Documenting the impact of conspiracies and coverups with Phil Tinline

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Air Dates: July 7 – July 13, 2025

What if a secret gathering of luminaries concluded in the 1960s that the consequences of “peace” would be worse than continued war? Phil Tinline explains that in 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, just such a story emerged, and its consequences reverberate to this day.  

Phil Tinline is a freelance writer and documentarian. He is the author of the 2002 book “The Death of Consensus,” which was chosen as The Times (London)’s Politics Book of the Year. Over the course of twenty years working for the BBC, he has made and presented many acclaimed documentaries about how political history shapes our lives. He has also written for The Times (London), The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph (London), The New Statesman (UK), BBC History Magazine, and Prospect. He is a graduate of Oxford University where he obtained a degree in English language and literature, and he currently lives in London.

On this episode of “Story in the Public Square,” Tinlin discussed his new book, “Ghosts of Iron Mountain: The Hoax of the Century, Its Enduring Impact, and What It Reveals About America Today.” Tinlin explored the existence and evolution of government conspiracies and said, “what it tells us is not that this is something that began with the internet or with Donald Trump or with social media, because clearly this report is an example both in the ‘90s, and to some extent in the ‘60s of it taking place before that.”

Story in the Public Square” broadcasts each week on public television stations across the United States. In Rhode Island and southeastern New England, the show is broadcast on Rhode Island PBS on Sundays at 11:00 a.m. and is rebroadcast Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Check your local public television listings for air times near you! An audio version of the program airs Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. ET, Sundays at 2:30 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. and Mondays at 4:30 a.m. ET on SiriusXM’s popular P.O.T.U.S. (Politics of the United States), channel 124. “Story in the Public Square” is a project of the Pell Center at Salve Regina University. The initiative aims to study, celebrate and tell stories that matter. 

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