tragedy is far more disturbing than any supernatural curse. Some of the stories surrounding The Wizard of Oz have been debunked. Others are firmly supported by historical evidence. And some have grown larger with every retelling, fuelled by decades of rumour, nostalgia, and Hollywood folklore. This episode is sponsored by Blackmores. More health, more life. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories - it examines them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies start, why they persist, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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S1 · E20June 26 · 9 minTHE WEEK IN CONSPIRACY: Bill Gates STIs, World Cup Abductions and Epstein Blackmail
Your weekly conspiracy update, tuck in folks this is a good one. This week, Bill Gates' links to Jeffrey Epstein are back in the spotlight, we look at the bizarre alleged abduction during Brazil v Scotland at the World Cup, and Richard Baker shares the story of the time he and Nick McKenzie were sued after an investigation into organised crime. Some stories are backed by evidence. Others are fuelled by speculation. We sort through the facts, the claims, and the questions that keep these conspiracies alive. Contact the show at conspiracycabal@outlook.com. The Conspiracy Cabal doesn't promote conspiracy theories - it examines them. We search for the kernel of truth in every story, exploring how conspiracies begin, why they endure, and what drives people to believe them. Contact the show at conspiracycabalpod@outlook.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.