Tinfoil Digest - Musical Misinfo Edition

This week’s Tinfoil Digest features RadioX, TR Vivek, Reed Grable, a podcast from Patrick Radden Keefe and a Lindsay Ellis video! Get stuck in and let us know what you think.

Kristina, Let's take a little break from the 5G and QAnon conspiracies and look at what's going on in the world of music conspiracies. Did Radiohead release a song called “Putting Ketchup In The Fridge”? Did The Beatles, the Stones and Bob Dylan form a secret supergroup? Did Paul McCartney die in 1966? Radio X answered these and some other questions.

‌Edie, Contributing Editor - I can't believe I'm not the only one with a possible fake song this week! Wind of Change is a brilliant podcast attempting to get to the bottom of whether the CIA wrote a hit song that swept Europe at the end of the Cold War. I actually don't know if this is a debunking or not as I haven't made it to the end yet, but it's fascinating all the same and I can't wait to find out.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts.

Ishaana, Researcher - We are loving all those viral messages of nature “healing” while we stay home. Some true, most fake but comforting nevertheless. T.R. Vivek writes on how mainstream Indian media chose to put their own spin on these stories and how if COVID- 19 has done more for the environment than Greta Thunberg, then unknown to him, Genghis Khan was a Rainbow warrior helping in forest reclamation.  

Read the whole article here and follow Vivek here @trvivek

Al - Lindsay Ellis is a treasure, and her video essays are a trove of smart, entertaining insights into how literary and media criticism can help us make sense of the stories which dominate our lives and the art which is most important to us. As a part of her ‘It’s Lit’ series with PBS, Ellis recently treated us to an enlightening ten minute trip through the history of ‘pandemic literature’ and literary criticism, running the gamut from Susan Sontag to Max Brooks, and featuring some stark reminders of the prescience and relevance of literary representations of plague and pandemics to the current COVID outbreak.

Watch the video essay on YouTube here, and follow Lindsay Ellis @thelindsayellis

Devika, Senior Fact Checker - We just can’t seem to press paws on the coronavirus misinformation! Some are suggesting that a SARS- CoV-2 vaccine was developed in 2001...but wait a second before you say you woof like one of them... Turns out, there is a coronavirus vaccination dating back to 2001, but it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with your fur babies!

Read it here.

Joe, Senior Researcher - As the number of people believing conspiracy theories swells during the pandemic and lockdown, it’s easy to get caught up in the spectacle of gun-toting protestors or adults throwing tantrums over wearing masks in Costco. In an insightful and deeply personal article, Reed Ryley Grable tells the story of his father’s journey into becoming a die-hard QAnon follower, its impact on his family, and the damage caused by conspiracies at a micro level.

Read or listen here and follow Reed on Twitter at @GrableReed