Nathan Radke

They're weird, but science can explain their existence.

They're not supernatural.

That's the distinction.

When we start to get into mythology and away from biology, that's when we're looking at things that are outside of science.

Because again, every time we send some kind of deep diving submersible into the ocean, we're going to come across some weird new animal, but it's going to fit into the world of biology.

Whereas the Leviathan in these memes that we talked about in the first half, or just our sea monsters in general, they're rooted firmly in mythology rather than biology.

And I think there's a reason why this sort of story gets traction these days and why it's always gotten traction.

But maybe like what's happening to us now, I'm not surprised that these sea monsters are rearing their heads.

Well, my co-host, Dr. Kuhnlin, and I have been looking at conspiracy theories for over a decade now and done a lot of field work and infiltrated a lot of cults and interviewed tons of people.

And there's one thing that's become exceedingly clear and that there's a really strong relationship between conspiracism, this idea that conspiracies are in charge of everything, and trauma.

I mean, it makes sense.

Trauma can lead us to feeling like things are completely out of control, that things don't make sense.

And then what does that lead to?

That can lead to a sense of general anxiety.

No, no, exactly.

And this is something that we sort of scramble for.

This is something that we reach for.

We're very good at noticing patterns when we look out into the world.

And when we are feeling anxiety, when we're feeling stressed, when we're feeling threatened, we even more frantically reach for those explanations.

Because it's not enough for us to just see a pattern.