‘My Earliest Memory Is Searching For Crop Fields With My Dad’: Scarlett Moffatt’s New Conspiracy Podcast Is A Passion Project

Picture the scene: Scarlett Moffatt is trapped at home with her boyfriend, Scott Dobinson. It’s their eighth week of quarantine together and Scarlett is frantically trying to convince him that aliens exist. No, it’s not a lockdown fever dream after a long weekend of boozing and Gogglebox repeats; you’re listening to her brand new podcast, Scarlett Moffatt Wants To Believe.

For the viewing public, and even her fans, debating conspiracy theories might seem a strange topic for her to start a podcast about, but for Scarlett it makes perfect sense. In fact, she’s been a self-confessed conspiracy geek since she was a child.

‘My earliest memory was when I was about six and me and my dad used to take our dog Glenn out for long walks and we would go searching for crop circles,’ she tells me from her home in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, where she has just recorded episode one – now live on BBC Sounds. ‘We lived near loads of fields and we would take a notepad and pen and the little wind-up cameras from Boots, and we’d have code names in case our bodies got snatched by aliens.’

It wasn’t just a fun game to play as a child – chasing the truth around conspiracies is essentially a tradition in Scarlett’s family. For proof, you need look no further than her middle name, Sigourney, which she says was chosen by her dad after Sigourney Weaver, ‘because his favourite movie is Alien’.

Building family bunkers in their attic ‘in case there was an apocalypse’ and researching all sorts of conspiracies throughout the years, Scarlett says it’s now her go-to first-date topic. ‘I remember on mine and Scott’s first date one of my questions was “do you believe we went to the moon?”,' she laughs. ‘I feel like now he’s just used to me chatting shit really, I just sit for hours like “have you seen this about Beyoncé and Jay Z and the illuminati” and showing him clips.’

It’s Scott’s logical nature that makes the podcast so great, Scarlett admits, because despite her enthusiasm and endless research, he ‘has an answer for everything’ and so she essentially spends half an hour trying to convince him of everything under the sun from the 1947 Roswell UFO incident to proof that mermaids exist.

‘I don't think if it was in normal circumstances, Scott would do the podcast with me,’ she says. ‘Because of his job as a police officer and he’s just not that sort of person at all. So he’s really doing it just because he knows how much it means to me.’

The fact Scarlett has managed to get Scott on board is one of the few gems that has come from lockdown then, because doing this together not only provides listeners with hilarious content but it’s keeping Scarlett sane during this time, she admits. They are, however, avoiding Covid conspiracies at all costs.

‘We’ve kept away from all of them only because it’s a bit heavy and everyone’s already freaked out,’ she says. ‘Our aim is for people to forget about the current situation for half an hour and just have a laugh and learn new things.’

They’re being responsible then, it seems, steering away from contentious topics that could spread misinformation. Because, what Scarlett actually wants in all of this is to not just to entertain, but to encourage people to think critically about things they hear or are told.

One example she particularly loves is the conspiracy theories around the Egyptian Pyramids. ‘We all learn about them at school, but then they’re like “oh yeah so we don’t know how they were made or why they were there” and we’re like “oh OK then” and move on,’ she says. ‘I want people to really think about the facts, like that there are hieroglyphics of spaceman and Gods from the sky and there are pyramids all over the world and under water built at a time when they wouldn’t of been able to – we get into all of that.’

Joining them will be whole host of guests, including Scarlett’s friends and peers – with the first guest announced as Daisy-May Cooper. And as she sits convincing them of all things alien, we’re here to convince you to listen for yourself. Honestly, there’s nothing like going down a conspiracy rabbit hole to make those lockdown hours whizz by.

Scarlett and Scott's BBC Radio 1 podcast Scarlett Moffatt Wants to Believe is now available on BBC Sounds.

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