Kelly McEvers

Hey again, I'm Kelly McEvers and you are listening to the third and final episode in Embedded's Alternate Realities series. If you haven't listened to the first two, go back to your feed. All the episodes are there. Okay, back to the story. Here's episode three.

Yeah. Yeah.

Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and you're listening to Episode 2 of Embedded's Alternate Realities series. If you haven't listened to Episode 1, please go back to the feed and start there. One more thing before we get started. This episode contains explicit language. Here's episode two.

Hey, I'm Kelly McEvers, and this is Embedded from NPR. Conspiracy theories have been a thing in American politics for a while now. One study found that 35% of the country believes there is a single group of people who secretly rule the world. One thing that worries experts is, right now, conspiracy theories are getting more sticky because people in power are legitimizing them.

Politicians have been talking about QAnon, saying the 2020 election was stolen, that COVID vaccines had microchips. These, of course, have all been thoroughly debunked. In the lead-up to last year's election, though, a massive amount of misinformation was amplified on social media. Today, we're bringing you a story about a family that's in crisis in this time of misinformation.

Reporter Zach Mack thinks his father is being radicalized. And his father thinks Zach's the one being brainwashed. Last year, they took a pretty unconventional approach to try to pull each other out of the spell that each of them thinks the other is under. That year-long journey forced Zach to wonder if one family can exist in two realities. By the way, this is a different kind of series for us.

Because their story is so personal, Zach's parents have asked us not to use their names. And you'll hear Zach refer to them simply as mom and dad. Before we get started, just a quick heads up. This episode contains explicit language. Okay, here's Zach.

Her cotmate at the shelter, Francoise Myra, who's 64, says she's pretty sure her house is gone. She doesn't even know where to start to rebuild her life. She's having trouble logging into her account.

I wrote it all down. My password book was like two inches thick. Volunteers here say older people who were already struggling with physical and mental health are struggling even more now. For NPR News, I'm Kelly McEvers in Los Angeles.

Sarah James is 76. She's worried that she's so sleep-deprived she's stopped making sense.