Republic of lies - the lives of american conspiracy theorists and their surprising rise

From UFOs to the New World Order, the inside story of how conspiracy theories won over America.

When Donald Trump entered the White House in January 2017, America's sprawling network of conspiracy theorists suddenly gained a powerful ally. Over the years, Trump had schmoozed with everyone from climate change deniers to anti-vax campaigners. Suddenly, to understand the USA, you needed to understand conspiracies.

In Republic of Lies, investigative journalist Anna Merlan goes deep inside this secretive world and unearths its most bizarre, enthralling and disconcerting stories. She heads over to America's top UFO conference, where she encounters the man who says he once went to Mars with a young Barack Obama. She speaks with the 'pizzagate' truthers who believe that Washington D.C.'s favourite pizzeria is run by a satanic paedophile ring. And she has a run-in with the controversial YouTuber and media impresario Alex Jones, who has said the state is using chemical warfare to turn the population gay - and who happens to be on first-name terms with the president of the United States.

Merlan's discoveries raise timely and troubling questions for us all. What happens when conspiracy theories go mainstream - and what impact does it have on the news that is actually true? Why are so many of us prepared to believe half-truths and outright lies? And might understanding conspiracy theories be the key to explaining the political upheavals of our age?