We are in an almost permanent state of social and political and global upheaval, and that's going to mean we're going to have more and more conspiracy theories, and the conspiracy theories that come up are going to be harder and harder to get rid of.

Writer Anna Merlan explores the slow creep of conspiracy thinking into American life and politics - as a way for regular people to square their own precarious reality with an alienating social and economic system, and as a tool for the powerful to cash in on the fear at the heart of our growing paranoia.

Anna is author of the book Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power from Metropolitan Books.