Acknowledgments

The backbone of this book is the collection of accounts from people who have escaped from the rabbit hole. I am very grateful to each of them for the time they took to share their stories with me, and for their continued resilience. My thanks go to Willie, Martin Beard, Steve, Stephanie Wittschier, Karl, Richard, and Bob. Thanks also to the many other people whom I interviewed or simply chatted with online. While I did not get everyone’s story in, their input greatly informed this book. Many of them I only know by internet pseudonyms, or they wished to remain anonymous, so I shall list only first names, thanking Nathan, Elliot, Scooter, Michael, Adam, Julie, David, Ed, Marty, Frank, Johnny, DJ, and Joshua.

Thanks to the members of Metabunk, my main forum for discussing these topics. I am particularly grateful to Deirdre, both for useful feedback on my communication style, and invaluable help in moderating Metabunk while I was distracted with writing. Thanks also to Trailblazer, Pete Tar, Landru, Trailspotter, TEEJ, JFDee, Efftup, Jay Reynolds, TWCobra, MikeC, NoParty, Ross Marsden, Scombid, Skephu, Whitebeard, MikeG, and many others.

Thanks to the prolific skeptical author Benjamin Radford, who took the time to read an early draft and gave many valuable suggestions. I just wish I’d asked him earlier!

Thanks to Joe Rogan, a rabbit hole escapee himself, who invited me on his show to explain Chemtrails, then later Flat Earth and other conspiracies, helping create the platform for this book.

Thanks to my agent Jill Marr and my editor Andrew Geller for their support and guidance through the entire process. Special thanks must go to Andrew for taming my random mid-Atlantic spelling and punctuation into some kind of consistency.

My deepest thanks must go to my wife, Holly. For many years she has been supportive of my vague ramblings about someday writing a book. The fact that I have finally produced something is in large part due to her encouragement, her constructive suggestions, and her motivating beratements. As an accomplished author herself, she helped me navigate the obstacles and pitfalls of both writing and publication. Thank you, Holly, for being my partner both in work and in life.