Overview

Leafing through photos from the January 6 insurrection, extremist researcher Noelle Cook was struck by how many women looked like her: middle-aged white women in puffy coats. Women were not on the fringes of the extreme right, she realized. They were radicalizing each other, and the pandemic was changing them. So who were the women of J6? And why did some of them believe in shape-shifting reptilians and the health benefits of colloidal silver? This is the world scholars call conspirituality, in which New Age religion, online wellness culture, and extremism blend and become laced with antisemitic and racist theories. With acute attention to the emotional lives of women and research on conspiracism, Cook introduces us to Tammy, who believed storming the Capitol would help take down a global cabal of pedophiles. We also meet Yvonne, convinced she is a starseed destined to lead others into the fifth dimension. We visit a trade show where vendors hawk everything from quantum healing devices to government cover-ups, and trace the movement's roots to a nineteenth-century mystical philosophy. Women are crafting entire worlds and we ignore these worlds at our own peril. As misinformation spreads and extremism intensifies, The Conspiracists does not seek to excuse women's conspiracism but rather to understand it. Otherwise, we have no hope of countering its force.

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Noelle Cook is an ethnographer and researcher specializing in the online and offline participation of women in conspiratorial and right-wing movements. As an associate producer of The Conspiracists, a feature documentary by Page75 Productions, Cook examines how identity, belief, and belonging shape extremist communities. Her work bridges academia and media to explore the forces driving radicalization. Rachel Yong is a SAG-AFTRA stage/film/voice actor and professional narrator for both audiobooks and long-form journalism. She currently narrates with Penguin Random House, Sony's podcasting division, Let's Hear It! Studios, and TDW+Co. She is a two-time Best Actress winner through the Asian American Film Lab and won Best Animation performing as Herman in Herman and Mr. Pointdexter. In the acclaimed historical memoir Remembering Shanghai, she utilizes sixty-plus different character voices, including in Mandarin. Her family background is Cantonese.

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