1 00:00:15,396 --> 00:00:23,636 Speaker 1: Pushkin. There's a place in our world where the dubious 2 00:00:23,676 --> 00:00:29,756 Speaker 1: things end up, a morgue of fakes, hoaxes, frauds, and 3 00:00:29,876 --> 00:00:35,596 Speaker 1: conspiracy theories. I've got a wall of televisions in here. 4 00:00:37,556 --> 00:00:39,716 Speaker 1: I think it's a hoax. I think it's a hoax 5 00:00:39,796 --> 00:00:42,596 Speaker 1: by the newspapers and the Democrats are based on based 6 00:00:42,596 --> 00:00:45,116 Speaker 1: on what you've been with a lot of this stuff. 7 00:00:45,236 --> 00:00:48,436 Speaker 1: No matter what it's supposedly about, the pandemic, the election, 8 00:00:49,236 --> 00:00:52,356 Speaker 1: it sounds like a broken record. It's a hoax. It's 9 00:00:52,356 --> 00:00:55,876 Speaker 1: a hoax. Everybody knows that it's a it's a complete hoax. 10 00:00:57,396 --> 00:01:00,556 Speaker 1: Or it's like a Russian doll. Crack open one hoax 11 00:01:00,636 --> 00:01:05,116 Speaker 1: an inside there's just another hoos hoax after hoaxing. But 12 00:01:05,276 --> 00:01:09,036 Speaker 1: a hoax. It's a hoax because as soon as Teach 13 00:01:09,476 --> 00:01:11,916 Speaker 1: was over, they needed something else to bring down shrump 14 00:01:12,396 --> 00:01:14,596 Speaker 1: and they had to bring the economy down. And this 15 00:01:14,716 --> 00:01:18,596 Speaker 1: is it and I'll tell you why. So wait, wait, James, 16 00:01:18,716 --> 00:01:22,076 Speaker 1: you think that somebody conspired to have a virus to 17 00:01:22,476 --> 00:01:26,636 Speaker 1: bring down the president? Yea a deep state? The deep state. 18 00:01:27,196 --> 00:01:32,316 Speaker 1: Conspiracy theorists look for patterns, they connect the dots. But 19 00:01:32,436 --> 00:01:36,676 Speaker 1: that's also how historians work even here in a place 20 00:01:36,716 --> 00:01:40,676 Speaker 1: that lies half hidden, in the shadow of doubt, where 21 00:01:40,716 --> 00:01:44,956 Speaker 1: the sign on the door reads the last Archive. That's 22 00:01:44,996 --> 00:01:47,516 Speaker 1: where I'm digging through my files to find the hook 23 00:01:47,636 --> 00:01:52,076 Speaker 1: story that started it all. Two minus one minute, thirty 24 00:01:52,076 --> 00:01:55,796 Speaker 1: five seconds on the Apollo mission, The flight to land 25 00:01:55,956 --> 00:01:59,236 Speaker 1: of the first men on the Moon, nineteen sixty nine, 26 00:01:59,636 --> 00:02:02,396 Speaker 1: The dawn of the Age of Aquarius, the dawn of 27 00:02:02,476 --> 00:02:08,956 Speaker 1: the age of the hoax, step through an airlock to 28 00:02:09,196 --> 00:02:17,956 Speaker 1: Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Kennedy Space Center Launch time follow eleven. 29 00:02:18,796 --> 00:02:22,116 Speaker 1: When NASA launched Apollo eleven in July nineteen sixty nine, 30 00:02:22,556 --> 00:02:27,156 Speaker 1: that rocket fractured time and space. People who watched on 31 00:02:27,196 --> 00:02:29,876 Speaker 1: television live remember it. I was too little. But for 32 00:02:29,956 --> 00:02:33,276 Speaker 1: most people this was a television event, not a big 33 00:02:33,316 --> 00:02:37,196 Speaker 1: bang of an idea like Copernicanism or Darwinism. It was 34 00:02:37,236 --> 00:02:40,196 Speaker 1: something you watched on a screen as if it were 35 00:02:40,236 --> 00:02:44,676 Speaker 1: a TV show like Gunsmoke or Bonanza, a television episode. 36 00:02:45,916 --> 00:02:48,156 Speaker 1: But it also was a dream, and it was a 37 00:02:48,196 --> 00:02:51,676 Speaker 1: big idea. Since the dawn of humanity, people had lain 38 00:02:51,716 --> 00:02:53,916 Speaker 1: awake in the chill and dark of night and looked 39 00:02:53,956 --> 00:02:57,076 Speaker 1: up at the stars in the Moon and wondered what's 40 00:02:57,156 --> 00:03:01,836 Speaker 1: up there or who. Then at the start of the 41 00:03:01,916 --> 00:03:05,196 Speaker 1: Kennedy administration, the President said it was time to find 42 00:03:05,196 --> 00:03:10,516 Speaker 1: the answers. We set sail on this new sea because 43 00:03:10,556 --> 00:03:13,956 Speaker 1: there is new knowledge to be gained and new rights 44 00:03:14,076 --> 00:03:17,716 Speaker 1: to be won, and they must be won and used 45 00:03:18,436 --> 00:03:21,756 Speaker 1: or the progress of all people. The audacity of it 46 00:03:21,876 --> 00:03:24,796 Speaker 1: staggers me. In the middle of the twentieth century, in 47 00:03:24,836 --> 00:03:27,116 Speaker 1: the middle of an arms race, at the height of 48 00:03:27,116 --> 00:03:30,796 Speaker 1: the techno swagger of the Cold War, the United States 49 00:03:30,796 --> 00:03:36,916 Speaker 1: decided to conquer the Moon. We choose to go to 50 00:03:36,956 --> 00:03:40,276 Speaker 1: the Moon and districate and do the other thing, not 51 00:03:40,396 --> 00:03:44,596 Speaker 1: because they are easy, but because they are hard. Because 52 00:03:44,676 --> 00:03:48,796 Speaker 1: that gold we'll serve to organize and measure the best 53 00:03:49,396 --> 00:03:53,356 Speaker 1: of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one 54 00:03:53,436 --> 00:03:57,636 Speaker 1: that we're willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, 55 00:03:58,196 --> 00:04:02,156 Speaker 1: and one we intend to win. We will win the moon. 56 00:04:02,556 --> 00:04:05,556 Speaker 1: We will win the race to the Moon. It began 57 00:04:05,636 --> 00:04:08,556 Speaker 1: with a big idea in nineteen sixty one, but when 58 00:04:08,596 --> 00:04:11,436 Speaker 1: it finally came off, when it happened it was broadcast 59 00:04:11,476 --> 00:04:14,556 Speaker 1: live in nineteen sixty nine, it became a big idea 60 00:04:14,756 --> 00:04:19,396 Speaker 1: disguised as a TV event, A miniseries beginning with the 61 00:04:19,476 --> 00:04:23,036 Speaker 1: rockets launch on July sixteenth, at nine thirty two am 62 00:04:23,076 --> 00:04:31,276 Speaker 1: Eastern five four three two one zero, all engine running, 63 00:04:32,076 --> 00:04:35,196 Speaker 1: lipped off. We have a lipped off thirty two minutes 64 00:04:35,316 --> 00:04:41,596 Speaker 1: past the hour, ripped off on Apollo eleven. The United 65 00:04:41,636 --> 00:04:44,676 Speaker 1: States had been launching people into orbit and beyond for 66 00:04:44,796 --> 00:04:47,756 Speaker 1: nearly a decade at this point, but this launch it 67 00:04:47,836 --> 00:04:50,596 Speaker 1: was hard to believe it was really happening, probably because 68 00:04:50,636 --> 00:04:53,676 Speaker 1: of where it was going. Norman Mailer, the bad boy 69 00:04:53,676 --> 00:04:56,236 Speaker 1: of mid century American letters, wrote a series of essays 70 00:04:56,276 --> 00:05:00,316 Speaker 1: about it for Life Magazine. The event was so removed, 71 00:05:00,596 --> 00:05:03,476 Speaker 1: so unreal, that no objective choral would have existed to 72 00:05:03,596 --> 00:05:05,436 Speaker 1: prove it had not been an event stage in the 73 00:05:05,556 --> 00:05:09,916 Speaker 1: television studio, like the greatest connoist century. Here's what made 74 00:05:09,916 --> 00:05:12,756 Speaker 1: mail are sure the Moon mission wasn't a con. Going 75 00:05:12,796 --> 00:05:15,596 Speaker 1: to the Moon was hard, but faking it and the 76 00:05:15,716 --> 00:05:18,716 Speaker 1: conspiracy required to cover up the fake would have been 77 00:05:18,756 --> 00:05:22,036 Speaker 1: even harder. It would have been impossible if it were bogus, 78 00:05:22,036 --> 00:05:24,596 Speaker 1: Mailer said, it would have been as incredible an accomplishment 79 00:05:24,596 --> 00:05:28,636 Speaker 1: and mass hoodwinking as the actual mission was in technology. 80 00:05:29,356 --> 00:05:33,156 Speaker 1: It would take criminals and confidence been mightier, more trustworthy, 81 00:05:33,156 --> 00:05:35,596 Speaker 1: and more resourceful than anything in a century of the 82 00:05:35,636 --> 00:05:40,316 Speaker 1: ones before. So that makes sense to me. It'd be 83 00:05:40,356 --> 00:05:42,876 Speaker 1: way too complicated to fake this. Why not just go 84 00:05:42,956 --> 00:05:46,556 Speaker 1: to the Moon? All the same? A not small number 85 00:05:46,556 --> 00:05:49,956 Speaker 1: of Americans began to think the Moon mission was a hoax, 86 00:05:50,316 --> 00:05:54,596 Speaker 1: that there had really been a mass hoodwinking. But believe 87 00:05:54,636 --> 00:05:58,276 Speaker 1: it or not, some people say it never happened. This 88 00:05:58,516 --> 00:06:04,836 Speaker 1: whole thing was a fake. Decide for yourself, as he explore, 89 00:06:04,916 --> 00:06:11,676 Speaker 1: the vice or mid have orchestrated the deception of the 90 00:06:11,756 --> 00:06:15,276 Speaker 1: century massa cop have pulled off the greatest coats of 91 00:06:15,316 --> 00:06:21,396 Speaker 1: all time. Welcome to the Last Archive, the show about 92 00:06:21,436 --> 00:06:23,396 Speaker 1: how we know what we know, how we used to 93 00:06:23,436 --> 00:06:25,836 Speaker 1: know things, and why it seems lately as if we 94 00:06:25,836 --> 00:06:29,876 Speaker 1: don't know anything at all. I'm Jillipour and this is 95 00:06:29,876 --> 00:06:32,836 Speaker 1: our season of doubt. What about going to the Moon 96 00:06:32,956 --> 00:06:34,636 Speaker 1: led to the rise of the modern age of the 97 00:06:34,636 --> 00:06:38,836 Speaker 1: hoax and to the idea that history itself couldn't be trusted. 98 00:06:42,516 --> 00:06:44,916 Speaker 1: It had taken seven years from the day Kennedy said 99 00:06:44,996 --> 00:06:47,156 Speaker 1: we choose to go to the Moon, to the launch 100 00:06:47,196 --> 00:06:51,516 Speaker 1: itself the effort costs nearly two hundred billion dollars in 101 00:06:51,556 --> 00:06:55,396 Speaker 1: twenty twenty one. Money, no bucks, no buck, rogers, NASA 102 00:06:55,436 --> 00:06:59,556 Speaker 1: guys told Congress. But Congress kept ponying up all that money, 103 00:06:59,876 --> 00:07:01,956 Speaker 1: not so much because members of Congress were looking to 104 00:07:01,996 --> 00:07:05,276 Speaker 1: the future, but because they were looking to the past, 105 00:07:06,596 --> 00:07:10,596 Speaker 1: specifically to something that had happened in nineteen fifty seven. 106 00:07:11,116 --> 00:07:13,996 Speaker 1: Until two days ago, that sound had never been heard 107 00:07:14,076 --> 00:07:16,716 Speaker 1: on this earth. Suddenly it has become as much a 108 00:07:16,716 --> 00:07:19,156 Speaker 1: part of twentieth century life as the horror of your 109 00:07:19,276 --> 00:07:23,236 Speaker 1: vacuum cleaner. It's a report from man's farthest frontier. The 110 00:07:23,356 --> 00:07:27,316 Speaker 1: radio signal transmitted by the Soviet Sputnik, the first man 111 00:07:27,316 --> 00:07:30,196 Speaker 1: made satellite, as it passed over New York earlier today. 112 00:07:31,996 --> 00:07:34,916 Speaker 1: In nineteen fifty seven, the Soviet Union had launched the 113 00:07:34,956 --> 00:07:39,636 Speaker 1: world's first satellite, Sputnik. At the time, Kennedy was a 114 00:07:39,676 --> 00:07:43,876 Speaker 1: Massachusetts Senator. He publicly blamed President Eisenhower for what had 115 00:07:43,916 --> 00:07:47,076 Speaker 1: been dubbed a missile gap, for falling behind the Soviets 116 00:07:47,076 --> 00:07:51,916 Speaker 1: in the space race. Senate majority leader Lyndon Johnson warned 117 00:07:51,956 --> 00:07:54,276 Speaker 1: that soon the Russians will be dropping bombs on us 118 00:07:54,316 --> 00:07:58,036 Speaker 1: from space like kids dropping rocks onto cars from freeway overpasses. 119 00:07:58,676 --> 00:08:01,476 Speaker 1: Historians have come to cease since there really was no 120 00:08:01,556 --> 00:08:06,156 Speaker 1: missile gap, which is what Eisenhower had always insisted. Still, 121 00:08:06,556 --> 00:08:10,756 Speaker 1: with some reluctance, Eisenhower agreed to establish NASA, the National 122 00:08:10,836 --> 00:08:15,636 Speaker 1: Aeronautics and Space Administration. It's easy to think American voters 123 00:08:15,636 --> 00:08:18,116 Speaker 1: were super gung ho about NASA and about going to 124 00:08:18,156 --> 00:08:21,236 Speaker 1: the Moon, but Americans were not gung ho about the 125 00:08:21,236 --> 00:08:24,516 Speaker 1: Moon mission. At hardly any point between the day Kennedy 126 00:08:24,516 --> 00:08:27,476 Speaker 1: announced the mission and the day American astronauts landed on 127 00:08:27,516 --> 00:08:31,676 Speaker 1: the Moon did a majority of Americans support the moonshot. Instead, 128 00:08:31,996 --> 00:08:37,636 Speaker 1: critics called it a moondoggle for one thing, A lot 129 00:08:37,636 --> 00:08:40,716 Speaker 1: of people thought, not unreasonably, that there are other better 130 00:08:40,756 --> 00:08:43,476 Speaker 1: things to spend taxpayer money on the head of the 131 00:08:43,556 --> 00:08:46,956 Speaker 1: National Urban League said it will cost thirty five billion 132 00:08:46,996 --> 00:08:49,916 Speaker 1: dollars to put two men on the Moon. It would 133 00:08:49,956 --> 00:08:52,556 Speaker 1: take ten billion dollars to lift every poor person in 134 00:08:52,556 --> 00:08:56,316 Speaker 1: this country above the official poverty standard this year. Something 135 00:08:56,396 --> 00:09:00,436 Speaker 1: is wrong somewhere. The day before the launch, civil rights 136 00:09:00,516 --> 00:09:03,916 Speaker 1: activists staged a protest at the Kennedy Space Center. Ralph 137 00:09:03,916 --> 00:09:09,556 Speaker 1: Abernathy gave a speech that even now unsettles me from 138 00:09:09,596 --> 00:09:18,156 Speaker 1: this day to the heavens beyond. But as long as racism, poverty, hunger, 139 00:09:18,756 --> 00:09:24,516 Speaker 1: and won't prevail on the head, we as a civilized 140 00:09:24,796 --> 00:09:31,316 Speaker 1: nation have failed. Among the skeptics of the Moonshot were 141 00:09:31,356 --> 00:09:33,836 Speaker 1: some of the astronaut's own wives. The wife of a 142 00:09:33,876 --> 00:09:36,476 Speaker 1: member of the crew of Apollo ten said, if you 143 00:09:36,556 --> 00:09:38,916 Speaker 1: think going to the moon is hard, try staying at home. 144 00:09:40,076 --> 00:09:42,676 Speaker 1: This is strange sexual politics to the Cold War race 145 00:09:42,716 --> 00:09:45,916 Speaker 1: to conquer space. A few people said this more squarely 146 00:09:46,036 --> 00:09:48,996 Speaker 1: than the writer and scientist Rachel Carson, who, when the 147 00:09:49,036 --> 00:09:51,716 Speaker 1: Soviets launched their first satellite, had been writing a book 148 00:09:51,756 --> 00:09:57,276 Speaker 1: she'd been calling men against the Earth. In pre spotnic days, 149 00:09:57,676 --> 00:10:01,516 Speaker 1: it was easy to dismiss so much as science fiction fantasies. 150 00:10:02,116 --> 00:10:06,876 Speaker 1: Now the most far fetched schemes seem entirely possible of achievement, 151 00:10:07,316 --> 00:10:11,156 Speaker 1: and man seems actually likely to take into his hands, 152 00:10:11,556 --> 00:10:15,836 Speaker 1: ill prepared as he is psychologically many of the functions 153 00:10:15,876 --> 00:10:22,356 Speaker 1: of God. So yes, even before the Moonshot there were 154 00:10:22,356 --> 00:10:24,836 Speaker 1: people who are skeptical about it, about men trying to 155 00:10:24,876 --> 00:10:28,916 Speaker 1: become gods by flying to the skies. There were misgivings. 156 00:10:29,556 --> 00:10:31,956 Speaker 1: But how did we get from doubts and misgivings to 157 00:10:31,996 --> 00:10:35,556 Speaker 1: a full on conspiracy theory. One answer to that question 158 00:10:36,196 --> 00:10:39,516 Speaker 1: lies in the history of hoaxes. I started to have 159 00:10:39,556 --> 00:10:43,876 Speaker 1: a hunch that hoaxes weren't about what certainly what the 160 00:10:43,876 --> 00:10:46,676 Speaker 1: hoaxes said they were, but even what people sometimes wrote 161 00:10:46,676 --> 00:10:50,276 Speaker 1: about that they were. Kevin Young is the poetry editor 162 00:10:50,436 --> 00:10:53,796 Speaker 1: of The New Yorker and director of the Smithsonian Museum 163 00:10:53,796 --> 00:10:57,236 Speaker 1: of African American History and Culture. He's also the author 164 00:10:57,436 --> 00:11:00,036 Speaker 1: of a very on the noose book, Oh, and my 165 00:11:00,156 --> 00:11:04,196 Speaker 1: book is Bunk. The Rise of Hoaxes, humbug play, dress phonies, 166 00:11:04,316 --> 00:11:07,996 Speaker 1: post facts, and fake News. I called Young because it 167 00:11:08,036 --> 00:11:09,916 Speaker 1: was in his book that I'd first read of the 168 00:11:09,956 --> 00:11:13,436 Speaker 1: Moon hoax. Not the theory that American astronauts never went 169 00:11:13,476 --> 00:11:16,356 Speaker 1: to the Moon in nineteen sixty nine, but a completely 170 00:11:16,356 --> 00:11:21,036 Speaker 1: different hoax perpetrated in the nineteenth century by an American 171 00:11:21,116 --> 00:11:25,276 Speaker 1: penny newspaper, The New York Sun. In eighteen thirty five, 172 00:11:25,556 --> 00:11:29,836 Speaker 1: The Sun ran a series about some astounding new astronomical discoveries. 173 00:11:31,276 --> 00:11:36,236 Speaker 1: Recent discoveries in astronomy will build an imperishable monument to 174 00:11:36,276 --> 00:11:39,036 Speaker 1: the age in which we live and confer upon the 175 00:11:39,116 --> 00:11:42,596 Speaker 1: present generation of the human race, a proud distinction through 176 00:11:42,636 --> 00:11:47,636 Speaker 1: all future time. In the eighteen thirties, astronomers had been 177 00:11:47,636 --> 00:11:50,916 Speaker 1: debating whether life could exist on the Moon. The scientific 178 00:11:50,956 --> 00:11:55,196 Speaker 1: consensus tended towards no, because astronomers had been able to 179 00:11:55,196 --> 00:11:58,876 Speaker 1: determine that there is no atmosphere on the Moon. No atmosphere, 180 00:11:59,076 --> 00:12:02,876 Speaker 1: no life. Still, they weren't certain. There was room for doubt. 181 00:12:03,236 --> 00:12:06,876 Speaker 1: So playing on this doubt, the Sun perpetrated a hoax 182 00:12:09,156 --> 00:12:12,516 Speaker 1: on Herschel. The famous Scottish astronomer had just built an 183 00:12:12,636 --> 00:12:16,356 Speaker 1: enormous telescope in South Africa. That was true, But then 184 00:12:16,396 --> 00:12:18,956 Speaker 1: the Sun published what it claimed was a reprint of 185 00:12:18,956 --> 00:12:22,436 Speaker 1: a journal article reporting to an eager public what Herschel 186 00:12:22,476 --> 00:12:25,876 Speaker 1: had seen through that telescope. This was the hoax. No 187 00:12:25,956 --> 00:12:29,036 Speaker 1: such journal article ever existed. The Sun made it up, 188 00:12:29,196 --> 00:12:32,116 Speaker 1: but in their coverage they reported that when Herschel put 189 00:12:32,196 --> 00:12:35,876 Speaker 1: his eye to the eyepiece he saw life on the 190 00:12:35,916 --> 00:12:38,436 Speaker 1: surface of the Moon. He was about to become the 191 00:12:38,476 --> 00:12:41,716 Speaker 1: sole depository of wondrous secrets which had been hid from 192 00:12:41,756 --> 00:12:43,636 Speaker 1: the eyes of all men that had lived since the 193 00:12:43,676 --> 00:12:47,756 Speaker 1: birth of time. The eighteen thirty five moon hoax was brilliant. 194 00:12:48,196 --> 00:12:51,076 Speaker 1: Readers were duped. It became the talk of the nation, 195 00:12:51,476 --> 00:12:55,396 Speaker 1: was picked up all over the country, reprinted everywhere. Kevin 196 00:12:55,476 --> 00:13:01,076 Speaker 1: Young found it all fascinating. It has this beautiful casing, 197 00:13:01,196 --> 00:13:02,916 Speaker 1: you know, and it starts with sort of, oh, I'm 198 00:13:02,916 --> 00:13:05,596 Speaker 1: observing the moon, and oh. He reports that the first 199 00:13:05,676 --> 00:13:07,556 Speaker 1: day he sees the moon, and then he gets better 200 00:13:07,596 --> 00:13:10,556 Speaker 1: and better, closer and closer. It's almost sort of like 201 00:13:10,956 --> 00:13:14,956 Speaker 1: the heavens parting each day. According to the fake report, 202 00:13:15,476 --> 00:13:18,356 Speaker 1: Herschel was able to see more and more and more 203 00:13:18,436 --> 00:13:24,356 Speaker 1: on the Moon as he focused his lens lakes, oceans, mountains, valleys, plants, 204 00:13:24,916 --> 00:13:29,516 Speaker 1: and then he spies animals. The first observed was a 205 00:13:29,596 --> 00:13:34,076 Speaker 1: quadruped with an amazingly long neck, head like a sheep, 206 00:13:34,316 --> 00:13:40,276 Speaker 1: bearing two long spiral horns. White is polished ivory, almost 207 00:13:40,356 --> 00:13:43,996 Speaker 1: like a sheep, but not a sheep. Everything on the 208 00:13:44,036 --> 00:13:46,876 Speaker 1: Moon was like that, a lot like things on Earth, 209 00:13:47,196 --> 00:13:50,716 Speaker 1: but then not quite like things on Earth, somehow exotic. 210 00:13:51,676 --> 00:13:54,396 Speaker 1: It resembles the beaver of the Earth in every other 211 00:13:54,436 --> 00:13:57,436 Speaker 1: respect than in its destitution of a tail and its 212 00:13:57,476 --> 00:14:01,716 Speaker 1: invariable habit of walking upon only two feet. It carries 213 00:14:01,756 --> 00:14:05,396 Speaker 1: its young in its arms like a human being man 214 00:14:05,516 --> 00:14:09,236 Speaker 1: on the moon a beaver man. Then Herschel saw a 215 00:14:09,356 --> 00:14:15,876 Speaker 1: higher order of human being. We scientifically denominated them as vespaculio, homo, 216 00:14:16,076 --> 00:14:22,196 Speaker 1: oh man, bat man bat on the moon. Finally, the 217 00:14:22,356 --> 00:14:28,996 Speaker 1: fake Herschel sees creatures even more amazing, whiter angelic. Certainly, 218 00:14:29,036 --> 00:14:32,036 Speaker 1: they were like human beings, for their wings had now disappeared, 219 00:14:32,276 --> 00:14:35,876 Speaker 1: and their attitude in walking was both erect and dignified. 220 00:14:37,756 --> 00:14:40,436 Speaker 1: Readers ate it up. They talked about it at dinner, 221 00:14:40,476 --> 00:14:42,516 Speaker 1: they gabbed about it on the way to church where 222 00:14:42,516 --> 00:14:45,236 Speaker 1: they really met on the moon. What was this all about? 223 00:14:48,156 --> 00:14:51,156 Speaker 1: But I also think there was something lurking beneath all 224 00:14:51,196 --> 00:14:54,876 Speaker 1: of these hoaxes. But that was slavery, and the questions 225 00:14:54,876 --> 00:14:59,276 Speaker 1: and schisms of slavery, I think were often made allegorical 226 00:14:59,636 --> 00:15:03,956 Speaker 1: through hoaxes. So how does that work exactly? Then? Like, 227 00:15:04,076 --> 00:15:06,596 Speaker 1: what is it the people are seeing that they want 228 00:15:06,596 --> 00:15:09,476 Speaker 1: to see on the moon that tells us what they 229 00:15:09,476 --> 00:15:12,956 Speaker 1: believe about slavery and race? I think of the moon 230 00:15:12,956 --> 00:15:15,956 Speaker 1: hoax specifically, and the thing that I noticed is there's 231 00:15:15,996 --> 00:15:18,916 Speaker 1: a hierarchy of being there, and it makes a lot 232 00:15:18,956 --> 00:15:22,676 Speaker 1: of sense. So you know, these people are below these people, 233 00:15:22,716 --> 00:15:25,756 Speaker 1: the biped beavers are this kind of person. You know, 234 00:15:25,796 --> 00:15:31,036 Speaker 1: there's a real transplanting of racial hierarchies onto the moon, 235 00:15:31,236 --> 00:15:34,476 Speaker 1: onto these fictional creatures. And you see that in science 236 00:15:34,476 --> 00:15:37,196 Speaker 1: fiction still, you know, there's usually a good set of 237 00:15:37,236 --> 00:15:40,196 Speaker 1: aliens or a good set of people found under the earth, 238 00:15:40,196 --> 00:15:43,676 Speaker 1: and then a bad set. Eventually, the Sun came clean 239 00:15:44,116 --> 00:15:46,196 Speaker 1: and admitted that the whole thing had been a stunt. 240 00:15:46,396 --> 00:15:50,556 Speaker 1: The newspaper printed a half hearted apology, weirdly suggesting that 241 00:15:50,636 --> 00:15:54,436 Speaker 1: the whole stunt had had a useful effect in diverting 242 00:15:54,436 --> 00:15:57,556 Speaker 1: the public mind from the bitter apple of discord the 243 00:15:57,676 --> 00:16:01,116 Speaker 1: abolition of slavery. One of the great things about a 244 00:16:01,116 --> 00:16:05,036 Speaker 1: hoax is once it's revealed, you can tell what people 245 00:16:05,076 --> 00:16:07,996 Speaker 1: really believe, because they wanted to believe this so badly, 246 00:16:08,676 --> 00:16:11,956 Speaker 1: even it's so clearly fake. I mean, biped beavers on 247 00:16:11,956 --> 00:16:15,916 Speaker 1: a moon. It's pretty hard in retrospect to see as credible. 248 00:16:16,516 --> 00:16:19,236 Speaker 1: But I also think there was this real wish to 249 00:16:19,756 --> 00:16:23,716 Speaker 1: find another place somewhere far away in which you could 250 00:16:23,756 --> 00:16:26,916 Speaker 1: put your hopes in dreams. So it's like the cats 251 00:16:26,916 --> 00:16:30,116 Speaker 1: out of the bag. This hoax was about race. Young 252 00:16:30,196 --> 00:16:32,876 Speaker 1: isn't surprised by that cat, though, because he found that 253 00:16:32,956 --> 00:16:36,396 Speaker 1: same cat hidden inside quite a few bags of hoaxes. 254 00:16:37,116 --> 00:16:39,756 Speaker 1: Many of the hoaxes that I turned up or that 255 00:16:39,836 --> 00:16:43,396 Speaker 1: I vaguely knew about but learned more about. We're deeply 256 00:16:43,436 --> 00:16:46,996 Speaker 1: invested in these kind of ideas and deep divisions in 257 00:16:47,076 --> 00:16:49,116 Speaker 1: our country, and there were ways of sort of working 258 00:16:49,156 --> 00:16:53,876 Speaker 1: that out, however, terribly in the hoax. One of the 259 00:16:53,916 --> 00:16:56,916 Speaker 1: things that's so striking to me about the eighteen thirties 260 00:16:57,156 --> 00:17:00,516 Speaker 1: Moon hoax is that they're kind of on the side 261 00:17:00,596 --> 00:17:05,796 Speaker 1: of scientific inquiry somehow, that they're celebrations of empiricism, even 262 00:17:05,796 --> 00:17:09,596 Speaker 1: though he's completely bogus bunk. Is there some pivot point 263 00:17:09,636 --> 00:17:12,916 Speaker 1: there where like earlier hoaxes are like, look, science is real, 264 00:17:13,676 --> 00:17:17,076 Speaker 1: and now hoaxes they're like, look, science is a bogus. 265 00:17:17,236 --> 00:17:21,876 Speaker 1: I mean, I think there's a with the hoax questions 266 00:17:21,916 --> 00:17:26,436 Speaker 1: of science and questions of religion or questions of truth 267 00:17:26,556 --> 00:17:31,196 Speaker 1: get worked out. And it's almost in times when these 268 00:17:31,196 --> 00:17:34,276 Speaker 1: things are uneasy that it might go one way or 269 00:17:34,316 --> 00:17:36,716 Speaker 1: the other. And I do think you're absolutely right that's 270 00:17:36,716 --> 00:17:40,316 Speaker 1: starting in the twentieth century. Early part it flips from 271 00:17:40,716 --> 00:17:42,676 Speaker 1: you know, I'm going to tell you how things are, 272 00:17:42,756 --> 00:17:45,756 Speaker 1: and part of the hoaxes it's authority. And then I 273 00:17:45,796 --> 00:17:49,356 Speaker 1: think starting in the twentieth century, it really erodes, and 274 00:17:49,436 --> 00:17:52,556 Speaker 1: I think that fear and pain become the topics of 275 00:17:52,596 --> 00:17:57,116 Speaker 1: the hoax. So jump ahead to the moonshot in nineteen 276 00:17:57,236 --> 00:18:02,036 Speaker 1: sixty nine. Okay, plainly it's a story inseparable from racial 277 00:18:02,036 --> 00:18:05,356 Speaker 1: injustice and the question of whether we're all in this 278 00:18:05,436 --> 00:18:09,996 Speaker 1: together or not. You have a poem here, it's called 279 00:18:09,996 --> 00:18:13,476 Speaker 1: Whitey on the Moon. That's the poet in musician Gil 280 00:18:13,516 --> 00:18:17,316 Speaker 1: Scott Heron with his indictment of the Moon mission killing it. 281 00:18:18,756 --> 00:18:21,436 Speaker 1: I can't pay no doctor bills, but white He's on 282 00:18:21,476 --> 00:18:24,876 Speaker 1: the moon. Ten years from now, I'll be paying still 283 00:18:24,956 --> 00:18:27,516 Speaker 1: while white He's on the moon. You know, the man 284 00:18:27,636 --> 00:18:30,436 Speaker 1: just up my red last night because Whitey's on the moon. 285 00:18:31,356 --> 00:18:34,116 Speaker 1: No hot water, no toilets, no lights, But Whitey's on 286 00:18:34,156 --> 00:18:40,276 Speaker 1: the moon. White He headed to the Moon on July sixteenth, 287 00:18:40,396 --> 00:18:43,276 Speaker 1: nineteen sixty nine, the day after civil rights leader Ralph 288 00:18:43,276 --> 00:18:46,876 Speaker 1: Abernathy let a protest at the Kennedy launch site. I 289 00:18:46,956 --> 00:18:49,556 Speaker 1: can't say this moment in time isn't about whether all 290 00:18:49,636 --> 00:18:53,036 Speaker 1: humans are one here together, on Earth because it is 291 00:18:53,956 --> 00:18:55,876 Speaker 1: leaving the Earth for the Moon. Brought all sorts of 292 00:18:55,916 --> 00:18:59,996 Speaker 1: matters into the blinding, flashing light of Apollo eleven's launch 293 00:19:00,956 --> 00:19:06,716 Speaker 1: thirty seconds san conning past NAT's report, it feels good. Team. 294 00:19:06,796 --> 00:19:12,836 Speaker 1: On twenty five seconds that day, three men gained escape 295 00:19:12,876 --> 00:19:17,876 Speaker 1: velocity and left the Earth behind. Soon out among the gods. 296 00:19:18,276 --> 00:19:21,836 Speaker 1: The men in that spaceship looked back at Earth. Are 297 00:19:21,956 --> 00:19:34,316 Speaker 1: you going to a rap rate right now? And it 298 00:19:34,316 --> 00:19:36,276 Speaker 1: took four days to get there, all the way to 299 00:19:36,356 --> 00:19:39,476 Speaker 1: the Moon. And then everyone back on Earth turned their 300 00:19:39,476 --> 00:19:43,956 Speaker 1: televisions on to watch in just fifty minutes from now, 301 00:19:44,236 --> 00:19:46,836 Speaker 1: well within the hour, the Moon is due to have 302 00:19:47,036 --> 00:19:50,996 Speaker 1: visitors from another planet. On the afternoon of July twentieth, 303 00:19:51,276 --> 00:19:55,916 Speaker 1: CBS News anchor Walter Cronkite narrated the greatest single scientific 304 00:19:55,916 --> 00:20:00,596 Speaker 1: expedition in the history of humanity. Apollo eleven's lunar module 305 00:20:00,836 --> 00:20:04,836 Speaker 1: Eagle and two of the mission's three astronauts, Neil Armstrong 306 00:20:04,916 --> 00:20:08,196 Speaker 1: and Buzz Aldron. We were about to land on the Moon. 307 00:20:09,676 --> 00:20:13,476 Speaker 1: Landed rocket quin crank Quility. We caught the on the ground. 308 00:20:13,716 --> 00:20:15,676 Speaker 1: He got a bunch of guys about the turn blue. 309 00:20:15,716 --> 00:20:19,556 Speaker 1: We're breathing again. Thank a lot. Man on the moon. 310 00:20:21,196 --> 00:20:27,236 Speaker 1: We're cutting it down, eagle, Oh boy, thank you, you're 311 00:20:27,276 --> 00:20:31,556 Speaker 1: looking good here. You hardly ever see Cronkite get excited. 312 00:20:31,916 --> 00:20:34,156 Speaker 1: The man holds it all in, but here he's like 313 00:20:34,156 --> 00:20:38,036 Speaker 1: a little boy, so tickled, so thrilled. The astronauts get 314 00:20:38,036 --> 00:20:40,956 Speaker 1: ready to go outside. It took hours, but you wouldn't 315 00:20:40,956 --> 00:20:45,476 Speaker 1: want to miss it, would you. Nine Armstrong opens the hatch. 316 00:20:45,836 --> 00:20:50,036 Speaker 1: He starts climbing down the ladder rung by rung ten 317 00:20:50,116 --> 00:20:54,676 Speaker 1: fifty six pm. He plants his foot on the surface 318 00:20:54,676 --> 00:21:02,796 Speaker 1: of the Moon. Find the fall fast for land, buy 319 00:21:02,876 --> 00:21:09,996 Speaker 1: a plat. In the studio, Cronkite gathered himself up for 320 00:21:10,076 --> 00:21:14,756 Speaker 1: his historic reaction. Malan's dream and a nation's pledge have 321 00:21:14,876 --> 00:21:24,276 Speaker 1: now been fulfilled. The lunar Age has begun. The lunar 322 00:21:24,316 --> 00:21:28,956 Speaker 1: Age had begun, but another age began that day. Something 323 00:21:28,996 --> 00:21:32,756 Speaker 1: else was launched. The lunar Age would undermine the very 324 00:21:32,836 --> 00:21:37,556 Speaker 1: institution and values at Cronkite so iconically stood for the 325 00:21:37,636 --> 00:21:42,436 Speaker 1: integrity and credibility of the news in the lunar Age. 326 00:21:42,676 --> 00:21:46,596 Speaker 1: The more extraordinary scientific research and technology got, the more 327 00:21:46,636 --> 00:21:49,716 Speaker 1: difficult it became to keep sight of the line between 328 00:21:49,756 --> 00:22:10,596 Speaker 1: fact and fiction, between the believable and the unbelievable. On 329 00:22:10,676 --> 00:22:13,196 Speaker 1: the first season of The Last Archive, I talked a 330 00:22:13,196 --> 00:22:16,036 Speaker 1: lot about the era of mystery in the Middle Ages 331 00:22:16,316 --> 00:22:18,236 Speaker 1: and how it gave rise to the age of the 332 00:22:18,276 --> 00:22:21,316 Speaker 1: fact and then the age of the number, but also 333 00:22:21,436 --> 00:22:24,316 Speaker 1: how with the development of the main frame computer in 334 00:22:24,316 --> 00:22:28,756 Speaker 1: the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties, mystery returned in the 335 00:22:28,796 --> 00:22:32,556 Speaker 1: form of data, because data is a kind of knowledge 336 00:22:32,556 --> 00:22:35,516 Speaker 1: that can only be really reckoned with by computers, not 337 00:22:35,596 --> 00:22:39,636 Speaker 1: by people on their own. But consider other forces of history. 338 00:22:39,756 --> 00:22:42,956 Speaker 1: In the middle decades of the twentieth century, beginning with 339 00:22:43,036 --> 00:22:46,156 Speaker 1: Sputnik in nineteen fifty seven, or even really beginning with 340 00:22:46,156 --> 00:22:48,996 Speaker 1: the dropping of the atom bombs in nineteen forty five, 341 00:22:50,036 --> 00:22:52,916 Speaker 1: science got so powerful that it could do things well 342 00:22:52,956 --> 00:22:56,716 Speaker 1: beyond what nearly everyone except a handful of scientists could know, 343 00:22:57,436 --> 00:23:02,756 Speaker 1: or experience or understand. The more extraordinary the scientific accomplishments, 344 00:23:03,036 --> 00:23:06,396 Speaker 1: the harder it became to believe. The news missiles that 345 00:23:06,396 --> 00:23:09,756 Speaker 1: could annihilate the population of the entire planet in an instant, 346 00:23:10,156 --> 00:23:14,596 Speaker 1: men going to the moon. Eventually it became kind of commonplace, 347 00:23:14,796 --> 00:23:18,076 Speaker 1: a little sheek, a little George Orwell meets Marshall mcluin 348 00:23:18,516 --> 00:23:23,316 Speaker 1: to wonder whether all the news was fake. In nineteen 349 00:23:23,356 --> 00:23:27,516 Speaker 1: sixty eight, the BBC broadcast a play called The News Benders. 350 00:23:28,036 --> 00:23:30,236 Speaker 1: We'd like you to help Plan the News for nineteen 351 00:23:30,316 --> 00:23:34,236 Speaker 1: seventy three. In the play, an acclaimed director goes to 352 00:23:34,276 --> 00:23:36,876 Speaker 1: meet with a corporate bigwig. The big wig wants to 353 00:23:36,956 --> 00:23:39,716 Speaker 1: hire him to fake a bunch of film footage that 354 00:23:39,836 --> 00:23:44,796 Speaker 1: will air in the future as news come again. Plan 355 00:23:44,956 --> 00:23:48,956 Speaker 1: the news by nineteen seventy three. You didn't really believe 356 00:23:48,996 --> 00:23:51,076 Speaker 1: there were all these things whizzing about up there? Did 357 00:23:51,116 --> 00:23:56,836 Speaker 1: you spot nicks on rockets? Astronauts crossing their legs? For 358 00:23:56,916 --> 00:24:01,396 Speaker 1: eighty day? How long has this been going on since Hiroshima? 359 00:24:03,316 --> 00:24:05,476 Speaker 1: In the studio, there's a toy sized model of a 360 00:24:05,556 --> 00:24:09,676 Speaker 1: lunar lander sitting on a table covered with sand. Remember 361 00:24:09,716 --> 00:24:12,356 Speaker 1: this play was produced in nineteen sixty eight, a year 362 00:24:12,396 --> 00:24:16,516 Speaker 1: before the Apollo eleven Moon mission. The filmmaker picks up 363 00:24:16,516 --> 00:24:18,876 Speaker 1: the model as he listens to an early cut of 364 00:24:18,876 --> 00:24:22,836 Speaker 1: the news. They've created Fake news for a day five 365 00:24:22,916 --> 00:24:26,796 Speaker 1: years in the future today. April fourteen, nineteen seventy three. 366 00:24:27,316 --> 00:24:30,676 Speaker 1: First Historic Pictures by rad Star of the combined US 367 00:24:30,756 --> 00:24:34,236 Speaker 1: Russian landing on the move. Shown here are Major's Webb 368 00:24:34,356 --> 00:24:38,316 Speaker 1: and Mikhailovitch taking their first steps into the unknown. The 369 00:24:38,476 --> 00:24:44,716 Speaker 1: Nine Way Hotline finally triage it off. But this is 370 00:24:46,156 --> 00:24:50,636 Speaker 1: going to happen in nineteen seventy three. You're going to 371 00:24:50,716 --> 00:24:55,156 Speaker 1: make this happen. No, we are going to make models 372 00:24:55,236 --> 00:24:59,796 Speaker 1: much cheaper than we photographed the models. Fake newsrooms, a 373 00:24:59,996 --> 00:25:05,196 Speaker 1: fake newsmends, whoa dude? The news beenders was mind bending, 374 00:25:05,556 --> 00:25:08,236 Speaker 1: a thought experiment, but it also got to the heart 375 00:25:08,396 --> 00:25:12,356 Speaker 1: of a real problem. The actual news had gotten very 376 00:25:12,356 --> 00:25:18,916 Speaker 1: difficult to believe. Adam bombs rockets to the Moon news 377 00:25:18,916 --> 00:25:21,116 Speaker 1: in the actual year in nineteen seventy three was way 378 00:25:21,116 --> 00:25:23,676 Speaker 1: more dreary than the newsbender's plan for a fake landing 379 00:25:23,676 --> 00:25:26,396 Speaker 1: on the Moon. There weren't even any more Apollo missions 380 00:25:26,436 --> 00:25:30,356 Speaker 1: to report. Those ended in nineteen seventy two. Instead, TV 381 00:25:30,476 --> 00:25:33,636 Speaker 1: viewers flocked to something else on the dial, something different, 382 00:25:34,076 --> 00:25:37,476 Speaker 1: the Watergate hearings, which revealed that Richard Nixon had lied 383 00:25:37,596 --> 00:25:40,236 Speaker 1: and lied, and so had a whole lot of his advisers. 384 00:25:41,596 --> 00:25:44,836 Speaker 1: You couldn't believe anything anymore. But if you didn't want 385 00:25:44,836 --> 00:25:50,956 Speaker 1: to watch Watergate, you could still speculate about space space 386 00:25:52,876 --> 00:25:57,916 Speaker 1: an endless tapestry of stars reaching to its infinity, scattered 387 00:25:57,916 --> 00:26:00,876 Speaker 1: through its fastness, or one hundred billion planets on which 388 00:26:00,916 --> 00:26:06,396 Speaker 1: life theoretically could exist. Yes, that is the sultry voice 389 00:26:06,516 --> 00:26:09,676 Speaker 1: of Rod Serling. He probably knew him from twice Zone 390 00:26:09,836 --> 00:26:13,476 Speaker 1: show he started in nineteen fifty nine. The Twilight Zone 391 00:26:13,516 --> 00:26:17,156 Speaker 1: is where fact turns to fiction, history turns to mystery, 392 00:26:17,556 --> 00:26:22,836 Speaker 1: and mystery becomes conspiracy. In nineteen seventy three, Stirling hosted 393 00:26:22,836 --> 00:26:28,436 Speaker 1: a documentary called In Search of Ancient Astronauts. If only 394 00:26:28,476 --> 00:26:31,436 Speaker 1: one percent of that life is intelligent, there could be 395 00:26:31,516 --> 00:26:36,436 Speaker 1: one million civilizations out there. Listen carefully to that voice, 396 00:26:36,716 --> 00:26:39,116 Speaker 1: not even so much what he's saying, but how he's 397 00:26:39,156 --> 00:26:43,356 Speaker 1: saying it. It's the voice of the news anchor, the authority. 398 00:26:43,876 --> 00:26:47,116 Speaker 1: It's as if he's hypnotizing you into trusting him, and 399 00:26:47,236 --> 00:26:50,636 Speaker 1: of that million, it is conceivable at one discover the 400 00:26:50,676 --> 00:26:55,356 Speaker 1: secrets of space travel. It is possible that ancient astronauts 401 00:26:55,436 --> 00:26:58,356 Speaker 1: went in search of life beyond their own world and 402 00:26:58,476 --> 00:27:01,956 Speaker 1: found it on the planet Earth. Why all this new 403 00:27:02,116 --> 00:27:06,876 Speaker 1: spookiness just after men landed on the Moon. Here's what 404 00:27:06,996 --> 00:27:10,356 Speaker 1: I think everyone can see the Moon, every last human 405 00:27:10,396 --> 00:27:14,076 Speaker 1: being on Earth. It's ours, all of ours. It holds 406 00:27:14,076 --> 00:27:17,436 Speaker 1: out a certain hope for unity, but then the moon 407 00:27:17,476 --> 00:27:21,756 Speaker 1: holds out a certain mirror of division. Some have got 408 00:27:21,796 --> 00:27:26,356 Speaker 1: and some have not. White, black, brown man, bat, beaverman, angels, 409 00:27:26,956 --> 00:27:30,156 Speaker 1: weighty on the moon. But there's something else too, something 410 00:27:30,156 --> 00:27:32,796 Speaker 1: that really slays me. I think people like to have 411 00:27:32,916 --> 00:27:35,756 Speaker 1: things around that are mind boggling, but then just out 412 00:27:35,756 --> 00:27:39,636 Speaker 1: of reach. Conquering the moon deprived people of the Moon 413 00:27:39,876 --> 00:27:44,476 Speaker 1: as a mind boggler. That one huge mystery was solved. 414 00:27:44,796 --> 00:27:47,036 Speaker 1: There was no white haired god up there in the sky. 415 00:27:47,436 --> 00:27:52,196 Speaker 1: There was instead a giant, dusty rock. This intense change, 416 00:27:52,236 --> 00:27:56,036 Speaker 1: I think got all balled together into a specifically nineteen 417 00:27:56,196 --> 00:28:00,916 Speaker 1: seventies fetish for unsolved mysteries, because well, okay, the moon 418 00:28:00,996 --> 00:28:03,076 Speaker 1: is a rock, but maybe there were still other mysteries. 419 00:28:03,476 --> 00:28:07,396 Speaker 1: Bigfoot omni magazine and the news stand spoon bending Urigeller 420 00:28:07,516 --> 00:28:11,076 Speaker 1: on TV. And there was a weird snakeding its tail 421 00:28:11,156 --> 00:28:14,316 Speaker 1: theory that ancient spacemen had visited the Earth thousands and 422 00:28:14,356 --> 00:28:17,796 Speaker 1: thousands of years ago, and maybe they and not Adam 423 00:28:17,836 --> 00:28:20,996 Speaker 1: and Eve, were our ancestors, or maybe they were the 424 00:28:21,036 --> 00:28:27,396 Speaker 1: source of our beliefs about God. If we accept the 425 00:28:27,436 --> 00:28:31,436 Speaker 1: premise that beings from another civilization visited here ages ago, 426 00:28:32,196 --> 00:28:34,476 Speaker 1: then some of the mysteries of our past take on 427 00:28:34,516 --> 00:28:40,236 Speaker 1: a new and startling light. I confess I love this stuff. 428 00:28:40,756 --> 00:28:43,556 Speaker 1: Ancient aliens came to Earth and built the pyramids. Okay, no, 429 00:28:43,676 --> 00:28:46,196 Speaker 1: I don't believe that. I think it's crazy, but I 430 00:28:46,316 --> 00:28:50,516 Speaker 1: love the hypnotic, fake mysteriousness of it, all, the junkie science, 431 00:28:50,676 --> 00:28:58,036 Speaker 1: the completely preposterous historical analysis. If ancient astronauts did land here, 432 00:28:58,596 --> 00:29:03,716 Speaker 1: what effect would they have had upon early Earthmen? Perhaps 433 00:29:03,716 --> 00:29:08,156 Speaker 1: they were worshiped, feared, loved, Perhaps they brought gifts, a 434 00:29:08,236 --> 00:29:11,876 Speaker 1: new world of not This stuff was all over the 435 00:29:11,916 --> 00:29:15,156 Speaker 1: place in the Spooky Kookie late nineteen sixties. In early 436 00:29:15,236 --> 00:29:19,716 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies, Still in Search of was also interested in 437 00:29:19,796 --> 00:29:25,436 Speaker 1: actual science. Doctor Carl Sagan is one of the directors 438 00:29:25,436 --> 00:29:28,996 Speaker 1: of the Mariner mission exploring Mars, and he has a 439 00:29:29,036 --> 00:29:32,756 Speaker 1: special interest in the possibilities of intelligent life in the universe. 440 00:29:34,396 --> 00:29:36,756 Speaker 1: At the very end, in just the final seconds of 441 00:29:36,756 --> 00:29:40,676 Speaker 1: this long documentary, Serling introduced a very young Carl Sagan. 442 00:29:41,516 --> 00:29:44,116 Speaker 1: This is seven years before Sagan became famous for his 443 00:29:44,196 --> 00:29:48,156 Speaker 1: masterful series on PBS cause rous the question arises, might 444 00:29:48,676 --> 00:29:52,356 Speaker 1: there have been a visit to the Earth in historical times. 445 00:29:52,396 --> 00:29:57,716 Speaker 1: It's a kind of scientific justification of theological belief which 446 00:29:57,716 --> 00:30:01,716 Speaker 1: people would rather believe in any case, it's kind of 447 00:30:02,436 --> 00:30:05,796 Speaker 1: modern dress for old time religion. I can only say 448 00:30:06,916 --> 00:30:10,596 Speaker 1: that you can't exclude the possible, but there's not a 449 00:30:10,676 --> 00:30:15,556 Speaker 1: smidget of evidence that is compelling. Sagan nailed it believing 450 00:30:15,596 --> 00:30:18,956 Speaker 1: in ancient astronauts or extraterrestrials. It was like believing in 451 00:30:19,036 --> 00:30:23,516 Speaker 1: God's God's in a godless world magic. After the Great 452 00:30:23,556 --> 00:30:27,756 Speaker 1: Disenchantment in the US, In Search Of became a TV series. 453 00:30:28,276 --> 00:30:31,356 Speaker 1: But the show's thesis wasn't everything is a hoax. The 454 00:30:31,396 --> 00:30:34,556 Speaker 1: show's thesis was everything you thought was a hoax is real. 455 00:30:35,276 --> 00:30:40,316 Speaker 1: The lockness monster, esp governments and scientists have just been 456 00:30:40,356 --> 00:30:43,716 Speaker 1: concealing from you all the evidence, hiding it, locking it 457 00:30:43,796 --> 00:30:46,676 Speaker 1: up in government archives. Nothing was a hoax. It's just 458 00:30:46,876 --> 00:30:49,796 Speaker 1: that a lot of things were hidden by conspiracies. Rod 459 00:30:49,796 --> 00:30:51,836 Speaker 1: Serling had died and so the producers of In Search 460 00:30:51,916 --> 00:30:55,556 Speaker 1: Of instead hired Leonard Nimoy from Star Trek to host 461 00:30:55,596 --> 00:30:59,716 Speaker 1: the series. There are episodes about Amelia Earhart and Bigfoot, 462 00:31:00,316 --> 00:31:09,116 Speaker 1: and of course UFOs. Sometimes they come in silence, sometimes 463 00:31:09,196 --> 00:31:13,676 Speaker 1: quiet thunder. Often they leave marks in the earth signals 464 00:31:13,676 --> 00:31:24,356 Speaker 1: and they're passing. I watched In Search Of as a 465 00:31:24,436 --> 00:31:26,956 Speaker 1: kid with my mom. I have zero data on whether 466 00:31:26,996 --> 00:31:29,796 Speaker 1: fans of the show believed in Bigfoot or the Lockness Monster. 467 00:31:30,076 --> 00:31:32,196 Speaker 1: I can only report that my mother and I did not, 468 00:31:32,396 --> 00:31:34,356 Speaker 1: and that was the fun of it. It was like 469 00:31:34,436 --> 00:31:37,556 Speaker 1: believing but also not at all believing in the Tooth Fairy. 470 00:31:39,276 --> 00:31:41,276 Speaker 1: But now that I've grown up to be a historian, 471 00:31:41,596 --> 00:31:43,516 Speaker 1: I want to know what was the meaning of this 472 00:31:43,636 --> 00:31:48,316 Speaker 1: rage for goofy unsolved mysteries in the nineteen seventies. In 473 00:31:48,316 --> 00:31:49,796 Speaker 1: one way, I think of In Search Of as an 474 00:31:49,876 --> 00:31:53,116 Speaker 1: update of Ripley's Believe it or not. Ripley had called 475 00:31:53,156 --> 00:31:57,956 Speaker 1: his stuff curiodities, But somehow what started out as curiodities 476 00:31:58,596 --> 00:32:02,036 Speaker 1: became conspiracies because at the same time that my mom 477 00:32:02,036 --> 00:32:04,356 Speaker 1: and I were watching In Search Of, a lot of 478 00:32:04,396 --> 00:32:08,276 Speaker 1: other people started arguing and believing that the Apollo will 479 00:32:08,276 --> 00:32:12,076 Speaker 1: even mission never happened, that we'd never landed on the Moon, 480 00:32:12,716 --> 00:32:15,796 Speaker 1: that the whole thing had been covered up by a 481 00:32:15,876 --> 00:32:30,396 Speaker 1: vast conspiracy. Good afternoon. This is May Brussel in Carminal, California. 482 00:32:30,476 --> 00:32:34,276 Speaker 1: It's September the nineteenth, nineteen seventy seven. I jotted down 483 00:32:34,756 --> 00:32:37,436 Speaker 1: dialogue conspiracy number two hundred and eighty six, but I 484 00:32:37,436 --> 00:32:39,996 Speaker 1: think it's two hundred and eighty seven. I keep track 485 00:32:40,076 --> 00:32:42,356 Speaker 1: each week, but I forgot to write down. I believe 486 00:32:42,356 --> 00:32:46,356 Speaker 1: it's number two hundred eighty seven. May Brussel. She came 487 00:32:46,396 --> 00:32:49,636 Speaker 1: to be known as the Queen of Conspiracy. At the 488 00:32:49,636 --> 00:32:52,396 Speaker 1: time of this broadcast, she was fifty five years old. 489 00:32:52,876 --> 00:32:57,236 Speaker 1: She'd once studied at Stanford, mother of five, housewife. After 490 00:32:57,356 --> 00:33:00,596 Speaker 1: Kennedy was shot, she became convinced that the government was 491 00:33:00,676 --> 00:33:04,476 Speaker 1: hiding a vast conspiracy. The more she looked into it, 492 00:33:04,596 --> 00:33:07,516 Speaker 1: the bigger that conspiracy became. These people in the wall 493 00:33:07,516 --> 00:33:11,196 Speaker 1: of secrecy, the news media being silent, and the pats 494 00:33:11,196 --> 00:33:14,636 Speaker 1: he's locked up in, the psychological profiles, and the writings 495 00:33:14,676 --> 00:33:18,036 Speaker 1: on the wall or the diaries, the incriminating evidence or 496 00:33:18,076 --> 00:33:21,916 Speaker 1: the source of weapons for all his assassinations or conspiracies 497 00:33:21,956 --> 00:33:25,636 Speaker 1: will eventually be traced back to the same sources, which 498 00:33:25,756 --> 00:33:29,756 Speaker 1: is the intelligence community in this country. She launched her 499 00:33:29,836 --> 00:33:34,196 Speaker 1: radio show in nineteen seventy one from KLRBFM, a community 500 00:33:34,276 --> 00:33:37,276 Speaker 1: radio station. Then came Watergate, which made a lot of 501 00:33:37,316 --> 00:33:42,156 Speaker 1: cockamami theories about secret government conspiracies look suddenly plausible. Her 502 00:33:42,196 --> 00:33:45,116 Speaker 1: audience grew. She sent out mail ordered cassettes of her 503 00:33:45,156 --> 00:33:49,116 Speaker 1: show to people far away. She called her fans Brussels sprouts. 504 00:33:50,236 --> 00:33:53,196 Speaker 1: Don't become a Brussels sprout. I know it would be 505 00:33:53,236 --> 00:33:56,556 Speaker 1: so easy if the deep state were running everything. You 506 00:33:56,556 --> 00:33:58,996 Speaker 1: wouldn't have to think about anything. You could just always 507 00:33:59,036 --> 00:34:02,276 Speaker 1: blame the deep state. But that's not how history works. 508 00:34:02,636 --> 00:34:05,756 Speaker 1: I'm going to talk about a book today that I've 509 00:34:05,756 --> 00:34:07,956 Speaker 1: had a while called We Never Went to the Moon 510 00:34:08,556 --> 00:34:12,036 Speaker 1: by build Casing and Randy read. It's called America's thirty 511 00:34:12,036 --> 00:34:16,116 Speaker 1: Billion dollars Swindle. It's a fascinating book. We Never Went 512 00:34:16,156 --> 00:34:18,876 Speaker 1: to the Moon is a seventy eight page self published 513 00:34:18,916 --> 00:34:23,116 Speaker 1: piece of nonsense. May Brussel incorporated its central theory that 514 00:34:23,276 --> 00:34:26,316 Speaker 1: NASA faked all the Apollo missions into all of her 515 00:34:26,316 --> 00:34:30,116 Speaker 1: other theories and these other zombies that have been controlled 516 00:34:30,116 --> 00:34:33,996 Speaker 1: by hypnosis and government drugs, and will also go into 517 00:34:33,996 --> 00:34:37,116 Speaker 1: the possibility that the astronauts were controlled by the government 518 00:34:37,716 --> 00:34:42,556 Speaker 1: psychological department. Brussel was a researcher. Old school conspiracy theorists 519 00:34:42,636 --> 00:34:46,116 Speaker 1: are meticulous about research, and she saw her work as 520 00:34:46,156 --> 00:34:49,756 Speaker 1: giving her listeners a body of previously hidden evidence. She'd 521 00:34:49,756 --> 00:34:54,196 Speaker 1: read newspaper stories out loud, always providing citations. I'm just 522 00:34:54,356 --> 00:34:57,076 Speaker 1: here sharing the evidence. This sort of person always says, 523 00:34:57,316 --> 00:35:01,236 Speaker 1: you decide believe it or not. You are feeling very sleepy. 524 00:35:01,636 --> 00:35:04,556 Speaker 1: Herzog that has been described in The New York Times 525 00:35:05,036 --> 00:35:08,236 Speaker 1: September the eleventh, nineteen seventy seven. If you want to 526 00:35:08,236 --> 00:35:11,796 Speaker 1: go the library in it, radio can work as a 527 00:35:11,796 --> 00:35:15,396 Speaker 1: loudspeaker in amplifier. Reading something obscure out loud on the 528 00:35:15,476 --> 00:35:18,916 Speaker 1: radio gives it a new audience. In this broadcast from 529 00:35:19,036 --> 00:35:22,996 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, Russell mainly read long passages of Bill 530 00:35:23,076 --> 00:35:27,676 Speaker 1: Casing's moon lending conspiracy theory book out loud. Hardly anyone 531 00:35:27,716 --> 00:35:30,916 Speaker 1: had read Casing's book or even heard of it. Russell 532 00:35:31,236 --> 00:35:33,916 Speaker 1: helped to break it out, but she also tried to 533 00:35:33,916 --> 00:35:37,636 Speaker 1: set it in a much bigger context. Now, the Moonshot 534 00:35:37,636 --> 00:35:43,316 Speaker 1: took place in July of nineteen sixty nine, that great moonshot, 535 00:35:43,836 --> 00:35:46,556 Speaker 1: and many of you may remember, or you may not remember, 536 00:35:47,036 --> 00:35:49,756 Speaker 1: that that was the night that Ted Kennedy had the 537 00:35:49,796 --> 00:35:53,196 Speaker 1: accident in chapter critic. Now, if you can accept some 538 00:35:53,356 --> 00:35:55,036 Speaker 1: of the facts in this book that I'm going to 539 00:35:55,076 --> 00:35:57,476 Speaker 1: be shared with you, you have to have a view 540 00:35:57,516 --> 00:36:00,276 Speaker 1: of history, an overall view of what was happening in 541 00:36:00,396 --> 00:36:05,636 Speaker 1: July nineteen sixty nine. This was by way of introducing 542 00:36:05,676 --> 00:36:08,836 Speaker 1: one of her favorite theories, which involved a conspiracy led 543 00:36:08,916 --> 00:36:13,196 Speaker 1: by the military industrial complex to get Richard Nixon elected president, 544 00:36:13,556 --> 00:36:16,076 Speaker 1: which required getting out of the way all of the 545 00:36:16,156 --> 00:36:19,636 Speaker 1: Kennedy brothers, first Jack, then Bobby, then Teddy at chap 546 00:36:19,636 --> 00:36:22,836 Speaker 1: aquittic somehow. Honestly, don't even ask me. This thing is 547 00:36:22,876 --> 00:36:27,916 Speaker 1: so convoluted. Getting Nixon elected president also entailed faking the 548 00:36:27,956 --> 00:36:31,996 Speaker 1: moon landing. Why were all transmitters easily faked? Why was 549 00:36:32,036 --> 00:36:35,036 Speaker 1: there nothing to see other than the launch? Is there 550 00:36:35,076 --> 00:36:39,036 Speaker 1: any real assurance that the astronauts were aboard the Apollo? 551 00:36:39,556 --> 00:36:42,636 Speaker 1: Is there any proof that they really flew a full 552 00:36:42,876 --> 00:36:45,436 Speaker 1: load of fuel? And he goes into the statistics of 553 00:36:45,516 --> 00:36:47,556 Speaker 1: the fuel. She went on and on and on. It 554 00:36:47,636 --> 00:36:52,076 Speaker 1: was all leading ominously somewhere. Then came the whopper, the 555 00:36:52,156 --> 00:36:56,036 Speaker 1: simulated moon landing. It's very complicated, but it starts with 556 00:36:56,156 --> 00:36:59,396 Speaker 1: Stanley Kubrick. He made a film everyone Knows two thousand 557 00:36:59,436 --> 00:37:02,716 Speaker 1: and one, a Space Odyssey. It was released in nineteen 558 00:37:02,796 --> 00:37:06,116 Speaker 1: sixty eight. The filming took two and a half years. 559 00:37:06,116 --> 00:37:08,796 Speaker 1: The original budget was six million, and then they patted 560 00:37:08,836 --> 00:37:11,676 Speaker 1: it with another four and a half million, a ten 561 00:37:11,716 --> 00:37:14,196 Speaker 1: and a a half million budget. There were two hundred and 562 00:37:14,196 --> 00:37:17,676 Speaker 1: five special effects shots, and then he said, they went 563 00:37:17,716 --> 00:37:23,596 Speaker 1: into the university's, the industrial seventy industrial and aerospace corporations, universities, observatories, 564 00:37:23,676 --> 00:37:28,076 Speaker 1: weather bureaus, laboratories, institutions to ensure that the film would 565 00:37:28,076 --> 00:37:33,316 Speaker 1: be technically accurate. Brussels conspiracy theory has it that Kubrick 566 00:37:33,396 --> 00:37:35,916 Speaker 1: made the film two thousand and one to cover up 567 00:37:35,956 --> 00:37:40,316 Speaker 1: another film that was being made in Nevada for NASA, 568 00:37:40,436 --> 00:37:42,636 Speaker 1: which was footage of a landing on the Moon that 569 00:37:42,716 --> 00:37:49,036 Speaker 1: never happened, faked news newsbender style, and the Apollo Space 570 00:37:49,116 --> 00:37:52,116 Speaker 1: program could use the two thousand and one as a cover. 571 00:37:52,876 --> 00:37:56,676 Speaker 1: He claims that that movie in nineteen sixty eight prepared 572 00:37:56,836 --> 00:38:01,116 Speaker 1: the American people for the film version of space exploration 573 00:38:01,196 --> 00:38:05,156 Speaker 1: that would take place in nineteen sixty nine. I see 574 00:38:05,156 --> 00:38:08,196 Speaker 1: why people are attracted to conspiracy theories. I get it. 575 00:38:08,676 --> 00:38:11,996 Speaker 1: Cornel alogy is important. I love lining up a bunch 576 00:38:11,996 --> 00:38:15,076 Speaker 1: of random news stories on a timeline, tacking them up 577 00:38:15,076 --> 00:38:17,796 Speaker 1: to a wall with pushkins, and looking for a pattern. 578 00:38:18,596 --> 00:38:21,036 Speaker 1: That actually is how historians work, at least it's how 579 00:38:21,076 --> 00:38:25,316 Speaker 1: I work. We collect evidence, organize it chronologically, and look 580 00:38:25,356 --> 00:38:28,476 Speaker 1: for patterns. For instance, if you've been listening to this 581 00:38:28,516 --> 00:38:32,316 Speaker 1: episode carefully, and if you've seen Kubrick's nineteen sixty eight 582 00:38:32,316 --> 00:38:35,116 Speaker 1: film two thousand and one, you might have noticed this 583 00:38:35,316 --> 00:38:39,516 Speaker 1: seemingly uncanny coincidence. Two thousand and one is a story 584 00:38:39,516 --> 00:38:42,396 Speaker 1: about how ancient astronauts came to Earth millennia ago and 585 00:38:42,556 --> 00:38:46,756 Speaker 1: left things behind like a big black monolith. It tells 586 00:38:46,836 --> 00:38:51,556 Speaker 1: the same story as in Search of Ancient Astronauts. That's 587 00:38:51,556 --> 00:38:56,156 Speaker 1: not a conspiracy though, that's just a popular idea. So 588 00:38:56,356 --> 00:38:59,836 Speaker 1: I asked the Brussels sprouts. Is there evidence that NASA, 589 00:38:59,876 --> 00:39:04,076 Speaker 1: aided by Stanley Kubrick, faked the Moon landing? No? None, 590 00:39:04,516 --> 00:39:07,476 Speaker 1: But is there evidence that Americans became really vulnerable to 591 00:39:07,556 --> 00:39:12,036 Speaker 1: conspiratorial thinking? And then I seventies Yes, there's a lot 592 00:39:12,076 --> 00:39:16,396 Speaker 1: of it. Here are some pieces of evidence. I might 593 00:39:16,436 --> 00:39:20,276 Speaker 1: tack him my wall with pushpins first. In addition of 594 00:39:20,356 --> 00:39:23,076 Speaker 1: time magazine in nineteen sixty six with a dark cover 595 00:39:23,196 --> 00:39:27,276 Speaker 1: that asked, is God dead? The nineteen sixties where a 596 00:39:27,276 --> 00:39:31,276 Speaker 1: decade of rising secularism. People were looking for other explanations 597 00:39:31,316 --> 00:39:34,636 Speaker 1: for why bad things happened. Second thing on my Wall 598 00:39:34,876 --> 00:39:37,556 Speaker 1: a New York Times front page from nineteen seventy one, 599 00:39:37,876 --> 00:39:40,116 Speaker 1: when the paper announced that it was publishing a leaked 600 00:39:40,116 --> 00:39:43,596 Speaker 1: report later known as the Pentagon Papers, a report they 601 00:39:43,676 --> 00:39:45,916 Speaker 1: revealed that the US government had been lying to the 602 00:39:45,916 --> 00:39:49,436 Speaker 1: public about what was going on in Vietnam. God was 603 00:39:49,556 --> 00:39:53,836 Speaker 1: dead and the government was lying to Third I'd pin 604 00:39:53,956 --> 00:39:56,716 Speaker 1: up news stories about how Americans learned that the FBI 605 00:39:56,836 --> 00:40:00,276 Speaker 1: had been conducting secret, illegal surveillance on civil rights leaders 606 00:40:00,476 --> 00:40:05,476 Speaker 1: and other activists in infiltrating their organizations. For instance, the 607 00:40:05,556 --> 00:40:08,716 Speaker 1: FBI had spied on Ralph Abernathy, the civil rights leader 608 00:40:08,716 --> 00:40:11,396 Speaker 1: who the protest at Cape Canaveral the day before the 609 00:40:11,436 --> 00:40:17,356 Speaker 1: launch of Apollo eleven. We has a civilized nation have failed. 610 00:40:17,996 --> 00:40:20,556 Speaker 1: Last thing I'd pin up on my wall the long 611 00:40:20,596 --> 00:40:23,036 Speaker 1: burning coverage of the Watergate break in and all the 612 00:40:23,116 --> 00:40:26,636 Speaker 1: lies on the part of the Nixon administration. No wonder 613 00:40:26,676 --> 00:40:29,676 Speaker 1: Americans in the nineteen seventies had a tendency to submit 614 00:40:29,756 --> 00:40:33,916 Speaker 1: to conspiratorial thinking. Oh no, wait, I've got one last 615 00:40:33,916 --> 00:40:37,156 Speaker 1: piece of evidence to pinto my wall. In the nineteen seventies, 616 00:40:37,356 --> 00:40:41,876 Speaker 1: Hollywood made a gazillion movies about vast government conspiracies, including 617 00:40:41,876 --> 00:40:49,036 Speaker 1: one about a faked space mission. Capricorn One, hit theaters 618 00:40:49,076 --> 00:40:52,556 Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy eight. Good Morning, Ladies and gentlemen. At 619 00:40:52,556 --> 00:40:55,756 Speaker 1: the present time, all systems are go, all lights are green. 620 00:40:56,556 --> 00:40:59,156 Speaker 1: Capricorn One is like a movie version of Bill Casing's 621 00:40:59,156 --> 00:41:02,356 Speaker 1: book We Never Went to the Moon. The film's advertising 622 00:41:02,396 --> 00:41:05,996 Speaker 1: campaign featured the line would you be shocked to find 623 00:41:05,996 --> 00:41:08,556 Speaker 1: out that the greatest moment of our recent history may 624 00:41:08,596 --> 00:41:11,836 Speaker 1: not have happened at all? In the movie, NASA fake 625 00:41:11,876 --> 00:41:14,756 Speaker 1: submission to Mars by sending an empty rocket off into 626 00:41:14,756 --> 00:41:18,836 Speaker 1: space and filming a Mars landing in an abandoned military 627 00:41:18,836 --> 00:41:23,716 Speaker 1: facility that's been converted into a movie studio. I do 628 00:41:23,916 --> 00:41:27,076 Speaker 1: really think you're going to get away with us? Well, 629 00:41:27,076 --> 00:41:29,476 Speaker 1: I don't know. It's a chance. Maybe it's not a 630 00:41:29,596 --> 00:41:33,236 Speaker 1: very good one. It's a chance. That's the Hollywood version 631 00:41:33,276 --> 00:41:36,196 Speaker 1: of We Never Went to the Moon, the for profit 632 00:41:36,316 --> 00:41:40,436 Speaker 1: version of May Brussel True Believer. But then how does 633 00:41:40,476 --> 00:41:42,916 Speaker 1: the stuff break out and into the real world? To 634 00:41:42,956 --> 00:41:46,396 Speaker 1: the twenty first century and modern conspiracy theories, the nine 635 00:41:46,436 --> 00:41:49,596 Speaker 1: to eleven Truthers, the Birthers, the Q and honors. You 636 00:41:49,676 --> 00:41:52,396 Speaker 1: really need only to stop and pause at the strange 637 00:41:52,396 --> 00:41:57,716 Speaker 1: and unsettling Quebrickian year of two thousand and one. The 638 00:41:57,756 --> 00:42:02,156 Speaker 1: following program deals with a controversial subject. The theories expressed 639 00:42:02,196 --> 00:42:06,396 Speaker 1: are not the only possible interpretation. Viewers are invited to 640 00:42:06,436 --> 00:42:12,516 Speaker 1: make a judgment based on all available information. This is 641 00:42:12,556 --> 00:42:15,156 Speaker 1: from a Fox special from two thousand and one called 642 00:42:15,676 --> 00:42:19,436 Speaker 1: Conspiracy Theory, Did We Land on the Moon? I think 643 00:42:19,476 --> 00:42:21,356 Speaker 1: of it as a missing link that gets us from 644 00:42:21,356 --> 00:42:23,956 Speaker 1: stuff like May Brussel and a radio show to the 645 00:42:23,996 --> 00:42:28,476 Speaker 1: mainstreaming of conspiracy theories. Unlike in Search of his episode 646 00:42:28,516 --> 00:42:32,356 Speaker 1: about ancient astronauts, it offered no substantial equivalent to a 647 00:42:32,436 --> 00:42:36,556 Speaker 1: Carl Sagan. Instead, a NASA spokesman appears on screen every 648 00:42:36,596 --> 00:42:38,996 Speaker 1: now and again, attempting to make clear that these claims 649 00:42:38,996 --> 00:42:42,996 Speaker 1: are just baseless nonsense, but Fox quickly pivots back to 650 00:42:42,996 --> 00:42:46,956 Speaker 1: sell the conspiracy theory for ratings. There are those who 651 00:42:47,036 --> 00:42:51,396 Speaker 1: claim that believing in Man's one small step requires one 652 00:42:51,436 --> 00:42:57,236 Speaker 1: giant leap of faith. Bill Casing was an analyst and 653 00:42:57,396 --> 00:43:01,516 Speaker 1: engineer at Rocket Dyne. No, he wasn't an analyst and 654 00:43:01,556 --> 00:43:06,636 Speaker 1: an engineer. Casing was a technical writer. In the footage 655 00:43:06,636 --> 00:43:10,836 Speaker 1: of the stage going up, what you don't see is 656 00:43:10,996 --> 00:43:14,636 Speaker 1: an exhaust plume coming out of a rocket engine nozzle. 657 00:43:17,596 --> 00:43:23,276 Speaker 1: A ride ride. So in February of two thousand and one, 658 00:43:23,676 --> 00:43:27,716 Speaker 1: Fox was broadcasting news bindery stuff like that, suggesting huge 659 00:43:27,716 --> 00:43:31,676 Speaker 1: events of the past. We're maybe not real that September, 660 00:43:32,036 --> 00:43:35,636 Speaker 1: a terrifying event took place in the present. Terrorists flew 661 00:43:35,716 --> 00:43:38,356 Speaker 1: airplanes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center, 662 00:43:38,436 --> 00:43:42,836 Speaker 1: New York. And this time someone was ready right away 663 00:43:43,356 --> 00:43:46,156 Speaker 1: to call it a hoax, even while it was happening, 664 00:43:46,796 --> 00:43:49,876 Speaker 1: Even as firefighters and police and rescue workers were trying 665 00:43:49,876 --> 00:43:53,676 Speaker 1: to find survivors in the flames and the rubble. Alex Jones, 666 00:43:54,196 --> 00:43:57,276 Speaker 1: the made Brussel of the twenty first century, was on 667 00:43:57,316 --> 00:44:00,996 Speaker 1: the air saying the whole thing was fake. Well, I've 668 00:44:00,996 --> 00:44:03,316 Speaker 1: been warning you about it for at least five years. 669 00:44:03,476 --> 00:44:05,996 Speaker 1: All terrorism that we've looked at, from the World Trade 670 00:44:06,036 --> 00:44:10,116 Speaker 1: Center of Oklahoma City to Waco has been government actions. 671 00:44:10,596 --> 00:44:12,796 Speaker 1: They need this as a pretext to bring you and 672 00:44:12,836 --> 00:44:17,156 Speaker 1: your family martial law. We've come a long way from 673 00:44:17,196 --> 00:44:20,476 Speaker 1: the hypnotists of the nineteen fifties, but listen to the 674 00:44:20,476 --> 00:44:23,236 Speaker 1: way this guy is trying to hypnotize you, to relieve 675 00:44:23,276 --> 00:44:26,476 Speaker 1: you of the obligation of thinking anything through of analyzing 676 00:44:26,476 --> 00:44:30,876 Speaker 1: the evidence, by offering instead a species of historical explanation 677 00:44:31,636 --> 00:44:34,196 Speaker 1: that the world is even more terrible than it appears, 678 00:44:34,596 --> 00:44:37,236 Speaker 1: and that only Alex Jones can make sense of it. 679 00:44:37,716 --> 00:44:41,076 Speaker 1: I'll tell you the bottom line, ninety eight percent chance 680 00:44:41,156 --> 00:44:44,756 Speaker 1: this was a government orchestrated control bombing. I've been telling 681 00:44:44,796 --> 00:44:47,036 Speaker 1: you this was going to happen just two weeks ago. 682 00:44:47,196 --> 00:44:50,476 Speaker 1: I put the caller the moon landing the old New 683 00:44:50,556 --> 00:44:54,116 Speaker 1: York Sun in search of the twilight zone capricorn. One. 684 00:44:54,636 --> 00:44:57,676 Speaker 1: May Brussel do all these bits and pieces I've got 685 00:44:57,716 --> 00:45:00,396 Speaker 1: here in the last archive line up together to form 686 00:45:00,396 --> 00:45:06,076 Speaker 1: a conspiracy, a conspiracy to turn Americans into conspiracy theorists. No, 687 00:45:06,556 --> 00:45:09,276 Speaker 1: because it wasn't a conspiracy. It was just the of 688 00:45:09,356 --> 00:45:12,956 Speaker 1: history and of politics, the expression the exertion of power. 689 00:45:13,396 --> 00:45:16,516 Speaker 1: Conspiracy theorists and historians do have a lot in common, 690 00:45:16,836 --> 00:45:21,996 Speaker 1: but somewhere we diverge. Historians believe history is driven by ideas, 691 00:45:22,036 --> 00:45:26,076 Speaker 1: by economic forces, by technological change, and even by biological 692 00:45:26,076 --> 00:45:30,196 Speaker 1: and environmental factors. Historical evidence for this kind of change 693 00:45:30,196 --> 00:45:35,196 Speaker 1: over time, it's everywhere. Conspiracy theorists believe that the course 694 00:45:35,196 --> 00:45:38,716 Speaker 1: of history is driven by terrifying higher powers that control 695 00:45:38,796 --> 00:45:41,996 Speaker 1: everything and then conceal the traces of that control by 696 00:45:42,076 --> 00:45:46,396 Speaker 1: hiding the historical evidence. The conspiracy theorist always believes in 697 00:45:46,436 --> 00:45:52,556 Speaker 1: an unseen reality. The historian always believes in reality, hiding 698 00:45:52,596 --> 00:45:57,716 Speaker 1: in plain sight, in the actual evidence of the historical record. 699 00:45:58,796 --> 00:46:01,556 Speaker 1: This is apollow control. At one hundred forty eight hours, 700 00:46:01,596 --> 00:46:06,356 Speaker 1: seven minutes and about twenty four seconds from now, the 701 00:46:06,556 --> 00:46:11,676 Speaker 1: spacecraft will pass the imaginary line enter the Earth sphere 702 00:46:11,676 --> 00:46:16,276 Speaker 1: of influence. Ban By for remark leaving the lender of influence. 703 00:46:18,076 --> 00:46:21,036 Speaker 1: Men flew to the Moon in nineteen sixty nine and 704 00:46:21,116 --> 00:46:25,676 Speaker 1: then they fell to Earth? Or did they next time? 705 00:46:25,716 --> 00:46:29,796 Speaker 1: On the Last Archive, how Americans never really left that 706 00:46:29,916 --> 00:46:41,996 Speaker 1: lunar sphere of influence. The Last Archive is written and 707 00:46:42,036 --> 00:46:45,356 Speaker 1: hosted by me Joe Lapour. It's produced by Sophie Crane, 708 00:46:45,396 --> 00:46:48,916 Speaker 1: mckibbon and Ben Natt of Hafrey. Our editor is Julia Barton. 709 00:46:49,156 --> 00:46:52,876 Speaker 1: And Our executive producer is Mia Lobel. Martin Gonzalez is 710 00:46:52,876 --> 00:46:57,036 Speaker 1: our engineer. Fact checking by Amy Gaines. Original music by 711 00:46:57,076 --> 00:47:01,356 Speaker 1: Matthias Bossi and John Evans of Stellwagen Sympinett. Our research 712 00:47:01,396 --> 00:47:05,596 Speaker 1: assistants are Olivia Oldham and Oliver Riskin Cuts. Our full 713 00:47:05,676 --> 00:47:10,436 Speaker 1: proof players are Yoshiamo, Raymond Blankenhorne, Mathis Bosse, Dan Epstein, 714 00:47:10,596 --> 00:47:14,636 Speaker 1: Ethan Herschenfeld, Becka A. Lewis, Andrew Parella, Robert Riccotta, and 715 00:47:14,796 --> 00:47:18,476 Speaker 1: Nick Saxton. The Last Archive is a production of Pushkin Industries. 716 00:47:18,676 --> 00:47:21,796 Speaker 1: At Pushkin thanks to Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fain, John Schnar's, 717 00:47:21,836 --> 00:47:26,476 Speaker 1: Carl Magliori, Christina Sullivan, Eric Sandler, Emily Rostick, Maggie Taylor, 718 00:47:26,836 --> 00:47:30,596 Speaker 1: Maya Kanig, and Daniella Lacan. Many of our sound effects 719 00:47:30,596 --> 00:47:33,276 Speaker 1: are from Harry Janette Junior and the Star Jenette Foundation. 720 00:47:33,916 --> 00:47:38,316 Speaker 1: Special thanks to Simon Lake. If you like the show, 721 00:47:38,476 --> 00:47:41,196 Speaker 1: please remember to rate, share, and review. To find more 722 00:47:41,196 --> 00:47:45,436 Speaker 1: Pushkin podcasts, listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 723 00:47:45,436 --> 00:47:49,116 Speaker 1: wherever you listen at podcasts. I'm Jill Lapour