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The Madness of Believing: A Memoir from Inside Alex Jones's Conspiracy Machine
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Expected 14 Apr 26Win a free print copy of this book!
15 days and 12:48:29
30 copies available
U.S. only
An unvarnished and immersive dive into the world of conspiracy theories, propaganda, and disinformation from Alex Jones’ former righthand man at Infowars.
At twenty-four-years old, Josh Owens was a college dropout who had already been listening to Alex Jones for five years. Originally drawn in by Jones' entertaining personality and anti-establishment stance, Josh soon came to suspect that vaccines were dangerous, that fluoride in drinking water lowered IQ levels, and a wide range of other far-fetched conspiracies. When the opportunity arose to work for Jones, he jumped at it, packing up his life and moving halfway across the country to start his first job as an adult.
THE MADNESS OF BELIEVING follows Josh’s experience working at Infowars, where he became one of Jones’ most trusted employees. He began traveling across the world creating “news” stories and spreading outright lies to Infowars’ ever-growing listener base. As he rose through the ranks, his skepticism grew, and Josh underwent a personal transformation just as Infowars too changed from a fringe community to a mainstream disinformation machine.
Josh’s story is one playing out across that of impressionable young people pulled into a dangerous world where reality and fiction are blurred, and extremist beliefs gain steam. THE MADNESS OF BELIEVING is a reckoning with this climate, one that provides riveting insight into these supposedly radical, truth-driven organizations while exposing their dangerous false claims and lies.
At twenty-four-years old, Josh Owens was a college dropout who had already been listening to Alex Jones for five years. Originally drawn in by Jones' entertaining personality and anti-establishment stance, Josh soon came to suspect that vaccines were dangerous, that fluoride in drinking water lowered IQ levels, and a wide range of other far-fetched conspiracies. When the opportunity arose to work for Jones, he jumped at it, packing up his life and moving halfway across the country to start his first job as an adult.
THE MADNESS OF BELIEVING follows Josh’s experience working at Infowars, where he became one of Jones’ most trusted employees. He began traveling across the world creating “news” stories and spreading outright lies to Infowars’ ever-growing listener base. As he rose through the ranks, his skepticism grew, and Josh underwent a personal transformation just as Infowars too changed from a fringe community to a mainstream disinformation machine.
Josh’s story is one playing out across that of impressionable young people pulled into a dangerous world where reality and fiction are blurred, and extremist beliefs gain steam. THE MADNESS OF BELIEVING is a reckoning with this climate, one that provides riveting insight into these supposedly radical, truth-driven organizations while exposing their dangerous false claims and lies.
- GenresPoliticsNonfiction
275 pages, Kindle Edition
Expected publication April 14, 2026
3357 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 7, 2025
ARC for review. To be published April 14, 2036.
4 stars
So, Alex Jones. He’s an insane man.
Here’s the story of a young man who worked for him and slowly went from true believer (although he doesn’t really cop to that, you can tell that he was) to “well, maybe this guy’s not so legit” to “Dear God, I have to get away from this man and his craziness.”
If you don’t know who Alex Jones really a he’s the ultra-far-right conspiracy theorist who is likely best known for calling Sandy Hook a hoax. Many of the families sued Jones and, for his trouble, having a jury(?-I think it was a jury and not a bench trial) found in their favor, awarding them somewhere around $1.5 billion dollars. BILLION. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
So, here, the author was a film student before going to work for Jones, and he was also a big believer in conspiracy theories…in fact he entered a contest to work for Jones, God help us. We are with the author as he becomes part of Jones’s inner circle and he works with Jones and his show though the Bundy ranch standoff, Ferguson, lots of border angst, San Bernardino, Trump’s 2016 Presidential run and more.
Even while the author is still fairly enamored of Jones he.ms presented as chaotic, out of control, hot tempered and seems to have a serious problem with alcohol. That’s all in addition to his racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, xenophobia, and, well, his general dislike of everyone who isn’t a white American man. He’s simply vile. Frankly, the author is fairly bad too, for making as many excuses as he did. Why his girlfriend stood by him is beyond me. However, the book was an interesting read.
4 stars
So, Alex Jones. He’s an insane man.
Here’s the story of a young man who worked for him and slowly went from true believer (although he doesn’t really cop to that, you can tell that he was) to “well, maybe this guy’s not so legit” to “Dear God, I have to get away from this man and his craziness.”
If you don’t know who Alex Jones really a he’s the ultra-far-right conspiracy theorist who is likely best known for calling Sandy Hook a hoax. Many of the families sued Jones and, for his trouble, having a jury(?-I think it was a jury and not a bench trial) found in their favor, awarding them somewhere around $1.5 billion dollars. BILLION. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
So, here, the author was a film student before going to work for Jones, and he was also a big believer in conspiracy theories…in fact he entered a contest to work for Jones, God help us. We are with the author as he becomes part of Jones’s inner circle and he works with Jones and his show though the Bundy ranch standoff, Ferguson, lots of border angst, San Bernardino, Trump’s 2016 Presidential run and more.
Even while the author is still fairly enamored of Jones he.ms presented as chaotic, out of control, hot tempered and seems to have a serious problem with alcohol. That’s all in addition to his racism, anti-Semitism, misogyny, xenophobia, and, well, his general dislike of everyone who isn’t a white American man. He’s simply vile. Frankly, the author is fairly bad too, for making as many excuses as he did. Why his girlfriend stood by him is beyond me. However, the book was an interesting read.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
"He wasn't a hero, or even a villain, but a flawed human being who was a victim to his own narcissistic inability to see beyond himself."
Josh Owens spent four years filming and following Alex Jones around. His memoir of those years is somewhat maddening. By the end of the book he asks the question the reader asks throughout the journey... Why? Why did he stay with Jones for so long? Why didn't he leave when it became obvious that Jones was a compulsive liar, alcoholic, and conspiracy monger? Was it the money? Was he brainwashed? He suffers through equal parts of desire to be accepted by Jones and revulsion. He knows better. He knows that the stories are fabricated. He knows that lives are harmed by the implications of belief in those stories. Yet he continues.
The memoir is worth reading as a cautionary tale. Men like Alex Jones are dangerous. The lack of conscience along with the concoction of false narratives pushed out to naive listeners is appalling. But people followed wholeheartedly to the detriment of truth. Even Jones didn't believe the tripe he peddled. But attention and affluence was more valuable than honesty in Infowars.
Finally, after months and months of doing Jones' bidding, Owens finds a way out. He says...
"I didn't want to hate people who were different than me, those whose lives consisted of distinct circumstances and experiences devoid of my opinions and criticisms. I wanted to be better."
Will this book change the minds of Alex Jones believers? Unlikely. It will appeal to those who could see through the deceit. It will serve to document the threat of extreme narcissism. Perhaps the memoir along with his other projects will assuage the author's guilt.
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the advance review copy through NetGalley.
Josh Owens spent four years filming and following Alex Jones around. His memoir of those years is somewhat maddening. By the end of the book he asks the question the reader asks throughout the journey... Why? Why did he stay with Jones for so long? Why didn't he leave when it became obvious that Jones was a compulsive liar, alcoholic, and conspiracy monger? Was it the money? Was he brainwashed? He suffers through equal parts of desire to be accepted by Jones and revulsion. He knows better. He knows that the stories are fabricated. He knows that lives are harmed by the implications of belief in those stories. Yet he continues.
The memoir is worth reading as a cautionary tale. Men like Alex Jones are dangerous. The lack of conscience along with the concoction of false narratives pushed out to naive listeners is appalling. But people followed wholeheartedly to the detriment of truth. Even Jones didn't believe the tripe he peddled. But attention and affluence was more valuable than honesty in Infowars.
Finally, after months and months of doing Jones' bidding, Owens finds a way out. He says...
"I didn't want to hate people who were different than me, those whose lives consisted of distinct circumstances and experiences devoid of my opinions and criticisms. I wanted to be better."
Will this book change the minds of Alex Jones believers? Unlikely. It will appeal to those who could see through the deceit. It will serve to document the threat of extreme narcissism. Perhaps the memoir along with his other projects will assuage the author's guilt.
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the advance review copy through NetGalley.
October 23, 2025
3.5 ⭐️
Big Careless People vibes but with Infowars. A former employee telling all, but unlike Careless People you can see how, while influential, Alex Jones is a hot mess. Infowars is even a more low budget joke than I had imagined. The author also seems a bit more self aware but still made no sense why he didn’t quit earlier.
Big Careless People vibes but with Infowars. A former employee telling all, but unlike Careless People you can see how, while influential, Alex Jones is a hot mess. Infowars is even a more low budget joke than I had imagined. The author also seems a bit more self aware but still made no sense why he didn’t quit earlier.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Book 7 of 2026 - ☑️! Thank you to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing and Josh Owens for an ARC of The Madness of Believing: A Memoir from Inside Alex Jones’s Conspiracy Machine by Josh Owens in exchange for my honest review.
I’ll start off by saying this was not an easy read in the sense that I found it extremely frustrating. Props to Josh Owens for being so candid in this book. Like many other readers, I was impressed by the fact that his girlfriend stood by him and continually tried to get him to break out of working for Alex Jones. I have SO MANY thoughts about Alex Jones, but I’ll just stick to thoughts on the book here.
The Madness of Believing chronicles Josh Owens’s further and further involvement in Alex Jones & InfoWars orbit. Owens joined InfoWars when it was still considered fringe, and was with Jones until InfoWars became more mainstream (to the detriment of us all).
Owens is very forthright about being drawn into the space, struggling with his (always) conflicting feelings about being involved in InfoWars, and peddling straight-up conspiracies.
I hope that this book ends up in the hands of the people who need it the most, but something tells me that won’t happen as often as I’d like.
4/5 ⭐️ - I can’t say this was an enjoyable read, but I am glad I read it. This book is scheduled to be released on 4/14/26. #TheMadnessofBelieving #NetGalley
I’ll start off by saying this was not an easy read in the sense that I found it extremely frustrating. Props to Josh Owens for being so candid in this book. Like many other readers, I was impressed by the fact that his girlfriend stood by him and continually tried to get him to break out of working for Alex Jones. I have SO MANY thoughts about Alex Jones, but I’ll just stick to thoughts on the book here.
The Madness of Believing chronicles Josh Owens’s further and further involvement in Alex Jones & InfoWars orbit. Owens joined InfoWars when it was still considered fringe, and was with Jones until InfoWars became more mainstream (to the detriment of us all).
Owens is very forthright about being drawn into the space, struggling with his (always) conflicting feelings about being involved in InfoWars, and peddling straight-up conspiracies.
I hope that this book ends up in the hands of the people who need it the most, but something tells me that won’t happen as often as I’d like.
4/5 ⭐️ - I can’t say this was an enjoyable read, but I am glad I read it. This book is scheduled to be released on 4/14/26. #TheMadnessofBelieving #NetGalley
October 12, 2025
Its hard to really rate this.
On one hand its exactly as I was expecting. A lot of chaos with Alex Jones.
The other hand, I am still shaking my head as to why it took so long for the author to leave InfoWars.
The author suggests that he struggled with what he was doing, yet he continued.
The author never really comes out and apologizes for the chaos that he helped create. Yet, if not for the author, it would have been someone else.
I really didn't get the "madness" of believing. I think that he got caught up in something, when he was younger and NOW wants to write about it.
It was an easy read, nothing hard to figure out what he was doing.
I am not even certain who this book is for? I know it won't be for fans of ALex Jones, though the author never says anything really terrible about him.
Thank you to the publisher and NEtgalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review .
On one hand its exactly as I was expecting. A lot of chaos with Alex Jones.
The other hand, I am still shaking my head as to why it took so long for the author to leave InfoWars.
The author suggests that he struggled with what he was doing, yet he continued.
The author never really comes out and apologizes for the chaos that he helped create. Yet, if not for the author, it would have been someone else.
I really didn't get the "madness" of believing. I think that he got caught up in something, when he was younger and NOW wants to write about it.
It was an easy read, nothing hard to figure out what he was doing.
I am not even certain who this book is for? I know it won't be for fans of ALex Jones, though the author never says anything really terrible about him.
Thank you to the publisher and NEtgalley for the ARC in exchange for this honest review .
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
The Madness of Believing is a look into the chaos that is Info Wars and Alex Jones' tactics to stoke high emotions in his audience as well as employees. As someone who knows more than average about Alex Jones (due to podcasts like Knowledge Fight ), I still learned a bit about how Jones pressures employees to "find" evidence that fits the narratives he wants to push and how his "money bomb" fundraisers work. I do think some people might be disappointed in how long it took Owens to leave. To me it wasn't surprising because of the cult-like atmosphere within Info Wars, Jones pays his senior employees well, and you're not getting a normie job in the journalism space with Info Wars on your resume.
Review of advance copy received from Goodreads Giveaways
Everything written about Alex Jones in this book might be true, but the author comes off as a total crybaby. He associated with Jones for a long time by his own volition. And the idea that he’s changed is ridiculous. He’s the same person, just moved from one extreme to another in his pandering beliefs. His life still revolves around Alex Jones. He just went from making a living working with Jones to doing so by criticizing him.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Information is interesting. Perhaps I've just read too many ghost-written autobiographies, because my forefront thought is that Owens is simply not a talented writer. Regardless, I think it's brave of him to come forward with his story.
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the eARC!
Thank you to Grand Central Publishing for the eARC!
Review of advance copy
Wasn't expecting this to be so heartfelt. Highly recommend for anyone concerned about the current state of the country and the world. Surprisingly hopeful!
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews