Are birds real? | Peter McIndoe & Connor Gaydos | TEDxVienna

This talk explains the hows and whys behind the Bird’s Aren’t Real movement. Peter McIndoe and Connor Gaydos are artists and co-founders of the “Birds Aren’t Real“ movement - a satirical conspiracy theory which posits that birds don’t exist and are really drone replicas installed by the U.S. government to spy on Americans. They spent years in-character with journalists and the world, using conspiracy theorist cosplay by way of Andy Kaufman to rally a community around the absurdity. So far, the movement has amassed millions of followers on social media, and hundreds of official chapters have popped up at colleges all across the U.S. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at