December 31st, 2024. That was the deadline Zach Mack had to bring his dad back to reality, and possibly save his family. Like so many Americans, Zach's dad had gotten swept up in political conspiracy theories, spurred on by the self-proclaimed prophets he watches online.
After years of arguments that seemed to go nowhere, early last year, his father challenged Zach to a bet. He made a list of ten politically apocalyptic predictions, ranging from the arrests and convictions of high-profile politicians to the implementation of nation-wide martial law. And then he made a wager with his son: he bet $10,000 that all of them would come true before the end of the year.
Alternate Realities, the new series from NPR’s Embedded podcast, follows Zach’s year-long journey to pull his father out of this deepening rabbit hole. Over the course of three episodes, Zach intimately explores how the intermingling of misinformation and his father’s religious beliefs tests the bonds of his family, and offers a first-person perspective into an issue plaguing close relationships across the country.
"This is more than just a story about whose reality is 'correct’," says Mack. "As I documented my father's beliefs throughout the past year, I was also trying to understand how the conspiracy theories he found took hold.”
In an effort to better understand him, Zach talks to experts who study conspiracy theories, and others who are close with his dad. And he does it all in real time, so you get embedded with Zach and his family while the story is still playing out.
Who will win the bet? And what will remain of Zach’s family come New Year’s Day?
