Flight Deck Podcast

Conspiracy theories are unavoidable when your Museum deals with topics in science, but this week’s guest, Tony Gondola, outreach coordinator for the New Mexico Museum of Space History, has some good advice on how to debunk these unsound ideas. Gondola also explains how the people who formulate conspiracies profit from those who fall for them. In dealing with Moon landing science, Gondola also has experience with other theories. “Right now, flat Earth stuff is everywhere,” he says. “All claims of hoaxsters are easy to debunk because they usually don’t go too deep into the science.” Conspiracy theories have become increasingly popular these past few years because common objections to the Moon landing stem from a distrust of authority, the government, and science. Gondola describes why it’s so important to counter these ideas. “We can’t deny this great historical event,” he says. What the astronauts did on the Moon does, in fact, include some science, although science was not the primary objective. The Apollo 11