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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on

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Speaker 1: iHeart Radio and welcome back to Coast to Coast George

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Speaker 1: nor with you. Chris Vola is a graduate of the

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Speaker 1: Columbia University Master of Fine Arts program. Author of a

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Speaker 1: number of books, including I Is for Illuminati. He has

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Speaker 1: jumped deep into the conspiracy world with the discoveries about

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Speaker 1: how some theories may be entirely plausible. Chris, Welcome to

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Speaker 1: the program. Good to have you with us. Interesting times. George,

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Speaker 1: you know, big fan, really excited to be here tonight.

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Speaker 1: How did you get involved in investigating conspiracies? Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's definitely not something that you know, it's a kind

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Speaker 1: of a departure for me professionally. You know, I've sort

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Speaker 1: of specialized in fiction, and then I've actually written a

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Speaker 1: couple of cocktail recipe books. But for me, you know,

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Speaker 1: I think it started when I was seven or eight

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Speaker 1: years old and X Files came on, and I think,

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Speaker 1: you know, for me, that was the first sort of

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Speaker 1: intro to the sort of this world of you know,

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Speaker 1: secret government agencies, you know, human alien hybrids, abductions. Um. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and then and then I think, you know, ancient Aliens

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Speaker 1: was a big one for me. Um, just uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: the whole ancient astronaut theory, the law civilization, uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: things like Graham Hancock. But I mean conspiracies. You know,

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Speaker 1: I'm a big fan of pop culture, and you know,

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Speaker 1: I've always been interested in what's going on with pop culture,

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Speaker 1: and uh, you know, conspiracies have just gotten so big

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Speaker 1: in the last few years that I kind of was,

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Speaker 1: you know, just curious to see what was out there.

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Speaker 1: Um and yeah, and that's kind of what brought me

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Speaker 1: to to writing the book. Do you think social media

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Speaker 1: Chris has fueled the conspiracy theories? Oh? I think I mean,

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Speaker 1: you know, I think right now you're at a time

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Speaker 1: where you know, misinformation is at an all time high,

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Speaker 1: where you know, social media gives conspiracies this this extremely

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Speaker 1: in your face platform. Um, you know, in the willingness

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Speaker 1: of influential people, you know, actors, politicians, athletes on social

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Speaker 1: media you know, to publicly support you know, conspiracy theories. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's a huge part of it.

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Speaker 1: We're going to get into some of these conspiracy theories

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Speaker 1: that want to get your take on qan On too,

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Speaker 1: which is a huge conspiracy or it's could be the

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Speaker 1: real thing. Who knows, Yeah, who knows what any of

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Speaker 1: these to be honest that you know, that's that's part

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Speaker 1: of the problem with conspiracy theories because as you said earlier,

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Speaker 1: some of them could be real. Yeah, you know, I mean,

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Speaker 1: and also anything might not be really exactly How do

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Speaker 1: how does an individual know what to believe and what

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Speaker 1: not to believe? You know, it's at this point, I

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Speaker 1: think it's I think it's really difficult. I mean I

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Speaker 1: think you know, you can look at something scientifically, uh

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Speaker 1: you know, whether or not you you know, and whether

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Speaker 1: or not you leave in science or not. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: it's it's hard. I mean, I don't know if there is,

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Speaker 1: if there is an answer to that. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: think you have to trust yourself and kind of take

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Speaker 1: a look at both sides of things, you know, uh,

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Speaker 1: listen to different perspectives, try to you know, have a

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Speaker 1: level head. But at the end of the day, I mean,

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Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's difficult. I mean there

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Speaker 1: are conspiracy theories on just about every area you look at.

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Speaker 1: And I think one of the first conspiracy theories it

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Speaker 1: was the jfk assassination sure, sure, back in nineteen sixty

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Speaker 1: three where you know, they didn't know who was involved.

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Speaker 1: Who were the players? Was Lee Harvey Oswald by himself?

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Speaker 1: And then we got into a few more and more

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Speaker 1: and more. But but as you said again, it has

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Speaker 1: really exploded over the last couple of years, hasn't it.

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah, for sure, without a doubt. And I think

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Speaker 1: like you said, I mean social media and just the

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Speaker 1: willingness of people to promote these ideas that maybe before,

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Speaker 1: you know, wouldn't have looked good for their brand or

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Speaker 1: you know or whatever. But now it's sort of like,

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Speaker 1: you know, anybody can pretty much say whatever they want.

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Speaker 1: It's okay. How did you start investigating for the book?

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Speaker 1: I is for illuminating? How'd you how'd you begin your

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Speaker 1: your work? Well, you know, the book is in the

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Speaker 1: form of you know, your classic ABC book, where you know,

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Speaker 1: each letter of the alphabet is focused on one conspiracy,

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Speaker 1: you know, everything from ut FROs and lizard people to

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Speaker 1: flat earth and the Pyramids. And I guess for me,

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Speaker 1: I thought it was just a really interesting format. You know,

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Speaker 1: I'd always been a fan of like doctor Seu's books

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Speaker 1: or whatever when I was a kid, and I just

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Speaker 1: thought that it would be an interesting way for me

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Speaker 1: to sort of find out about stuff that I didn't know.

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Speaker 1: You know, twenty six conspiracies you know, to start with

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Speaker 1: is quite a bit, and uh, you know, I just

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Speaker 1: thought it was an interesting format to sort of start

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Speaker 1: investigating things. I mean, there are people who actually believe

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Speaker 1: the Earth is flat. You know. I don't want to

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Speaker 1: put them down, but they believe this. So that that,

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Speaker 1: that to me is one you know, I don't like

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Speaker 1: to say that I believe in anything, because I think

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Speaker 1: when you say you believe in something, you're automatically discounting

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Speaker 1: the possibility of other things. But that that, to me

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Speaker 1: is one that I really have a hard time with.

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Speaker 1: That one. I mean, it's it's it's pretty obvious. You

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Speaker 1: can you can you know, you can take a balloon

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Speaker 1: and send it up into the sky, you know, with

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Speaker 1: a camera and see the curvature of the Earth. You know,

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Speaker 1: we see the pictures from astronauts that are floating around

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Speaker 1: in space. You know. The whole thing with flat earthers

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Speaker 1: is that they believe that everything that NASA did is

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Speaker 1: a lie, that everything, you know, everything was space like,

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Speaker 1: you know. The whole idea is that we can't go

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Speaker 1: into space with a flat earth. So you're you're telling

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Speaker 1: me that you know, these trillions and trillions of dollars,

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Speaker 1: you know, we're all for this this hoax. I don't

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Speaker 1: buy it. What did you uncover in your research that

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Speaker 1: you didn't know before about some conspiracy theories? Um? You know,

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Speaker 1: I there's one that that to me was actually really fascinating. Um,

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Speaker 1: was that the idea that there might have been this

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Speaker 1: ancient race of giants whose existence was sort of covered

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Speaker 1: up in the in the early you know, nineteenth and

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Speaker 1: early twentieth centuries by the Smithsonian. If you there's a

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Speaker 1: lot of articles actually, um, you can look them up

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Speaker 1: that you know, you can go to the archives in

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Speaker 1: a lot of newspaper articles where people would find these

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Speaker 1: these sort of nine ten eleven foot tall skeletons all

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Speaker 1: throughout North America, you know, many of them with red hair,

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Speaker 1: a lot of times surrounded by you know, intricate artifacts,

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Speaker 1: really pure copper jewelry. Um. It just seemed like it

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Speaker 1: was this sort of ancient culture that that was far

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Speaker 1: more advanced than any sort of like the Native Americans

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Speaker 1: who are around at the time. And you know, these

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Speaker 1: articles are there's hundreds of them. Um, and it's really

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Speaker 1: fascinating that, you know, that was something that was sort

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Speaker 1: of part of the cultural consciousness that I had no

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Speaker 1: idea about. Um. I had interviewed a pilot who apparently

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Speaker 1: flew a giant out of Afghanistan a dead boy. We

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Speaker 1: attacked some US troops in a cave, but they got

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Speaker 1: him and they flew him. Heard that story. Yeah, that

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Speaker 1: is that assassinating, for sure, it really is. And let

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Speaker 1: me ask you about the title of the book, I

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Speaker 1: Is for Illuminati. How did you come up with that

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Speaker 1: title and why did you hear gear in on the Illuminati? Yeah? Sure, Um,

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Speaker 1: well it was originally going to be called As for Aliens. Actually, Uever,

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Speaker 1: my publisher was putting out a book about UFO, so

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Speaker 1: they thought it would be a little too similar. Um.

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Speaker 1: So I chose I chose Illuminati one because I think

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Speaker 1: it's a term that most people in the mainstream, you know,

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Speaker 1: will be familiar with, even if they think it's something

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Speaker 1: that has to do with like you know, Jay Z

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Speaker 1: or Angelina Jolie or something like that. Um. But you know,

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Speaker 1: I think one of the things that make conspiracy so

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Speaker 1: compelling for a lot of people. Is that there's this

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Speaker 1: clear narrative of good versus evil. You know, there's this

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Speaker 1: there's an entity that's doing something to someone, someone is

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Speaker 1: controlling someone, someone is hiding something, someone is harming someone.

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Speaker 1: And when you're talking about the Illuminati, you're really talking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, that ultimate evil, the secret group that that

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Speaker 1: rules the world. You know, the people that are pulling

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Speaker 1: the strings behind the scenes. You know, whether that's the

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Speaker 1: Deep State, the Reptilians, the Freemasons, you know, the roth Child,

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Speaker 1: the Rockefellers, you know, whoever that is. I think it's

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Speaker 1: it's the Illuminati. I think for me, has become this

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Speaker 1: sort of blanket term to describe the idea that there

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Speaker 1: is this all encompassing, powerful evil, which I think is

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Speaker 1: prevalent in a lot of the conspiracies in the book.

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Speaker 1: And I just feel like that term sort of has

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Speaker 1: this sort of pop culture relevance or residence. I should say, yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I think the Illuminati probably has teeth. I think

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Speaker 1: it's the real deal. It's out there. Oh yeah, I agree.

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Speaker 1: I mean I think it's I think there's a very

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Speaker 1: small a group of people that pretty much control everything.

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Speaker 1: You know, were there's some things you thought that were

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Speaker 1: real and then realized after doing the work for the book,

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Speaker 1: they weren't. You know, one of those For me, I

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Speaker 1: mean kind of backpacking on the or piggybacking on the

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Speaker 1: flat earth is the hollow earth? Yeah, you know, and

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Speaker 1: and and to me, uh, you know, I was always

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Speaker 1: interested in it because you know, as a Catholic boy,

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Speaker 1: of course, you know, hell h the idea of all

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Speaker 1: these different cultures with you know, mythologies about the underworld.

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Speaker 1: But to me, I really didn't see a ton of

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Speaker 1: evidence for that. I mean, you have a few sort

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Speaker 1: of dubious accounts of like Admiral Richard Bird flying over

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Speaker 1: the North Pole and seeing you know, uh, wooly mammoths

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Speaker 1: and you know, dinosaurs. Yeah, and you know, but I

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Speaker 1: really think, you know, looking at the science again, if

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Speaker 1: you believe mainstream science, I just think that the studies

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Speaker 1: that have been done on earthquakes and volcanoes are you know,

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Speaker 1: to me, are pretty vincing. You know that there probably

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Speaker 1: is this liquid outer core and you know, a solid intercore.

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Speaker 1: How'd you pick the conspiracy theories for the book? Well,

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Speaker 1: I wanted to do a kind of a wide range

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Speaker 1: because for me, like I kind of look at this

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Speaker 1: book as sort of like Conspiracy one on one where

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Speaker 1: I'm providing you know, a lighthearted but also you know,

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Speaker 1: somewhat in depth exploration of of you know, the basics

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Speaker 1: of conspiracy theories. And I wanted, you know, this to

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Speaker 1: be for people who are not necessarily the you know,

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Speaker 1: hardcore sort of you know, deep deep divers that you know,

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Speaker 1: for someone who might be interested in, you know, what's

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Speaker 1: out there. So I wanted a wide range, you know,

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Speaker 1: I wanted things that were you know, that had to

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Speaker 1: do with maybe ancient times or you know, your classics

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Speaker 1: sort of like moon landings, jfk um to, you know,

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Speaker 1: government stuff, you know, just just to try to get

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Speaker 1: as big of a range as possible in you know,

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Speaker 1: in a in a relatively small space. Chris, is there

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Speaker 1: are a danger you're in believing every conspiracy theory one hears? Well,

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Speaker 1: I think that's Quanon, to be honest. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: think I think QAnon at this point is basically everything

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Speaker 1: is a conspiracy everything, everything, And I think we've seen that,

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Speaker 1: you know, that does have consequences. I mean, you know,

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Speaker 1: you see some of the violence that has happened because

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Speaker 1: of it, and you know, I think I think it's

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Speaker 1: important that to really take a step back and uh

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Speaker 1: and really question yourself too when you're when you're doing

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Speaker 1: this research. Well that you know, I was going to

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Speaker 1: ask you that what what does this tell you about

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Speaker 1: the psyche of people who believe in all kinds of

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Speaker 1: conspiracy theories? All kinds? Yeah, I mean, you know, I

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Speaker 1: just think that again, you know, we're living in this

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Speaker 1: time where you know, there's a constant barrage of misinformation,

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Speaker 1: you know, the mistrust of authority, you know, the feeling

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Speaker 1: of powerlessness, you know, in the face of like environmental disaster,

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Speaker 1: social and racial division. And I think that you know,

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Speaker 1: people really just wants them being to believe in and

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Speaker 1: you know, they want to be part of a community.

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Speaker 1: They want to be part again of like a good

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Speaker 1: versus evil narrative. And I think that that's you know,

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Speaker 1: it's really compelling. And you know, even if that might

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Speaker 1: be something that could be harmful, I think I think

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Speaker 1: it's really compelling for a lot of people. I've got

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Speaker 1: a friend of mine, Chris, and he's a great guy,

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Speaker 1: but he believes every conspiracy theory that he gets, and

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Speaker 1: he sends me one every day and he'll text it

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Speaker 1: to me and I'll go no, no, no, no. I

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Speaker 1: mean they're just wild. But I mean he literally believes everything.

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Speaker 1: And he added interesting upbringing because he was he was

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Speaker 1: an ac cult he was a mooney in his teenage years,

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Speaker 1: and I mean they told him when to eat, when

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Speaker 1: to sleep, what to do. And I think that has

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Speaker 1: a lot to do with where he is today. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I I can't really speak to that, uh,

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Speaker 1: that that mentality, but I can see where that would

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Speaker 1: be something that you know. Yeah, our special guest is

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Speaker 1: Chris Vola. He is writing the book I Is for Illuminati.

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Speaker 1: Where do people get the book? Chris? You know anywhere

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Speaker 1: books are sold. It's on you know, it's on Amazon,

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Speaker 1: It's on the HarperCollins website, um, you know, Barnes and Noble,

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Speaker 1: any anywhere. It's available in print, digital, and audiobooks. We'll

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Speaker 1: take your calls next hour with Chris, and maybe you

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Speaker 1: can share your own conspiracy theory with us and tell

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Speaker 1: us what you believe and what you don't believe. But

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Speaker 1: there is a basis effect behind some of them. So

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Speaker 1: here's the big question. Why are they referred to as

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Speaker 1: conspiracy theories when they're real. Yeah, I mean, it's it's

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Speaker 1: you know, I think I think there was this whole

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Speaker 1: idea you know, when when conspiracy started, it was it

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Speaker 1: was sort of you know, I think there was a

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Speaker 1: lot of times the government was maybe was maybe hiding something,

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Speaker 1: and you know that has turned out to be real,

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Speaker 1: like sort of like UFOs, um you know where in

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Speaker 1: the last year the Pentagon has sort of confirmed that

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Speaker 1: that that UFOs are real. But you know, whatever they

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Speaker 1: may be, yeah, exactly who knows. But um, but it

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Speaker 1: was always just the idea that it was this sort

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Speaker 1: of like I don't know, this negative connotation and um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. It's it's it's interesting. Has this changed

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Speaker 1: your belief system? Um? You know, I think I think

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Speaker 1: just seeing all the stuff that's out there, Um yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean I think I'm definitely more open to to

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Speaker 1: a lot of things where you know, something like you know,

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Speaker 1: Denver Airport, where there's a lot of weird stuff going

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Speaker 1: on that I would have said, you know, no way

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Speaker 1: that this could be a sort of you know, bunker

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Speaker 1: system for the global elite. But now, you know, looking

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Speaker 1: at that, I'm yeah, you know, it could be. I'm

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Speaker 1: in Denver every month, with our Beyond Belief TV shows,

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Speaker 1: And it is a strange, strange airport. It's huge, and

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Speaker 1: they're always doing construction inside of it. But I mean

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Speaker 1: they've got the weirdest artwork and statues that you can imagine.

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Speaker 1: And then you know, and you wonder what's going on

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Speaker 1: underneath me here? You know that they have troops down here?

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Speaker 1: Is there's something I always had heard, the conspiracy theory

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Speaker 1: that it was the place for the government to go

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Speaker 1: in the event something happened to Washington, DC. Have you

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Speaker 1: heard that? Yeah? And actually, you know, it's really interesting.

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Speaker 1: You know, in addition to all the crazy murals, you know,

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Speaker 1: there's children huddled around burning buildings, you know, Nazi soldiers,

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Speaker 1: biological warfare. There's a capstone that is placed in the

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Speaker 1: airport to commemorate its dedication, which features Masonic symbols as

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Speaker 1: well as a list of the airport's benefactors, which is

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Speaker 1: what There's something called the New World Airport Committe on it,

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Speaker 1: which as far as anyone can tell, doesn't actually exist,

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Speaker 1: you know, and maybe a reference to the New World Order,

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Speaker 1: which is, you know, this cabal that's linked to the Illuminati. Um,

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Speaker 1: so maybe it's it's you know something, you know, maybe

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Speaker 1: there weren't going to orchestrate some worldwide catastrophe and then

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Speaker 1: you know the Illuminati is going to go there. Chris,

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Speaker 1: who is more apt to believe in a conspiracy theory?

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Speaker 1: In terms of male, female and age group? Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: I think I think age group, it's it's pretty open.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I mean personally, you know, I'm not going

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Speaker 1: to say that I'm you know, an expert on this

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff, but just in my own personal experience,

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Speaker 1: I've met people of all ages that that are into

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Speaker 1: this stuff. Um, I would say mostly males that that

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Speaker 1: I would say are really into it. But you know,

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Speaker 1: I have a I have a lot of female friends

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Speaker 1: that are also that are also heavily involved. I think

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Speaker 1: it really at this point sort of transcends age and gender.

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Speaker 1: Would you say that the theory that Elvis was alive

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Speaker 1: when he had died was a conspiracy theory? You know,

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Speaker 1: that's one that I have not really looked into that much. Again,

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Speaker 1: I'd say anything's possible, but yeah, that's one that I really,

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Speaker 1: you know, haven't haven't done much. See what they do

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Speaker 1: is they tossed in a couple of things that just

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Speaker 1: sound so real, so possible, it makes you question maybe

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Speaker 1: the whole thing is real, you know, when they say

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Speaker 1: things like Elvis was tired of his life. He didn't

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Speaker 1: want the publicity. He just wanted to be quiet and alan,

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Speaker 1: and the only way he could get that way was

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Speaker 1: to fake his death or that you know, the CIA

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Speaker 1: or the government was after him or some organization because

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Speaker 1: he was involved with them, and that he needed to

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Speaker 1: fall off the planet and this was a way to

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Speaker 1: do that too. That just enough for you to go, hey,

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Speaker 1: that's possible. Yeah. I mean on a similar note, you

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Speaker 1: know somebody like Tupac, you know, same thing, you know,

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Speaker 1: involved in this sort of East Coast, West coast you

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Speaker 1: know gang stuff. Yeah, yeah, that you know, maybe he

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Speaker 1: wanted to escape that and you know, get out of

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Speaker 1: the limelight. Um yeah, I mean it's it's definitely that

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Speaker 1: those are the kinds of ones that are very believable,

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Speaker 1: I think for sure. Listen to more Coast to Coast

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Speaker 1: AM every weeknight at one am Eastern and go to

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Speaker 1: Coast to Coast am dot com for more