Location: Decatur Ballroom
Conspiracy theories have gone mainstream, making their way into national headlines, politics, houses of worship and discussions over the dinner table. This panel brings together experts religion, journalism and the proliferation of conspiracies to unpack why these narratives take hold, and the impacts they have on the news we report. Panelists will discuss the responsibility of religion journalists to report on conspiracy theories (or not) and the ethical challenges these conspiracies present.
SPEAKERS
Dr. Felix Harcourt
Dr. Felix Harcourt is an Associate Professor of History at Austin College, specializing in the history of prejudice, politics, and popular culture. His publications include "Ku Klux Konspiracism" (in American Conspiracism: An Interdisciplinary Exploration, 2025) and Ku Klux Kulture: America and the Klan in the 1920s (Chicago, 2017). His work has appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, CSPAN, and WNYC, among other venues.
Gary Laderman
Gary Laderman is Goodrich C. White Professor of American Religious Cultures and History at Emory University. His latest book is Sacred Drugs: How Psychoactive Substances Mix with Religious Life.
Michael Isikoff
Michael Isikoff is an award-winning investigative journalist and best-selling author who has been at the forefront of reporting on many of the biggest scandals and controversies of our time. He has served as an investigative reporter for The Washington Post, Newsweek, NBC News and Yahoo News.
Isikoff is the author of four New York Times best-selling books: “Find Me the Votes: A Hard-charging Georgia prosecutor, a Rogue President and The Plot to Steal an American Election,” co-written with Daniel Klaidman; “Russian Roulette: The Inside Story of Putin’s War on American and the Election of Donald Trump,” co-written with David Corn; “Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War,” co-written with David Corn, and “Uncovering Clinton: A Reporter’s Story,” which chronicled his own reporting of the Monica Lewinsky story and was named the Best Non-Fiction Book of 1999 by the Book of the Month Club.
Isikoff won multiple awards for his coverage of the issue, including a National Magazine Award, the Gerald R. Ford Award for Reporting on the Presidency, and the Edgar Allan Poe Award from the White House Correspondents Association.
Isikoff produced and directed the film, “Uniquely Nasty,” about the U.S. government’s persecution of gays, which won the Edward R. Murrow Award for best documentary in 2015. He was also the co-host of the popular “Skullduggery” podcast on Yahoo News as well as host of “Conspiracyland,” which explored the role of conspiracy theories in American politics.
Isikoff is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis and the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He lives with his wife and son in Washington D.C.
MODERATOR
Bob Smietana
Bob Smietana is a national reporter for RNS based near Chicago, covering evangelicals, weird religion and the changing religious landscape. He is the author of “Reorganized Religion: The Reshaping of the American Church and Why it Matters.”