Conspiracy Bill’s Top 12 WILDEST Stories of 2026, With Bill Simmons
August 25, 2026
AI Summary
5 min read“This is what Stephen King would write if Stephen King could really write.” That line, from a reader in a literary guild newsletter, was the answer Stephen King had been looking for when he published five novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman in the late 1970s and early 1980s. King wanted to know if his success was due to his name or his talent. The answer came in 1985, when a Washington, D.C. bookstore clerk cracked the pseudonym by checking Library of Congress copyright records. Before the reveal, a Bachman novel sold 28,000 copies. After King’s name went on it, it sold ten times that. King got his answer: the name mattered.
That story opens a sprawling, freewheeling conversation between Bill Simmons (calling himself “Conspiracy Bill” or “CB”) and hosts Jason Concepcion and Tyler Parker. The episode is a year-end roundup of the twelve most compelling mysteries, conspiracy theories, and unsolved cases that Simmons has tracked through 2026. The throughline is not that all these stories are true, but that they all resist easy explanation—and that the process of investigating them, arguing about them at dinner parties, and watching them evolve across Reddit threads and Netflix documentaries has become a kind of modern American pastime.
The Criteria: What Makes a Story Stick
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:40) **The Stephen King / Richard Bachman Hoax** - The episode opens with an immersive story about Stephen King publishing under the pseudonym Richard Bachman to see if critics would judge him fairly.
- 2 (04:11) **Introducing Conspiracy Bill** - Bill Simmons (AKA Conspiracy Bill) joins the hosts Jason and Tyler for his long-awaited return to the show.
- 3 (09:37) **The 2026 Rabbit Hole List: Honorable Mentions** - Bill runs through stories he considered but cut from the top 12, explaining his criteria for each.
- 4 (12:17) **#12: Havana Syndrome** - A mysterious ailment affecting US diplomats and intelligence personnel, starting in 2016, which Bill believes should be a much bigger story.
- 5 (28:32) **#11: The Fox News Mask** - Admiral Robert Harward appeared on Fox News with what appeared to be a mask that didn't match his neck, sparking a deep dive into government disguise technology.
- 6 (32:44) **#10: Epstein's Powerball Lottery** - A documented but little-discussed story that Epstein's trust won a $41 million Powerball jackpot in Oklahoma.
- 7 (34:35) **#9: White House Correspondents' Dinner Attacker** - A man with a shotgun made it into the hotel building before being stopped, and the story quickly faded from the news.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
Buckle up: Conspiracy Bill is back. Bill Simmons joins the pod to surprise Jason and Tyler with the 12 stories that have had him doing deep dives. Here’s today’s agenda:
00:07: Stephen King’s alias
04:39: Bill Simmons’s alias: Conspiracy Bill
08:40: Conspiracy Bill’s 12 Deepest Dives of the Year
20:12: No. 12: Havana Syndrome
25:35: No. 11: The Fox News mask incident
29:44: No. 10: Epstein won the Powerball?!
31:37: No. 9: The Whitehouse Correspondents Dinner
35:51: No. 8: What happened at the Miami mall?
38:41: No. 7: The Niners substation situation
41:32: No. 6: Nancy Guthrie
43:24: No. 5: What’s up with Trump’s ear? His hand?
48:35: No. 4: The microphone …
48:35: No. 3: Missing scientists
54:36: No. 2: Matt Miller … or Karen Read
01:00:33 No. 1: The Lindsay Clancy case
01:10:25 Bonus round: Why did Mark Cuban sell the Mavs? Plus: JC’s Long Island serial killer theory.
Follow us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@waitasecondpodcast
Hosts: Jason Concepcion and Tyler Parker
Guest: Bill Simmons
Producers: T Cruz and Justin Sayles
Video editing: Marco Escalante and T Cruz
Engineering: Jacob Cornett
Social media: Paige Ransbury
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