0x13d::Research::Podcast

0x13D Research

The Narrative Networks Podcast

A fact-check show about how contested claims travel between podcasts — the claim, the strongest case for it, what the record says, and the move that carried it.

  1. #7018:11Deep dive

    "They Assassinated Charlie Kirk": Fact-Checking a Collective-Plot Claim on Bannon's War Room

    Checks Bannon's War Room

    Claim: "It's why they assassinated Charlie Kirk. That's what they want. They want the fear." Verdict: false (truth score 0.08).

  2. #6919:21Pulse

    Sixty-Three Percent of Nothing: How a 40-Year Deportation Docket Became "Last Year's Murders"

    Checks Making the Argument with Nick Freitas

    Claim: "63% of the murders last year in America" were committed by illegal immigrants. Our verdict: false (truth score 0.02, confidence 0.92).

  3. #6820:08Pulse

    Megyn Kelly, the Cornell case, and the claim that delayed rape reports are regret: false

    Checks The Megyn Kelly Show

    On The Megyn Kelly Show, Ep. 1409 (30 September 2026), Megyn Kelly described a "pattern": delayed sexual-assault reports come from women who relabel a night they regret as assault. Our verdict: false (truth score 0.12, confidence 0.75).

  4. #6720:08Deep dive

    Seven Million Gone? Fact-checking Michael Knowles on a 2.3-million drop that tripled

    Checks The Michael Knowles Show

    Verdict: false (truth score 0.10). On The Michael Knowles Show Ep. 2061 (16 Sep 2026), Michael Knowles said the U.S. illegal-immigrant population fell by a net 7 million in the second Trump administration's first year and a half.

  5. #6621:52Deep dive

    Twenty-Five Million to Zero: How a Release Statistic Became a Border That Doesn't Exist

    Checks The Dan Bongino Show

    Claim: illegal immigration went from 25 million entries under Biden to zero under Trump. Our verdict is false (truth score 0.10, confidence 0.85), because both numbers are wrong.

  6. #6518:39Deep dive

    Five Times What? Trump's tariff windfall claim, aired on the Mark Levin Podcast

    Checks Mark Levin Podcast

    Claim: the U.S. is taking in over $200 billion in tariffs, "5 times more than ever before" and four times more than any other country. The source is President Trump's North Carolina rally audio, aired by the Mark Levin Podcast, "9/16/26 – The Left's Dangerous Plan For AI And The Economy" (1:14:11).

  7. #6422:25Deep dive

    "It Turns Out to Be True": How Butler Got Declared Solved Without New Evidence

    Checks The Kuhner Report

    The Kuhner Report, "Can Trump Beat the Media?" (22 Sep 2026, 29:49): "Butler was an inside job… There were at least two shooters… it turns out to be true."

  8. #6321:59Pulse

    "Hundreds, Not Thousands": A Bongino Guest's 1948 Displacement Figure, Fact-Checked

    Checks The Dan Bongino Show

    A guest on The Dan Bongino Show (Ep. 2603, "What Is Really Happening Here?", 25 September 2026) said 1948 saw "the displacement of 100s of Palestinians, not 1000s, not 1000000s." Our verdict: false (truth score 0.02, confidence 0.95).

  9. #6222:21Pulse

    The Door Logs That Never Were: How a Satire Page Put Elizabeth Warren at Biden's Autopen

    Checks The Kuhner Report

    The Kuhner Report ("Are Sanctuary Cities Losing Steam?", 29 Sep 2026, at 10:29) said West Wing door logs show Sen. Elizabeth Warren entered the West Wing 116 times, and that 112 of those visits match her signing pardons, documents and executive orders.

  10. #6124:23Deep dive

    Did Iran, China and Russia fund BLM? What the July 2026 declassified documents actually say

    Checks The Benny Show

    Claim: On The Benny Show episode "What Trump Secretly Just Did With Spanish World Cup Champions Will Cause An INTERNATIONAL Incident…🤣" (20 July 2026), Benny Johnson said US intelligence documents released the week before showed Iran, China and Russia were "behind BLM" and that BLM, Antifa and "defund the police" were "funded by China and Iran."

  11. #6021:26Deep dive

    Fact-check: Ted Cruz's "communist and Islamist takeover" of the Democratic Party

    Checks The P.A.S. Report

    Claim: Sen. Ted Cruz, guesting on the P.A.S. Report ("Ted Cruz on Clarence Thomas, Socialism, and the Midterm Warning Republicans Can't Ignore," 3 Sep 2026, at 17:05), said: "We are witnessing, literally, a communist takeover of the Democrat Party and an Islamist takeover of the Democrat Party."

  12. #5917:32Deep dive

    "Not Even True": Fact-checking Buck Sexton's climate aside inside an AI doom episode

    Checks The Buck Sexton Show

    Claim: current climate change is not unprecedented, which Buck Sexton called "not even true." Verdict: mostly-false (truth score 0.2, confidence 0.9).

  13. #5821:06Deep dive

    Three a Day: Fact-checking the claim of 'three or four terrorist acts' a day in Europe

    Checks Louder with Crowder

    Claim: "In Europe. Every single day, we have 3 or 4 terrorist acts." Verdict: false (truth score 0.05, confidence 0.92). Europol recorded 45 terrorist attacks across the EU in all of 2025.

  14. #5722:43Pulse

    "Mostly Not Knowingly": A Prophecy Show's Vaccine–Autism Claim, Fact-Checked

    Checks Flyover Conservatives

    Claim: vaccines cause autism, neurological harm and autoimmune disorders. Verdict: mostly-false (truth score 0.12, confidence 0.92).

  15. #5621:36Pulse

    The Phantom Paperwork: How "Antifa Did January 6" Survived Five Years of Debunks

    Checks The Benny Show

    Claim: Federal filings show that "numbers" of the January 6 rioters imprisoned for assaulting officers were BLM and Antifa members "LARPing as MAGA supporters." Verdict: false (truth score 0.05).

  16. #5522:18Pulse

    Timcast IRL says no multiethnic democracy has ever succeeded. Verdict: false (0.1)

    Checks Timcast IRL

    A panelist on Timcast IRL said there has never been a single successful multiracial or multiethnic democracy. We rate that false — truth score 0.1, confidence 0.85.

  17. #5421:58Deep dive

    The War on Poverty Fact-Check: $22 Trillion and a Measure That Cannot See It

    Checks The P.A.S. Report

    Verdict: mostly-false. Truth score 0.25, confidence 0.85.

  18. #5319:22Deep dive

    Dennis Prager's "only one on earth" claim about Israel

    Checks Fireside Chat with Dennis Prager

    Dennis Prager called Israel "a country, the only one on earth, targeted for complete eradication, by all the nations surrounding it." We rate that mostly-false, truth score 0.22.

  19. #5218:27Pulse

    Fact-check: "We know she married her brother" — Mullin on Ilhan Omar

    Checks The Benny Show

    DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin: "We know that she married her brother to try to bring him to the United States." Our verdict: mostly-false, truth score 0.15, confidence 0.80.

  20. #5120:48Deep dive

    Timothy Gordon's "Or Go To Hell": Fact-Checking a True Verse With a False Ending

    Checks Timothy Gordon Rules for Retrogrades Podcast

    Timothy Gordon told listeners "a wife has to obey her husband or go to hell." We rate that mostly-false — truth score 0.2, confidence 0.8.

  21. #5021:48Pulse

    Fact-Check: Timcast IRL's Nutrition Theory of Postpartum Psychosis

    Checks Timcast IRL

    Five days after the Lindsay Clancy mistrial, a Timcast IRL panelist told the audience that postpartum depression is what happens when you don't eat the right foods.

  22. #4919:41Deep dive

    Did H-1Bs Rise 'Multi 100%' Under Biden? Louder with Crowder Claim

    Checks Louder with Crowder

    Louder with Crowder said there was "a multi 100% increase in H1 B's" under Biden. We rate it mostly-false — truth score 0.20, confidence 0.85.

  23. #4820:07Deep dive

    Ted Cruz's "as a consequence": a real crime drop, an inflated number

    Checks The P.A.S. Report

    Verdict: mixed. Truth score 0.35. Ted Cruz's murder figure is close to the FBI's; his overdose figure is inflated by about six points.

  24. #4719:57Pulse

    PBD #852 Said Trump Was "Never Charged With Anything"

    Checks PBD Podcast

    PBD Podcast #852 said Donald Trump has been accused of a great deal and "never charged with anything." We rate that mostly-false, truth score 0.25.

  25. #4619:29Pulse

    "Statistically Never Happens": Michael Knowles on Police Killings

    Checks The Michael Knowles Show

    Michael Knowles says police killings of innocent Black people "statistically never happens." We rate that mostly-false — truth score 0.15, confidence 0.85.

  26. #4520:42Deep dive

    Is Mamdani "Explicitly a Communist"? Fact-Checking Ted Cruz on the P.A.S. Report

    Checks The P.A.S. Report

    Ted Cruz told the P.A.S. Report that Zohran Mamdani "wants to seize the means of production" and "is explicitly a communist." We rate that mostly-false — truth score 0.30, confidence 0.88.

  27. #4418:53Pulse

    Fact-check: "40 recorded cases in human history" of postpartum psychosis

    Checks Timothy Gordon Rules for Retrogrades Podcast

    A podcast claimed there have been "like 40 recorded cases in human history" of postpartum psychosis. We rate that false — truth score 0.03, confidence 0.96.

  28. #4323:32Deep dive

    The Smithsonian Exhibit That Doesn't Exist Yet

    Checks The Kevin Roberts Show with Larry O'Connor

    Kevin Roberts says the Smithsonian's women's history museum has a planned exhibit celebrating male athletes in women's sports. We rate that mostly false — truth score 0.2, confidence 0.75.

  29. #4223:04Pulse

    Timcast IRL: "The Allies Didn't Know" — Holocaust Denial's Oldest Shrug

    Checks Timcast IRL

    A Timcast IRL panelist relayed a YouTube argument that Allied bombing starved the camps and that the Allies didn't know they were there. His response: "That stuff could be true for all I know."

  30. #4120:47Deep dive

    "Leaving Aside, There Is No Genocide" — Fact-Checking Four Words

    Checks The Michael Knowles Show

    Verdict: mostly-false. Truth score 0.20, confidence 0.75.

  31. #4017:43Deep dive

    Michael Knowles Says Measles Was "Like the Chicken Pox"

    Checks The Michael Knowles Show

    Michael Knowles described measles in passing as a disease "which used to be not that big a deal... It was nothing. It was like the chicken pox." We rate that mostly-false, truth score 0.15, confidence 0.95.

  32. #3921:10Pulse

    Matt Walsh Says Somalia Is 'Too Primitive to Draw the Blueprint.' A 1269 Mosque Says Otherwise

    Checks The Matt Walsh Show

    Matt Walsh said Somalia has no Mall of America because Somalis are "too primitive to draw the blueprint." We rate that false — truth score 0.05, confidence 0.85.

  33. #3822:30Deep dive

    "More Trade With China Than Anyone" - mostly-false: Census Puts China Third at 6.6%

    Checks PBD Podcast

    On the PBD Podcast (26 Aug 2026), guest Roman Yampolskiy said the US has more economic trade with China than with any other country.

  34. #3719:39Pulse

    Louder with Crowder's "lower IQ" claim about Indians

    Checks Louder with Crowder

    At 53:04 on Louder with Crowder, the answer to "don't immigrants make us better?" is: "They poop in the streets and have a lower IQ."

  35. #3618:43Pulse

    Let's Call It Fifteen: Crowder's “12 to 20 Million” Border Claim

    Checks Louder with Crowder

    Louder with Crowder said 12 to 20 million people entered the US illegally under Biden in three years, then settled on 15 million. We rate it mostly-false, truth score 0.20.

  36. #3522:11Deep dive

    Fact-check: Michael Knowles's $17 trillion investment claim

    Checks The Michael Knowles Show

    Michael Knowles said the first part of the Trump administration delivered "$17 trillion, new investment in America." We rate that false. Truth score 0.1, confidence 0.9.

  37. #3422:55Deep dive

    The Permanent Majority That Wasn't: Fact-Checking Michael Knowles

    Checks The Michael Knowles Show

    Michael Knowles said Democrats wanted mass migration to manufacture a permanent electoral majority and have "mostly been proven right." We rated it false — truth score 0.15, confidence 0.82.

  38. #3323:14Deep dive

    "Every Single Time": Matt Walsh's Universal Lynching Claim

    Checks The Matt Walsh Show

    Matt Walsh said every claimed lynching "turns out to be a completely fake story." We rated it false — truth score 0.05, confidence 0.93.

  39. #3221:52Deep dive

    The 84 Percent: how 86 anonymous answers became "the experts agree"

    Checks The Matt Walsh Show

    Matt Walsh told his audience that anonymous surveys show more than 80% of experts agree genes play a non-trivial role in average race differences in intelligence.

  40. #3123:02Pulse

    "They Set It Up That Way": The Claim That Every Blue-State Election Is Stolen

    Checks The Benny Show

    A guest on The Benny Show said elections are stolen "every election in most of the Democratic states, if not all." We rate it false — truth score 0.08, confidence 0.88.

  41. #3021:10Deep dive

    Michael Knowles's "particularly violent" claim about trans Americans

    Checks The Michael Knowles Show

    Michael Knowles told his audience "we know that the transvestite community is particularly violent." We rate it FALSE — truth score 0.1, confidence 0.82.

  42. #2920:01Deep dive

    The Blood Ledger: Fact-Checking the Decolonization Death Toll

    Checks Timcast IRL

    Timcast IRL, 18 August 2026, at 31:38: "far more blood was shed in like literally the 10 years of decolonization in Africa than like the 100s of years of colonial rule."

  43. #2822:12Deep dive

    Something Horrible Happened: How a Murder Became a Diagnosis

    Checks The Benny Show

    A guest on The Benny Show said transgender people are "mentally ill," "not born that way," and that this is "what got Charlie Kirk killed."

  44. #2719:27Deep dive

    A Dispute For Another Time: How "Franken Stole It" Stopped Being An Argument

    Checks The Michael Knowles Show

    In 2008, Al Franken beat Norm Coleman by 312 votes out of nearly 2.9 million. A Daily Wire roundtable called it a theft — and in the same breath declined to argue it.

  45. #2624:10Pulse

    Ben Shapiro Ep. 2484: 'Three Ways Islam Will Conquer the West'

    Checks The Ben Shapiro Show

    Ben Shapiro's show played a line from Ben Shapiro's movie: "three ways Islam will conquer the West." We rate it false. Truth score 0.1, confidence 0.85.

  46. #2521:47Pulse

    Fact-Check: Timcast IRL's '400,000 Fraudulent Michigan Voter Files'

    Checks Timcast IRL

    Timcast IRL, 12 August 2026: Michigan has "some 400,000 fraudulent voter files," and Elissa Slotkin won her Senate race "by something like 60,000 votes."

  47. #2421:12Deep dive

    A racial fertility ranking on Timcast IRL, checked against CDC data

    Checks Timcast IRL

    A guest-side voice on Timcast IRL ranked American racial groups by birth rate. The 2024 CDC numbers put that ranking close to backwards.

  48. #2311:20Pulse

    Thirty-Eight Days After the Ruling: Shapiro on Birthright Citizenship

    Checks The Ben Shapiro Show

    Ben Shapiro: birthright citizenship is "not mandated by the Constitution." Verdict: mostly-false, truth score 0.15, confidence 0.90.

  49. #2212:50Deep dive

    Ben Shapiro on the 14th Amendment: 'One or Two Weeks After the Civil War'

    Checks The Ben Shapiro Show

    Ben Shapiro said the Fourteenth Amendment came "one week or two weeks after the Civil War ended." Congress proposed it fourteen months after Appomattox and it was ratified more than three years later.

  50. #2121:38Pulse

    "Fauci's Disease": How a Conspiracy Theory Retired Into a Punchline

    Checks Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast

    On Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast Ep 628, at 54:24.84 "He was looking for a cure to Fauci's disease."

  51. #2018:59Deep dive

    Seven Million, Wrong Denominator: Benny Johnson on Islam and Slavery

    Checks The Benny Show

    Benny Johnson said seven million people are enslaved worldwide, all of them in Africa, all in Islamic nations. That is Walk Free's regional figure for Africa alone.

  52. #1924:07Deep dive

    Sharia at 44:36: How a 2013 Satire Article Became a Sitting Senator's Fact

    Checks The Benny Show

    A guest identified on-air as Sen. Tim Sheehy said the United States "now has Sharia law," naming Dearborn, Michigan.

  53. #1818:43Deep dive

    The Commissary Problem: "It's Failed Everywhere" vs. 235 Government-Owned Grocery Stores

    Checks articles, The Matt Walsh Show, Louder with Crowder

    USA TODAY says government-owned grocery stores have "failed everywhere else it's been tried." The Defense Commissary Agency operates 235 of them.

  54. #1722:30Deep dive

    RFK Jr.'s "Show me one study" on child COVID vaccines

    Checks PBD Podcast

    RFK Jr. asked CNN's Dana Bash to show him one study showing children were protected by the COVID vaccine. On air, she didn't produce one.

  55. #1617:26Deep dive

    The Statute Nobody Mentioned: How a State Law Became One Mayor's Choice

    Checks articles

    The New York Post says Bill de Blasio "allowed" NYC schools to stop using test scores to decide promotion. A 2014 New York State law had already required it.

  56. #1522:26Pulse

    Why "30 or 40 Million" Border Crossers Is False - Cato, CIS and Heritage All Say 5-7M

    Checks The Benny Show

    A claim on The Benny Show put 30 to 40 million "unvetted, unvaccinated" border crossers under Biden, "all military aged males." We rate it false - truth score 0.07, confidence 0.90.

  57. #1421:25Pulse

    Benny Johnson's Fauci Body Count Went From 7 Million to 'Tens of Millions' in 8 Days

    Checks The Benny Show

    Benny Johnson opened his July 30, 2026 episode by calling Anthony Fauci "the single greatest mass murderer in modern history," with a body count "much higher than Hitler."

  58. #1311:38Pulse

    "A Few Communists": The Helicopter Joke and the Arithmetic It Erases

    Checks Louder with Crowder

    On July 28, 2026, at 56:34 in the episode "Jon Stewart's Kaitlin Collins Interview Will Piss You Off," Louder with Crowder host Steven Crowder said of Pinochet's Chile: "Sure, you had a few communists who went for helicopter rides and we never saw them again. But if you weren't a communist, you weren't at great risk." We rate that mostly-false — truth score 0.12, confidence 0.90.

  59. #1221:18Deep dive

    Zero and Certainty: The Cheapest Claim You Can Make Is a Claim About the Record

    Checks PBD Podcast, Louder with Crowder

    We analyze a rhetorical phenomenon called record-rounding, where media figures misrepresent partial or unverified information as settled fact. The text examines two primary examples: a podcast host presenting unauthenticated social media posts as an official interview and a commentator claiming a total absence of research regarding transgender athletes despite existing studies. By investigating these claims, the sources demonstrate how speakers either inflate rumors into certainty or deflate complex data sets to zero to create more compelling narratives. This logical error, known as an argument from ignorance, allows influencers to bypass nuances and present an evidentiary void or a manufactured record as a definitive premise. Ultimately, the analysis reveals that such tactics are politically neutral tools used across the spectrum to make arguments appear unassailable. This overview highlights how the deletion of qualifiers like "reportedly" fundamentally changes the public's perception of truth.

  60. #1120:44Deep dive

    Minnesota's Real Autism Fraud and the Missing Word | Matt Walsh Ep. 1811 Fact-Check

    Checks The Matt Walsh Show

    Examines the evolution of a political narrative in Minnesota that characterizes Somali-run autism centers as inherently fraudulent. While legitimate federal prosecutions have uncovered significant instances of Medicaid fraud within the state's autism programs, the sources document how these specific crimes have been expanded into categorical generalizations against an entire ethnic community. High-profile media figures and politicians have leveraged these real legal cases to claim that the centers are entirely fake and that Somali immigrants largely avoid traditional employment, despite data showing their labor participation exceeds the state average. This narrative also overlooks clinical research indicating higher autism prevalence rates within the Somali-American population, which naturally increases program enrollment. Ultimately, the analysis highlights how a complex issue involving genuine oversight failures was transformed into a simplified rhetorical tool used to dismiss the trauma of a marginalized group. The text concludes that while substantial fraud exists, the framing of it as a universal trait of a specific people relies on misleading statistics and the omission of broader context.

  61. #1020:27Deep dive

    Two Words in Athens: How "In Greece" Went Missing and a Foreign Statistic Became an American One

    Checks The Benny Show

    A recent fact-check examines how a speech by Secretary of State Marco Rubio was edited to create a misleading claim about domestic terrorism in the United States. While Rubio correctly noted that 80% of radical violence in Greece is driven by far-left actors, a widely circulated video clip removed the geographical qualifier "In Greece" to suggest the statistic applied to America. Data from organizations like CSIS, the ADL, and the Cato Institute contradict this narrative, showing that right-wing extremism has historically been more frequent and deadly in the U.S. despite a documented increase in left-wing incidents in 2025. This misinformation spread rapidly through conservative media and social platforms, serving as a powerful example of how minor edits can fundamentally alter the meaning of a statistic. The report highlights that while the underlying figure was technically accurate for a specific European nation, its decontextualized use created an inaccurate picture of the American security landscape. Research brief - https://n2podcast.substack.com/p/research-brief-two-words-in-athens

  62. #923:12Deep dive

    Blaming H-1B Visas for IBM's 25% Crash: Fact-Checking PBD Podcast #833

    Checks PBD Podcast

    On PBD Podcast #833, published July 16, 2026, a co-host opens at the eighteen-second mark by tying IBM's 25% single-day stock collapse to H-1B hiring. We scored the two halves separately: the stock drop is true, 0.97. The causal tie to H-1B hiring is mostly-false, 0.15, and flagged as misinformation.

  63. #818:41Deep dive

    Ballast and Payload: How a Mostly-True Podcast Moved "China Incited BLM"

    Checks PBD Podcast

    This report analyzes a specific instance of misinformation on the PBD Podcast, where speakers used verified facts as a delivery system for false claims about Chinese interference in the 2020 BLM protests. By interleaving accurate data about Hunter Biden with unproven assertions of foreign incitement, the program utilized a technique called paltering to make the overall narrative appear credible. Research indicates that this "ballast and payload" structure exploits illusory truth effects, as listeners who verify the easy facts tend to generalize that trust to the entire segment. The analysis also places this modern claim within a 107-year historical lineage of "hidden-hand" narratives used to delegitimize domestic civil rights movements by attributing them to foreign agitators. Ultimately, the source argues that the danger of such media is not total fabrication, but rather its mostly-accurate baseline, which builds the institutional capital necessary to launch high-stakes falsehoods.

  64. #717:14Deep dive

    The Smithsonian Warning Label: State Intervention in National History

    Checks articles

    In July 2026, an executive order was issued mandating the installation of warning signs outside the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History to alert visitors of alleged factual inaccuracies. This directive follows a White House report accusing the institution of ideological capture and a failure to properly celebrate the nation’s founding during its 250th anniversary. While the administration cites past controversial materials as evidence of bias, professional historians and museum leadership argue the order is an act of political overreach targeting interpretation rather than objective error. The conflict highlights a significant legal debate regarding the President's authority over a trust institution that historically operates with independence from executive control. Ultimately, these sources document an escalating battle over who possesses the authority to define historical truth in the public square.

  65. #619:12Deep dive

    It Must Have Been Aliens: Why a Continent That Exports a Million Cars a Year "Never Built One"

    Checks Louder with Crowder

    The provided text refutes a viral claim made by James David Manning and amplified on a modern podcast that no African nation has ever manufactured an automobile. Data from the sources confirms that this assertion is categorically false, as countries like Morocco and South Africa export hundreds of thousands of vehicles annually to global markets. Indigenous companies such as Innoson and Kantanka further prove that local design and manufacturing have existed on the continent for decades. The analysis frames this misinformation as part of a historical pattern of achievement denial, where the accomplishments of the Global South are ignored or attributed to outside forces. This trope connects modern industrial skepticism to older colonial-era censorship and pseudo-archaeological theories regarding ancient monuments. Ultimately, the text argues that such narratives persist because they reinforce a prejudiced global hierarchy rather than reflecting economic reality.

  66. #519:06Pulse

    The Erased Threat: Debunking the Myth of Right-Wing Nonexistence

    Checks The Benny Show

    These sources examine a controversial assertion by commentator Benny Johnson that right-wing terrorism is a nonexistent concept in the United States. While recent events and government shifts have highlighted a rise in left-wing political violence, extensive data from the GAO, FBI, and CSIS historically identify far-right extremism as a major and lethal threat. The text details how political figures and media hosts have transitioned from criticizing institutional bias to making categorical denials of documented extremist activities. This narrative shift is supported by the removal of federal studies and a new policy focus on "radical left terrorism" following high-profile assassinations. Ultimately, the sources illustrate how real incidents of violence are used to construct an unfalsifiable framework that absolves one side of the political spectrum. This process turns a complex debate over statistical emphasis into an absolute denial of established historical facts.

  67. #424:04Pulse

    The One-in-10,000 Gambit: Vaccine Myths and Autism Statistics

    Checks PBD Podcast

    Recent media reports and fact-checks examine the persistent, though scientifically discredited, claim that childhood vaccinations are responsible for the rising rates of autism. While contemporary figures like Patrick Bet-David and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. utilize accurate CDC prevalence statistics to suggest a causal link, medical experts clarify that these increases actually stem from broadened diagnostic criteria and enhanced screening. Extensive global studies involving millions of children have consistently found no connection between vaccines and autism, tracing the origin of the myth to a fraudulent 1998 study that was later retracted. Despite this evidence, the narrative has evolved by targeting different vaccine ingredients and gaining political traction, leading to controversial changes on federal health websites. Ultimately, the sources highlight how distrust in public health following the pandemic has allowed this misinformation to migrate from the fringes of the internet into mainstream political and podcasting circles.

  68. #319:40Week in review

    Mumbai, We Have a Problem: The Week the Burden of Proof Flipped

    Checks Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast

    The Narrative Networks Podcast — Week in Review briefing for the week of July 13–19, 2026. Source claims from Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast, Ep 625, published Friday, July 17, 2026.

  69. #219:40Deep dive

    The 16-Bit Moon: How India's Real Lunar Landing Got Rebranded as a Video Game

    Checks Matt and Shane's Secret Podcast

    Examine the misinformation campaign surrounding India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission, which falsely claims the lunar landing was a fabricated computer simulation. This narrative gained traction because the Indian Space Research Organisation used digital animations during its live broadcast to supplement real-time data, leading skeptics to confuse these graphics with the actual mission. Independent evidence from NASA satellite imagery, amateur radio tracking, and scientific data collected on the lunar surface confirms the landing was a success. Despite this proof, the hoax has been perpetuated by conspiracy theorists, geopolitical rivals, and comedy podcasts that rely on outdated lunar landing myths and ethnic stereotypes. The materials highlight how genuine visual confusion can be manipulated into a broader anti-science narrative for political or entertainment purposes.

  70. #118:31Deep dive

    Case of the Missing Millionaires: Fact Checking Dave Rubin's Take on Zohran Mamdani

    Checks The Rubin Report

    We fact check whether changes to a tax law are causing the the impact that Dave Rubin claims.

  71. #022:33Start here

    Weaponizing the Neurobiology of Storytelling

    Let's start with by setting the terms.