Conspiracy theories don’t start with a villain. They start with a feeling, the specific uncomfortable feeling that somebody must be in charge of how bad this all looks, because the alternative is that nobody is.

Lee Kuhnle has spent over a decade on this and came in without an answer for once. Just a question. Violent crime is lower than it was in the 90s. Life expectancy is up. Infant mortality has been falling for decades. The stats say we’re doing well. Lee still feels dread, and so does everyone around him. In 1983, three separate incidents nearly ended the world in four months. A Soviet radar operator named Stanislav Petrov didn’t follow his orders. We exist because of that one decision. Lee found that out and felt worse.

The question underneath all of it: if the dread is manufactured, who benefits from you feeling it? That’s not a conspiracy. That’s just the right question to sit with before you decide what to believe next.

Topics: conspiracy theories, manufactured dread, is the world getting better, historical myopia, Stanislav Petrov

GUEST: Dr. Lee Kuhnle | https://www.amazon.ca/Uncover-Up-Think-Clearly-Conspiracies/dp/1770418873/

Originally aired on2026-04-08