Critical Conversations: The Big Hoax

Nathan Radke, Lee Kuhnle and Alena Papayanis 

Critical Conversations: The Big Hoax

Nathan Radke, Lee Kuhnle and Alena Papayanis 

7:30pm

Saturday, October 31, 2020

60 mins

Authors in candid, live conversation reflect on the topics that matter most during this unprecedented time. In this live-streamed presentation, in collaboration with Humber College, podcasters and faculty members Lee Kuhnle, Alena Papayanis and Nathan Radke discuss “The Big Hoax”: the ubiquity of media misinformation and its dangerous implications.

We currently find ourselves in the midst of two pandemics – one is biological, and the other virtual, and they each make the general population more vulnerable to the other.  Since the lockdowns began in March, people have been contracting and spreading the QAnon virus through their social media, creating an alternate reality in the minds of millions in which COVID-19 is a hoax, the world is under the control of Satanic cannibal child predators, and the only man standing between the monsters and the decent people is American president Donald J. Trump.

In this talk, the cohosts of the Uncover Up Conspiracy Podcast examine the beliefs and claims of the QAnon virus, as well as the historical and technological context in which this virus has emerged and the implications this pandemic has on democracy, epistemology, and truth itself.

Tune in each day of the Festival to hear new speakers in critical conversations about the topics shaping today’s new world.

English captioning is available for this video. Please click the ‘CC’ button in the video toolbar to turn it on.

Authors in candid, live conversation reflect on the topics that matter most during this unprecedented time. In this live-streamed presentation, in collaboration with Humber College, podcasters and faculty members Lee Kuhnle, Alena Papayanis and Nathan Radke discuss “The Big Hoax”: the ubiquity of media misinformation and its dangerous implications.

We currently find ourselves in the midst of two pandemics – one is biological, and the other virtual, and they each make the general population more vulnerable to the other.  Since the lockdowns began in March, people have been contracting and spreading the QAnon virus through their social media, creating an alternate reality in the minds of millions in which COVID-19 is a hoax, the world is under the control of Satanic cannibal child predators, and the only man standing between the monsters and the decent people is American president Donald J. Trump.

In this talk, the cohosts of the Uncover Up Conspiracy Podcast examine the beliefs and claims of the QAnon virus, as well as the historical and technological context in which this virus has emerged and the implications this pandemic has on democracy, epistemology, and truth itself.

Tune in each day of the Festival to hear new speakers in critical conversations about the topics shaping today’s new world.

English captioning is available for this video. Please click the ‘CC’ button in the video toolbar to turn it on.

Featured Authors

Nathan Radke
Nathan Radke is a Cultural Theory professor at Humber College, and completed his MA in Sociology at Lakehead University. He co-authored the 2018 textbook Ethnical Perspectives published by Oxford University Press. He specializes in conspiracy theories, particularly the manner in which ideas behave as social contagions. He is the author of Simveillance in Hyperreal Las Vegas and a contributor to Conspiracies and Conspiracy Theories in American History. He also co-founded the Conspiracy Theory podcast The Uncoverup which is available on iTunes and Soundcloud.

Read more about Nathan Radke

Lee Kuhnle
Lee Kuhnle is a college professor in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Sciences at Humber College, a co-host of The Uncover Up podcast as well as a regular contributor to the Conspiracy Roundtable radio show on CFRB1010. He is a graduate of York University's social and political thought doctoral program. Lee researches broadly in the field of 'ideology critique,' focusing most recently on the role of conspiracy theories in liberal democratic political cultures. 

Read more about Lee Kuhnle

Alena Papayanis 
Alena Papayanis is a Professor of Arts and Humanities at Humber College, co-host of The Uncover Up podcast, Tiktok content creator and aspiring non-fiction writer. Her academic studies have been interdisciplinary, with a PhD in Cultural History from the University of London, Birkbeck College and a B.A. and M.A. in Media and Cultural studies from the University of Western Ontario.    Her postgraduate research has focused on the contemporary cultural history of war within the United States, and her more recent research examines privilege and oppression in post-secondary education, as well as conspiracy theories in popular culture.   

Read more about Alena Papayanis 

7:30pm

Saturday, October 31

60 mins

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