The Uncover Up Conspiracy Cast

In the 1980s, a horrifying story started making the news - that daycare centres were actually just fronts being used by satanic cults. But were the allegations true, or was this an unsupported moral panic?

In the 1970s, several people came forward to claim that they had been high-ranking members of a Satanic cabal - the Illuminati. These stories would become wide-spread, and extremely influential. But was there anything to them, or were these just the lies of scammers and con men looking to make a buck and get famous?

In September of 1983, when the world was one mistake away from complete and utter nuclear devastation, a Korean airliner was headed towards Soviet airspace, and towards disaster. But why did it happen? The answer, as you would no doubt expect at this point, is complicated...

In the late 1960s, a Soviet nuclear missile submarine went missing in the Pacific Ocean. The American government wanted those missiles. But how could they possibly grab a massive submarine from the bottom of the ocean without the Soviets finding out? The answer, as you probably would suspect by now, is complicated and a little ridiculous...

You have something extremely valuable that powerful people are trying to gain access to - your mind. On this episode, Nathan and Lee discuss the nature and dangers of social media manipulation, and Lee interviews an expert on disinformation.

Satan is showing up in more and more conspiracy theories these days, and so Nathan decided it was time for some old-fashioned Bible study. On this episode, special guest pod person Professor Jon Zeyl drops in for a discussion of three books from the Old Testament, and how maybe things are a bit more confusing and complicated than we think (as always).

How do reality and fiction influence each other? On this episode, Lee and Nathan get philosophical as they discuss the importance of stories and the differences between real life and imagination, then they get irritated and angry while talking about the ways in which scammers try to blur fiction and reality in order to rip off vulnerable people.

Time to clean out the junk drawer... this time, Lee picks out a story of an American president using an astrologer to make important decisions during a very dangerous time in history, and Nathan discusses the international scandal of the F-104 Starfighter (aka the "Widowmaker").

In 2022, an attempt was made by a secret group to overthrow the German government and replace it with a new version of the old monarchy. On this episode, Lee examines this event and its implications.

The French Revolution was a violent and shocking rearrangement of an ancient society. Was it the hand of the Illuminati that was pulling the lever of the guillotine? The answer (as you would almost certainly guess) is sort of complicated. Also, it involves a very fancy and expensive necklace. And a volcano.

In 1776, a secret society was formed in Bavaria. They had plans to infiltrate positions of power, and take over the world. On this episode, Lee and Nathan look at the goals and methods of the Illuminati. Also, they make fun of college professors, which is surprisingly relevant to this story...

A tall gaunt man with a long beard and flowing robes stares into a crystal ball to try to communicate with supernatural beings in order to understand the nature of the cosmos. What does he find? Well, it gets dangerous, weird and more than a little awkward...

It's been over a decade since Lee and Nathan started studying conspiracies and conspiracy theories - have they learned anything? As always, the best way to find something like that out is to stage a game show trivia shootout...

In 1961, the CIA launched a false flag attack on the island nation of Cuba. On this episode, Nathan and Lee discuss how spectacularly flawed the plan was, and how the resulting disaster set the stage for a crisis that almost ended the world.

On this episode, Lee looks at the American dollar bill, and sees some pretty weird images and symbols. Is this evidence that America is actually run by the Freemasons? The answer, as you might expect by now, is complicated...

On this episode, Nathan and Lee discuss top secret plans to send the tiniest soldiers into battle during the Cold War: fleas and mosquitos. It's a more alarming idea than it might sound...

On this episode, Nathan and special guest pod person Professor Jon Zeyl look at the history of the Holy Grail, and then investigate a little French town with a big secret...

On this episode, Lee dives headfirst into distant history to try to put together the puzzle of the Knights Templar. Did they really disappear, or did they take their great wealth and go underground to try to manipulate the world's events from behind the scenes? For more information on the Knights Templar, check out Helen J Nichols' "The Knights Templar" or Michael Haag's "The Templars: The History and the Myth".

On this episode, Lee and Nathan begin examining the concept of the secret cabal, by looking at a real example (Skull and Bones) and a lie that was used to manipulate a population (the Committee of 300). Also, Nathan tries to pronounce German names, and Lee reminisces about being at a fancy dinner party.

On this "Junk Drawer" episode, Lee and Nathan talk about a mob hit from the 1960s that's even shadier and more disturbing than you might think, a scheme to kidnap people and force them to try to scam you over the phone, and the strange story of the brilliant author Philip K. Dick, who maybe tipped a little too far into suspicion and landed in the world of paranoia...

In Utah there's an alleged hotbed of supernatural and extraterrestrial activity named "Skinwalker Ranch". As it turns out, the location might well be the centre of a legitimate conspiracy, but not necessarily the one that people claim...

In October of 2023, a rumour started to spread on social media that a signal was going to be broadcast over everyone's cell phones that would activate a virus or a microchip in the vaccinated population that would turn them all into... zombies. Did this happen? No. But like all media-driven panics we can still learn something from it...

On this episode, Lee looks at the claims made by Preston Nichols that he was part of a top secret American government project involving time travel, teleportation, mind control, aliens, and meeting God at the centre of the Galaxy.

Disinformation is widespread in our current media ecosystem, and even if we don't fall for it it can still be hazardous to our health. To find out why this is the case, Lee and Nathan talk to Evan Thornburg: bioethicist, expert in disinformation and public health, and TikTok-facing intellectual. You can find Evan's work on TikTok at "EVN the (Bio) Ethicist"

In 1997, dozens of people died by their own hands in a group called "Heaven's Gate" On this episode, Lee and Nathan try to make sense of the specific belief system that led to this disaster and examine the idea of the "cult" in general.

Lee and Nathan examine the season 3 episode "Jose Chung's From Outer Space" of the classic conspiracy TV show "The X-Files", and use the show to springboard off into a conversation about truth, aliens, hypnosis, abductions, hoaxes, government cover-ups, gorilla suits, and flying saucers. We recommend watching the X-Files episode before listening to this, but it's not necessary since the plot of the episode is explained fully.

What if there was a secret conspiracy to conceal the fact that the American government was making deals with aliens to allow them to abduct people for genetic research? And what if that conspiracy was nothing but a smoke screen to cover up the real conspiracy of a secret cabal working to depopulate the world? This is the story of Bill Cooper, and his book "Behold a Pale Horse".

We've covered an awful lot of UFO material this year as we've worked from the 1940s up to the 1980s, and we thought a bit of review might be useful before we get to the 1990s. So here's a quick summary of what we've covered so far, as well as a bit of new content about the Maury Island UFO crash in 1947.

In summer of 2023, a former intelligence official named David Grusch testified under oath in a Congressional hearing. In his testimony, he claimed that the American government has recovered crashed extraterrestrial craft, and even has some alien bodies in the freezer. What are we to make of these claims? Lee and Nathan dive into the murky waters to find out...

In July 0f 2023, there was a Congressional hearing on UAPs (aka UFOs). Two of the witnesses were Navy pilots who had first-hand encounters with flying objects. Is this the moment we've been waiting for? Is the American government finally taking UFOs seriously? Nathan and Lee examine the testimony and the footage, and look back at the troubling history between the American government and UFO witnesses.

We hear dozens of conspiracy theories every week - a few have some truth to them, some are accidental nonsense, and some are deliberate and dangerous lies. How can we sort through all of them? On this episode, Lee and Nathan talk about some of the red flags that they encounter on the regular that make them suspicious that a conspiracy theory might not be accurate.

Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first person to escape the Earth's atmosphere into space. In 1968, he was killed in a tragic and suspicious plane crash. Why would the Soviet government have wanted Gagarin dead? And were they somehow responsible for the crash? Lee and Nathan also discuss the tragic Soyuz 1 incident, in case listeners weren't already sad enough.

In 1961, the USSR placed a man named Yuri Gagarin into a tiny capsule on the tip of a massive rocket and shot him into space. This is the story of that moment, and Lee spends the episode teetering back and forth between being inspired by the humanity of the story and being discouraged by the systems and structures the humans are stuck in. For more information on this topic, check out "Starman: The Truth Behind the Legend of Yuri Gagarin" by Doran and Bizony

In 1983, the entire world was on the brink of disaster. The slightest mistake or miscalculation could have resulted in a nuclear armageddon that would have wiped entire countries off the map. And in the middle of all of that, some ominous blips showed up on an early warning system. Were we all killed? Listen to find out...

Many claims are made about the advanced technology developed by Germany during WWII. Is any of it accurate? Nathan and Lee go back to the 1940s to look at some of the so-called "Wunderwaffen", and Lee has to spend another episode listening to Nathan talk about airplanes. Then, near the end of the episode, there's an alarming revelation about pumpkins.

On this episode, Lee and Nathan open up the junk drawer and pull out segments on an urban legend about Phil Collins* from the 1980s, a recent example of the use of hiphop tracks for state propaganda, and the evil dangers that lurk in Lee's childhood toys. * not the drummer from The Police

On this episode, Lee takes a close look at a British documentary from the 1970s that claimed that there was a secret Soviet/American space program to sneak people off the Earth to try to colonize Mars.

To Lee's dismay, Nathan has managed to trick him into doing an entire episode about Cold War aircraft. However, the story turns out to be much stranger and more interesting than Lee was expecting, as it features honeypot spies, top secret Air Force programs, bizarre nuclear projects, and at least one person gets thrown off a train.

In the 1980s, some documents started circulating that appeared to be a top secret memo regarding a massive cover up of a UFO crash. On this episode, Lee looks into the story and things get predictably weird and complicated.

In the 1970s, ranchers in multiple states found some of their cows dead on the ground, seemingly drained of blood and with strange surgical incisions on the bodies. Who was doing this, and why? Nathan and Lee investigate, come up with a reasonable explanation, and then stumble across a wildly unreasonable truth...

We think things are pretty dicey politically these days, but how dicey did they used to be? On this episode Lee argues that it was quite dicey indeed in the 1700s, when the British were plotting to assassinate George Washington. Were they successful? Obviously no. But there are lessons to be learned from the story...

What happened to Betty and Barney Hill in the two missing hours between when they left Montreal and when they arrived at home? The story of the Hills is one of the all-time UFO encounter classics, and there are some extremely important lessons to be learned from it. Also, it's interesting.

In the 1950s, lots of people came forward claiming that they had met with aliens, and that those aliens had an important message for us Earthlings. On this episode, Lee and Nathan look at three examples of alleged alien contactees to try to figure out what it all means (hint: it's something to do with nuclear annihilation).

The battlefield is a terrible place. How can we make it an even more terrible place? Drugs and robot suits. On this episode, Lee and Nathan examine the use of meth in WWII and Vietnam, and then examine a DARPA plan to build exoskeletons. Also, telepathy and mind control.

How did this happen? 100 episodes of The Uncover Up!?! To get to the bottom of this, Lee and Nathan investigate their own origin stories - young Lee as a seeker looking for spiritual meaning, and young Nathan lost and aimless in an absurd world without any meaning. Also, Nathan gets a tattoo, and a nuclear physicist pops in to say hello.

On this episode, Lee and Nathan look into the motivations behind the concept of building a "super soldier", and examine some historical examples involving hashish, booze, hallucinogens, and terrifying ape/human hybrid experiments.

Who are the mysterious Men in Black that intimidate and frighten people who come forward with stories of UFOs? Lee and Nathan investigate the investigators, and as usual crash into a Gordion Knot of disinformation, cover ups, and lies coming from all directions. Also, Nathan reads a short poem.

On this episode, Nathan begins by going off to scenic Paris, Ontario to hunt for a monster, and (in a Twilight Zone-esque twist) he and Lee learn that the real monster is... human beings.

On this episode, Lee and Nathan attempt to leave behind this world (with all its hassles and irritations) and find a lost island civilization instead. However, things take a dark turn, as they learn a lesson about the dangers of myth making...

On this episode, Lee and Nathan examine the relationship that exists between conspiracy communities and scammers who try to take financial advantage of them. Coincidentally, while they are recording the episode someone is trying to scam Nathan over the phone. Also, Nathan talks about shrimp.

What does a witch hunt look like in America of the 1950s? Lee does a deep dive into the paranoid world of Senator Joseph McCarthy. But is McCarthy a true believer in his cause, or a cynical conman? As usual, the more pessimistic answer is likely the more accurate one...

Is it possible that our entire existence is nothing more than someone else's sandbox-style video game? On this episode, Lee and Nathan get into quantum physics, epistemology, metaphysics, ontology and ethics to try to get to the bottom of that question. Also, Nathan reminisces about playing Ultima IV on a Commodore 64 in the 1980s.

Are we really living in the real world, or just in some kind of elaborate trick or simulation? Turns out humans have been wondering that for a few thousand years, and on this episode Lee and Nathan explore three philosophical schools that take this question seriously.

On this episode, Lee, Nathan and special guest pod person Dr. Shelly Lesher dive deep into the nature of existence to look into the possibility that the Pentagon has been working on a gamma ray weapon that would fit in the palm of your hand, but destroy a city block. In order to help make the science make sense, they start with a 10 minute primer on what the atom is, what isotopes are, and what isomers are. Then, it's all military industrial complex mayhem for the rest of the episode...

On this episode, Lee and Nathan examine a mysterious and threatening area of the world in their own backyards. Is there something sinister going on in the Great Lakes that's claiming ships, planes, and lives?

At the end of the 17th century, the town of Salem accused dozens of people of being part of a massive witch conspiracy, and many of those accused end up being put to death. How could something like this have happened, and could it happen again?

If television and movies have taught us anything, it's that good guys won't break under torture, and bad guys confess the truth under torture. As it turns out, television and movies may have steered us wrong on both counts. Continuing their examination of the Witch Hunt disaster, Lee and Nathan discuss how in order to protect an absurd belief, you need to add more absurdity. And if you add enough absurdity, you can arrive at an atrocity...

On this "Junk Drawer" episode, Lee and Nathan look at some odd little stories that were interesting enough to discuss, but not big enough for their own episodes. On this edition, Nathan discusses the world's first mass media panic, Lee examines a time there was a conspiracy that almost an entire country was in on, and then Nathan looks at a UFO sighting with a twist.

On this episode, Lee and Nathan look at how the idea of the "witch" started to form in Europe in the 15th century. In particular, they look at one of the most influential books on how to identify, interrogate, prosecute and punish people accused of witchcraft - the Malleus Maleficarum, or the "Hammer of Witches". Humans are dangerous when they're frightened...

On this episode, Lee and Nathan attempt to go back in time to investigate the Salem witch trials of the late 17th century, and end up going all the way back to Ancient Greece to debate the nature of knowledge and the problem of evil.

Starting in 2016, American and Canadian embassy workers began to show strange and alarming symptoms. Could it be evidence of a new secret weapon? Lee, Nathan and special guest pod person Dr. Shelly Lesher from the "My Nuclear Life" podcast try to figure it out...

On this episode, Lee and Nathan hang out in 18th and 19th century Europe, where groups of fancy French people are at strange parties, gathered around a steel tank and collapsing into fits. This episode gets a little weird - listener discretion advised.

On this episode, Lee, Nathan and special guest pod person Dr. Shelly Lesher (from the "My Nuclear Life" podcast) discuss the possibility that microwaves could be weaponized into a mind control apparatus that could cause you to hear voices inside your head. Also, there's some discussion of irradiating monkeys, but no monkeys were harmed in the making of this episode.

Was Rasputin a depraved occultist charlatan who lied his way in to the Russian royal family, or a gifted holy man with the divine power to heal? On this episode Lee and Nathan try to answer that question, and also spend a surprisingly long time trying to establish how Rasputin smelled.

What if there was a third path, an alternative to official religion and scientific rationality? On this episode, Nathan and Lee start their exploration into the hidden world of the occult, and discuss some of the history and the practices that are associated with the modern occult movement. This topic is only going to get weirder from here...

One of the most important and interesting conspiracy-themed films ever is John Carpenter's 1988 sci-fi masterpiece "They Live". On this episode, Lee and Nathan summarize the plot of the movie, and along the way get into Slavoj Zizek, Plato, ideology, and epic Greek poetry. They also ask the question: what's the appropriate amount of paranoia?

On this episode, Lee and Nathan take a look at the belief that the world is secretly controlled by reptiles from space that can mimic humans. Their conclusions aren't as reassuring as you might expect...

On this episode, Lee and Nathan check into the reservation desk at the world's most sinister airport, and investigate the conspiracy theory that the artwork on the walls of the DIA is hinting at something sinister in the underground tunnels below...

On this episode, Lee and Nathan take an investigative look at a couple of examples of people who claimed to be from the future. Then, they attempt to talk about some physics, before finishing off with a few philosophical paradoxes that time travel creates. Also, they get into a discussion of the multiverse. There is another universe somewhere in which they didn't, though...

On this episode Lee and Nathan discuss the "Brotherhood of Eternal Love" - a group that decided what the world needed was a massive LSD trip to get itself in the right frame of mind. Along the way we discover that, as much as Nathan enjoys discussing octopus and squids, Lee enjoys discussing hashish smuggling even more.

It's time for another cryptid hunt! This time, Lee and Nathan dive to the bottom of the deep sea to look for the mythic creature that, legend has it, can pull a ship to its doom. They also spend a bunch of time talking about epistemology and the nature of knowledge, because they're nerds.

On this episode, Lee and Nathan turn their eyes to the skies to discuss whether there is anything behind the idea that we are being poisoned from above by those little white lines that come out of jet planes...

On this episode, Lee investigates the role of Russian intelligence agencies in the 2016 American election, and explains why you should really think twice before clicking on a link in a strange email...

On this episode, Nathan exorcises the idea that ghosts are manifestations of mental substance that survive after we shed our mortal coils. Boo!

Did the American Navy fight flying saucers from the centre of the earth at the South Pole in 1947? That's a complicated question. And it's going to require a complicated answer...

On this nostalgic episode, Lee and Nathan discuss the sinister legend of a mysterious video game that appeared in Portland in 1981. Was it real? Was it part of a CIA mind control experiment? What was Lee's high score on Street Fighter II? Two of those three questions will be answered on this episode...

On this not-cheerful episode, a world-weary Lee and Nathan look back at the history of biological weapons and examine a month in the fall of 1950 in which the American government carried out a massive germ experiment on the people of San Francisco without their consent or knowledge.

On this episode, Nathan and Lee examine three historical examples of Soviet disinformation campaigns in order to try to help understand our current situation. And they end the episode very concerned about our current situation...

On this episode, Lee and Nathan start by trying to explain a recent Facebook disinformation campaign, but they begin the explanation in 1881, and only get up to 1955 before they realize they had accidentally recorded an episode about the history of the KGB...

On this episode Nathan looks back to 2015, a simpler time when thousands were terrified that the American federal government was about to use the US Army to invade Texas and impose martial law. Did it happen? Listen and find out... Also, no. No it didn't happen.

On this episode, Lee, Nathan and special guest pod person Dr. Alena Papayanis discuss the recent "Free Britney" movement, as well as the disturbing aspects of fame and celebrity. During the episode, Lee goes from being indifferent to pop culture to getting very worked up about pop culture...

On this bonus mini-sode, Nathan goes over the recent UFO report released by the Pentagon to see if there is anything in it that gives us any insight into the situation. Surprisingly, there is...

On this episode, Lee, Nathan and special guest podperson and nuclear physicist Dr. Shelly Lesher dive into the terrifying logic of the Cold War, as well as some of the bizarre schemes and plans that DARPA funded to try to tilt the deadly game in America's favour. Also, be sure check out Dr. Lesher's podcast "My Nuclear Life", which examines how nuclear physics impacts the social world in strange and unexpected ways.

On this episode, Lee, Alena and Nathan discuss the recent UFO encounters by US Navy pilots, and try to figure out which bizarre hypothesis explaining these incidents is the most likely (or the least unlikely).

On this episode, Nathan takes a look at an incident in which two F-4 Phantom fighter jets tangled with UFOs in the skies over Tehran, and also begins our investigation into the recent UFO sightings by the US Navy. Things are getting weird up there...

On this episode, Lee and Nathan look into one of the classics as they try to figure out why the USS Cyclops and a flight of navy torpedo bombers disappeared into the mysterious Bermuda Triangle. And be sure to subscribe to our Instagram account @theuncoverup where we have some announcements and contests. Also, once we pass 300 subscribers, Nathan has to get a flying saucer tattooed on his right arm...

On this episode, Nathan looks at the famed inventor and hipster fashion icon Nikola Tesla, in order to ask the questions: Did Tesla build a death ray weapon? And if so, what happened to the plans for it?

On this episode, Lee, Alena and Nathan discuss the nature of belief and the dangers of mind control by investigating a well-known worldwide organization. Is it a religion? Is it a cult? Is it a corporation? Is it a scam? Is it some combination of all of those? This is the first episode we've ever done that has caused Lee to have a month-long panic attack...

On this episode, the one thing we've always worried about happens and Nathan totally nerds out about Cold War airplanes. He also investigates an incident in 1953 in which two aircrew and their fighter jet disappear over Lake Superior after being sent after a UFO.

On this episode, Nathan looks back at a time in 1954 in which an American doomsday group who were preparing to escape the Earth in flying saucers was infiltrated by undercover psychologists, who were curious to see what would happen to the members of the group when the doomsday didn't occur. Even by our standards, that's a wild sentence to write down...

On this pop culture related episode, Lee, Alena and Nathan discuss ancient Greek culture and myths, 16th century France, multiverse theory, and several psychological concepts regarding the nature of memory. Also, they talk about "The Simpsons" and ask whether the future can be found in Springfield...

On this first in a series of episodes about doomsday cults, Lee and Nathan explore the context and motivations for the deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway by Aum Shinrikyo. Typically, they also spend an extended amount of time just trying to figure out a good working definition of "cult".

On this episode, Lee looks back in history at some of the reactions people have had to past immunization efforts, and Alena compares those reactions to what we are seeing today. They also go through some of the claims that have been made about vaccines, and assess them for accuracy.

On this episode, Nathan, Lee and Alena take a look at the human immune system and how vaccination works. There's a lot of conversation about many kinds of white blood cells, how we react to different forms of evidence, and how we're not great at risk management. Cannibalism comes up, but only briefly.

On this episode, Nathan examines the time in 1966 when there was a chase between a few police cars and a flying saucer, followed by an Air Force cover up operation. Seriously. This one wasn't just an owl, for a change...

On this episode, Alena, Lee and Nathan look into the disturbing question of whether the beloved "People's Princess" was actually murdered on that August night in 1997 by examining the forensic and eyewitness evidence. Along the way, they explore the nature of fame, discuss true love, and Nathan proposes an offensive and scientifically questionable analogy between the British Royal Family and a certain fashionable breed of dog. Also, follow us on Instagram @theuncoverup to check out the first in our new series of short videos, as we work with new Uncover Up team member animator Sean Egerton Foreman.

On this episode, Nathan examines the story of William Miller, a man who in the 1830s and 40s predicted the imminent end of the world and convinced tens of thousands of followers. Did the world end? Listen and find out...

On this episode, Lee, Alena and Nathan examine the phenomenon of "QAnon", going into the beliefs, history, precursors, implications, and meaning behind one of the fastest spreading belief systems on Earth.

On this episode, Nathan looks into the possibility that there was almost a fascist coup in the early 1930s that could have ended American democracy and installed a dictatorship. Happy election season!