Anna Merlan is a senior reporter at Mother Jones covering disinformation, technology, and extremism. She was previously a senior reporter at Vice and Gizmodo Media Group, and was on staff at the Village Voice and the Dallas Observer. Over her career, she's frequently covered conspiracy theories, actual conspiracies, sexual violence, scams, cults, crime, politics, and new religious movements. She's the author of the 2019 book Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and Their Surprising Rise to Power. Reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter/X @annamerlan; to reach her more securely, use a nonwork email or device to request her Signal number.