There’s nothing wrong with podcasts in themselves, however. Especially not really good ones, such as The Coming Storm (BBC Sounds). This is made by BBC journalist Gabriel Gatehouse, and is his attempt to get to the heart of the QAnon conspiracy theory and trace its archaeological roots in modern American politics.

He begins his story from a personal angle, following two events that sparked his interest in the topic. The first was a witch-themed online life-drawing class he took in 2020 (again, we all did strange things in lockdown), where he learned about
the 15th-century development of the printing press and how it led to broad dissemination of misinformation and a widespread fear of witchcraft, with violent repercussions.

And then there was the American election of 2020, during which Gatehouse met an odd man saying strange things about QAnon, and decided not to interview him for TV; a decision he came to regret when that man turned out to be Jake Angeli, also known as the QAnon Shaman, later convicted for his central role in 2021 United States Capitol attack.