Conspiratorial thinking, mis- and disinformation, and anti-intellectualism are at dangerous levels. With traditional media on the way out, social media algorithms siloing users into personal echo chambers, and generative AI muddying the waters, it's getting harder and harder to tell news from nonsense. Our ability to think critically about the world around us is being undermined by these forces and many others, which are being used to sow confusion, disrupt democracy, damage the environment, and degrade social well-being.
With clear-eyed reasoning and examples that are equal parts fascinating and shocking, Uncover Up: How to Think Clearly in an Age of Conspiracies offers sociological, historical, philosophical, and literary perspectives on conspiracy theories, allowing us to cut through the fog of misinformation. This guide to critical thinking helps us recognize when, how, and why a piece of dubious media is able to shape our worldview or secure our support, ultimately showing us how to critically approach the deluge of questionable claims we encounter every day. Uncover Up breaks down how conspiracies work, showing us how to think more critically about conspiracy theories and the deluge of questionable claims we encounter every day.
Nathan Radke has degrees in philosophy and sociology from Trent and Lakehead and is the co-author of Ethical Perspectives and several chapters of Conspiracy Theories in American History. He is co-host of The Uncover Up podcast and teaches historical and contemporary conspiracy theories at the post-secondary level and as a regular guest analyst on television and radio. He lives in Toronto, ON.
Lee Kuhnle holds a Ph.D. from York University and teaches on the role of ideology in political society with a focus on conspiracy theories and the political impact of conspiratorial beliefs. He teaches at Humber Polytechnic and is co-host of The Uncover Up podcast and a frequent presenter on television and radio. He lives in Toronto, ON.
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• NOTE FROM THE EDITOR, JEN ALBERT: "Uncover Up is not just an exposé on popular conspiracy theories, it's about HOW to think. It shows us how to process the information we're getting in an objective, systematic, and context-dependent way to determine how reliable it really is. The book aims to reach out with compassion to people where they are, helping them to maintain a critical eye when they encounter a new piece of information and to recognize when and why a piece of questionable media is trying to shape their worldview or secure their support. It does this not just by pointing out flaws in individual conspiracies, but by shining a light on how they work in the first place and showing that anyone can fall into the misinformation trap. It's an important book, coming at the perfect time."
• FEATURES A VARIETY OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES: From the moon landing, alien abductions, the Illuminati, to anti-vaxx movements and QAnon, Kuhnle and Radke use real-life conspiracy theories to teach readers to recognize when they are being bamboozled.
• EXPERTS ON THE TOPIC: Nathan Radke and Lee Kuhnle are professors on this topic and host The Uncover-Up Conspiracy Cast, which has 300K downloads.
