Conspirituality

The Real Election Threat: Tech Oligarchs & Algorithms | The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart

If you heard Matthew’s Brief from March 28, you’ll know longtime Conspirituality listener Joseph Baker died on Feb 4 at the age of 51.

Matthew recorded this conversation with Joseph on January 9, 2024. They explore Matthew’s allergy to A Course in Miracles and Joseph’s devotion to it.

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Brief: Mikki Willis and Russell Brand Rewrite History

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Mikki Willis recently joined Russell Brand to discuss a whole host of issues, including rather suspect rewritings of the histories of AIDS and Covid-19. Derek and Julian discuss.

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302: The Disinformation Dozen: Wuhan Drift

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Early in this podcast we covered the Disinformation Dozen, 12 wellness influencers and contrarian health figures responsible for spreading the lion’s share of vaccine misinformation on major social media platforms.

On a recent MAHA Action weekly call, Tony Lyons got the group back together for a victory lap after a court settlement seemed to justify their actions. Or did it?

We break down the court case, then hear from the influencers who continue to inflate their own sense of self-importance while rewriting a history that only exists in their minds.

Show Notes

POLITICO: Do the Disinformation Dozen Still Matter

State Dept. Imposes Sanctions on Disinfo Advocacy Groups

Original Disinformation Dozen Report

CDC “Whistleblower’s Debunked Autism Claims

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Bonus Sample: Peptides: Wellness’s Experimental Jab

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Everyone’s Doing Peptides. Is It All a Big Scam?

The wellness industry has been repeating marketing strategies used by the fashion and diet book industries for decades. Influencers are just exploiting novelty-seeking cognitive behaviors deeply embedded in human psychology.

Derek reviews today’s product du jour, peptides, by first looking into those dopamine-seeking behaviors, then exploring the history and present of these amino acid chains everywhere in wellness downlines.

Show Notes

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Brief: Eulogy for Joseph Baker, Faithful Listener

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew eulogizes longtime Conspirituality listener Joseph Baker, who died on February 4 at the age of 51. They became online friends when Joseph reached out to say that maybe Matthew was being too harsh with people who found inspiration in A Course in Miracles. Expecting an irritating exchange, Matthew came to know an incisive political thinker who managed to radiate hope and forgiveness, and learned more about how a radical flank can develop in any spiritual community.

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301: Gen X Meets the Manosphere

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Did we all need a streaming manosphere documentary? Many did. Did we need one made in the GenX stop-and-mug slacker analysis-avoiding style of Louis Theroux? Debatable. Today we review Theroux’s Inside the Manosphere: its aesthetic mimicry of manosphere style, a potential ethics issue, how monetizing misogyny interacts with the gigwork incentives of OnlyFans, how all the bravado covers for legitimate fears, but only pays out at the top.

Many Mexican Americans this past week were devastated to learn that a hero of the UFW and the broader Chicano Movement, Cesar Chavez, was a coercive serial abuser and pedophile. I say many: because many women knew, connected and informed by a whisper network dating back over decades, and maintained by the pressure to not degrade the status and gains of the movement itself. Off the top today, we look at the influence of the Synanon cult on Chavez’s tactics.

Show Notes

Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years

Oregon institutions reckon with removing Cesar Chavez’s name following sexual abuse report

From streets to murals, the erasure of Cesar Chavez is fast underway in California

Inside the Manosphere: Louis Theroux opts for superficial spectacle over serious scrutiny

Myron Gaines releases private call with Louis Theroux after revealing he tried to get footage removed from doc

My Family's Story Is Proof That Documentaries Need Ethical Standards

Beyond "The Staircase": What happens when the documentary ends with subjects "left with the bill"?

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Bonus Sample: The New Age Muslim Apocalyptic Prophet

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

From a repurposed orphanage in the North of England, Abdullah Hashem tells his audience in five languages, across two satellite TV companies, and multiple social media channels that he is the successor of Jesus and Mohammed, the “one true Pope” for Christians. In his carefully staged and ominously lit “basilica,” he lectures to his 200 residential followers (who emulate his idiosyncratic fashion style) about angels, aliens, reincarnation, and a planet where giant rabbits keep humans as pets. Oh and all about the coming apocalypse and his divinely chosen role in it.

Who is this American-Egyptian cult leader? Hashem grew up in Indiana, and got his start in college making documentary films debunking cult leaders and UFO hoaxes. Some time in his early twenties he went full conspiritualist, made an eight-hour film about esoteric knowledge, Quranic-prophecy, the Illuminati, and the End Times. He moved to Egypt and declared himself the Mahdi—a messianic figure from Islamic eschatology.

Former members tell of bizarre loyalty tests, financial exploitation, and other forms of abuse. Meanwhile Hashem broadcasts that the fall of the Iranian theocracy clears the way for his ascension into his divine appointment as philosopher king.

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Brief: The Book Men Actually Need

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

There's been talk about the "male loneliness epidemic" for years. Yet what about women? Derek reviews economist Corinne Low's recent book, Having It All, in light of this question, contrasting it with Scott Galloway's recent self-help book for men. The contrasts between the books couldn't be clearer.

Show Notes

Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women's Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours

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300: Farming Ballerinas

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

When Hannah and Daniel Neeleman recently went on camera to explain their position on raw milk, they assured their 22 million-plus following that they were going to follow regulations—with a bit of a grudge. The couple behind Ballerina Farm wasn’t going to let a little bacteria get in the way of their farming operations, so they’ll just focus on pasteurized products.

While not associated with MAHA, some of their takes on health certainly rhyme. So today we’ll get into this uber-popular feed: who they are, what they’re doing in the mountains of Utah, and how privilege plays out in farming and childbearing aesthetics.

Show Notes

Is Hannah Neeleman Mormon? Inside Ballerina Farm’s Religion After Lifestyle Controversy

The story of Ballerina Farm and the 2 co-CEOs behind it

Meet the queen of the ‘trad wives’ (and her eight children)

Why influencers with 7, 8, or 10 kids are having a moment

The Trad-Wife Revolution Is Upon Us

Ballerina Farm pauses raw milk sales after samples fail health tests

Ballerina Farm’s Hannah Neeleman explains the dairy’s decision to stop selling raw milk

JetBlue’s Founder Helped Fund A Stanford Study That Said The Coronavirus Wasn’t That Deadly

Hannah Neeleman’s “Viral” Glowy Skin Secret

You’ll Never Really Know Ballerina Farm

Postpartum Weight Retention Risk Factors and Relationship to Obesity at One Year - PMC

Effect of grand multiparity on adverse maternal outcomes: A prospective cohort study

Are tradwives and feminists two sides of the same coin on women’s labor? | KUER

Tia Levings on Fundie Parenting

Number of siblings and intellectual development. The resource dilution explanation - PubMed

WAGES AGAINST HOUSEWORK | caring labor

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Bonus Sample: Anxiety is The Pitt(s)

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

The Pitt recently exposed fans to the complexities and reality of panic attacks. Derek uses that moment in the exceptional show to discuss his own longstanding struggle with anxiety, exploring the latest science and interventions for dealing with them.

Show Notes

Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder in Adults

Management of generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder in general health care settings: new WHO recommendations

Anxiety Disorders Guidelines

Clinical Practice Guidelines for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies in Anxiety Disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders

Interoceptive Exposure

Short, intensive cognitive behavioral therapy can ease panic disorder

Brief, intensive exercise helps patients with panic disorder more than standard care

Panic attacks and interoceptive acuity for cardiac sensations

Rapid Reconfiguration of the Functional Connectome after Chemogenetic Locus Coeruleus Activation

Anxiety Disorders are Associated with Reduced Heart Rate Variability: A Meta-Analysis

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Brief: The Stepford Wives Conference

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Turning Point USA's Women’s Leadership Conference returns to Dallas in June. Derek and Julian take a look inside.

Show Notes

Antifeminist women’s summit: ‘The kitchen is where the real revolution starts’

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299: American Jihad

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

As black rain falls from the smoke-choked skies of Tehran, the US and Israel continue their war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. From the start, Trump officials have seemed only to disagree on both the murky rationale and the objectives of their mission.

Meanwhile, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been flooded with reports of commanding officers rallying their troops with apocalyptic pep talks in which Trump has been anointed by Jesus to kick-off Armageddon. This should come as no surprise, given that Sec of Def Pete Hegseth, has been holding Christian Nationalist prayer and worship services in the Pentagon since last May.

Beyond the obviousness of this religious politics, Matthew looks at how Canadian PM, Mark Carney, supports Trump, and this war, while pretending not to, using deceptive language tricks that borrow from religion to blur the line between strength and values, power and principle.

But, hey, if you want to distract yourself from all this, Polymarket is a wonderful place to bet on who’s going to be bombed next. Derek breaks down how prediction markets have become a massively lucrative Rorschach-portrait of our times.

Show Notes

Troops Told Iran War is “Armageddon”

Hegseth Joined Drollinger’s White House Bible Study

Hegseth Hosts Christian Nationalist Doug Wilson at Pentagon Religious Service

The History of Prediction Markets: From Ancient Oracles to Blockchain Forecasting

A brief history of prediction markets: from papal elections to Polymarket

Three economists grabbed a beer. A multibillion-dollar industry was born.

A Primer on Prediction Markets

Prediction markets are booming. Why are their ads banned from the Super Bowl?

Scandals, prediction markets: Is 2025 a turning point for sports betting?

An Analysis Just Found Something Extremely Unflattering About What Happens to Users of Prediction Markets

Trump administration backs Kalshi and Polymarket as states move to ban prediction markets

Trump’s CFTC Tries to Stop States From Regulating Prediction Markets

Iran Bets on Prediction Markets Draw Scrutiny: ‘Suspected Insiders’

Polymarket Pulls Bet on Nuclear Detonation in 2026

Trump to meet arms executives Friday in push to boost weapon supplies

Trump Privately Dreams of Iran Regime Change Glory as Democrats Cynically Weigh Political Benefits of War

“Principled and pragmatic: Canada’s path” Prime Minister Carney addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

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Bonus Sample: Michael Parenti Went to a Yoga Ashram

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew found out that the late Marxist historian Michael Parenti went on a yoga retreat at the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas. He clocked the BS immediately—unlike Matthew when he showed up in spaces like that decades later. Was political training the difference?

Show Notes

Michael Parenti "The Political Uses of Religion" Denver, Colorado 4.18.87

How a #MeToo Facebook Post Toppled a Yoga Icon | by Matthew Remski | GEN

Shielded for Decades, a Leader of Sivananda Yoga Finally Comes Under Fire for Alleged Abuse | GEN

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Brief: Bishop Bootlicker Barron

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew digs into the fascism-enabling political theology of Bishop Robert Barron and the rightward slide of Big Catholic media. From his early admiration of Thomas Merton—carefully stripped of his antiwar and anti-capitalist passion—to his praise for Jordan Peterson, Marco Rubio, and Charlie Kirk, Barron repackages Red Scare tropes in the language of beauty, civility, and “religious liberty.”

And what about his virtual silence on ICE operations in Minnesota and the suffering of immigrants within his own diocese? What does “religious freedom” mean when it defends American exceptionalism more than human beings?

Show Notes

McGarry: Ireland and the Spanish Civil War

Ireland | Virtual Spanish Civil War

Diocese of Winona-Rochester settles with abuse survivors for $21.5 million | National Catholic Reporter

Word On Fire Catholic Ministries - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica

Evangelization, Movement, and the Word on Fire Institute

Word on Fire Institute

The Hundredth Anniversary of Thomas Merton’s Birth - Word on Fire

The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon - Word on Fire

He Died with a Microphone in His Hand - First Things

Bishop Barron’s Latest MAGA Crusade Sparks Vatican Alarm

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298: MAHA’s Glyphosate Meltdown [feat Mallory DeMille]

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Despite saying “I believe glyphosate causes cancer” a few weeks ago, RFK Jr quickly pivoted when his boss declared an executive order calling for the ramping up of glyphosate under a 75-year-old defense production act that also happens to give immunity to Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto.

MAHA activists immediately went into a frenzy, shocked that their tallow daddy would betray them like this. Mallory DeMille not only coined the term “tallow daddy,” she’s also been tracking the civil war that exploded in MAHA after Kennedy said, eh, maybe Roundup ain’t so bad after all.

Show Notes

What to know about glyphosate, the herbicide behind a Trump executive order that’s angered MAHA moms

Glyphosate Use and Cancer Incidence in the Agricultural Health Study

Exposure to glyphosate and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma: an updated meta-analysis

Carcinogenic effects of long-term exposure from prenatal life to glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides in Sprague–Dawley rats

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Bonus Sample: On Death & Being Human

Mon, 02 Mar 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortality projects” in the form of religion, culture, and political ideologies as unconscious ways to override the terror we feel at our uniquely self-aware knowledge that we will one day die. Where the orthodox priest promises eternal life, the cult leader might predict an alien apocalypse, while the authoritarian strongman invokes the transcendent glory of leading a chosen nation and race.

In light of a recent death in the family, Julian leans into Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer Prize winning cultural anthropology text, The Denial of Death. He also draws on poetry and the archetypal psychology of Donald Kalsched to ask the big questions.

Does existential acceptance of death lead inevitably to nihilism? Is belief in God(s) and an afterlife necessary? Are poor or deeply traumatized people only left with despair in the absence of supernatural faith? Will children raised with no religion have no moral compass?

A rich discussion of philosophy and psychology alongside poems, myths, fairy tales, and deeply personal story-telling, especially about how to tell his 7-year-old that grandma won’t be back for Xmas.

Not to worry, though. This is, ultimately, an uplifting journey.

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Brief: Re-reading Casey Means

Sat, 28 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Casey Means was grilled by some Senators at her hearing for nomination of Surgeon General on Wednesday. Others lobbed softballs. Derek revisits the book that made her a star on the MAHA circuit, Good Energy, to detail all the misleading claims and outright misinformation.

Show Notes

Well, That Didn’t Sound Like Casey Means

Casey Means, Critic of Mainstream Medicine, Poised to Become Nation’s Top Doctor

What is Shared Clinical Decision Making?

Former Trump surgeon general: ‘Incomprehensible’ Senate is considering Means

"Good Energy" has very bad data

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297: The Epstein Satanic Panic

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

It’s hard for some people to accept that the normalized and unbridled accumulation of wealth and power is a selection process for apex predators, who wind up having overwhelming influence over the systems that enabled them.

The metaphysical reflex can provide a lot of relief: Epstein was uniquely evil, so different from the rest of us that he engaged in supernatural acts. He was a cosmic raider invading an otherwise balanced world.

In the chaos of facts and allusions that swirl around the Epstein Files, the nearest available and resonant metaphysics are found in the recycling of Satanic Panic themes from the 1980s. These stories have been surging since QAnon erupted in 2017. Now they’re reaching another peak in visibility and provocation, and their ability to reduce the problem of the Epstein Class to the unsolvable problem of evil.

Show Notes

Michelle Remembers Series on Patreon

Teal Swan Series on Patreon

We have a whole chapter on Barbara Snow

50 Million People Suffer Today Under Global Slavery

Many Countries Still Allow Child Marriage

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Bonus Sample: MAHA’s Silence is Deafening

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

MAHA isn’t a health movement. It’s a marketing engine driving activist propaganda. Derek looks at Tony Lyons, one of MAHA’s key architects, and his recent strategic memo sent to Republican leadership about how to use MAHA talking points to retain power in the midterm elections.

Show Notes

Tony Lyons’s strategic memo to GOP leadership

Examining Who Benefits From Kennedy’s Anti-Science MAHA Push

MAHA Supporters Form New Organization to Boost RFK’s Goals in D.C.

MAHA’s money man has built a political machine. Will it matter for midterms?

The co-founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. super PAC is a Steve Bannon and MAGA media ally

As MAHA turns 1, a fired-up movement is still figuring out how to fulfill its promises

Skyhorse Publishing: About Us

MAHA Action

American Values 2024

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Brief: Toxic Masculinity & The Epstein Files

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

In the wake of the DOJ’s dump of 3 million documents from the FBI’s Epstein investigation, journalists, content creators, and everyday people are forming narratives and schema for what it all means.

Social media is flooded with survivor stories, overwhelming disgust, rage and grief, and reports of anxiety, sleep disturbance, and difficulty functioning in the world (mostly from women). Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy memes are being resurrected. Satanic Ritual Abuse materials are again circulating, which imbue sex trafficking and child abuse with sensationalized supernatural overtones.

The Epstein class must be held accountable. Alongside that, Julian explores how toxic masculinity teaches men to dehumanize women and girls, as evidenced by email exchanges that play along with misogynistic attitudes and objectification.

Making sense of the cultural and historical context for the global human trafficking trade, which extends far beyond movie villain elites, billionaires, and royal family members, requires that men speak up against casual everyday dehumanization of women and girls, while actively fostering relational intelligence within male culture.

Show Notes

50 Million People Suffer Today Under Global Slavery

Many Countries Still Allow Child Marriage

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296: The Chopra Files

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Deepak Chopra is all over the Epstein files. Are we surprised? Nope. But we are interested in the various layers of his entanglement and what they say about the ethics and politics at play in the shadow of Big Wellness.

Show Notes

Self-Help Guru Sorry He Got Busted for Vile Epstein Emails

Deepak Chopra: New Age Guru, UCSD Prof – and Epstein Confidant

God Is A Construct, Cute Girls Are Real': Bestselling Spiritual Author Deepak Chopra's Emails To Epstein Revealed

Deepak Chopra told Epstein to 'bring your girls.' Here's their entire email exchange

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Bonus Sample: Mark Carney’s Secular Catholicism

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Mark Carney is a devout Catholic, and his economic vision came from a challenge posed by Pope Francis. Matthew walks through the contradictions of Carney’s economic spirituality.

Show Notes

Values by Mark Carney | Penguin Random House Canada

Pope Francis says he wasn't offended by 'communist crucifix' gift

The Catholic Case for Communism - America Magazine

Pope Francis: “If I See the Gospel in a Sociological Way Only, Yes, I Am a Communist, and So Too Is Jesus” - The American TFP

Exclusive: Pope Francis disusses Ukraine, U.S. bishops and more - America Magazine

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Brief: Mark Carney’s Nice But Canada Sells Arms to ICE

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew pokes at the contradictions behind Prime Minister Mark Carney’s polished Davos attempt to distance Canada from U.S. chaos, while Canadian companies continue profiting from the U.S. domestic terror regime.

Drawing on reporting by Rachel Gilmore, Matthew looks at how Canada’s “middle power” liberalism masks deep complicity with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through arms, surveillance tech, and security contracts.

Carney’s benevolent affect continues the tradition of obscuring a longer history of exclusionary border politics. He’s there to manage outrage without challenging the capitalist structures that escalate into authoritarian violence.

Show Notes

The Great White North: Canada’s New Border Bill Appeases the Trump Administration | TechPolicy.Press

A list of Canadian companies profiting off of ICE and Trump's violent mass deportation regime

If TikTok News Is the Future, Rachel Gilmore Is Living It | The Tyee

Liberals Fear Closing Arms Export Loophole Would Anger U.S.

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295: The Attia Files

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Over 1,000 children and women were potentially victims of Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking and sexual abuse. It is not clear how deeply Peter Attia was enmeshed in Epstein's core activities, but we do know he belonged to an important tier of his operation: the influencer-celebrity-intelligentsia set that legitimized him as a sophisticate across a wide range of disciplines.

We revisit Attia in light of his 1,700+ appearances in the Epstein Files.

Show Notes

285: Can Peter Attia Live Forever?

Longevity guru Peter Attia keeps CBS News role despite showing up in Epstein files

Peter Attia, the Epstein Files and the Lie Propping Up Big Wellness

Bari Weiss Attempts to Get Past Her Rocky Start At CBS News

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Bonus Sample: Armed Struggle

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

In the wake of ICE murders, some are calling for more protestors with guns, or at least to prepare to meet fire with fire. Julian examines the history of armed struggle in South Africa and Northern Ireland, as well as the arguments for nonviolent vs militant political movements.

Is there a way back from the turning point at which people recruit their friends and families into neighborhood militias, learn to kill soldiers and civilians in the name of a cause, and construct chains of command that justify executing informants and collaborators from within?

Does this actually work? And do we risk becoming the very monsters we are fighting in the process?

Show Notes

The Role of Violence in Nonviolent Struggles

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Brief: MAHA is a Supplements Grift

Sat, 07 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Two new MAHA-approved bills would force insurance companies to cover supplements and shield homeopathic manufacturers from any liability while allowing them to make more health claims. As Derek argues, this is what Kennedy has always been aiming for: shuffle as many alt-med products into circulation as possible while ensuring they don't need any of those pesky regulations pharmaceuticals must endure.

Show Notes

West Virginia House Bill 4760

Texas HR 7050

Supplements Are a $70 Billion Industry. RFK Jr. Is Good for Business.

RFK Jr.’s MAHA Movement Picks Up Steam State by State

With RFK Jr. in Charge, Supplement Makers See Chance To Cash In

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294: ICE Resistance

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Prior to last month’s killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, many white American citizens felt obligated to use their privilege to actively disrupt unjust ICE activities in their cities. But the stakes just got higher for everyone.

In the wake of these tragic deaths, we look at how the MAGA propaganda machine dehumanizes opposition and demands loyalists not trust the evidence of their own eyes and ears. In segment two, Matthew will look into how renegade religious leaders, then in segment three Derek discusses brave community organizers in Portland currently resisting ICE and the authoritarianism it advances.

Show Notes

Christians, Let’s Stop Abusing Romans 13

As a resident of Minnesota—Bishop Barron

Bishop Barron's tendentious attack on Mayor Mamdani distorts doctrine | National Catholic Reporter

Leo ally: defund ICE

BBC Audio US Military Archbishop, Faith and Gen Z, 'Understanding British Imams' project

Fact-Checking Trump Admin Claims of Paid Protestors

“Womanosphere” Influencers Urge Against the “Sin of Empathy”

‘Oregon was next’: Trump targeted state after Minnesota, report says

Feds at Portland ICE facility again deploy chemical agents against protesters

PDX ICE Watch

This nonviolent stuff'll get you killed : how guns made the civil rights movement possible : Cobb, Charles E., Jr., author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) — Conspirituality

Omar Wasow on Non-Violent Protest Effectiveness

Charles Tilly on Public Perception of Protest Movements

William Gamson’s Strategy Of Social Protest

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Bonus Sample: An Ode to Curiosity

Mon, 02 Feb 2026 11:00:00 -0000

When videos surfaced of Alex Pretti kicking an ICE vehicle's taillight 11 days before his murder, claims that the video was AI dominated social media. Some commenters even posted articles that stated the opposite of what they thought they said.

Derek explores the necessity of curiosity when coming across information that contradicts what you want to hear. First, he explores it through his love of books before applying the skill to situations like the Pretti video.

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Brief: Did MAHA Put MAGA In Power?

Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

The silence of MAHA influencers around the murder of Renee Good (and ICE generally) has been excessively loud. Yet that’s expected from the coalition that voted for Donald Trump in order to install RFK Jr at this point. Many believe “health isn’t political” while refusing to accept or acknowledge what their vote has empowered.

Dr Jonathan Howard, a neurologist and psychiatrist at NYU Langone’s Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center, returns to the podcast to talk about MAGA’s enablers in the MAHA movement with Derek and Julian.

Show Notes

MAHA Gave Us MAGA 2.0. Remember the Enablers.

Everyone Else is Lying to You: How our medical establishment weaponized doubt to spread COVID, normalize quackery, and undermine public health

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293: Trump and Fascist Dementia

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

As Trump surges his Gestapo and threatens to annex new territory, his brain is collapsing. He’s sundowning on Truth Social, nodding off in meetings, slurring words, slurping at the saliva pooling in his mouth. His insults and aggressions are as constant and predictable as his arms are, reaching out for handholds.

Up until this point, discourse on the mental health of this decrepit fascist leader has used the kid gloves of psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry, in which even the most informed analyses were constrained by the fact that experts were interpreting his inner states. For our part, we’ve compared his fate to that of charismatic cult leaders at the end of the line—and we’ll do more of that today.

Now a new posse of clinical commentators on IG and TikTok have made it all much more biological: we are witnessing, they say, the predictable signs of fast-progressing dementia.

Show Notes

Goldwater Rule vs Duty to Warn, American Academy of Psychiatry and Law

World Health Organization: Dementia

Signs and Symptoms of Dementia

Alzheimer's disease: a comprehensive review of epidemiology, risk factors, symptoms diagnosis, management, caregiving, advanced treatments and associated challenges

USC study finds new evidence linking dementia to problems with the brain’s waste clearance system

A new drug could stop Alzheimer’s before memory loss begins

A 2025 update on treatment strategies for the Alzheimer’s disease spectrum

Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission

Broadening dementia risk models: building on the 2024 Lancet Commission report for a more inclusive global framework

Study finds disparities in diagnosis and treatment of dementia

Decomposing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Risk and Protective Factors of Dementia in the U.S.

Mapping racial and ethnic healthcare disparities for persons living with dementia: A scoping review

Dementia Diagnosis Disparities by Race and Ethnicity

Racial disparities in dementia determined by social factors

Straight-forward Explainer: What’s Going on With NIH Cuts to Alzheimer’s Research?

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Bonus Sample: Simone Weil: We Have Obligations Before We Have Rights

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Dark Mirror: A Torah View of Revenge, and its Reflection in Israeli Media During Operation Iron Swords

Simone Weil was skeptical about the project of “rights.” They argued that obligations come before rights, and that rights only become real when obligations are recognized and lived.

Weil believed the French Revolution made a foundational error by grounding society in rights rather than eternal obligations, creating a contradiction that still haunts liberal democracies today. Rights, Weil argues, carry a bargaining spirit and ultimately depend on force for enforcement, while obligations arise unconditionally from the mere fact of another person’s vulnerability. You owe something to others not because they’ve asserted a claim, but because they exist.

Drawing from Weil’s posthumous The Need for Roots, Matthew unpacks their critique of liberal rights discourse: that modern societies undermine their own moral claims by prioritizing abstractions over duties.

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Brief: Prospirituality Predictions for 2026

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

If conspirituality names the ways religion and spirituality are weaponized to justify power, prospirituality points to religious traditions doing the opposite: grounding resistance, ethical clarity, and solidarity in moments of crisis.

So: is there a growing prospirituality response to fascism, genocide, climate collapse, and AI-driven labor precarity? Matthew argues that yeah, there’s some good news.

In Israel, scripture has been mobilized by political and religious leaders to sacralize violence in Gaza. But there’s also a surge of Jewish religious resistance among U.S. rabbis and Peter Beinart’s On Being Jewish After Gaza sets a new landmark of reckoning.

Mona Haydar’s rapping and chaplaincy models a form of Muslim spirituality that is feminist, anti-genocide, and rooted in mutual aid, while resisting both Islamophobia and liberal domestication.

Then there’s Pope Leo’s escalating critiques of U.S. immigration policy and his renewed emphasis on liberation theology.

Show Notes

Peter Beinart, “I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State,” The New York Times

Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza by Peter Beinart: 9780593803899 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Even if you hate it- I still wrap my hijab — Haydar

Mona Haydar: Ask a Muslim Program Fights Prejudice

Conservative Muslims and Islamophobes Have One Thing in Common: Hating Mona Haydar

Pope Leo replaces New York's Cardinal Dolan in shake-up of US Church | Reuters

New archbishop ‘committed’ to immigration issues, accountability on abuse — and staying a Cubs fan

Pope’s naming of New York archbishop signals continued challenge to Trump on immigration

Pope Leo's new US bishops are critics of Trump's migrant crackdown | Reuters

Pope Leo calls for Venezuela to remain an independent country | Reuters

Pope Leo says Trump administration 'extremely disrespectful' to migrants | Reuters

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292: Women of Jan 6 (w/ Noelle Cook)

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Noelle Cook’s The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging is the first ethnography of conspirituality, and it comes via someone who was able to really embed themselves in a volatile culture and find its emotional logic. She’s our guest today.

Cook focuses on the travails of two middle-aged women following the January 6 Capitol riot. By spending years befriending and talking with Tammy Butry and Yvonne St. Cyr, Cook is able to document the impacts of childhood trauma and systemic neglect—as well as diverse personality quirks—that can drive folks toward QAnon.

They are starseeds. They are mama bears. They are on a divine mission to destroy the matrix and usher in the Great Awakening. For them, the algorithms were oracles, reinforcing isolation and radicalization by providing a sense of purpose to the purposeless, and visibility to the invisible. Cook has not written a book for answers, but a book filled with the next questions worth grappling with as we realize how deeply wounded some recruits to fascism are.

Show Notes

The Hottest Spot for Sunday Church Is a MAGA Dive Bar

The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging

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Bonus Sample: Oil, Power, and Theocracy

Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

In 1953 the CIA and MI6 participated in a coup d’etat in Iran. That true sentence (and what usually follows) can create an oversimplified distortion of history—and present. But Iran is in the news again with the biggest protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution bringing millions to the streets. The regime unsurprisingly cracked down hard: at least 2,700 protesters have been killed and 18,000 arrested.

Though the initial impetus was economic, these are the latest in a wave of growing uprisings in Iran against the far-right theocratic authoritarian government—especially its treatment of women. How did we get here? What happened in 1953? Isn’t this all just about oil anyway? Was the 1979 revolution really about religion? Weren’t there Communists involved? Does all the turmoil in this region trace back to Western colonial imperialism?

Julian explores the tangled threads of oil, empire, and religion.

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MAHA’s Selective Skepticism

Sat, 17 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Whole milk is back! The war on protein is over! Mainline meat!

Derek investigates the new inverted pyramid and everything lacking in the new dietary guidelines.

Show Notes

The New Dietary Guidelines and the “Flipped Pyramid”

Several of Kennedy’s Dietary Advisers Have Ties to Meat and Dairy Interests

Carotenoid bioavailability is higher from salads ingested with full-fat than with fat-reduced salad dressings as measured with electrochemical detection

Human health effects of conjugated linoleic acid from milk and supplements

Enhancing the fatty acid profile of milk through forage-based rations, with nutrition modeling of diet outcomes

Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association

Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease

Effect of Interventions Aimed at Reducing or Modifying Saturated Fat Intake on Cholesterol, Mortality, and Major Cardiovascular Events : A Risk Stratified Systematic Review of Randomized Trials

Omega-6 fats for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease

Butter and Plant-Based Oils Intake and Mortality

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291: My Chinese Buddhist Israeli AI Guru

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

“Train your mind gently, not to deny what is hard, but to see what is still good” implores the monk sharing spiritual messages to his 2.5 million Instagram followers. Clad in an orange robe—well, sometimes a blue robe, sometimes grey or yellow—the little man of unknown descent speaks knowledge from a temple constructed from just about every Asian country imaginable. As it turns out, the creators of the AI-generated Yang Mun are…Israeli tech bros?

Turns out AI isn’t just for spirituality. There’s an entire industry of health slopfluencers pushing untested supplements, as Derek covers before Matthew breaks down the AI Orientalism of Yang Mun.

First, Julian touches on the 5th anniversary of the Jan 6 riots, and all the propaganda that’s emerged in its wake.

Show Notes

The Promise of Health Chatbots Has Already Failed

Yang Mun on Instagram

Linktree McMindfulness: how capitalism hijacked the Buddhist teaching of mindfulness

Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation

GigaChad | Know Your Meme

Jean Baudrillard - Simulacra and Simulation

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Bonus Sample: Overwelled

Mon, 12 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

From Andrew Huberman's Goop collab and Mel Robbins' protein shots to MAHA flipping the long-defunct food pyramid and making meningitis great again, the first full week of 2026 was off to quite a start. Derek covers the week that made heads spin.

Show Notes

Andrew Huberman is Optimizing Turkey Chili

Mel Robbins is Selling Protein Shots

What to Know About the New Childhood Vaccine Schedule

Health officials slash the number of vaccines recommended for all kids

Johns Hopkins doctor concerned over CDC's new child vaccine recommendations

Flu season already rivals last winter's harsh epidemic

FDA announces sweeping changes to oversight of wearables, AI-enabled devices

Ōura’s Ricky Bloomfield proposes new regulatory pathway for wearable health features

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Brief: Censorship Industrial Complex

Sat, 10 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Marco Rubio’s office published an official press release last month titled “Announcement of Actions to Combat the Global Censorship Industrial Complex.” The memo discusses the decision to impose visa restrictions on five individuals due to their “organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose.”

One of those individuals is Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate and repeat Conspirituality podcast guest. Derek and Julian break down what's going on with this case.

Show Notes

Rubio Announcement

CBC: Individuals Named and EU Reactions

Imran Ahmed on PBS NewsNight

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290: Trump Derangement Science

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

What do fascists need to do to convince their rank and file that they’re the smartest in the room? They invent new science to trash the old science they didn’t like. First, we look into how RFK Jr is “making the proof” for all his scientific endeavors, then unpacking a new proposal from the AZ state sena Janae Shamp about how she’s going to get to the bottom of the clinical diagnosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome. First, we read a lovely bio-romance poem from our favorite ex-Mormon vampire millionaire, Bryan Johnson.

Show Notes

CDC awards $1.6 million for hepatitis B vaccine study by controversial Danish researchers

US awards no-bid contract to Denmark scientists studying hepatitis B vaccine in African babies

Now is the Time to Scale Up Birth-Dose Hepatitis B Vaccine in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

The CDC is Funding an Unethical Vaccine Trial in Guinea-Bissau

The False Narrative of Nonspecific Vaccine Effects

Randomized trials show no evidence of non-specific vaccine effects

Hepatitis B and C in the adult population of Bissau, Guinea-Bissau: a cross-sectional survey

Fiftieth Anniversary of Uncovering the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The Story and Timeless Lessons

Chronic Hepatitis Is Common and Often Untreated Among Children With Hepatitis B Infection in the United States and Canada

Fired Nurse to Fierce Senator: Janae Shamp Exposes the Border Crisis & Government Betrayal
State Sen. Janae Shamp on Border Security, Housing Affordability, and Health Care in Arizona

States Look to Religious Leaders to Fill Mental Health Gap

Charles Krauthammer: Bush Derangement Syndrome is spreading

Zakaria: Liberals have to avoid Trump Derangement Syndrome

Krauthammer: You can’t govern by id

New Yorker: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s Battering Ram Great job by Bret Baier in his Interview with Lyin’ Kamala Harris

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Bonus Sample: What My Late Mom Would Have Thought About Jordan Peterson

Mon, 05 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew reflects on the fifth anniversary of his mother’s death and revisits how her life, trauma, and values helped him understand the appeal—and fatal flaw—of Jordan Peterson’s worldview. Toughness can be an expression of love without becoming a politics of cruelty.

Show Notes

33: Manipulating the Hero’s Journey

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Brief: Class Wars on Christmas

Sat, 03 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

Have you seen the “Grinch prank” video trend? Bad parenting, yes. But also a nod to the conflicts, ancient and modern, embedded in Christmas.

Contrary to what Bill O’Reilly would tell you, there has never been a “war on Christmas.” Rather, Christmas itself has always been a battleground over love, dignity, and resources. What we’re really fighting over is who gets care in systems built on scarcity and extraction.

Vignette 1: The Original Creche
Vignette 2: Krampus
Vignette 3: Dickens, Chekhov, and Andersen
Vignette 4: The Christmas Truce, 1914
Vignette 5: Dr. Seuss and the Grinch

Show Notes

Andersen, Hans Christian. The Little Match Girl. Copenhagen, 1845.https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10623

Boyle, James. “The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain.” Law and Contemporary Problems 66, no. 1–2 (2003).https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol66/iss1/2/

Chekhov, Anton. “Vanka.” 1892.https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418

Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843.https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46

Imperial War Museums. “Christmas Truce, 1914.”https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/christmas-truce-1914

Imperial War Museums. “Letter Describing the Christmas Truce.”https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030000503

Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich. The Principles of Socialism and the War of 1914–1915. Marxists Internet Archive.https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/princip/

McCoy, Michael. “What Is Tinsel Made Of? (and How It Changed Over the Years).” Chemical & Engineering News, December 15, 2014.https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i50/Tinsel-Made.html

Mitterauer, Michael. “Peasant and Non-Peasant Forms of Family Organization in Relation to the Physical Environment and the Local Economy.” Journal of Family History 2, no. 2 (1977).https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/036319907700200203

Nel, Philip. Dr. Seuss: American Icon. New York: Continuum, 2004.https://books.google.com/books?id=Yt4QAQAAIAAJ

Nissenbaum, Stephen. The Battle for Christmas. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/171502/the-battle-for-christmas-by-stephen-nissenbaum/

Restad, Penne L. Christmas in America: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.https://global.oup.com/academic/product/christmas-in-america-9780195043659

Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691018448/consumer-rites

Science History Institute. “History and Future of Plastics.”https://www.sciencehistory.org/topics/plastics

Smithsonian Magazine. “The Origin of Krampus, Europe’s Evil Twist on Santa.” December 4, 2015.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-origin-of-krampus-europes-evil-twist-on-santa-180957438/

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289: Big Wellness’s Nicotine Gambit [feat Mallory DeMille]

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 11:00:00 -0000

In 1965, the US passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, the reason every pack of cigarettes has a warning label informing you about the potentially harmful effects. Since then, numerous regulations, educational drives, and taxation initiatives have made smoking less appealing and harder to do.

In the contrarian wellness space, nicotine has become the alkaloid du jour. Forget cigs, this special chemical helps your energy, mood, and, at the far end of the influencer spectrum, treat cancer and autism—without that being medical advice, of course. And while nicotine has been shown to be potentially beneficial for a small range of issues, wellness influencers once again are sprinting the cart in front of the horse.

Mallory DeMille returns to break down the latest wellness buzz.

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Bonus Sample: Alien Abduction Mack Daddy

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Inside AmericaFest: Infighting, lies and the desperate search for Charlie Kirk’s heir

In 1994, Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatry professor John E. Mack became one of the most pedigreed proponents of UFOs, alien abductions, and the alien-hybrid breeding scheme. He was introduced to celebrated painter, amateur hypnotherapist, and UFO researcher Budd Hopkins by transpersonal psychologist Stan Grof. Hopkins had helped author Whitley Strieber recover the abduction “memories” that became the book (and then movie) Communion.

Mack and Hopkins quickly produced their own movie, Intruders. Mack published Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens, going on the TV talk-show circuit with star patients that believed they were being experimented on while on alien spacecraft. Oprah slotted alien abductions right into her schedule, alongside Satanic ritual abuse, multiple personality disorder, and past-lives regressions.

In reasoning not unfamiliar to Conspirituality listeners, Hopkins claimed a government conspiracy was covering up the ET hybrid breeding scheme, while Mack explained the lack of physical evidence by claiming the abduction experience “challenged the Western paradigm of materialist science.” The X-Files TV show was inspired by their work, which also spawned today’s generation of UFO grifters, alien channelers, and pastel-Q lightworkers.

For today’s installment of his The Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian explores the characters, stories, psychology, and cultural significance of fantastical repressed memories retrieved under hypnosis—be they of horny demons, ritual Satanic abuse, or alien scientists who steal abductee’s DNA in the night.

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Brief: Nicki Minaj Goes MAGA

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Turning Point USA's AmFest 2025 saw a record number of attendees pour into Phoenix last weekend to watch a host of MAGA and MAHA luminaries proclaim they're raging against the Deep State—even though their coalition is now the Deep State. Derek and Julian look at the conference through the lens of the white, Christian Nationalist identity politics on display.

Show Notes

Vance Refuses to Take Sides in G.O.P. Fight Over Bigotry

Turning Point exposed a brewing MAGA civil war. Can JD Vance unite it?

‘It’s Very Controversial, but I Love Nick Fuentes’

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UNLOCKED: Chatbot Awakening to Love and Enlightenment!

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

An unlock of a bonus episode from earlier this year. ⁠Access all of our bonus episodes here⁠.

Happy holidays, everyone!

-- --

Earlier this year, a spate of news stories told of chatbot users travelling through the looking-glass right into Conspirituality. Paranoid conspiracies, spiritual awakenings, even falling head-over-heels in love with the simulated personalities of large language models like ChatGPT.

Could AI have finally crossed the threshold into autonomous sentient consciousness? Could it be that chatbots were anointing new prophets—or, conversely, that very special users were awakening their very special friends via the power of love and illuminating dialogue?

Step aside, QAnon, the code behind the screen is illuminated by God!

Sadly, some of these stories trended very dark. Suicides, attempted murder, paranoid delusions, spouses terrified of losing their partners and co-parents to what looked like spiritual and romantic delusions.

For this standalone installment of his Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian examines this strange new phenomenon, then takes a detour into Ancient Greece and the oracle at Delphi to show that everything old is actually new again—just dressed up in digital technology.

Show Notes

⁠I Married My Chatbot⁠

⁠FTC Complaints Against OpenAI for Chatbot Psychosis⁠

⁠AI Spiritual Delusions Destroying Human Relationships⁠

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Bonus Sample: The Monetization of MAHA

Mon, 22 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

MAKE AMERICA HEALTHY AGAIN - Trademark Details

RFK Jr trademarked MAHA in a giant swath of categories, including many he now advocates for in his position as Secretary of HHS. After making $100,000 in licensing fees, he transferred the trademark to his anti-vax compatriot, Del Bigtree, before it was transferred again to former Kennedy security lead, Gavin de Becker. Currently being used by a variety of MAHA-based organizations, the opportunity to monetize MAHA, the brand, could be directly affected by Kennedy’s policies. Given how much MAHA leadership loathes social services, more health-based privatization could be on the horizon—just as Projected 2025 prescribed.

Derek winds down the rabbit hole into the MAHA trademark.

Show Notes

The MAHA Enterprise Explained

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Brief: Dr Mike vs MAHA

Sat, 20 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Dr Mike has become one of the most effective debunkers of science misinformation. His second appearance on the uber-popular show, Jubilee's Surrounded, pitted him against 20 fans of RFK Jr. Derek and Julian discuss the debate, as well as the value of Jubilee in an oversaturated media environment.

Show Notes

1 Doctor vs 20 RFK Jr. Supporters (ft Doctor Mike) Surrounded

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288: Conspirituality Live with Dr Jessica Knurick

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Derek sits down with Dr Jessica Knurick at the Eudemonia Summit for this special live recording. They discuss combating health misinformation online, what MAHA gets right and wrong, whether or not "nutritionist" should be a protected term, and Jessica's possible political ambitions.

Show Notes

Dr Jessica Knurick on Substack | Instagram

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Bonus Sample: Marx’s “Atheism” vs. the Capitalist Religion of Everyday Life

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Zyn pouches and American Masculinity

Matthew explores Marx’s “opium of the people” passage by placing it back into the philosophical and political project it came from. Marx was not attacking religion in some essential way, but criticizing the conditions that make religion necessary as a consolation. The problem is not faith itself, but the suffering — inequality, exploitation, alienation — that gives rise to the instinct for spiritual escape.

Marx’s atheism was not a New Atheist-type negation but a theological critique — a way of revealing how capitalism itself can displace Christianity as a religion of profit, rent, and wages. According to liberation theologian Enrique Dussel, Marx frames money as a jealous god, capital as the Antichrist, and private property as original sin. No wonder he is eternally hated.

Full show notes at https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/brief-demonic-karl-marx

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Brief: Demonic Karl Marx ATTACKS Private Property and DESTROYS Religion

Sat, 13 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew examines how Karl Marx has long been framed as a demonic threat to religion and private property — a tactic that sidesteps Marx’s actual critique of capitalism. J. Edgar Hoover, Ronald Reagan, and a raft of Evangelical blowhards cast communism as satanic and civilization-ending, a narrative now accelerating through Trump-era rhetoric, and Project 2025.

Capital is difficult to rebut directly, so detractors often attack Marx himself, calling him godless or deranged. Jordan Peterson and Paul Kengor treat Marx’s horny gothic teenage poems as literal evidence of demonic influence—which is much more interesting to them than taking surplus value, alienation, or commodity fetishism seriously.

But the OG distorter of Marxist economics is the Catholic Church, beginning with Pius IX, who Red-Scared the 19th C faithful with a now-famous trick: conflating personal property with bourgeois private property. Marx targeted only the latter — profit-generating property — which the Church depended on then and still does today.

Full show notes at https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/brief-demonic-karl-marx

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287: She Did Nuzzi RFK Jr Coming

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

How does an elite Millennial politics reporter wind up having phone sex with and giving campaign advice to the 70-year-old emerging fascist she’s reporting on?

Most of that should stay between Olivia Nuzzi and her therapist. What we do know is that American Canto, Nuzzi’s new book, is a memoir (or maybe novel) made for the conspirituality age, in which raging toxic roided-up hypocritical male charisma is always the center of attention.

The domineering ghoul is the pole star of interest and fascination, always moving too fast and chaotically to understand—unless you know how fascism accelerates. We scavenge these pages for clues about Kennedy and how the hell this journalism disaster happened.

Show Notes

The Olivia Nuzzi Comeback Is Everything Wrong With Modern Media

A Serious Journalism Scandal Hiding Inside a Frivolous Sexual One

The Scandalous Rollout Was the Best Part of Olivia Nuzzi’s Memoir

119: We Are Slenderman (w/Kathleen Hale)

The first-person industrial complex: How the harrowing personal essay took over the Internet.

A Q&A with Olivia Nuzzi of New York magazine on her career, covering Trump and access journalism

Guests urged to be vaccinated at anti-vaxxer Robert F Kennedy Jr’s party

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Bonus Sample: “Joe Rogan of The Left” Glazes China

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0000

Listen to the full episode here

Hasan Piker just spent two weeks in The People’s Republic of China. The famous streamer is often invoked as being a potential “Joe Rogan of The Left,” who might bring young voters, especially working class men, back into the Democratic Party.

But Piker’s livestreams from China raise controversial questions. Is he whitewashing Chinese human rights abuses? Was he paid by their government to propagandize his combined 5 million viewers? How else to explain first-class plane tickets, ultra-luxury hotel rooms, privileged access to forbidden Western social media, and carefully avoiding criticisms of the authoritarian state while waxing poetic about their country and Mao Zedong?

Julian digs into Piker’s politics in the context of China’s tumultuous history. First stop: Tiananmen Square.

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Brief: Have Tech Bros Killed Psychedelics?

Sat, 06 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0000

"Immortality influencer" Bryan Johnson recently livestreamed his second-ever psilocybin trip "for science." But was it, really? Derek and Julian break down the performative nature of this stunt and discuss the growing right-wing influence on psychedelics culture.

Show Notes

Bryan Johnson Has Discovered Shrooms, and He Really Wants You to Know It

Silicon Valley’s Man in the White House Is Benefiting Himself and His Friends

How the Right Coopted Psychedelics

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286: RFK Jr’s Great Crusade

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 03:00:00 -0000

RFK Jr is one of the greatest perpetrators of a firehose of falsehoods that we’ve ever covered. The stakes were raised when he was installed as head of America’s public health system. A new longform article in The Atlantic offers an inside look at the history and current thinking of this man, as insightful for what it offers as telling for what it omits. We discuss the role of journalism in an age defined by propaganda.

Show Notes

Scoop: The new #2 at CDC is a top ivermectin prescriber who ended Louisiana’s vaccine-promotion media campaigns

Doctor Critical of Vaccines Quietly Appointed as C.D.C.’s Second in Command

CDC Quietly Turned Off Its Vaccine Search Tool. It’s Not Clear When It’s Coming Back.

The Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Affair Is Messier Than We Ever Could Have Imagined

RFK Jr. and the Inexplicable Appeal of Repulsive Men

RFK Jr. is overhauling the program that helps preserve Americans' access to vaccines

Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?

Nature: Pertussis, A Tale of Two Vaccines

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Bonus Sample: How Does Andrew Wakefield Keep Getting Resurrected?

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Listen to the full episode.

With the CDC recently updating its website with anti-vax propaganda under the direction of RFK Jr, disgraced and disbarred physician, Andrew Wakefield, is back in the news. In fact, Senator Ron Johnson even tweeted out that he deserves an apology. He must be relying on short attention spans, given all the ways Wakefield manipulated the “study” that showed a link between vaccines and autism—even though the study itself found no such proof.

Derek revisits the retracted 1998 study, as well as shows just how much proof exists to the contrary of the CDC’s new page.

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Brief: Black Friday’s Wellness Extravaganza

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Derek and Julian survey all of the incredible, life-changing deals going down this weekend in Wellnesslandia.

Show Notes

Influencers made millions pushing ‘wild’ births – now the Free Birth Society is linked to baby deaths around the world

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285: Can Peter Attia Live Forever?

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 03:00:00 -0000

In the wildly popular biohacking and longevity space, Peter Attia is often cited as one of the leading luminaries. His straightforward, science-backed approach seems to cut through the noise in a space dominated by fit bros and wellness grifters who always seem to have a product to sell. But the man who dropped out of residency at Johns Hopkins to found a private clinic focused on longevity has his share of critics, who are a bit suspicious about his self-experimentations—and the millions he makes counseling Silicon Valley insiders about experimental medicine.

This week we take a look at longevity broadly and Attia specifically. Derek kicks off the episode with a recap of his time at Eudemonia Summit, where, among other things, he got to debate another leading biohacker, Dave Asprey, about seed oils. As it turns out, longevity was the top buzzword there as well.

I Went to Eudemonia – a Wellness Summit with the Industry's Top Thought Leaders – Here's What It Was Like

Outlive: A Critical Review

A Review of OUTLIVE

Critiquing Peter Attia

Andrew Huberman and Peter Attia: Self-enhancement, supplements & doughnuts?

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Bonus Sample: Graeber vs Bannon, Anarchism vs Leninism (Part 2)

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

This bonus episode is Part 2 of Graeber vs Bannon, Anarchism vs Leninism.

I start in the 1870s with Marx and Bakunin fighting over the joys and traumas of the Paris Commune. Marx sees it as an imperfect but historic prototype of a workers’ transitional state, cut down before it could consolidate power. Bakunin reads it as a betrayal of anarchist principles — too willing to replicate the machinery it meant to overthrow. Out of that conflict comes a rift that still haunts us: should revolution be disciplined, organized, and strategic, or spontaneous, horizontal, and permanently suspicious of institutions?

I explore David Graeber as a hopeful modern anarchist, highlighting his idea of “everyday communism”—the mutual aid and cooperation we already practice—and his vision of Occupy as a revelation of our capacity to act as if we’re free. I contrast this with Marxist-Leninist critiques: the exhaustion of consensus, obstructionism, spectacle without strategy, and the refusal to make demands. A story about my late friend Michael Stone at an Occupy “mic check” shows how openness can invite opportunism. Finally, I contrast No King’s vagueness with MAGA’s fusion of mystical energy and disciplined technocracy—QAnon shamans backed by P2025 architects, vibes condensed to machinery.

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Brief: Graeber vs Bannon, Anarchism vs Leninism (Part 1)

Sat, 22 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

In this first of a two-part series, I dig into a century-long debate within revolutionary politics—one that now shapes the fault lines between MAGA authoritarianism and the fragmented resistance against it.

How did the American far right end up using Leninist strategy more effectively than the American left? And what does that say about our own movements—our blind spots, our strengths, and inherited illusions?

In 2013, Steve Bannon called himself a Leninist. In 2016, he openly called for the “deconstruction of the administrative state.” In Trump 2.0, he’s been an ideological whip for the vanguardism of Project 2025. If Bannon has a foil, it was the late anthropologist David Graeber—Occupy organizer, anarchist, and author of The Dawn of Everything—who championed prefigurative politics and rejected the idea that the state could ever be an instrument of liberation.

Drawing from Vincent Bevins’ If We Burn, I explore why a decade of globally interconnected mass movements failed to build lasting power—and how the right learned from their mistakes. We revisit January 6 through the lens of conspirituality influencers, we go to São Paulo to watch anarchist punk collectives lose the narrative to organized right-wing actors, and we return to Occupy to understand the spiritual hopes and organizational gaps that still shape protest culture today.

Part 2 will dig deeper into Graeber’s legacy, the theological undertow of spontaneity vs. structure, and what younger activists may inherit if we don’t learn from the last half-century of revolt and repression.

NOTE: Full citations are available on the episode page at https://www.conspirituality.net/.

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284: When Prophecy-Science Fails (w/Thomas Kelly)

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

In 1954 a doomsday alien cult headed up by Chicagoland housewife Dorothy Martin was waiting for the cataclysmic flood that would herald the arrival of spaceships to transport her and her followers to safety. When the hour came and went and nothing happened, she and her followers made up a Bible’s worth of excuses, saying that the group's penitence and piety had saved them, and so the failure of the prophecy was actually a validation of their new religion. And even though its central claim had been refuted, they accelerated their efforts to proselytize and convert new followers.

This is the story of the 1956 classic study, When Prophecy Fails, by Leon Festinger, Henry Riecken, and Stanley Schachter.

Problem is—this didn't really happen. At least not that way. As our guest this week Thomas Kelly points out from his investigation of newly unsealed archival materials, the psychologists not only embedded themselves in Martin's cult in a way that provoked their most irrational statements, they fudged the outcome of Martin story to suit their virally popular new theory of cognitive dissonance.

Show Notes

Debunking “When Prophecy Fails” - Kelly - 2026 - Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences

Failed Prophecies Are Fatal | International Journal for the Study of New Religions

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Bonus Sample: Temple of Blood & Fire

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

They offered initiation into ancient Christian mysticism, ritual communion with the spirits, an understanding of reincarnation, and the destined transition to inhabiting a "solar-body" in the Sirius star-system. But it all ended in murderous blood sacrifice and fire—and 74 dead believers.

What is this dark preoccupation with sacrifice and ritual killing in the name of metaphysical belief? Grotesque to modern ears, yet quite commonplace historically.

Julian covers the late 20th-century French cult, The Order of the Solar Temple, for his Roots of Conspirituality series. They identified with the Knights Templar, weaving Rosicrucianism and Theosophy into a tangled web of fraud, spiritual deception, and the dramatic, tragic deaths of everyone involved.

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Brief: Does Calley Means Get Anything Right?

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

RFK Jr's senior advisor and supplements salesman, Calley Means, has repeatedly fabricated the story of Abraham Flexner and the birth of the modern medical system. Derek looks into his historical revisionism and what it could mean for the MAHA movement.

Show Notes

Medical Education in America: Abraham Flexner

The Great Influenza: John Barry

The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: Roy Porter

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283: Guys

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Back in June, we published an episode about the "Speaking with American Men" (SAM) project, a $20 million initiative designed by political consultants to understand and win back young men (18-29) who increasingly voted for Donald Trump. We talked about this cringey, inauthentic approach to compete over the influence of manosphere figures like Jordan Peterson and Andrew Huberman, who exploit a perceived "meaning crisis" with pseudo-intellectual and often reactionary messages.

Instead of what? We said that the better route would be to focus on material concerns so that the rage of young men isn’t ceded to right-wing movements. Big-money consultant-led efforts to micromanage online interactions will not spawn-in the authentic cultural engagement that right-wing influencers naturally achieve.

Well here we are now in the fall, and we’ve got a bunch of guys stepping into this contested space from different angles. Zohran Mamdani and Graham Platner present very differently as masculine role models, but share the same economic populism, but also a deep challenge in the long shadow of patriarchy: how do men become trustworthy?

Show Notes

Brief: Nair, Mamdani, and Culture against the Culture War (Pt 1) — Conspirituality

Matthew's Review of Notes on Being a Man by Scott Galloway

A Political Litmus Test: Can You Hang With the Boys?

Zohran Mamdani Is New York’s First Millennial Mayor. You Can Tell by His Suit.

A Political Misdiagnosis—NYT on How Dems lost Black and Hispanic Voters

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Bonus Sample: MAHA Inaction

Mon, 10 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Here are 18 Portland-area coffee shops and restaurants that have pledged to feed people who lose SNAP benefits

The nonprofit organization (and its adjoined Super PAC), MAHA Action, is leading semi-regular Zoom calls featuring a host of wellness influencers and RFK Jr appointees, including Jillian Michaels, Dr Oz, and Russell Brand. Derek listens into a recent call to see just what they're saying.

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Brief: Taylor Swift Goes MAGA?

Sat, 08 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Taylor Swift: Nazi sympathizer, freshly-minted racist, MAGA trad wife. Or so proponents of a recent conspiracy theory would have it. For years, the most successful female recording and performing artist of her generation (and therefore of all time) has used “easter eggs” as part of her marketing. Hidden messages in music videos and lyric sheets, oblique references in social media posts, and puzzles as merchandise marketing gimmicks have all contributed to a parasocial sense of intimacy and insider knowledge for her millions of ardent fans.

With the release of The Life of a Showgirl, these treats seem to have backfired on Swift. A deluge of TikToks claim dog whistles and hidden symbols reveal a far-right turn for a progressive artist that previously stood for feminism, reproductive freedom, gay and trans rights, BLM, and gun control.

Maybe it’s her “cancelled” friends, the influence of Travis Kelce, or traditional, conservative “family values” finally coming home to roost as she celebrates the desire to settle down with her soon-to-be-husband, make a home, and have some kids.

Julian peels apart the layers of this highly charged political conspiracy theory and looks at what it may represent.

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282: Mutual Aid Against ICE

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

When restaurants and cafes in Portland and elsewhere link into networks of food pantries and soup kitchens, will mutual aid feel real in the US? When regular folks come out of their houses to shame and chase ICE thugs out of the neighborhood, will that feeling of power from below catch on? Will it create some craving for a different way of doing things and understanding authority and order?

Derek looks at Portland, Julian looks at street resistance, and Matthew unpacks the old anarchist idea of mutual aid, and whether and how it intersects with our time and what’s left of our institutions.

Show Notes

Angie Vargas, ICE Chaser

LAHoodLove on Instagram

BraveNewFilms on Instagram

Kat Abughazaleh in Mother Jones

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Bonus Sample: US v. Liberation Theology (Part 2)

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Listen to the full episode on Patreon

Part 2 follows the money flowing from US agencies and interests to anti-Liberation Theology figures in Latin America. We meet Jesuit operator Roger Vekemans, who in the 1960s drew funding from the CIA, USAID, West German bishops, and U.S. conservative foundations to undermine Liberation and Christian socialism in Chile and beyond.

Nelson Rockefeller used Protestant missions as a model for soft power in the region, including the Summer Institute of Linguistics and their aviation-radio infrastructure (JAARS) that doubled as state and military logistics in Amazon frontiers. That infrastructure was part of a project to rewire communal lifeways into an individualism compatible with capitalism.

But what about the “reverse boomerang”? Pope Leo XIV’s Dilexi te: On Love for the Poor, is a pastoral yet pointed retrieval of Liberation Theology’s moral center, in which inequality is posited as the root of social ills. Leo rejects trickle-down myths, insists on solidarity with migrants, and quietly sidelines the old Marxism panic. By grounding church mission in the lived poverty of Jesus himself, Leo offers a calm but withering rebuke to Christofascism and the politics of exclusion.

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Brief: US v. Liberation Theology (Part 1)

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 10:00:00 -0000

This is the first of a two-part deep dive into how U.S. foreign policy stared down the political threat of Liberation Theology by promoting Evangelical Christianity in Latin America. The CIA and USAID, in league with Vatican conservatives like Cardinal Ratzinger, spent money and social capital on the suppression of this vital new movement which insisted that poverty is political and that faith without structural change is hollow.

By contrast, the Evangelical emphasis on individual sin, salvation, and personal prosperity aligned with Cold War and neoliberal interests.

Spiritualities engineered to serve empire don’t just pacify the poor abroad—they come back to police democracy at home. The “Evangelical boomerang” shows up in shifting Latino religious demographics and voting patterns, while the “reverse boomerang” hints that Liberation Theology language—once condemned—now shapes Pope Leo’s message in this time of rising fascism.

If MAGA mystics, prosperity preachers, and tech-bro shamans offer a gospel of self-aggrandizement, Liberation Theology counters with a message of shared material reality: no one owns the food, we share it; the Sabbath serves people, not power; love of God is inseparable from love for the poor.

Part 1 lays the intellectual and historical groundwork; Part 2 follows the covert money networks and then asks whether a newly emboldened Catholic social vision can stiffen global resistance to authoritarian capitalism.

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281: Jeffrey Tucker, MAHA Dandy

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

“Meet the man who built RFK Jr’s kitchen cabinet” goes the title of a recent investigative article in Politico. Yet that man, Jeffrey Tucker, is much more than that. In fact, you can make the case, as Politico does, that Tucker is one of the main driving forces behind MAHA.

We’ve covered Tucker before on this podcast, including two previous interviews with his estranged daughter, Julia—who Matthew will again be talking to in segment 2 today. Derek will then talk to Duke professor Gavin Yamey, who was cited in the article as well. Before that, we return to Jeffrey Tucker, founder of the Brownstone Institute, architect of the Great Barrington Declaration, a romantic faux-libertarian who wants to see the return of childhood smoking and the demise of child labor laws and seat belts, and, as Politico uncovered, a man who had to leave a prominent position at a libertarian think tank due to accusations of sexual misconduct.

Show Notes

Meet the man who built RFK Jr.’s kitchen cabinet

Leaked Brownstone Institute Emails Reveal Support for Child Labor, Underage Smoking

Brief: My Dad Became a MAGA Power Broker (w/Julia Tucker) — Conspirituality

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Bonus Sample: Chatbot Awakening to Love and Enlightenment!

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Step aside, QAnon, the code behind the screen is illuminated by God!

Show Notes

I Married My Chatbot

FTC Complaints Against OpenAI for Chatbot Psychosis

AI Spiritual Delusions Destroying Human Relationships

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Brief: The Man Who Lives With 16 Cats

Sat, 25 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Social media has been filled with clips of Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee for mayor of NYC. He's been proving quite the foil for Andrew Cuomo's attempt to upset Zohran Mamdani. But who is this man, exactly? Derek and Julian discuss.

Show Notes

16 Cats, 320 Square Feet and One Long-Shot Candidate for Mayor

7 Takeaways From the Final N.Y.C. Mayoral Debate

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280: Peter Thiel is Definitely Not the Antichrist

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is no cuck philanthropist. The co-founder of Palantir is leading his company at the bleeding edge of mass surveillance, facial recognition, predictive policing, and AI-assisted warfare. He also fancies himself a political player, responsible for funding his protege, JD Vance, to a heartbeat away from the presidency. Considering this CV, the announcement that Thiel would give a series of four lectures on the AntiChrist was puzzling.

Why would a tech-bro with a notoriously awkward and inarticulate speaking style hold forth on religious prophecy? Or would this be a coming out party, where he would finally confirm his alliance with Satan? Now that the lectures have happened, we can finally tell you—and later, we’ll frame it in the context of Thiel’s mentor, René Girard.

Show Notes

Inside tech billionaire Peter Thiel’s off-the-record lectures about the antichrist

It Kind of Seems Like Peter Thiel Is Losing It

Battling to the End: Conversations with Benoît Chantre: René Girard

I See Satan Fall Like Lightning: René Girard

“A Geometry of Desire: René Girard’s Mimetic Theory, Part 1.”: John Ganz

“The Iron Triangle: René Girard’s Mimetic Theory, Part 2.”: John Ganz

“Escaping the Kingdom of Futility: René Girard’s Mimetic Theory, Part 3.”: John Ganz

“The Cure for Envy: René Girard’s Mimetic Theory, Part 4.”: John Ganz

Know Your Enemy Ep 87, featuring John Ganz

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Portland Has (Not) Fallen (For It)

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Listen to the full episode on Patreon

After attending the No Kings rally in Portland on Saturday, Derek shares some thoughts about the week leading up to the nationwide protests.

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Brief: “Weird Stephen” Miller

Sat, 18 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Stephen Miller is once again making headlines for saying the quiet part out loud. Derek and Julian look into this strange little man from Santa Monica.

Show Notes

Stephen Miller: Understanding the man who became ‘Trump’s brain’ through his Chronicle opinion column

‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat

What Stephen Miller Was Like in High School - Charles Gould

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279: They’re Shooting the Priests

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

ICE is on the loose in our cities, acting with seeming impunity. They've repelled from Black Hawk helicopters, thrown journalists and protestors to the ground, and belligerently refused to unmask, provide identification, or present warrants for the people they're kidnapping.

Among the social media videos documenting this despicable stormtrooper behavior came the image of a priest being hit in the head and knocked to the ground by a pepper ball shot from an ICE building rooftop.

We've homed in on this disturbing moment to ask if what we'd seen so far had not crossed a red line for the American public, what does it mean to shoot at a priest protesting injustice in prayer?

Show Notes

Surge in U.S. Concern About Immigration Has Abated

Portland’s ‘War Zone’ Is Like Burning Man for the Terminally Online

DC Churches to Trump: Stay Out of Our Parking Lots

Religious protesters say ICE threatens religious freedom in Chicago

In LA, faith leaders protest to stand up for the detained and keep the peace

Chicago Pastor Sues Trump Admin After Allegedly Being Shot by ICE Agents

Federal lawsuit brought by Black et al against Noem and DHS

Evangelical Pastor Doug Pagitt on Christian Nationalism

Exclusive: The Churches Fighting Back Against ICE

Religious leaders offering communion to detainees turned away at Broadview ICE facility

Bishop Rojas on rise in ICE raids: ‘It is not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ'

Religious leaders offering communion to detainees turned away at Broadview ICE facility

Signs of Faith Against Fascism: An Interview with Eric Martin
Paul Elie: Daniel Berrigan was a fierce critic of the United States. He was also a great American.

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Yallidarity (w/Nathan Evans Fox) [Introducing Antifascist Dad Podcast]

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Hey everyone… special drop today: the inaugural episode of Matthew’s new side project, Antifascist Dad Podcast.

Matthew sits down with songwriter Nathan Evans Fox to talk about kinship, Appalachia, and the viral hymn that’s resonating across communities. Nathan shares the roots of his concept of yallidarity—solidarity rooted in labor, joy, food, music, and taking care of one another.

They discuss the myths and realities of Appalachia, the erasure of labor history, and the dangers of “bootstrap” individualism. Nathan tells about his upbringing in fringe charismatic churches, the connections between charismatic Christianity and Trump-style politics, and how faith traditions can nurture resilience—or be co-opted by empire.

They dig into Nathan’s viral “Hillbilly Hymn”: why the cops disappear when Jesus returns, why kinship always beats bootstraps, and how to imagine an abolitionist future that doesn't erase culture but reorients it toward joy, justice, and care.All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com.

Show Notes

Everything Nathan Evans Fox

Gaza Sumud flotilla: How Israel breaks international maritime law | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera

Gaza-bound flotilla rejects Israeli claims of Hamas funding | Euronews

Contact Restored with Global Sumud Flotilla after Israeli Interference - Palestine Chronicle

The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee

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Bonus Sample: Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus (Pt. 2)

Mon, 13 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Full episode on Patreon

Part 2 moves from Christofascist spectacle to the “mushy middle” of liberal Christianity—why it so often blesses order over justice and falters when fascism rises. Drawing on MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, Reggie Williams’s Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus, and lived experience inside white urban churches, he traces how bureaucratic piety, respectability politics, and spiritual bypassing drain the Gospel of conduct and courage—what Bonhoeffer called a “funeral wreath” laid on the culture.

How do institutions become procedurally compassionate yet politically inert? Matthew weaves in memories of global South Christian art, Denys Arcand’s Jesus of Montréal, and the everyday service-industry grind of parish life to show how care without solidarity becomes maintenance—while Black Jesus points to co-suffering, mutual aid, and material resistance.

Touching grass means moving from abstraction to accompaniment and from decorum to defense.

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Brief: Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus (Pt. 1)

Sat, 11 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

In this first installment of Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus, Matthew revisits Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s journey from the theological classrooms of Berlin to the Black churches of Harlem — where he encountered a Jesus entirely unlike the imperial figure of his upbringing. Bonhoeffer arrived in New York a servant of white European Christendom, and left transformed by the radical, suffering, and liberatory presence of Black Jesus.

Matthew connects Bonhoeffer’s awakening to today’s spectacle of white nationalism in worship — from the triumphalist religion on display at Charlie Kirk’s memorial to the enduring cultural power of “white Jesus” as theology for empire. Drawing on Reggie Williams’s Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus, Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism, and Jeanelle Hope and Bill Mullen’s The Black Antifascist Tradition, the episode traces how colonialism created a Christ built to bless domination, and how the Black church reclaimed him through solidarity, suffering, and resistance.

The contrast between the fortress hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God and the spiritual Were You There becomes the turning point in Bonhoeffer’s faith — from triumph to trembling, from power to empathy.

Part 2, out Monday on Patreon, explores how liberal Christianity tried to stand between these poles, and why it failed.

Show Notes

Hope, Jeanelle K., and Bill V. Mullen. The Black Antifascist Tradition. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2023.

Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Revised and Updated Third Edition. Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley. Preface by Damien Sojoyner and Tiffany Willoughby-Herard. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2020.

Williams, Reggie L. Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014.

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278: This Podcast is Illegal

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Our podcast is not actually illegal—yet. Thanks to Trump’s recent Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-7, or “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” it soon could be.

Today we talk about one of the starkest moves into fascism Americans have yet seen from MAGA: what it is, how pre-crimes can soon be reality, and the fear factor this memo is designed to inspire. We’ll also discuss some possible responses to the next phase of MAGA authoritarianism.

Show Notes

Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators”

What Is NSPM-7? Over 3,000 Nonprofits Sound Alarm on New Trump Directive

Trump Orders Broad Effort to Root Out Groups He Says Organize Political Violence

The meme-ification of political violence

The Upside of Collapse

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Bonus Sample: Death is Just A Doorway

Mon, 06 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The People’s Temple in Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, The Order of the Solar Temple. All cults that ended in tragic mass suicides. How could such lofty aspirations end so badly?

For today’s self-contained installment of The Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian explores the shadow side of the anxiety-relieving religious notion that death is just a doorway into a better place.

How do charismatic prophets indoctrinate believers into ending their lives, and often the lives of their children, in the name of spirituality?

Julian briefly examines each of these groups, along with Paul Nthenge Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministry—450 of whose followers starved themselves to death in a Kenyan forest in 2023. Then he transitions into exploring philosophical, psychological, evolutionary, and neuroscience-based ways of understanding the elements that make these spiritualized perversions of our survival instincts possible.

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Brief: He’s Coming For All Vaccines

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

RFK Jr posted a seven-minute video earlier this week that assures us that vaccines aren't all that great, actually. Derek reads the studies Kennedy references as proof. You might be surprised to learn the HHS Secretary has very selective reading.

Show Notes

Annual Summary of Vital Statistics: Trends in the Health of Americans During the 20th Century

The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the Decline of Mortality in the United States in the Twentieth Century

Infectious Diseases and Social Change

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277: TikTokTylenol [feat Mallory DeMille]

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Did you hear about the pregnant woman who ingested too much Tylenol just to “own Trump” and is now on a ventilator and will likely not wake up, offing both herself and her baby? If you were tapped into social media at all this past week, you likely saw dozens of wellness and right-wing influencers sharing it, each with their own hot take. One problem: there’s still no proof this woman exists.

Mallory DeMille returns to discuss this cursed game of telephone, as well as unpack the mad rush that wellness influencers have been on to sell you their completely legitimate acetaminophen alternatives. Science rocks, y’all.

Show Notes

Meet The ‘American Frontline Nurses’ Telling Parents To Give Kids Ivermectin

Homeopathy is a scam that causes real harm

Kelly Brogan's Conspiracy Machine

Giving Birth in Yogaland

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Bonus Sample: The Wellness Civil War

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Listen to the full episode here.

When RFK Jr announced that Tylenol might be implicated in autism, he forefronted correlative research that has yet to prove causation. That didn’t stop a number of MAHA-pilled wellness influencers from running with the narrative. Derek looks at their posts, as well as the immediate pushback, after breaking down Kennedy’s slipperiness during the press conference.

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Brief: MAGA’s Censorship Hypocrisy

Sat, 27 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

MAGA congressman Clay Higgins recently sent a letter to top tech executives demanding subservience when it comes to "acceptable" speech. This comes two years after Higgins co-sponsored a bill protecting freedom of speech. Given recent capitulations to the Trump administration by tech CEOs, we shouldn't write off Higgins's aggressive push. Derek and Julian discuss.

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276: Inventing Saint Charlie Kirk

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Charlie Kirk became the latest victim of gun violence in America on September 10. And he wasn't the only person shot on a school campus that day, nor was he the only political figure killed this year.

Unlike Melissa Hortman and her husband, the motivation for Kirk’s murder remains unclear. That hasn’t stopped right-wing pundits and politicians from framing it as typical extremist left-wing violence.

In between calls for civil war and censorship, the ramping up of police-state authoritarianism, and painting of the slain Christian Nationalist activist as a noble martyr, anti-racist icon Ta-Nehisi Coates called out the strange reflex from some left-of-center figures (like Ezra Klein) to participate in whitewashing Kirk's hateful politics. Today we discuss what happened and what it might mean.

Show Notes

⁠From Secular Activist to Christian Nationalist⁠

⁠Doug Wilson on Abortion, Gays, Women Voting⁠

⁠Meet The New Apostolic Reformation⁠

167: Straight White American Jesus (w/Bradley Onishi)⁠

⁠129: White Christian Nationalism (w/Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry)⁠

⁠Stealing Democracy for Jesus⁠

⁠Blackpill Aesthetics: A Crash Course in Meme Extremism⁠

⁠Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause

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Bonus Sample: Antifascist (Autistic) Christianity — Simon(e) Weil (Part 2)

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The second installment in a two-part exploration of Simon(e) Weil for the ongoing Antifascist Christianity series and the Antifascist Woodshed project.

At the heart of the episode is Weil’s terse, luminous definition of love—“belief in the existence of other human beings as such”—and Richard Gilman-Opalsky’s unpacking of how that love rejects projections and demands the generosity of attention, shared joys and miseries, and a deprivatized ethic of care. Matthew contrasts this with caricatures of Weil as an ascetic or body-denier, arguing instead for a portrait of a neurodivergent activist whose stressed nervous system made hypocrisy intolerable and whose spirituality emerged from embodied encounters.

Weil presented a lot of scrambling data—gender nonconformity, ambivalent sexuality, eating and touch aversions, migraines and hypergraphia. Theological and philosophical commentators often pathologize or misread Weil, while sidestepping their autism. As for Weil’s Christianity: it wasn’t about churchly allegiance but an experiential, anti-hypocrisy faith that found Jesus in direct action and in taking liturgical symbols seriously enough to live them. For Weil, “this is my body” became a present-tense statement of antifascist solidarity: the breaking and sharing of bread and body as an F-you to the imperials, and a call to communal repair.

Show Notes:Coles, Robert. Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage. Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2001.

Fitzgerald, Michael. The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006.

Gilman-Opalsky, Richard. The Communism of Love: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Exchange Value. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2020.

Lawson, Kathryn. Ecological Ethics and the Philosophy of Simone Weil. New York: Routledge, 2024. doi:10.4324/9781003449621.

McCullough, Lissa. The Religious Philosophy of Simone Weil: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2014.

Plant, Stephen. Simone Weil: A Brief Introduction. Revised and expanded edition. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.

Song, Youming, Tingting Nie, Wendian Shi, Xudong Zhao, and Yongyong Yang. "Empathy Impairment in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions From a Multidimensional Perspective: A Meta-Analysis." Frontiers in Psychology 10 (October 9, 2019): 01902. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01902.

Wallace, Cynthia R. The Literary Afterlives of Simone Weil: Feminism, Justice, and the Challenge of Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024.

Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind. Translated by Arthur Wills. With a preface by T. S. Eliot. Routledge Classics. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.

Weil, Simone. Modern Classics Simone Weil: An Anthology. Edited and Introduced by Siân Miles. London: Penguin Books, 2005.

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Brief: Antifascist (Autistic) Christianity: Simon(e) Weil (Part 1)

Sat, 20 Sep 2025 10:39:00 -0000

Matthew begins a two-part exploration of Simone Weil—French philosopher, mystic, and antifascist activist—through the lens of autism, embodiment, and political courage. Following the earlier Antifascist Christianity Woodshed series on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this installment positions Weil as a kind of spiritual auntie to Greta Thunberg, whose uncompromising honesty, rooted in autistic perception, continues to disrupt fascist, capitalist, and liberal narrative.

Matthew traces Weil’s journey from childhood acts of solidarity, like giving up sugar during WW1, to her immersion in factory labor, revolutionary syndicalism, and frontline service in the Spanish Civil War. Weil’s refusal of privilege and their lifelong impulse to take on suffering emerge as core features of both her philosophy and her autistic experience. They also stood up to Leon Trotsky, calling out Soviet authoritarianism long before its collapse.

Weil can be understood not only through the posthumous notebooks and essays that editors and institutions reshaped into seventeen volumes, but through the lived reality of their embodied resistance. Their ideas remain striking: the notion of attention as the rarest form of generosity; the insistence that obligations come before rights; the practice of “decreation” as a release of ego in the service of love; and the “need for roots” as an antifascist alternative to blood-and-soil nationalism.

Part 2 of this series drops Monday on Patreon, where Matthew goes deeper into Weil’s autistic traits, their spiritual life, and how their philosophy continues to confront liberalism and fascism alike.

Support us on Patreon to access Part 2 and the full Antifascist Woodshed series.

Show NotesColes, Robert. Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage. Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2001.

Fitzgerald, Michael. The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006.

Gilman-Opalsky, Richard. The Communism of Love: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Exchange Value. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2020.

Lawson, Kathryn. Ecological Ethics and the Philosophy of Simone Weil. New York: Routledge, 2024. doi:10.4324/9781003449621.

McCullough, Lissa. The Religious Philosophy of Simone Weil: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2014.

Plant, Stephen. Simone Weil: A Brief Introduction. Revised and expanded edition. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008.

Wallace, Cynthia R. The Literary Afterlives of Simone Weil: Feminism, Justice, and the Challenge of Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024.

Weil, Simone. Modern Classics Simone Weil: An Anthology. Edited and Introduced by Siân Miles. London: Penguin Books, 2005.

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275: It’s Never the Guns

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Less than two weeks after a shooter unloaded 500 rounds at the CDC in Atlanta, RFK Jr gutted that agency's violence prevention research by firing 100 employees. Less than a month later, Charlie Kirk was shot in front of a crowd of 3K at a Utah university. Millions saw the graphic clip online, which ignited a propaganda and disinformation culture war. Meanwhile, yet another child shot his classmates at a Denver high school that same day.

It's not the guns though, say the GOP pundits and politicians, it's the violent rhetoric from the left, and those hateful transgender antifascists. Just ask RFK Jr. He'll confirm that it's not the guns, but all those kids overmedicated on dangerous antidepressants.

What are SSRIs anyway, do hurt people hurt people, and do gun laws have any effect?

Show Notes

No, Antidepressants Do Not Provoke Mass Shootings

Mental Illness and Lone Actor Terrorism

Is There a Link Between Mental Health and Mass Shootings? | Columbia University Department of Psychiatry

Politically-Motivated Violence is Rare in the US

No Statistical Support for SSRI-Mass Shooting Connection

Mass Shooters and Political Assassins Have Similar Profiles

The Violence Prevention Project

Characteristics of Lone Wolf Violent Offenders

Blackpill Aesthetics: A Crash Course in Meme Extremism

62: Manifesting Something Awful (w/Dale Beran) — Conspirituality

Gun Purchases by Year

Correlation Between States with Weak Laws/High Ownership and Gun Deaths

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Bonus Sample: The 9/11 Rorschach Test

Mon, 15 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The events of September 11, 2001 changed the world. Julian reflects on several interpretations of what they meant, proposing that each is a kind of Rorschach-test result based on our own religious and political beliefs, backgrounds, and social conditioning.

The conspiracy theorist simply can’t believe something like that could happen to America, going in search of complicated alternative explanations that exist outside of the “official narrative,” even of reality itself.

Where the Christian conservative might see a call to Holy War signaling that the End Times is near, Neocon warhawks surrounding Bush observe an opportunity to enact plans for maintaining economic and political power and security.

Meanwhile, many on the left see the attack as justifiable “blowback” against American imperialism, Cold War atrocities, and Western colonialism. Religion is merely an inflaming of a fundamentalist minority based on political injustices.

What about the Soviet Union? The history of political Islam and massive Muslim caliphates that ruled for nearly 1,300 years? The intractable sectarian conflicts and the multiple internal ideologies vying for control over the Middle East?

There may be no easy answers, but perhaps engaging with these different perspectives can allow us to name some of the many factors that got us to 9/11 and the seemingly unsolvable dilemmas of our world today.

Show Notes

Popular Mechanics on 911 conspiracies

Noam Chomsky on 911 conspiracies

Pilger on Project for A New American Century

NYT 2023 Piece on the Reasons for Iraq War

Saddam’s Ruthless Purge

CNN on Kabul attitudes after US Invasion

Polling of Iraqis

Mahmood Mamdani Good Muslim, Bad Muslim Interview

Human Rights Watch on Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan

Taimur Rahman’s Red Star History of Political Islam Lectures

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Brief: MAHA’s Conspiracy Theories

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Derek worked for nearly 10 months on a NY Times opinions video, "You Might Have Already Fallen for MAHA’s Conspiracy Theories," which was published this week. He discusses what it took to produce this video with his collaborator, Alex Stockton, as well as the role journalism has to play in dispelling health misinformation.

Show Notes

You Might Have Already Fallen for MAHA’s Conspiracy Theories

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274: Is Rogan REALLY Leading a Death Cult?

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

If it wasn't all so tragic, politics might seem like a bad joke. But how did comedy become so unfunny, so politically toxic?

From his hideout in a remote mountain cabin, anonymous video collage artist and essayist The Elephant Graveyard has finally cracked the code. According to him, Joe Rogan has created a doomsday death cult that feeds the dad-shaped hole in the hearts of its followers. In this allegory, his Comedy Mothership theater in Austin is like the alien spacecraft zooming in from behind the Hale Bop comet to take the Heaven's Gate group suicide victims home, freed from their earth-suits.

And it turns out tech oligarchs Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are really behind it all.

Show Notes

Vile Grifters Are Taking Over Establishment Media

How Comedy Was Destroyed by an Anti-Reality Doomsday Cult

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Bonus Sample: How Wellness Influencers Became Radicalized

Mon, 08 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Biostatistician Halbert Dunn's 1961 book, High Level Wellness, set the stage for the modern wellness movement. Derek reads it alongside some of today's top conspiritualists, noticing the themes (and differences) that run throughout Dunn's work.

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Brief: Conspiracies Down Under

Sat, 06 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The recent killing of two police officers (and wounding of a third) in Porepunkah, Australia has highlighted the dangers of sovereign citizen-style conspiratorial beliefs. The alleged shooter is still at large, but his social media footprint shows anti-vaccine, COVID-contrarian, and even QAnon-aligned beliefs, as well as a long history of violent threats against police.

Julian talks to journalists Ariel Bogle and Cam Wilson, co-authors of an excellent new book, Conspiracy Nation: Exposing The Dangerous World of Australian Conspiracy Theories. As with everywhere else in the world, the pandemic poured gasoline on what would become a familiar set of incendiary false beliefs—but the sociopolitical and historical context down under has its own unique details.

The conversation spans claims of government false-flag operations, real legacies of institutional abuse, and Australia’s most famous conspiracy export and celebrity chef, Pete Evans.

Show Notes

Conspiracy Nation

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273: Trump Will Die

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Trump is still alive, though a lot of folks are excited that won't last. Maybe it’s testimony to the allure of the fantasy that he really is powerful, that his strongman schtick has legs, that he really has cast some magical spell over everyone—and that if he drops dead we’ll all wake up to a different world…

Of course we won’t.

But we’ll go through the fantasies today: the wishes, the schadenfreude, the diagnosis-at-a-distance, and what it means to imagine the death of a king.

Show Notes

ŌURA Announces U.S. Manufacturing Operations in Support of Scaling Defense Business

Oura Ring makers working with military to open first U.S. factory in Fort Worth

What Does Palantir Actually Do?

Palantir co-founder Peter Thiel to lead 4-part series on the Antichrist

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Bonus Sample: Antifascist Christianity: Bonhoeffer (Pt 2)

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew recounts the story of a young, hoity-toity soft-nationalist German theologian named Dietrich Bonhoeffer who discovered the radical soul of antifascism by hanging out in a Black Baptist church in Harlem in 1930. He came to the US believing in the white Jesus of European empire, but left enthralled by the Black Jesus of the oppressed. Back in Germany, he played 78s of spirituals and gospel tunes for the students of his illegal seminaries as he and other members of the Confessing Church issued some of the earliest formal rebukes to the Reich. And then he joined a plot to assassinate Hitler.

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Brief: Antifascist Christianity: Bonhoeffer (Pt 1)

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Show Notes

UCLA Fires Beloved Professor Over 2024 Encampment Arrest – Poppy Press

NY Mayoral Candidates Address Sanctuary, Trump and Religious Hatred at Interfaith Forum

Religion and Socialism Working Group - Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

Undersold and Oversold: Reinhold Neibuhr and Economic Justice

Swing Low Sweet Chariot - Fisk Jubilee Singers (1909)

St. James Missionary Baptist Church of Canton: Wade In the Water (1978)

Evangelische Kirche Halle Westfalen

Bethge, Eberhard. Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Biography. Translated by Eric Mosbacher, Peter and Betty Ross, Frank Clarke, and William Glen-Doepel. Revised and edited by Victoria J. Barnett. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Cost of Discipleship. Translated by R. H. Fuller, revised by Irmgard Booth. New York: Touchstone, 2018.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Letters and Papers from Prison. Edited by Eberhard Bethge. Translated by Reginald Fuller, Frank Clark, and John Bowden. New York: Touchstone, 1997.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. The Bonhoeffer Reader. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013.

Marsh, Charles. Strange Glory. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014.

Martin, Eric. The Writing on the Wall: Signs of Faith Against Fascism. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022.

McNeil, Genna Rae, Houston Bryan Roberson, Quinton Hosford Dixie, and Kevin McGruder. Witness: Two Hundred Years of African-American Faith and Practice at the Abyssinian Baptist Church of Harlem, New York. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2014.

Tietz, Christiane. Theologian of Resistance: The Life and Thought of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Translated by Victoria J. Barnett. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2016.

Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind. Translated by Arthur Wills. With a preface by T. S. Eliot. New York: Routledge, 2002.

Williams, Reggie L. Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2014.

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272: Jillian Michaels is the Biggest Loser

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The unavoidable question of the week: why is Jillian Michaels on CNN commenting on slavery, exactly?

As it turns out, Netflix provides the answer. The three-part docuseries, Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser, creeps behind the scenes of this uber-popular and uber-disturbing reality show that weirdly promoted fat-shaming while simultaneously pretending to alleviate it.

As we’ll discuss today, we can’t shake the feeling that the biggest loser from this entire mess is all of us.

Show Notes

As Republicans spar over IVF, some turn to obscure MAHA-backed alternative

RFK Jr. Is Getting Personal Authority Over Who to Kick Off Medicaid

Trump and RFK Jr. to Ban COVID-19 Vaccine ‘Within Months’

Scientists Strip ‘Diversity’ Language From Research to Keep Federal Grants

After ‘The Biggest Loser,’ Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight

ACOG on "Restorative Reproductive medicine”

Arkansas’ RESTORE Act

MAHA-backed IVF-alternative

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Bonus Sample: The Beatles’ Billionaire Yogi

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Levitation, world peace, and blissful enlightenment were all essential to the hippie counterculture. But it came at quite a price. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi made billions selling magical mantras and the promise of perfect happiness. Most well-known for being endorsed by the Beatles and David Lynch, he was also feted by world leaders and prestigious universities. The true story behind this 5’1” marketing genius is complex and layered: illicit sex, paranormal promises, alternative medicine, palatial estates, overpriced courses, bogus quantum physics, indoctrinated children, and mass group meditation combined with “yogic flying” would supposedly bring about world peace.

For his latest stand-alone episode in the Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian dives deep into the money-scented blissful waters of Transcendental Meditation and reports back on the sharks that swim beneath the surface. Stay tuned for some reflections at the end about the differences between cults and more familiar, normalized religions.

Show Notes

David Wants to Fly

Robes of Silk, Feet of Clay

The Deceptive World of ™

Maharishi Exposed

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Brief: Ground Zero Grifting

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Plandemic creator Mikki Willis recently hosted an hour-long webinar to promote his supplements company. Marketed as a storytelling hour to share the power of immunity and god with their followers, the conversation went off the rails. Derek and Julian tune in and discuss.

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271: The Miseducation of PragerU

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The right has waged a war on “woke” Sesame Street for generations. When the party passed the 2025 Recissions Act, they were finally able to take a significant field advantage in this battle—one which Big Bird and Mr Snuffleupagus never wanted to be in. That bill stripped $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, greatly damaging NPR, PBS, and mostly their member stations. The CPB announced it will have to close in January 2026. What will take its place? Well, the right has a plan for that, or so Vox speculates: PragerU.

Founded in 2009 as a right-wing alternative to reality, the sprawling, well-funded network teaches kids to hate DEI, love paying taxes, and recognize that the Bible offers the only salvation on this planet. Could it replace Sesame Street, however? Well, it’s already in use in numerous classrooms—and the right wants it in all of them.

Show Notes

The White House has a preferred alternative to PBS. It may already be in countless classrooms.

What Percentage of White Southerners Owned Slaves

How Neoliberalism Swallowed Arts Policy

The Global Liberal Arts Challenge | Ethics & International Affairs

When the Arts Are Attacked, Democracy Is at Risk | Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council

Davis, Michael. Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.

Kamp, David. Sunny Days. New York: Simon & Schuster, n.d.

Ledbetter, James. Made Possible By...: The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States. London; New York: Verso, 1997.

Stewart, David C.The PBS Companion: A History of Public Television. New York: TV Books, 1999.

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Bonus Sample: The Naturopaths Are At It Again

Mon, 18 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

In preparation for this Thursday's episode on PragerU, Derek looks at one of the propaganda organization's videos featuring naturopathic practitioner, Joseph Pizzorno.

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Brief: Olympics for Dopers

Sat, 16 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The Enhanced Games promises to display the "true potential" of athletes by letting them use any sort of performance enhancement drugs available when it launches in Las Vegas in 2026. Yet why would a group of Silicon Valley billionaires and venture capitalists with no interest in sports be behind it? Likely because it's all a supplements grift, as Derek and Julian discuss.

Show Notes

The Definitive, Insane, Swimsuit-Bursting Story of the Steroid Olympics

Joe Rogan Experience #2166 - Enhanced Games

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270: Kennedy's Bloodbath

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The implications of awarding Robert F Kennedy, Jr with a position he’s completely unqualified for are becoming clearer by the day. While he’s made numerous egregious and dangerous moves as Secretary of HHS, canceling nearly $500 million of mRNA research grants is one of the most startling and shortsighted to date. Today we look at both the microcosm and macrocosm of such a move.

Show Notes

Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts

RFK Jr. slashed mRNA vaccine development funding. A Nobel Prize winner just responded

Kennedy to halt $500 million in vaccine projects

Exclusive: Medical journal rejects Kennedy's call for retraction of vaccine study

Do All Celebrities Have Lyme Disease Now?

CDC Lyme Disease Case Maps

How mRNA Vaccines Work

CDC Explaining How Vaccines Work

Clinical Advances for mRNA Vaccines and Cancer Immunotherapy

Katalin Kariko’s Brittanica page

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Bonus Sample: Nair, Mamdani, and Culture against the Culture War (Pt 1)

Mon, 11 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Well, I seem to always be inspired by the person who is considered marginal. Firstly, their spirit of survival, their resilience, their lack of self-pity, the ability usually to laugh in the face of having nothing and to create a kind of sense of flamboyance and life at any cost, despite having you know no resources of any kind that are visible. That's what inspires me and I think in making portraits of the so-called outsiders, I'm also then allowed to question what is that society that deems us an outsider?

— Mira Nair on BBC “Masterpiece”, 11/29/04

When official America speaks of good and bad Muslims, we must not think that they are speaking of the attitude of Muslims to Islam. They are actually talking about the attitude of Muslims to the U.S. A good Muslim is simply a pro-American Muslim and a bad Muslim is simply an anti-American Muslim. This is not about Islam, it is about America.

— Mahmoud Mamdani, C-Span's Book TV series, hosted by the University of Michigan on April 15, 2005.

Want to better understand Zohran Mamdani’s intellectual and emotional heritage? Want to understand how he seems to be thrashing the culture war with, well culture?

Matthew did, and so he looked into the films of his mom Mira Nair (Part 1), and the scholarship of his dad, Mahmood (Part 2).

Show Notes

Masterpiece - Mira Nair - BBC Sounds

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Author Mahmood Mamdani

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Penguin Random House Secondary Education

Reluctant Fundamentalist, The

Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Sam Harris on the Reality of Islam - Truthdig

Samuel Huntington’s Great Idea Was Totally Wrong | The New Republic

#ZeeJLF2018 | Mira Nair

A timeline of JK Rowling's anti-trans shift

Mori Araj Suno lyrics

My secret debate with Sam Harris: A revealing 4-hour dialogue on Islam, racism & free-speech hypocrisy - Salon.com

New Atheists and old prejudices - The Chronikler

The Clash of Civilizations - If Books Could Kill - Apple Podcasts

President Reagan welcomes al-Qaeda and Mujahideen leaders to the White House, May 1986

For Zohran Mamdani, Mom Mira Nair’s Films Were a Formative Influence

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Brief: Nair, Mamdani, and Culture against the Culture War (Pt 1)

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

— Mira Nair on BBC “Masterpiece”, 11/29/04

— Mahmoud Mamdani, C-Span's Book TV series, hosted by the University of Michigan on April 15, 2005.

Want to better understand Zohran Mamdani’s intellectual and emotional heritage? Want to understand how he seems to be thrashing the culture war with, well culture?

Matthew did, and so he looked into the films of his mom Mira Nair (Part 1), and the scholarship of his dad, Mahmood (Part 2).

Show Notes

Masterpiece - Mira Nair - BBC Sounds

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Author Mahmood Mamdani

Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Penguin Random House Secondary Education

Reluctant Fundamentalist, The

Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Sam Harris on the Reality of Islam - Truthdig

Samuel Huntington’s Great Idea Was Totally Wrong | The New Republic

#ZeeJLF2018 | Mira Nair

A timeline of JK Rowling's anti-trans shift

Mori Araj Suno lyrics

My secret debate with Sam Harris: A revealing 4-hour dialogue on Islam, racism & free-speech hypocrisy - Salon.com

New Atheists and old prejudices - The Chronikler

The Clash of Civilizations - If Books Could Kill - Apple Podcasts

President Reagan welcomes al-Qaeda and Mujahideen leaders to the White House, May 1986

For Zohran Mamdani, Mom Mira Nair’s Films Were a Formative Influence

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269: The Book of Gwyneth

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

In her new biography of Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Odell calls Goop “a powerful platform for spreading health misinformation.” So many topics Goop has covered favorably—yoni eggs, coffee enemas, celery juice—have been scrutinized on our podcast.

Rolling off her successful biography of Anna Wintour, Odell decided to train her sight on the “It girl” of the nineties who pivoted to a lucrative but contentious wellness business that laid the groundwork for the influencer aesthetic. She joins Derek to discuss her new book. But first, we discuss our thoughts on Odell’s subject.

Show Notes

Gwyneth: The Biography

BackRow by Amy Odell

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Bonus Sample: The '80s Zen Master Con Man

Mon, 04 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Everything about Zen Master Rama was fake—except for the piles of money he made. His black belt in paranormal martial arts, three past lives as a Buddhist teacher, 31 meditation albums he claimed to compose in other dimensions, multiple computer software companies, and a bestseller based on being a “world-class snowboarder” were all smoke and mirrors.

He had no training or talent in any of these areas. He was an expert con man, however. The man wore Versace suits and Rolex watches, bought mansions, and owned a collection of pricey cars. His headshots were by the top Hollywood photographer of the day; he made many TV appearances.

His students believed he could fill rooms with golden light, skate on light-beams, and protect them from the demons he claimed wanted to steal their enlightened energy. He instructed them to be celibate but then manipulated and coerced the prettiest into joining him for tantric sex rituals he claimed would accelerate their enlightenment. It didn’t end well for anyone—including him.

In the latest installment of the Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian tells the tale of Frederick Lenz, a quintessential 80's synthesizer of phoney Buddhism, New Age delusions, cultic abuse, and wealth as a signifier of spiritual progress.

Show Notes

The Code Cult of the CPU Guru

Mentor to Some, Cult Leader to Others

The Guru’s Latest Incarnation

Atrocity Guide The Enlightenment Fraud of Zen Master Rama

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Brief: DJ Khaled of Pseudoscience

Sat, 02 Aug 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Strange billboards have been popping up all over Los Angeles featuring disgraced Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, and an unidentified man listing a new URL—one that redirects to the Theranos website. Against all odds, the brand is back, with a wellness twist, as the new founder is directly courting MAHA. Derek and Julian dive in.

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268: Rogan’s Christian President

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

We catch up on three figures this week.

First is Bari Weiss, who's trying to sell her upstart media org, The Free Press, to Skydance for a reported $250 million, just days after the network's merger with Paramount was approved and they said bye-bye to Stephen Colbert.

Then we talk about RFK Jr's continued dismantling of our public health system, as well as an interesting lawsuit filed by the very nonprofit he founded.

Finally, we look into Texas state representative and Presbyterian pastor-in-training, James Talarico, and discuss his viral moment on Joe Rogan.

Show Notes

Anti-vaccine group that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. founded files lawsuit against him over vaccine safety task force

RFK Jr. to Oust Advisory Panel on Cancer Screenings, HIV Prevention Drugs

Was Colbert Cancelled for Trump?

Bari Weiss in Talks with Skydance for $250M

Billionaires Back Anti-Woke “University.”

James Talarico Delivers Sermon Against Christian Nationalism

James Talarico Questions Republican Bill Forcing Ten Commandments To Be Displayed In Classrooms

Joe Rogan Experience #2352 - James Talarico

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Bonus Sample: "Natural" Snake Oil?

Mon, 28 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

MAHA hates petroleum-based food dyes. Yet, as Derek unpacks, many of the main influencers in this movement monetize products synthesized by the same exact chemical process.

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Brief: Mehdi Hasan vs Jordan Peterson

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Mehdi Hasan's recent Jubilee appearance has blown up—and so has criticism of the entire media operation. Derek and Julian discuss the value and pitfalls of this format, contrasting the far-right participants sitting across from Hasan from another recent episode, when atheists went to battle with Jordan Peterson.

Show Notes

1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives (ft. Mehdi Hasan)

Jordan Peterson vs 20 Atheists

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267: Epstein Never Died

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Jeffrey Epstein’s name is being screamed into the headlines again. The late and former self-described best-friend of Donald Trump's highly suspicious 2019 death following his arrest for child sex trafficking has been a loose thread for both rabid conspiracists and the reality-based community.

Now that prominent conspiracy personalities are in the highest positions in America's law enforcement agencies, the QAnon faithful have been expecting all the damning details about the Democrat cabal to emerge. But that's not what's happened.

Now Pam Bondi, Kash Patel, and Dan Bongino are in the collective hot seat as MAGA demand answers, while some appear to be colluding with Donald Trump in their own Deep State cover-up.

CORRECTION: Matthew misstated the Virginia Guiffre was allegedly assaulted by Prince Philip. The allegation is against Prince Andrew, who is still alive and can still be tried.

Show Notes

Why is MAGA so obsessed with the Epstein files?

Trump can't stop MAGA from obsessing about the Epstein files

Why do Trump's MAGA followers care so much about the Epstein files?

Republicans are split over the Trump administration’s handling of Epstein files

How Trump spent years stoking dark theories, and why he’s facing Epstein case blowback now

'We want justice done': Christianity Today calls to see the Epstein files

146: The Reality of Online Child Abuse (w/Håkon Høydal) — Conspirituality

Online child sexual exploitation: A statistical profile of police-reported incidents in Canada, 2014 to 2022

Woman who accused Donald Trump of raping her at 13 drops lawsuit

Perversion of Justice: Jeffrey Epstein | Miami Herald

Perversion of Justice – HarperCollins

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Bonus Sample: Galloway and the Mooch: The Lost Boys of Capitalism (Pt 2)

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

On the horizon: a new liberal-center manosphere, yearning to reach out to the young men poached by Trumpism, but offering what, exactly?

Professor Scott Galloway and Anthony Scaramucci are earnest and charming in their way, and they have Trump’s number. But with their new project, Lost Boys podcast, they’re stuck in a paradox. They know enough to admit that the capitalist logic that made them both multi-millionaires is fickle, cruel, and misogynist. They know it’s beating up everyone, including young men. But they can’t imagine any other way of organizing society. So what do they offer? Nostalgia for the 1980s, self-help tips.

In this two-part series, Matthew looks at why the Lost Boys project is deceptively attractive. Liberal, libertarian, or even reactionary parenting can affect an earnest emotional bond through overtones of spiritual honesty. But all the empathy is impotent when it defaults into an apologetics for the very systems that make us suffer.

Part One looks at the overall liberal manosphere politics of Lost Boys, including the evidentiary claims put forward by their premier guest Richard Reeves, who Galloway calls his “Yoda” on the subject of how men are doing these days.

Part Two goes into a granular reading of Episode 7 of Lost Boys, where the guest is Deirdre Scaramucci, Anthony’s partner. Together, the trio discloses a ton about their ambivalent GenX childhoods and their current parenting experience, including how they rationalize losing emotional control.

Show Notes

Lost Boys - Podcast

Anthony Scaramucci Called Me to Unload About White House Leakers, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon | The New Yorker

Politics for men - by Richard V Reeves

Richard Reeves? : r/AskFeminists

Right Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription: Richard Reeves' Of Boys and Men | Institute for Family Studies

Collapse Feminism by Alice Cappelle | Penguin Random House Canada

Communism | David Graeber

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Brief: Galloway and the Mooch: The Lost Boys of Capitalism (Pt 1)

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

On the horizon: a new liberal-center manosphere, yearning to reach out to the young men poached by Trumpism, but offering what, exactly?

Part Two (drops Monday on Patreon) goes into a granular reading of Episode 7 of Lost Boys, where the guest is Deirdre Scaramucci, Anthony’s partner. Together, the trio discloses a ton about their ambivalent GenX childhoods and their current parenting experience, including how they rationalize losing emotional control.

Show Notes

Lost Boys - Podcast

Anthony Scaramucci Called Me to Unload About White House Leakers, Reince Priebus, and Steve Bannon | The New Yorker

Politics for men - by Richard V Reeves

Richard Reeves? : r/AskFeminists

Right Diagnosis, Wrong Prescription: Richard Reeves' Of Boys and Men | Institute for Family Studies

Collapse Feminism by Alice Cappelle | Penguin Random House Canada

Communism | David Graeber

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266: Jubilee’s Body Image Debates

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Body image is a phenomenon that has long simmered below the surface of the wellness industry. We’ve spent years covering the hard and soft eugenics that inform so many physical and spiritual practices, and how the notion of an ideal self persists and, as we get into today, grown in the online world.

Just as shaming and skewed body perceptions proliferate in the comments sections and fitfluencer podcast world, so have opportunities for meaningful conversations. One such venue is the wildly popular debate and discussion shows hosted by Jubilee Media. They’ve somehow managed to tow the line between heartfelt sharing and outright clickbait, for better and worse.

We look at a few recent episodes that deal directly with body image issues, from being jacked and bro’d up to the challenges of obesity and eating disorders, and discuss how Jubilee is walking such a precarious tightrope.

Show Notes

Anorexia vs Obese | Middle Ground

Is Being Fat A Choice? Fit Men vs Fat Men | Middle Ground

Is Being Fat A Choice? Fit Women vs Fat Women | Middle Ground

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Bonus Sample: Globalize The Intifada?

Mon, 14 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Protest slogans are designed to pack a punch. They communicate potent emotions and persuasive ideas to the public while galvanizing activist allies. At 5 '11, wearing an elegant hijab over jet-black hair, Nerdeen Kiswani cuts an elegant figure. “From the river to the sea,” she cries, and the loyal group around her repeats it back, loudly. “Palestine will be free!” Again the repeated phrase comes back. “You are my amplifier,” she tells them.

Even while delivering her speech, the crowd loudly shouts each phrase after she says it. “We need allies who are gonna help us to reach a victory, not allies who are gonna tell us to be non-violent!”

Those at the front are holding up a long banner spread out in front of them that reads, “Globalize the Intifada.” Kiswani is the founder and chair of a Brooklyn-based group called Within Our Lifetime—which split off from other anti-Zionist groups she felt were not radical enough.

“We don't want no two-state, we want '48!”

She's performed this activist role many times on New York streets: in front of a memorial installation for the Nova music festival; at the campus protests in 2024, where she told the students, “we must escalate!” She's taken credit for popularizing the slogan “globalize the intifada” since 2021. When NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani was asked how he felt about it, he first struggled to answer, then said “it's not language I use.” His fellow candidate and ally, Brad Lander, said it was hard not to hear it as meaning “open season on Jews.” Mamdani has been pictured on social media alongside Kiswani and her inner circle.

At least six men affiliated with Within Our Lifetime have ended up with jail sentences for hospitalizing Jews after planning and then bragging about violence in exposed private chats—even in public posts. The group was booted from Instagram (180k+ followers) when they posted New York City maps showing the locations of specific corporate, government, and Jewish organizations. The phrases, "Blood on their Hands," "Know your Enemy" and "Globalize the Intifada" were emblazoned above and below the maps.

"Intifada, intifada! Long live the intifada," Kiswani chanted close to Wall Street, outside the Nova music festival memorial, dedicated to the 378 civilians killed and 40 abducted. Dancing and drumming, protestors in the crowd chanted back, set off flares, and unfurled Hamas and Hezbollah flags.

Julian takes a deep dive into this controversial group in the context of an unfolding genocide in Gaza, and the long history of conflict, conquest, and religious extremism in the region. He asks fervent supporters of Israel, "How much do you know about the Nakba?" and pro-Palestine loyalists, "How much do you know about Hamas?"

Show Notes

NYT Profile on Nerdeen Kiswani

Kiswani Tweets About Using "globalize the intifada" since 2021

Kiswani Speaks At Columbia Encampment on Wedding Day

Columbia Group Influenced by WOL To Support Armed Resistance

Kiswani Wears Button Showing Hamas Spokesman

Hamas and Hezbollah Flags At NYC Nova Memorial Protest

Within Our Lifetime Posts Maps To IG

6 Charged in Antisemitic Mob Beating In Times Square

Sadaah Masoud Sentenced to 18 Months for 3 Antisemitic Assaults

Hamas Leaders Live in Luxury

Hamas Financial Network

Hamas Gunmen Hunt Down Fatah Rivals

Zohran Mamdani with WOL

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Brief: Vaccination, a Delusion?

Sat, 12 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

In 1898, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace published a pamphlet entitled, "Vaccination a Delusion; Its Penal Enforcement a Crime." This work became the foundation of the modern anti-vax movement. Derek discusses how even though vaccination science is constantly evolving, the rhetoric of people like RFK Jr is just rehashing old and outdated ideas.

Show Notes

Vaccination a Delusion; Its Penal Enforcement a Crime

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265: Guru Rehab

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

We return to the ongoing saga of Aubrey Marcus. As a wealthy, anti-vax New Ager who campaigned for RFK Jr (before going MAGA), he’s a pole star for the conspirituality moment and its political manias. He’s also a ceaseless innovator of guru narrative tech, with his latest trick being the attempt to turn his own implosion into top-tier content by enlisting an ex-fiance to prove his spiritual bona fides. ,

As we look at his rehab schtick in the context of the great guru death-spirals of the past, we’ll learn that he has a lot of the old 1970s vibe going on, but the digital age brings new humiliations and opportunities. At the end, we'll update you on another guru rehab in motion: the Liver King.

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Bonus Sample: Purity Tests & Coalition Building

Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Zohran Mamdani's win in the NYC democratic mayoral primary has been filled with deflections and pivots so that politicians and pundits don't have to focus on the core issues he's talking about. The left has a path worth considering. The democratic establishment is, for the most part, refusing to endorse him. Derek wonders if the rest of the left can avoid similar traps.

Show Notes

Globesonic On the Pier: 8 Years in NYC

Globesonic Sound System 5 Years On The Hudson River

The Cause That Turned Idealists Into Authoritarian Zealots

Why I Just Quit DSA

Ocasio-Cortez Loses the Democratic Socialists’ Endorsement Over Israel

Status of DSA National Endorsement for Rep. Ocasio-Cortez

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Brief: The Liver King Crash-Out

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

On June 24, Brian Johnson, aka The Liver King, was arrested in Austin for threatening Joe Rogan. The infamous raw organ "primal" influencer has since published dozens of videos detailing what appears to be a downward spiral—though the problems date back years. Derek and Julian detail the crash.

Show Notes

'Liver King' arrested in Austin after allegedly threatening Joe Rogan

'Liver King' says he 'will never stop' after arrest over alleged threat against Joe Rogan

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264: The Mamdani Effect

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 10:00:00 -0000

"Tonight we made history," grinned Zohran Mamdani as his supporters cheered with delight, "I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City. His victory over disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo in this primary election has made Mamdani, the 33-year-old fresh-faced Indian Muslim assemblyman from Queens, into a national sensation—and one of the biggest news stories in the week when Trump bombed Iran's nuclear facilities.

He's used his eloquent, telegenic charisma to make a principled stand for Democratic socialist policies, call for Palestinian human rights, and propose a radical re-envisioning of policing in his city. Which of course makes him the target of conspiracy-mongers and right-wing propagandists, as well establishment Democrats and supporters of Israel.

As masked ICE thugs, cynical SCOTUS enablers, movie-villain oligarchs, and MAGA cult ghouls steadily dismantle democracy we'll discuss the Mamdani Effect. Is he the hero we've been hoping for, or are his hard-left positions corrosive to a broader anti-Trump coalition?

Show Notes

NYC Councilman Brad Lander Is ‘Glad’ To Belong To A Shul That Promotes Toeiva; Adds That Israel Is ‘Occupying’ West Bank

Defund the Police? Turning a Slogan into Policy - Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)

Reimagining a More Equitable Policing and Public Safety System in New York City

Seven Facts About the NYPD Budget

After Winning NYC's Democratic Mayoral Primary, Zohran Mamdani Reaffirms Support For Reparations

NYC mayoral candidate Zahron Mamdani vows to 'expand and protect' trans healthcare

Democratic NYC Mayoral Candidate Zohran Mamdani Is Pledging $65 Million for Trans Health Care

Divine Shawarma: NYPD Officer's Halal Lunch Break

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Bonus Sample: Greta Thunberg’s “Super Power” Vs. Fascists and Liberals (Pt 2)

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Greta Thunberg is a burr in the ass of the powerful throughout the world—and not only for rightwing sociopaths. Increasingly, as she grows up, learns more, and networks with other activists around the world, she’s become a scourge for liberals as well.

Many of them would prefer she remain a child, providing a theatre of emotional catharsis for a climate crisis industry more interested in raising money from green economy donors than forcing change.

Now, as Thunberg broadens her target to capitalism and colonialism writ large, it’s more and more clear that she’s confronting what autistic philosopher Robert Chapman calls “the empire of normality,” from her lived experience of autism, about which so many of the conspiracy theories we cover here swirl.

Seizure of the Madleen
Why do Fascists Hate Greta
Why are Liberals Backing Away from Greta?
Neurodiversity and activism

Masking, Burnout, Contemplation
Hamster Wheel of Capitalism
Parenting in Humility

ChaptersPart one (Saturday on Main Feed):Part two:

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Brief: Greta Thunberg’s “Super Power” vs. Fascists and Liberals (Pt 1)

Sat, 28 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Many of them would prefer she remain a child, providing a theatre of emotional catharsis for a climate crisis industry more interested in raising money from green economy donors than forcing change.

Now, as Thunberg broadens her target to capitalism and colonialism writ large, it’s more and more clear that she’s confronting what autistic philosopher Robert Chapman calls “the empire of normality”, from her lived experience of autism, about which so many of the conspiracy theories we cover here swirl.

CORRECTION: Robert Chapman's pronouns are they/them.

Chapter One:

Seizure of the Madleen
Why do Fascists Hate Greta
Why are Liberals Backing Away from Greta?
Neurodiversity and activism

Chapter two (Monday on Patreon):

Masking, Burnout, Contemplation
Hamster Wheel of Capitalism
Parenting in Humility

Show Notes

Israel Intercepts Gaza-Bound Aid Ship With Greta Thunberg Aboard - The New York Times

Greta Thunberg “kidnapped by the Israeli occupation forces” - YouTube

Greta Thunberg Frog Hat - Shibtee Clothing

Posts distort 2018 Greta Thunberg tweet on climate danger | AP News

Lindsey Graham Fantasizes About Sinking Gaza Aid Ship Carrying Greta Thunberg | Truthout

Thunberg gets backlash for pro-Palestinian post – DW – 10/21/2023

Fact Check: Altered image of Greta Thunberg holding antisemitic book | Reuters

Right-Wing Attacks Greta Thunberg

The cult of Greta Thunberg - spiked

Targeting Greta Thunberg: A Case Study in Online Mis/Disinformation | German Marshall Fund of the United States

The dangers of depicting Greta Thunberg as a prophet

Margaret Atwood says Greta Thunberg is the ‘Joan of Arc’ of environmentalism | The Independent

Greta Thunberg speech at climate protest Glasgow, November 5

We are all living in Greta's world now

The Greta Effect: a timeline of Thunberg's activism leading to her being on the Madleen

Fridays for Future – How Greta started a global movement

Greta Thunberg: From a Darling of Liberal Media to Public Enemy No. 1 - Left Voice

Why the Media Stopped Covering Greta Thunberg

Greta Thunberg Speaks from Aid Ship Heading to Gaza Despite Israeli Threats: It’s My Moral Obligation | Democracy Now!

Jason Hickel: Why a Liberated Palestine Threatens Global Capitalism

The Climate Movement Breaks Through | The Nation

Greta Thunberg Was Targeted for an Octopus. Then Israel Chimed In

Greta Thunberg is far from the only neurodivergent climate activist – many who see the world differently also want to change it

School strike for climate - save the world by changing the rules | Greta Thunberg | TEDxStockholm

Understanding Masking: A Neurodiversity-Affirming Perspective - Autism Society of NC

Mask of Your Own Face – Experiences with Masking as an Autistic Adult - Autism Spectrum News

Autistic Masking

“Masking Is Life”: Experiences of Masking in Autistic and Nonautistic Adults - PMC

What Is Autistic Burnout? | Psychology Today Canada

The Treadmill Tendency

Greta Thunberg on X: "yes, please do enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com" / X

Our House Is on Fire by Greta Thunberg, Svante Thunberg, Malena Ernman, Beata Ernman: 9780143133575 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

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263: The Apostle Assassin

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

“Dad went to war last night” read Vance Boelter's text to his family in the early hours of June 14. This was sent after his shooting rampage aimed at Democratic lawmakers, which left two dead and two critically wounded.

Turns out Boelter is an ordained pastor in a church associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, which sees the world as a spiritual battlefield and whose leaders have preached that political enemies are possessed by demons.

This is not some small fringe movement. Key figures in the Trump administration are adherents. We revisit this apocalyptic evangelical Christian cult and consider its political violence and religious extremism.

Show Notes

Seven Mountain Mandate, Paula White and Trump

Home-goods companies prepare new Trump-linked products

Who Wants a MAGA Instant Pot?

I Tried Pre-Ordering the Trump Phone. The Page Failed and It Charged My Credit Card the Wrong Amount

Doug Ford's Bill 5 is now law in Ontario. Here's what happens next

Chiefs of Ontario issue urgent warning on Bill C-5, the One Canadian Economy Act, and will rally on Parliament Hill

CCLA Urges Federal Government to Reverse Course on Bill C-5

Legal experts gear up to challenge Bill 5 as First Nations pledge to ‘close Ontario’s economy

Reckless and chilling: Bill 5 is Doug Ford’s most dangerous legislation yet

Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years

Brief: Stealing Democracy for Jesus

An Audio-Documentary Series on the Christian Leaders and Ideas that Fueled the Capitol Riot

The Army of God Comes Out of the Shadows

Meet the powerful evangelicals who believe Trump is an apostle who will reclaim America for Christ

Vance Boelter and the Rise of “Spiritual Warfare”

We Should Not Be Shocked That the Alleged Minnesota Shooter’s Christian School Is Connected to Political Violence

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Bonus Sample: The Two-For-One Guru of MSIA

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

He built a lucrative seminar empire in the 80s, owned an Italian Villa, founded a “spiritual university,” and travelled the world with a harem of handsome young initiates. Roger Hinkins claimed to be inhabited by another consciousness that he called “John the Beloved” and the “Mystical Traveller,” which taught the secrets of out-of-body experiences. As he copied those teachings from elsewhere, his lies eventually caught up with him. But he told his loyal followers that critics and defectors were infected with an infectious demonic energy called “The Red Monk.”

For this self-contained installment of his popular Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian tells the fascinating story the Movement for Spiritual Inner Awareness, and how its leader fooled devotees into thinking he was clairvoyant.

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Brief: MAHA Mass Casualty Horizon

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

What dangers does an RFK Jr HHS pose to Americans, really? Derek dives into science writer's Laurie Garrett's work, who spoke to the dangers we're facing today in 1994—and who has raised an alarm about the consequences of destroying public health ever since.

Show Notes

The Coming Plague — Laurie Garrett

Betrayal of Trust — Laurie Garrett

Laurie Garrett on This Week in Virology

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262: Dems Ask “What is a Man?”

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

takeover—legacy media and Democratic strategists have the same question on their lips: What is going on with young men? Though Kamala Harris won the overall 18- to 29-year-old demographic, Trump improved his share by 9 points. Men in this age group voted for Trump by 16% more than women did. What explains this?

Perhaps this is due to the right inflaming the anxieties and resentments of young men online. Red-pilled, hyper-masculine, anti-woke conspiracy influencers are filling the gap created by the “meaning crisis.” Maybe the left needs its own Joe Rogan! Not to worry: top political consultants Ilyse Hogue and John Della Volpe have pitched a new research initiative to the Democratic Party donor class.

Their response, the widely derided SAM (Speaking with American Men), comes with a proposed $20M budget. No cap, bro, they'll low-key give center-left corporate politics the rizz it needs to slay the MAGA simps and cape for democracy.

Politico: Dems set out to study young men

RS: Dems $20M Plan to Win Young Men

Less Engaged Voters Were Key To Trump’s Victory

Kamala Underperformed with Three Demographics

Nation: What Caused Dems No-Show Problem

Cooke Report: A Comprehensive Analysis on Why Harris Lost

Do Not Split: An Illuminating Look at Hong Kong’s Pro-Democracy Uprising - Human Rights First

Show Notes

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Bonus Sample: The Bethesda Declaration

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

In October 2020, three contrarian medical professionals published The Great Barrington Declaration to great applause by the pro-business, anti-closure crowd. One of them, Jay Bhattacharya, now runs the NIH.

Things are not going well under his watch. Last week, he was grilled in front of Congress about the $18B in proposed cuts to NIH funding. This happened a day after over 300 people under his guard published The Bethesda Declaration, a document filled with issues occurring under Bhattacharya's leadership.

Derek discusses this new declaration and listens in on the Congressional hearing.

The Bethesda Declaration

An Uproar at the NIH

The Disappearing Funds for Chronic Diseases

Show Notes

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Brief: The Ghost Lab

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Cable travel channels are filled with haunted houses and other paranormal activity, beyond History Channel’s Ancient Aliens and cryptozoology content. The more radicalized Gaia TV has close to a million paid subscribers gobbling up content about yoga, meditation, and psychedelic consciousness alongside accounts of inter-dimensional cryptids, Q-adjacent vampire reptilians, and channeled messages from benevolent ETs.

Julian’s talk with Pulitzer-nominated journalist Matt Hongoltz-Hetling about his new book, The Ghost Lab, How Bigfoot Hunters, Mediums, and Alien Enthusiasts are Wrecking Science. In it, he explores the history of ghost hunting and asks if failing trust in educational, religious, and government institutions is fueling a burgeoning obsession with the paranormal.

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261: Where Are They Now?

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

From 1999-2002, VH1 ran a show called “Where Are They Now?” The irregularly produced series wondered aloud what happened to former cultural icons like eighties hair metal bands, kid actors, and one-hit wonders. While some people remained surprisingly relevant, most were confined to, at best, appearing at VFWs and regional summer festivals in parking lots or, tragically, gripped by an addiction and dreams of a better time that they couldn’t make last.

Two years ago this month our book, Conspirituality, was published. We called one section Rogue’s Gallery to highlight a range of figures we’ve covered on the podcast. One of those chapters was dedicated to a man named Robert F Kennedy, Jr—don’t say we didn’t warn you. How about the other nine?

In our own version of “Where Are They Now,” we’re going to turn back the clock and revisit those other nine chapters. We’ll do it over three episodes in the coming weeks. This week, we begin with famed women’s health expert turned harp-playing conspiracy peddler, Christiane Northrup; self-proclaimed philosopher king, Charles Eisenstein; and former model turned middling new age filmmaker turned anti-vax documentarian Mikki Willis.

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Bonus Sample: Watching Andor with the Kids (Pt 2)

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew continues the Antifascist Woodshed series with a two-part analysis of an extraordinary cultural event: rebellions within rebellions—or how a ragtag band of writers and worldbuilders Trojan-horsed an antifascist masterpiece into the Empire of streaming content.

Seven chapters:

(This past Saturday, main feed:)

Space Wizards or Antifascism?
Star Wars Culture Wars
A Post-Fragmentary Left

(Today:)

Hope and Love
Tony Gilroy’s Antifascist Field Manual
The Used Future
Antifascist Parents Are Better than Jedi Parents

NB: There will be spoilers for Andor!

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Brief: Watching Andor with the Kids (Pt 1)

Sat, 07 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Seven chapters:

Space Wizards or Antifascism?
Star Wars Culture Wars
A Post-Fragmentary Left

(Monday on Patreon:)

Hope and Love
Tony Gilroy’s Antifascist Field Manual
The Used Future
Antifascist Parents Are Better than Jedi Parents

NB: There will be spoilers for Andor!

Show Notes

The Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas and Bill Moyers

Special Interview: Nostalgia for the Superego (w/Sam Binkley) — Conspirituality

Movie Review – THX 1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut – A Sci-Fi Geek Looks at George Lucas' First Film

8 women accuse screenwriter Max Landis of sexual, emotional abuse - National | Globalnews.ca

'Star Wars' Actress Amandla Stenberg's 'White People' Remark Sparks Fury - Newsweek

'The Acolyte' Star Amandla Stenberg Cracks Up at 'Gayest Star Wars' Moniker: It's 'So Gay Already!' | Video

Amandla Stenberg Slams Anti-‘Woke’ Attacks And ‘Intolerable Racism’ Over ‘The Acolyte’

Sorry, haters, Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ new characters more than make up for the movie’s sins | Vox

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 - Official 'Omega & Tech' Clip (2023)

The Bad Batch: Tech’s death and the neurodivergent community

Why Our Autism Community Loves Star Wars - Kerry Magro

Virtue Hoarders and the Rejection of Liberalism (w/ Catherine Liu) | The Chris Hedges Report

The problem with identity politics | Counterfire

Transcript: Andor: Tony Gilroy on Oppressive Regimes and Popular Revolutions - The Peabody Awards

Star Wars: A New Heap

Music:

Brief: Star War fan-made music from Luis Humanoide: Trust Only in the Force

Bonus: Star War fan-made music from Luis Humanoide: Dark Ruins Exploration

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260: Aubrey Marcus's Polyamory God Bomb

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Megamillionaire supplements and New Age life coach tycoon Aubrey Marcus recently claimed the goddess Isis told him that he must impregnate both his wife and the third member of their throuple while doing spiritual tourism in Egypt.

During a nearly three-hour podcast, the three explain their polygamous plans and heartaches while their on-call guru, Marc Gafni—an old-school spiritualist most famous for the long list of sexual assault and misconduct allegations against him—frames their drama as a sacred crisis.

We pick apart the spectacle, assessing how badly Marcus is getting his ass beat.

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Bonus Sample: Has Nonviolence Been Debunked?

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Support Conspirituality on Patreon.

Does the word protestor conjure a masked figure in black clothing smashing windows and lighting fires or a weekend liberal ineffectually following rules while sipping on a creamy latte along the state-permitted protest route?

A popular media narrative is that peaceful protest works best, but has the power of nonviolent resistance been debunked?

Julian responds to Matthew’s interview with political sociologist, Benjamin Case.

In the context of anarchist activism, Case points out that successful “nonviolent protest movements” have always featured property damage, street-fighting, and window smashing. His ethnographic research shows that rioting can also be personally transformative and empowering, as the participant experiences “contentious effervescence.”

His interview (and book, Street Rebellion) included a pointed critique of celebrated nonviolence advocate and academic, Erica Chenoweth, and their towering predecessor, Gene Sharp—who, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, practically created the field of nonviolent resistance studies. Case has some excellent points, especially about how often Chenoweth’s work is misinterpreted.

But was Gene Sharp really a tool of American imperialism? Is Erica Chenoweth a willing lapdog to status quo liberalism and capitalist power? What kinds of protest strategy might serve us best in our terrifying authoritarian moment?

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Brief: The FDA Amateur Hour Podcast

Sat, 31 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad claim they're going to open the "black box" at the FDA, an agency they're now both employed at. So they started a podcast. It's not the first official FDA podcast, but it certainly fits into the contrarian ethos both men have cultivated since 2020. Derek and Julian listen in to see how much of that box is actually being opened.

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259: MAHA is Project 2025’s Trojan Horse

Thu, 29 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

We’ve been talking about RFK Jr for years, and even dedicated an entire chapter to him in our 2023 book—and we’re going to keep covering him. Since his power and influence has only grown, and since he’s now in charge of America’s entire health apparatus, there’s no way to avoid it.

This week we catch up on the last few months of MAHA. Derek looks into why he believes Kennedy’s apparatus, despite claims of being about health, is really a cover for Project 2025’s deregulatory agenda. Julian discusses a recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Covid contrarians Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, who now both work under Kennedy. Finally, Matthew will contemplate Kennedy’s crude remarks on autism through the lens of disability politics.

Show Notes

What Has All This Restaurant Food Done to My Gut?

Function Health is Another Theranosesque Scam

MAHA’s Goal Is Not Health: Robert Kennedy’s movement promises more privatization

RFK Jr. meets with health tech startups, most backed by Andreessen Horowitz

COVID infection no longer gives lasting immunity

Hybrid Immunity May Be the Key to Developing Better Vaccines

Makary, Bhattacharya in New England Journal of Medicine

Consequences of Work Requirements in Arkansas: Two-Year Impacts on Coverage, Employment, and Affordability of Care

Concerns About ABA-Based Intervention: An Evaluation and Recommendations - PMC

Adler-Bolton, Beatrice, and Artie Vierkant. 2022. Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto. Verso Books.

SURPLUS. Adler-Bolton, The New Inquiry. October 18, 2022.

Extractive Abandonment - Stimpunks Foundation

Social and medical models of disability and mental health: evolution and renewal - PMC

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Bonus Sample: A Master Class in Wellness Propaganda

Mon, 26 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Calley Means is one of RFK Jr’s top advisors. Alongside Tucker Carlson, Means has claimed responsibility for shepherding Kennedy into Trump’s camp. Does this former business school graduate Heritage Foundation intern and business school graduate really care about the nation’s health? Derek listens to a recent interview with Politico and finds the deregulatory ethos that underlies all of Project 2025 is alive and well in MAHA.

Show Notes

Full interview with Calley Means | POLITICO Health Care Summit 2025

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Brief: The Gospel of MAHA Apologetics

Sat, 24 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

After being confirmed as Secretary of HHS, RFK Jr started installing his cabal of wellness influencers and contrarian doctors across the government's many public health agencies. And that means they have to apologize for their boss. Derek and Julian listen in on some of the most outrageous takes so far.

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258: Pope Bob Vs. Trump World

Thu, 22 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The most annoying convert TradCath in the world, JD Vance, whose cherubic face belies all his bootlicking aggression, gets his moment with Pope Bob. Usha stands behind him in a black mantilla. He hands the pontiff an oversized envelope: an invitation from Donald and Melania to a White House dinner. Bob smiles guardedly as he takes it and without looking at it, setting it on his desk. “I’ll read that at some point,” Vance sputters, “of course, of course.”

The scene is set for the Church-State tension of whatever phase of global fascism we’re now entering. These ghouls who jail students, disappear immigrants, and lobby for the Trump Gaza resort, shuffle into the Vatican with hats in hand to meet a fellow American who is nothing like their boss, asking for pats on the head, wondering what kind of alliance they can forge, perhaps through anti-wokeness discourse.

The enigmatic response from Pope Bob sums up where we all are as we read the incense swirls for whether he’s going to keep steering the world’s 1.4B Catholics against the tides of late-stage capitalism and environmental disaster, Francis-style.

Show Notes

Michelle Remembers | Satanic Panic Patreon Collection

Brief: Deep Church Conspiracy (w/David Lafferty)

Brief: The CPAC Pope and the Icicle Babies (w/ Brad Onishi)

183: Woke Pope Cancels America's Bishop (w/Mike Lewis)

Sisters of the Little Way

Vatican’s financial watchdog reports decrease in suspicious activities reports in 2024

Why the next Pope faces major money challenges

Pope warns the Vatican pension fund needs urgent reform as employees demand transparency

Cardinal convicted of embezzlement won't participate in conclave for Pope Francis's successor

A cardinal is convicted of embezzlement and sentenced to 5 1/2 years in Vatican trial

Church defends Indigenous peoples: ‘Doctrine of Discovery’ was never Catholic

Vatican Denounces ‘International Law of Colonization’

Reparations for empire: What the new pope owes to Africa | Slavery

Catholic Order Pledges $100 Million to Atone for Slave Labor and Sales

The Dark History of How the Catholic Church Built Its Massive Wealth

The Vatican—Bulwark of Imperialism

Indigenous leaders hope Vatican's repudiation of oppressive colonial concepts leads to real change

The Man Who Took On Pope Francis: The Story Behind the Viganò Letter

The Excommunication of Archbishop Viganò - Crisis

Bishop Strickland removed from diocese after accusing pope of backing 'attack on the sacred'

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Bonus Sample: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 2)

Mon, 19 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew is back today for more with Ben Case: profiling Gene Sharp and the (non)politics of strategic nonviolence, plus his strange funding sources. Also: why did Erica Chenoweth speak out against antifascist Trump protesters in January of 2017, and suggest their research proved that property damage and scuffles with the police would ruin any opposition movement to Trump? Also: where does the funding come from for all this bad research? Gene Sharp worked for the Department of Defense, and today, Bill Ackerman is a top funder of strategic nonviolence research.

Case is a retired professional Muaythai fighter, an organizer, educator, and writer. He is a researcher at the Center for Work and Democracy and a fellow at the Resistance Studies Initiative.

Show Notes

Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence | Case

Why Civil Resistance Works | Columbia University Press

Why Not Riot? Interview with Author Ben Case - CounterPunch.org

Change Agent: Gene Sharp’s Neoliberal Nonviolence (Part One) – Nonsite.org

Have Repertoire, Will Travel: Nonviolence as Global Contentious Performance

Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance | The New Republic

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Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1)

Sat, 17 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

You may have grown up with the term “nonviolence” shining like a pole star over every discussion of how we accomplish socio-political change. But what does it really mean? And who defines violence for that matter—beyond the police, the courts, and others in power?

Today, the theory of non-violence has grown beyond its Gandhian, spiritual aspiration roots, while retaining an irrational faith and offering a distorted view of resistance history. It is now a think-tank-approved, purportedly evidence-based method that guarantees movement success.

That reasoning comes from the pioneering scholarship of the pacifist Gene Sharp in the 1960s, and his inheritors in strategic nonviolence discourse, Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan. They argue that Gandhi’s sacred ideal of satyagraha also happens to be the only successful pathway to lasting change—and they have the data to prove it.

But do they? Nope. Matthew’s guest today persuasively shows that the movements we think of as “nonviolent” never really are. Why don’t we know this? Through a tangle of academic malpractice, spiritual bypassing, liberal wish fulfillment, and erasing anticolonial voices. Oh, and Gene Sharp also got a lot of funding from the Department of Defense.

Benjamin S. Case is a retired professional Muaythai fighter, an organizer, educator, and writer. He is a researcher at the Center for Work and Democracy and a fellow at the Resistance Studies Initiative.

P.S.: During our conversation, Ben mentioned that there are antifascist fighting clubs out there. Here are a few to look into:

Haymaker in Chicago.

SKN Muay Thai in Pittsburgh, PA.

Balagoon Boxing Club in Philly, PA.

Show Notes

Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence | Case

Why Civil Resistance Works | Columbia University Press

Why Not Riot? Interview with Author Ben Case - CounterPunch.org

Change Agent: Gene Sharp’s Neoliberal Nonviolence (Part One) – Nonsite.org

Have Repertoire, Will Travel: Nonviolence as Global Contentious Performance

Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance | The New Republic

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257: AI Gurus

Thu, 15 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The chat bot flashes its elipsis at the bottom of the screen. What is it thinking, what does it want from you, what do you want from it? Beneath those pixels lies a sea of mined data and lightning storms of electricity heating up servers in barren deserts. What will it find for you in the past labor of the generations?

According to a stunning new article in Rolling Stone, it will find whatever the fuck makes you feel like a god—incuding all the NewAge pablum it has scarfed down—because oops, ChatGPT released a model that is just too sycophantic.

But as we break down today, the AI nonsensient flattery machine is designed to hook you into the regurgitative process of self-seduction. Is this a new spiritual delusion, or more of the same? And what does that kind and agreeable bot conceal?

Show Notes

People Are Losing Loved Ones to AI-Fueled Spiritual Fantasies

Chatgpt induced psychosis

ChatGPT And Generative AI Innovations Are Creating Sustainability Havoc

LLM Can Be A Dangerous Persuader

You'll Be Astonished How Much Power It Takes to Generate a Single AI Image

A bottle of water per email: the hidden environmental costs of using AI chatbots

Intelligent Computing: The Latest Advances, Challenges, and Future

AI Data Centers Pose Regulatory Challenge, Jeopardizing Climate Goals

AI, Climate, and Regulation: From Data Centers to the AI Act

AI could impact 40 per cent of jobs worldwide in the next decade, UN agency warns

The Future of Jobs Report 2025

History’s Magic Mirror: America’s Economic Crisis and the Weimar Republic of Pre-Nazi Germany

The Great Filter: A possible solution to the Fermi Paradox

Academic Publisher Sells Authors’ Work to Microsoft for AI Training

Address of the Holy Father to the College of Cardinals (10 May 2025) | LEO XIV

Capitalism's Fascistic Tendencies — McGowan

McGowan, Todd. 2016. Capitalism and Desire: The Psychic Cost of Free Markets. Columbia University Press.

Adorno, Theodor W., and Max Horkheimer. 1997. Dialectic of Enlightenment. Verso.

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Bonus Sample: The UFO Race-War Apocalypse is Coming!

Mon, 12 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

It begins with a failed human sacrifice in Detroit in 1932. Some would say it actually starts with an evil god-scientist who created the first white people—white devils, really—some 6,000 years ago. Either way, the Nation of Islam has had an important cultural and political presence for almost a century in America.

Today’s installment of Julian’s Roots of Conspirituality series covers the incredible real world history of this extremist new religious movement, as well as its outlandish sci-fi mythological theology.

Show Notes

UAP in Nation of Islam?

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Brief: What Will Universal Healthcare Actually Require?

Sat, 10 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

In 2022, Oregonians passed Measure 111, which amends the state constitution to declare access to affordable healthcare a right for every citizen. As it happens, this was the first ballot Derek voted on when moving to the state.

Now that the long journey to universal healthcare is a reality in Oregon, what does that actually entail? Derek is joined by two members of the nonprofit organization, Health Care for All Oregon: Collin Stackhouse, the Social Media Coordinator, and Rebecca Schoon, an Associate Professor of Public Health at Pacific University, who’s on the board. Together, they map out the journey ahead.

Health Care for All Oregon

Measure 111 passes, giving Oregonians a constitutional right to access affordable health care

Maga’s era of ‘soft eugenics’: let the weak get sick, help the clever breed

Show Notes

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256: Quacks, Cancer, and Kangen Water (feat Mallory DeMille)

Thu, 08 May 2025 03:00:00 -0000

Cancer, as physician and author Siddhartha Mukherjee writes, is the emperor of all maladies. The disease—the over 200 different diseases all falling under this umbrella term—has been with us as long as we’ve been us. If anything is truly ancient, it is the cancer cells that are in all of our bodies, just waiting to be turned on if the conditions are right, or if our genes dictate the inevitability.

Deep in wellness land, cancer is something entirely different. It’s avoidable if you stop consuming seed oils, stop using 5G, stop thinking negative thoughts, and by god, stop taking those jabs that cause all the turbo cancers going around. And with every wellness warning comes a wellness solution. Today our correspondent, Mallory DeMille, returns for a deep dive into the treacherous depths of one of the more insidious grifts: treating cancer with the power of…water.

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Bonus Sample: How Did Gen X Go MAGA?

Mon, 05 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Gen X went from leaning slightly right in 2016 to become, as one analysis puts it, “the bedrock of Trumpism.” Derek meditates on what happened to his generation by reading from four different thought pieces on the topic.

Show Notes

Wait, What Is Really Up With Gen X’s Politics?

Is Gen X a Bunch of Trumpers? Maybe That’s the Wrong Question.

How Gen X Became the Trumpiest Generation

How Gen X Went from Raging Against the Machine to Swallowing Misinformation While “Doing Their Own Research”

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Brief: The New Media Order

Sat, 03 May 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner was a little different this year. No president. No comedian. The event featured a mea culpa from an Axios journalist who discussed the media’s complicity in failing to expose Biden’s mental decline. Meanwhile, Substack promoted an alternative parallel event called “Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner” with an email that announced, “a new media order is emerging.” Legit—or just another conspiracy touting MAGA sham?

Julian reports on the proceedings of both events, as well as how the media landscape is shifting in ways that render the definitions of terms like “independent,” “journalism,” and “unbiased” hard to pin down. Digging beneath the surface on Substack, and outlets like The Free Press, and the increasingly mainstreamed far right cult-rag the Epoch Times, all of which claim in some way to represent this emergent new media order, leads him to ask: where is the real home of fact-based independent journalism?

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255: A MAHA Wellness Scam at Ontario Place

Thu, 01 May 2025 03:00:00 -0000

Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government in Ontario has leased the public space of OP to the Therme Spa company, which promises to bring wellness and democracy to the good citizens of Toronto, for a price.

Bruce Van Dieten and Ann-Elizabeth Samson of Ontario Place for All join Matthew to discuss the history and possible future of Toronto's cherished public space.

Bruce is "a retired busybody with nothing better to do than to lodge burrs under the saddles of politicians who see us as customers instead of citizens and treat us like obstacles."

Ann Elisabeth Samson specializes in equality, innovation, and futures thinking. She founded and ran BabyCenter Canada, and led the launch of the $300M Equality Fund. She is co-chair of Ontario Place for All and as an open water swimmer and rower - loves Lake Ontario.

Show Notes

Ontario Place for All

“To Rid Society of Imbeciles”: The Impact of Dr. John Harvey Kellogg’s Stand for Eugenics

RFK Jr. Wants to Send People Addicted to Antidepressants to Government “Wellness Farms”

Ontario Place

Quick Facts & Analysis + Fact Checker: Ford government's health care funding

Ford government spending $525-675M on Therme Spa to get up to $380-580M in value back if it is successful for 95 years: analysis

Ford says he will ‘double and triple check’ Ontario Place deal after new report

European Spa Company Therme Misrepresented Itself in an Effort to Expand Into Canada

Province grilled over Therme's credentials to build luxury spa at Ontario Place

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Bonus Sample: How To Talk To Your Son About Fascism (Pt 2)

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Part 2 of Matthew’s conversation with historian Craig Johnson (PhD Berkeley), who hosts Fifteen Minutes of Fascism, which covers the global rise of the radical right. He’s the author of an excellent new book, How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism, a guide for parents and educators on keeping young men out of the extreme right wing.

Today we tackle strategy. To debunk or not to debunk? How do you derail the coolness of fascism? How do we theorize the agency of kids becoming political actors? How do we maintain trust while engaging with a family member sliding to the right?

Show Notes

How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism - 1st Edition - Craig A. Johnson

Fifteen Minutes of Fascism YouTube

Stream Fifteen Minutes of Fascism

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Brief: How To Talk To Your Son About Fascism (Pt 1)

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Historian Craig Johnson (PhD Berkeley) hosts Fifteen Minutes of Fascism, which covers the global rise of the radical right. He’s the author of an excellent new book, How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism, a guide for parents and educators on keeping young men out of the extreme right wing.

In this first of a two-part interview, Matthew and Craig discuss definitions of fascism, why it appeals to young men (or how masculinity is socially constructed), irony poisoning, and whether fascism can be fought through accelerating cringe cycles.

Part 2 drops in Patreon on Monday. That episode centers on an exploration of strategy: how do we theorize the agency of kids becoming political actors? How do we maintain trust while engaging with a family member sliding to the right?

Show notes

How to Talk to Your Son about Fascism - 1st Edition - Craig A. Johnson

Fifteen Minutes of Fascism YouTube

Stream Fifteen Minutes of Fascism

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254: The Great MAHA Purity War of 2025

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Someone’s got dirt on RFK Jr. MAHA voters went MAGA because Bobby said he was going to end vaccine mandates—their code for ending vaccines, period. No longer would food be dyed and oils be made of seeds. Everyone would get free gym memberships. America’s chronic disease epidemic would end overnight, as he’s repeatedly claimed.

Then Mr Kennedy goes to Washington only to declare that antisemitism is a public health crisis? And to say that the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent measles? How could he say such a thing when, as Mikki Willis recently claimed, this “version” of measles is a bioweapon designed to infect the Mennonite population?

This week we look way too deeply into Candace Owens’s recent episodes about the blackmailing of RFK Jr, a story that quickly spread its tentacles into the microphones of a number of contrarian right-wing podcasters. We’ll give you the lowdown on the story and how, like a children’s game of telephone, it repeatedly got distorted and reframed with every mind it touched.

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Bonus Sample: God is a Cloned Alien Love-Machine!

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

When the aliens landed, they told a young musician and wannabe race car driver that he was the chosen one, and they were the real gods. He should build them an embassy with a UFO landing pad in order to prepare humanity for their arrival. They taught him the secrets of sex meditation and cloning DNA as a way to keep switching bodies and never die.

Not much in his story was original, but this was the 1970s, so free love hippies flocked to his French commune—then it all turned to shit. Somehow Claude kept landing on his feet. He took his schtick to Quebec, then Japan, and even found thousands of followers in Africa. Still no embassy, no divine alien arrival, no cloned human babies—but he kept raising funds from the gullible and living like a king with a ballerina bride 40 years his junior.

For the latest installment in Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian muses on the epic tale of the Raelians.

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Brief: The Cult of Crossfit

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

When cultural and psychological anthropologist Katie Rose Hejtmanek set out to study Crossfit, she knew she had to throw herself into it fully. For seven years, she traveled to “boxes” around the world while committing herself to her local Brooklyn box. What she uncovered was a rabid fan base that deeply values community and a business model that offers a refreshing response to unfettered capitalism—as well as the misogyny, racism, and militarized Christian themes that inform this beloved and despised fitness regimen. She joins Derek to discuss her new book, The Cult of CrossFit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon.

Show Notes

The Cult of CrossFit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon

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253: The Politics of Abundance

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

"In order to have the future we want, we have to build and invent more of the things we need."

That’s the central claim of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s new book, Abundance. They argue that Democrat-run cities and states have suffered self-inflicted wounds that are causing a mass exodus to red states, where life is simply more affordable. To stop the bleeding, Dems need to take action on a bold new vision that cuts through red tape to improve people’s lives and address the crises in housing, climate, healthcare and politics.

But many on the left are suspicious. Is this just Reaganomics wrapped up in the intellectualized language of the NY Times? Is Abundance the privileged prosperity gospel for white liberals?

Show Notes

The Abundance Agenda: Neoliberalism’s Rebrand

Abundance: The Left Hates It

Summary of Abundance Critiques

Politico: False Choice Between Abundance and Antitrust

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Bonus Sample: We Already Know What September Will Bring

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

It's been quite the week at HHS with Robert F Kennedy Jr in charge. Derek considers what's been going on: Bobby's announcement that he's going to "determine" the cause of autism by September; his social media marketing-driven visit to grieving families in Texas; his pivot on the MMR vaccine; and his recommendation to the CDC that fluoride be removed from public water supplies.

Show Notes

RFK Jr. says HHS will determine the cause of autism by September

RFK Jr. says he plans to tell CDC to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water

What RFK Jr. Told Grieving Texas Families About the Measles Vaccine

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Brief: Karma & Christ at the NIH

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Jay Bhattacharya, Covid contrarian and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, is now the Director of the NIH. The day before beginning his new job, he gave his first official interview to Bari Weiss on her podcast, Honestly. Derek and Julian discuss.

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252: Netflix vs. Andrew Tate (On “Adolescence”)

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

There’s a mystery of violence swirling in and amongst the kids these days. Especially boys. What could it be? Snapchat? Video games? Andrew Tate? A hit Netflix series points to issues, and policy. But is it pointing in the right direction?

Today we’ll look at “Adolescence”: the origin story, the strengths and liabilities of its one-take technique, and its deceptively conservative messaging. Should it be shown in Parliament? Schools? Does it tell us much about the kids it is worried about? Does it offload responsibility for misogyny and violence onto ambient internet chaos, when there are so many other causes closer to home? And why, if it is a meditation on violence committed by boys, do we learn so little about the girls who are harmed?

___

Correction: In the episode, Matthew said that Axel Rudakabana was of South Asian descent. He was born in the UK of parents from Rwanda.

Show Notes

Brief: Tate Crime

Teachers Warn That Misogynist Andrew Tate Has 'Radicalized' School-Age Boys

180: Is This the Next Andrew Tate?

Stephen Graham shares the heartbreaking stories that inspired Netflix's Adolescence

'Adolescence' Becomes Netflix's Most-Watched Limited Series in First 2 Weeks With 66.3 Million Views

Elon Musk blasted for spreading 'concerning' misinformation about Netflix's Adolescence

Netflix’s Adolescence makes TV history in the UK

“Netflix hit Adolescence has lessons for us all” says Northumbria PCC Susan Dungworth, as she welcomes PM backing for it to be shown in UK Schools

Netflix's Adolescence inspired by true story of Croydon girl's horrific murder - MyLondon

UK experts warn of dangers of violent content being readily available online | Southport attack

Croydon schoolgirl Elianne Andam stabbed in ‘white-hot anger’, court told | UK news

Hassan Sentamu sentencing remarks

Sentencing Remarks: In the matter of the murder of Ava White

Crime in England and Wales: year ending September 2024

The facts about firearm violence

Firearm Violence in the United States | Center for Gun Violence Solutions

Online gangs of teenage boys sharing extreme material are ‘emerging threat’ in UK | NCA (National Crime Agency)

Beyond the Headlines 2024 Summary | Youth Endowment Fund

Spotify takes down Andrew Tate ‘pimping’ podcast after complaints

Kyle Clifford watched Andrew Tate videos before triple murder

The Terrifying Truth Behind Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’

Stephen Graham Netflix series Adolescence inspired by two real-life crimes

"Objective realism," ethnographic cinema, and the classical model of visual-anthropological research

PACE Code C 2023

GCSEs harm our young people. Ministers should have the guts to abolish them – and start again

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Bonus Sample: Antifascist Woodshed 3.1: The Kids are Alright

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Part Two: Matthew remembers the snow job of “The Sound of Music.” Also: more on Sophie Scholl, introducing the Edelweiss Pirates, the “adult gaze”, what trusting kids means, notes from Emma Goldman and Janusz Korczak, and excerpts from a poem by Aku Päiviö, father of Jules, who traveled from Northern Ontario to Spain in 1937 to volunteer in the International Brigade.

____

When fascism rises, and some young people are drawn into its orbit, because everyone from Jordan Peterson to Andrew Tate has figured out how to exploit resentment at the failures of capitalism, we have an opportunity to give our kids a lot more than moralistic calls for a return to normalcy, compliance, warnings about screen time, striving to be better students, doing more sports, and not making too much of a ruckus.

The kind of parenting that limits itself to restoring the status quo for younger people in an age of fascism is not engaged parenting.

It’s not enough to be a good boy or girl. Antifascism takes more than that.

Show Notes

Op-ed: Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions

Death toll since Israel's aggression on Gaza on October 7 rises to 31,819 (March, 2024)

Austerity Has Always Been a Project to Empower Capital at the Expense of Workers

It's Not Them; It's Us: Thoughts on the Show Adolescence

Adolescence is a really well made depiction of misogyny that fails to critique it | by Mallory Moore | Mar, 2025

Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ Taps Into the Latest Moral Panic

Jonathan Haidt’s Claims On Kids & Tech Crumble Under Scrutiny From Top Expert, Candice Odgers | Techdirt

UK government's own estimate says welfare cuts to push 250,000 into poverty | Reuters

Labour’s cuts to PIP will drag a quarter of a million people into absolute poverty, DWP figures show – Disability News Service

55: Games Against Humanity (w/ Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality

207: Gaming Realities (w/Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality

Reminder to the media: Research video games before reporting on them

Out of the Ruins:The Emergence of Radical Informal Learning Spaces

Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader

The People's Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State

Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work

Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom

TRUST KIDS! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy

Refusing Complicity: The Bravery of Sophie Scholl - Radical Tea Towel

Sophie Scholl and the youth resistance against the Nazis – DW – 02/22/2023

The majority of news influencers are conservative men, study finds

An Unclaimed Country: The Austrian Image in American Film and the Sociopolitics of The Sound of Music

The politics of The Sound of Music | Peter Levine

Edelweiss Pirate Walter Mayer

The Edelweiss Pirates: A Story of Freedom, Love and Life

Walter Meyer describes his 1943 trial for looting, and the impact of his role in the Edelweiss Pirates on the sentence he received | Holocaust Encyclopedia

The Edelweiss Pirates

The Child and Its Enemies | The Anarchist Library —Emma Goldman

DECLARATION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS—Janusz Korczak

The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak - Betty Jean Lifton

Sophie Scholl – The Final Days

Remember the Mac-Paps - rabble.ca

The Canadians In The Spanish Civil War

'Gentleman Jules' lived for just causes | Sudbury Star

Poetry – Friends and Veterans

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Brief: Antifascist Woodshed 3: The Kids are Alright

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

But the parents? Meh.

The kind of parenting that limits itself to restoring the status quo for younger people in an age of fascism is not engaged parenting.

It’s not enough to be a good boy or girl. Antifascism takes more than that.

In this Part One, Matthew previews our main feed discussion of Adolescence (coming this Thursday), parses a speech by Gareth Southgate, wonders why Jonathan Haidt knows nothing about gaming, and remembers Sophie Scholl.

Show Notes

Op-ed: Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions

Death toll since Israel's aggression on Gaza on October 7 rises to 31,819 (March, 2024)

Austerity Has Always Been a Project to Empower Capital at the Expense of Workers

It's Not Them; It's Us: Thoughts on the Show Adolescence

Adolescence is a really well made depiction of misogyny that fails to critique it | by Mallory Moore | Mar, 2025

Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ Taps Into the Latest Moral Panic

Jonathan Haidt’s Claims On Kids & Tech Crumble Under Scrutiny From Top Expert, Candice Odgers | Techdirt

UK government's own estimate says welfare cuts to push 250,000 into poverty | Reuters

Labour’s cuts to PIP will drag a quarter of a million people into absolute poverty, DWP figures show – Disability News Service

55: Games Against Humanity (w/ Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality

207: Gaming Realities (w/Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality

Reminder to the media: Research video games before reporting on them

Out of the Ruins:The Emergence of Radical Informal Learning Spaces

Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader

The People's Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State

Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work

Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom

TRUST KIDS! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy

Refusing Complicity: The Bravery of Sophie Scholl - Radical Tea Towel

Sophie Scholl and the youth resistance against the Nazis – DW – 02/22/2023

The majority of news influencers are conservative men, study finds

An Unclaimed Country: The Austrian Image in American Film and the Sociopolitics of The Sound of Music

The politics of The Sound of Music | Peter Levine

Edelweiss Pirate Walter Mayer

The Edelweiss Pirates: A Story of Freedom, Love and Life

Walter Meyer describes his 1943 trial for looting, and the impact of his role in the Edelweiss Pirates on the sentence he received | Holocaust Encyclopedia

The Edelweiss Pirates

The Child and Its Enemies | The Anarchist Library —Emma Goldman

DECLARATION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS—Janusz Korczak

The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak - Betty Jean Lifton

Sophie Scholl – The Final Days

Remember the Mac-Paps - rabble.ca

The Canadians In The Spanish Civil War

'Gentleman Jules' lived for just causes | Sudbury Star

Poetry – Friends and Veterans

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251: Who Is Curtis Yarvin?

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 10:00:00 -0000

"If Americans want to change their government, they're going to have to get over their dictator-phobia."

That's neo-reactionary philosopher Curtis Yarvin in 2012, when he outlined a strategy that's eerily similar to how Trump and Musk are now destroying our government. The "dark enlightenment" blogger, long a transgressive darling of the New Right, has in the last two months enjoyed a fresh round of mainstream exposure.

We look at a man who has the ear of those who are reshaping our world at breakneck speed.

Show Notes

That's Bait - by Jeff Sharlet

Kristi Noem Gets a MAGA Makeover - The New York Times

Kristi Noem’s New Teeth Are Blowing Up in Her Face | Vanity Fair

Venezuela-hired lawyers file petition in El Salvador aimed at freeing Venezuelans deported by US | AP News

Kristi Noem’s El Salvador Prison Photo Op Might Have Violated the Geneva Convention

Trump wants FEMA gone. But that could be its own kind of disaster.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem posed in front of El Salvador prisoners wearing $50k watch

Will Stancil: "The El Salvador government is using its concentration camp as a kind of Disneyland thrill ride for right-wing influencers”

Kelly Brogan’s Divine Dungeon: Pt 1 (feat/Esme Providence Brown)

Kelly Brogan’s Divine Dungeon: Pt 2 (feat/Esme Providence Brown)

‘All life is a service’: The Contested Erotics of Fascism from Foucault to Frost – Retrospect Journal

Cathedrals of Erotic Misery • Ill Will

Politico Yarvin Interview

Financial Times on Dark Enlightenment

TIME on Dark Enlightenment

Common Dreams on Dark Enlightenment/DOGE

NYT Podcast End of Democracy

Jennifer Kollmer, 1971-2021 — Yarvin’s obit poem, TW on the rest of the blog!

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Bonus Sample: American Oligarchy and the Kremlin Wizard

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

What is an oligarchy, exactly? Is the US entering a period similar to post-Soviet Russia in the 1990s? What do Russian oligarchs have to do with proven interference in the 2016 US election?

Julian digs into Russian history to explore parallels with modern-day America. Meet Vladislav Surkov, the architect of both Putin’s 25-year rule over what Surkov has dubbed “sovereign democracy,” and the global propaganda strategies generating our post-truth ecosystem of disinformation and conspiracies. There’s a reason why politics feels like theater these days, why democracy seems like a pipe dream.

While MAGA has a fascism fetish, Putin’s invasion of Ukraine might be a better match for Hitler on the verge, with Trump and Co acting as macho-clown versions of Neville Chamberlain.

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Brief: Is It Fascism?

Sat, 29 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Derek and Julian discuss Robert Paxton's 2004 book, The Anatomy of Fascism, in light of 2025 America.

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250: The Mercola Tapes

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

McGill University science communicator, Jonathan Jarry, was recently given hundreds of hours of Zoom calls between alt-med salesman, Joseph Mercola, and a supposed clairvoyant that goes by Bahlon. Jonathan joins us to discuss what he found.

Show Notes

Brad Schimel Admitted to Having "Psychologically Beat the Daylights Out" Of His 8-Year-Old Daughter - MeidasTouch News

Rallying Anti-Musk Donors, Liberal Judge Raises $24 Million in Key Court Contest - The New York Times

Here are claims about Wisconsin’s Supreme Court candidates — and the facts

Ahead of Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Elon Musk PAC offers cash for pledge - WPR

Trump backs Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate in hotly contested race - ABC News

Billionaires become a focus of the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race

Brad Schimel Begins Campaigning With Anti-MLK Advocate Charlie Kirk - MeidasTouch News

Exclusive Videos Show Dr. Joe Mercola’s Dangerous Ideas Whipped up by Alleged Medium

Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable

Terminated HHS grants

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Bonus Sample: The War on Fat People

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

The Wellness Company is now selling retatrutide, a weight loss drug currently undergoing stage 3 trials by Eli Lilly. An anti-vax company that uses fear-based marketing to push supplements appears to be overstepping legal lines. Yet will they be held accountable in an RFK Jr-led HHS?

Derek looks at private market healthcare propaganda from Ronald Reagan to Kennedy, showing how health is not the real goal of MAHA. But if they can sell untested products to fat and chronically ill patients along the way, all the better.

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Brief: Jordan Peterson’s Shady Billionaire Backers

Sat, 22 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Julian covers the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London. Headlined by Jordan Peterson, featuring Konstantin Kisin, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Jonathan Pageau, and Eric Weinstein, the conference positioned itself as an inspiring cultural gathering focused on reclaiming Western values.

Behind the scenes, a hedge-fund billionaire new media baron, conservative libertarian think tank, shady funding source in Dubai, and an evangelical English aristocrat use the prestige of ARC and its celebrity figureheads to popularize a very specific political, economic, and religious agenda.

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249: Kings of Pain

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Trump administration Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, recently stated the American economy is going to need a "detox" period. And so today we look at peak the conspirituality convergences between biological and political purification projects.

Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, joins Matthew in the final segment to offer his big picture view on the Kings of Pain.

Show Notes

Johns Hopkins to lose 2,000 jobs after Trump’s $800m cut in USAid funding

Young scientists see career pathways vanish as schools adapt to federal funding cuts

Report: mRNA vaccines are in RFK Jr’s crosshairs; funding in question

FDA Makes Flu Vaccine Recommendations Without Convening Advisors

HHS sends all employees a $25,000 voluntary buyout offer

Exclusive: US CDC plans study into vaccines and autism, sources say

USDA gears up for MAHA dietary guidelines update

Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.

Watch CNBC's full interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent

Why we must teach medical students about the role of physicians during the Holocaust | AAMC

Teaching Hard Truths About Medicine and the Holocaust | Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association

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Bonus Sample: Antifascist Woodshed 2.1 (Punching Nazis?)

Mon, 17 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Click here to hear the full episode on Patreon.

Second of Matthew’s two-part examination of why the hell questions of force, non-violent resistance with and without force, unarmed violence and property damage, and armed violence are so incredibly hard to talk about in a culture thick with spiritual and political bypassing. Are we capable of understanding the difference between morality and strategy?

Part 1 focused on philosophy and psychology while today the focus will be on definitions and tactics. Together, both parts will push back on conspiracism about the identities, motives, and methods of antifascists. Both will present slices of the rich discourse on violence and non-violence from antifascist history, including clarifying definitions of key terms. Both will open a space to think carefully about what intensities of self and community defense are both useful and tolerable in the fight against fascism.

Today we’ll get into the very thick weeds of how the “strategic nonviolence” research of Gene Sharp, Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan is framed as empirical, but may be way more about idealizing Gandhi than about facts on the ground.

Huge list of references for each!

Show Notes

Stopping the Press: The Threats to the Media Posed by the Second Trump Term | The New Yorker

What the FBI Has Done, and Kash Patel Could Do - Columbia Journalism Review

Hakeem Jeffries cracks down on Trump speech disruptions

Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer Got Punched—You Can Thank the Black Bloc | The Nation

Aamer Rahman: Is it really ok to punch nazis?

$16.5M settlement reached in class-action lawsuit over mass arrests during 2010 G20 summit | CBC News

Meditations at the ringed fence around G20 Toronto - rabble.ca

Remaining Human: A Buddhist Perspective on Occupy Wall Street - Michael Stone

Brief: The Outside Agitator Conspiracy Trope (w/Dr. Peniel Joseph) — Conspirituality

Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years | Donald Trump | The Guardian

40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Sunshine

rules for radicals | saul d. alinsky

198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION | — Gene Sharp

She Interrupted a Town-Hall Meeting and Was Dragged Out by Private Security - The New York Times

Martin Luther King Jr. had a much more radical message than a dream of racial brotherhood

The Enigma of Frantz Fanon | The Nation

Frantz Fanon and the struggle against colonisation | MR Online

Frantz Fanon and the Paradox of Anticolonial Violence – Solidarity

Frantz Fanon—a vital defence of violence by the oppressed - Socialist Worker

Land and Freedom (1995 Ken Loach) [ENG Sub] (starting at the collectivization debate scene)

Full Spectrum Resistance — McBay

The Failure of Nonviolence | The Anarchist Library

Debunking the myths around nonviolent resistance | ROAR Magazine

Social movements and the (mis)use of research: Extinction Rebellion and the 3.5% rule

Responding to Domestic Terrorism: A Crisis of Legitimacy - Harvard Law Review

Domestic Terrorism: Definitions, Terminology, and Methodology — FBI

676 | United States Sentencing Commission

Activists use 'Tesla Takedown' protests to fight job cuts by Musk and Trump | Reuters

Tesla vehicles destroyed, vandalized since Musk began role at White House, authorities say - ABC News

Anti-DOGE protests at Tesla stores target Elon Musk's bottom line | AP News

Tyre Extinguishers: A Night Out with the Climate Activists Sabotaging SUVs

Leaflet | Tyre Extinguishers

Tesla Stocks Tumble as Elon Musk’s Political Role Grows More Divisive - The New York Times

Internal Memos: Senior USAID Leaders Warned Trump Appointees of Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths From Closing Agency

Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance | The New Republic

Why Not Riot? Interview with Author Ben Case - CounterPunch.org

10 Lessons on Filmmaking from Director Ken Loach

BBC Taster - How to Make a Ken Loach Film

Land and Freedom (1995 Ken Loach) [ENG Sub]

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Brief: Antifascist Woodshed 2 (Punching Nazis?)

Sat, 15 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

First of Matthew's two-part examination of why the hell questions of force, non-violent resistance with and without force, unarmed violence and property damage, and armed violence are so incredibly hard to talk about in a culture thick with spiritual and political bypassing. Are we capable of understanding the difference between morality and strategy?

Part 1 focuses on philosophy and psychology while Part 2 focuses on definitions and tactics. Together, both parts will push back on conspiracism about the identities, motives, and methods of antifascists. Both will present slices of the rich discourse on violence and non-violence from antifascist history, including clarifying definitions of key terms. Both will open a space to think carefully about what intensities of self and community defense are both useful and tolerable in the fight against fascism.

Part 2 gets into the very thick weeds of how the “strategic nonviolence” research of Gene Sharp, Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan is framed as empirical, but may be way more about idealizing Gandhi than about facts on the ground. Drops Monday on Patreon.

Huge list of references for each!

Show Notes

Stopping the Press: The Threats to the Media Posed by the Second Trump Term | The New Yorker

What the FBI Has Done, and Kash Patel Could Do - Columbia Journalism Review

Hakeem Jeffries cracks down on Trump speech disruptions

Neo-Nazi Richard Spencer Got Punched—You Can Thank the Black Bloc | The Nation

Aamer Rahman: Is it really ok to punch nazis?

$16.5M settlement reached in class-action lawsuit over mass arrests during 2010 G20 summit | CBC News

Meditations at the ringed fence around G20 Toronto - rabble.ca

Remaining Human: A Buddhist Perspective on Occupy Wall Street - Michael Stone

Brief: The Outside Agitator Conspiracy Trope (w/Dr. Peniel Joseph) — Conspirituality

Anti-fascists linked to zero murders in the US in 25 years | Donald Trump | The Guardian

40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Sunshine

rules for radicals | saul d. alinsky

198 METHODS OF NONVIOLENT ACTION | — Gene Sharp

She Interrupted a Town-Hall Meeting and Was Dragged Out by Private Security - The New York Times

Martin Luther King Jr. had a much more radical message than a dream of racial brotherhood

The Enigma of Frantz Fanon | The Nation

Frantz Fanon and the struggle against colonisation | MR Online

Frantz Fanon and the Paradox of Anticolonial Violence – Solidarity

Frantz Fanon—a vital defence of violence by the oppressed - Socialist Worker

Land and Freedom (1995 Ken Loach) [ENG Sub] (starting at the collectivization debate scene)

Full Spectrum Resistance — McBay

The Failure of Nonviolence | The Anarchist Library

Debunking the myths around nonviolent resistance | ROAR Magazine

Social movements and the (mis)use of research: Extinction Rebellion and the 3.5% rule

Responding to Domestic Terrorism: A Crisis of Legitimacy - Harvard Law Review

Domestic Terrorism: Definitions, Terminology, and Methodology — FBI

676 | United States Sentencing Commission

Activists use 'Tesla Takedown' protests to fight job cuts by Musk and Trump | Reuters

Tesla vehicles destroyed, vandalized since Musk began role at White House, authorities say - ABC News

Anti-DOGE protests at Tesla stores target Elon Musk's bottom line | AP News

Tyre Extinguishers: A Night Out with the Climate Activists Sabotaging SUVs

Leaflet | Tyre Extinguishers

Tesla Stocks Tumble as Elon Musk’s Political Role Grows More Divisive - The New York Times

Internal Memos: Senior USAID Leaders Warned Trump Appointees of Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths From Closing Agency

Violence Will Only Hurt the Trump Resistance | The New Republic

Why Not Riot? Interview with Author Ben Case - CounterPunch.org

10 Lessons on Filmmaking from Director Ken Loach

BBC Taster - How to Make a Ken Loach Film

Land and Freedom (1995 Ken Loach) [ENG Sub]

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248: What Side Are You On?

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Lately a lot of folks (including us) have been doing the fascism comparisons.

The questions we ponder this week: How long it takes for fascism to fully dig its roots in, how varied is the opposition along the way, and what role does the media play?

Show Notes

165: Outrage Machine (w/Tobias Rose-Stockwell)

16 October 1919 | Hitler Archive

Konrad Heiden

Fritz Gerlich, publicist and prophet – how did he resist the Nazis?

Fritz Gerlich

Nazi Germany’s Schriftleitergesetz: The End of Freedom of the Press - Arolsen Archives

The illegal press – Verzetsmuseum

The Liberal Media Always Fails Against Fascism — Robert Evans

Can a news media that doesn’t really oppose fascism ever cover it well?

Against Normalization: The Lesson of the “Munich Post” | Los Angeles Review of Books

The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler

Fascist-Sympathizing Newspaper Barons Were the Blueprint for Today’s Right-Wing Media

Media's Failure in Times of Crisis: Election Coverage in the Interwar Period

How Journalists Covered the Rise of Mussolini and Hitler | Smithsonian

How Britain's Nazi-loving press baron made the case for Hitler | The Times of Israel

Wahl-Jorgensen, K. (2016). Is there a “postmodern turn” in journalism? In C. Peters and M. Broersma (Eds), Rethinking Journalism (pp. 97-111). London: Routledge.

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Bonus Sample: Sex, Lies, & Communist Spies

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 10:00:00 -0000

Subscribe for full episode

The MAGA attack on government jobs, takeover of government agencies, and purge of supposed “DEI” and “woke” professionals has a long history in the US. Julian uses old-timey newsreels, biographies, and events in the public record to trace the lines from 1919 to today, making stops at the so-called Red Summer’s “race riots,” Red Scare communist panics, Hollywood Blacklist, and Lavender Scare that fired thousands for being presumed gay.

Unrelated to any of this completely useless and repressive paranoid bigotry, actual Soviet spies were being apprehended and prosecuted—even then everything was not on the level. The prosecutors had their own hidden skeletons and shady bedfellows, even as they claimed the patriotic moral high ground.

At the heart of this history is a lineage of men who never let truth get in the way of gaining, and wielding, power and cruelty. Julian uncovers a surprisingly direct lineage of dirty-tricks demagogue succession, from Woodrow Wilson to A. Mitchell Palmer, to J. Edgar Hoover, to Joe McCarthy, to Roy Cohn, to Roger Stone, to our current president.

Editorial Note: The Paul Robeson clip that starts the episode is a re-enactment by James Earl Jones for the Zinn Education Project. It uses the transcript of Robeson’s 1956 appearance before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee.

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Brief: MAHA's Soft Eugenics

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 11:00:00 -0000

MAHA's response to the measles outbreak has been horrific, though expectable. Yet RFK Jr's op-ed, in which he advocated for the MMR vaccine, ripped apart his coalition—briefly.

Derek looks at the responses to Bobby's moment of clarity, then contemplates what MAHA really wants now that their champion is the bureaucracy.

Show Notes

Dr Jessica Knurick’s video

Vitamin A For Measles: Kevin Klatt

Measles is not a harmless illness — complications include brain damage, immune amnesia, and death

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247: The Deeper State

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 11:00:00 -0000

This week we’re looking at how folks who associated themselves with the magical and morbid QAnon memes about the “coming storm” that would destroy the Deep State have become that storm, mainly by talking about it, and are now in the position to congeal an even Deeper State characterized by more repression and control. They’re doing it both as conspiracists and as conspiracy theorists would predict: as rich guys pretending to be oppressed.

This opens up the question of “Have we been here before in the US, and what happened?” The parallels are uncanny. In the late 1920s, Henry Ford had his car dealers stick copies of The Dearborn Independent newspaper in the glove compartments of new cars. That was the rag in which he published excerpts of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Today another auto baron, Elon Musk, busts out seigheils and posts Nazi memes whenever he likes. But only one of them got a White House office.

Show Notes

CDC Statement on Measles Outbreak

US Health Secretary Kennedy calls for end to deadly Texas measles outbreak

Copy of STORM is HERE Data

LIVE: Kash Patel’s confirmation hearing for FBI director

Kash Patel Wants to Work From Home for FBI. But Who Does He Live With? | The New Republic

Kash Patel privately agreed to hire an experienced deputy FBI director. Then Trump picked a loyalist | The Independent

How Dan Bongino Went From Infowars to FBI Deputy Director | WIRED

How Trump’s Justice Department has gutted the government’s ability to chase public corruption | CNN Politics

123: The Red-Pilled "Academic" Who Named Our Podcast — Conspirituality

Darkness Over All: John Robison and the Birth of the Illuminati Conspiracy — The Public Domain Review

Conspiracy Theories Abounded in 19th-Century American Politics | Smithsonian

Wealthy bankers and businessmen plotted to overthrow FDR. A retired general foiled it.

Medical Mystery: What killed ‘Red Scare’ Sen. Joseph McCarthy?

FBI director considering having UFC train agents in martial arts, say people familiar with plan | Reuters

What We Know About the CIA's Midcentury Mind-Control Project | Smithsonian

FBI Records: The Vault — COINTELPRO

On campaign trail, RFK Jr. pushes 'bonkers' theory about CIA's 'takeover of the American press' - ABC News

Richard Hofstadter’s “The Paranoid Style” Can’t Help Us Now

Rehabilitating McCarthyism

JFK, Richard Hofstadter, and the ‘Paranoid Style in American Politics’

Ford's Anti-Semitism | American Experience | Official Site | PBS

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Bonus Sample: What’s a Nazi Salute, Really?

Mon, 03 Mar 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Former "race realist" Richard Hanania recently published an article on The Free Press claiming that all those Nazi salutes the right is waving high in the sky is really "just trolling." Derek disagrees.

Show Notes

Enough — John Ganz

I Can Explain Why the Nazi Salute Is Back — Richard Hanania

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Brief: Smooth-Talking Anti-Feminism

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Is life worse for women now than in the 1950s? In a recent interview for The Free Press, author Louise Perry and journalist Bari Weiss muse on just how much women have lost since premarital sex was normalized, the pill reduced sex to consequence-free hedonism, and Roe v Wade rendered abortion as common as going to the dentist. Perry calls this “re-paganization,” delivering an eloquent longing for a lost golden age of female subservience as Weiss nods along and smiles. It’s all very heterodox.

Or is it? No mention of the impacts of Project 2025, the dangerous ascendancy of Christian Nationalism, or the deadly crisis of women’s health in full swing.

Julian analyses their conversation to pinpoint how digital new media dresses up traditionalist right-wing talking points as if they’re open-minded, edgy, and brave intellectual insights.

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246: Shock Doctrine of Discovery

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Trump has decreed it’s the Gulf of America, and Google agrees, at least for US users. Rep Buddy Carter has introduced HR 1161, the Red White and Blueland Act of 2025 to rename Greenland. And then, of course, there's making Canada the 51st state.

Pay attention to shit like this: it's a magic spell.

Trump is speaking in the old language of the Discovery Doctrine. That’s what we’ll excavate today.

Show Notes

Zizian Killing Spree and Arrests

Zizian leader denied bail

Roko’s Basilisk and Zizian beliefs/practices

Feb 2023 Community Alert about Ziz on Less Wrong

Project 2025 Observer

Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis and Clark, and Manifest Destiny — Richard J Miller

Trump calls Canada a 'very serious contender' to become 51st state

H.R.1161 - 119th Congress (2025-2026): Red, White, and Blueland Act of 2025

DISCOURSE ON COLONIALISM Aime Cesaire Translated by Joan Pinkham

Biography - Burnum Burnum - Indigenous Australia

The fight to 'free' the Aboriginal flag

Common Methods of Annexation | Snohomish County, WA

Doctrine of Discovery: How the 500-year-old Catholic decree encouraged colonization

Speech Acts (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

Mexico's President Sheinbaum threatens to take legal action over the Gulf name change : NPR

How Canada planned to invade the U.S. (and vice versa)

Poilievre says Canada is broken

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Bonus Sample: Manners, the Machine, and Malaparte’s Technique de Coup d’État

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

What do we worry more about: the far-right beliefs of trolls, or the coding skills of the trolls?

The split focus on Marco Elez and Elon Musk—are they Nazis, or hackers, or Nazi hackers?— highlight two prongs of emergent fascism. The ideological/aesthetic/psychological on one side, and the technocratic on the other. We can call them the manners and the machine.

First, Matthew unpacks a century-old thesis by an OG fascist that says totalitarian regimes take shape when both are working together, but that ultimately, the coup d’etat is about seizing control of the machine.

Then he rounds off with a rant about how easy it is liberal-centrist discourse about manners to distract from the reality of the machine. Why? It’s because in the absence of a clear analysis of how capital and power work—it’s in the sphere of manners—that liberals feel they have a fighting chance. But it’s also exactly where Musk and Elez and Vance and Trump can ignore them.

Show Notes

A Doomed Democracy | STANFORD magazine

The October Revolution - Introduction | Marx Memorial Library

Alexander Kerensky Dies Here at 89 - The New York Times

Curzio Malaparte | Italian Author, Journalist & Politician | Britannica

Reading the Eccentric Italian Writer Who Tried to Cover Up His Fascism ‹ Literary Hub

Curzio Malaparte: The Illusion of the Fascist Revolution

The Californian Ideology

The Californian Ideology Personified - Truthdig

Cyberlibertarianism: The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology on JSTOR

175: Diagonalism (w/William Callison and Quinn Slobodian) — Conspirituality

Opinion | Don’t Believe Him - The New York Times

Welcome to Neokayfabe — Abraham Josephine Riesman // Writer

40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists — Spencer Sunshine

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Brief: Antifascist Woodshed

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Education / Public service alert:

Matthew critically reviews six books that define fascist eras and recount how they have been opposed. A kind of “here we are, now what?” episode that hopefully interrupts the doomscroll with the sobriety of some practical considerations.

Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny (2017)
Robert Paxton, Anatomy of Fascism (2004)
Paul Mason, How to Fight Fascism (2018)
Mark Bray, Antifa: The Antifascist Handbook (2017)
Curzio Malaparte: Technique de Coup d’Etat (1931)
Spencer Sunshine: 40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists (2021)

Formats range from popular nonfiction to academic history to pragmatic field guide. Politics range from liberal to anarchist. More feminist and non-white sources to be reviewed soon.

Show Notes

On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder

Timothy Snyder’s Bad History | City Journal

Robert O. Paxton - The Anatomy of Fascism

Is It Fascism? A Leading Historian Changes His Mind. - The New York Times

How to Stop Fascism

Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook

Curzio Malaparte - The Technique Of Revolution

40 Ways to Fight Fascists: Street-Legal Tactics for Community Activists — Spencer Sunshine

Joyful Militancy | The Anarchist Library

Let This Radicalize You | HaymarketBooks.org

Being Numerous: Essays on Non-Fascist Life — Natasha Lennard

DISCOURSE ON COLONIALISM Aime Cesaire Translated by Joan Pinkham

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245: Raw Dogging Wellness [feat Mallory DeMille]

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Raw Milk. Raw Water. Raw Meat.

Mallory DeMille returns to break down the raw trend in wellness. We look at the science and cultural implications behind it.

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Relief Project #8: Blair Hodges

Tue, 18 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

The eighth installment of Matthew’s Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.

Friend of the pod Blair Hodges joins Matthew to talk about how he’s transformed the teachings of his Mormon upbringing into inspiration for social justice, how he grapples with the limits of the nuclear family as he thinks about community building, and why James Baldwin is so important to him.

Blair has degrees in journalism, religious studies, and disability studies from the University of Utah and Georgetown University. He’s currently working on a research project on the history of intellectual disabilities in Mormon thought.

Show Notes

Relationscapes—with Blair Hodges

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Bonus Sample: Scientology’s Sci-Fi Religion

Mon, 17 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

“You don’t get rich writing science fiction. If you want to get rich, start a religion.” With those words, prolific sci-fi pulp fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard prophesied the course of his life’s work.

The 1950s saw the emergence of UFO- and alien channeling-based spiritual groups, as postmodern religious syncretism transformed supposedly ancient angels and demons into benevolent and/or terrifying aliens. No iteration of this fantasy has been more financially fruitful, culturally impactful, controversial, or bizarre than Hubbard’s brainchild: Scientology.

In the latest episode of Roots of Conspirituality, Julian digs into the fascinating backstory of this prolific author, revered as prophetic by thousands, pursued as a fraud by the IRS for decades, described as a cult leader by church escapees, and called an abusive madman by his ex-wives. Allegedly…

The religion is a complex blend of self-help psychology, elaborate pseudoscience, high-demand paranoia, and alien mythology that, at its height, commanded 100,000 members—and is still valued at roughly $2 billion.

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Brief: Make Apartheid Great Again

Sat, 15 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Given how much shit the zone is being flooded with right now, you might have missed Donald Trump screaming about the supposed mistreatment of white South Africans recently. Last week, he said “certain classes of people” were being treated “very badly.” The trigger was a bill signed by South African president, Cyril Ramaphosa, a former anti-Apartheid activist, trade union leader, and successful businessman—three qualities Trump doesn’t really understand.

Like the Trump administration, we have our own South African on staff—and he’s legitimately employed here! Julian grew up under apartheid and left the country due to it. Derek chats with him about what life was like growing up there, and he explains the confusion that Trump is injecting into the body politic.

Show Notes

Trump vs. South Africa

South African president signs controversial land seizure law

No Proof Elon Musk's Grandparents Belonged to Nazi Party

Errol Musk Talks About Elon’s Maternal Grandparents

Understanding What the 2025 Expropriation Act Means

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244: Battle for the Onesies

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

As of recording time, RFK Jr has not yet been confirmed to the HHS Secretary position by the Senate. That might change by publication date. But if we were setting odds on this confirmation, we’d say put your money on Bobby.

So, WTF. Bobby Brainworms will be in charge of US public health, and its influence around the world. Our years of reporting on him have been defeated by the influencer noise of the MAHA Mamas. But we. Will. Carry. On.

Julian reviews the misinfo docket. Derek runs down the bureaucratic implications. And Matthew speculates on just how perfect someone like RFK Jr would be as the domestic health figurehead of a fascist movement, if, you know, that were ever to be possible.

Show Notes

Some Cancers Rising Amongst Younger people

Increased Lung Cancer from the 1960s to 80s.

Lung Cancer Rates Today

Smoking Suppresses Appetite and Results in Lower BMI for Some

64% of Adults in UK Overweight

65% of Australians Overweight

Diabetes Was 1.8% in the US in 1960

11.6% of US Population Has Diabetes

Risk of Alzheimer’s Doubles Every 5 Years After 65

30% of Smokers are Overweight or Obese

A recent study did NOT show vaccines cause autism, but RFK Jr. keeps pushing the lie.

“A New Academic Publishing Model”: Right-Wing Dark Money Group Launches Fringe Medical Journal

Judge Orders White House to Unblock Funding for NIH, Others

RFK Jr.'s financial disclosures reveal millions in both debt and income as he awaits HHS confirmation

Racial ‘Sterility’ and ‘Hyperfecundity’ in Fascist Italy. Biological Politics of Sex and Reproduction in

History of fascism, reproductive rights offers lessons for today

Are tyrants good for your health?

When the leader is ill—or addicted to cocaine, meth, steroids, or hormones

Five Pseudosciences That Fueled the Nazis

‘Hitler Was Centre of Our Lives’: Confessions of Nazi Criminals’ Wives | History | Nuremberg. Casus pacis

Theodor Morell: Hitler’s Particularly Odious Physician

Public Health Under the Third Reich

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Bonus Sample: What We're Facing

Mon, 10 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Derek meditates on a recent conversation about the left-right divide between Ezra Klein and James Pogue.

Show Notes

MAGA’s Big Tech Divide: Ezra Klein Show

Going Back to Cincinnati — James Pogue

Inside the New Right, Where Peter Thiel Is Placing His Biggest Bets — James Pogue

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Brief: Why Didn’t I Yell STFU at Jordan Peterson in 2017?

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

In the spring of 2017, Jordan Peterson first went viral by writing this in Canada’s National Post:

I will never use words I hate, like the trendy and artificially constructed words “zhe” and “zher.” These words are at the vanguard of a post-modern, radical leftist ideology that I detest, and which is, in my professional opinion, frighteningly similar to the Marxist doctrines that killed at least 100 million people in the 20th century.

Remember that horseshit, or things like it? Did you guffaw because he was obviously absurd? Did you try to reason with his stans online? Did you see him as a crank influencer, or a dangerous political figure?

Did you hope his ideas would be beaten down in the marketplace of ideas? Or did you seek him out at a public event and shout him down with a bullhorn?

Today, word salad like this is everywhere—including in Project 2025, now driving the Trump admin.

Matthew visits the antifascist woodshed to investigate the liberal manners, free speech naivety, and lack of community alliances that dissuaded him from grabbing the mic during a Peterson Q&A in 2017 and shouting:

“Your ideas are fascist and you should STFU. You are endangering trans people with your bullshit. Why do you care about how they experience their bodies, you whining pervert? Why are you inciting hatred against young people who want a better world?”

Because… look where we are now.

Show Notes

Read the Memo Pausing Federal Grants and Loans - The New York Times

President George H.W. Bush on political correctness (1991)

The History of Political Correctness—Lind

The Pitfalls of Liberalism — Kwame Ture

The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic | Scientific American

Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect | National Post

Bill C-16, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity or expression)

Jordan Peterson is trying to make sense of the world — including his own strange journey

Postmodern Neo-Marxism — Jordan Peterson’s Shadow

Doug Ford met Jordan Peterson, appointment calendar reveals | CBC News

Why are the Proud Boys so violent? Ask Gavin McInnes — SPLC

Jordan Peterson revealed he once earned $400,000 a month

Antifa by Mark Bray

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243: Free Market Contrarians (w/Eoin Higgins)

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Edward Snowden is largely only a public name thanks to Glenn Greenwald’s reporting, for which he was one of the contributors to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series for The Guardian in 2014. For a while, Matt Taibbi was considered the heir to Hunter Thompson when his gonzo journalism tore open the 2008 financial crisis and gave the public the term “vampire squids.”

Yet in more recent years, both men have swerved right: Glenn became a darling on Fox News and Taibbi was recruited by Elon Musk as one of the Twitter Files “journalists.” How did that happen? We’re joined by journalist Eoin Higgins, whose new book, Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left, dives into the career arcs of both Greenwald and Taibbi, and how they confuse and distort right-left alignments.

Show Notes

Sharath Jois, Heir to Founder of Ashtanga Yoga, Dies at 53 - The New York Times

Sharath’s Statement on Pattabhi Jois’s Assaults: Context, Links, Notes – Matthew Remski

Surviving Modern Yoga - North Atlantic Books

Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left

Eoin Higgins Morning Brew | Bluesky

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Bonus Sample: Kelly Brogan’s Divine Dungeon: Pt 2 (feat/Esme Providence Brown)

Mon, 03 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Part 2 of Matthew’s sit down with sex-work veteran and social justice advocate Esme Providence Brown to discuss New Age / wellness antifeminist, Kelly Brogan, and how her craven politics bolster the permission structure for Trumpian misogyny.

They track her political and aesthetic journey from labcoat wearer to wellness pole dancer to BDSM cosplayer—a spiral through deepening layers of appropriation, disavowal of responsibility, and cringe-tastic ideas. Esme concludes with some deep insights on what it means for artisanal BDSM to be stripped of its political and consent-culture context, and who Brogan’s “feminism is a psy-op” argument really serves.

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Brief: Anti-Social Media (w/Renee Diresta)

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 11:00:00 -0000

When asked if he thought Mark Zuckerberg’s effective ending of fact checking was in response to threats that he would “put him in jail for a very long time,” Trump replied, “Probably. Yeah, probably.” A week later, TikTok voluntarily disabled their app for users, then put up an announcement saying that Trump was going to bring them back.

Julian talks to digital disinformation expert Renee Diresta about the massive Big Tech realignment with MAGA, which now means Meta, X, and TikTok may become more like TruthSocial. If fact checking is biased, content moderation is censorship, and combating foreign propaganda is anti-free speech, where does that leave us now?

Show Notes

If you Give A Mouse a Cookie: Renee Diresta

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242: Executive Disorder

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

What the ever loving fuck. That’s our intro today.

But we do have a structure. Julian’s going to review the Executive Order chaos, including the pardoning and deputizing of fascist street gangs. Derek’s going to explain what the ever loving fuck it means for health agencies to turn off access to health data. And I’ll look at two Xtian responses to fascism: one hypocritical and one poetic… but maybe toothless.

Show Notes

Freed Capitol riot ringleaders regroup - and vow 'retribution'

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Bonus Sample: 1950’s Alien Yoga

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Full episode available here.

The alien from Venus in George King’s head said: “Prepare yourself. You are to be the voice of interplanetary parliament.” It’s 1952 and the Englishman has been meditating deeply. Eight days later, a famous yogi from India materializes to explain what’s going on.

These experiences became the basis for the Aetherius Society—an organization that still has 35 chapters around the planet today. They claim the world’s governments are covering up their communication with a spiritually enlightened galactic federation, so as to maintain control over humanity.

If that sounds like 2020 red-pilled Instagram grift, you’re right! Everything old is new again.

Julian’s series, The Roots of Conspirituality, a history of new age conspiracism, is now conveniently organized under the “Collections” tab at the top of our Patreon page. Each episode is self-contained—but listen from the start if you want to trace the journey from the 1840’s “burned over region” of the American North East to today!

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Brief: Patients Before Profits

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

On Jan 10, the Oregon Nurses Association launched the largest healthcare strike in Oregon state history. Some 5k frontline caregivers from 8 Providence hospitals and 6 clinics have been holding the line in freezing temperatures as they fight for basic rights that their employer—a Catholic nonprofit healthcare system whose C Suite members make millions of dollars every year—refuses to give them.

Derek discusses why such strikes, and unions in general, are so important as the new administration takes office. He breaks down some of Providence’s past legal problems, discusses his own experience as a Providence patient, and talks to some of the nurses on the strike line.

Show Notes

Dr Jennifer Lincoln

Oregon Nurses Association

Resources for striking healthcare professionals

It's Time for Providence to Put Patients Before Profits

Providence, striking Oregon health workers remain apart on key issues

They Were Entitled to Free Care. Hospitals Hounded Them to Pay.

Hospital System to Refund Poor Patients Who Were Entitled to Free Care

Wealthiest Hospitals Got Billions in Bailout for Struggling Health Providers

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241: Unravelling The Telepathy Tapes

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

One of the top podcasts in the world—even beating out Rogan for a few hours—is popularizing a well-meaning intervention for non-speaking autistic people. Unfortunately, that intervention happens to be a proven failure, and may set autistic and disability rights discourse back by decades.

Filmmaker Ky Dicken’s The Telepathy Tapes podcast delves into the world of Facilitated Communication, in which non-speaking people are believed to miraculously gain access to complex written language after lives of silence. According to Dickson, non-speaking people can also gather in transdimensional spaces and channel spiritual knowledge.

But there’s a problem. Every controlled test shows that the messages produced through letterboards and iPads are coming from the facilitators—not the non-speaking persons.

In this episode, Matthew interviews experts in pseudoscience and autism, including Janyce Boynton, a former (now dissident) practitioner of Facilitated Communication who explains how seductive and promising it was to practice, but how it ultimately steals agency and dignity from the autistic client.

And... this is also a story about parents dealing with crushing levels of unpaid and invisible labour. They are already doing miraculous work. A fantasy is no replacement for true support and recognition.

Show Notes

Podcast About 'Telepathic' Autistic Children Briefly Knocks Joe Rogan Out Of No. 1 Spot

Ky Dickens Director | Filmmaker

Facilitated Communication—what harm it can do: Confessions of a former facilitator

MD25438 - Powell, Diane Hennacy, MD - OR License Verification - 01/12/2025 11:07:47 AM

The Telepathy Tapes: Separating Science From Pseudoscience In Autism Communication

Stolen Voices: Facilitated Communication Devalues Autism | Psychology Today Canada

Multiple method validation study of facilitated communication: II. Individual differences and subgroup results - PubMed

The Telepathy Tapes Prove We All Want to Believe

"The Telepathy Tapes" is Taking America by Storm. But it Has its Roots in Old Autism Controversies.

Mixed Messages: Validity and Ethics of Facilitated Communication | Disability Studies Quarterly

Is There Science Behind That? Facilitated Communication

Controlled Studies — Facilitated Communication

Served people with severe communication impairments — Obit for Rosemary Crossley

More Doubts over Disability ‘Miracle’

Katharine Beals

Jonathan Jarry MSc - Science Communicator

FCisNotScience - YouTube — Janyce Boynton’s awesome YouTube channel

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Relief Project #7: Sam Adler-Bell

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 16:23:18 -0000

The seventh installment of Matthew’s Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.

Sam Adler-Bell is a journalist, political theorist, and co-host of one of Matthew’s favourite podcasts, Know Your Enemy—a show about the American right. They discuss the normalization of genocide, the stark comforts of Freud and Janet Malcolm, the relief of DW Winnicott, how we can’t avoid playing the role of our own mothers, and also good advice from his dad, a labour lawyer who knows something about long, uncertain, but always worthwhile battles for the common good.

Show Notes

Sam Adler-Bell

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Bonus Sample: Calling Out Bullsh*t

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Twitter Files journalist Alex Berenson recently published two articles claiming that Moderna covered up a child's death from a Moderna Covid booster trial—and the FDA is complicit. Children’s Health Defense then hosted him on their TV program to learn more about this outrageous scandal.

Do Berenson's claims hold up? All Derek did was click on the links in his own article to discover the "truth." He looks at this phenomenon through the lens of the 2020 book, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World.

Show Notes

Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World

Alex Berenson’s article

Children’s Health Defense interview

The Lancet study on Covid vaccination in children

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Brief: Tech-Bro Mormonism (w/Blair Hodges)

Sat, 18 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

We know Bryan Johnson gobbles 100 pills a day. He pumps his son’s plasma through his veins. He does light therapy on his junk and wants to live forever. But do we understand how Johnson’s fascinations reflect his Mormon heritage? No. No we don’t.

That’s why we called our very own Salt Lake City expert, Blair Hodges, host of the Relationscapes podcast.

Blair joins Matthew to discuss Johnson’s transhumanism, which has roots in the LDS but has also led him away from it. They cover the spirituality of his money, whether he’s trying to become a living god, and how his home gym has some distinctive Mormon temple elements. Also: is Bryan really as polite as he seems, or is he hiding

Blair has degrees in journalism, religious studies, and disability studies from the University of Utah and Georgetown University. He directed communications for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Studies at Brigham Young University before moving to the nonprofit sector. He has served as communications director for Volunteers of America, Utah and RMHC of the Intermountain Area. He’s currently working on a research project on the history of intellectual disabilities in Mormon thought.

Show Notes

Relationscapes—Blair Hodges

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240: Bryan Johnson’s Impossible Blueprint

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

In January, 2023, Bloomberg published an article about how tech entrepreneur turned longevity stan, Bryan Johnson, spends $2 million a year in an attempt to live forever—or at least until age 200, as the goalposts shift. Then a Netflix documentary, Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, dropped on January 1, taking a deep dive into Johnson’s quest and complex personal life. A strange thing happened along the way: Johnson felt much more personable and relatable than ever before to many viewers. Given the Bloomberg journalist is one of the producers, is this the latest propaganda piece by a supplements-pushing huckster, or is Johnson tapping into something much older and deeper about the human condition?

Show Notes

How to Be 18 Years Old Again for Only $2 Million a Year

Politico piece on Mayor Karen Bass and LA Fires

Anna Merlan on LA Fire conspiracies

Ally Carter Diddy-List Fire Conspiracy Theory Shared by Former Bush Official

Nutritionist Reviews The Blueprint Supplements

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Clarity Lab: Fighting Cancer Misinformation

Tue, 14 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

A one-time drop of Derek's new podcast, Clarity Lab, the official podcast of Siris Health, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit building a free educational platform and curating social media channels that feature experts presenting health and science in a clear, compelling manner.

Celery juice. Coffee enemas. Ozone therapy. The list of pseudoscientific cancer "treatments" is endless. Yet they all risk pushing people in vulnerable positions toward untenable "cures."

Dr Andrea Love joins Derek Beres to discuss the dangers of cancer misinformation, as well as why the field of cancer research is so complex—and rewarding.

Dr Andrea Love is an immunologist and microbiologist, as well as subject-matter expert in infectious disease immunology, cancer immunology, and autoimmunity. She writes the Immunologic newsletter.

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Bonus Sample: Kelly Brogan’s Divine Dungeon: Pt 1 (feat/Esme Providence Brown)

Mon, 13 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew sits down with sex-work veteran and social justice advocate Esme Providence Brown for the first of two chinwags about our famous New Age / wellness antifeminist, Kelly Brogan, and how her craven politics bolster the permission structure for Trumpian misogyny.

They track her political and aesthetic journey from labcoat-wearer to wellness pole dancer to BDSM cosplayer—a spiral through deepening layers of appropriation, disavowal of responsibility, and cringe-tastic ideas.

This is only Part One!

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Brief: Vinay Prasad’s Pick-me Campaign

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

UCSF epidemiology and biostatistics professor Vinay Prasad's star rose when he compared the US response to Covid-19 to the beginnings of the Third Reich in October, 2021. Though a less famous contrarian than others in the MAHA sphere, the hematologist-oncologist has honed his social media trolling over the past few years, always ready for a fight, evidence be damned.

Derek and Julian look at two recent videos that signal Prasad might be angling for a position in a potential RFK Jr-run HHS—and all the misinformation he continues to spread.

Show Notes

BMJ's Systematic Review on Quarantine Measures

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239: Conspiracy Of Dunces

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Like it or not, 2025 is here. What happens in post-truth America when formerly fringe conspiracy theorists, religious extremists, pseudoscience-peddlers, and wannabe authoritarians become a government—now weaponized against their personal enemies, both foreign and domestic? Should political analysis take a page from academics who study professional wrestling?

We each offer our views on what's ahead.

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Bonus Sample: The Giant Rock Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

George van Tassel was the original UFO contactee. He claimed to have been visited by aliens from Venus in 1953, which led to him hosting thousands of people at the annual Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention for almost 20 years. He channeled “Ashtar, ”a figure still popular in “Galactic Federation” conspiritualist circles today, and spent 25 years building a time machine based on telepathic communications with aliens.

Julian unpacks the wild story of van Tassel’s airstrip, the Mojave Desert’s Giant Rock, and how the FBI may have been involved in his mysterious death and subsequent disappearance of his cellular rejuvenation equipment.

This is part of a series of free-standing episodes that excavates the history of pseudoscience and conspiracism beneath contemporary New Age spirituality.

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Brief: Trump the Babyface, Trump the Heel (w/Abraham Josie Reisman)

Sat, 04 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

Journalist and author Josie Reisman says we can’t understand the Trump era without understanding his life-long pro-wrestling fandom, and his bonds with one of his closest friends, WWE tycoon Vince McMahon.

Reisman argues that McMahon’s invention of “neokayfabe,” in which storylines and real life are purposefully and artfully confused, blurs the distinction between fact and fiction. It makes consumers, followers, and voters complicit in creating a spectacle of cruelty.

It’s the kind of argument that once seen, can’t be unseen. It helps explain the contradictory and performative politics of Trump—and how, under his leadership, the administrative state may not be destroyed by fascism directly, but by a theatre of cynicism and catharsis that will allow the latent fascism of the American Empire to explode.

Show Notes

Welcome to Neokayfabe

Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America — Abraham Josephine Riesman // Writer

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238: Diary of a CEO Bro

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 11:00:00 -0000

British entrepreneur and investor Steven Bartlett launched his podcast, Diary of a CEO, in 2017. He quickly found an audience in the tech world, which gave him access to a wide range of celebrities and businesspeople from various domains. By 2024, the podcast became one of the top 5 in the world, netting Bartlett and his team a reported $25M this year alone.

Yet as Bartlett’s star rose, his guest list began becoming more and more suspect. Pertinent to our beat, contrarian wellness influencers and philosophers appeared, spreading Covid conspiracies and health misinformation. In his role as curious everyman, Bartlett rarely challenged their narratives, sometimes playing along with their conspiratorial hot takes to an audience in the millions.

We look at a few conspiritualist crossovers this week, and discuss what it really takes to become a top 5 podcaster—and the information and integrity that’s sacrificed along the way.

Show Notes

The Canonization of St. Luigi

Sacred Heart of Luigi hanging up at Vito's Pizza

Extremist “Saints Culture”

Catholic ethicists condemn ‘indifference to suffering’ shown by those celebrating Luigi Mangione

41% of young voters say UnitedHealthcare CEO killing "acceptable"

69% Blame CEO Murder on US Healthcare System

Mainstreaming of Violent Accelerationism

December Wave 2 2024 AmeriSpeak Omnibus | NORC at the University of Chicago

Steven Bartlett sharing harmful health misinformation in Diary of CEO podcast

What the Most Famous Book About Trauma Gets Wrong

Teal Swan Collection—Patreon

Bessel van der Kolk: Role in the Satanic Panic

He Built a Wellness Empire While Adventuring With Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Only 7% of American Adults Have Good Cardiometabolic Health

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Relief Project #6: Rebecca Solnit

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Happy New Year’s Eve!

The sixth installment of Matthew’s Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.

Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than 20 books on feminism, western and indigenous history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering and walking, hope and disaster.

Show Notes

Rebecca Solnit

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Bonus Sample: Why Big Wellness Hates Ozempic

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Ozempic might be all the rage among people who want to lose weight, but wellness influencers and MAHA acolytes are raging against the antidiabetic medication. Derek investigates recent statements by RFK Jr and Calley Means and holds up their claims to the data we can all see online.

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Brief: The Free Press Tastes Its Own (Polio) Medicine

Sat, 28 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

We've been highly critical of The Free Press in the past, but a recent memoir-article about grappling with a familial history of polio by Jana Kozlowski stood out. Derek and Julian take no issue with the piece, which was an emotional plea to understand the ravages of polio and the efficacy of vaccines. The comment section is another thing.

Show Notes

Polio Ravaged My Family. Forget Its Horror at Your Peril.

The First Five Errors in the Moth in the Iron Lung Book

The First Five Errors in Dissolving Illusions by Suzanne Humphries

Amazon Won’t Take a Stand in War Over Anti-Vaxxer Book

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Unlocked: “What will happen?” (asks a 12 year-old)

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

A special Patreon bonus unlocked episode as we enjoy the holidays with our families and friends.

Matthew got The Question on the morning after the election. At that moment, he came up with nothing but a hug. But then he chewed on it for days, and came up with eleven things to consider.

So here are some notes for possible conversations with tweens about anxiety, bullies, fascism, friends, mutual aid, and love.

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Bonus Sample: Blessed NeoKayfabe of Santa Claus

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

“If you grow up with it, religion is real until you realize it is also imagined. And after a period of disenchantment or even depression that associates imagination with lies, you might then sense that the imagined part was also real, but because it’s imagined, you know you can change it.”

Matthew reflects on how Santa becomes more real in the home after the kids know he’s just a story, but a story of unbridled love and causeless generosity they can now participate in telling.

Happy holidays, everyone!

Show Notes

A Christmas Carol: Dedicated to Scrooge, And His Art Collection—McKenzie Wark

Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America — Abraham Josephine Riesman

Welcome to Neokayfabe—Jodie Reisman

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Brief: My Dad Became a MAGA Power Broker (w/Julia Tucker)

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Jeffery Tucker is the founder of the MAGA thinktank Brownstone Institute. In 2020, Brownstone published The Great Barrington Declaration, with lead author Jay Bhattacharya—now the nominee for head of the NIH.

Jeffrey’s daughter, Julia, joins Matthew to discuss her dad’s rise through the punditocracy, through decades of fringe libertarian publishing, working for Ron Paul, boosting anarcho-capitalism and crypto, writing for the Epoch Times, and asking such daring questions as: “What’s so wrong about child labour?”

Show Notes

Patreon: Post-Catholic Music (w/Julia Tucker)

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237: Your Revolution is Out of Network

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The murder of United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson has set off shockwaves across America. This week we look at the story’s online impact, people mythologizing the alleged killer, its intersection with conspirituality, and the healthcare system in America writ large.

Show Notes

Jen Gunter on insurance denial for her premature babies' oxygen needs

Exclusive: Luigi's Manifesto - Ken Klippenstein

Savings: Quarter of Americans Have Few, One in 10 Have None | Statista

The Burden of Medical Debt in the United States

View of U.S. Healthcare Quality Declines to 24-Year Low

MDVIP/Ipsos poll shows Americans are struggling with the healthcare system

UnitedHealthcare CEO gunned down in Manhattan sold company stocks just before DOJ probe made public | The Independent

Conservatives Face Backlash From Followers Over UnitedHealthcare Murder - Newsweek

Before fatal subway chokehold, Jordan Neely was on NYC’s list of homeless individuals with dire needs | CNN

Kaiser Study on Health Insurance Satisfaction

NIH Debunks Myth that 60% of Bankruptcies are Medical in Nature

Luigi Mangione’s Anger Wasn’t Neatly Ideological

Gallup Poll on Health Care Satisfaction

Ipsos Poll on Health Care Satisfaction

Mental Illness is 13.5 times More Likely In Lone Wolf Shooters

Narcissism, Fame Seeking and Mass Shootings

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Relief Project #5: Annie Kelly

Tue, 17 Dec 2024 15:50:52 -0000

The fifth installment of Matthew's Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.

Dr. Annie Kelly joined us in Episode 61 to lay out her research on the manosphere-to-conspirituality pipeline. Today she joins me to discuss the trouble and joy of balancing extremism research with stories of hope and solidarity.

Show Notes

Annie Kelly

Vaccine: The Human Story - YouTube

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Bonus Sample: TheoBros, Political Religion, and Christmas

Mon, 16 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Extremely online, bearded, Millennial pastors in tailored suits want to repeal women’s suffrage, criminalize gays, and Make America Christian Again. These “TheoBros” even have a guy on the inside: JD Vance. Trump’s Dept of Defense nominee, Pete Hegseth, attends an affiliated church.

Julian tracks their genealogy and ugly ideas, as well as their parallel reactionary theocratic visions wreaking havoc elsewhere in the world today. Stay tuned for conversational reflections and wholesome holiday wishes at the end!

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Brief: The Unfreedom of Others (w/Talia Lavin)

Sat, 14 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Journalist Talia Lavin joins Derek to discuss her recent book, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America.

Show Notes

Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America

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236: Damage Control

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

As we ride out the aftershocks of the election and prepare for Trump 2.0, it’s as if nothing is bolted down. Trump’s cabinet appointments signal a disregard for competence or temperament as he seems to prioritize fervent deep state conspiracism and anti-woke aggression in his choices. The chattering classes (both legacy and new media) are on the front lines of having to adapt in real time.

What to do? Double down on anti-fascist resistance, turn the disinformation detection devices up to 11, chart a course for sanguine neutrality, normalize the chaos as the world burns, or maybe give this rag-tag group of billionaire outsiders a chance to move fast and break things—in the hope that some of it was not working anyway?

We look at three different modes of damage control currently ripping through American discourse.

Show Notes

There’s a conspiracy theory that the CIA invented the term ‘conspiracy theory’ – here’s why

87: The Aubrey Marcus Spectacle

107: An Open Letter to Aubrey Marcus

214: Aubrey Marcus is Totally Not a Cult Leader

Winning the Fight for Reproductive Rights in Mexico - Open Society Foundations

Madres de Plaza de Mayo | Learning for Justice

Adweek article on Rogan and MeidasTouch

Kash Patel QAnon Appearances

Kash Patel Seal Team 6 Endangerment

So Marianne Williamson Really is the Peace Candidate—Patreon

“You Feel Like You Are Subhuman”: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza | Amnesty International USA

NLG and Other Legal Groups Send Letter to ICC Urging an Investigation into Potential War Crimes Committed by Israel and US in Gaza under “Operation Protective Edge”

Russell Tribunal on Palestine, 2014

Friday 17 November: Twenty thousand Palestinians believed to be killed in Israel’s genocide of Gaza

Campus Protests Led to More Than 3,100 Arrests, but Many Charges Have Been Dropped

Harris campaign rejects claim vice president thinks there is a genocide in Gaza

A Study Reveals CNN and MSNBC’s Glaring Gaza Double Standard | The Nation

Morning Joe: Dems’ Favorite Show, Blatant Pro-Israel Propaganda

The Intercept: Israel-Palestine Coverage

US MSM downplays Amnesty report

TIME on Iranian Foreign Influence Methods

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Bonus Sample: The Raw Truth About Health

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Researchers in California recently warned that just one mutation in H5N1, the bird flu virus, could make the disease transmissible between humans. While the virus was first identified in 1959 (and became globally significant in 1996), they’re also concerned that increasingly damaging effects of climate change could make us more susceptible to such viruses. The same week, California-based raw milk manufacturer, Raw Farm, was forced to recall its products due to third-party testers discovering it contained H5N1.

Derek looks at these converging trends—the wellness-driven fervor over the safety and health benefits of raw milk and the chances of another pandemic—with an investigation into why this matters from a public health perspective. Along the way, he’ll define the three often-confused forms of health in public discourse—individual, population, and public health—and why influencers often confuse them.

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Brief: Freeing the Well-Trained Wife (w/Tia Levings)

Sat, 07 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Exvangelical author Tia Levings joins Matthew to discuss her harrowing memoir of indoctrination, abuse, recovery, and advocacy, The Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy. It’s a wild GenX journey that tells us a lot about the logic of evangelical support for Trumpism, and how those caught within it can see their way clear the gender terror, rape culture, and fantasies of retribution.

Show Notes

Tia Levings

This season, Patreon is checking some big things off your wish list

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235: MAHA Mamas (feat Mallory DeMille)

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

If you’ve spent one minute on social media in the last few months, you’ve probably heard that seed oils are extremely toxic, food dyes are the reason for rising obesity rates—oh wait, that’s glyphosate—and vaccines are still causing autism. Nevermind the fact that the supposedly criminal preservative, thimerosal, was removed from almost all vaccinations in 2001. Clinical research is irrelevant in MAHA, RFK Jr’s Make America Healthy Again MAGA ripoff.

Wellness acolytes have found a champion in Kennedy, who’s going to immediately end chronic diseases and reduce obesity rates by…checks notes…making sure every American has a gym membership. We’ve covered Bobby a lot on this podcast, so today our fearless correspondent, Mallory DeMille, returns to investigate one very vocal and very relieved cohort, the MAHA Mamas. They just know Kennedy is going to truly save the children, science be damned.

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Bonus Sample: Deep State Religion

Mon, 02 Dec 2024 11:00:00 -0000

An essay from Matthew on how MAGA religiosity obscures the religious nature of liberalism, and how both obscure the underlying religion of capitalism.

Inspired by Walter Benjamin, who in 1921 wrote:

One can behold in capitalism a religion, that is to say, capitalism essentially serves to satisfy the same worries, anguish, and disquiet formerly answered by so-called religion. Capitalism is a pure religious cult, perhaps the most extreme there ever was. Within it everything only has meaning in direct relation to the cult: it knows no special dogma, no theology.

Show Notes

Mutual Aid Hub

Martin Luther King Jr: Dialectics, Materialism, and the Black Radical Critique of Racial Capitalism with Andrew J. Douglas and Jared A. Loggins

230: How Did We Get Here?

Walter Benjamin, "Capitalism as Religion [Fragment 74],"

Max Weber and Walter Benjamin

Without Dream or Mercy

Has Capitalism Become Our Religion?

On the Concept of History - Walter Benjamin

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Brief: The $100M Free Press

Sat, 30 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The Free Press founder, Bari Weiss, recently hosted Peter Thiel on her podcast. While The FP markets itself as as a return to independent and non-partisan real journalism, Julian and Derek point out that's not the case at all—especially when the organization's $15M in funding comes from rightwing and libertarian VCs. Will Weiss factcheck Thiel's misinformation in real-time, as a "non-partisan" outlet should?

Show Notes

Lapdogs Of The "Counter-Elite" Authoritarians

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234: Trump’s Conspiracist Cabinet

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Since the election, Democratic voter disbelief and despair has alternated between grief and rage. We watched some erstwhile vociferous critics of Trump in the legacy media, like Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, kiss the ring and bend the knee, while others adopted a contorted posture of seeming legitimization, like NPR hosting Leonard Leo for a nice long sit-down interview.

Meanwhile, the big egos of MAGA 2.0 seem to rise like Soviet propaganda banners over the American landscape. Trump has named his cabinet picks at lightning speed. His list includes a pro-wrestling executive, a Hare Krishna cult member, a tech billionaire, an anti-vax conspiracy peddler, a FOX News host with far-right tattoos, an alt-med snake oil salesman, two sex offenders, a COVID-contrarian doctor—and, contrary to his claiming to know nothing about it during the election, prominent Project 2025 authors.

What most high profile nominations all have in common is being completely unqualified for the job. Maybe that’s the point. We look at the cabinet picks that intersect with our beat, as pseudoscience conspiracism now completes its journey from the social fringes to deciding White House policies—and all the consequences that entails.

Show Notes

Conspirituality’s Project 2025 coverage

Everything You Need to Know About Donald Trump’s FDA Pick

No, Medical Errors Are Not the Third Leading Cause of Death

Dr. Oz Shilled for an Alternative to Medicare

Trump picks former Florida Rep. Weldon to lead CDC

13 things everyone should know about Pete Hegseth

Trump reportedly plans to kick trans troops out of the military within days of inauguration

Transgender Military Service in the United States

Did RFK Jr. eat McDonald’s in that viral pic aboard Trump’s plane? Here’s the answer

Part One: Vince McMahon, History's Greatest Monster - Behind the Bastards

C-03-CV-24-004019 — John Does suit against WWE, trigger warning.

Case 3:24-cv-00090 Document 1 Filed 01/25/24 — Janel Grant suit, trigger warning.

152: Tulsi Gabbard’s Krishna Consciousness (w/Nitai Joseph)

Tulsi Gabbard's ties to the Science of Identity Foundation, a controversial religious sect that some call an abusive 'cult'

Tulsi Gabbard Had a Very Strange Childhood

What Does Tulsi Gabbard Believe?

Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to secretive cult may explain her perplexing political journey

Islamophobic World View of Tulsi Gabbard's Guru Revealed in Unearthed Recordings – Can she Still Run for President?

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Relief Project #4: Rob Schenck

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew here with the fourth installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.

Rob Schenck joined me in Episode 199 to discuss his deradicalization from the Evangelical anti-abortion movement. Today he joins me to discuss some things he’s learned about hope, faith, resilience and building community in hard times.

Show Notes

Costly Grace - Rob Schenck

199: Inside Anti-Abortion Christian Nationalism (w/Rob Schenck)

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Bonus Sample: The UFOs Are Being Censored!

Mon, 25 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The climate denialist who exposed the so-called “censorship industrial complex” returns, this time at another congressional hearing. Michael Shellenberger has come to blow the whistle on Big Government’s UFO cover-up.

Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, and Anna Paulina Luna alternate between showing off their knowledge of fantastical History Channel “documentaries” and playing bad cop interrogators.

Reverse-engineered UFO’s! Recovered alien “biologics!” Interdimensional beings! Organic machines that defy the laws of physics!

Shellenberger and his fellow “witnesses” provide precisely zero evidence for any of these earth-shattering claims.

Welcome to the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee circus.

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Brief: How to Fire a Billionaire

Sat, 23 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

AG1 built a billion-dollar brand in large part by tapping into the fitness and wellness podcast and YouTube markets. Recently, AG1’s founder, Chris Ashenden, resigned after a decades-old real estate scam in his native New Zealand came to light. While Chris has mentioned it in passing, he’s always claimed to have paid full reparations for his crime—and it was a crime.

Turns out that he hasn’t paid it all, as uncovered by New Zealand journalists Jonathan Milne and Mike Wesley-Smith. They join Derek to discuss their year-and-a-half long investigation that resulted in a billionaire founder leaving one of the most well-known supplements brands in the world. They also talk about why journalism still matters in a world seemingly run by billionaires.

Show Notes

AG1 founder Chris Ashenden resigns amid scrutiny of NZ criminal history

DELVE: Powder Keg podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeart

Trump sues for billions from media he says is biased against him

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233: DC’s Catholic Power Center (w/Gareth Gore)

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Josemaria Escriva founded Opus Dei, an ultra-conservative, high-demand, secretive Catholic organization in Madrid, Spain, after receiving a supposed vision from God in 1928. His small inner circle initially initiated university students into strict obedience, celibacy, medieval practices of self-flagellation, and deceptive recruitment techniques to convert their friends.

Operating outside of the mainstream church, Opus Dei rose to prominence under Spain's authoritarian dictator, Francisco Franco. Escriva was eventually canonized as a saint while the group amassed enormous wealth and influence around the world.

Today, their reactionary religious and political mission has established a foothold in Washington DC through the Catholic Information Center—the tabernacle closest to the White House.Bill Barr, Leonard Leo, and Project 2025 mastermind, Kevin Roberts, all visit for spiritual guidance. Meanwhile, scandals and lawsuits involving child sex abuse, money laundering, and human trafficking plague Opus Dei's reputation. Gareth Gore joins us to discuss his controversial new book on the past and present of this secretive organization, Opus.

Show Notes

Pew Research Center: America’s News Influencers

How Opus Dei Converted DC

Gareth Gore Author page for his book, Opus

Opus Dei Paid $900K to Settle Sexual Misconduct Claim

Argentine Prosecutors Accuse Opus Dei of Human Trafficking

Maria del Carmen Tapia Book Summary on Opus Dei

Financial Times on Opus

Biblical omen uncovered in aftermath of Hurricane Helene | Daily Mail Online

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Bonus Sample: Thinking About "Holism"

Mon, 18 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

A personal journey through health describing what led Derek to focus on health, science, and healthcare as a career and, eventually, this podcast.

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Brief: Post-Election Online Survivor Group Dynamics

Sat, 16 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The post-election online chaos has a lot in common with what can go wrong in online survivor groups. Matthew tracks how opportunities for connection and solidarity can crater into gravity wells of recrimination, trauma-dumping, moral outrage porn, and the rise of new influence hierarchies. Not just because of differences in politics and values and temperament—but because of inequality and privilege.

A meditation on the difference between building a boat to sail in vs. a boat in a bottle, on considering the second arrow, and on when to log the fuck off.

Show Notes

Mutual Aid Hub

MORAL OUTRAGE PORN C. Thi Nguyen and Bekka Williams

The Second Arrow — Sutta Central

Log the Fuck Off with Amber Frost, Matt Christman, & Ben Fong

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232: Gaslighting The Election

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Once upon a time, there was a golden age. A time when the news media was fair and balanced, unbiased and honest. But we've lost all that to the corrupting influence of big money, political correctness, and woke censorship. Blame the radical left.

Not to worry: the online charisma of heterodox new media figures like Bari Weiss and her plucky, centrist, truth-telling little start-up, The Free Press, has come to Make Journalism Great Again.

Yet their supposed heterodoxy is neither neutral nor journalistically rigorous. It's pure culture war contrarian sensationalism that wastes little ink critiquing the rise of right-wing authoritarianism.

We trace these tangled threads by listening in to the supposedly non-partisan The Free Press election night livestream, which giddily praised Trump for being the consummate bullshitter that will take an ax to Democratic institutions.

Show Notes

The evolution of France’s left and right politics, from the 1789 French Revolution to this year's election

What to Know About the Origins of ‘Left’ and ‘Right’ in Politics, From the French Revolution to the 2020 Presidential Race

Our American Zion

When a Terrorist Comes to Your Hometown

Columbia's Own Middle East War

Bari Weiss’s Unasked Questions

TFP latest round of funding

Thiel/Lonsdale and UATX funding

UATX huge cash injection after pro-palestine protests

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Bonus Sample: “What will happen?” (asks a 12 year-old)

Mon, 11 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew got The Question on the morning after the election. At that moment, he came up with nothing but a hug. But then he chewed on it for days, and came up with eleven things to consider.

So here are some notes for possible conversations with tweens about anxiety, bullies, fascism, friends, mutual aid, and love.

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Brief: Tucker Carlson's Daddy Issues

Sat, 09 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Derek discusses Tucker Carlson advocating for corporal punishment as a way to discipline children in his appearance at the Turning Points USA MAGA rally.

This is an unlock from a recent Patreon bonus, with a new intro from Matthew.

Show Notes

Stephen Colbert: Tucker Carlson’s Weird Daddy Issues

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231: New Age Bible, Postmodern Novel (w/ Sheila Heti)

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Rapid-response electoral punditry is not our lane. So, while we gather our feelings and thoughts, Matthew hosts novelist Sheila Heti for a discussion of her encounter with A Course in Miracles, and what she discovered when she investigated its origin story for Harper’s Magazine.

Was Helen Schucman, the book’s “scribe”, mentally ill? Was she unduly influenced by her boss at Columbia Medical School, William Thetford, who once worked for the CIA’s MKUltra programme, and with whom she was clearly in love, even though he was gay? Were they dropping acid on assignment from Langley? Why was the initial dictation of the book so radically altered by its first editors? Why did Helen Schucman curse A Course in Miracles so soon after publication? Why did she keep writing trite poems to Jesus before dying in bitterness?

Heti was the ideal gumshoe for this project, because as a novelist all-too-familiar with internal voices and the feeling of “channeling,” she was able to feel her way into Helen’s life. Matthew asks her what she found.

Show Notes

The New Age Bible — Sheila Heti

Sheila Heti — website

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Bonus Sample: Elections on 3 Continents

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0000

Having lived under Apartheid in South Africa, voted in the UK, and now staring down this terrifying US election, Julian reflects on the political differences between the three countries.

Stay tuned for some hopeful poetry at the end.

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Brief: No Really, They’re Coming For Your Pets

Sat, 02 Nov 2024 03:00:00 -0000

Recently, “holistic veterinarian” Marcie Fallek, whose latest book, “Little Miracles Everywhere: My Unorthodox Path to Holistic Veterinary Medicine," is the #1 bestseller on Amazon in the Alternative Holistic Medicine category, appeared on Children's Health Defense's daily morning show.

During “Pet Vaccines and Holistic Vet Care" she spreads the same sort of vaccine misinformation and fear-mongering that RFK Jr's nonprofit has become infamous for. All of which made Derek realize that yes, they're actually coming for our pets.

Show Notes

Why Your Vet Bill Is So High

Private Equity Is Killing Your Pets

Nearly 70% of veterinarians have lost a colleague or peer to suicide, study finds

The acute suicide crisis among veterinarians: 'You're always going to be failing somebody'

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230: How Did We Get Here?

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 03:00:00 -0000

With days left before the most consequential US election in our lifetime, we reflect on the last 4.5 years of this podcast while expressing our hopes–and our own reporting goals—for the future.

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Relief Project #3: Michelle Cassandra Johnson

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew here with the third installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.

Michelle Cassandra Johnson was an early guest on our show and helped us lay the groundwork for understanding the reality and impacts of racism in the worlds of wellness and new spirituality.

She’s an author, activist, and racial equity trainer. Her latest book, A Space For Us: A Guide For Leading Black, Indigenous, and People of Color Affinity Groups, was published by Beacon Press in August 2023. She lives in North Carolina with her sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees.

Show Notes

Michelle Cassandra Johnson

Conspirituality 40: White Supremacy: Grift and Gravity (w/Michelle Cassandra Johnson & Daniel Lombroso)

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Bonus Sample: Tucker Carlson's Daddy Issues

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 03:00:00 -0000

Derek discusses Tucker Carlson advocating for corporal punishment as a way to discipline children in his appearance at the Turning Points USA MAGA rally.

Show Notes

Stephen Colbert: Tucker Carlson’s Weird Daddy Issues

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Brief: Leonard Leo’s Plan to “Crush” Democracy

Sat, 26 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Billionaire legal activist Leonard Leo has had a role in placing all six conservative justices on the SCOTUS, and so therefore is in large part responsible for the overturning of Roe V Wade. But his right-wing activism isn’t even close to over, as he recently stated during a rare interview with The Daily Wire. Derek and Julian discuss Leo’s dark vision for the future.

Show Notes

Swamp Creatures 6: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker

Inside Leonard Leo’s Plan For Conservatives To ‘Crush Liberal Dominance’

We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajority

Leonard Leo’s Extremely Revealing Letter to a Dark-Money Group

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229: Stanford Has Fallen

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

On Oct 4, Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford, held a symposium at his university. Titled “Pandemic Policy: Planning the Future, Assessing the Past,” it was marketed as an open-minded series of panel discussions involving a range of experts to debate and discuss the efficacy of Covid mitigation techniques.

In reality, it was a collection of mostly anti-vax and definitely anti-lockdown contrarians that tried in vain to bait people like Dr Peter Hotez to attend in order to give the event an air of legitimacy. Held on the anniversary of the “Covid is bad for business” doctrine, The Great Barrington Declaration, the day presented an opportunity to air supposed “censorship” grievances and demands that the public should have a say in the science of future pandemics.

The rub: most everyone involved is invested in the economics of public health, not the science, though those lines were freely and falsely blurred throughout the day. Considering Stanford’s new president, economist Jonathan Levin, gave the opening remarks, the Covid contrarians took one more step into the mainstream with their business-first, science-whatever attitudes.

Show Notes

Pro-COVID UK Charity With Anti-Vax Ties Behind Controversial Stanford Health Policy Conference

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick says a failing economy is worse than coronavirus

Dr. Vinay Prasad: “Public Health’s (Mis)Truth Problem”

Can Stanford Tell Fact from Fiction?

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Bonus Sample: The Apocalyptic Portal

Mon, 21 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

As the world watches, Israel and Iran are squaring off for a potential war. Meanwhile, a Texas evangelical preacher, who runs the biggest Christian Zionist group in the world, is cheering on the coming apocalypse—as predicted in his 2005 book, Jerusalem Countdown. John Hagee even flew to DC to persuade Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, to jam through another military aid package.

Julian examines the real-world significance of conflicting religious prophecies focused on one particular piece of real estate in East Jerusalem as the “shoreline of eternity”—the portal into God’s Kingdom.

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Brief: Trump Temple Playlist

Sat, 19 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Trump’s Town Hall DJ love-in stumped a lot of folks. From the conspirituality angle, however, there’s something familiar about this improvised ritual. Because the world we cover is strewn with the wreckage of charismatic patriarchs who bleed their followers dry in the closed-loop system of cultic dynamics.

When leaders like Trump get to the end of the line, all that’s left is pure affect. They have exhausted themselves in the efforts of self-aggrandizement. They have nothing left to say because they’ve said it a 1000 times. They’re all out of stories. They might even be bored of their own bullshit. Underslept or dysregulated by chaotic schedules, they may not be sure where they are. They’re beset by enemies, ill and in cognitive decline, but can’t admit it. And when they start to feel overwhelmed by their followers' pathetic—in their view—neediness, they will reach for any help they can get in maintaining their emotional dominance.

What October 14 showed us is that in these moments, Trump’s go-to resource is canned music, and, without his own iPad at the ready, a DJ handler who can spin the tracks and support his reverie of relief and control.

Show Notes

Trump holds town hall in Pennsylvania suburbs with focus on economy

How Media Outlets Covered Trump’s Musical Town Hall

Donald Trump is DJing weekly at Mar-a-Lago, plays Broadway songs and Celine Dion from his iPad, report says

DJ T: How Trump controls the music at Mar-a-Lago

Twitter thread

152: Tulsi Gabbard’s Krishna Consciousness (w/Nitai Joseph)

PLAYING FOR OSHO 1989 Introduction – Chinmaya Dunster

Patted Down by India’s Hugging Saint

The Soft Nationalism of Amma, India’s Hugging Saint

37: Guru Jagat Cultjacks Kundalini Yoga (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

Letter to Sogyal Rinpoche from current and ex-Rigpa members details abuse allegations

Trump's bizarre music session reignites questions about his mental acuity

Brief: Trump’s Impending Ego Implosion (w/ Daniel Shaw)

Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation

Sex abuse allegations surround L.A. Buddhist teacher

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228: Hurricane Trump

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

People will reach for anything to relieve the stress of climate anxiety.

There’s outright denial: this can’t be happening. It doesn’t fit in with my understanding of the world. The science must be wrong. During Milton, Catturd wonders why the wind speed keeps changing on the weather reports. They must be making it up. Or the guy in Galveston, TX, posting that he can’t see any hurricane from his Gulf view.

When denial is impractical, there’s political displacement: our enemies are responsible. They’re seeding the clouds, they’re spewing the chemtrails. The Democrats are sparking tornadoes with invisible drones over swing states. They’re using radio waves to steer the hurricane’s eye. They’re clearing land for lithium mining so they can take our gas hog pickups away.

But when the storm surge is just too high to attribute to Jewish space lasers, there’s also good old spiritual displacement: God is punishing our enemies for their sins. We didn’t stop all their abortions and anal sex, and now we are caught in the crossfire of God’s just vengeance.

Today we look at the distortions and disruptions, the fallacies and fables—and not all of them from the right—that keep people locked in climate paralysis.

Show Notes

Food Babe misinformation carousel

Wigington v. MacMartin, 2:21-cv-02355-KJM-DMC

Record Hot Water Is Fueling Hurricane Milton

Hurricane Milton: what causes such intense storms?

What Big Oil knew about climate change, in its own words

Early oil industry knowledge of CO2 and global warming | Nature Climate Change

Exxon Confirmed Global Warming Consensus in 1982 with In-House Climate Models

No obituary for Earth: Scientists fight climate doom talk

Guy McPherson and Near Term Human Extinction - The Mike Nowak Show with Peggy Malecki

Arctic News: It’s time to pursue hospice, by Guy McPherson

Statement on Guy McPherson - Eugene

The faulty science, doomism, and flawed conclusions of Deep Adaptation -

Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response? - PMC

The faulty science, doomism, and flawed conclusions of 'Deep Adaptation' | openDemocracy

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Bonus Sample: Surviving Modern Yoga Panel (w/Ann Gleig & Michelle C. Johnson)

Mon, 14 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew fields excellent questions about his new book from colleagues Ann Gleig and Michelle C. Johnson.

NAB Show Notes

This event includes discussions on sensitive topics related to abuse; sexual assault; high-demand tactics; racism; gender-based violence; and systems of dominance, patriarchy, and oppression. We know that these topics may be distressing or triggering to some attendees, and we invite you to take care when listening, and to tend to your needs if you feel activated, overwhelmed, or emotionally impacted. We're so grateful you're here, and we thank you for coming. We also want to thank survivors of sexual violence and abuse in yoga, wellness, Buddhist communities, and beyond, whose stories, voices, and feedback have been invaluable to the work each of us continues to do in service of healing our communities from the harm of sexual violence.

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Deep Cut: The OG New Age Grifter: Madame Blavatsky

Sat, 12 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Born in 1831, Helena "Madame" Blavatsky pioneered the New Age grift. The Russian aristocrat plagiarized her books while claiming to be channeling the “Masters of Ancient Wisdom” to tell a dodgy heroic back-story. She founded the Theosophical Society in New York, claimed to have learned a secret Tibetan language, and laid the foundation for alien channelers and Woo-Anon. She also inspired the Nazis.

In the latest episode from a series on the pseudoscience New Age roots of today’s conspirituality phenomenon, Julian pins Blavatsky on the cork-board map.

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227: Rescue Remedy for The Republic

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

On September 29, a predicted one million people were going to show up for the Rescue the Republic event in Washington DC. Founded by the libertarian party chair, the Defeat the Mandates founder, and “professor in exile,” Bret Weinstein, about 1,500 mostly MAGA acolytes showed up. Yet the event represents something a long time building in America: the strange and at times uncomfortable merging of wellness and right-wing politics via MAHA and MAGA.

Sure, RFK Jr was there, but today we’re going to look at a few figures we haven’t covered in a while, or at all. As can be expected in conspiracy land, the C-list celebrities brought some of the most outlandish, and most dangerous, ideas along with them.

Show Notes

Orange Shirt Day | The Canadian Encyclopedia

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and the History of Residential Schools - Foundry

Phyllis’ Story - Orange Shirt Society

More Than Anything Else, the Rally to Rescue the Republic Was Awkward

Are food dyes used in the US banned in other countries? No, not really.

IDF Ordered Hannibal Directive on October 7 to Prevent Hamas Taking Soldiers Captive - Israel News - Haaretz.com

Have no childhood vaccines ever been tested using double-blind placebo controlled trials?

Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" paintings vandalized hours after activists sentenced for similar incident - CBS News

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Bonus Sample: What Are We Doing About Health?

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

With MAHA taking over stages nationwide, we’re experiencing a deluge of wellness influence and contrarians screaming about systemic issues with food, medicine, and government. Yet the solutions they offer never actually address public health.

Ironically, the same trend has been occurring in investment-driven medicine, where both government and private sector money is flowing into individualized medicine at the expense of public health.

Derek dives into this sordid affair, concluding with six steps experts agree would actually do something about the state of our health.

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Brief: RFK Jr Screws His Followers

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Finally: a dedicated, concise report on RFK Jr’s sordid history with women, with all the sources.

Why?

Because now one of the allegations involves a criminal act.

And because it’s becoming clearer that the emotional manipulation he allegedly deploys in his personal life—many sources say that “love-bombing” is his technique—rhymes so closely with his political day-to-day that it’s hard to find the lines between stumping, white knighting, seducing, and screwing.

Correction: The RFK Jr clip “I’m not a church boy” ran on Breaking Points, not Majority Report.

Show Notes

The real victims of Olivia Nuzzi’s affair with RFK Jr are other female journalists | Moira Donegan | The Guardian

Exclusive: Multiple Women Claiming Romantic Relationships With RFK Jr. Threaten His Standing in Trump Orbit

RFK Jr.’s Family Doesn’t Want Him to Run. Even They May Not Know His Darkest Secrets. | Vanity Fair

Damning Report Reveals RFK Jr.’s History of Alleged Sexual Assault | The New Republic

RFK Jr. Was a Compulsive Womanizer, and Yes, We Should Care | The New Republic

43 suspected mistresses found in RFK Jr.’s phone

Former babysitter for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. accuses him of sexual assault in Vanity Fair profile

Woman who accused RFK Jr of sexual assault says he apologized by text | Reuters

Keith Edwards — “I’m not a church boy.”

Massachusetts Sexual Assault Laws

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Texts Apology to Woman Who Says He Sexually Assaulted Her

A Timeline of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s Controversies

The Last Days of Mary Kennedy: 'She Is Angry and Depressed, but She Is Not Ill' (Exclusive)

AA meetings in the White House? Kennedy, a recovering addict, says it's just one of changes he'd make

RFK Jr. Wants to Send People Addicted to Antidepressants to Government “Wellness Farms” – Mother Jones

Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign — Conspirituality

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226: MAHA Storms the Capitol

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Cleanse the soil! Purify the blood! Save the children! Make America Healthy Again!

On Sept 23, Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr., rising alt-health stars Casey and Calley Means, and many other nutrition non-experts gathered for a live streamed event they called the American Health and Nutrition Roundtable, hosted by Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

Their subtitle, A Second Opinion, was an apt description for the alternative fact-filled diatribes that ensued. The soil has been poisoned, everyone is fat and sick, the entire medical industry is corrupted by Big Pharma, and Big Food is enacting a genocide on the American people via metabolic dysfunction. COVID skepticism and anti-vax messaging lurked just beneath the surface.

The speakers painted a terrifying picture and then presented themselves as benevolent common-sense saviors. At the climax of her speech, Casey Means, fresh from her career-boosting Tucker Carlson appearance, took a deep breath before declaring that this is all actually a spiritual crisis.

Show Notes

Killers of the Flower Moon: The real history behind diabetes and Native Americans.

Special Report: QAnon Fantasies Look Like Colonial Realities (w/Julian Brave NoiseCat) — Conspirituality

Palestinians pampered”— Robert Kennedy Jr

CDC Sociodemographic Data on American chronic disease

Commonwealth Fund: Portrait of the Failing US Healthcare System

Mikhaila Fuller | Yeah, I get botox. From the latest Q&A, link in bio. | Instagram

Mikhaila Peterson’s life at the molten core of the culture wars - New Statesman

NPR on International Journal of Obesity Study

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Relief Project #2: Natalie Wynn/Contrapoints

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew here with the second installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.

Does Natalie Wynn need an introduction? Or do we simply know that every frame of every Contrapoints essay is a gorgeous still life, a love letter to the unknown viewer thirsty for smarts and queerness and justice?

Often, top-tier artfulness will wind up concealing the artist. But despite the rigors of curation and the introversion Wynn ‘fesses up to in this interview, she also communicates welcome and generosity, and it was an honor to hear her speak personally about these Big Things..

BTW: here are the five questions. You can think about them too.

What terrifies you most in these times?
What is the most meaningful and supportive idea or story you return to for reliable wisdom and relief?
What is the greatest obstacle you face in forming community relationships, and how do you work to overcome it?
If you were responsible for comforting and guiding a child terrified of climate catastrophe, how would you do it? What would you say?
If your wisest ancestor came in a dream to offer you one piece of advice about living in difficult times, what would it be?

Show Notes

ContraPoints - YouTube

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Bonus Sample: Faith: Unearned and Earned

Mon, 30 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

An essay from Matthew exploring the problem of authenticity which plagues every investigation we do on the spiritual influencer beat.

There are queasy questions we’re always contending with when we’re listening to the preaching of Charles Eisenstein, Kelly Brogan, Zach Bush, or RFK Jr:

Has this person really committed to the spirituality they are presenting? Or is spirituality instrumental to them? Do they have experience to share, or programs to sell?

It’s hard if not impossible to find the line between these things, especially in the society of the spectacle, especially when we’re talking about influencers we don’t personally know. But it's an important consideration because assumptions made in one direction or another taint the entire discourse.

Maybe, we’re talking about the difference between unearned faith and earned faith.

Show Notes

Zero at the Bone: Wiman

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Brief: The Actual Biggest Losers

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

On Monday, Senator Ron Johnson sponsored a congressional panel entitled "American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion." Unfortunately no actual health or nutrition experts were invited. Instead, the four-and-a-half hour event featured speakers like Robert F Kennedy Jr, Jordan Peterson, Jillian Michaels, Vani Hari (Food Babe), and a host of other influencers and contrarians. Derek investigates all the science that wasn't told—and all the products and services that were sold.

Note: Derek meant to compare aluminum fear-mongering with thimerasol (organomercury) but instead conflated them. Both are safe at the level used in vaccines as adjuvants, though most thimerasol was removed due to public outcries and an abundance of caution. Links added to Show Notes.

Show Notes

Mandela Barnes Says Sen. Ron Johnson 'Bought and Paid for' by Big Pharma

The Congressional "American Health and Nutrition Roundtable" was an egregious display of anti-science disinformation

MEDIA ADVISORY: Sen. Johnson to Lead Roundtable Discussion: “American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion”

Thimerosal and Vaccines

Adjuvants and Vaccines

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225: Trauma Healing for Trump

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Tens of people will be flocking to Washington DC this Sunday as Rumble comes to life during Rescue the Republic, a one-day event featuring RFK Jr, Russell Brand, Jordan Peterson, Bret Weinstein, Tulsi Gabbard—it’s quite an impressive roster of anti-vax luminaries and right-wing contrarians gathering under the pretense of what is effectively a glorified Donald Trump rally.

And that’s not hyperbole, given that Trump is seated next to Elon Musk on the marketing materials, which is a graphic retelling of George Washington crossing the Delaware River. While this event is already infected with tons of conspirituality, one late addition caught our attention: Human Garage. This fascia-release-cures-everything organization had to flee California for Canada due to legal troubles, yet their star continues to rise as they embark on their “Transforming Trauma” world tour. And nothing says “healing” more than spreading pseudoscientific wellness jargon and hawking turmeric supplements at a Trump event.

Show Notes

Apostolic Journey to Singapore: Interreligious Meeting with Young People in the Catholic Junior College (13 September 2024) | Francis

Lord by Thy Holy Cross

Pope: War in Gaza is too much! No steps taken for peace - Vatican News

Physio Reacts: Episode 1 - Human Garage (Part 1 of ?)

Physio Reacts: Episode 2 - Human Garage (Part 2)

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Bonus Sample: The Child Messiah Fantasy

Mon, 23 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The British occultists took the thin and sickly but beautiful boy away from his family. Groomed him for 20 years to become the savior of humanity. Trained him between 1909-29 to be a serene guru and charming English aristocrat. He looked good in a double-breasted suit and had fabulous hair. Huge amounts of money flowed into the organization they built around him.

But Krishnamurti became a man the day he shocked them all. Julian’s latest chapter of his historical series wraps up Helena Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society—one of the crucial 19th century roots of New Age metaphysics, and the phenomenon we call conspirituality.

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Brief: RFK Jr Says the Devil Measures Carbon

Sat, 21 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

“God talks to human beings through many vectors. But nowhere with such detail, and grace and joy, as through creation. When we destroy nature, we diminish our capacity to sense the divine.”

With this April 2023 tweet, RFK Jr inaugurated his presidential campaign, which has now folded into a daily ritual of Trump bootlicking.

Now, Bobby is telling Tucker Carlson and the world that climate change cannot be solved through commitment to the “carbon orthodoxy.”

“It’s not about quantifying stuff,” he says. “That's what the devil does. But the reason we're preserving these things is because we love our children.”

What does this mean?

Matthew tracks the sources and implications of Kennedy’s broken climate discourse—rooted in St. Francis of Assisi, appealing to gentleman farmers and homeschoolers, allergic to the scientific abstractions that give us a truly global picture, and always committed to the free market.

Show Notes

RFK Jr: Teaming up With Trump, Pavel Durov’s Arrest, CIA, and the Fall of the Democrat Party

Birdwatching with Jonathan Franzen: 'Climate change isn't the only danger to birds'

Special Interview: Nostalgia for the Superego (w/Sam Binkley) — Conspirituality

Laudato si' (24 May 2015) | Francis

Brian Swimme: The Cosmos Watching Itself (E35)

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224: RFK Jr’s Pet Guru Blesses Trump

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

There’s been a question gnawing at fans of Charles Eisenstein: what does he really feel about RFK Jr’s pivot to Trump? The always aspiring poet-philosopher was hired as a messaging advisor to Bobby, after all. We’ve spotted little fragments of Eisenstein’s exceptionally long essays sneaking their way into Bobby’s speeches. There was some influence, for sure, even after Charles went on multiple Costa Rican sabbaticals right in the middle of campaign season and apparently cut his consulting rate down from $21k per month, perhaps out of the goodness of the heart he knows is possible. And yet, for weeks after Bobby jumped the shark, Charles remained silent.

Until now, that is. With the publication of his recent 6,711-word essay, “Shades of Many Colors,” Eisenstein finally breaks his silence and lands firmly on the side of…well, we’re not quite sure. But one thing that’s emerged is Charles’s penchant for not crediting the source of some of his galaxy-brained ideas. Today, we’ll look at some of what Charles says in his latest opus, and try to figure out what exactly he’s saying.

Show Notes

mRNA vaccine spike protein differs from viral version

The effect of SARS-CoV-2 variant on respiratory features and mortality

SARS-CoV-2 Infections in mRNA Vaccinated Individuals are Biased for Viruses Encoding Spike E484K and Associated with Reduced Infectious Virus Loads that Correlate with Respiratory Antiviral IgG levels.

Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Connective Tissue Disorders Following COVID-19

Risk of autoimmune diseases following COVID-19 and the potential protective effect from vaccination: a population-based cohort study

The Lancet: Most comprehensive study to date provides evidence on natural immunity protection by COVID-19 variant and how protection fades over time

Conspirituality 1: Coronation for Whom?

Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign — Conspirituality

86: Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q — Conspirituality

Disavowing Disinformation - North Atlantic Books

Inside the Last Weeks of RFK Jr.’s Campaign

Charles Eisenstein - What is the Next Story? - Scientific and Medical Network

Brian Swimme: The Cosmos Watching Itself (E35)

Charles Eisenstein Whitewashes Trump, Caricatures & Demonizes Democrats in Post Decrying Caricatures & Demonization (Part 1)

Charles Eisenstein Endorses Trump, but Thinks You're Not Clever Enough to Notice (Part 2)

Cardiac Events Following Mpox Vaccine

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Bonus Sample: Waking Up With the Biohackers

Mon, 16 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

"Biohacking expert" Kayla Barnes recently published a 31-minute video about her morning routine, filled with EMF-blocking shields, grounding protocols, and 40 different daily supplements. Good if you can afford it, but then she sells questionable protocols at her Cleveland, Ohio-based clinic, Lyv Wellness, despite having no clinical training. Derek watches what she says, then watches what she sells.

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Brief: Tucker Carlson’s Friendly Fascism

Sat, 14 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Tucker Carlson is the Steve Bannon of Joe Rogans. Tucker surpasses Rogan’s massive reach at times, but his curated guest list drives a deliberate agenda: normalizing neo-fascist political discourse. He does it all with an affable, friendly, just-asking-questions, I’m-not-as-smart-as-my-guests attitude that may disguise what he’s doing—like interviewing a Holocaust-denier Nazi apologist, or framing modern-day dictatorships as admirable, or promoting the anti-semitic Great Replacement Theory, or globe-trotting to flatteringly interviewing brutal enemies of democracy like Viktor Orban or Vladimir Putin.

In the wake of recent controversy about WWII revisionism on Carlson’s show, Julian breaks down the accelerationist contours of Tucker’s far-right influence and agenda. Being fired from FOX News and going “independent” has only made it worse.

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223: Tucker Carlson’s Toxic Cleanse

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In 2022, Tucker Carlson produced a documentary called “The End of Men,” his contribution to the so-called “masculinity crisis.” That’s when testicle tanning hit the mainstream, which one astute observer dubbed “bromeopathic therapy.”

Turns out the former Fox News host isn’t done dabbling in conspirituality. This year, he’s platformed the QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley; lyme disease conspiracist, Kris Newby; the “other” Naomi, Naomi Wolf; brother-sister optimizers, Casey and Calley Means; and he’s currently on a 16-city tour with the likes of Russell Brand and Alex Jones. He’s also partly responsible for helping usher RFK Jr into Donald Trump’s camp.

While the former CNN and MSNBC host turned far right provocateur isn’t leading wellness retreats (yet), he’s certainly being shared by an increasing number of wellness influencers, and we want to know why.

Show Notes

DOJ Accuses Russia of Sprawling Election Interference Campaign

Homeland Violence and Diaspora Insecurity: An Analysis of Israel and American Jewry | Politics and Religion | Cambridge Core

Safety through Solidarity by Shane Burley, Ben Lorber

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Relief Project #1: Jivana Heyman

Tue, 10 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Here’s the first installment of a regular timeline cleanser featuring interviews with folks reflecting on hope, faith, resilience and building community in hard times.

You know—all the things that conspirituality itself can’t offer.

These are short, personal visits in which Matthew asks each guest the same five questions about their life wisdom—at least as it’s coming together in this moment.

To start this series, Matthew hearkens back to the roots of Conspirituality Podcast in the yoga world with guest Jivana Heyman. Jivana is the founder and director of Accessible Yoga, an organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings and supporting yoga teachers. He’s the author of Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body; Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion; and The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body.

BTW: here are the five questions. You can think about them too.

What terrifies you most in these times?
What is the most meaningful and supportive idea or story you return to for reliable wisdom and relief?
What is the greatest obstacle you face in forming community relationships, and how do you work to overcome it?
If you were responsible for comforting and guiding a child terrified of climate catastrophe, how would you do it? What would you say?
If your wisest ancestor came in a dream to offer you one piece of advice about living in difficult times, what would it be?

Show Notes

jivanaheyman.com

9: Ableism in Conspiracy Theories (w/Jivana Heyman) — Conspirituality

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Bonus Sample: Imaginary Children # 3: Mole Children vs. Gazan Children

Mon, 09 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

What does it mean to spill ink on dispelling conspiracy theories about non-existent children being murdered, while actual children are being murdered? At what point does the labour of debunking right wing wackjobs also do the shadow-work of supporting the liberal-center orthodoxy?

Matthew looks at how with QAnon, the liberal-center press criticized irrational responses to imaginary traumas, with a great sense of urgency. But on Gaza, they criticize rational responses to actual traumas, and imply that protesters are asking for too much, too fast.

What happens downstream of denials, minimizations, and contradictions? What are the social and mental health implications of moral injury? Are these not some of the same social conditions that generate conspiracism?

Content warning: discussion of children, genocide

Show Notes

Is Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza? New Report from BU School of Law’s International Human Rights Clinic Lays Out Case

Rights expert finds ‘reasonable grounds’ genocide is being committed in Gaza | UN News

Dems Gave the 'Uncommitted Movement' Space to Talk About Gaza — Just Not on TV

First-Ever DNC Panel on Palestinian Rights: We Need to “Restore the Soul of the Democratic Party”

“Stop Arming Israel”: Meet the DNC Delegates Who Unfurled Banner During Biden Speech

201: Librarians Are Not Groomers (w/Heath Umbreit) — Conspirituality

What I Saw Was “Unfathomable”: Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Speaks Out Against U.S. Arming of Israel

Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential - The Lancet

Clearing Gaza of almost 40m tonnes of war rubble will take years, says UN

Israel Has Killed 2,100 Babies Under 2 Years Old in Gaza, Rights Group Says | Truthout

NYU barricades benches

College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests

The Black Mark on the Democrats’ Big Party | The New Republic

Amnesty International Warns of U.S. Complicity in War Crimes in Gaza

Christian Wiman | Yale Divinity School

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Brief: Ultra-processed Pseudoscience

Sat, 07 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Calley Means is the cofounder of TrueMed, a company that helps businesses qualify products and services like supplements and ice baths for HSA and FSA money. Casey Means is the founder of Levels, a continuous glucose monitor subscription service aimed at the biohacking community. The brother and sister recently appeared on Tucker Carlson's podcast to rage against seed oils, as well as the food and pharma industries' focus on profits over people.

Derek dug into their business models, finding them guilty of the same "crimes" they accuse others of.

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222: RFK Jr: As the Worm Turns

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

RFK Jr has dropped out of the presidential race and thrown his weight behind Trump. In our 10th episode on the man in the last year-and-a-half, we look at the potential dangers of this unholy alliance, and what it means for America.

Show notes are extensive, visit patreon.com/conspirituality or conspirituality.net for more.

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Bonus Sample: The OG New Age Grifter: Madame Blavatsky

Mon, 02 Sep 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Born in 1831, Helena “Madame” Blavatsky pioneered the New Age grift. The Russian aristocrat plagiarized her books while claiming to be channeling the “Masters of Ancient Wisdom” to tell a dodgy heroic back-story. She founded the Theosophical Society in New York, claimed to have learned a secret Tibetan language, and laid the foundation for alien channelers and Woo-Anon. She also inspired the Nazis.

In this debut episode from a series on the pseudoscience New Age roots of today’s conspirituality phenomenon, Julian pins Blavatsky on the cork-board map.

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Brief: Trump’s Impending Ego Implosion (w/ Daniel Shaw)

Sat, 31 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Dems are laughing about Donny Dentures or #TrumpisDone, but the reality inside his head, and Mar a Lago, will be very grim, and there will be a lot of collateral damage.

Mental health titans like Robert Lifton have reached the consensus that Trump has been mentally ill for a long time. They’ve diagnosed him with “narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, delusional disorder, malignant narcissist,” and so on.

Such patients meet predictable ends when the wheels fall off. In the cult world (where Lifton has been so influential), there are bangs (Jim Jones) and there are whimpers (Keith Raniere). What might it look like for Trump?

No one is more qualified to discuss the possibilities with Matthew than Daniel Shaw, LCSW, a psychotherapist trained in psychoanalysis as well as in trauma-informed psychotherapies. He is in private practice in New York City and in Nyack, New York; and Faculty and Supervisor at The National Institute for the Psychotherapies in New York. He is the author of Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation, published by Routledge in 2014, and nominated for the prestigious Gradiva Award. His book Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear was published in 2021. He is known for his work with cult trauma survivors and with clients who have experienced narcissistic abuse.

Show Notes

Daniel Shaw, LCSW

Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation

Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear

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221: The Dangers of Dr Google (w/Dr Jonathan Stea)

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In one survey, 82% of young people aged 18-25 searched the internet for mental health advice. Another survey of university students found that 44% report using the internet to learn about sadness, anxiety, or confusion. Regardless of what mental health experts advise, people of all age groups are turning to the internet and social media for help.

What are the potential risks and rewards of using these platforms to try to communicate credible mental health science? And what happens when you’re endlessly trolled for being a “Big Pharma shill,” even when you don’t have prescriptive powers and only offer talk therapy in your clinical practice?

Clinical psychologist Jonathan Stea joins us to discuss these difficult questions. His new book, Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry, is a field guide that responds to some of the intense challenges earnest seekers face when trying to navigate waters filled with supplements-slinging sharks who believe they can diagnose mental health conditions with zero training.

Show Notes

AI-generated video of Trump on ayahuasca

Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry

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Bonus Sample: The Next Plandemic Grift

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Peter McCullough recently shared a ton of misinformation about mpox while speaking to Drew Pinsky; both men work for The Wellness Company, a supplements company that weaponizes anti-vax misinformation to sell products. Mikki Willis uses the Hero's Journey as a guide to dealing with mpox—and falsely represents Joseph Campbell's work. Russell Brand and Bret Weinstein claim mpox is a government psyop and nothing more.

Derek looks at the conspiritualist fervor bubbling up around what's turning out to be another dangerous virus by men who do everything but point to sound public health measures.

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Brief: Dictatorship for Dummies

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

ProPublica recently got a hold of 25 Project 2025 training videos—over 14 hours worth of content revealing the policies the Heritage Foundation would like to see implemented if Donald Trump regains the White House. Derek and Julian break down one of the most egregious.

Show Notes

Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos

Undercover in Project 2025

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220: Swifties for Trump (and Other AI Lies)

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Did you hear that Taylor Swift is supporting Donald Trump for president? That’s right: last week, the former president shared photos of fans rocking “Swifties for Trump” t-shirts on Truth Social. Trump seemed pleased, replying to his online following of 24 billion people: “I accept.”

Yet something seemed off. Just like photos of Trump surrounded by seven-fingered Black Americans smiling on city stoops, these Swiftie endorsement photos were AI generated. As it turns out, AI is playing a more insidious and dangerous role in this year’s election—and in the conspiracy theory industry—than ever. The line between fact and fiction has long been blurred, but we’re entering a new reality where distinguishing between those two might prove impossible.

This week, we look at the stakes of the first AI-generated election in America—and wonder how much worse it can get, even in three short months.

Show Notes

Trump Promotes A.I. Images to Falsely Suggest Taylor Swift Endorsed Him

Christian Nationalists Are Opening Private Schools. Taxpayers Are Funding Them.

Fake Photos, Real Harm: AOC and the Fight Against AI Porn

Propaganda, foreign interference, and generative AI

AI Poses Risks to Both Authoritarian and Democratic Politics

Election disinformation takes a big leap with AI being used to deceive worldwide

B'Tselem report summary: "Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as Network of Torture Camps", August 2024

B'Tselem report: "Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as Network of Torture Camps", August 2024

Detention and alleged ill-treatment of detainees from Gaza during Israel-Hamas War

U.S. decries reported sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners after graphic video aired on Israeli TV

US approves sale to Israel of $20 billion weapons package | Reuters

A record share of US electricity comes from zero-carbon sources - but more work is needed

China could exceed renewables generation target of 33% by 2025 | S&P Global Commodity Insights

Israeli Government Pays $2M for AI Influence Campaign

Israel-Funded Disinfo Campaign Targets US Lawmakers

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Bonus Sample: Introducing the Conspirituality Relief Project

Mon, 19 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A short break-the-fourth-wall reflection from Matthew on his new regular series for our main feed, starting in September.

The Conspirituality Relief Project will provide regular timeline-cleanser interviews in which super interesting guests reflect on hope, faith, resilience, and building community in hard times.

You know, all of the things that conspirituality itself promises to do, but can’t, or won’t.

Every guest gets thirty minutes, and the same five questions:

What terrifies you most in these times?
What is the most meaningful and supportive idea or story you return to for reliable wisdom and relief?
What is the greatest obstacle you face in forming community relationships, and how do you work to overcome it?
If you were responsible for comforting and guiding a child terrified of climate catastrophe, how would you do it? What would you say?
If your wisest ancestor came in a dream to offer you one piece of advice about living in difficult times, what would it be?

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Brief: Big Dad Energy

Sat, 17 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

An unexpectedly cheerful followup to “JD Vance Taps into Parental Rage.” The alt titles today could be: “Tim Walz Taps into Parental Goals,” or “Disarming the Disinfo of the Right is Great, But Have You Tried Dad Jokes?”

Across social media, liberal millennial women are tagging Tim Walz as the return of the dad they lost to Fox News. Matthew digs into that graveyard with a survey of the tools that we’ve used to examine the nature and function of patriarchal bullshit as it dominates conspirituality, cults, and QAnon. The result is a stroll through a Madame Tussaud’s display of fragile and toxic influencer fathers, from Jordan Peterson to Jim Watkins to RFK Jr to Donald Trump.

Tim Walz not only doesn’t do any of the things these guys do—he might be rooting around in his special tool drawer now to find just the thing it’ll take to fix what they’ve done.

Note: this is not a blind love-fest or blanket endorsement of as-yet vague policies. But there is something powerful going on with Walz’s new-old modeling of Big Dad Energy.

Show Notes

A Balanced Assessment of Tim Walz’s Record from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy | lvgaldieri

Tim Walz’s green resume has an oily stain

Minnesota activists criticize Tim Walz for refusing to meet with Palestinians – Mondoweiss

Donald Trump Likens His Schooling to Military Service in Book - The New York Times

Tim Walz was my teacher in high school. Here's what I've carried with me about him all these years later.

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219: Dems Learn to Sh*tpost

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Eight years ago, they called us cucks, libtards, and globalists. We were corrupted by cultural Marxism, teaching our kids to hate themselves. Four years ago they gloated over drinking liberal tears. They called us sheeple, groomers, vampires, pedos. We made up a pandemic so that we could brew up a kill shot, and force it on everyone after making ourselves soy-boy sick. We were exposing our kids to trans strippers in the library and showing them how to use buttplugs in kindergarten. When our children were sufficiently deranged and submissive, we drained them of adrenochrome and mutilated their privates.

JD Vance’s ONE JOB was to turn this bullying into policy, and encode it in the pages of Project 2025. Peter Thiel sent him forth to blend every shitpost into a radioactive slurry to power a cybertruck convoy carrying the titans of New Right capitalism into Washington.

He tried. He really did.

But then came the stories about him. That he fucked a couch. He wrote about it in his book, someone said. Someone else said he was getting off on dolphin porn. The lies spread, with glee and schadenfreude. And he folded. Like a foldaway.

Suddenly, all the green drained out of million shriveling Pepes and made the world verdant with hope. And from the middle of a cornfield football grid, Tim Walz manifests with his Big Dad grin and said, "Let’s roll up our sleeves and beat these creepy weirdos.”

Today we’ll talk about fighting conspiracy theories that started as jokes with jokes that defuse conspiracy theories. About what it takes to commandeer the attention economy, and how much of our souls we spend to do it. About the difference between meme wars and policy debates, and how far the Big Dad Energy vibes can take us.

Show Notes

RFK Jr.'s incredible disappearing campaign

Was J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy Really a True Story? All About the VP Candidate's Controversial Memoir

Walz on Morning Joe

The author of the viral joke post about JD Vance having sex with a couch breaks his silence

162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact checks former President Trump

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Bonus Sample: JD Vance’s Dictator Fetish

Mon, 12 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel claims “freedom and democracy are incompatible.” Mentor and $15M donor behind JD Vance’s political career, Peter Thiel also has an influence: Mencius Moldbug, computer programmer and lead philosopher of the “Dark Enlightenment,” or “neoreactionary” movement.

Moldburg says, “if Americans want their government to change, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.” Erstwhile pen-name of Curtis Yarvin, “Moldburg” is openly anti-democratic, advocating for one-party city-states ruled by CEO-kings. His takes on race, slavery, and the Nazis are equally alarming.

Vance has also publicly praised and cited his work, and Thiel gave $1.1 million to Yarvin’s tech start-up. Julian digs into the toxic pseudo-intellectual philosophy behind the next wave of MAGA authoritarianism.

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Brief: Stealing Democracy for Jesus

Sat, 10 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Ziklag’s ultra-wealthy network of Christian donors is spending nearly $12M to mobilize Republican voters in order to secure a Trump victory this November. ProPublica found that their plan involves purging 1M+ people from the voter rolls in key swing states. Unsurprisingly, this is yet another Christian nationalist group with ties to Project 2025.

Here’s the thing: Ziklag is classified as a 501c3 charity organization, which means they’re breaking longstanding rules of nonprofit governance. Will they be held accountable and lose their status? Derek and Julian discuss.

Show Notes

Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country

Ziklag Exposed: Secretive Christian Nationalist Network Tries to Purge Voters in Battleground States

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218: Meet the Sexvangelicals (w/Julia Postema & Jeremiah Gibson)

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

You’re an eight year-old girl. The purity culture of your evangelical church, ruled by men but policed by women, has you worried that the spaghetti straps on your summer top might be sinful. You learn from the women around you how to defer, serve, please, keep your voice girl-like forever, and use it to both signal obedience but also piously request relief from sexual aggression.

You’re a seven year-old boy. The holy laws of gender in your church dictate that when you’re the only male present at Bible study, you must lead the room full of women in reading and prayer. You must perform manliness in your boy’s body, assuming an anxious leadership role you did not earn. If you don’t puff yourself up, you’re a sissy—one of the girls alongside you learning the tones of the Fundie Baby Voice.

These are parts of the stories of Julia Postema and Jeremiah Gibson, the co-hosts of the podcast Sexvangelicals: The Sex Education the Church Didn't Want You to Have. They are Boston-based licensed psychotherapists and certified sex therapists. They specialize in helping couples with negative religious backgrounds discover sexuality that works for their partnership. Julian and I sat down with them to learn about how their clients recover from purity culture, and sometimes in the process run smack into its mirror world: the tantric workshop land of divine masculine and feminine stereotypes plus fascinations with semen retention.

Show Notes

Sexvangelicals: Podcast | Website | Instagram | Substack

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Bonus Sample: The "Crisis" of Meaning

Mon, 05 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Scroll through masculinity influencer social media feeds and you're constantly told there's a "crisis of meaning." But is that really true? Has a shared meaning ever reflected the totality of any population?

Derek turns this idea over in his head by looking at the mythology of the hero's journey. But first, he provides some inspirational messages from the White Dudes for Harris call last week, where perhaps a new and empowering sense of masculinity is taking hold.

Show Notes

White Dudes for Harris

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Brief: JD Vance Taps into Parental Rage

Sat, 03 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The “childless cat lady” thing is as ridiculous as JD Vance is. But it’s not stupid. It’s tapping into something powerful, because it’s shameful.

Vance’s fantasy that childless cat ladies are miserable in their lives is another case of every accusation being a projection.

In actuality, he’s speaking to that swath of parents out there in general—and particularly on the right—who are actually miserable in their lives, regretting their choices, wondering why God saddled them with 4-5-6 kids in a country that does so little to support families.

But it’s illegal to say any of this. Children are gifts from God, right? They have to disown it and pretend that their families are perfect and perfectly fulfilling.

An editorial-style Brief from Matthew, who’s been parenting as a stepdad and biodad for long enough to know that parents and the childless absolutely need each other.

Show Notes

Full text of "GHETTO DIARY - ENGLISH - JANUSZ KORCZAK"

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217: Childless Cat Lady

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 10:00:00 -0000

If something real occurs in this timeline, but no conspiracy theorist is there to FUBAR it, does it actually happen?

An old man, weakened by COVID, picks up an old-timey phone handset on a Delaware Saturday to tell a childless cat lady that the reins of destiny are now in her hands.

A staffer clicks “post” at 1:46pm, and X lights up with something real… that throws an instant shadow of insanity.

Biden is too sick to have posted, they say. He’s dead, they say. He has staged or suffered a coup. And Kamala Harris? A DEI bimbo flashing esoteric Marxist hand signals. The DNC is fraudulently transferring the campaign war chest. They couldn’t kill Trump so now they’re playing dirty with the nomination. Biden’s brother is stepping in, Biden’s body double is 8 inches too tall. Dudes who made too much “Let’s Go Brandon” merch are launching lawsuits and crying in their beer.

We run down the most cursed Kamala conspiracy theories, how they distort the real questions about her, how being a childless cat lady is her superpower, and whether the ghouls that dream them up really matter.

Show Notes

Vivian Wilson on Threads: There’s a lot of stuff I need to debunk

Elon Musk's transgender daughter, in first interview, says he berated her for being queer as a child

J.D. Vance’s Hatred of Cat Ladies Is Weirder and More Dangerous Than You Think

J.D. Vance Really Is the Key to Understanding the American Right

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Bonus Sample: Imaginary Children: “God’s Word on Spanking”

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

This is the second episode in “Conspirituality and the Imaginary Children,” an occasional series on how children, as symbols (but not persons with their own internal lives) are at the center of conspirituality anxiety and discourse.

The title is taken from a pamphlet published by Ralph Drollinger, a former professional basketball player from San Diego who founded a 501c3 called Capitol Ministries in 1996 to facilitate prayer meetings and study guides for congresspeople in Washington, and state legislators in more than 40 states.

Drollinger’s crowning achievement was to initiate a weekly Bible study group in the White House during the Trump administration. The 60-90 minutes were regularly attended by ten Trump cabinet members.

Like many evangelicals, Drollinger argues that spanking children is mandated by the Bible But he also goes a Trumpian extra mile—explicitly connecting the virtue of child assault in the home to the state’s monopoly on violence. Matthew walks through what this looks like and how Drollinger justifies it through narrow and dishonest readings of scripture.

Show Notes

God's Word on Spanking [text]

God’s Word on Spanking [youtube]

194: The Power Worshippers (w/Katherine Stewart) — Conspirituality

How the Trump Cabinet’s Bible Teacher Became a Shadow Diplomat - The New York Times

White House Bible Study Led by Pastor Who Is Anti-Gay, Anti-Women and Anti-Catholic - Newsweek

Is God Judging America Today? by Ralph Drollinger

Ralph Drollinger | GLAAD

Exclusive Interview with Ralph Drollinger: Meet the preacher who teaches the Bible to the US Cabinet - WELT

Capitol Ministries 2023 revenue

Jordan B. Peterson’s Support of Corporal Punishment for Children: A Critique - Mad In America

Shepherding a Child's Heart — Tripp

Shepherding a Child's Heart (a short critique) — DonOwsley.com

Ministry Versus Political Activism by Ralph Drollinger

Text of the Spencer Spanking Plan

Misused Scripture: Jeremiah 17:9.

HEBREW WORD STUDY – Deceitful and Wicked אנשׁ עכב | Chaim Bentorah

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Brief: Bret Weinstein: “The Biden Psy-Op”

Sat, 27 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A tale of two tweets: Dark Horse podcast cohost and “conspiracy hypothesizer” Bret Weinstein took to Twitter twice this month, first dropping a video claiming that RFK Jr becoming Donald Trump’s running mate would make them “assassination proof,” then later floating the idea that an AI Joe Biden really phoned into Kamala Harris’s first conference as the presumptive presidential nominee. Or…is Biden even alive?

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216: J.D. Vance, Conspiracy Hobbit

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Just two days after surviving an assassination attempt, Donald Trump announced JD Vance as his VP pick. Vance has made a dramatic U-turn from calling Trump a "reprehensible idiot" and "America's Hitler" in 2016. But who is this 39 year old, really—who after less than two years of on-the-job experience, is now almost a heartbeat away from leading the free world?

Well, not unlike other right-wing populists in Europe and at home, Vance has an idiosyncratic political affinity for JRR Tolkien. We might even call him America’s conspiracy hobbit at this point, fresh from the Appalachian Shire but inexorably drawn by the burning crypto rings of Silicon Valley to eventually land at the feet of Sauron to meet his fate.

But to answer this question and examine where JD Vance fits into the conspirituality landscape, we’ll be breaking down a speech recently released by ProPublica. It’s from an intimate invitation-only conservative event hosted in 2021 by a group called the Teneo Network. Behind closed doors, Vance encouraged his audience to get away from that weird feeling in their chests when listening to the unique truths of conspiracy theorists. Like, Alex Jones sees the world more clearly than MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. The right also apparently needs more oligarchs. Oh, and the literal Devil is at work in the world around us.

Show Notes

J.D. Vance Speaks at a Private Teneo Network Event, Sept. 2021

Inside the “Private and Confidential” Conservative Group That Promises to “Crush Liberal Dominance”

How Lord of the Rings Shaped JD Vance’s Politics

The Influences on JD Vance’s Political Philosophy

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Bonus Sample: Project 2025 on Worker's "Rights"

Mon, 22 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Project 2025's plan for workers is clear: crush unions, eliminate minority protections, curtail reproductive health care benefits, and make the workplace biblical again.

Derek and Julian unpack the details of another insane chapter from Project 2025's 920-page manifesto that describes their vision for the reduced rights of the working class. According to their own statements, a Trump presidency would set these and other disastrous plans in motion from day one.

Show Notes

Conspirituality 187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy

Project 2025's Disdain for Public Education

The GOP Thinks Food Stamps Are the Real Problem

The GOP Takeover of Media

The Plan to Dismantle Health Care

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Brief: Cult of the Lamb Anti-Cult School? (w/Riley MacLeod)

Sat, 20 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

We cover conspiracy theories, spiritual abuse, and religious and right-wing extremism. We cover showmen and charismatics suffering from King Victim Complex. Last week we had to study a goddam assassination attempt.

But sometimes we get to peek into the worlds that younger people are making within our cursed digital environments, and we realize they might be laughing at some of the problems that fill us olds with despair right out of existence.

Gaming journalist and Master of Divinity Riley MacLeod joins Matthew to talk about whether the hit indie game Cult of the Lamb might be all the inoculation against cultic dynamics that generation Alpha ever needs.

Show Notes

Riley MacLeod - Aftermath

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215: Divinely Protected

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Two landmark Supreme Court decisions—the Trump immunity case and the overturning of the Chevron doctrine—represent the legal institutionalization of the core values of conspirituality: self-sovereignty, natural immunity or divine protection, and “doing your own research.”

The attempted assassination on the former president forged the essence of these two rulings into a stunning still life of Trump’s image for those who love him and those he’s appointed to serve him.

Julian and Matthew wade into the flood, and what might happen at ground zero of conspiracy theory formation—this time veering left as well as right.

Show Notes

Former classmate of Trump rally gunman says he was ‘bullied almost every day’

The FBI Identifies Suspected Gunman in Trump Rally Shooting: What to Know - The New York Times

FBI identifies Thomas Crooks of Bethel Park as the suspect in Trump assassination attempt

FBI probing motives, background of Thomas Matthew Crooks, the Western Pa. gunman behind Donald Trump assassination attempt

A shooting range, a gun store, and a ladder purchase: Tracking the Trump rally gunman's movements leading up to his attack

Trump rewrites Republican convention speech to focus on unity not Biden - Washington Examiner

Vance shooting response: https://x.com/JDVance1/status/1812280973628965109

Musk shooting response: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1812256998588662068

Rubio shooting response: https://x.com/marcorubio/status/1812256529296613657

Boebert shooting response: https://x.com/KyleClark/status/1812316469016846373

Brief: The Theatre of Trump (w/Hank Willenbrink) — Conspirituality

23-939 Trump v. United States (07/01/2024)

Clarence Thomas Raised Another Issue: Was Jack Smith Legally Appointed? - The New York Times

22-451 Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo (06/28/2024)

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Bonus Sample: Project 2025's Plan: Let It Burn

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Project 2025's approach to environmental issues is pretty straightforward: deny climate science, dismantle the EPA, clear a path that prioritizes corporate profits, and let the world burn.

Derek and Julian unpack the details on the chilling chapter from Project 2025's 920-page manifesto that outlines their plans for the Environmental Protection Agency. According to their own statements, a Trump presidency would set these and other disastrous plans in motion from day one.

Show Notes

Conspirituality 187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy

Project 2025's Disdain for Public Education

The GOP Thinks Food Stamps Are the Real Problem

The GOP Takeover of Media

The Plan to Dismantle Health Care

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Brief: Project 2025’s “Bloodless” Coup

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

While speaking on Steve Bannon’s podcast, The War Room, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts recently stated, “We are in the process of the second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless—if the left allows it to be.”

Roberts is the mastermind behind Project 2025, Heritage’s 920-page “presidential transition” agenda that seeks to implement authoritarian power in America. The text combines the anti-regulatory stance of libertarianism, laissez faire capitalism on steroids as espoused by conservatives, and the heinous and anti-democratic religious dogma of Christian nationalists, and it’s finally receiving a lot of attention.

Derek and Julian look beyond the “bloodless” comment to hear what else Roberts and crew have in store for America should Donald Trump regain the presidency. As you might imagine, it has nothing to do with democracy.

Show Notes

Taraji P Henson Calls Out Project 2025 at BET Awards

‘Complete and utter B.S.’: Trump DEFINITELY knows his own team authoring Project 2025

Kevin Roberts on The War Room

Conspirituality 187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy

Project 2025's Disdain for Public Education

The GOP Thinks Food Stamps Are the Real Problem

The GOP Takeover of Media

The Plan to Dismantle Health Care

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214: Aubrey Marcus is Totally Not a Cult Leader

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Today we’re looking at a lavish infomercial put out by New Age oligarch and RFK Jr superfan Aubrey Marcus, in which he tries to show the world that his very expensive encounter group, Fit For Service, is definitely not a cult. And at how Matthew got quoted in the opening montage as though he endorsed FFS as an “anti-cult.” He hasn’t.

Marcus might be protesting too much. Because no one with any credibility has actually called FFS a cult, and they couldn’t, because no one has done the investigative work that would take. In a lot of ways, that question is beside the point. It’s not the ‘70s anymore. If you have 604K YouTube subscribers, and millions in the bank from oil money and supplement sales, you don’t need to coerce anyone into staying on your ashram compound and working on your spiritual ideas for free. You too can have an unlimited supply of well-heeled seekers cycling through your coaching encounter group.

So the real questions are: what is it really worth, and what does it really serve?

Show Notes

87: The Aubrey Marcus Spectacle

Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign

107: An Open Letter to Aubrey Marcu

86: Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q

Why Kyle Kingsbury Quit The UFC

Myths That Make Us | Godsey Montana Summit talk

The music festival that wants to know your deepest secrets

[Annihilation] Can someone explain the shimmer from the movie scientifically?

Dharma Artist Collective—Godsey’s online community

The Poet Queen

'I Was 13 When Marc Gafni's Abuse Began'

Former Rabbi Accused of Improper Sexual Conduct Now Rising Star in U.S. Spiritual Movement

Gafni Faces Fallout From New Age Community

Marc Gafni Named In Latest Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Yeshiva University

Sara Kabakov lawsuit docket

Aaron Rogers in Marc Gafni’s library

Has Aaron Rodgers been learning Torah at his offseason retreat?

My Dad Died: The Blessings Of The Father Pt 1 w/ Dr. Marc Gafni

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Bonus Sample: You Can’t Do Religion on the Internet

Mon, 08 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Back in 2011, Ward and Voas wrote that conspirituality was a mainly-online movement, and they were right about that. They didn’t do fieldwork at events. They didn’t attend trainings and rituals. They combed the internet for evidence of what they were looking for.

They found strange and anxious spiritual themes. But they also found evidence of what the internet does in all of its speed and dissociation, in its invitation to seize attention through contrarianism and amplify jagged anxieties and glittering pieties.

In finding conspirituality, they may have proven that you can’t do religion on the internet. And maybe, that’s part of why conspirituality exists.

Religious impulses are ancient and primal, centering communities as campfires do. But they also throw off sparks of narcissism and extremism, which the algorithms must capture to drive engagement.

Show Notes

MMMEATTT — “A newsletter about things that can’t exist on the internet” by Beau Brink

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Brief: The Freebirth to Born-Again Pipeline

Sat, 06 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The stress of influencing in the New Age / alt-med world is rough. You have to pretend to know everything, from vaccine science to the origins of autism, to how feminism has desecrated the sanctity of motherhood. It’s not surprising that a growing number of the conspirituality influencers we know and love are all tuckered out, and now choosing to let Jesus take the wheel.

Freebirth mogul Yolande Norris Clark now joins the growing ranks of converts from conspirituality to Orthodox Christianity. How will she square her politics of the divine feminine with a hyper-patriarchal tradition? Or is it really such a stretch?

Show Notes

"Giving Birth in Yogaland"

She wanted a 'freebirth' with no doctors. Online groups convinced her it would be OK.

From Costa Rica, Yolande Norris-Clark Free-Births COVID News About “Hellscape” of Canada

Free-Birther Yolande Norris-Clark Promotes “The Secret Covenant”

COVID-Denialist: “Rona Is as Real as You Want it To Be”Argentino on Pastel Q — Twitter

Pastel QAnon

The Women Making Conspiracy Theories Beautiful

The Instagram aesthetic that made QAnon mainstream

The Conspiracy Theory to Rule Them All

'Pastel QAnon' Is Infiltrating the Natural Parenting Community

First appearance of "The Secret Covenant" online

Secret Covenant: Freedom-Force (2004)

Secret Covenant boosted on a QAnon channel, 2020

PolitiFact | John D. Rockefeller did not write a ‘secret covenant’ about world domination Transphobia in the Midwifery Community

Yolande Norris-Clark: Transgenderism, Feminism & C0Vid (Content warning: transphobic creator)

Orthodox Christian churches are drawing in far-right American converts

Matthew Heimbach excommunicated

Justin Trudeau & The Misuse Of Words

Giving Birth in the Church

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213: Yoga for Gaza, Yoga for Israel

Wed, 03 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Can yoga bring hostages home? No. Can yoga stop a genocide? Also no. But this won’t stop earnest practitioners from instrumentalizing practice for both purposes.

For supporters of Israel, practice is dedicated to the protection of land, the return of hostages, and to uphold the spiritual valor of soldiers. Among supporters of Palestine and a ceasefire, yoga practice and community is an organizing principle for decrying genocide, building mutual aid, and resisting global colonialism. Both factions cite the Bhagavad Gita.

Does yoga support nationalistic violence and body fascism? Isn’t that where its modern origins lie? Or does it have deeper, intersectional roots in universal liberation?

The interpretive war, articulated and inflamed online, only accelerates the material war.

But there is a third space we examine today: the gap between how spiritual aspirations appear and are praised or condemned in the world of the spectacle, and how they play out in the flesh.

Show Notes

Tel Aviv Yoga Event

About : Israeli hostages taken by Hamas

We Are Still Standing handstand event

Carmel Gat | Yoga in captivity

Taken captive: Carmel Gat, seen doing yoga with hostage children

Initial Twitter posting of Alfie's yoga class in Gaza

Reserve combat engineer practices yoga with soldiers in a house in Gaza

IG post | criticism of Yoga Journal cover

In Israel, Chanting 'Om' Between Missiles

What does Israel's rescue of 4 captives, and the killing of 274 Palestinians, mean for truce talks?

AP: Calculating death numbers in Gaza

Sarah Martin Little Rock yoga benefit event

Rasha Madkour fundraiser for The Longhorn Muslim Alumni Network

UK yoga event for the Palestine Children's Relief Fund

Hot Yoga Glasgow yogathon for the International Rescue Committee

A look inside the growing Pro-Palestine student solidarity encampment at UCSB

Pro-Palestinian Demonstrators At USC Join Camp-In Movement On Heels Of Valedictorian Controversy

Sheena Sood's Yoga for Palestine series at Bhakti Yoga Movement in Portland

50. Sellouts & Zealots (w/Sheena Sood)

Samson's Foxes insignia

Reserve combat engineer practices yoga with soldiers in a house in Gaza

The Dangerous History Behind Netanyahu’s Amalek Rhetoric

Dark Mirror: A Torah View of Revenge, and its Reflection in Israeli Media During Operation Iron Swords

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Bonus Sample: The Prophet & the Electrical Storm

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 10:00:00 -0000

What does it really mean to be a prophet, found a religion, and persuade millions of people that god speaks directly to you?

And what does this god tell you? How to live morally. What kinds of sex are forbidden. How to avoid death and live forever. When the end of the world is coming, and which messiah will bring it.

In this latest installment on the history of the intersection of spirituality and pseudoscience, Julian looks at the story of a prophet named Ellen G. White and what she may have in common with historical figures as diverse as Gopi Krishna, Dostoevsky, and Joan of Arc.

Show Notes

Christian Experiences and Teachings of Ellen G White

Phantoms in the Brain

Sam Kean: Heaven is for Neuroscience

Neuroscience for the soul

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Brief: Jordan Peterson Teaches Russell Brand Theology

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Last month, Russell Brand visited Jordan Peterson's podcast for “The Evolution of Theology.” Which, given these two figures, had to focus on topics like the unreligious impulsivity of gay people and why slaves should “just not be slaves.” Derek and Julian discuss.

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212: US Military Tells RFK Jr-Style Lies

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

On June 14, Reuters published an article about the US Military’s clandestine program to discredit China’s Sinovac vaccine during the early days of Covid-19. Turns out the Pentagon hired an outside agency to purposefully spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) about the Chinese inoculation program by flooding social media with anti-vax propaganda. It was a smack in the face for anyone—including us—who’s been calling for sound public health measures over the last four years. And it very likely killed people in Southeast Asia.

This week, we look at the harrowing reporting that revealed a shameful, interventionary program that began under the Trump administration and persisted at least a few months into the Biden presidency. We’ll also review the very few conspiritualists that have even covered the story—somewhat surprising, given that a good ol’ government conspiracy is their bread and butter. But what happens when anti-vaxxers are confronted with a government-led anti-vax program, enacted by the same military that some of them, like RFK Jr, want to drastically reduce? Let’s find out.

Show Notes

Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic (Reuters)

Pentagon Ran Secret Anti-Vax Campaign in Philippines, While Censoring Americans Who Criticized COVID Shots (Children’s Health Defense)

Supporting military missions overseas (GDIT “Careers” page)

Companies Profiting from the Gaza Genocide

CONTRACT to GENERAL DYNAMICS INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, INC.

DynPort Vaccine Company

Public Health

Vaccine Diplomacy in the Wake of COVID-19

Pentagon Orders Sweeping Review

Martin Luther King Jr.’s moral stance against Vietnam War offers lessons for the Middle East

Exclusive: Inside the S--tshow That Was the Trump-Biden Transition

The Scam at the Heart of the Mysterious Epoch Times

End The Forever Wars | Kennedy24

EXPOSED: Secret Pentagon MISINFO Campaign Spread LIES About COVID Vaccines (The Hill)

DISGUSTING! Glenn Greenwald GOES OFF On Pentagon Anti-Vax Psyop (Breaking Points)

Pentagon Opens Sweeping Review of Clandestine Psychological Operations

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Bonus Sample: Sanctimonious Spirituality

Mon, 24 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

What is the distance between spiritual practice and social action? Derek has weighed this question for decades. This unscripted meditation on the topic uses Aubrey Marcus's new "documentary," Anti-Cult, as a jump-off point.

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Deep Cut: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker

Sat, 22 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A Deep Cut from January's Patreon.

Control the Court. Overturn Roe. Funnel anonymous donations and shady gifts. Deregulate for Jesus. Roll back the cultural clock. Celebrate. Rinse and Repeat.

Leonard Leo’s libertarian Catholic agenda has made him a preeminent power-broker in right-wing American politics. He’s reshaping society while enjoying the pipeline of cash and influence that connects billionaire GOP mega-donors and the SCOTUS judges he helped install.

Julian tracks how Leo’s Federalist Society used Trump as part of a decades-long systematic takeover of the judicial system that culminated in the current ethics and corruption scandal in the SCOTUS.

Show Notes

ProPublica “Friends of the Court” investigative journalism series

The Guardian Club For Growth GOP Insurectionist Support

Open Secret 2022 Donor List

Dark Money Spending After Citizen’s United

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse “The Front Group Swarms”

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211: Terrence Howard Solves Science

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Acclaimed actor Terrence Howard has a new role playing a heroic Galileo-like character on the YouTube and podcast stage, where he fearlessly points out the flaws in mainstream math and science.

Howard's recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience gave him three hours to explain how his dreams and spiritual visions, along with his own research and deep study of maverick experts, have revealed unique answers to the deepest unsolved mysteries of physics. Turns out that none of this is new, the actor actually unveiled his discoveries in a surprising lecture at the Oxford Union in 2017.

Today we'll break down these two cosmic events in space-time and discuss what it all means, and whether it's just a bit of fun or something more dangerous.

Show Notes

5 Craziest Moments from Terrence Howard on Rogan

Prophetic Charisma By Len Oakes: A Brief Overview

Terrence Howard's Dangerous Mind

Terrence Howard Patents Debunked

Howard Virtual reality Patent Claim

John Keeley and The Etheric Force Machine

Walter Russell Society, now named The University of Science and Philosophy

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Bonus Sample: 6 Chapters on Prospirituality

Mon, 17 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Six chapters on approaches to prospirituality, now that we know (or think we know) what the hell conspirtuality is. This is a long episode, but there are evenly-placed breaks for you all to pause on!

Chapter 1: Positions

After 4 years, we’ve come to a natural question at the end of defining the problem of conspirituality. How do we orient ourselves towards possible answers?

Chapter 2: The Prospirituality Challenge

If you’re clear on how spirituality—including beliefs in the supernatural—can be medicine, you can be clearer on where it becomes poison.

Chapter 3: I did not expect to be friends with Joseph Baker

I never thought I would be friends with a student of A Course in Miracles: maybe my judgments about its inevitably bad impacts are misplaced. Also: it’s not a good idea to dismiss anyone on the basis of religious belief if you don’t know how that belief actually operates, and you won’t unless you talk to them.

Chapter 4: Buddhist Tolerance, Buddhist Repair

Conspirituality is right at home within high-demand groups or cults. Paranoid and controlling social structures feed on paranoid and dissociative emotions and ideas. For members and observers alike, it can become difficult to tell whether the content of the religious group is intrinsic to its cruelty, or whether these can be separated. Surprisingly, some high-demand groups can foster reforms from within, with members reframing the very concepts that had been weaponized against them to liberate themselves. In that sense, the doctrines and beliefs can be part of the problem, but also part of the solution.

Chapter 5: Eve Sedgwick

Cynicism about religion is an occupational hazard of this beat. It’s also popular. At times it’s worth questioning the critical economy focused more on deconstruction than on generating ideas and solidarity.

Chapter 6: The Trouble and Joy of Belief and Silence

“You will know them by their fruits. Do we gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”

Matthew 7:16

Show Notes

Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People

Survivors of an International Buddhist Cult Share Their Stories

Paranoid Reading, Reparative Reading

Baylor Religion Survey: 3 graphs

On the Relation Between Religiosity and the Endorsement of Conspiracy Theories: The Role of Political Orientation

Anxious attachment and belief in conspiracy theories

There are higher levels of conspiracy beliefs in more corrupt countries

The impact of economic inequality on conspiracy beliefs

To trust or not to trust in the thrall of the COVID-19 pandemic: Conspiracy endorsement and the role of adverse childhood experiences, epistemic trust, and personality functioning

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Brief: Math Class with Terrence Howard & Eric Weinstein

Sat, 15 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Terrence Howard recently made waves (again) when appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast to discuss “Terryology,” a language of logic which he claims proves one times one equals two. Since he announced his theory in 2015 (and published it on Twitter in 2017), he’s been repeatedly criticized. In this latest round, that criticism is coming from Eric Weinstein, who appeared on physicist Brian Keating’s podcast to discuss Howard’s math. As usual with Weinstein, the conversation went in a million directions. Derek and Julian discuss.

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210: Bioquacking Bro Science (feat Mallory DeMille)

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Are you ready to “live beyond 180? That’s the tagline of the 10th Annual Biohacking Conference, which went down in Dallas two weeks ago. The brainchild of Dave Asprey, the conference focused on numerous “hacks” to help you live not only longer, but better and longer. This has been a decades-long goal of Asprey, who you might know as the founder of Bulletproof Coffee—you know, despite mountains of clinical evidence stating otherwise, this tech entrepreneur is certain that melting a stick of butter in your coffee every morning is the key to longevity.

Was the key, that is. Dave is now behind the supposed “mold-free” coffee company, Danger Coffee, alongside a whole bunch of other sciencey gimmicks, like his “Wasabi Method,” which was launched at the conference. The key to longevity, it seems, is knowing that your sales funnel always depends on there being another key. That’s the vibe our returning correspondent, Mallory DeMille, got when reviewing the many reels and videos that surfaced from the conference rooms at the Fairmont Hotel.

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Bonus Sample: Speak Through Me

Mon, 10 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

QAnon’s “Great Awakening,” influencers claiming to channel spirits or aliens, prophecies of a glorious Christian apocalypse—all aspects of the modern phenomenon that we call “conspirituality.” A sign of our crazy times?!

Not quite. The roots of this passionate delusion can be traced to an eventful time in American history: the mid-1800’s. In this episode of his pseudoscience series, Julian covers the relationship between famous Spiritualists who talked to the dead on stage, the emerging science of parapsychology, early formulations of New Age beliefs, and the passionate Christian revivalism centered in New York State’s “burned-over district.”

Show Notes

Doomsday Prophecy and Spiritual Porn (earlier episode on 19th century Great Awakening)

Hearing Voices, Seeing Colors, & Fighting Phantoms (earlier episode on temporal lobe epilepsy)

New Yorker: Why Did So Many Victorians Try To Talk To The Dead

PBS: William Miller and The Second Great Awakening

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Brief: The Theatre of Trump (w/Hank Willenbrink)

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

It’s all just a show, and sometimes that makes it all the more real. Playwright and theater scholar Hank Willenbrink joins Matthew to look at the spectacle of Trump through the lens of performance studies.

From his childhood listening to Norman Vincent Peale, to his lifelong fascination with Broadway, to his TV celebrity, to the tableau vivants of evangelicals gathered round him to sanctify his holy mission, Trump hits his marks so well he doesn’t even need to remember his lines. Now he has a new role to play: the framed felon.

Show Notes

Performing for the Don: Theaters of Faith in the Trump Era

About Me – Hank Willenbrink

Bread and Puppet Theater — Glover, VT

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209: The Right’s Fantasy Super-Villain (w/Renee Diresta)

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

We talked to Renee Diresta, when she in the middle of a life-changing crisis. Elon Musk’s hand-picked "journalists" were testifying in front of Congress as part of the “Twitter Files.” Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger sounded the alarm about a supposedly vast conspiracy between think tanks, big tech companies, and government intelligence agencies to censor the free speech of conservative Americans. They referred to that conspiracy as the “Censorship Industry Complex," identifying its leader as a shadowy former CIA intern named Renee Diresta.

The reality is that Diresta was involved in a 2020 academic project called the Election Integrity Partnership, which studied then gave reports on viral social media content steeped in misinformation. She joins us to discuss her new book, Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality.

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Bonus Sample: Nicole Shanahan Talks DEI with Scott Adams

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr's VP pick, has recently started her own podcast. Dilbert creator Scott Adams joined. The conversation quickly turned into a conspiracy free-for-all, starting with DEI, then swerving into fertility, vaccines, transgender people, EMFs, and much more. Derek responds.

Show Notes

Inside the fringe worldview of RFK Jr.’s VP pick

A Running Mate’s History: $1 Billion, Cocaine, a Fling With Elon Musk

Back to the People: Reframing Our Brains on Food, Debt, and DEI (full episode)

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Brief: Dancing for the Devil (w/Derek Doneen)

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 10:00:00 -0000

When young TikTok dance stars joined 7M Films, they got access to big production budgets, luxurious locations, and exciting career opportunities. There was a problem, however. Their boss, Robert Shinn, was a self-styled Christian pastor who placed increasing pressure on their time and finances, demanded unquestioning devotion, and isolated them from the outside world. (Julian covered the story of a family trying to regain contact with their daughter, Miranda Derrick, who had disappeared into Shinn’s Shekinah Church for Conspirituality 105: TikTok, Cults & Conspiracies.)

A new Netflix docuseries picks up where we left off. Julian talks to the series director, Derek Doneen, to discuss “Dancing for the Devil.”

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208: Dirty Dozen Disinformation (w/Drs Andrea Love & Michelle Wong)

Thu, 30 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Every year, the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, DC-based lobbying group, publishes its “Dirty Dozen” report, which supposedly informs consumers about the 12 “dirtiest” fruits and vegetables. The report is repeated verbatim by major media outlets, which routinely demonize strawberries, blueberries, and other conventionally-grown produce. But does their science hold up?

Not according to the majority of scientists and researchers. Over the decades, the EWG has slammed some pesticides but not others, ignored data on dosages, and even wondered out loud if all that mercury in vaccines might just be causing autism. They also routinely ignore potentially hazardous organic chemicals, while selling “verified” labels for skin care products and sunscreens.

Today Derek is going to walk me, the non-science journalist, through the work of the EWG before he talks to biomedical scientist Dr Andrea Love and cosmetic chemist Dr Michelle Wong about the group’s questionable methodologies and fear-mongering tactics.

Show Notes

Environmental Working Group and the Dirty Dozen

The Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list is a danger to public health put out by an organic industry funded activist group

Influence Watch: Environmental Working Group

Dietary Exposure to Pesticide Residues from Commodities Alleged to Contain the Highest Contamination Levels

Ken Cook: The Story of The Environmental Working Group

What Biden’s oil record means for the industry’s future

Alleged ‘deal’ offer from Trump to big oil could save industry $110bn, study finds

10 years after Flint's lead water crisis began, a lack of urgency stalls 'proper justice'

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Bonus Sample: Public Theology and Hospice Care (w/Jude Mills)

Mon, 27 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In this Listener Stories episode, Matthew sits down with Jude Mills, an old friend from the yoga world, to hear her story about growing up in an anti-theist home in hyper-sectarian Scotland, but feeling the inexorable call of religion. So started a long journey toward her vocation as a hospice chaplain at the height of COVID.

They discuss the needs of the dying, regardless of beliefs, and how losing dignity to institutional abuse does not necessarily mean losing faith. In discussing how some former believers feel excluded from community life, Jude says something remarkable: “Everyone has a right to a sacramental life.”

Jude has a Master’s degree in Public Theology and research interests which include: podcasting as a medium for theological reflection and enquiry; narratives of spiritual and religious abuse and harm and issues of disabled, neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ inclusivity in church contexts. Her podcast 'Fkd Up By Faith' will be the research subject for her PhD.

Show Notes

Jude's website

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Brief: Is God Necessary in Spiritual Practices?

Sat, 25 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

There’s been a growing acceptance of religious belief from the previously religious-averse, especially in the Covid contrarian space. This comes in the wake of a number of recent high-profile conversions, most notably Russell Brand getting baptized. Why are the skeptical suddenly finding faith?

Derek and Julian discuss their atheism in the context of these recent changes of heart—including Brand’s recent appearance on Bret Weinstein’s Dark Horse podcast. They share how their own skepticism has evolved and informs their work, debating on what value religion and, specifically, a belief in a god, holds for spiritual practices today.

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207: Gaming Realities (w/Thi Nguyen)

Thu, 23 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Philosopher Thi Nguyen first visited us 150 episodes ago (!!) to discuss how social media gamification exploded online conspiracy theories and audience capture drags content producers toward the seductions of premature clarity—and the ecstasy of fascism.

Nguyen returns to discuss “value capture”: how simplified and portable metrics in institutions, technology, and media landscapes erode our moral capacities as we pursue goals we never signed up for. (We even consider this influence on podcasting!)

Throughout, we also talk about the heart of Nguyen’s book, Games: Agency as Art, in which he explores the liberatory nature of games that offer the pleasures of striving and absorption. We wonder whether—if we valued and understood play for its own sake—we might not need to gamify the world.

Show Notes

Games: Agency as Art

Games and the Art of Agency (Philosophical Review) (2020 APA Article Prize; selected for Philosopher Annual‘s “10 Best Philosophy Articles of 2019”)

Value Capture (JESP)

Trust as an Unquestioning Attitude (OSE)

Transparency is Surveillance (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research) (short summary)

Hostile Epistemology (keynote for the 2022 NASSP.)

Autonomy and Aesthetic Engagement (Mind) (audio)

Art as a Shelter from Science (Aristotelian Society Supplementary)

The Arts of Action (Philosopher’s Imprint)

Moral Outrage Porn with Bekka Williams (Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy) (selected for Philosopher Annual‘s “10 Best Philosophy Articles of 2020”)

How Twitter Gamifies Communication (Applied Epistemology, OUP) (And a shortened version for students, with suggested classroom exercises.)

Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles (Episteme)

The Seductions of Clarity (RIPS)

Cultural Appropriation and the Intimacy of Groups, with Matt Strohl (Philosophical Studies)

Trust and Antitrust — Annette Baier

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Bonus Sample: Russell Brand Is Christian Now?

Mon, 20 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Russell Brand has accepted Jesus into his heart and been baptized in the spirit. But does his conversion to Christianity make sense along the New Age rebel to right-wing, conspiracy-theorist radicalization pipeline? Is Brand seeking absolution for his sins, or recognizing that most of his audience are Christians “oppressed” by authoritarian libs?

Julian explores how the “enlightened outsider” uses pseudoscience to justify spiritual beliefs that are actually connective tissue between conspiracism, New Age metaphysics, and faux Christian victimhood.

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Brief: The Outside Agitator Conspiracy Trope (w/Dr. Peniel Joseph)

Sat, 18 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Two weeks ago, several university administrators asked militarized police units to smash pro-Palestinian encampment protests on quads and in occupied buildings. It happened at places like Columbia and CUNY, and the University of Texas in Austin where our guest today, Dr. Peniel Joseph, teaches on the history of the Black Power movement.

In the midst of the news cycle frenzy, an old phrase began popping up in discussions of who the protestors were and whether the police actions were justified. Authorities said (and media figureheads repeated uncritically) that protestors were infiltrated and influenced by “outside agitators.”

It’s a phrase with a long history to it. Joining Matthew to unpack it is Dr. Peniel Joseph, a historian of the Civil Rights era, during which time the trope reached peak exposure, when it was lobbed at Martin Luther King Jr., as he sat in Birmingham Jail.

Show Notes

Peniel E. Joseph

NYPD Chief of Patrol on the “unknown entity”

Thursday's Headlines: NYPD Discovers Chained Bike Locks Edition

Nearly all Gaza campus protests in the US have been peaceful, study finds

Unmasking The 'Outside Agitator'

Debunking the “Outside Agitator” Trope amid pro-Palestinian campus protests

Cost of repairing occupation damage at Portland State library estimated at $750K

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206: Surviving Modern Yoga (w/ Matthew Remski)

Thu, 16 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew is in the guest seat today! Why? Because in 2019—just months before the pandemic and this podcast kicked off—he published a book titled Practice and All is Coming: Abuse, Cult Dynamics and Healing in Yoga and Beyond. It focused on survivor stories of assault and abuse within the cultic mechanisms of Pattabhi Jois' Ashtanga Yoga community. The book also proposed a path into co-creating safer yoga communities via enhanced critical thinking, self-and-other-care, student empowerment, and community resilience.

In many ways, this book holds the keys to how one-third of the team has tackled the conspirituality era. Derek and Julian interview their colleague about it all on the occasion of the release of a second edition, now titled: Surviving Modern Yoga: Cult Dynamics, Charismatic Leaders, and What Survivors Can Teach Us (North Atlantic Books).

Show Notes

Surviving Modern Yoga by Matthew Remski | PenguinRandomHouse.com

Yoga’s Culture of Sexual Abuse: Nine Women Tell Their Stories | The Walrus

Survivors of an International Buddhist Cult Share Their Stories | The Walrus

How a #MeToo Facebook Post Toppled a Yoga Icon | by Matthew Remski | GEN

Shielded for Decades, A Yoga Leader's Alleged Sexual Abuse Finally Comes Under Fire

How to Respond to Sexual Abuse Within a Yoga or Spiritual Community—Jubilee Cooke, Karen Rain

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Bonus Sample: The Force That Divides Us All

Mon, 13 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In 2020, former NY Times journalist Isabel Wilkerson published Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The book tells a compelling story: that the root of our social divisions is the invented hierarchical structure of castes, not, as we often assume in America, race. Race, she writes, is only another manifestation of caste.

While it’s certainly an important topic here in America, Wilkerson shows, by investigating the longstanding caste system in India, the social divisions in Nazi Germany, and America’s founding and expansion through chattel slavery, that caste is a universal phenomenon.

Derek discusses his thoughts on this powerful and important book.

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Brief: An Honest Discussion About Food (w/Dr Sarah Ballantyne)

Sat, 11 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Dr Sarah Ballantyne forged a career in science communication and health education advocating for autoimmune solutions in food and the paleo diet. In 2014, she began questioning her approach. Shortly after, she realized she was spreading nutrition misinformation and has dedicated her career to correcting those errors.

Derek talks to Sarah about the dangers of diet and nutrition misinformation, dealing with obesity and eating disorders, and the challenges of talking about food in public. Her new book is Nutrivore: The Radical New Science for Getting the Nutrients You Need From the Food You Eat.

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205: Dismantling Movement Dogmas (w/Laurel Beversdorf & Sarah Court)

Thu, 09 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

We have a real treat today for listeners who love all forms of movement, especially yoga and strength training.

Derek and Julian talk to Movement Logic hosts, Laurel Beversdorf and Sarah Court, who navigate the curvilinear path of creating irreverent yet high quality science-based movement content that sets teachers and students free from dogma and fear-mongering. Our two podcasts intersect by looking into fallen gurus, pseudoscience health claims, dodgy alignment dogmas, and cults of personality susceptible to the dangers of conspiracism. And this week we’re diving into a recent Movement Logic episode on back pain specialist, Stuart McGill.

Yet, as this conversation shows, all hope is not lost, and all physical culture is not a pipeline into body fascism, or worse—multi-level marketing. There are still intelligent and grounded educators who share the love of movement, infused with the logic and humility of science.

Laurel Beversdorf is an international yoga educator, a certified kettlebell specialist, and a strength coach. Sarah Court is a Doctor of Physical Therapy, movement mentor, and yoga teacher trainer.

Show Notes

Movement Logic

Episode 62: Make McGill Make Sense

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Bonus Sample: Imaginary Children #1: Fetal Remains

Mon, 06 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In the first full episode of this ongoing series, Matthew looks at the anti-abortion arcs of two men: Rob Schenck and Frank Pavone.

Both leaders invested the images and remains of the unborn with passionate but imaginary desires that obscured from them how much harm they were causing.

One of them exited that highway, but the other is still burning it up.

Includes the story of Kermit Gosnell, and how his Philadelphia abortion abattoir exemplified a political and moral disaster worthy of Naomi Klein. An obvious, organized crime, something that everyone could see but some tried to paper over, aided and abetted by the dominant order and progressive hypocrisy. Something that becomes the focal point of reasonable rage, but then leads to twisted conclusions.

Content warning: abortion details.

Full Show Notes available on Patreon.

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Brief: Religion is Not Belief? (w/Blair Hodges)

Sat, 04 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The late historian of religion James Carse (1932-2020) made a radical proposal in his 2012 book, The Religious Case Against Belief. He argued that beliefs, far from being central to or definitive of religion, are actually antithetical to religious community.

A religion’s historical longevity, he argued, depends on its ability to absorb and neutralize beliefs—epistemological dead ends built on willful ignorance.

“The challenge to religion,” Carse says, “is not its opponents from without, but its believers from within, and the real enemy of religion is belief itself.”

What does this mean for a project like Conspirituality and other projects of disillusionment carried out in the shadow of New Atheism and other modern skeptical movements?

Blair Hodges of the Fireside and Family Proclamations podcasts joins Matthew to discuss a potential casualty of the battle against religious extremism: a nuanced understanding of religion itself.

Show Notes

The Religious Case Against Belief by James P. Carse

Fireside with Blair Hodges

Family Proclamations w/ Blair Hodges

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204: What the Hell is RFK Jr Doing?

Thu, 02 May 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Robert F Kennedy, Jr isn’t backing down. You can’t get away from his voice or his endless content stream. He’s banked on tech world oligarch anti-vax mom, Nicole Shanahan, to nail down the VP slot. His Children’s Health Defense charity is casting doubt on whether polio was even a virus. And he keeps claiming he’s not against vaccines himself, but his messaging around it tells a different story.

It’s been a few months since we’ve checked up on Chaos Kennedy, so it’s high time we did: to look at polling, rhetoric, and charismatic technique.

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Bonus Sample: Let's Talk About Gary Brecka

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

"Human Biologist" and life coach Gary Brecka's star rose after biohacking UFC President Dana White's health. Yet Derek has a few questions this week: Is someone with a degree from a chiropractic college qualified to talk about seed oils, GMOs, depression, tinnitus, fluoride, detoxifying through water fasts, and diet plans? Is it concerning that his 10X Health System cofounder is a fervent Scientologist? And what happens when you actually read the science Brecka is linking to?

Show Notes

Worst U.S. cities for air pollution ranked in new American Lung Association report

GMO Foods: How Genetically Modified Foods Sabotage Your Health | Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka

Are children and pregnant women risking their health by eating “GMO” foods? The American Association of Pediatrics controversially says ‘yes’. The real question: Is the AAP endangering the food vulnerable?

Organic foods are not healthier...or pesticide free.

A Comprehensive Review of Health-Benefiting Components in Rapeseed Oil

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Deep Cut: On Belief

Sat, 27 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A Deep Cut from our Patreon archive (July 2023)

What do we mean when we say that we believe something? When the QAnon Shaman got dressed on the morning of January 6, he put on his red, white, and blue face paint, his postmodern quasi-Native American horned fur hat, and grabbed the spear to which he had attached an American flag. In performance mode, this cosplay persona had already garnered him a taste of the attention that would soon increase exponentially as he became the most recognizable figure of the Capitol Riot.

In today’s Bonus, Julian argues that his costume, as well as his ritual actions on that day were also an expression of a political worldview, run through with deeply held spiritual beliefs about the world and his role in it. The history of political religion, propagandistic conspiracies, and progressive spiritual convictions may show that—far from being trivial—belief is at the heart of the American, and perhaps the human, story.

Intro music: Single Origins—Luz Cafe

Interstitial: Silent Song—Eccodek (EarthRise SoundSystem Remix)

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203: Is This a Joke? (w/Neal Brennan)

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Neal Brennan has upped the artistic ante in stand-up comedy. In Netflix specials like "3 Mics and Blocks" he’s explored loneliness, isolation, and the mental health fallout of growing up the youngest of 10 in a Catholic family with an extremely unwell father. In the process he’s made some of the great mysteries of family pain and inner turmoil more tolerable.

And—he’s a fan of our podcast, because in his search for relief, he’s tripped through the land of psychedelics, where conspirituality can sour the active ingredients.

Neal joins us today to talk about his weird journey through the plant medicine scene, to wonder whether emotional and spiritual healing makes him funnier, and to answer our questions about how today’s comics are dealing—or not—with their supersized role as political pundits.

His new special is called Crazy Good.

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Bonus Sample: The Dark Sun, The Red Cow, and The End of Days

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Tensions between Israel and Iran escalated as supernaturally-charged conspiracy theories about the solar eclipse flooded the internet. And so Julian searched for answers about the mysterious “red heifer.” What is so special about a red cow? Might its discovery and ensuing journey from Texas to Jerusalem have played a role in the October 7 attacks? Why are zealots from all three Abrahamic religions so focused on one piece of holy real estate? Could apocalyptic prophecies actually be self-fulfilling, even when the metaphysics are make-believe?

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Brief: Yoga Teacher’s Survival Guide (w/Theo Wildcroft & Harriet McAtee)

Sat, 20 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew is joined by Theo Wildcroft and Harriet McAtee, co-editors of The Yoga Teacher's Survival Guide: Social Justice, Science, Politics, and Power (Singing Dragon Publications), a volume of essays from 16 yoga world contributors.

Three yoga culture critic nerds get into the weeds of how wellness workers and yoga teachers survive and navigate a post-pandemic world that exists at the crossroads of:

capitalism and spirituality
medicine and religion
modern therapeutics and precolonial philosophy and caregiving
gigwork and care work

Theo is a yoga scholar. Harriet has been training yoga teachers for seven years in a little school in Oxford, UK.

Show Notes

The Yoga Teacher's Survival Guide | Singing Dragon - US

Theo Wildcroft

Harriet McAtee

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202: Steve Hassan and the Trans Cult Conspiracy Theory

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

“Cult expert” Steve Hassan has been publicly concerned with the complex sociology of trans youth since 2020. We track that interest back to his communications with gender critical activists in 2017, who reached out to him because they believed that his cult theory could shed light on what they believed were nefarious aspects of the trans awareness movement. In the spirit of helpfulness, but without any chops in the subject, he stepped up to the plate and started swinging.

Regardless of how earnest or paranoid his concern is, his access to this landscape has been bought with his intellectual legacy, and been filtered through networks that question trans identity altogether. His most inflammatory (but also silly) claim is that many young people are being hypnotized by online pornography and influenced by social media groups to the extent they inexorably choose medical transition. We investigate and analyze this unfortunate skid into the culture war mud.

Hassan has stated at length his opposition to the “cancel culture” he believes is directed at Rowling and himself. This episode is not that. It’s a sober evaluation of legacy, disciplinary overreach, and what better public intellectual engagement would look like.

Show Notes

Full show notes posted to our website and Patreon.

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Bonus Sample: Long Haul Stories: Matthew Stillman

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Following up on our Long COVID episode with Tara Haelle, Matthew will be expanding the Listener Stories portfolio with stories from listeners about navigating Long COVID. Why? Because there’s nothing like a mysterious disease, denied by some, stigmatized by others, and politicized by multiple interests, that will bring a person closer to the appeal of alt-med conspirituality.

Matthew Stillman is our guest today. Author, documentary filmmaker, and lifelong New Yorker, Stillman grew up in an eccentric family of spiritualism and alternative medicine, but which also fostered a healthy respect for evidence-based medicine. So what happens when experts at Mt. Sinai Center for Post-COVID care reach the end of their capacity to help him with not one but two strains of Long COVID? Red light therapy! Chinese herbs! And a bracing contemplation of what it means to explore the tension between hope and knowledge.

Show Notes

Matthew Stillman

The major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals | Nature

How Genes from Neanderthals Predispose People to Severe COVID-19 | The Scientist Magazine

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Brief: A History of the Gay Right (w/Neil Young)

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew is joined by historian Neil J. Young, co-host of the excellent Past Present Podcast, to talk about his new book: Coming Out Republican: a History of the Gay Right.

Young’s riveting storytelling shows how, beginning in the aftermath of WWII, many American gay men—born into socially conservative and religious families from which they had struggled to individuate—hitched the wagon of their political hopes to a Republican party they believed would champion their privacy and individual civil rights.

Ground zero for their fiercely libertarian clubs and action committees was San Francisco, where a culture of rugged entrepreneurship fostered the slogan “Keep the government out of our bedrooms, and out of our wallets.” It was an individualist politics that looked to Civil Rights and women’s rights movements for inspiration, but not allyship.

In time that same GOP would lead a culture war against everything queer—paradoxically led by closeted gay politicians who, with deeply conflicted motives, legislated against their fellows. But even as the tide turned, many gay Republicans kept their shoulders to the unforgiving wheel of respectability politics.

Young illuminates the flashes of bravery and self-reliance in these men’s stories, but also shows what happens when a marginalized group seeks acceptance and political power—instead of liberation—within a culture built on exclusion.

Neil writes for WaPo, the Atlantic, CNN, the Los Angeles Times, Vox, Politico, Slate, and the New York Times.

Show Notes

Coming Out Republican: A History of the Gay Right, Young

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201: Librarians Are Not Groomers (w/Heath Umbreit)

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

When Moms For Liberty attacks libraries with demands to ban books about MLK Jr and age-appropriate sex education, and claims that librarians are grooming their children into the trans agenda, they’re enacting the worst forms of neo-fascist bullying. But they’re also paradoxically defending a troubled American legacy against a librarian culture attempting to course-correct towards greater inclusion.

To discuss this problem, Matthew talks to Heath Umbreit, a reference librarian who works at a public library in the northeastern U.S. Mis- and disinformation has been a professional and personal interest of theirs for several years; Heath's study of the phenomenon focuses on a critical examination of popular narratives about disinformation, the concept of epistemic supremacy, and the ways in which information and disinformation intersect with systemic power differentials in American society.

Show Notes

Derek gives the Keynote Address at the 2023 Oregon Library Association's Annual Conference

Library Bill of Rights | Advocacy, Legislation & Issues

Students, authors fight censorship in PA schools

Kuo & Marwick, "Critical Disinformation Studies"

Morales & Williams, "Moving Toward Transformative Librarianship: Naming and Identifying Epistemic Supremacy"

danah boyd, "You Think You Want Media Literacy... Do You?"

PEN America, 2023 Banned Books Update: Banned in the USA

Kelly Jensen, Trauma, Book Bans, and Libraries: A Resource Guide for Library Workers, Library Supporters, and Beyond

Kristen Browde, Who's Making News for Sex Crimes Involving Children?

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Bonus Sample: Project 2025's Disdain for Public Education

Mon, 08 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Derek and Julian read the chapter on the Department of Education, which focuses on unlocking public funds for Christian schools while banning any discussion on DEI, CRT, or gender theory.

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Brief: The High Cost of Wellness

Sat, 06 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

A common sentiment in wellness spaces is that people turn to alt-med practices due to the exorbitant costs of American healthcare. While the latter is certainly true, Derek and Julian discuss why a lot of products and services in wellness land is really just another form of extractive capitalism.

Head to factormeals.com/conspirituality50 and use code conspirituality50 to get 50% off your first month plus 20% off your next month!

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200: Rogan-Rufo Reality Check

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

This week we take stock of the full entrenchment of the Mirror World, where conspirituality influencers bask in the rays of confident delusion. After a little stage-setting on the heterodox mediasphere, we open with a snapshot of conspirituality Valhalla as we listen in on Joe Rogan and Chris Rufo talking about unhoused people as though they are children who haven’t been given good boundaries.

Then we’ll look at four instances in which the spectacle brokers meet reality. What happens when Chaya Raichik gets bodied by Taylor Lorenz? What happens when the Moms for Liberty have to explain themselves on 60 minutes? What happens when Destiny rejects Jordan Peterson’s bullshit? And what happens when the mack daddy of it all, Alex Jones, gets confronted by Sandy Hook parents, face to face? Does reality break through?

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Bonus Sample: The GOP Thinks Food Stamps Are the Real Problem

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0000

This week, Derek and Julian investigate the chapter on the Department of Agriculture, which aims to strip funding for food stamps and welfare programs and further deregulate Big Ag. And if you think the author is part of a climate change denial think tank, you'd be correct.

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Brief: Woman, Life, Freedom (w/Negin Shiraghaei)

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The death of Mahsa Jina Amini at the hands of the Islamic Republic’s “morality police” in September 2022 lit a fuse on a fervent global protest movement. Jina’s crime was wearing an “improper” headscarf in public. The slogan, “Woman, Life, Freedom,” which first emerged in the fight for Kurdish equality, was used by thousands of brave, defiant women in Iran (along with male supporters), who called for an end to oppression, discrimination, tyranny, and dictatorship.

Eighteen months later, the Iranian government has increased video surveillance and morality police patrols, imposed even harsher penalties for female disobedience, and leaned even further into brutal torture methods and daily executions. Meanwhile, Ali Khamenei’s administration floods the population with propaganda and conspiracy theories.

Julian talks to Iranian human rights activist and former BBC World Service reporter, Negin Shiraghaei, about the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, which she says remains active and unstoppable.

Show Notes

Iran one year after Woman, Life, Freedom

Iran: Alarming Surge in Executions

Khamenei Refuses US Help, Citing COVID Conspiracy Theory

Iran’s Supreme Leader Calls Gender Equality a Zionist Plot

Iranian Singer Sentenced to 3 years in Jail for Mahsa Amini Protest Anthem

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Brief: Yes, Huberman’s Behavior Matters

Sat, 30 Mar 2024 00:26:00 -0000

In response to Kerry Howley’s meticulous reporting on the deceptions of Andrew Huberman in New York Magazine, Huberstans around the world are braying that the man’s private life has nothing to do with his virtue as a science communicator.

Not so, we argue in this brief. Deception in one mirrors deception in the other, and there is no private life for the influencer who wants to influence your private life.

Beyond shilling for Athletic Greens and saying that sunscreen winds up in your brain, Huberman opines on relationships, sex, and addiction issues as if he is an expert—instead of (an alleged) hot mess.

Pseudoscience and pseudotherapy are parallel harms—both using manipulative jargon to convince consumers or women respectively that the influencer is well-researched and using best practices to be of service.

So we advise all Huberstans to view their hero… holistically.

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199: Inside Anti-Abortion Christian Nationalism (w/Rob Schenck)

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Reverend Rob Schenck spent 30 years on the front lines of the Evangelical war against Roe V. Wade. He blockaded abortion clinics, screamed at women in crisis, used fetal remains as political props, and helped wage a covert war of moneyed influence over federal officials to end abortion access.

Now, in a return to his deeper religious commitments, he is repenting his past. In an interview with Matthew, he discusses his blissful conversion experience as a teenager rooted in what he believed was a radical social justice movement. And he describes what he now sees: an anti-abortion movement helping to galvanize the Christian Nationalism poised to wreak havoc on American politics, and what we can do to push back against its aggression.

Show Notes

Fresh Air for July 11, 2018: An Evangelical Minister's Change Of Heart On Abortion

Former Anti-Abortion Leader Alleges Another Supreme Court Breach

Former Anti-Abortion Lobbyist Rev Robert Schenck Statement on "Operation Higher Court"

Robert "Rob" L. Schenck

About - Truth Revealed — Rob Schenck’s blog

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Bonus Sample: Conspirituality and the Imaginary Children (Series Intro)

Mon, 25 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

In this series of audio essays, Matthew will examine how children as symbols—but not persons with their own internal lives—are at the center of conspirituality anxiety and discourse.

There are two types of imaginary child in conspirituality. One is an object of dread. The other is an idol of aspiration.

In the realm of dread we have fetuses murdered by late term abortion, children who are trafficked, made autistic by vaccines, sexualized by pornography in elementary school, or mutilated by trans activist doctors.

In the realm of idols we have newborn babies sliding like dolphins into warm birthing tubs after a mere hour of ecstatic, medically-unassisted home births. We have little girls in prairie dresses or first communion veils who must be protected from library drag queens or woke grade school teachers. We have starseeds and indigo children who carry prophecies from the great beyond.

We often reflect on the problem of authority on this podcast. Who are our leaders, and what gives them power? Why do conspiracists default to God to corroborate fantasies? What gap in cultural fatherhood is Jordan Peterson trying to fill?

With this series, Matthew looks in the other direction: what does the conspirituality crowd do with its own authority? How do misgivings, regrets and shame in relation to children get inflated and projected into moral panics?

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Brief: Unmasking Jay Shetty (w/John McDermott)

Sat, 23 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Former monk turned spiritual influencer to the stars, Jay Shetty, has amassed 15 million followers on Instagram. He’s interviewed Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, and Kobe Bryant on his popular podcast. Shetty has received accolades from Gwenyth Paltrow and Ellen Degeneres. He even officiated J Lo and Ben Affleck’s wedding.

Yet when LA-based writer John McDermott was assigned to cover Shetty for Esquire, something seemed…off. When he started pulling at some threads, Esquire pulled out of the feature. Fortunately, The Guardian agreed to publish McDermott’s investigative reporting, in which he found little of Shetty’s origin story holds up to scrutiny.

John joins Derek and Matthew to discuss.

Show Notes

Uncovering the higher truth of Jay Shetty

‘Very few have balls’: How American news lost its nerve

Jay Shetty Is Full Of SH*T!

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198: Holy Food (w/Christina Ward)

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Does God have a recipe? That’s the first line of the blurb of Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat: An American History by independent food historian, Christina Ward. Ward’s survey of American religious groups and cults through the foods they grow, source, and prepare leads into an in-depth discussion about cults and high-demand groups that use food, and food restrictions, as a method for control.

That’s not all she tells Derek—they also discuss the ritual of sharing a meal. Matthew and Julian offer their own reflections on food in high-demand settings before Christina joins to discuss her excellent book.

Show Notes

Holy Food

Christina Ward

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Bonus Sample: Ketamine Soul Mates

Mon, 18 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Dolphins, drugs, new age music. Isolation tanks as a portal into other dimensions. True love and fake aliens. Julian shares a personal love story from the nineties that intersects with the work of prolific scientist, inventor, and psychonaut, John C. Lilly.

The belief that we can contact extraterrestrial civilizations, which are waiting to usher humanity into a golden age of light and love, is now a hugely profitable and popular commodity. Apparently these extraterrestrials also want to help us vanquish the forces of Deep State darkness. This is evidenced by the QAnon-and-alien-disclosure-style of programming on Gaia’s spiritual subscription platform (which brings in roughly $80 million annually).

Yet: Gaia is currently embroiled in a legal battle with a former host who claims that his stories about secret space programs and eight-foot tall “blue avian” aliens are actually part of his trademarked creative IP. When it comes down to dollars, he admits it’s all make-believe. Has he really ever dropped acid in a flotation tank though?!

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Brief: RFK Jr Hijacks the “Crisis in Masculinity” (w/Natalia Petrzela)

Sat, 16 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

Masculinity, in all its wounded and preening anxiety, is the perennial currency of American populism.

America’s foremost public historian on fitness and education, Natalia Petrzela, returns to the pod to discuss her recent study, with Ilyse Hogue, of the appeal RFK Jr. has with young men, and what progressives can learn from it.

Show Notes

Bio – Natalia Petrzela

RFK Jr. has a distinct appeal when it comes to young male voters — Petrzela and Hogue

Robert F. Kennedy Jr | "My Plan To Heal Addiction" | News Nation

Prior coverage of RFK Jr.

Brief: RFK Jr Flirts with Body Fascism (w/Natalia Petrzela) — Conspirituality

164: The Two Faces of Robert Francis Kennedy Jr. — Conspirituality

Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign — Conspirituality

Brief: RFK Jr’s New Director of Propaganda — Conspirituality

Special Report: RFK Jr.’s Independence Day — Conspirituality

Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable — Conspirituality

Brief: RFK Jr., The Anti-Vax Candidate — Conspirituality

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197: Psychic Surgery (feat Brad Abrahams)

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

The “healer” mutters prayers, flutters his hands over the patient’s belly, then rubs his fingers close to her navel. A stream of what looks like blood shoots out from between his fingers. After a few more finger wiggles, he appears to pull several bloody cocktail shrimp out of an invisible incision. The patient is healed. Of something.

Welcome to “psychic surgery.”

Documentarian of the uncanny, Brad Abrahams, takes our correspondent seat this week to explain how Shirley MacLaine, Burt Lancaster, Andy Kaufman, Charlie Mingus, and tens of thousands of Americans got drawn into the morbid healing craze that kicked off in the 1970s, and which may have seen its last hurrah with the imprisonment of Brazil’s John of God.

Centuries of colonization in Brazil and the Philippines, Brad explains, made conventional medical care basically unavailable for anyone poor or outside of major cities. This left a void for traditional and alternative healing to fill as the only real options, as well as provide a connection to a cultural identity that had been systematically repressed. And of course, charlatans rode the wave.

Brad brings his characteristic curiosity, empathy, and cultural competence, holding the door open for us to imagine why this abject form of medical and spiritual fraud speaks so deeply to so many.

Show Notes

Brad Abrahams

Love And Saucers — Brad Abrahams

Do you see what I see? | Short Doc about Controversial Conspiracy Theorist Artist David Dees — Brad Abrahams

72: John of Fraud (w/Lisa Braun Dubbels & Mirna Wabi-Sabi) — Conspirituality

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Bonus Sample: How to Stamp Out Racists (and more)

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 10:00:00 -0000

At what point do you tune someone out and no longer consider them worth considering? Is their entire catalog of thought defined by one encounter you don’t like? Multiple encounters? If you disagree with someone on one point, do you write them off entirely, or can you consider other points of agreement? What if your initial encounter with a thinker is disagreeable? What if you really like someone and then find them increasingly disagreeable over time? Have they really changed that much? Or have you? And would you know it if you did?

Derek meditates on these questions while working through his own process of consideration. Most importantly, he lands on one certainty: racists, bigots, transphobes, and misogynists need to be stamped out.

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Brief: The God Pivot: Rogan, Brand, & Huberman

Sat, 09 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Being a chaos agent is exhausting. The internet never ends. It’s so abstract, groundless. At some point, all of your content seems stale and redundant. All the conspiracy theories, outrage farming, and dietary supplements seem boring; your manic salesmanship starts to feel hollow. Maybe you’re also wondering about whether you’ve sold your soul, or who you may have hurt along the way.

What will you turn to? Who will help you? What will your ultimate piece of content be? From time out of mind, there’s only ever been one answer: GOD. Russell Brand, Joe Rogan, and Andrew Huberman have all recently made such confessions of faith. Derek and Matthew discuss.

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196: Julian Goes to the New Age Expo!

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

For 22 years, astrologers, channelers, and UFO enthusiasts have run booths next to crystal healers, purveyors of esoteric books and pseudoscience products, and paranormal enthusiasts at Los Angeles’s Airport Hilton. More recently, this event—the Conscious Life Expo—has increasingly featured speakers spouting red-pilled conspiracy theories about COVID, vaccines, and the Satanic alien reptilian cabal coming for your children.

To get an insider’s view, Julian donned his gray baseball camp and grabbed his recorder to do his own research on the latest iteration of conference room conspirituality.

Show Notes

Introduction to CymaTones cymatic sound therapy

Activate your Pineal Gland: An introduction to your third eye and exercises to awaken the higher mind: Ruehlig, Bianca

Shawn Buckley, Trucker Lawyer

Ottawa's use of Emergencies Act against convoy protests was unreasonable, violated Charter, court rules

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Bonus Sample: “There Are Worse Things Than Dying”

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 10:40:04 -0000

This is a newly favorite mantra that RFK Jr is using on the presidential stump.

The subtext, uttered in the shadow of a pandemic that this guy did what he could to minimize and bypass, carries a lot of American spiritual—or maybe pseudospiritual—baggage.

Digging into what he means and what his demographic hears when he says “There are worse things than dying,” can tell us a lot about the status of Death, Grief and Belief in the American psyche—and even global capitalism—in this volatile time.

This episode is a recording of a talk Matthew gave at the 2024 Symposium on Death and Bereavement Studies in January, organized online by Terri Daniel of Portland, OR.

Show Notes

2024 Symposium - Death, Grief, and Belief

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Brief: The CPAC Pope and the Icicle Babies (w/ Brad Onishi)

Sat, 02 Mar 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Brad Onishi of Straight White American Jesus sits down with Matthew to analyze the debut of “America’s Bishop,” Joseph Strickland, on the CPAC stage, where he blessed MAGA Christian Nationalism with his purple finery and endless torrent of anti-choice bafflegab.

Strickland—removed as Archbishop of Tyler, Texas in November by the ultra-woke Pope Francis—has hit the influencer circuit to firm up the sometimes-precarious Evangelical-Catholic alliance on the backs of women. His aw-shucks “humility” and East Texas drawl offers this reactionary movement genteel cover for its aggressive fever dreams. He is, as Onishi puts it, the Catholic Ned Flanders who conspires with Mr. Burns at night.

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Show Notes

Brad Onishi

Conspirituality 183: Woke Pope Cancels America's Bishop w/Mike Lewis

Weekly Roundup: Embryos are People Now? — Straight White American Jesus

Nazis mingle openly at CPAC, spreading antisemitic conspiracy theories and finding allies

Bishop Strickland at CPAC — LIfesite News (redpill site warning!)

The making of Bishop Strickland - Where Peter Is

Strickland's Adventurous Online Legacy - Mike Lewis Extra

Bishop Strickland's "Letter from a Friend"

Twitter photo: Strickland with Fournier and Pavone

Catholic Priest Uses Aborted Fetus On Altar In Appeal For Donald Trump (Trigger warning. Image blurred, but still, JFC.)

Fr. Frank Pavone uses aborted fetus in message for Election Day | National Catholic Reporter

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195: Long COVID (w/Tara Haelle)

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

In the early days of the pandemic, most of the cultural focus was on the necessity of quarantine measures and the distinction between mild and severe COVID infections. Yet by May 2020, some were experiencing the phenomenon of long COVID. Now understood as a post-acute infection syndrome, patients suffering from it have endured mockery, stigmatization, and accusations of lying. Nonetheless, support and patient advocacy groups have led the way, first in demanding medical and social recognition, and now in consulting with receptive researchers on diagnosis and treatment.

We’re joined by science journalist Tara Haelle, whose work has appeared in Scientific American, NY Times, Washington Post, and more. She’s also the Infectious Disease Core Topic Leader at the Association of Health Journalists. Her work covering the pandemic, vaccines, and the Long COVID connection, which combines reporting on the latest science as well as writing from patients and patient advocates, has been indispensable in understanding this spectrum of diseases.

Show Notes

Possible contender for a Long COVID blood test

RECOVER trial for Long COVID Treatments

New Yorker on the Yale LISTEN Study

LISTEN Study website

50% average lower prevalence in vaccinated people.

Tara Haelle’s Long COVID Connection project.

Opinion | Ed Yong: Reporting on Long Covid Taught Me to Be a Better Journalist - The New York Times

Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time | Disability Studies Quarterly

COVERING LONG COVID | Lygia Navarro

The Sick Times

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Bonus Sample: Through the Looking-Glass

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

After going undercover at the Conscious Life Expo, Julian examines the weird synchronicities between himself and his mirror-world doppelganger, the eccentric Rhodesian conspiritualist, Sacha Stone. Close in age and born in the same African country, both white men got involved in New Age spirituality as aspiring rock musicians in their twenties. How then did their paths diverge so radically, even as they converged in Los Angeles?

Stone invokes a fantastical millenia-long cosmic holy war, claims the pyramids were charging stations for UFOs, and praises Vladamir Putin. Julian gives a brief real world history of the British Empire, South African Apartheid, and the legendary Zulu and Ndbele nations—and wonders, how much of Sacha’s macabre preoccupations are just white guilt?

Stay tuned for a cameo from Julian’s Dad.

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Brief: The “Super Reasonable” Dr. Vinay Prasad

Sat, 24 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

A contrarian doctor “just asking questions.” Super reasonable. Certainly not anti-vax, just a regular guy who grievance-mongers about quarantine measures and mocks people afraid of long Covid. Vinay Prasad cuts a different type of figure on the conspiracy-influencer stage. He fits right in with his pal, the charismatic guru-esque Dr. Zubin Damania, and might just pop up in your YouTube feed alongside Andrew Huberman and Peter Attia.

Prasad demands unrealistic randomized controlled trial data for everything on his podcast, including protecting ICU patients from Covid via visiting restrictions. Who’s volunteering for that control group?!

Julian sits down with returning guest, Dr. Jonathan Howard, the author of We Want Them Infected. They talk about Prasad (among others) who play a sensationalist science-distortion role in the digital economy and their connections to libertarian think tanks like AIER (architects of the Great Barrington Declaration) and Brownstone Institute—who’s founder, Jeffrey Tucker, wants to repeal laws around child labor and underage smoking.

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194: The Power Worshippers (w/Katherine Stewart)

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

January 6, 2021. MAGA hats, tactical gear, American flags, poles turned into clubs. Another flag appears: white, with a blue corner square containing a red Latin cross. Another that proclaims “Jesus is King.”

If you’re agnostic or atheist, you might get that old familiar feeling. Horror at the irrational devotion, nausea at the toxic masculine violence that justifies itself as holy.

But what if you recognize that Protestant flag from your own church sanctuary? What if you recognize in that mob people from your church choir? Will you wonder how their faith was replaced by conspiracy theories, and how their Jesus turned into Trump?

That’s the question posed by “God & Country,” a new documentary by Dan Partland and produced by Rob Reiner, based on the book The Power Worshippers by Katherine Stewart. Stewart is an investigative reporter and author who has covered religious liberty, politics, policy, and education for over a decade. Her journalism appears in the NY Times, NBC, the New Republic, and the New York Review of Books. She joins us today to discuss the dangers of growing Christian Nationalism in America.

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Bonus Sample: Your Gut Isn't Leaking

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The Cleveland Clinic's website states that leaky gut is a "hypothetical condition." Yet Cleveland Clinic physician, Mark Hyman, claims that leaky gut is at the foundation of autism, depression, cancer, diabetes, and much, much more—and has solutions to sell you.

Derek investigates the manipulative and contradictory world of functional medicine.

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Brief: Plandemic Takes the Promenade

Sat, 17 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

An anti-vax, COVID-grievance, climate-science denying, communism panic-generating film by Mikki Willis just won “Best Documentary Feature” at the Santa Monica International Film Festival.

Julian attended the festival in order to track how Willis’s latest paranoid pseudomentary, “Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening,” was platformed at this annual fete held in affluent Santa Monica alongside two other conspiracy films: “Shot Dead” and “We Will Not Be Silenced.” These three films include a who’s-who of conspiritualists: David Icke, JP Sears, Alex Jones, Joe Rogan, Brian Rose, Peter McCullough, and newer “medical whistle-blowers.”

This is the on-the-ground story about how a 30-year-old normie independent film festival got red-pilled into platforming such dangerous misinformation.

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193: Speaking Truth to GOOP (w/Dr Jen Gunter)

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

When she’s not talking to her angel guides, Christiane Northrup says that taking Vitamin D is better than the HPV vaccine for preventing cervical cancer. When Kelly Brogan isn’t denying germ theory, she’s telling thousands of women in her online programmes to stop taking not only their SSRIs, but also birth control and Tylenol. When Naomi Wolf isn’t explaining to Steve Bannon where women’s liberation went wrong, she’s worried that vaccinated women are poisoning non-vaccinated women just by walking past them.

The train of messianic women wellness influencers rumbles on and on. But their pseudoscience claims and twisted forms of spiritualized feminism meet a brick wall in the work and advocacy of our guest today, Dr. Jen Gunter. Hailing from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dr. Gunter is an OB/GYN who has been offering actual women’s health information through a solidly feminist lens for decades as the author of several books, including 2019’s The Vagina Bible, 2021’s The Menopause Manifesto, and her newest book, which dropped just 3 weeks ago: Blood: The science, medicine, and mythology of menstruation.

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Bonus Sample: Living in the Enema Times

Mon, 12 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Selling enemas to replace psych meds, or treat cancer, or cure autism is some dangerous shit.

But Matthew has a tingling sense that the wellness enema craze promises more than false health benefits. Perhaps the coffee might be an artisanal distraction from a more existential promise: a ritual of cleansing and muscular control for a world that feels filthy, guilty, and in absolute chaos. A way of returning to a crucially innocent time when you learned to hold it all in, then given permission to let it all out, and then lovingly cleaned up when you did.

Today, Instagram gives us permission to show it to the world: look at what I made! Look at how fresh and pure I am! Look at how I am polishing my innermost self. Look at this magic of making the invisible visible.

Welcome to your 50-minute analysis session to process Mallory’s brilliant reporting on Thursday: a tour through a labyrinth of dirt, control, differentiation, exhibitionism, shame—and possibly reclamation and integration.

Chapters:

How to Read an Enema
Managing Filth with Freud
Winnicott’s the Best
The Abject
Political Shit
Dear Kyah

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Show Notes

Conspirituality 192: Coffee is Your Friend, Not Your Enema

Paranoid Reading, Reparative Reading — Sedgwick

Know Your Enemy: UNLOCKED: Freud and Politics (w/ Pat Blanchfield) on Apple Podcasts

Freud, "Character and Anal Eroticism" | PDF

THE SEMINAR OF JACQUES LACAN BOOK X ANXIETY 1962 - 1963

The child, the family, and the outside world : Winnicott, D. W. (Donald Woods), 1896-1971 : Internet Archive

Kristeva, Julia. Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection. New York: Columbia University Press, 1982.

Pro-Trump rioters smeared poop in US Capitol hallways during belligerent attack

Are Anti-Vaxers Really Pooping Themselves Because of Ivermectin?

What Donald Trump Actually Smells Like, According to Ex-GOP Congressman

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Brief: The Culture Warrior to Wellness Pipeline (w/Dax-Devlon Ross)

Sat, 10 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Wellness influencers are quite capable of inventing and spreading health misinformation. When it comes to culture war issues, however, they're incapable of generating original thoughts. So it shouldn't surprise anyone that they simply parrot talking points created by the likes of Chris Rufo and Bari Weiss, especially when it comes to their uninformed critiques of DEI and CRT efforts.

Author, lawyer, and social impact consultant Dax-Devlon Ross takes Derek on a journey through the life of a DEI facilitator—and corrects the bias and misinformation pundits like Rufo and Weiss spread as gospel.

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192: Coffee is Your Friend, Not Your Enema (feat Mallory DeMille)

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 08:00:00 -0000

This episode has been brewing for some time. This week we ask: which hole is coffee really supposed to go in? Because, in the contrarian and conspiratorial wellness world, a growing number of influencers advocate for your morning java to go where the sun doesn't shine. If that's not alarming enough, they claim coffee enemas will treat autism, cancer, parasites, and much more.

Mallory DeMille is here to finally flush out this nonsense.

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Bonus Sample: The GOP Takeover of Media

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan aims to implement the "unitary executive theory," which would give all of the power of the US government to the executive branch. This week, Derek and Julian investigate the chapter on US media agencies and the GOP's plan to create a true state-sponsored media beholden exclusively to the president.

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Brief: Deep Church Conspiracy (w/David Lafferty)

Sat, 03 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

From the Supreme Court to Project 2025, reactionary Catholics are on the frontlines of this year’s war on democracy. Many of them bend the knee to an Italian redpilled Vatican diplomat: Cardinal Carlo Maria Viganò.

Who is this guy, and who let him onto the internet?

In 2018, Viganò rebranded Pizzagate for Catholics, by accusing Pope Francis and his progressive allies of supporting “homosexual networks, which are now widespread in many dioceses, seminaries, religious orders,” and “act under the concealment of secrecy and lies with the power of octopus tentacles, and strangle innocent victims and priestly vocations.”

Viganò went on to pen an open letter to Trump—in the style of one spiritual leader to another—in which he spoke of the great war between the “children of light and the children of darkness.” His 19th century flair, boosted by Trump himself, was such a hit it got featured in a Qdrop, got echoed by Mike Flynn, and won him an invite into the world of Steve Bannon.

Catholic political commentator Dr. David Lafferty has been following Viganò for years. He walks Matthew through how the Cardinal Catholicized MAGA fever dreams to discredit the progressive administration of Pope Francis—going so far as to wish death upon him—while inspiring a generation of TradCath crusaders.

Show Notes

Puccini meets Watergate in 'Vatileaks' scandal

Former ambassador Vigano accuses Vatican of covering up McCarrick scandal for years

The Man Who Took On Pope Francis: The Story Behind the Viganò Letter

The (Growing) List of Catholic Prelates and Other Notable Catholics Supporting Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. : r/Catholicism

‘It Is Not a Closet. It Is a Cage.’ Gay Catholic Priests Speak Out

Open Letter to President Donald Trump from the Carlo Maria Vigano, Archbishop of Ulpiana

Vigano's most pilled tweet

Viganò, QAnon, and the 'Deep Church' explained

Another Viganò Wake-Up Call

“An infamous betrayal of the mission of the Church”: Interview with Archbishop Viganò - Crisis Magazine (CW: Steve Bannon BS ahead)

Americans, including Catholics, continue to have favorable views of Pope Francis — Pew Research

The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism, Jordan

Decadence and Catholicism — Hanson

The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010

John Jay Report: On Not Blaming Homosexual Priests

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191: Extremely Online (w/Taylor Lorenz)

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The internet has changed not only how we communicate with each other, but how we understand the world. All technologies reorient how we navigate the world. This one just feels, at times, so disorienting—especially if you are, like the three of us today, extremely online.

That’s the title of Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz’s recent book. Taylor has been covering internet culture since starting in social media for the Daily Mail in 2011, which led to positions as a technology reporter for Business Insider, the Daily Beast, and the NY Times. In her insightful book, she details the history of internet culture, and she joins us today to discuss reporting in an age of conspiracy theories and online trolling, the challenges of covering long Covid in an age of overwhelming health misinformation, and what it’s like to be extremely online.

Show Notes

Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet

Taylor Lorenz on YouTube

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Bonus Sample: The Plan to Dismantle Health Care

Mon, 29 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan aims to implement the "unitary executive theory," which would give all of the power of the US government to the executive branch. This week, Derek and Julian break down the dystopic chapter on the Department of Health and Human Services, written by the anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+ Catholic nationalist, Roger Severino.

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Brief: New Year, Same Old Conspiritualists

Sat, 27 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Do people radicalized into conspiracism or cults ever admit their errors? When the prophecy fails and evidence shows they were wrong, do they come clean or double-down?

Julian checks in on some of the legacy conspiritualists profiled in our book—Russell Brand, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Mikki Willis, JP Sears, and Lorie Ladd—to see what their online messaging around Christmas and the New Year tells us.

These figures drove the anti-vax, Covid denial, QAnon virality, and rightward political trend in conspirituality during 2020-21. We’ll find out if they’ve seen the error of their ways in the aftermath of the 5th dimensional Great Awakening that never happened.

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190: Females Drive Evolution (w/Cat Bohannon)

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Science evolves, often through fits and starts. Yet for most of medical history, there’s been one consistent theme: most science has been conducted on male bodies. And this has created a range of problems for women.

Thankfully, says Cat Bohannon, that’s changing. As more women and BIPOC are entering the STEM fields, we’re undergoing a renaissance in our understanding of a more inclusive and expansive science. On today’s episode, the author of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution tells Derek how much science has gotten wrong by focusing exclusively on male bodies—and what we’re now doing right.

Show Notes

Cat Bohannon

Epidemic Podcast | Tony Fauci: from one pandemic to another

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Bonus Sample: Post-Catholic Music (w/Julia Tucker)

Mon, 22 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Julia Tucker is a professional church organist in Savannah, Georgia. She grew up homeschooled in a TradCath home presided over by a father who is now a minor celebrity on the reactionary right. In this Listener Story, she discusses her long strange trip out of Catholic revanchism, the unexpected freedoms of homeschooling, sneaking around in sacristries, why she believes that figures like Bishop Strickland and the Catholics heading up Project 2025 are more ominous and effective than Evangelical leaders, how music began to displace religion for her, and why she’ll continue playing the organ in church.

Show Notes

Julia Tucker, Organist

Julia Tucker, Recital

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Brief: Being Muslim Amidst the Wars (w/Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee)

Sat, 20 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee joined us last January for a Brief on Jordan Peterson’s professional status as a shitposting registered psychologist. She returned for Episode 141 on whether it makes sense that the Canadian Medical Assistance in Dying act is fuelling conspiracy theories about state neglect.

Today she returns, as a psychologist and as a practicing Muslim, to discuss with Matthew how it feels to see her community drawn into culture war territory over sex ed and gender issues. Matthew also asks about her clinical practice with Muslim and Jewish clients in the shadow of the current Israel-Gaza war. This episode was recorded in November, but the themes are as current as ever.

Show Notes

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee

Brief: Is Jordan Peterson Really a Licensed Psychologist? — Conspirituality

141: Does Canada Want Suffering Citizens to Die? (w/Taslim Alani-Verjee)

Hate on Display at the 1 Million March 4 Children Rally in Calgary

Cross-country rallies against 'gender ideology' in schools meet with counter-protests

Statement by MAC on Statements by Canadian Leaders and School Boards on Recent Protests

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189: Leftists Who Turn Right (w/Jeff Sharlet)

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Nothing will stop Republicans from lining up behind Trump. But the left? It's in crisis. Fragmented. Perhaps in times of great flux fascists reflexively double-down while progressives slide into a cloud of self-doubt. There, strange bedfellows are sometimes found in the dark.

To help us understand this territory—what it is and how to navigate it—we're joined by journalist, professor, and documentarian, Jeff Sharlet. His books, The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War and The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power are field guides for understanding modern America.

Show Notes

Losing the Plot: The “Leftists” Who Turn Right

The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

The Family on Netflix

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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 6: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Control the Court. Overturn Roe. Funnel anonymous donations and shady gifts. Deregulate for Jesus. Roll back the cultural clock. Celebrate. Rinse and Repeat.

Show Notes

ProPublica “Friends of the Court” investigative journalism series

The Guardian Club For Growth GOP Insurectionist Support

Open Secret 2022 Donor List

Dark Money Spending After Citizen’s United

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse “The Front Group Swarms”

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Brief: Fascia Facts vs Fictions (w/David Lesondak)

Sat, 13 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

The online pseudoscience clearing house, Human Garage, treats fascia as a cure-all to nearly every disease imaginable. Yet as today's guest, David Lesondak, Senior Structural Integrator and Fascia Specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Integrative Medicine and author of the bestselling Fascia: What It Is and Why It Matters, tells Derek, they begin with a little bit of truth before going full Quantum nonsense.

David breaks down fascia this week: what it is, how it functions in the body, and why fascia pseudoscience is so dangerous.

Show Notes

David Lesondak's website

The Tissue That Connects Our Muscles May Be a Key to Better Health

Harvard scientists closer to solving centuries-old heart mystery

Human Garage: Manifesting Through Fascia

Human Garage: Anti-Gravity - Full Spinal Decompression

Human Garage: Autoimmune Diseases

Human Garage: Erectile Dysfunction

Human Garage: Anal Sphincter Release

Human Garage: Ileocecal Valve

Human Garage: Trauma Stored in Fascia

Human Garage: Trauma Release Maneuver

Human Garage: Fascia Work Cures Hives

Human Garage: Fascia Facial Release for Acne

Human Garage: Heart is a Vortex

Human Garage: Movement Instead of Medicine

Human Garage: Faith Healing

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188: Everybody Wants to Save the Children (feat Esme Providence Brown)

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

What happens when white knights role-play at saving all the children? What impacts do they have on the actual realities faced by trafficked children and adults? And how does their propaganda—rolled out in blockbuster trauma porn events like Sound of Freedom—stigmatize and endanger adult sex workers, especially those who are already marginalized? Esme Providence Brown returns as our correspondent to run it down.

Brown retired from professional sex work in 2021 after twenty-year career in Manhattan. She first joined us on Episode 169 to talk about the strange overlaps between sex work and the neo-tantra yoga movement. In this richly-researched report and discussion with Matthew, she examines the history of and present-day ramifications of anti-trafficking movements—projects that often scapegoat women who are secretly desired but publicly hated.

“Everybody wants to save the children,” Brown says, “but very few people want to step into the tangled web of what this actually means or the history of how ‘salvation’ movements - hobbled by grandiosity, white knighthood, and patriarchal ignorance—have incurred collateral damage while failing in their ultimate mission of liberation.”

Show notes for this one are extensive, and won’t fit into most pod apps. You can find them here.

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Bonus Sample: Chris Rufo Wants America to Return to 1776

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Rightwing activist Chris Rufo recently led the charge in helping oust Claudine Gay from the Harvard presidency. While the charge is plagiarism—a charge Gay herself acknowledged—the reason for Rufo’s intense focus on her has little to do with academic pedigree.

Rufo, a former vegetarian yogi, is leading the right-wing charge against DEI trainings, LGBTQ+ rights, and any mention of critical race theory. Rolling off his "victory" of Gay's resignation, he's published a blog post that he hopes will become the guiding manifesto for the "New Right." As Derek breaks down, this means returning America back to 1776 in many ways.

Show Notes

The New Right Activism

How We Squeezed Harvard to Push Claudine Gay Out

Claudine Gay: my part in her downfall

Bill Ackman’s wife is accused of plagiarizing part of her dissertation

Contracts Between Hungarian Nonprofit and Christopher Rufo, Others, Raise Foreign Agent Concerns

The Plagiarism War Has Begun

A lesson in persuasion — Loretta Ross

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Brief: RFK Jr’s New Director of Propaganda

Sat, 06 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

On January 6, 2021 Del Bigtree took the stage at the MAGA Health Freedom Rally a few blocks away from where Donald Trump had just instigated a riot. He joked about how the former president was a hard act to follow.

But he dug deep and persevered by stringing together key dog whistles of Trumpian disinformation and resentment: public health officials are corrupt, COVID is a scam, and the election was probably stolen.

Such performances have gotten Bigtree’s Highwire show nuked by YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. But they’ve also made him wealthy, and with his new appointment as RFK Jr’s new Director of Communications, his political star is now rising.

Matthew runs down what we know about Bigtree, and what he thinks this appointment will bring.

Show Notes

An Important Message To The Medical Freedom Community from Del Bigtree

RFK Jr. hires top anti-vaccine activist as campaign communications director

The Disinformation Dozen — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH

Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable — Conspirituality

Brief: RFK Jr Loses New Age Support Over Israel — Conspirituality

Pandemic Profiteers — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH

Tracy Beanz - The HighWire

How three conspiracy theorists took 'Q' and sparked Qanon

Anti-Vaxxer Del Bigtree’s Unhinged Quest for Unvaccinated Blood Leads Him to Mexico

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187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Last year, the Heritage Foundation published a 920-page document that lays out the conservative organization’s road map for the next Republican president’s first four months in office, which could very well be Donald Trump. Project 2025 rests on four pillars devoted to the implementation of the unitary executive theory—basically, all levers of the American government bowing down to the executive branch. If this sounds like a roadmap to authoritarianism, that’s because it is.

With 54 conservative and religious organizations signing on and over 450 contributors, as well as untold millions in dark money, Heritage is leading the charge with this anti-abortion, anti-LBGTQ+, anti-DEI, anti-civil liberties game plan. To date, they’ve interviewed thousands of prospective candidates for the next administration, with the goal of hiring tens of thousands of subservient bureaucrats ready to implement this Christian Nationalistic plan.

Today we break down what the document says and how it could rapidly erode American democracy. And if that sounds like hyperbole, it isn’t.

Show Notes

Project 2025

The Power Worshippers | Katherine Stewart

Behind the Curtain — Scoop: The Trump job applications revealed

The Conservative Plan to Take Over the Country (you need to know about this)

The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world

Dr. Kevin Roberts | Catholic Citizens Annual Banquet

Living a Life of Catholic Integrity in a Hostile World | Roger Severino

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Bonus Sample: Secular Person of Faith: pt 2 (w/Brad Onishi)

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 11:00:00 -0000

Friend of the pod and Straight White American Jesus host Brad Onishi returns to pick up with Matthew where they left off in their discussion of post-religious spirituality. They discuss what happens after disenchantment, the spirituality of boredom, and why, as we hurtle into the coming chaos of 2024, it’s good to keep an eye out for new allies in unlikely places.

This is Part Two of two-part conversation. Look for Part One in your pod feeds, dated December 30.

Show Notes

Brad Onishi

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media

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Brief: Secular Person of Faith: pt 1 (w/Brad Onishi)

Sat, 30 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Friend of the pod and Straight White American Jesus host Brad Onishi joins Matthew for a New Year’s discussion of post-religious spirituality. Onishi fills out the details on a nascent identity that many of you might resonate with: the “secular person of faith.” They talk about the false choice of Max Weber’s fork in the road: that either we commit to the sciences or languish in the churches. They discuss Jeffery Kosky’s idea of “disenchantment with disenchantment.” And they try to figure out what Thomas Altizer was going on about when he proposed a “Christian Atheism.”

This is Part One of two-part conversation. Part Two drops Monday, New Year’s Day, on Patreon.

Show Notes

Brad Onishi

Straight White American Jesus

Axis Mundi Media

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186: Coaches Coaching Coaches

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Life coaching is big business. The life coaching industry was worth $1.5 billion in 2022 and is considered one of the fastest growing industries in America. The International Coaching Federation reported more than 26,000 coaches in North America in 2020. Yet those numbers are hard to qualify given that you don’t need certifications or training to become a life coach or, as we explore today, coaching of most any sort. Life coaches, business coaches, fertility coaches, “quantum” coaches: every industry has an increasing number of people who want to tell you how to do your job effectively, magically, or quantumally.

Who really benefits from this supposed gold rush of “MULTI 6 FIGURE BUSINESS COACH”, “Multi 8 fig biz mentor”, and “high ticket biz coach helping women scale to 20-30k months”? And has the dilution of the term "coach" damaged credentialed coaches with decades of experience?

Mallory DeMille returns to talk about the coaches who coach coaches industry: marketing tactics, parallels to multilevel marketing, and the glut in the coaching industry.

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Bonus Sample: Under the Xmas Starship

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

The joys of Xmas, the wonder of parenting, the complexities of family, the distinctions between religions and cults, and the compassionate dignity of locating the sacred in our mortal humanity. Julian offers an atheist reflection on the holidays that is equal parts heartwarming, thought-provoking, and (perhaps) inspiring.

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Brief: Cop(Out)28 (w/Maya Lilly)

Sat, 23 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

COP28, the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, recently took place in the UAE. The controversial conference included 2,500 fossil fuel industry lobbyists and featured billionaires flying into Dubai on private jet. Yet, as Maya Lilly—a film, television, and digital media producer who focuses on activist documentary storytelling—tells Derek, it's one of the few places that so many nations and world leaders meet to discuss climate change. And, she says, the financial incentives exist to make even the richest men salivate. Governments just need the political will, and citizens need to vote more climate-forward legislators into office.

Show Notes

Maya Lilly’s Curated Climate Reading List

Earth on verge of five catastrophic climate tipping points, scientists warn

Right-wing media use COP28 to dismiss climate-related deaths

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185: Light in the Growing Darkness

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

In this annual meditation and reflection, the trio consider the past year's significant happenings in conspirituality, discuss their biggest influences, identify 2024's most pressing challenges, and offer what gives them each hope as we transition into 2024.

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Bonus Sample: Rife-Wing Misogyny

Mon, 18 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

In November, the comedian Matt Rife released his first Netflix special, "Natural Selection." Early in the show he made a joke about domestic violence that many people took offense to. Since then, he’s clapped back at a number of people on social media (including a six-year-old boy), published a fake apology that linked to helmets for people with disabilities, and has been praised by many right-wing pundits, including the focus of today’s bonus episode, Jordan Peterson.

Derek looks at the escalation and rhetoric that’s occurred since the special, arguing that the real misogynistic thinking has taken place since the special first aired.

Note: Derek states that biologist EO Wilson is famous for popularizing the term "alpha male." This was actually primatologist Frans de Waal.

Show Notes

Bunny Hedaya claps back at Matt Rife

Should you rely on first instincts when answering a multiple choice exam?

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Brief: The Mother God Cult

Sat, 16 Dec 2023 15:03:00 -0000

Amy Carlson’s metallic blue body was covered in glitter, wrapped in a sleeping bag, and draped in Christmas lights when police found her on the night of April 16, 2021. The 45-year-old leader of the “Love Has Won” cult weighed just 75 pounds; her eyes had been removed.

Carlson, known as “Mother God,” proselytized along with her followers by livestreaming around the clock, preaching a QAnon-themed spirituality that they monetized by selling colloidal silver and New Age tchotchkes. When her body was found, it was discovered that her inner circle had prepared for Carlson to be picked up by galactic starships from their Crestone, CO compound.

Julian and Matthew discuss HBO’s new docu-series, “Love Has Won: The Mother God Cult,” directed by Hannah Olson. They meditate on religious freedom, spiritual tragedy, and the ethics of big-budget cult documentary filmmaking.

Show Notes

Denver Post article with Rick Ross comments

Vulture Interview with Hannah Olson

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184: Lies That Take Lives (w/Scott Kennedy)

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Measles was declared eliminated in the US in 2000. Fast forward to 2019 and the nation experienced the largest number of cases since 1992. Globally, there were 207,000 measles deaths that year, a 50% increase since 2016.

The anti-vax boom time was still to come. Andrew Wakefield, Del Bigtree, and RFK Jr. massively increased their exposure and salaries during Covid via pseudoscientific fear-mongering and promiscuous political alliances.

Scott Kennedy’s new documentary, Shot in the Arm, details the deadly impact of these anti-vax kingpins, as well as the tireless counter-efforts of scientists, medical workers, and science educators like Peter Hotez, Paul Offit, Karen Enrst, and Blimi Marcus. Scott joins Derek and Julian to discuss the past and future of the anti-vax movement.

Show Notes

Shot in the Arm

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Bonus Sample: Post Lapsed Catholic?

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew follows up on his interview with Mike Lewis about Bishop Strickland with thoughts about:

1) Building a bridge with progressive elements of a religion that claims 1.36 billion people globally, as it goes through another surge of paranoia and reactionary radicalization, and

2) Building a bridge into a personal past

Show Notes

Vatican II: It's about that 'fresh air' | National Catholic Reporter

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

More sexual assault survivors connected to Michigan-based religious groups surface

Inside the People of Praise, the Tight-Knit Faith Community of Amy Coney Barrett - The New York Times

And Scales Fell From His Eyes | PDF | Protestantism | Catholic Church

Pope Michael – WRSP

‘The most conspiratorial demographic’: white evangelicals and the QAnon connection - The Conversationalist

Evangelicals are looking for answers online. They’re finding QAnon instead. | MIT Technology Review

QAnon Conspiracies Sway Faith Groups, Including 1 in 4 White Evangelicals | News & Reporting | Christianity Today

New poll: QAnon embraced by 11 percent of white Catholics and 15 percent of all Americans | America Magazine

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Deep Cut: The Final Battle

Sat, 09 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Why did Trump kick-off his 2024 presidential campaign in Waco, Texas? Who were the Branch Davidians, anyway?

Julian unpacks the incendiary streams of far-right anti-government militia history and religious apocalypticism that our former president is tapping into as he faces legal jeopardy. It all goes back almost 300 years to the original Great Awakening that QAnon and New Age channelers tried to remix in 2020.

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183: Woke Pope Cancels America's Bishop (w/Mike Lewis)

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Conspiracy Theory Catholicism is back, bringing together Satanic Panickers, anti-vaxxers, tradwives who think (or at least say) birth control is an abomination, and survivalist prayer bros who string bullets into rosaries. This motley bunch agree on one thing: Pope Francis is just too damn woke.

The movement has many leaders, but only one man has been dubbed “America’s Bishop”: Joseph Edward Strickland, the now-former Bishop of Tyler, East Texas. “Former,” because on November 11, the Pope of Woke canceled him from his post.

Our guest today, Mike Lewis of the Catholic news and opinion website, wherepeteris.com, walks us through this strange tale, detailing how Strickland courted his own demise by going batshit on Twitter during the pandemic, suggesting Francis is a heretic, calling Joe Biden evil, and railing against abortion-derived vaccines.

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Show Notes

Mel Gibson: The man without a pope - Where Peter Is

Americans, including Catholics, continue to have favorable views of Pope Francis

Many Americans — including most Republicans — believe the pope should stay out of U.S. affairs | YouGov

Searching for Answers: Why Was Bishop Joseph Strickland Removed?

QAnon Conspiracies Sway Faith Groups, Including 1 in 4 White Evangelicals | News & Reporting | Christianity Today

New poll: QAnon embraced by 11 percent of white Catholics and 15 percent of all Americans | America Magazine

Just one-third of U.S. Catholics agree with their church that Eucharist is body, blood of Christ

Many Americans believe in the supernatural, UFOs | Ipsos

Pope Francis’ unexpected friendship with a group of trans women | America Magazine

The making of Bishop Strickland - Where Peter Is

Strickland's Adventurous Online Legacy - Mike Lewis Extra

Bishop Strickland's "Letter from a Friend"

Podcast: Fr. James Martin on Pope Francis and accompaniment - Where Peter Is

‘Medical Freedom’ Activists Take Aim at New Target: Childhood Vaccine Mandates

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Bonus Sample: Goliath & Narcissus: A Brett Weinstein Breakdown

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

What if every important world event, regardless of how tragic or distant, is really part of a secret plan that only a handful of contrarian podcast pals can decipher? Julian breaks down bizarre clips from recent Dark Horse livestreams, and wonders about the connection between conspiracy theorizing and an increasingly self-important disconnection from reality. Stick around for an expert cameo from psychology professor, Matt Browne, of Decoding the Gurus.

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Brief: The Twin Flames Story (w/Alice Hines)

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Soulmates gone wrong. High-pressure sexual orientation and gender conversion in an MLM coaching cult. Journalist and producer Alice Hines discusses the “master Christ” young couple at the center of Twin Flames Universe and the alarming story that unfolds in the documentary based on her Vanity Fair expose.

Show Notes

Inside the All-Consuming World of Twin Flames

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182: Recovering from Conspiracy Theories (w/Stephanie Kemmerer)

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

What is it like to get red-pilled, find a fragile community of peers, and then come out on the other side?

What are the personal, social, and political wounds that make conspiracy theories feel like medicine—or a drug? What is the difference between debunking theories and healing wounds?

Today the trio discusses excerpts of an interview Matthew recorded with Stephanie Kemmerer, a former conspiracy theorist and now public educator. Stephanie is part of a newly formed non-profit called The American Information Integrity Alliance and co-facilitator of the support group DOUBT: Discussing Our Unusual Beliefs Together.

Kemmerer’s journey tells us a lot about how people fall into the rabbit hole, how they can claw their way back out. But she also suggests that the rabbit hole is really a hole in the culture, and that there’s plenty we can do to fill it in.

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Show Notes

American Information Integrity Alliance

D.O.U.B.T. (Discussing Our Unusual Beliefs Together)

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Bonus Sample: Anti-vax Lifestyle Brands Are Here

Mon, 27 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

In 2021, the anti-vax dating site, Unjected, appeared on the scene. Between Unjected's conservative marketing campaigns, which leans conspiratorial and bigoted, and its partnership with supplements company, The Wellness Company, Derek breaks down why this appears to be the emergence of anti-vax lifestyle brands—a trend he believes is only going to grow in the coming years.

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Show Notes

Anti-vax dating site exposed data for 3,500 users through ‘debug mode’ bug

Maui emergency services head, who met criticism for not using sirens during wildfire, resigns

In deadly Maui fires, many had no warning and no way out. Those who dodged a barricade survived

Exclusive Interview: The founder of Unjected, a dating site for the unvaxxed, talks about why it's still growing after getting kicked off the App Store

MAGA Influencers Are Sold on This Grifty Wellness Company

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Deep Cut: The Eyes Always Watching Us

Sat, 25 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Derek interviewed journalist and researcher, Arthur Holland Michel, after the publication of Michel's 2019 book, Eyes in the Sky: The Secret Rise of Gorgon Stare and How It Will Watch Us All. When reading Naomi Klein's book, Doppelganger, Derek was struck by Klein's insight that the Right has picked up issues the Left has abandoned—such as surveillance technology. And he recalled this interview with Michel, who reports on some of the scariest surveillance tech in history.

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Show Notes

The surveillance technology that will watch us all, all the time

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181: YouTuber Redpills Preteen Boys

Thu, 23 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

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Round two on Iman Gadzhi, the 23-year-old self-proclaimed marketing millionaire who makes conspiracy theory videos to sell business coaching packages. (Listen to EP 180 for background.)

This week, Julian and Matthew discuss Gadzhi's seemingly plagiarized rhetoric that invites preteen boys from Boston to Belarus to drop out of school. Manosphere types are drawn to fascist values like moths to the flame, yet when they get too close, they have to reckon with authoritarianism, and try to rebel against it.

Julian discusses Gadzhi's deceptive social-media-based marketing in the context of election-disrupting technologies. Matthew then exposes the cruelty at the heart of Gadzhi's coaching scheme, as the YouTuber imagines disciplining his future sons with violence.

Show Notes

Join THE RESCUE today (Gadzhi content)

The Great Reset - Iman Gadzhi

Iman Gadzhi LIED to You - He is The Puppet Master

Iman gadzhi is pulling his second fear mongering scam and coffee should talk about it

THE IMPACT OF SCIENCE ON SOCIETY

The country school of to-morrow

Context: "People yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hand"

Education or Indoctrination? The Violent Origins of Public School Systems in an Era of State-Building

Webarchive: Foster Gamble quoting Gates

Thrive - Viral Video

The Revisionists Revived: The Libertarian Historiography of Education

The Origins of the American Public Education System: Horace Mann & the Prussian Model of Obedience

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Bonus Sample: So Marianne Williamson Really is the Peace Candidate

Mon, 20 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

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Matthew reconsiders past criticisms of Marianne Williamson’s theology and candidacy in light of her principled call for a ceasefire as casualties in Gaza rise.

At a moment of global crisis, Williamson is distinguishing herself from the vast majority of her Democratic colleagues—including Bernie Sanders—by calling urgently for a ceasefire as the casualties in Gaza rise.

Biden Democrats are struggling to utter the word “ceasefire.” Rashida Tlaib and the Squad are now targeted for primary challenges funded by AIPAC. Will it fall to a New Age pacifist—long derided as “the crystal lady”—to challenge the geopolitical status quo? Is Williamson's proposed “Department of Peace” really that naive at this point, now that Mike Johnson, as House Speaker, holds the Evangelical view that war in the Holy Land is a sign of Jesus's return?

Show Notes

Israel & Hamas: Ceasefire — Marianne Williamson

148: Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus — Conspirituality

Special Report: Marianne Williamson’s Ex- Staffers Speak Out — Conspirituality

Brief: Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Therapy Schtick — Conspirituality

MW Facebook prayer for Israel and Palestine

Gaza: UN experts call on international community to prevent genocide against the Palestinian people | OHCHR

Lack of clean drinking water for 95% of people in Gaza threatens health crisis | Global development | The Guardian

Leo Varadkar calls for ‘humanitarian ceasefire’ in Israel-Hamas conflict | Business Post

Kinew pledges to search landfill, but says federal role wasn't part of conversation with Trudeau

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan | The White House

Netanyahu faces rising anger from within Israel after Hamas attack - CBS News

The Presidential Candidates on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Council on Foreign Relations

Williamson: Israel and Hamas an Eye for an Eye

What Palestinians Really Think of Hamas | Foreign Affairs

House votes to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib over her Israel-Hamas rhetoric in a stunning rebuke

Original Party Platform of the Likud Party

AIPAC vs. progressives: Israel’s war in Gaza has set the stage for a huge primary battle in 2024

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Brief: RFK Jr. Loses New Age Support Over Israel

Sat, 18 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

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RKF Jr., who has campaigned as the peace candidate who will draw down the US military empire, has recently called Israel America’s “aircraft carrier” in the Middle East. When challenged to call for a ceasefire as the casualties rise in Gaza, the self-proclaimed protector of children said, “nobody likes children dying,” but then compared Israel’s efforts against Hamas to Alliance efforts against the Nazis.

On Gaza and Israel, RFK Jr is sounding unlike the end-the-forever wars, bring-our-troops-home candidate that many of his followers in the alternative health, anti-vax, and New Age spiritual communities thought they were supporting.

Now he’s paying the price.

Lifelong pacifist Dennis Kucinich quit the Kennedy24 campaign nine days after Israel began its retaliation for the Hamas attacks. RFK Jr.’s Director of Messaging, Charles Eisenstein, is speaking out against his boss’s one-sided stance. And alternative health and anti-vax mogul Sayer Ji has withdrawn his endorsement in a newsletter sent out to 300K subscribers.

Matthew reports on the developments and poses the questions: What is it about Gaza that suddenly makes the mainstream media reports credible to conspiritualists—as opposed to the news from Ukraine, or about COVID? And if RFK Jr. loses the support of the natural health pacifist who first backed him, who is he left to stand with?

UPDATE: Since recording, Bernie Sanders has in fact followed the lead of Williamson and others in issuing a call for an end to the bombardment of Gaza.

Show Notes

Dennis Kucinich Leaves Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Presidential Campaign - The New York Times.

Dennis Kucinich ceasefire petition

Kennedy Condemns Terrorist Attacks Against Israel | Kennedy24

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Declares Independent Candidacy | C-SPAN.org

RFK Jr Confronted by Pro-Palestine Heckler Calling for Ceasefire at Portland Event [VIDEO] - The Maine Wire

The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign — Conspirituality

"In my name, I want no vengeance." - Charles Eisenstein

Why I Withdraw My Endorsement of RFK Jr. and Affirm the Urgent Cause for Peace In Palestine & Israel Sayer Ji

Disinformation Dozen Star Sayer Ji Now Exploiting Black Lives Matter | by Matthew Remski

Harvard Should Suspend Students Over Antisemitic Content: Bill Ackman - Bloomberg

Columbia University suspends student groups Students for Justice in Palestine & Jewish Voice for Peace for allegedly violating school policies - CBS New York

Poll: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. takes eye-popping 22 percent against Biden, Trump, - POLITICO

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180: Is This the Next Andrew Tate?

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Iman Gadzhi is a rising YouTube superstar. A high school dropout and supposed self-made multimillionaire, the 23 year-old marketing guru started his YouTube channel at age 15 with weightlifting videos. He has since built a following of 3.7 million. His life and career path is symbiotic with the platform, mirroring, monetizing, and accelerating every self-help and get-rich trend that blows through through the algorithms.

At some point during COVID, he caught the conspiracy theory bug, and turned his channel into a red pill factory, pumping out such volumes of aggressively paranoid content that YouTube money bros started comparing him to Andrew Tate.

Now, Gadzhi is reaching more aggressively into the brains of pre-teen boys around the world with a morbid fantasy about the origins of public education, and how it dooms them all into woke slavery. But it’s not just a conspiracy theory. It’s a highly-structured marketing campaign pitching his online sales coaching scheme as a substitute for high school.

Show Notes

Join THE RESCUE today. #fyp #viral | iman gadzhi | TikTok —Gadzhi content

Rebels stage new invasion of Dagestan | The Independent

Dagestan: Mob storms Russian airport in search of Jews - BBC News

Iman Gadzhi Talks About His Stepdad

Independent School Fees — Southbank International

Entrepreneur Pushes for More Inclusive Education in Developing Countries — Forbes

3 Books Changed My Life—Gadzhi content

What Are the 48 Laws of Power? The Complete List | Shortform Books

The Half-Century in Bullshit: On Peter Bogdanovich’s “Paper Moon” and Robert Greene’s “The 48 Laws of Power”

Atomic Habits — If Books Could Kill

Corona Virus: SMMA in Crisis—Gadzhi content

Vaccine Regret Counselling | Life Coaching in London, UK

The Covid Crisis of 2021 - Richard Harris & Iman Gadzhi Unveil the Shocking Truth

Iman Gadzhi Opens Up About Why He Agrees With Andrew Tate & His Unique View On Women!!

5 Habits Keeping MEN Weak—Gadzhi content

A wife like that—Gadzhi content

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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 5: Trump Davidians

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

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You’ve heard the names of our Deep State swamp creatures. But the details of their career histories, criminal indictments, and intersecting political activities paint a startling picture.

Alt-right rabble-rouser and pseudo-intellectual, Steve Bannon, was part of the team that salvaged Trump’s floundering 2016 campaign. Like Roger Stone and Mike Flynn, he was in the war room at the Willard Hotel around January 6, 2020—having told his podcast audience that “all hell is going to break loose.”

What happened between those dates is quite a tale. With Trump’s 2024 candidacy looming, Steve Bannon remains poised to bring his nasty visions to life.

*Correction: During this bonus, Julian mistakenly says Trump called it “The Movement.” He meant to say that Bannon did.

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Brief: Neoliberal Psychedelics

Sat, 11 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

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What happens when psychedelic therapy is introduced into a society in which both the set and setting is capitalism? Derek navigates the hope and hype of psychedelics in a for-profit healthcare system with two leading researchers, Neşe Devenot, PhD and Brian Pace, PhD.

Show Notes

Beyond the psychedelic hype: Exploring the persistence of the neoliberal paradigm

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179: The Conspiracy of…Cities? (w/Doug Gordon)

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Close your eyes and imagine exiting your front door. Within moments, everything necessary for your life is a few blocks away, except perhaps your job. Groceries, coffee, toiletries, your bank—if you’re still a physical bank-type person—auto shop, all within walking distance. You never have to commute too far to live your life.

Sounds like quite a dystopian hellscape, doesn’t it?

Believe it or not, that’s yet another conspiracy theory that emerged earlier this year, because the ability to access things you need is apparently a Deep State plot. Derek is joined by “The War on Cars” co-host, Doug Gordon, to discuss how this conspiracy started and why smart urban planning is a boon for society. First, we discuss Jane Jacobs, the Scranton, Pennsylvania-born journalist and theorist who brought her civic activism to Toronto in 1968, with Matthew coloring in how her legacy has fared during the rise of the Ford family.

Corrections: In his unbridled enthusiasm for the topic and the memories it churned up, Matthew messed up THREE things—the Escalade is a Cadillac, not a Ford, “Downtown” was sung by Petula Clark, not Peggy Lee, and Bill Davis was a Progressive Conservative Premier, not a Liberal! Apologies.

Show Notes

The Woman Who Saved New York City from Superhighway Hell | Vanity Fair

‘The streets belong to the people’: Why a premier killed the Spadina Expressway | TVO Today

Ford family is building a political dynasty

Video shows Councillor Doug Ford handing out $20 bills at TCHC building

Where the Spadina Expressway Didn't Stop | The Local

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Bonus Sample: A Prescription — To Fix Healthcare

Mon, 06 Nov 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Derek spent nearly a month trying to get a flu shot. During the same period, he has yet to secure an updated Covid booster. There are many problems with anti-vax propaganda. But there are also serious issues with America’s for-profit healthcare system. Derek shares his last few months navigating it, first with his wife’s breast cancer screenings (and the unexpected costs dumped on them) and then with a shot the CDC wants everyone to receive, apparently without understanding just how challenging that can be.

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Special Report: QAnon Fantasies Look Like Colonial Realities (w/Julian Brave NoiseCat)

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Julian Brave NoiseCat is a writer and film doc maker, and a member of the Canim Lake Band, Tsq'escen. In May of 2022 he posted this Twitter thread. Matthew wanted to learn more:

I'm struck by the similarity of right-wing conspiracy theories to actual policies towards Indigenous peoples.

'replacement theory' - Manifest Destiny
QAnon (mass institutionalized child abuse) - boarding and residential schools
'plandemic' - smallpox, alcohol, bioterrorism

It's all so Freudian. The fear that it will happen to them stems from an implicit admission that they did it to others.

As though the Black, Brown and Indigenous downtrodden are just as hateful as they are and are going to turn around and do to them what they did to us.

Show Notes

Julian’s website

Mary Simon Is Leading Indigenous Peoples to New Heights

Who’s Your People?

The Past and Future of Native California

Place Determines Who We Are

The Census Powwow

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178: Silicon Valley Veda

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 13:00:00 -0000

5 am. Day 4 of executive plant medicine retreat. The venture capital tech bro sits on a metaverse mountaintop, immersed in deep meditation. He hears a hum—a vibration from the great beyond. A mantra rises up like kundalini gas bubbles just in front of his spine: techno-capital machine.

Today we dissect Marc Andreessen’s anarcho-capitalist attempt at a Silicon Valley religious doctrine, The Techno-Optimist Manifesto.

Show Notes

The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

The Ben & Marc Show: The Techno-Optimist Manifesto

What the Techno-Billionaire Missed About Techno-Optimism

When was the last time Marc Andreessen talked to a poor person?

The Futurist Manifesto

Marc Andreessen Is the Buyer of Serge Azria’s Malibu Home

The Billionaire’s Dilemma

The Summer of NIMBY in Silicon Valley’s Poshest Town

37.9 million Americans are living in poverty, according to the U.S. Census. But the problem could be far worse.

Why American wages haven’t grown despite increases in productivity

Post-pandemic poverty is rising in America’s suburbs

The Federal Reserve says Taylor Swift's Eras Tour boosted the economy. One market research firm estimates she could add $5 billion

The Surprising Poverty Levels Across the U.S.

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Bonus Sample: RFK Jr. and Deconstruction Ecstasy Syndrome

Mon, 30 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew’s essay about the transient, disorganized, purificatory pleasure of RFK Jr's campaign for his wellness/yoga/biohacker demographic.

A workshop breakthrough is not a strategy. The pleasure of deconstruction is not a theory of change.

With reference to Vincent Bevins’s brilliant new book: If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution.

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Brief: Bari Weiss's Sexual Revolution (w/Michelle Lhooq)

Sat, 28 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Bari Weiss recently held a "debate" about the failure of the sexual revolution. Expensive tickets to the Theater at the Ace Hotel in downtown LA allowed you to see Grimes and Sarah Haider talk about motherhood, porn, and woke culture with Anna Khachiyan and Louise Perry. And the results were...rather boring, says journalist Michelle Lhooq.

Derek gets the lowdown from Lhooq, who wonders how the New Right captured the cool factor of the American counterculture—and how the Left gets it back.

Show Notes

The Grimes / Red Scare debate was a right-wing psy-op

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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 4: Let We The People Say “Amen!”

Mon, 23 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

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Today’s profile by Julian is of a man who connects the dots between the gun-nut fifth column in American law enforcement, local school board and city council anti-woke mania, and grassroots Christian Nationalist/QAnon crossover.

Like our other swamp creatures, his involvement in the chicanery around the last two elections make him a clear and present danger to democracy. With him, our poker hand improves to three of a kind, because like Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, he was also indicted by the Mueller Probe—and in his case, pled guilty—only to be granted a full presidential pardon by Donald Trump.

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Brief: Sovereign In Sedona (w/Isaac Stone Simonelli)

Sat, 21 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Arizona’s recent increase in “sovereign citizen filings” connects to a New Age spiritual center called the Ultimate Light Mission. Julian talks to investigative reporter Isaac Stone Simonelli.

Show Notes

Sedona's wellness to radicalization pipeline

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176: Russell Brand’s Man Stans

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Women journalists spend years meticulously investigating, corroborating and fact-checking allegations that Russell Brand is a serial sex offender. The result? A 6600-word masterpiece of survivor-centered concision, battle-tested by a legion of editors and lawyers.

But the manosphere responds! With logorrheic defenses, conspiracy theories, and rationalizations. Peak posting through it.

We look at choice man-stan statements from Charles Eisenstein (RFK Jr’s Director of Messaging), and psychonaut Daniel Pinchbeck. We also look at a pre-allegations interview Brand did with meditation guru Jack Kornfield to learn more about how Brand has ingratiated himself to wellness entrepreneurs flattered by his attention.

Show Notes

BBC and police begin inquiries as Russell Brand faces more claims

‘Jimmy Savile police unit’ helps Met with Russell Brand investigation

Russell Brand quizzed by cops 9 YEARS ago over claims he sexually assaulted masseuse and treated her 'like a prostitute'

On Mobs, Cults, and Russell Brand - Charles Eisenstein

Brand and Circuses - Daniel Pinchbeck’s Newsletter

Open Letter to Russell Brand — Daniel Pinchbeck's Newsletter

A Cultural Crucible - Daniel Pinchbeck’s Newsletter

Alyssa Milano on the #MeToo movement: 'We're not going to stand for it any more'

Writer blames ‘predatory’ ways on women | Page Six

#6 - Abusing Power: Taking Predatory Daniel Pinchbeck At His Word

We Refuse to Endorse Daniel Pinchbeck as a Credible Voice in the Psychedelic Movement

Community, Transparency and Accountability—Dr. Ann Gleig in conversation with Egyoku Nakao Roshi & Tenku Ruff Roshi

Jack Kornfield (Morality, Spirituality & AI) - Stay Free with Russell Brand

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Bonus Sample: Inside the Church of Bleach

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Four members of the Florida-based Grenon family were recently sentenced to between 5 and 12 years of prison for selling bleach. The problem? They claimed that bleach, known as Miracle Mineral Solution, cured Covid-19—as well as cancer, autism, AIDS, erectile dysfunction, and over 90% of the world's ailments. The elder Grenon, Mark, had founded the Genesis II Church of Health & Healing alongside of MMS's founder, Jim Humble, who left the church in 2017.

How did the Grenons profit from industrial-strength bleach for 13 years before finally being convicted? And why are so many people sprinkling bleach crystals in their morning glass of water to "detoxify?" Derek investigates.

Show Notes

Family Sentenced for Selling Bleach as ‘Miracle’ Covid-19 Cure

Drinking bleach can be deadly but lots of Americans are falling for fake bleach ‘cures’

Fringe 'Church' Founder on MMS: It's No Cure

Genesis 2 Church FDA Warning Letter

Jim Humble

MMS Testimonials

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Special Report: RFK Jr.’s Independence Day

Sat, 14 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

On October 9, RFK Jr. brought his three-podcast-bros-in-a-trench-coat campaign to Philadelphia. On a dias across from Independence Hall, he announced his anticipated departure from the Democratic party and his new status as an independent candidate. Matthew and Julian profile his conspirituality credentials, his diagonalist politics, and his incoherent positions:

He attacks public health officials, or corporations—it’s all the same. He can pretend to care about health while making fatphobic and ableist comments. He can rail against the capture of federal regulatory agencies while proclaiming himself a staunch free market capitalist. He can pretend to help advance the lives of Black people by telling them that vaccines are a racist plot against them. He can earnestly identify with and fight in court for dispossessed tribes on American soil, while doubling down on morbid power imbalances abroad.

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Show Notes

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces independent run for president, ending Democratic primary challenge to Biden

164: The Two Faces of Robert Francis Kennedy Jr.

Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign

Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable

Brief: RFK Jr., The Anti-Vax Candidate

Brief: RFK Jr Flirts with Body Fascism (w/Natalia Petrzela)

Kennedy Condemns Terrorist Attacks Against Israel

Tribal Council | lowerbrulesiouxtribe

Special Report: Stealing Indigenous Voices in Australia (w/Tyson Yunkaporta)

Robert Kennedy’s Indian Commitment

Deep Commitment

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175: Diagonalism (w/William Callison and Quinn Slobodian)

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Quinn Slobodian teaches Modern German History at Wellesley and William Callison teaches Political Theory and Human Geography at Uppsala. We first came across their work via Naomi Klein’s examination of the clusterf&cked politics that dominate the movements we cover. We dug out their paper, and they had us at this:

"At the extreme end, diagonal movements share a conviction that all power is conspiracy."

There no clear left-right polarity in conspirituality. And Horseshoe Theory won’t cut it. We’re in the age of Diagonalism, and things are very, very weird.

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Show Notes

Coronapolitics from the Reichstag to the Capitol - Boston Review

William Callison

Quinn Slobodian

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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 3: The Pirate Palace

Mon, 09 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Our main character this week is the six-degrees of authoritarians—more like one or two degrees, in fact. He’s made millions playing footsie with most of the blood-thirsty kleptocrats of the last half-century. He embodies the corrupt and anti-democratic deep state history of Donald Trump’s inner circle, reaching back through the decades and across the globe.

Julian’s colorful storytelling series seeks to contextualize the Trump era and where we find ourselves now, based on the swamp creatures who worked for, enabled, and to some extent groomed him for the role.

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Special Report: Stealing Indigenous Voices in Australia (w/Tyson Yunkaporta)

Sun, 08 Oct 2023 21:08:59 -0000

On October 14, Australians will vote in a referendum on a simple question: should Indigenous peoples be invited to form an advisory council—a Voice—to Parliament?

It seemed like a shoe-in “Yes”—before the issue was FUBARed by a coalition of antivax, anti lockdown, Q-adjacent white sovereign citizens who believe that they are the true victims of colonization.

Professor Tyson Yunkaporta of Apalech clan joins Matthew to discuss the complexities of this history—including how some vulnerable Indigenous folks have been lured into supporting the “No” vote and providing cover for libertarian and white supremacist agendas.

Yunkaporta is the founder of the Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University in Melbourne AUS, author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World (2019) and released just this past week: Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking. He’s also the host of the excellent free range podcast The Other Others.

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Show Notes

Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab at Deakin University

Referendum 202

Conspiracy theories are derailing the Yes vote w/ Tyson Yunkaporta

Voice pamphlets: false claims and conspiracy theories distributed across Australia | Indigenous voice to parliament

How a soap opera star pushed a conspiracy theory linking the Voice to Parliament to a UN takeover

Key voice battleground South Australia is ‘leaning to no’, campaign volunteers say | Indigenous voice to parliament

View The Statement - Uluru Statement from the Heart

Aboriginal Tent Embassy — 'the guys who woke up Australia' — marks its 50th anniversary

So-Called Sovereign Settlers: Settler Conspirituality and Nativism in the Australian Anti-Vax Movement

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174: Everything is Chemistry (w/Drs Andrea Love & Jessica Steier)

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

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We love our scicomm episodes, because they really dig into the material heart of the conflicts this project tries to understand. What is this information chaos tearing apart public health? How do you push back against it? What does “follow the science” mean to the average voter? And how do we push back against influencers who exploit the difficulties of science and the reasonable fear that erupts when a virus is on the loose?

One answer is that we produce the best content we can, and our guests today, Drs Andrea Love and Jessica Steier have the chops. Like us, they started the popular “Unbiased Science” podcast during the pandemic in the midst of a tsunami of confusion. Only they come at it from within the sciences: Andrea is an immunologist and biologist who specializes in infectious diseases immunology, cancer immunology, and autoimmunity, while Jessica is a public health scientist who has designed and led multiple COVID-19 related research and science communication projects. This week, they tell Derek why the new COVID boosters are important, discuss the challenges of science communication in an age of misinformation, and confirm that colloidal silver and essential oils are not, in fact, immune boosters.

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Bonus Sample: Matt Christman & the Silence

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 10:00:00 -0000

On September 19, Matt Christman was hospitalized with, in the words of his colleagues on the podcast Chapo Trap House: “a sudden, severe medical emergency that will require a significant period of recovery.” His wife was scheduled to deliver their first child a few days later. Baby arrived in good health. Christman is as of this moment still hospitalized, but making some progress.

Matthew reflects on the hard left passions and despondent ecstasies of a beloved and sometimes hated dirtbag charismatic—and sends him peace and love in the silence, wherever it leads.

Show Notes

Forward Left: An Interview with Matt Christman of Chapo Trap House - CounterPunch.org

CushVlogs - YouTube

The Chapo Dilemma – Souciant

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Deep Cut: The Dalai Lama Spectacle

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Deep Cut pulls from our bonus episode archive to unearth previous ideas that remain relevant today.

What the hell happened between the Dalai Lama and that Indian boy? The internet served up a raft of painfully inflammatory takes, so I took a month to talk with Tibetologists and review the literature on sexual abuse in Tibetan Buddhist contexts.

This is a deep, tangled dive. Content warnings apply.

Chapters:

Why cover this, and why now?
Summary
The Clip
Virality
Two Orientalisms
Outrages and Pilled Mindset
What do Tibetans and their allies say?
Kazi Adi Shakti, Thi Nguyen, Becca Williams

Deep Cut Intro Music

Single Origins — Pete Kuzma

Show Notes

Stop Sensationalizing the Dalai Lama's Innocent Interactions | A Tibetan's Perspective

Yin Sun

རྒྱ་གར་མཐོ་སློབ་ཀྱི་བྱིས་པ་ཞིག་གིས་མཇལ་ཁ་ཞུས་པ།

Cardi B on Twitter: This world is full of predators.

The Dalai Lama is clearly pedo inclined. He wrote a statement (in third person) after we posted the clip below.

https://twitter.com/MIAuniverse/status/1645530569042956289

MIA on vaccines, vindication and her visions of Jesus: ‘People fear me for some reason’

Himalayan Community comes out with massive outpour of support for HH the Dalai Lama

https://thewalrus.ca/survivors-of-an-international-buddhist-cult-share-their-stories/

Survivors of an International Buddhist Cult Share Their Stories | The Walrus

‘Abuse of Power’ (1999) | open buddhism

Confessions of Kalu Rinpoche

‘Not The Tibetan Way’: The Dalai Lama’s Realpolitik Concerning Abusive Teachers | open buddhism

Independent: Sexual Abuse Allegations in Tibetan Buddhism

Mind & Life Institute statement on the Dalai Lama

Mongolian child named by Dalai Lama as reincarnation of Buddhism's third most important leader | Daily Mail Online

China: Dalai Lama furore reignites Tibet 'slave' controversy - BBC News

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq4hDfaLe6d/

https://www.instagram.com/p/Cq_1L77vl2L/

Attune to the Body Cues of the Boy in the Dalai Lama Incident + Open Offer for Counseling to the Boy

https://twitter.com/LizCrokin/status/1645971419447148545

Tibetans Say the Dalai Lama’s ‘Suck My Tongue’ Viral Video Is Being Misinterpreted

Brother Lobsang commentary

“Eat my Tongue” explanation

Giaco Orofino commentary

HH Dalai Lama Archetype of Radical Innocence with Robert Thurman : On The Recent Viral Video

Kazi Adi Shakti's essay

Holopoiesis

MORAL OUTRAGE PORN C. Thi Nguyen and Bekka Williams

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173: Psychedelic Capitalism (w/Psymposia)

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The market for psychedelics is projected to grow from $2 billion in 2020 to $10.75 billion by 2027—a growth rate that could outpace the legal US cannabis market. Many high-profile investors and celebrities are entering the space, often under the pretense of funding breakthrough mental health interventions.

But…is that the real concern? Microdosing to help depression, anxiety, addiction, or suicidal ideation are all laudable goals. But is that what’s really happening in the psychedelics space?

Derek is joined by Psymposia co-founder, editor, and producer, Brian Normand; medicine, society, and culture research fellow, Neşe Devenot, PhD; and managing editor and harm reduction advocate, David Nickles. This far-reaching discussion about the history and future of psychedelics touches upon numerous aspects of this burgeoning industry.

Show Notes

Psymposia

Church of Psilomethoxin, Part 1: Sacramental Skepticism. Is the Church in Denial?

Right-Wing Psychedelia: Case Studies in Cultural Plasticity and Political Pluripotency

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Bonus Sample: A Theory of Motivation

Mon, 25 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

We’ve spent the last three-and-a-half years criticizing a range of wellness ideas, charismatic charlatans, abusive self-styled gurus, and conspiracy theories. We’ve also discussed our own beliefs and highlighted many people and ideas that we believe are getting it right.

Derek has never really explored what motivates him on a physical and mental level despite having spent many years doing so inside of gyms and studios. This is no motivational speech, but rather an exploration of a motivational mindset, weighed against how some popular influencers position the concept. Derek uses his recent experience summiting Mt St Helens to frame the conversation.

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Brief: Russell Brand

Sat, 23 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

In light of the recent allegations, Matthew offers a backgrounder on what we’ve learned about Brand through conspirituality and cultic studies and from his opportunistic relationships to wellness, self-help, and Kundalini Yoga. Ending with a focus on how his yoga world LARPing became a launch pad for his success as a spirituality-coded conspiracy theorist in the age of COVID.

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Show Notes

Conspirituality 97: Brand Awareness

Russell Brand accused of rape, sexual assaults and abuse

Russell Brand - In Plain Sight (Dispatches) [couchtripper] - video Dailymotion

BBC and police begin inquiries as Russell Brand faces more claims

Russell Brand: BBC resists calls to release complaints filed against presenter

Russell Brand's Charismatic Bullshit - by Derek Beres

Russell Brand helps the homeless with his yoga teacher... and his new tantric tattoos | Daily Mail Online

Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse

Conspirituality 36: Guru Jagat's Pandemic Brandwash

Conspirituality 37: Guru Jagat Cultjacks Kundalini Yoga

Conspirituality 64: Remembering Guru Jagat

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172: Why Always the Jews? (w/Mike Rothschild)

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Who could be a better guide through the fever dream of modern anti-semitism—the socialism of fools—than a scrappy young scion of the House of Rothschild? How has Mike, this mysterious insider—visible on CNN but a seeming ghost in real life—used his inheritance and connections to score book deals with the Fake News Media? Will he redeem his family name?

Just joking! Author and friend of the pod Mike Rothschild is no relation to the banking family that has lived rent-free in the minds of antisemites and conspiracy theorists for over two centuries now. He is the author of 2021’s The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything. His new book out less that two years later, is Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories. Mike joins us now from his summer palace in the South of France, um, actually his home office in Los Angeles to discuss the very stupid but dangerous groundswell of Jew hatred now filling our feeds.

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Show Notes

Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories

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Bonus Sample: You Can’t Just Take Things Away from People

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

When we deconstruct harmful ideas and beliefs—from antivax positions to reactionary social views—we will inevitably be seen or felt as attacking the relationships that people form through those views. That’s a big problem in a lonely world, and there will be blowback. What to do?

Matthew steps off the debunkery hamster wheel, and remembers an old piece of yoga advice.

Show Notes

The Religious Case Against Belief by James P. Carse

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Brief: The Planet is Burning, Man (w/Tommy Diacono)

Sat, 16 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Burning Man 2023 will forever be burned in memory with two images: a group of climate activists blocking the single road into Black Rock City and the sea of mud that a climate change-induced hurricane turned the playa into. The jigsaw puzzle is pretty complete. Will Burners see it?

Tommy Diacono is a five-time Burner. He also helped organize the protest. He joins two-time Burner Derek for a discussion about why his crew blocked the roads, the importance of rituals, and the importance of knowing when rituals need to end.

Show Notes

FULL VIDEO: Climate Protesters Shut Down BURNING MAN, Rangers Ram Through Blockade

Tommy Diacono on Instagram

Burn it all down — Derek Beres

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171: Cracking the Mirror World (w/Naomi Klein)

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World is a polymathic work that serves up new political heuristics with the firepower we’ve come to expect from the coiner of “disaster capitalism.” A Dante-spiral through our circles of cultural hell, it’s also a memoir of demoralization, self-evaluation, and persistent hope.

If this sounds overly ambitious or grandiose—that’s a fair suspicion in this age of galaxy-brained pundits who want to write *that book about everything.* In less humble, less feminist hands, a project like this could feel like a vanity vehicle for an author’s unbearably brilliant mind.

But that doesn’t happen here, because Klein’s intersectional discipline—which despite many flights of fancy, she never abandons—serves the values of economic, racial, and climate justice, and she does it by always citing her sources and elevating the voices of the marginalized.

Derek, Julian, and Matthew discuss briefly before Klein joins Matthew to discuss her way into and out of this bizarre and demoralizing land.

Show Notes

Doppelganger — Naomi Klein

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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 2: Roger Stone

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The Forrest Gump dandy of right-wing dirty tricks is in the news again. Strategizing from the Willard Hotel as January 6 unfolded; protected by a coterie of now convicted Oathkeepers; captured on video dictating Trump’s fake electors scheme for an email. These are just a few of the things Roger Stone has done.

Stone may be the swampiest of Deep State operatives our politics has seen. Julian gives a colorful breakdown of this longtime Trump ally who's been involved in every anti-democratic scheme, from Watergate to Bush’s 2000 steal to 2016’s Russian interference—raking in millions from the “torturer’s lobby” along the way. Stone has always slithered away from accountability, but maybe this time he’ll pay the price.

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Brief: Review of Naomi Klein’s "Doppelganger"

Sat, 09 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World is an exuberant, polymathic effort, in which Klein develops several new political heuristics that pack the punch we’ve come to expect from the originator of “disaster capitalism.” Reading it is like getting walloped by a novel political theory virus— or a potent vaccine for the times. It’s also a Dante-esque spiral down through our endless circles of historical and cultural hell.

Klein’s core subject is the “Mirror World” we now battle in: a place where our digital avatars occlude our bodies, where morbid fantasies blot out fact-checked histories, where the fool’s gold of influencers outshines the daily work of researchers. It’s a place where antimaskers steal the “I can’t breathe” cry of George Floyd, and antivax influencers pretend they are being led to the gas chambers. It’s a place where selfish demagogues appropriate and mimic the poetry of social justice, but only for a select few. It’s where MAGA movement architect Steve Bannon LARPs as a therapist for the common man.

Doppelganger has landed like a Rosetta Stone for divining the incoherent politics of the figures we’ve covered all these years—and the cultural and moral vacuums they fill. But most surprisingly—and we think our listenership will be grateful for this—this rich memoir of demoralization and self-evaluation also offers a deep undercurrent of persistent hope.

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Show Notes

Doppelganger

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170: The Age of Insurrection (w/David Neiwert)

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Do you ever feel like American society is caught in limbo? The bardo-realm between two election cycles. The dial-up static between invasive social media and quarantine isolation. Stacking sandbags against the deluge of conspiracies and disinformation as we await the slow-motion countermeasures of science and the justice system.

The disruptions of Trump, COVID, QAnon, conspirituality, and January 6 all still frame our everyday lives, even as we attempt a return to a normalcy that was always tenuous at best. Whatever happens over the next few months, the oven of 2024 looks preheated for chaos—yet, one by one, the treasonous conspiracy-mongering liars who peaked in 2020 are being forced to deal with cold legal consequences.

Our guest today is award-winning journalist and author David Neiwert, whose book The Age of Insurrection explains how we got here—and points a way forward.

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Bonus Sample: The Perils of "Free Speech"

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Claiming your First Amendment rights are being violated is a sure way to have the spotlight shone on you. It's also an effective way to shut down criticism of whatever you're selling. From the 1940s-60s, supplements manufacturers used the free speech gambit to keep regulators away from their products, resulting in a 1969 Supreme Court case. Derek looks at the 20th century evolution of medical regulations, and how companies are still using a similar argument to dissuade consumers from looking too deeply into what's inside the bottle.

Show Notes

Dietary Supplements: A Framework for Evaluating Safety

United States v Kordel

Some Implications of the Kordel Decision

163: The Huberman Paradox

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Brief: Slavery is Not a Form of Hustle

Sat, 02 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0000

One piece of connective tissue between the right and wellness influencers we cover is their liberal use of the language of Civl Rights to describe their completely incomparable grievances. Derek covers a few recent examples, centered around one particularly troublesome analogy by a tech-bro entrepreneur using slavery as an analogy for his hustle.

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169: Neo Tantra & Sex Work (w/Esme Providence Brown)

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Several months ago, we received an email from Esme Providence Brown (a pseudonym, and we’ll discuss why she’s using it off the top of the interview). Esme asked if we would like to discuss the strange and taboo overlaps between yoga, wellness, neo-tantra, and sex work. I wrote back immediately to say yes.

Esme has worked as a professional dominatrix and kink provider for the past twenty years. In 2012, she began teaching yoga and investigating the intersection of sex work and spirituality through her practice and writing. She lives and works in NYC, and is now doing academic work in textiles. Matthew spoke to her while she was on a research trip to Indonesia.

We think you’ll all learn a ton from this conversation about transparent vs. non-transparent labour practices, performative intimacy, the gendered inequalities of wellness work, and how Neo-Tantrics who use handguns in their foreplay made their presence known at the January 6th insurrection.

In honor of Labor Day: Workers of the world unite.

Show Notes

Former sex workers, now academics and published authors:

Melissa Febos

Chris Belcher

Catlynn Ladd

Sex Worker Decriminalization Resources:

The Oldest Profession (Podcast & Organization)

Amnesty International Statement on Sex Work

ACLU Statement on Sex Work

US Department of Health & Human Services Report on Human Trafficking

Sex Workers Want Rights Not Rescue

The White Slavery Panic

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Bonus Sample: What Is the Rabbit Hole?

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

They fell into a rabbit hole.

Matthew examines the blindspots thrown up by this common and unexamined phrase:

— The assumption that we all know what the rabbit hole is.

— The assumption that right up to the edge of the rabbit hole, the world makes sense.

— The assumption that everyone who avoided falling (or being pushed) in is simply more rational, balanced, and normal.

All of these assumptions can obscure the insanities of the dominant culture.

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Brief: Softening The Turtle Shell (w/Frank Han, M.D.)

Sat, 26 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The anti-vaxxers have a new Bible: an anonymously published (and RFK Jr.-connected) 500+ page tome, Turtles All the Way Down. Julian talks with pediatrician and pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Frank Han of ScienceBasedMedicine.org, who is in the midst of a 10-part “grand debunk” of this 2022 compendium of pseudoscience scare-mongering.

Show Notes

Frank Han’s Grand Debunk

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168: Decoding the Gurus (w/Chris Kavanagh and Matt Browne)

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Charismatic influence thrives in online spaces, regardless of spiritual overtones. Matt Browne and Chris Kavanagh of Decoding the Gurus have traced a path parallel to our own; examining the popular figures they call "secular gurus."

They join us for a lively panel discussion on the overlaps and differences regarding conspiritualists, as well as their patented "Gurometer'' method of decoding and ranking contrarian influencers.

As scholars of psychology, anthropology, and religion, we also asked them to finally resolve the enduring argument between Matthew and Julian about the power of sacred beliefs to shape political worldviews and motivate actions in the world.

8/21: Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and manage your money the easy way by going to rocketmoney.com/conspirtuality

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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Trump promised to “drain the swamp.” But his campaign attracted a carnival of corrupt influence peddlers and conspiracy mongerers. He pretended to be in a holy war against the “deep state” but his administration was defined by cronyism and long-time amoral operatives who groomed him to enable their own enrichment.

Now he’s finally, hopefully, being held to account—but who were those swamp creatures who slithered around his ankles and whispered in his ears? In this new Bonus series, Julian tells the intersecting stories behind the news of the 7 years that culminate in Trump’s latest slew of criminal indictments.

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Deep Cut: What Will Yoga Do to Our Children?

Sat, 19 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Deep Cut pulls from our bonus episode archive to unearth previous ideas that remain relevant today.

News from Alabama: after a 23-year ban on yoga in schools, generated by a Republican moral panic, Governor Kay Ivey signs a bill that lets kids do yoga again, but with some restrictions:

"All instruction in yoga shall be limited exclusively to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques. All poses shall be limited exclusively to sitting, standing, reclining, twisting, and balancing. All poses, exercises, and stretching techniques shall have exclusively English descriptive names. Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited."

Those who promote yoga as universal goodwill welcome this Indian art form being made more accessible for children in a State with terrible educational markers. Hindu nationalists, on the other hand, might be outraged at a secularized version of yoga, stripped not only of references to Hinduism but of signs of any type of Indian spirituality. And a lot of white yoga progressives will look at this policy—mostly from the urban North— and worry about authenticity and appropriation.

How will the children feel?

In considering who wins and loses with this new development, Matthew reviews recent U.S. yoga-war history: battles between the Hindu American Foundation and Yoga Journal, the rise of Christian non-yoga-yoga "Praise Moves", and Encinitas Union School District got sued for allegedly violating the Establishment Clause by contracting devotees of Pattabhi Jois to teach the kids yoga.

It's not a stretch to see an overlap between this theme and the medical-moral panic over vaccines. In both cases, the focus is on the imagined corruption of children, whether by poison, politics, or inner quiet.

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Deep Cut Intro Music

Single Origins — Pete Kuzma

Show Notes

Alabama lifts three-decade-old ban on yoga in public schools—with a catch.

New study ranks Alabama as 43rd for student achievement, grade of D+

12 Reasons Why Yoga is NOT Good for Christians

Hindu Group Stirs Debate in Fight for Soul of Yoga

Hindu American Foundation: Hindu Roots of Yoga

Shukla's letter: Is Hindu a bad word?

Explained: The Hindu American Foundation’s defamation case against Hindus for Human Rights founders

Audrey Truschke's tweet

Over 300 Writers, Academics and Scholars Repudiate HAF's Attempt to Silence Hindus for Human Rights — Hindus for Human Rights

Detroit's Satanic Statue Has A Political Point to Make

Encinitas school yoga lawsuit stretches on

Yoga-for-Trophy-Wives Fitness Fad That’s Alienating Discipline Devotees

Next Article Yoga's Culture of Sexual Abuse: Nine Women Tell Their Stories

Candy Gunther Brown amicus brief for the plaintiffs, against the yoga programme

Mark Singleton amicus brief for the defendants, for the yoga programme

Chris Chapple amicus brief for the defendants, for the yoga programme

Yoga Alliance amicus brief for the defendants, for the yoga programme

Sedlock v. Baird - Brown’s summary

SEDLOCK v. Yes! Yoga for Encinitas Students, Intervener and Respondent

Yes! Yoga for Encinitas Students filing

The World's Most Influential Yoga Teacher is a Homophobic Right-Wing Activist

Translation of the Dattātreyayogaśāstra, the earliest text to teach haṭhayoga

Barkataki: How to Decolonize Your Yoga Practice

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167: Straight White American Jesus (w/Bradley Onishi)

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Dr. Bradley Onishi, is the author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism - And What Comes Next. He is the co-host of the excellent Straight White American Jesus podcast. His work has appeared in the New York Times, NBC News, Politico, Rolling Stone, Huffpost, and many other outlets.

Bradley got personally drawn into evangelical Christianity as a teenager—and from a secular family—and had the strange experience of burying his part-Japanese heritage in a white coded, Christian Nationalist identity. It took him years of scholarship to see how this political ideology had been baked into the religious indoctrination. Now he’s a religious studies scholar, doing work in the world from that perspective. And his struggles with all of this stuff have brought his empathy and his humility up to the surface in really profound ways.

Bradley has a lot of family history in Maui, and on his behalf and for people there who have just survived a catastrophic fire and now must bury their dead and rebuild, we would like to encourage you to consider donating to the Maui Mutual Aid Fund.

Show Notes

Straight White American Jesus

Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism--and What Comes Next

Go to HelloFresh.com/50conspirituality and use code 50conspirituality for 50% off plus free shipping.

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Bonus Sample: The Anxiety of Wellness

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Are you ready to live your best life ever? Because if you’re not always on volume 10, eating the purest foods and shouting your truth at every turn, you’re certainly doing life wrong.

Derek looks at the ever-growing anxiety marketed as optimal health in wellness spaces, wondering when will enough be…enough?

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Brief: Documenting Michelle Remembers (w/Sean Horlor & Steve Adams)

Sat, 12 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Following up on our review and coverage of Satan Wants You, Matthew talks with Canadian filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve Adams about how they excavated the origin story of the Satanic Panic movement.

Show Notes

151: Satan Wants You Watch Party (Spoilers)

Satan Wants You

Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 5 | Michelle Remembers: Themes & Framing

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: Michelle Remembers: Literal Symbols

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 1

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 2

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology

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166: QAnonAnonymous Goes to Hollywood (w/Travis View and Jake Rockatansky)

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

In 2017, 4chan user "Q" started LARPing as a Deep State insider with predictions about Hillary Clinton and the pedophile cabal. 10 months later, the online antifascist world assembled its emergency podcast response team: three dubiously-credentialed shitposters( two using pseudonyms themselves) dedicated to covering “the best conspiracy theories of the post-truth era. Exploring online fever swamps and tripping over deranged historical facts that make conspiracy theories sound sane.”

The digital soldiers of QAnonAnonymous Podcast subjected themselves to the most cursed content the internet has to offer. But the real world they traveled through was just as smelly. They went to live QAnon protests, parades, and conferences. They conducted the first interviews with the QAnon Shaman. They attended ball-slapping workshops to raise their testosterone for the Great Awakening. They caught COVID many, many times, all for the cause. And now, as their reward, they get to see their favorite redpilled celebrity, and Mel Gibson's favorite Jesus, Jim Caviezel, star in the fake-u-mentary, "Sound of Freedom."

It’s been a long road to Hollywood for our guests Travis View and Jake Rockatansky, but this is their red-carpet moment where we get to ask them: How did they like working on this show?

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Bonus Sample: Disgust Management

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Notes from Matthew in response to a great question from a listener:

How do you keep from hating these people? The blasé unimaginative crackpots like Aubrey Marcus, the gaslighting meanderings of RFK Jr., the hordes of ignorant, ignorant, ignorant (trying to keep from saying st*pid) jackasses that follow in their wake, so desperately certain of their completely subjective fever dreams?

It’s not easy, but there are some ways of avoiding hatred and disgust, and it’s important to lean into them.

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Special Report: Marianne Williamson’s Ex- Staffers Speak Out

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Seven ex-staffers who worked on Marianne Williamson’s campaign have written an open letter describing her campaign as an “exercise in deception.”

Matthew analyzes the open letter, and contextualizes its allegations within Williamson’s worldview and history.

Show Notes

EXCLUSIVE: Seven Ex-Marianne Williamson Staffers Say Stop Supporting Her

148: Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus — Conspirituality

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Brief: Kombucha Krash

Sat, 05 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

GT Dave's kombucha origin story is the stuff of legend—at least how he frames it. But when the LA Times broke the story of a judge awarding workers nearly half a million dollars in back and overtime pay, citing GT's abuse of employees and contradictory evidence, a different story unfolds.

Derek looks at this kombucha company's origins, unrealistic health claims, and the many troubles its endured over the decades, and how GT's response aligns with the conspiritualist playbook.

Show Notes

L.A.’s kombucha empire exploited workers for years

Meet the King of Kombucha

What Science Says About the Potential Health Benefits of Kombucha

The Disinformation Dozen

Toxic Twitter

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165: Outrage Machine (w/Tobias Rose-Stockwell)

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Tobias Rose-Stockwell is a media researcher, writer, designer, and author of the new book, Outrage Machine: How Tech Amplifies Discontent, Disrupts Democracy—And What We Can Do About It. The book deals with tough questions about who we are as individuals and a society, reminding us that we all help shape our surroundings by what we pay attention to, how we understand and process the information we ingest, and perhaps most importantly, what we do with it.

Tobias joins Derek for an in-depth conversation about the history of news and the future of media literacy.

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Bonus Sample: Psychedelic Fundamentalism

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Altered states exist on a spectrum, from enhancing human flourishing to perpetuating dangerous delusions. Daniel Pinchbeck’s recent comments on our book inspire Julian’s journey into psychedelics, the 2012 prophecy, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and the brain typologies that underlie visionary religious experience. Tune in for practical advice and guidelines about drugs, awareness practice, cults, and staying sane.

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Deep Cut: Post-Cult Shame

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Deep Cut pulls from our bonus episode archive to unearth previous ideas that remain relevant today.

Survivor shame over what has been lost, and how one has been complicit.

Apologist shame: turned inside out and externalized as aggression.

Popular shaming, which tries to deflect attention from how close to home cultic dynamics really are.

In the cult landscape, shame is a common denominator. In this contemplation, Matthew unpacks various aspects, with help from the writing of cult theorists and recovery counselors Alexandra Stein, Daniel Shaw, and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi.

Deep Cut Intro Music

Single Origins — Pete Kuzma

Show Notes

Primo Levi: The Drowned and the Saved

The Relational System of the Traumatizing Narcissist — Shaw

Rachel Bernstein's “One More Thing” at the end of Betrayal and Power w/ Nitai Joseph, former Hare Krishna — S4E5.

All of Rachel Bernstein’s IndoctriNation podcast.

What’s Behind the Blowback You’ll Get When You Engage Cult Members

"Deception, Dependence, Dread of Leaving" — Langone

"I Got Mine-ism"

Selected Bibliography:

Ainsworth, Mary D. Salter. Patterns of Attachment: a Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Routledge, 2015.

Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Penguin Classics, 2017.

Freyd, Jennifer J. Betrayal Trauma: the Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Harvard University Press, 1998.

Freyd, Jennifer J., and Pamela Birrell. Blind to Betrayal: Why We Fool Ourselves We Arent Being Fooled. Wiley, 2013.

Hassan, Steven. Combating Cult Mind Control: the #1 Best-Selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults. Freedom of Mind Press, 2016.

Kramer, Joel, and Diana Alstad. The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. North Atlantic Books/Frog, 1993.

Lalich, Janja, and Madeleine Landau. Tobias. Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships. Bay Tree Pub., 2006.

Lalich, Janja. Escaping Utopia: Growing up in a Cult, Getting out, and Starting Over. Routledge, 2018.

Langone, Michael D. Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse. W.W. Norton, 1995.

Lifton, Robert Jay. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: a Study of “Brainwashing” in China.W.W. Norton, 1961.

Miller, Alice, et al. For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2002.

Oakes, Len. Prophetic Charisma: the Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities. Syracuse University Press, 1997.

Shaw, Daniel. Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.

Stein, Alexandra. Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.

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164: The Two Faces of Robert Francis Kennedy Jr.

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

We’ve been tracking Bobby’s misinformation, contradictions, and cursed networks for three years. And now he’s having his moment, and it’s anyone’s guess how far he’ll run. But why is he so appealing on the presidential stage? Why is he polling at 20%, with his favorability in double digits against Biden?

It’s not just that his endless rhetoric appeals to libertarians on the right and paranoiacs on the left. It’s that he casts a charismatic spell that echoes, exacerbates, and amplifies some of the deepest conflicts in the American psyche—between tradition and rebellion, nostalgia and grievance, idealism and paranoia.

Bobby, you see, is never quite who he seems to be. In one moment he’s the prodigal prince of Camelot, seen through a sepia lens. In the next he’s a tortured and braying conspiracy theorist, lit by the blue light of countless screens.

Show Notes

RFK Jr. says COVID may have been 'ethnically targeted' to spare Jews

A Kennedy and His Mentor Part Ways Over River Group - The New York Times

Robert F Kennedy Jr says he has ‘conversations with dead people’ | Democrats | The Guardian

Transcript for Robert F. Kennedy Jr: CIA, Power, Corruption, War, Freedom, and Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #388

Beware: we ignore Robert F Kennedy Jr’s candidacy at our peril | Naomi Klein | The Guardian

Most People Believe In JFK Conspiracy Theories | FiveThirtyEight

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Bonus Sample: EMF and 5G and chemtrails oh my!

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Derek unpacks what’s really going on in conspiritualist messages about the "climate change narrative" and how they use an assault of varying degrees of credible information to conflate issues, some of which they then monetize.

Then, he looks at how messages go horribly astray when the full context is missing—something quite common in social media, and which upcoming main episode guest, Tobias Rose-Stockwell, calls “context creep.”

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Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign

Sat, 22 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

A granular—let’s say quantum-sized—look at how RFK Jr.’s wealthiest and most influential New Age supporters are thinking about his candidacy. Aubrey Marcus and Charles Eisenstein disclosed it all on a two-hour podcast released on June 21, providing a nearly-perfect encapsulation of every theme of our beat. Their performance shows how dedicated conspiritualists keep the faith as they graduate out of the group-encounter retreat economy and into the mainstream political arena.

Show Notes

The Future Of The World Depends On Us w/ Charles Eisenstein

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163: The Huberman Paradox (w/Jonathan Jarry)

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has become one of the most popular science podcasters in the world. His regular two- to four-hour episodes feature a dizzying assault of information on topics like physical and mental fitness, psychedelics, hair loss, brain optimization, and a host of other topics, sometimes with expert guests, while at other times he goes solo. And many of these episodes are super informative and inspirational.

And yet, at times it seems like Huberman is sacrificing quality for quantity. This week, we look at three instances in which Andrew Huberman appears to be speaking outside of his lane, or perhaps overhyping supplements for his own benefit, and we want to know what else is being sacrificed along the way. McGill Office for Science and Society science communicator, Jonathan Jarry, joins the discussion.

Show Notes

Andrew Huberman Has Supplements on the Brain

How Podcaster Andrew Huberman Got America to Care About Science

The Real-Life Diet of Andrew Huberman, Who Switches to Red Party Lights After Dark

The Huberman Effect

NEUROSCIENTIST: This Habit Makes You UGLY | Andrew Huberman

Paul Ingraham critique of Huberman

“Evidence-Based Medicine” vs Science-Based Medicine

Dave Asprey’s Use of PED’s

New York Times review of Tim Ferris’s book 4-Hour Body

Michelle Wong’s query about sunscreen crossing blood-brain barrier

Neuroscientist Asaf Weisman’s opinion on Huberman

Sports Scientist Matt Stranberg opinion on Huberman

“Health Nerd” Gideon Meyer-Katz on misrepresented “cold-plunge” paper

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Bonus Sample: Bobby Kennedy Scares You Shitless And Makes You Swoon

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Bobby provokes a “disorganized attachment” response in would-be followers.This is the emotional vortex that begins to churn when a charismatic leader draws followers into a vision of the world as irrevocably broken, poisoned, dangerous, full of lies and betrayal. But he doesn’t just scare them. Somehow, he also promises an island of salvation in their sea of doom. This is Bobby’s pattern.

It’s clear that his misinformation on everything from supposed vaccine danger to the supposed totalitarianism of COVID mitigations is not a description of the world so much as a ghoulish parody of it. As the creator of that vision, in which solutions seem so out of reach, he stands alone as the wizard who can repair it.

Show Notes

Joe Rogan's worst misinformation yet, with RFK Jr.—Dr. Dan Wilson

bad_stats Rogan debunk Twitter thread

How Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Distorted Vaccine Science - Scientific American (coverage of the 2005 article)

RFK Jr.'s reign of error: Correcting the record about yet another false claim he just made | CNN Politics—Tapper

Just Another RFK Jr. Lie. I Know, Because It’s About Me. | The Nation—Joan Walsh

My Conversation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - by Paul Offit

Robert Kennedy Jr. Full, Controversial Speech at "Defeat the Mandates"

Stein, A. 2017. Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems. Routledge. 2017.

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162: Is Our Book a Conspiracy Theory?

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Nazis loved yoga. Rudolf Steiner set the stage for COVID denialism. Modern social justice warriors have a fondness for Hindu nationalism. Antivax activists are stuck in 19th century Gothic novels. Yoga, as the religion of neoliberalism, has actively depoliticized large swaths of the white middle class, making yoga moms vulnerable to fascism. Who’s responsible for these outrages? Conspiritualists? Who are they and what’s their evil plan?

No, our book is not a conspiracy theory. There’s no one piloting this plane. And yet, the patterns we’ve tracked on this podcast and in our book at times suggest something organized and coherent. Do we take this too far? At point does the intricacy of our research mimic the paranoia of what we’re researching? This week, we take a look.

Our Recent Op-Eds:

New age wellness takes a reactionary turn (The Boston Globe)

The Conspirituality of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (Time)

Opinion: Danielle Smith’s alternative health proclamations are key to her populist messaging (The Globe and Mail)

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Bonus Sample: On Belief

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

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Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable

Sat, 08 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

On June 26, presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, Jr hosted a "health policy roundtable" on Rumble. His guests included Joe Mercola, Sherri Tenpenny, Mikki Willis, and a host of other anti-vax luminaries. Very little policy was discussed, though RFK put forward plenty of ideas about executive orders, including blackballing scientists and researchers behind FDA-approved drugs and censoring scientific journals. Derek breaks down some of the more egregious moments.

Show Notes

Health Policy Roundtable on Rumble

Joe Rogan's worst misinformation yet, with RFK Jr.

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161: The Timeline is Chaotic (Conspirituality Audiobook Excerpt)

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew narrates the first three sections of the audiobook, Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat.

More information on our book here.

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Bonus Sample: From Pranams to Pogroms

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Derek discusses the new Conspirituality book with filmmaker and podcaster Mike Hull at Powell's Books on June 26, 2023.

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Brief: RFK Jr Flirts with Body Fascism (w/Natalia Petrzela)

Sat, 01 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Friend of the pod and historian of American fitness culture, Natalia Petrzela, joins Matthew to shed light on a new development in RFK Jr’s campaign to disrupt the Democratic Party: his recent workout campaign videos from the barbell patio of Gold’s Gym in Venice beach.

Topics include the iconic status of Gold’s, why Bobby Muscles is in Wranglers rather than lycra, how he’s both drawing on and distorting the Kennedy fitness legacy, body mastery as the ultimate American frontier, political pissing contests, the ableist “sweatwashing” of complex health policy problems, the body-shaming of soft, flabby, unpatriotic liberals, and how the whole scene—pumped by biohackers and tech bros—has some alarming political echoes.

Show Notes

Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession

Matthew’s Twitter thread on Bobby Muscles echoing body fascism.

"Go, you chicken fat, go!" — Meredith Wilson

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160: Empire of Lies (w/Sofia Cherici & Jan Zabka)

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Chaos in Russia! Wagner’s pagan neo-Nazis. Is conspirituality unique to a failing American empire in the internet age? Does it require Californian New Age spirituality, with conspiracy theories that weave around alternative medicine, for-profit pharma with no social safety net, and the reactionary politics of White Christian Nationalism?

This week, Julian explores a different version of Conspirituality. This form translates QAnon for a European audience and calls for a return to the golden age of the Russian empire, but also to an ancient pre-Christian Slavic identity united across borders in pagan faith.

Show Notes

The Everyday Religious Life in Wagner PMC, via Observatoire

Candance Rondeaux on Wagner, Pan-Slavism, al-Qaeda

Jan Zabka’s piece on QAnon in Czech/Slovakia, Prophets of Freedom and Doom

Sofia Cherici’s piece on QAnon’s cross-cultural evolution, Translating QAnon

Marlene Laurelle on the Rodnoverie Movement

Fake News sites centered in Veles, Macedonia had Russian and American ties

A Photographer and an Artist Walk into a Fake News Factory from Coda Story

Original Book of Veles forgery

Main interstitial music: Bus Ride to Gulu — Pete Kuzma

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Bonus Sample: God Seemed Like A Dumb Reason to Break Up

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Today in our Listeners’ Stories installment, Lynn Short joins her partner Justin to discuss how they met, grew up in, and grew out of a branch of “Gnosis,” a theosophical cult founded in the 1950s by Samael Aun Weor in Columbia.

Weor was a classic old-school spiritual pervert, with 60-plus (likely ghostwritten) books to his name, and a passion for meddling in his followers’ sex lives.

Lynn and Justin describe what it was like to wake up to each other again—and to normal lives—after 17 years of practicing non-orgasmic sex and missionary work. A unique and hopeful look into a relationship that survived coercive influence—a bond that didn’t become a trauma bond.

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Brief: An Atheist's Guide to Spirituality

Sat, 24 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

“It’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong," wrote Richard Feynman. But does curiosity end where awareness cuts off? Derek explores the positive and negative sides of the spiritual search, especially in light of the burgeoning eco-spiritual movement.

Show Notes

I’m “spiritual but not religious.” Here’s what that means for a physicist

How to hold onto a sense of wonder

‘Big Earth energy’: A new era of nature spirituality is here

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159: Cults & Cultures

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

To celebrate book launch month, we started a little “takeaway” series two weeks ago. First, Derek led us through “Science and Sensibility,” in which he shared some really good practices for science literacy, along with examples of how conspirituality maximizes social stress and struggling medical systems to exploit wellness consumers.

Last week, Julian addressed the aching questions asked by those in love with the positive gifts of contemplative practice, but who now see the cognitive fallacies and naive psychology at play in many spiritual communities.

This week, Matthew sets pseudoscience and spiritual bypassing into the social context of cultic relationships, reviewing some of the tortured dynamics we monitored during COVID, laying out a few cult-resistant hygiene rules, some pointers on avoiding stigmatization, and asking tough questions about where the whole cult discourse thing is going in this parasocial era.

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Bonus Sample: Devouring Dragons

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

The exiled cult leader, the MAGA mastermind, the Chinese con-artist billionaire, and the CCP. Insatiable dragons, all. Each claims to be at war with evil, as their fiery propaganda melts the minds of far-right media consumers. Julian connects the dots on these overlapping stories of life in the “Dharma-ending times.”

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158: Spirituality Without the Con

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

We've spent three years tracking the slide from online wellness influencer to red-pilled conspiracy promoter, from yoga and breath work teacher to anti-vax ivermectin slinger, from vegan raw chocolate aficionado to anti-immigrant, transphobic, election denial. Turns out, the roots of this phenomenon run deep.

Along the way we've gotten a lot of praise, plenty of pushback, and a slew of sincere and heartbroken questions about what may be left for those in love with the positive gifts of contemplative practice and community, who now see the pitfalls we've pointed out. We speak to these today.

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Bonus Sample: The Anti-Woke Industrial Complex

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

From Ron DeSantis's anti-woke presidential campaign to Bari Weiss's FAIR war on woke, the concept of "wokeness" has become an ideal devil in right-wing and right-leaning politics—even if (or especially because) no one can really define it. But as Derek discusses, a recent deep dive into FAIR shows, anti-woke crusaders are suffering from internal conflicts and coming up with troubling non-solutions, while monetizing their platforms along the way.

Show Notes

Is it possible to be both moderate and anti-woke?

Morning Joe: June 5, 2023

Daily Wire host defends book bans

Journalist or Heretic? | Bari Weiss | EP 175

Plandemic 3 Red Carpet moment

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Brief: Updates on Countering Hate

Sat, 10 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

How can we protect ourselves and our children from online hate and misinformation? Julian interviews Imran Ahmed about the latest work the Center for Countering Digital Hate has done on TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook ads for state-sponsored antisemitic propaganda from Iran.

Show Notes

Parents Guide to TikTok

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157: Science & Sensibility

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

How did “following the science” get so confusing during the pandemic? As the publication of our book draws closer, Derek shares his best practices for science literacy, and examples of where grifters and conspiracists maximized confusion to exploit wellness consumers.

This is the first in a three-part series on what we’ve learned though writing our book and working on the podcast. Each episode is piloted by one host with commentary by the other two.

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Bonus Sample: Conspirituality Marches on the White House (pt 2)

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

After reviewing how Mother Marianne and Bobby Kennedy Jr are set to disrupt the race in Part 1, we turn now to Mr. “Coronavirus is a Coronation for all,” Charles Eisenstein, has just disclosed that he’s working on Bobby’s campaign as Director of Messaging. Holy shit.

It’s like our book is so accurate that Steve Bannon fed a digital ARC into a LLM to spit out AIs of all the characters in it so he could play them like chess pieces across the 2024 electoral map.

Matthew and Julian take stock of this new stage: the routinization and institutionalization of conspirituality.

Show Notes

A Major Life Change - Charles Eisenstein

https://twitter.com/jack/status/1247343782279839744

Charles Eisenstein | Zika and the Mentality of Control

Keys to the Navajo Nation’s COVID-19 Vaccination Success | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health

The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible w/Sayer Ji

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Special Report: Taking Alberta Backwards (w/Jeremy Appel)

Sat, 03 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

On Monday, May 29, Danielle Smith, the leader of the UCP of Alberta, seized the reigns of majority government power with the help of a right-wing antivax group called Take Back Alberta.

Jeremy Appel, founder of The Orchard, joins Matthew for a masterclass on how things got so bad in Alberta, and how conspirituality played a key role.

Show Notes

The Orchard — Jeremy Appel

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156: Medical Medium (w/Dan Adler)

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Medical Medium, aka Anthony William, gained many of his 4.4M IG followers thanks to his declaration that celery juice can heal you from many ailments that science hasn’t figured out. William proudly displays his numerous celebrity endorsements and hundreds of anecdotal healing stories on his library-esque website. Yet when one reporter—Vanity Fair’s Dan Adler—had the audacity to report on one now-deceased confidante of William, the self-proclaimed medium went on the defense, releasing a four-part podcast series and posting on social media in a frenzy about how there’s a plot to “take down Medical Medium.”

Yes, William speaks of himself often in the third person, and wears his lack of any medical training whatsoever as a badge of honor. Today, we look at some of the most outrageous claims that he’s made and discuss the rhetorical techniques that have made him an alt-health celebrity. We’re also joined by Dan Adler to discuss his in-depth reporting on the man who claims angels give him medical advice decades ahead of modern science—and somehow gets away with it.

Show Notes

The Medical Medium and the True Believer

Medical Medium Survivors

Medical Medium: Miracle Healer or Quack? (The Celery Juice Guy)

Why Is Everyone Drinking Celery Juice as if It Will Save Them From Dying?

The Truth About The Celery Juice Craze

Everyone Is Drinking Celery Juice — But Is It Healthy? We Dive Into The Science Behind The Trend

Alex Ebert on Conspirituality

Matthew’s reply to Alex

Alex’s follow-up

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Bonus Sample: Conspirituality Marches on the White House (pt 1)

Mon, 29 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Marianne Williamson—New Age matriarch and popularizer of A Course in Miracles—is polling at 9%. Muscular Catholic antivax entrepreneur Bobby Kennedy Jr is polling at 20% or more: Rasmussen has him in a dead heat with Biden.

And Mr. “Coronavirus is a Coronation for all,” Charles Eisenstein, has just disclosed that he’s working on Bobby’s campaign as Director of Messaging. Holy shit.

It’s like our book is so accurate that Steve Bannon fed a digital ARC into a LLM to spit out AIs of all the characters in it so he could play them like chess pieces across the 2024 electoral map.

Matthew and Julian take stock of this new stage: the routinization and institutionalization of conspirituality.

Show notes available on Patreon.

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Brief: RFK Jr., The Anti-Vax Candidate

Sat, 27 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Another Kennedy is running for President. But discussion of his anti-vaccine activism often overlooks how it affects people with autism. Julian talks to Eric Michael Garcia, political correspondent for The Independent, and author of We're Not Broken: Changing The Autism Conversation, about the human cost.

Show Notes

We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation — Eric Garcia

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155: We Want Them Infected (w/Jonathan Howard, M.D.)

Thu, 25 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

What "really" happened during the pandemic? Conspiracists have decided to take a victory lap. They were right, you see? The vaccines failed, and besides, they were super dangerous. COVID obviously came out of a lab. Masks were useless, and the lock-downs were completely unnecessary forms of totalitarian oppression. The authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, who were censored on social media, were right all along.

Not so fast.

Our guest today is Dr. Jonathan Howard, who not only did grueling service at Bellevue Hospital in NYC (as the first wave raged, and corpses were stacked in meat trucks) but has put in the time to create a comprehensive document of how contrarian doctors shaped cultural perceptions during the pandemic. He takes the title of his new book, We Want Them Infected, from a quote found in a series of emails from July 2020.

Trump-appointed science-advisor to the HHS, Paul Alexander, urged officials there and at the FDA, and the CDC, to pursue a herd immunity strategy for COVID-19. "There is no other way," he wrote. "We need to establish herd, and it only comes about when we allow non-high-risk groups to expose themselves to the virus. PERIOD. Infants, kids, teens, young people, middle-aged with no conditions have zero to little risk. So we use them to develop herd. We want them infected."

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Bonus Sample: The Dangers of Slogans

Mon, 22 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

In 1970, farmer, writer, and environmental activist Wendell Berry published his essay, "Think Little." In it, he writes about the dangers of not making your public causes private causes as well, depending too much on outside organizations to make decisions, and—this is key—of how autonomy should lead to the greater good and the recognition of interdependence.

Many of these messages resonate in the conspirituality world. Derek frames the essay before reading it in full.

Show Notes

The World-Ending Fire — Wendell Berry

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154: The Truth Wars (w/Renée DiResta)

Thu, 18 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

In the post-truth world, journalists who report facts are disparaged as perpetuating the narrative while candidates who hold the appropriate qualifications are smeared as deep state operatives. Likewise, a career spent studying terrorism, online conspiracy theories, and digital propaganda becomes "evidence" of opposing free speech and the American way.

Our guest today became the "main character" on Twitter in April, subject to information requests from Congress and labeled the "leader of the Censorship Industrial Complex" from her perch at the center of a conspiracy web in which Big Tech, government intelligence agencies, and woke university think tanks secretly silenced free speech online.

Her name is Renée DiResta, and Julian talks to her about her extensive study of online propaganda. She tells us about the unfolding digital information crisis, of which the Twitter Files is just be the most recent example.

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Bonus Sample: The Dalai Lama Spectacle

Mon, 15 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

This is a deep, tangled dive. Content warnings apply.

Chapters:

Why cover this, and why now?
Summary
The Clip
Virality
Two Orientalisms
Outrages and Pilled Mindset
What do Tibetans and their allies say?
Kazi Adi Shakti, Thi Nguyen, Becca Williams

Full Show Notes on Patreon

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Brief: Why Does Every Conspiracy Theory Lead Back to Antisemitism? (w/Ben Cohen)

Sat, 13 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

We've seen it over and over again: somehow, in some way, globalists are involved. George Soros is pulling the strings. Jews will replace us, with other minorities, or fund the interests that are against "us."

Derek talks with The Banter founder, Ben Cohen, about the modern state of antisemitism. They also discuss Russell Brand's meteoric rise into right-wing celebrity, as well as Aubrey Marcus's uninformed takes on vaccines and politics.

Show Notes

The Banter

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153: The Anti-Sunscreen Movement (w/Sara Aniano & Michelle Wong)

Thu, 11 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Did you know that it’s not the sun that causes cancer, but sunscreen? Or that sunscreen is actually a Big Pharma creation to keep you from receiving the sun’s magical healing properties? How about the fact that sunscreen molecules can be found in your brain 10 years after application? And don’t even get me started on the life-changing effects of exposing your asshole to direct sunshine.

Ok, I promise that’s the last time I’m going to mention asshole sunning during this episode. As for the rest of those equally-absurd claims, I’ll be talking to cosmetic chemist, Michelle Wong, aka Lab Muffin Beauty Science, to dispose of the gibberish and give me a serious 101 on sunscreen. Before that, I’ll be talking to disinformation analyst Sara Aniano about the connection between the anti-sunscreen movement and antisemitism—because yes, that’s a thing, too.

Show Notes

Sara Aniano on Twitter

Michelle Wong on Instagram | TikTok

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Bonus Sample: Chris Rufo’s Fascist Long-Game

Mon, 08 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Florida governor Ron DeSantis appointed right-wing propagandist, Christopher Rufo, along with other conservative Christian education-activists, to the board of the tiny, progressive New College in Sarasota, FL this past January.

They fired the president, installed prayer at the board meetings, forbade personal pronouns in faculty email signatures, and claimed DeSantis’s electoral victory gave them a constitutional mandate to make whatever changes they want.

The invaders frame this hostile take-over as a test-case model to “recapture” universities across the state and the country.

But who is Rufo really? He’s the guy behind the manufactured moral panic over Critical Race Theory that set conservative media, school boards and city council meetings ablaze with fear-mongering over “woke Marxism” in 2021.

New College is the latest conquest in his explicit long-game to remake the fabric of America, one sadistic lie at a time.

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Brief: Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Therapy Schtick

Sat, 06 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Marianne Williamson? Inexperienced? Not at all.

In fact, she does have a ton of experience… in New Age, on-stage pseudotherapy, where she solves the problems of the troubled with memorized lines from A Course in Miracles. She’s been doing these sessions at workshops and retreats for decades, and the schtick is always the same: if only the person would change their minds about their problem, the world would be healed.

While this may fly on the workshop circuit, if you listen carefully you’ll hear that she gives the same answer on the stump.

It comes through most clearly when she’s pressed on questions of strategy. She will instantly pivot to talking about the spirit and the soul. The effect is a disarming oscillation between the political and the personal. Are we talking about defeating fascists? No, no, that’s too worldly! We’re talking about opening our hearts. And if that feels good during a politically tense exchange, it’s because she changed the subject.

To see how this sleight-of-hand works, Matthew examines two classic Williamson encounters to show that the answers she gives on the stump aren’t much different from the answers she gives on her New Age retreats.

Show Notes

That Time Byron Katie Gaslit a Follower about Trump | by Matthew Remski

I'm Afraid of Trump—The Work of Byron Katie

Being Rejected for Your Spiritual Beliefs | Q&A With Marianne Williamson

Mindfulness can make you selfish: A pioneering new study examines the social effects of mindfulness

Marianne Williamson with TYT's John Iadarola & Francesca Fiorentini

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152: Tulsi Gabbard’s Krishna Consciousness (w/Nitai Joseph)

Thu, 04 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

What does it mean for a prominent American politician to come into power as the sleeper cell of an eccentric Hindu-American cult? Does she act independently, or has her God-man got her on speed-dial? Can she bridge the divide between left and right with the radiant glow of Krishna consciousness?

Joining us today to help answer these questions is Nitai Joseph. He shares some heritage with Gabbard, because he also grew up in a Hare Krishna sect. He holds an MSc. in the Psychology of Coercive Control and has worked across a range of issues connected to ideology and manipulation, including cultic awareness, child sexual abuse prevention, adverse meditation experiences, and organizational ethics and accountability.

Show Notes

Gopala Govinda Rama Chant by Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa Chris Butler

QAnon Anonymous Episode 211: Tulsi Gabbard P1 (The Cult) feat Mike Prysner

QAnon Anonymous Episode 212: Tulsi Gabbard P2 (The Fascist Turn) feat Mike Prysner

Tulsi Gabbard Had a Very Strange Childhood

What Does Tulsi Gabbard Believe? | The New Yorker

Chris Butler Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa: on “freedom”

An Insiders Perspective on Tulsi Gabbard and her Guru | by Lalita | Medium

Tulsi Gabbard 2016 Janmashtami Message

ISKCON Abuse Timeline

Definition of Betrayal Trauma Theory

Archived ex-Hare Krishna message board

Nitai can be reached via LinkedIn

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Bonus Sample: Reimagining the Apocalypse

Mon, 01 May 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Apocalyptic language is everywhere: in the marketing copy of wellness influencers and pseudo-documentary makers selling spike protein detoxes and vaccine fear-mongering videos, and in the fervent anti-trans panic stoked by right-wing Substackers.

How we use language — and we use that how language to inspire actions — is everything.

Derek imagines a better use of language, and of understanding, through the lens modern secular Buddhism.

Show Notes

The World-Ending Fire — Wendell Berry

A Paradise Built in Hell — Rebecca Solnit

After Buddhism — Stephen Batchelor

Confessions of a Buddhist Atheist — Stephen Batchelor

Buddhism — Alan Watts

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151: Satan Wants You Watch Party (Spoilers)

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

How, in the name of the Holy Virgin Mary, did Michelle Remembers—the book that started the Satanic Panic—come to be written? Who was Lawrence Pazder really? Did he encourage and exaggerate Michelle Smith’s recovered memories of ritual abuse? Did Smith tell him what he wanted to hear? Or was it a little of both?

Canadian filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve Adams have a new documentary out called “Satan Wants You,” and it fills in a lot of the blanks in our prior “Swan Song Series” reporting with incredible archival footage and brave interviews from friends and family members.

Today it opens at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival, which means the reviews embargo is lifted… and our review is: “Incredible work. Must see.”

PS! If you haven't pre-ordered our fabulously interesting book, Barnes and Noble are running a 25% off pre-order promo. You can use "PREORDER25" as the discount code at checkout. Good from now till Friday!

Show Notes

Satan Wants You

Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 5 | Michelle Remembers: Themes & Framing

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: Michelle Remembers: Literal Symbols

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 1 on Stitcher

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 2 on Stitcher

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

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Bonus Sample: Framing George Soros

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

FOX News says he wants to destroy America. Candace Owens is scared to speak his name out loud. Mikki Willis is making a film about his assault on the American family. Dr. Christiane Northrup claims he caused the pandemic. Trump called DA Alvin Bragg a "Soros-funded animal."

Who is this billionaire Jewish banker, a man so diabolical he can simultaneously be the greatest capitalist of all time and a communist chaos agent, so deceptive that he founded philanthropic organizations in 120 countries while supposedly being the "most evil man in the world?" And how does his financial influence in American politics actually stack up against the machinations of disciplined religious right-wing powerbrokers, supercharged by dark money?

Show Notes

The right’s obsession with Soros

Soros on right-wing conspiracies against him

GOP dark money

Democrat dark money

An overview of dark money

2022 biggest disclosed donor list

Barre Seid donates $1.6B

Harlan Crow and Justice Thomas

Sheldon Whitehouse on dark money and SCOTUS

Leonard Leo and SCOTUS

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Brief: Unmasking Liana Shanti (w/Jennings Brown)

Sat, 22 Apr 2023 18:02:23 -0000

Jennings Brown is becoming the Dr. Who of cult journalism. Every few years he pops up on a very different planet in the cultiverse, and tries to repair the timeline.

These days he’s deep into the story of a cult leader who seems to have no “presence” at all. Liana Shanti has managed to recruit about 180 women into her lucrative fever dream of Satanic Panic, recovered memories, starvation diets, and family destruction—all from behind a keyboard and a podcast microphone.

Who is Liana Shanti, and why isn’t she Liane Wilson any more?

Show Notes

Inside Liana Shanti’s Lemurian Mystery School — Jennings Brown

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150: Spiritual Influencer Theory

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Julian and Matthew go big-picture in this tour through all the elements that construct and drive spiritual Influencers.

At the center of the parasocial storm is charisma, which covers over the intellectual and moral bankruptcy of wellness content. Charisma is the only real currency in unregulated spaces. It’s compensatory, and very anxious.

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Bonus Sample: From Rabbit Hole to Research (w/Jaigris Hodson)

Mon, 17 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Our Listener Story this week comes from Dr. Jaigris Hodson, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair for Digital Communication for the Public Interest at Royal Roads University in Victoria, British Columbia.

Dr. Hodson shares her pandemic journey with inflammatory breast cancer, and how, even as a misinformation researcher, she was vulnerable to the hope sold by alt-health grifters. After completing treatment, she turned her research attention to cancer misinformation, and is now innovating research methods for analyzing how emotion drives misinformation consumption and virality.

Show Notes

Jaigris Hodson | Royal Roads University

The Podcast: Digital Public Interest Collective

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Brief: The Promises & (Mostly) Perils of Ketamine Therapy

Sat, 15 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Though not specifically a psychedelic — ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic — ketamine therapy is being touted as a depression treatment and, for some, a new form of spiritual healing. And indeed, some of the results are promising. But with Ketamine Wellness Centers and Field Trip Health both shutting down ketamine clinics across the country, leaving clients scrambling to find relief. Are these psychedelic entrepreneurs placing too much emphasis on scaling and shareholders and not enough on healing, even though their marketing efforts claim the opposite?

Derek looks into the sordid developments of ketamine therapy, including the botched trials that ultimately received FDA approval.

Show Notes

Ketamine infusion: The new therapy for depression, explained

New analysis claims the FDA rushed ketamine’s approval for depression treatment

Excessive drinking costs $249 billion. Can one dose of ketamine curb alcoholism?

‘I’m terrified’: Patients scramble for treatment after 13 ketamine clinics shut down

How ketamine-fueled dreams can promote a spiritual approach to mental health and therapy

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149: Spiritual Heartbreak

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

“I would pursue transcendence and live with its inevitable close cousins, disappointment and heartbreak, for most of my life.” So writes “Steven” (not his real name) in the first of our six spiritual heartbreak stories from our Patreon supporters.

“The spiritual by-passing of folks like Marianne Williamson and Eckhart Tolle kept me spinning in a cycle of abuse and unable to see clearly enough to end an abusive marriage with a Unitarian minister.” That’s from Katherine—story number three.

And in our final story, Lynn writes: “I will say even though I've been through a really awful trauma and still have to deal with that residue, I am now happier than I've ever been in my life. I enjoy just being a simple person now, without the ever exhausting pressure of having to perform my religion, to awaken my consciousness.”

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Bonus Sample: JP Sears’s Woke CBD Grift

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

JP Sears is selling CBD. His new company, Awaken, recently sent out a marketing email extolling the benefits of CBD. Derek looks at the science behind the claims.

Show Notes

CBD is everywhere. But is it a scam?

Inverted U-Shaped Dose-Response Curve of the Anxiolytic Effect of Cannabidiol during Public Speaking in Real Life

Pioneering UAMS Study Warns of CBD Supplements’ Harm to Gut Health

Can Cannabis Help Your Gut?

The Impact of Cannabidiol on Human Brain Function: A Systematic Review

Cannabis, Cannabinoids, and Sleep: a Review of the Literature

Does CBD Help With Insomnia?

Cannabidiol (CBD): What we know and what we don't

Antioxidative and Anti-Inflammatory Properties of Cannabidiol

Cannabidiol (CBD): a killer for inflammatory rheumatoid arthritis synovial fibroblasts

A single dose of cannabidiol reduces blood pressure in healthy volunteers in a randomized crossover study

Immune Responses Regulated by Cannabidiol

Can CBD Benefit Your Immune System?

CBD and Heart Health

Efficacy and Safety of Cannabidiol and Tetrahydrocannabivarin on Glycemic and Lipid Parameters in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel Group Pilot Study

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Brief: The Spirituality of Vaccine & Mask Panics

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Why do so many inflammatory culture war issues crystallize around vaccines and masks? What is so compelling about these forms of public health and mutual aid, that they become central to the right-wing imagination?

For some, straight-up libertarianism might be a sufficient answer: the knee-jerk allergy to being asked to do anything as a social player. And beneath that might lie conspiratorial notions of Fauci being a Red, Bill Gates monetizing polio, or George Soros controlling Congress.

Matthew argues that even those are surface stories, covering over a trembling anxiety about the status of the body in relation to the State, and God.

Show Notes

Rudolf Steiner on Traditional Childhood Illnesses and Vaccines

Biss, Eula. On Immunity: An Inoculation. Minneapolis: Graywolf, 2015

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148: Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Is Marianne Williamson’s promotion of A Course in Miracles any more relevant to her political persona than Biden’s Catholicism? If it demonstrably informs her every instinct and communication (as we expect it would given she sermonizes out of it every day), then yes, it is. If it leads her to suggest that meditation can help contain nuclear waste, divert hurricanes, heal the “scam” of clinical depression, or “boost the immune system” against COVID19, then yes, it is.

Is it sexist to highlight Williamson’s reported history of interpersonal abusiveness, when male politicians get away with far worse? There is definitely a double standard to resist. But when a candidate builds a political persona on being a love-and-light wayshower, it’s important to evaluate what that actually looks like ground-level. It’s also important to consider whether immature behavior might be a plausible outcome of following the Jesus of A Course in Miracles, who is a huge asshole.

Finally: if Williamson is the only candidate out there talking about reparations and M4A, is it reactionary to dismiss her on religious or behavioral grounds? Not if you’re actually interested in a functional progressive politics, free from magical thinking and charismatic bafflement.

Show Notes

Williamson’s COVID meditation, Facebook Live

Read: Pope Francis’ May prayer to Mary for the end of the pandemic | America Magazine

Marianne Williamson’s ‘abusive’ treatment of 2020 campaign staff, revealed - POLITICO

Marianne Williamson is a controversial AIDS-crisis figure for gay men.

MARIANNE'S FAITHFUL | Vanity Fair | June 1991

Project Angel Food Rocked by Feuds

The Divine Miss W — People

The Power, the Glory, the Glitz - Los Angeles Times

Marianne Williamson Bows Out as Pastor - Beliefnet

Marianne Williamson's Democratic debate performance raised eyebrows. But she's no friend of the left.

Marianne Williamson responds to Politico article alleging abuse toward staff - BBC News

Here Are The Presidential Candidates Women Have Been Donating To

Marianne Williamson on Her Insurgent Campaign Against Joe Biden ❧ Current Affairs

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Bonus Sample: The Final Battle

Mon, 03 Apr 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Why did Trump kick-off his 2024 presidential campaign in Waco, Texas? Who were the Branch Davidians, anyway?

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147: The Censorship Megaphone

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Listen… Can you hear it?

All across the propagandist right and the free speech center, there's a new rallying cry: it's time to fight the “censorship industrial complex!”

Researching and documenting digital disinformation—and coordinating to combat its malevolent agendas—is now all being described as a pseudo-academic scam, a hoax covering up an authoritarian liberal campaign of vile and secretive censorship. Now, as it turns out, this gnashing of teeth and shedding of tears at the cruel injustice of social media censorship, and the swift, brutal cancellation of anyone daring to go against the mainstream narrative is actually not new.

We’ll look at the broader topic today, as well as some specific variations on the victim of censorship gambit, which uncannily often precedes being handed an even bigger megaphone.

Show Notes

Conspirituality + Glassbox Media

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Bonus Sample: Losing My Charisma

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Recording the audiobook at a swanky Toronto studio sends Matthew down a memory hole to wonder about performance, self-awareness, and anxiety, and their relation to charisma.

“Whatever charisma I have or project into the world has always been both prompted and tempered by the belief that becoming larger, that reaching out and creating an impression would soothe a confused or immature sense of self. That if I could be seen, I would be loved, and if loved, I would be real.

“If there is an anxiety at the core of the influencers we study, it might be related to this. This week I had the opportunity to meditate on it, to remember how charisma formed around and within me, first through an arts education, and then as a yoga and wellness entrepreneur. It’s made me wonder whether and how I’ve been that much different than Zach Bush, or Mikki Willis, or Katie Griggs. I know how to project that voice, I know how to put on my resting guru face.”

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146: The Reality of Online Child Abuse (w/Håkon Høydal)

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Conspiritualists are not wrong that Jeffery Epstein’s downline has so far evaded justice. Or that the highest levels of the Catholic Church aided and abetted child sexual abuse for generations. They are not wrong about the existence of child sexual abuse materials circulating online, and that children are coerced, abducted, and sometimes killed in order to make them.

But their narratives are contorted by panic, mythology, stereotypes, paranoid and grandiose assumptions, and the antisemitic conspiracy theorizing of QAnon, which spread like wildfire through yoga and wellness social media during the pandemic and has now normalized as the “groomer” meme. They say that child sexual abuse is a planned, nefarious, top-down attack on innocents. They say that its purpose is to turn the world away from God, to starve humanity of hope.

Matthew sits down with Håkon Høydal, an investigative journalist in Norway who has spent years researching and exposing the most abject behaviors on the dark web. His work reveals a very different landscape. It’s a banal world, close to home, hiding in plain sight, presided over by young men who are making reckless choices after having decided that their pathological and criminally harmful impulses will never be understood, much less treated.

Show Notes

Hunting Warhead | CBC News

VG exposed the largest child sexual abuse forum. It was run by the police.

Porn site founder accused of sex trafficking arrested in Spain - The Globe and Mail

Sex offender treatment scheme led to increase in reoffending | UK news | The Guardian

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Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

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Special Report: Nostalgia for the Superego (w/Sam Binkley)

Tue, 21 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew sits down with Sam Binkley, Professor of Sociology at Emerson College in Boston to discuss his 2007 book Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s.

We cited this very helpful work as we dug into the sociology of conspirituality for our own upcoming book. Here’s a thumbnail of Binkley’s argument:

The 1970s ushered in a period of “getting loose” in relation to the body, work expectations, family relations, and political allegiances. This happened as the great moral and political questions of the 1960s deflated without resolution, even as they enshrined looser social mores around sex and finding meaningful work. The cultural yearning for structural change found its home in the project of the self, facilitated by an accelerated consumerism that expanded the conflation of agency with consumption. Getting Loose characterizes this inward turn as a retreat from the terrors of revolutionary freedom.

Show Notes

Getting Loose — Binkley

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Gwyneth Paltrow Admits to Getting Ozone in Her Rectum

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Bonus Sample: The Privilege of Wellness

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 11:00:00 -0000

There are a number of philosophies presented in yoga spaces as "universal truths" that turn out to be little more than directives in an echo chamber. And there are protocols presented as therapeutic in wellness spaces that blur the line between spiritual rhetoric and pseudoscience — and some are quite dangerous.

Derek looks at his experiences as a student at Jivamukti Yoga as well as the recent "ozone enema" podcast between Gwyneth Paltrow and Will Cole to discuss spiritual rhetoric and pseudoscience. He opens with his experiences as an international music journalist to provide a framework for thinking outside of your box, be it a local yoga studio or the websites you treat as gospel.

Show Notes

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Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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145: Fever Dream Goes Mainstream in Florida

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

When Disneyworld becomes DeSantisland, Eric Weinstein will be in charge of the Epcot Planetarium, JP Sears will headline the Family Values comedy stage, Jordan Peterson and Jonathan Pageau will build an Orthodox cathedral for male transformation rituals. And Cinderella Castle will be remodeled into a Potemkin Capitol where Mikki Willis will choreograph and film daily insurrections.

The groundwork is being laid now, as we explore the institutionalization of QAnon. Moms for Liberty, egged on by Mike Flynn, is taking over school boards throughout the Sunshine State. Chris Rufo is now a college trustee, and Bret Weinstein is holding court in state medical committees. All while our conspirituality influencers, from Sears to Northrup to Avocado Wolfe, cheer on the dissolution of every social contract, every veneer of democracy.

The propaganda and sadism is so despairing that Derek might need religion, and Matthew might lose himself in retro fantasies of Disneyworld. Luckily, Julian talks with Sarasota anti-DeSantis activist Terra Kater about fighting the good fight under the hot sun.

Show Notes

CBD is everywhere. But is it a scam?

Dear Conservatives, I Apologize

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

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Alex Kaplan's Media Matters archive

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Brief: Roku-Q, The Sequel (w/Alex Kaplan)

Tue, 14 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

QAnon ain't over—it's on your television. It's been mainstreamed, networked, and remixed. Senior online extremism and disinformation researcher, Alex Kaplan of Media Matters joins Julian to share his reporting on the latest developments. 2024 is fast approaching. Under the looming shadows of legal calamity, Trump is rallying the Anons on Truth Social while Mike Flynn and his grifter-entourage roadshow preaches hellfire and ivermectin anti-vax election denial at an evangelical church near you. Can't make it? Sit back and grab the remote.

Show Notes

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Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

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Bonus Sample: Hydroxychloroquine Emergency

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

In this listener story, Julian talks to disabled rights activist and journalist Abby Mahler about how the fake COVID-cure grift endangers people who really need hydroxychloroquine to survive.

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Support us on Patreon

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Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

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144: The Magic Spells of Wellness (w/Colleen Derkatch)

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 11:00:00 -0000

"Cleansing is no longer an option, it's a necessity.”

From wellness influencers obsessed about the meat-body, to Christofascists obsessed about the body politic, rhetoric bombards us from all sides.

Professor of Rhetoric Colleen Derkatch joins Julian to discuss the techniques of the meaning miasma. Her focus is on wellness rhetoric specifically, and how it points to incipient illness, encourages recreational diagnostics, and describes daily routines as liturgies that grant membership in divine communities.

Also we can't avoid talking about Russell Brand on Bill Maher. Sorry.

Show Notes

Meet Colleen Derkatch

Gish Gallop: When People Try to Win Debates by Using Overwhelming Nonsense

Pharma Wants In - Rina Raphael

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Vaccinated/Unvaccinated Viral Load Study

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Bonus Sample: Marianne Williamson for Prez. New Age Jesus for VP.

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Can Marianne Williamson maintain street cred as a progressive while promoting New Age Jesus?

Can she hammer out functional policy while preaching out of A Course in Miracles—the most anti-political pseudospiritual text on the planet?

Can she advocate for public health despite a history of waffling on vaccine science? Can she make a strong argument for health care reform while giving sermons from a book that says people get sick because they are not spiritual enough?

Can she really help fat people with her book that says that fatness is a "repository of twisted thoughts and feelings?"

Matthew doubts it, but hey—miracles happen!

Show Notes

William Thetford's CV (MKUltra reference)

Marianne Williamson's Democratic debate performance raised eyebrows. But she's no friend of the left.

Marianne Williamson is a controversial AIDS-crisis figure for gay men.

Kevin Sessums on MW, FB post: "I am an HIV+ man who lost lots of friends to AIDS and I know the harm she did conning many into believing they deserved their biological condition - and even their deaths- because they weren't spiritually fit enough to visualize the AIDS virus away."

Marianne Williamson on Twitter: "Let’s not forget that masks aren’t our only protection against Covid. Strengthening the immune system is also very important: recommendations like vitamins C and D, healthy food and exercise, positive/spiritual consciousness." / Twitter

A Course in Weight Loss: 21 Spiritual Lessons for Surrendering Your Weight Forever

Marianne Williamson promoted anti-vaxxer theories on her radio show in 2012 episode | CNN Politics

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Brief: Flood the Zone (w/Dr Dan Wilson)

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Answering the current wave of confusing vaccine misinformation. Julian is joined by molecular biologist Dr. Dan Wilson. "Died Suddenly," correlation vs. causation, the vaccine court, and the recycled anti-vax tropes gaining fresh traction are all addressed in this succinct PSA.

Correction: Julian incorrectly calls Dr. Dan a "microbiologist" at the start of this Brief—but he actually holds a PhD in molecular biology.

Show Notes

Vaccination Reduces COVID Transmission

Standard Child/Adolescent Schedule

What is Gene Therapy?

Accelerating Vaccine Trials

"Died Suddenly" Debunk

Vaccine Court and Lawsuit Realities

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Bonus Sample: Romancing the Stoned

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

So much suffering occurs because we romanticize a past that never actually existed in the belief that it's destined to become the future. In the middle we sit, here, now, with time marching forward. Derek explores how wellness influencers weaponize this psychological phenomenon and describes his personal remedy for such thinking.

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Brief: Reggae Muzak

Sat, 25 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Continuing a conversation from EP142, Derek looks at the cultural damage done when musicians co-opt musical styles to promote their own propaganda, which is often at odds with the social struggles of the oppressed class that created the music.

After briefly investigating the history of reggae through the lens of indentured servants from India, he discusses artists using two genres—reggae and hip-hop—in such a way that strips the original intention of the music of all value.

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COVID-19 misinformation contributed to 2800 Canadian deaths, report suggests

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142: Destination Rabbit Hole (w/Anna Merlan)

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Do visiting inter-dimensional spirits and stowaway UFO passengers use the LAX Airport to touch down among us? Well they do if they're in town for the Conscious Life Expo, conveniently located at the LAX Airport Hilton for those who rely on otherwise mundane modes of travel.

The Valentine's Day weekend crystals and angel cards fest of disjointed spirituality meets dodgy science just celebrated its 21st year as the premiere gathering point for awakened seekers choosing to come out of sovereign superposition and manifest in space-time reality.

But, as visiting Vice News correspondent Anna Merlan tells us, it turns out the organizers have grappled for years with how to reconcile the tensions between obvious charlatans and those who really, truly can talk to the dead, psychics who can diagnose your dog's mystery ailments, and those making artificial claims about all-natural elixirs, prophets of light and love, and QAnon promoting anti-vax conspiritualists.

This year's solution? Tuck the most radicalized New Age hate-preachers away in the Rabbit Hole Room, and charge top-dollar for the red-pilled faithful to swoon at their feet.

Show Notes

Thrive review by Eric Johnson

Fault Lines Report: Canadian Council for Academics

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Federal government moves to delay MAID for people suffering solely from mental illness | CBC News

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

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Bonus Sample: Maggie the Good Conspiritualist

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

How does it feel to grow up in a back-to-the-land house that vibrates with the anxious passion of conspiracy theories?

What would happen when the world began to disconfirm the conspiratorial lore? How would you maintain your relationships, nurture the good, and gently let go of everything else?

Maggie joins Matthew for this Listener Story to explore these questions in relation to her journey from childhood to today.

Note: my question about conspirituality being an ethnicity was inspired by a conversation with listener Lilium Rajan, a writer who I hope to learn more from.

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141: Does Canada Want Suffering Citizens to Die? (w/Taslim Alani-Verjee)

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Is Canada trying to euthanize the mentally ill?

Self-professed "theocratic fascist" Matt Walsh says so. So does the OG anti-woke agitator, James Lindsay. Both cravenly distort Canada's proposed expansion of its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) laws to include people suffering from mental illness.

But are they entirely wrong? From the left, Jeremy Appel writes in Jacobin:

I’ve come to realize that euthanasia in Canada represents the cynical endgame of social provisioning within the brutal logic of late-stage capitalism — we’ll starve you of the funding you need to live a dignified life, demand you pay back pandemic aid you applied for in good faith, and if you don’t like it, well, why don’t you just kill yourself?

Psychologist and ethics professor Dr. Taslim Alanii-Verjee joins Matthew to discuss the ethical labyrinth of MAiD expansion, and how the altruistic quest for patient autonomy and dignity can run afoul of the neoliberal state's failure to provide the necessaries.

Show Notes

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee

The Problems With Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying Policy

Special Joint Committee on MAiD - Dr. Sonu Gaind

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Canadian yoga competition stretches into Edmonton | CBC News

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

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Brief: Bikram Convoy Stopped by His Survivors

Tue, 14 Feb 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Hot yoga tycoon and sex offender Bikram Choudhury was set to teach his sweaty pseudoscience in Vancouver starting on February 20th. But a team of yoga allies, led by a woman who has sued Choudhury for rape, said "Fuck off."

So that's that.

Or is it? We have many questions.

Why was this cursed event planned in the first place? Who on earth is continuing to support this clown, and trying to make money off of him? Who would cover themselves in sweaty shit in order to prop up this Simpsons-level caricature of a yoga megalomaniac? And how did Bikram Yoga become the de facto exercise method and spiritual practice of "Freedom Convoy" supporters?

Matthew takes a sweaty tour through a land of pseudoscience and rape culture, hot yogis and truckers, anti-vaxxers and frog-lickers to find out.

Big thank you to Colin Hall of Bodhi Tree Yoga for stopping by!

Show Notes

Controversial Bikram yoga founder's planned Vancouver workshops raising flags

Jill Lawler's 1st-person account

Petition · Stop Predator Bikram Choudhury from hosting Yoga Seminar in Vancouver · Change.org

Woman speaking out against Bikram Yoga event gets disturbing pushback from organizer

Bikram yoga event no longer planned for Vancouver hotel

Bikram Yoga Creator Loses It When Asked About Sexual Assault Allegations | HuffPost Women

Sponsor: https://www.gardomlakeyoga.ca/

WATCH: Justin Trudeau cross-examined by Convoy lawyer

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Slonim Woods 9 by Daniel Barban Levin

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Bonus Sample: Bad News Berenson on Brand

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

The Twitter Files are the grift that keeps on giving. This week, Derek and Julian look at Alex Berenson's recent appearance on Russell Brand's Rumble channel to talk about the conspiracies that only exists in their heads—and the misinformation they share along the way.

Show Notes

The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man

Russell Brand: Elites Are Using Liberal Ideas to Justify Inequality

How anti-vaxxers monetize misinformation

URGENT: A federal database offers more evidence the mRNA Covid jabs may have serious cardiovascular risks

For red and blue America, a glaring divide in COVID-19 death rates persists 2 years later

Scathing evaluation of Sweden's COVID response reveals 'failures' to control the virus

Large, real-world study finds COVID-19 vaccination more effective than natural immunity in protecting against all causes of death, hospitalization and emergency department visits

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140: Surviving Larry (w/Daniel Levin & Zach Heinzerling)

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 10:00:00 -0000

Today, Hulu releases a 3-episode doc series called “Stolen Youth,” directed by Zach Heinzerling.

The pole star for this low-dopamine, low-cortisol, non-true-crime, survivor-centred documentary is Daniel Levin’s painful and radiant memoir, Slonim Woods 9. In 2010, Levin was drawn into an extended-family domestic abuse group led by Larry Ray, the father of one of his friends at Sarah Lawrence College. It took him years to leave, years to begin to recover, and years to become the de facto subject coordinator for this film.

Matthew talks with Zach and Daniel about what it takes to really listen to survivors of group abuse, and how the arts of memoir and documentary can be doorways to reconnection and integration.

In an interview debrief, Julian and Matthew discuss why reviewing Stolen Youth is such a relief in the current Wild West cultsploitation landscape.

Well-told stories in this zone—and we need more of them—educate, de-sensationalize, and de-stigmatize. They humanize every step of the journey: from recruitment, to enmeshment, to complicity, to recovery, to creativity.

Show Notes

Rough Cut: What do filmmakers owe their subjects? w/Souki Medhaoui

Larry Ray and the Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence

How Did Larry Ray Run a Cult at Sarah Lawrence?

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Bonus Sample: What Are We Doing Here?

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Sure, a big question: one Derek explores in the context of this nearly three-year-old Conspirituality project. Criticism and awareness are essential tools in a critical thinking kit, but to what end? As he prepares upcoming presentations on the topic of misinformation in public health, Derek reflects on the value of identifying charlatans and quacks while also speculating about how to move forward.

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UNLOCKED: Leaving S-Factor (w/Jessica Hopper)

Sat, 04 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

NOTE: During our discussion, Jessica recounts a tense all-hands S-factor staff meeting to discuss PR strategy at a crucial moment as the company cracked-up over issues of white fragility. I wasn't able to secure a recording of that call before my interview with Jessica, or since. But after we recorded, I did confirm what Jessica reports about it with 3 of the other participants on that call. MR

Show Notes

Stripped Down: The Undoing of Hollywood's Favorite Pole-Dancing Studio —Hollywood Reporter.

"Strip Down, Rise Up" | Official Trailer | Netflix

Faces of Fierce Femininity—online conference organized by Kelly Brogan

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema—Laura Mulvey, 1975

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139: Comedy in the MAGAverse (w/Jordan Klepper)

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Can you believe that Nancy Pelosi paid people to attack the Capitol on Jan 6 in order to make Republicans look bad? Actually, I mean, Jan 6 was the most peaceful gathering of a million patriots in history. Wait, hold on: Jan 6 was an antifa operative to act as cover for the fact that the election was, indeed, stolen.

Do any of these stories sound familiar? Now imagine hearing them all, and dozens more like them, all in the same day, and you’ll get a glimpse of what Daily Show correspondent and host of the podcast, Fingers the Conspiracy, Jordan Klepper, endures on a regular basis. Today Jordan joins us to talk about the cursed world of conspiracies that he’s witnessed, up close and in person, with the people who spread them, what it was like to be at the Capitol on Jan 6, and the bewildering intersection of comedy and politics.

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36: Guru Jagat’s Pandemic Brandwash (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

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Brief: Long Live Guru Jagat (w/Emily Guerin)

Tue, 31 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Katie Griggs. Katie Day. Kundalini Katie. Guru Jagat. We hardly knew you.

The late "Queen of Conspiracy Theories" is now memorialized on NPR through Emily Guerin's LAist podcast "Imperfect Paradise."

Matthew sits down with Emily to explore how we cover figures like Griggs, what it was like to interview her family, and what we can ultimately say about the compromised feminist empowerment she offered her followers—and whether she could have taken another route.

Show Notes

37: Guru Jagat Cultjacks Kundalini Yoga (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

(PDF) From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga — Philip Deslippe

Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse — Stacie Stukin

Inside the Dubious World of RA MA Yoga, and Its Girl Boss Guru to the Stars — Cassidy George, VICE

Guru Jagat Dies. A Saint Is Born. | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium

Guru Jagat Mourned in Person with Breathing Exercises, No Masks — Matthew Remski

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Bonus Sample: Psychotherapy in the Age of TikTok Conspirituality (w/Alessia Caputo)

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

What do you do when your psychotherapy clients suffer from conspiracy theory anxiety?

What do you do when the conspirituality-based therapy advice they get from TikTok is compelling, but also misleading?

Toronto-based Registered Psychotherapist Alessia Caputo joins Matthew for this Listener Story installment to discuss the changing therapeutic landscape, in the office and online.

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138: The Magical Quantum Healy Machine (feat/Mallory DeMille)

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Using a combination of Alexa, Siri, and your extensive search history, we've been able to scan your bio energetic field, and are sending personalized quantum rebalancing and immune-boosting frequencies your way as you listen. Can you feel it?! Can your pet feel it? Because, dear listener, there’s a program for them, too. In fact, there’s a program for everything and everyone because frequencies don’t discriminate—as long as you’re not into Big Pharma, that is. All you need is to invest in this little $1,000 machine—$4,000 if you want the “professional edition”—that clips onto your Lulu gear and injects quantum vibes straight into your soul.

That’s right, this week we’re talking about the Healy. Our correspondent, Mallory DeMille, has scanned the ethereal social media frequencies to find a greatest hits collection of influencers attempting to energetically guide you into their downline. Derek offers a bit of Healy history, which is rooted in the anti-EMF movement, while Matthew and I wonder: why is it that the same wellness crew that’s afraid of 5G and vaccine technology is so willing to wear this mysterious device?

Show Notes

Healy World Official on YouTube

Marcus Schmieke explains the Technology and Science behind Healy

@trusting_birth questioning Healy

See conspirituality.net/episodes for screenshots mentioned during this episode

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Andrew Tate said he broke a woman's jaw and that his business was a 'scam' ahead of Romanian charges

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Brief: Tate Crime

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Did the Matrix kidnap Top G? Or is Andrew Tate the Matrix himself, now unplugged and shorting out in a Romanian jail?

While his self-confessed crimes against women come home to roost, the online spectacle his arrest has generated provides a litmus test for just how fast the cognitive dissonance of culture war chaos can plummet.

Welcome to the broader “Tate crime”: a spectacle of acute reality-reversal, fueled by reactionary politics and driven by a cultic network of devotees and SEO managers, where culture war punditry is funded by bogus self-help courses and online pornography.

Show Notes

The PHD Program (“Pimping Hos Degree)

Tate admits to statutory rape

Part One: Andrew Tate, and the Mythopoetic Men's Movement - Behind the Bastards | iHeart

The Dangerous Rise of Andrew Tate

"From Pick-Up Artists to Incels: Con(fidence) Games, Networked Misogyny, and the Failure of Neoliberalism"

A Coordinated Group Of 4,500 Bots Tweeted In Support Of Andrew Tate

Teachers Warn That Misogynist Andrew Tate Has 'Radicalized' School-Age Boys

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Bonus Sample: RUSSELL BRAND: RUSSIAN PSY-OP OR MISINFORMED RESEARCHER?

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Ok, the title is a bit outlandish, but for a reason: many of Russell Brand's Rumble videos feature titles like "HERE WE GO" and "THE FALL OF FAUCI." When everything is at volume 11, nothing seems to make sense—which is a bit how Derek and Julian feel after listening to his recent interview with Bari Weiss.

Not that Bari isn't a solid presenter—she is, even if we don't agree with everything she says. We'll pick apart her portion of the Twitter Files, while also continuing our investigation into Russell's always-on and always-loud tactics that disorient as much as obscure.

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137: Addiction & The Wounded Influencer (w/Chris Boutte)

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Perhaps you’ve seen the Rumi quote repeated on social media memes: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” The wounded healer is a popular archetype in wellness spaces, and indeed, sometimes experience teaches wisdom, enabling the victim to overcome their trauma and help others. But in conspiritualist spaces, the wounded healer can also begin a monetization stream where everything becomes evidence of trauma, only to be healed through this book, or that course, or a brand-new brand of meditation that’s only the marketing scheme of an old form.

Speaking of brands, we look at the wounded healer through the lens of Russell Brand, among others. This leads to Derek’s interview with YouTuber and podcaster, Chris Boutte, aka The Rewired Soul, who happens to be in recovery and watched firsthand as Russell went from helpful figure to shadowy archetype. Can an addiction to drugs be healed, only to lead to an addiction to clicks and likes? Stay tuned…

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"Wokeism" and Today's "Woke" Society

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Bonus Sample: Matt Taibbi's Brand Building

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

In part two of Derek and Julian's deconstruction of the Russell Brand/Matt Taibbi Twitter Files Rumble Session, Matt and Russell swoon over their interactions with Elon Musk, discuss how the MSM unfairly maligns Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, and chat about the old regime at Twitter being in service of the sinister agenda of global institutions like the IMF.

Strap in.

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Brief: Teal Swan’s Satanic Panic to Anti-Woke Pipeline

Sat, 14 Jan 2023 16:00:00 -0000

How do the screams of the Satanic Panic echo in anti-woke politics?

This past week, New Age Satanic Panic influencer Teal Swan released a new video to 1.5M YouTube subscribers about the dangers of "Wokeism." Yesterday, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) announced plans to form a Congressional Anti-Woke Caucus.

We know by now that conspirituality is a machine charismatics can use to generate mystical solutions to exaggerated or imagined crises. With Swan’s pivot into anti-woke discourse, she is taking the next logical step in broadening and secularizing her message.

What's not entirely clear is the pathway Swan has taken from Satanic Panic influencer to a New Age starseed, to unlicensed trauma recovery expert, to this potential future as a culture warrior. This Brief connects some of the dots, as the entanglement between New Age wellness objectives and reactionary populism tightens.

Show Notes

109. Who’s Afraid of Teal Swan? (w/Jon Kasbe)

111: Who's Afraid of Teal Swan (pt 2) (w/Jennings Brown)

UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 1 | Close to Home (please search "Swan Song Series to find all unlocked episodes)

From QAnon to Anti-Woke. A New Age guru pivots to a new… | by Matthew Remski

Qanon - The Great Awakening: PsyOp or the Real Deal? - Piercing the Veil of Reality Bernhard Guenther

The January 6th Capitol Siege has indelibly linked QAnon to domestic terrorism.

The deletion of vast networks of QAnon influencers and groups from social channels like FB and Twitter

Cullen Hoback’s Q: Into the Storm documentary

Rep. Jim Banks announces the Anti-Woke Caucus

Fighting the Woke Agenda in Congress - The American Mind

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Twitter’s moderation system is in tatters

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136: Virtual Strongmen (w/Ruth Ben-Ghiat)

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Where have all the strongmen gone, long time scrolling? Where have all the strongmen gone, long time ago? Where have all the strongmen gone? Gone to posting, everyone. Oh when will they ever turn off their phones? Not anytime soon. Trump on Truth Social, Modi on Instagram, Bolsonaro tweeting from a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Miami.

Today we’re looking at the new strongmen at the top of our political circuses. According to our guest, strongman-whisperer historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, they’re of new breed. They’re not the steampunk fascists of 100 years ago. They’re not Cold War autocrats, installed by the CIA. These guys are posters. They do not need to seize the means of production. Their goal is to disrupt the production of meaning.

Julian’s interview with Ben-Ghiat gives us a great opportunity to look at the strongman fetish in conspirituality, and to rate the top male influencers in our book on a scale of 10 Gaddafis.

Show Notes

Who is the 'Trump of the Tropics?': Brazil's divisive new president, Jair Bolsonaro— in his own words

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CPOntario vs J B Peterson

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Brief: Is Jordan Peterson Really a Licensed Psychologist? (w/Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee)

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 16:00:00 -0000

In November, the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO)—through which Jordan Peterson must be licensed in order to treat private clients—opened an investigation into complaints over his Twitter behavior. A few days ago, he publishing the disciplinary paper trail to Twitter, but failed to properly redact the names of complainants.

Mystery questions:

Can you shitpost at public servants, dox complainants, misgender people, call doctors who provide gender-affirming care “monsters,” cavort with fascists, and fat shame random swimsuit models to millions of people on Twitter and continue to be a licensed psychologist in the province of Ontario?

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee joins me to do some 101 work on JP’s commitments to the profession that gives him clout and credibility. She is a clinical psychologist and the Director and Founder of Silm Centre for Mental Health. She teaches psychology and ethics at Adler Graduate Professional School, and is adjunct professor at Lakehead. Some of her concentration areas include intimate partner violence, stigma, social justice, and cultural competence.

Show Notes

Howard Levitt: What's happening to Jordan Peterson could happen to anyone now

When Your Psychologist Goes Viral: How Jordan Peterson's Fame Affected His Private Practice

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Will the Real Tesla Founder Please Stand Up?

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Bonus Sample: A Little Birdie Told Me

Mon, 09 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

While the Twitter Files revealed...not much at all...the right continues to push Elon Musk's "revelations" as hard as Hunter Biden's magical laptop, which seems to absorb every ill in society like Pandora's infamous box. And then there's Russell Brand, who can't turn away from a good conspiracy, or a bad one. He talks about Hunter's laptop and more with Matt Taibbi in a recent hour-long Rumble session.

This week is part one of Derek and Julian's deconstruction of what went down, why it ultimately doesn't matter, and why it matters very much to both Brand's and Taibbi's brand building.

Show Notes

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UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 2

Sat, 07 Jan 2023 18:00:00 -0000

Matthew and Julian sit down for the second of a two-part examination of the 1988 bestseller at the heart of the recovered memory movement. This is episode 10 of the Swan Song Series.

Show Notes

Controversy Behind the False Memory Syndrome Foundation

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Truth and reconciliation

Cases That Have Resulted in Convictions

Why The Courage to Heal Isn't on My Recommended Reading List

Creating Hysteria

25 Years of Trauma Treatment Networker 2014

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135: The Persuaders (w/Anand Giridharadas)

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

Happy New Year, Conspirituality listeners!

As with the much anticipated midterm elections, the holiday season is now officially behind us. Which means that in addition to any of the colds, flu, and COVID strains circulating, many of our listeners may still be in recovery mode from family time.

We're specifically referring to political tensions over the holiday dinner table. You know, the vegan sister insisting on a land acknowledgment before the QAnon uncle says grace, while the anti-vax aunt rants at her to take off her mask. Can somebody pass the apple pie?

Our guest today is journalist, author, and political analyst, Anand Giridharadas. Julian spoke with him about his new book, The Persuaders, in which he profiles people on the ground working to change minds, bridge divisions and fight for democracy. The Persuaders offers inspiration to those who refuse to accept that a rigid polarization in which no one ever changes their mind, is the new normal.

Show Notes

How to Become a Better Persuader

Understanding Your Circle of Influence: Calling In with Loretta Ross

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Libs of TikTok has become central to right wing politics - The Washington Post

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Bonus Sample: Punching Down & Male Fragility

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 11:00:00 -0000

The Hodgetwins’ brand of comedy relies on punching down, not nuance or storytelling—or being based in reality in any meaningful way. They’ll take a subject, make fun of it, then sometimes moralize about why they’re right on a topic—especially when it comes to their version of masculinity.

Derek looks at these twins' vitriolic humor and places it in the context of competition. Whether they're preaching transphobia, fat-shaming, or other forms of bigotry, what they're revealing is really male fragility, not the all-important masculinity they profess.

Show Notes

The Racist Roots of Fighting Obesity

The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI

Breaking Down the ‘Wellness-Industrial Complex,’ an Episode at a Time

Frans de Waal: The surprising science of alpha males

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Brief: Libs Of TikTok Cries Cult

Fri, 30 Dec 2022 17:00:00 -0000

Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok calls the LGBTQ+ community a cult. Does this mean the term has lost all meaning?

Searching for the roots of Raichik's abuse of cult discourse leads Matthew back through a cursed gender critical message board to an ill-conceived Twitter thread by cult expert Steve Hassan.

A Conspirituality Brief on what happens when fascists seize control of highly-charged explanatory tools.

Show Notes

Twitter account Libs of TikTok blamed for harassment of children's hospitals

The artificial growth of hate speech

The Happy-Go-Lucky Jewish Group That Connects Trump and Putin - POLITICO Magazine

Cross-Dressing - Parshat Ki Teitzei - Chabad.org

Secret LGBTQ Chabad Group Fills Void - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

'Social contagion' isn’t causing more youths to be transgender, study finds

Meet Chris Elston, the BC Man Taking Anti-Trans Hate On Tour Across Canada

Chris Elston: Woman followed by man demanding trans health 'education'

Study finds 2.5% of transgender kids go through detransition

Detransition Facts and Statistics 2022: Exploding the Myths Around

Hassan's main detrans Twitter thread

Hassan's other detrans Twitter thread

The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control: Undue Influence, Thought Reform, Brainwashing, Mind Control, Trafficking and the Law - ProQuest

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Show Notes

Controversy Behind the False Memory Syndrome Foundation

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Truth and reconciliation

Cases That Have Resulted in Convictions

Why The Courage to Heal Isn't on My Recommended Reading List

Creating Hysteria

25 Years of Trauma Treatment Networker 2014

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UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 1

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew and Julian sit down for the first of a two-part examination of the 1988 bestseller at the heart of the recovered memory movement—which played a central role in validating Satanic Panic testimonials. This is episode 9 of the Swan Song Series 9.

The basic premise of The Courage to Heal, by creative writing instructors Ellen Bass and Laura Davis, is that memories of childhood abuse, especially child sexual abuse, can be recovered and articulated by survivors who are given the proper space, tools, and validation. The book explores how this be facilitated within the context of journaling, writing poetry, and writing memoir, and what the therapeutic benefits of full confessional articulation can be.

While countless people affirm that this book was a lifeline during a time in which recovery resources for child abuse survivors were rare, there are substantial problems with the book's method, claims about memory, dodgy sources, and endorsement of outright Satanic Panic propaganda.

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Bonus Sample: Growing Up in Scientology pt 2 (w/Sarah)

Mon, 26 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Part 2 of Matthew's conversation with Sarah.

Sarah grew up in the Church of Scientology. But she also grew up in a small town. And, in a neurodiverse family.

We come from so many places. Exploitative, hierarchical, hypocritical. Generous, tender, and odd.

It is an honor to present this installment of Listeners' Stories. We're tickled to learn that Sarah's awakening from Scientology was quickened by that South Park episode. And we're humbled to learn about how her mother, despite being deeply enmeshed in a coercive cult, still managed to kindle both compassion and common sense in her children.

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UNLOCKED: Girl, Interrupted (pt 2)

Sat, 24 Dec 2022 14:00:00 -0000

The second part of Julian and Matthew's long look at the 1999 film Teal Swan was reportedly obsessed with as a teen. Girl, Interrupted is a freewheeling adaptation of a 1993 memoir by Susanna Kaysen about the 18 months she spent undergoing treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder in a Massachusetts psychiatric facility in the late 1960s. This episode 8 of the Swan Song Series.

This study is provoked by a memory recounted by Swan's childhood friend, Diana Hansen Ribera, that Swan identified with the character of Lisa Rowe in the film. Angelina Jolie won an Oscar for her searing performance of Rowe, a sociopath.

In this second episode, we explore several characters that Swan may have (and may yet) identify with, discuss the awkwardness of portraying mental health narratives on the big screen, and what it would really take for such an intense film to be digestible for typical teenagers. Matthew ends with a meditation on immersive/claustrophobic media—which Swan goes on to master—compared with the relief of developing a meta-view capable of inhabiting many stories, as opposed to imitating one.

Show Notes

SENECA THE YOUNGER, HERCULES FURENS - Theoi Classical Texts Library

Hercules (Seneca)

Girl, Interrupted — Susanna Kaysen

1607: Growing up with Teal Swan - Diana Hansen Ribera

Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors by Lisa Appignanesi

Brittany Murphy: Inside Her Sudden Death at 32 That Still Confounds Hollywood

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134: Elon Musk, Buddhabro? (w/Ann Gleig and Brenna Artinger)

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Elon, Elon, who are you? Where is your essential self? Where are you as you soar through your space fantasies, as you track and hedge and bet your billions, wondering if all those emeralds gave you an unfair advantage in life?

What is the weather like on Mars? Have you found yourself yet, hiding in millions of lines of self-driving code? Have you found your own face as you surveil your quivering workforce, bunking in the San Francisco headquarters you stopped paying rent on?

Is the real you playing endless video games, getting stoned with Joe Rogan, making an eleventh baby with a fourth partner? Do you feel you’re connected to everything when you post at the speed of light?

As Musk teeters on the brink of ego death and financial annihilation, Matthew wonders about his inner life, especially after he dropped a Buddhist-type Easter Egg in a tweeted photo of his bedside table.

Is Elon Musk a Buddha-bro? No surprise if he was. After all, a big chunk of American Buddhism lines up perfectly with Musk's reactionary centrism, performative transcendence, bog-standard conspiracism, and culture war shitposting.

Here to help us understand this strange world—and what kind of Buddhism could make Elon Musk a better human, if he gave a shit—are Dr. Ann Gleig, Aassociate Professor of religion and cultural studies at University of Central Florida, and independent scholar Brenna Artinger. We’ll be focusing on their awesome paper, “#BuddhistCultureWars: BuddhaBros, Alt-Right Dharma, and Snowflake Sanghas,”

Show Notes

Adam Jensen | Deus Ex Wiki

THE CALIFORNIAN IDEOLOGY

Mindfulness in Silicon Valley | Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School

#BuddhistCultureWars: BuddhaBros, Alt-Right Dharma, and Snowflake Sanghas

Reactionary White Buddhists Have Joined The Fight Against Critical Race Theory

Why Are White Buddhists So Angry?

A Murky Scandal Involving a Powerful Punk Rock Dharma Teacher Is Dividing a Major Buddhist Community

Leaked Internal Report: Famous Buddhist Leader Noah Levine Was Accused of Rape and Assault

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Bonus Sample: Growing Up in Scientology (w/Sarah)

Mon, 19 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Sarah grew up in the Church of Scientology. But she also grew up in a small town. And, in a neurodiverse family.

We come from so many places. Exploitative, hierarchical, hypocritical. Generous, tender, and odd.

It is an honor to present this installment of Listeners' Stories. We're tickled to learn that Sarah's awakening from Scientology was quickened by that South Park episode. And we're humbled to learn about how her mother, despite being deeply enmeshed in a coercive cult, still managed to kindle both compassion and common sense in her children.

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133: Grifts That Keep on Taking (w/Kevin Klatt)

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Remember way back to the beginning of this podcast, shortly after “Plandemic” dropped, when wellness influencers immediately began selling supposed “immune supporting” supplements? That trend has only intensified in recent months, with grifters like Peter McCullough and Mikki Willis getting in on the supplement game. In part three of his trilogy on supplements, Derek talks with dietician Kevin Klatt about what supplements are actually good for—as well as how this unregulated industry is monetizing fears around future viruses.

They also discuss the wild west of nootropics, supposed brain-enhancing substances that don’t scare you about pandemics, but instead make you believe that with just a little more optimization you’ll be the most perfect you possible…until another product drop, that is. To discuss the world of lack that other influencers capitalize on, we’ll discuss the annual A Fest, a TED-style wellness gathering for millionaires that banks on you never actually feeling content in your life, but instead chasing a promise of unachievable eternal betterment.

Show Notes

Inside the Wellness Festival for Millionaires

Human Rights Watch: Jordan

Kevin Klatt on Instagram | Twitter

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Brief: The Right-Wing Machinery of Stochastic Terror

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0000

In this special report, Julian examines how the machinery of right-wing propaganda engineers the necessary conditions for stochastic terror. The recent waves of dehumanizing anti-LGBTQ bigotry heighten the probability of extremist violence. When it happens—as in November's tragic mass-shooting at Club Q, pointing this out leads right-wing media to quickly accuse the left of exploiting tragedy. Worse still, we're supposedly defending "groomers" and "child mutilation."

Meanwhile literal swastika flag-waving Nazis, as well as Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and other armed militia-types are increasingly showing up outside LGBTQ venues across the country. Terrorists deliberately sabotaged a North Carolina power grid, in an act many believe was designed to stop a drag show. Forty thousand people were without power for four days in early December as a result.

At the epicenter of this latest toxic culture war shock-wave is The Daily Wire. Funded by idiosyncratic religious fundamentalists who believe abortion and homosexuality are not only sins, but should be crimes—their roster of edgy, slickly produced personalities, like Ben Shapiro, Matt Walsh, Candace Owens, and now, Jordan Peterson, all go hard on the ugliest characterizations, both of LGBTQ people, and of the teachers and doctors who care for them. Julian shows how they have picked up on James Lindsay's outrageous conspiracy claim of a "handshake agreement" between communists and pedophiles, and how the "grass roots" moral panic org. with super PAC funding, Moms for Liberty, is hijacking school boards in Red states and Blue.

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Re P and Q (Children: Care Proceedings: Fact Finding)

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Bonus Sample: Leaving S-Factor pt. 2 (w/Jessica Hopper)

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 10:00:00 -0000

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UNLOCKED: Girl, Interrupted (pt 1)

Sat, 10 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Julian and Matthew take a long look at the 1999 film Teal Swan was reportedly obsessed with as a teen. Girl, Interrupted is a bold adaptation of a 1993 memoir by the writer Susanna Kaysen about the 18 months she spent undergoing treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder in a Massachusetts psychiatric facility in the late 1960s. This is episode 7 of the Swan Song Series.

This study is provoked by a memory recounted by Swan's childhood friend, Diana Hansen Ribera, that Swan identified with the character of Lisa Rowe in the film. Angelina Jolie won an Oscar for her searing performance of Rowe, a sociopath.

Show Notes

Girl, Interrupted — Susanna Kaysen

1607: Growing up with Teal Swan - Diana Hansen Ribera

Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors by Lisa Appignanesi | Goodreads

Brittany Murphy: Inside Her Sudden Death at 32 That Still Confounds Hollywood

Girl, Interrupted at her Music. Vermeer. 1660.

It’s the painting from whose frame a girl looks out, ignoring her beefy music teacher, whose proprietary hand rests on her chair. The light is muted, winter light, but her face is bright. I looked into her brown eyes and I recoiled. She was warning me of something—she had looked up from her work to warn me. Her mouth was slightly open, as if she had just drawn a breath in order to say to me, “Don’t!” I moved backward, trying to get beyond the range of her urgency. But her urgency filled the corridor. “Wait,” she was saying, “wait! Don’t go!” — Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted

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132: Ye, Balenciaga, & Twilight Zone Propaganda (w/Francesca Tripodi)

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0000

We didn't have tracking BDSM Easter eggs in fashion shoots or Ye’s Jew-hating Christofascism on our bingo card. But here we are, covering a cluster of cursed images and hypomanic clips.

We’ll stare right at the train wreck this week, but we refuse to feel hopeless. Because we can always learn—in this case about how the psychic and bodily impacts of this churn of bizarre hatred relate to the function of propaganda. And we can always be inspired by people who slow down and do the hard work of understanding the spectacle.

From our side of the progressive aisle, it's easy to assume that consumers of Ye and conspiracy theories are gullible cultural dopes. But our guest today, sociologist and media scholar at UNC, Chapel Hill, Francesca Tripodi says "not so fast!" To understand how right-wing propaganda functions, she spent months consuming a conservative digital news-diet and went undercover in hard-right circles.

Show Notes

Kanye "Ye" West—The Emperor w/No Clothes (TimbahOnToast)

Balenciaga and the long history of "shockvertising"

Jewish Allies Denounce Trump's Dinner w/Antisemites

Masked Ye West Praises Hitler on Alex Jones' InfoWars

Proud Boy Founder Gavin McInnes Hosts Ye West

QAA 210: Balenciaga, Ye, Club Q

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Bonus Sample: Leaving S-Factor pt. 1 (w/Jessica Hopper)

Mon, 05 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Those who fly high, fall hard. Pole dance company S-Factor crashed and burned in 2021 amidst a stack of complaints. Detractors said the company was conducting unlicensed group therapy, cosplaying enlightenment by co-opting the labour of sex workers, and whitewashing issues of racial equality.

Created by former actor Sheila Kelley, S-Factor monetized pole dancing as a path of feminist and spiritual awakening.

In this second installment of Listener Stories (part 2 next week), Matthew speaks to Jessica Hopper about her 13 years learning and teaching in the now-defunct company. Hopper paints a picture of a confusing, high-demand group, and tells us how she made her way out.

Show Notes

Stripped Down: The Undoing of Hollywood's Favorite Pole-Dancing Studio —Hollywood Reporter.

"Strip Down, Rise Up" | Official Trailer | Netflix

Faces of Fierce Femininity—online conference organized by Kelly Brogan

Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema—Laura Mulvey, 1975

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Brief: Digging up the Hampstead Hoax (w/Alexi Mostrous)

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Matthew checks in with investigative journalist Alexi Mostrous on his fantastic work digging up the Hampstead Hoax.

Show Notes

Hoaxed — Tortoise Media

Jacqui Farmer's "Hampstead Research"

Charlotte Ward’s conspirituality.org About page

Hoaxtead Research

-- -- --

Show Notes

The New Age / Medieval Mortifications of Jordan Peterson | by Matthew Remski | Medium

That FB post about Peterson and Yumi Nu

Yumi Nu cleverly responds to Jordan Peterson's 'not beautiful' comment' | indy100

Simulacra and Simulations — Baudrillard

Government Bill (House of Commons) C-16 (42-1) - First Reading - An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code - Parliament of Canada

Canada's gender identity rights Bill C-16 explained

Four years on, past critics are silent on whether fears around transgender human rights bill were founded

An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code

Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect

I Was in the Room While Jordan Peterson and Senators Debated My Human Rights

Lies of the land: against and beyond Paul Kingsnorth's völkisch environmentalism

What Speaking Like Jordan Peterson Probably Feels Like

J

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

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131: Parasite Cleanses are Full of Sh*t (feat Mallory DeMille)

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Did you know, right now, as you sit there listening to this, your body is filled with parasites that need to be cleansed? Of course, that’s if you live in America, since every other country on the planet cleanses four times a year. Seriously. We heard it on TikTok.

Scrolling through the gutters of TikTok is challenging for us Gen Xers, and so our TikTok correspondent, Mallory DeMille, has done the dirty work for us. After laying out an all-too-common supplement scam, she looks at the shitty world of parasite cleanses where budding influencers snap strange shots of their feces before scaring you into their downline. I’ll also preview a bit of my upcoming conversation with dietician Kevin Klatt, who’s been tracking this TikTok trend with dismay as well. He’ll bring the science while Mallory breaks down the techniques.

Show Notes

Mallory DeMille on Twitter

Kevin Klatt on Instagram

Parasite cleanses are ‘modern snake oil.’ Experts explain why.

Mason Kuhr on TikTok

Stampede Network on TikTok

Kim Rogers on TikTok

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Bonus Sample: The Super Best Most Pure Immune-Boosting Supplement Ever (Until Next Week)

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 14:00:00 -0000

Are you ready for the bestest, purest immunity-boosting supplement in the history of the world? No, not that one. Only I have discovered what really works, and I'll share it with you this week.

Ok, not quite, but Derek looks at a recent JAMA study that found many of the top 30 supplements sold on Amazon don't contain what they claim. He opens by looking at Mikki Willis's latest best supplement ever, as well as a naturopath and her binder filled with detoxing supplement protocols.

Show Notes

Wellness influencers don't understand history

Does Z-Stack multivitamin work to boost the immune system, and is it safe?

Analysis of Select Dietary Supplement Products Marketed to Support or Boost the Immune System

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130: Can We Stop Abusing Fat People? (w/Aubrey Gordon)

Thu, 24 Nov 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Well jeez. What can we say? We're totally honored to host and learn from Aubrey Gordon, author and co-host of Maintenance Phase. She gives us the rundown on anti-fat bias, its links to racism, the soft eugenics of the BMI, the insincere "concern" of the slender, and the intellectual and moral dead end of "being fat is a choice." We also get into some psychothinalysis. Oh yes we do.

It's super inspiring to interview someone with a deep command of crucial material, plus the ability to pivot in startling directions, plus the skill to listen as fluently as they speak, plus all that warmth and welcome and empathy and accessibility. Thanks Aubrey!

Show Notes

Your Fat Friend website

What We Don't Talk About When We Talk About Fat

“You Just Need to Lose Weight” AND 19 OTHER MYTHS ABOUT FAT PEOPLE—Preorder

Maintenance Phase

Correction section: The NHS was limiting care for fat people and smokers *before* the pandemic (The Guardian), but backed off of that stance *during* the pandemic (NYT) before naming weight loss as one of its primary COVID strategies (Time Magazine).

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Bonus Sample: The Courage to Heal Pt. 2

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew and Julian sit down for the second of a two-part examination of the 1988 bestseller at the heart of the recovered memory movement. This is episode 10 of the Swan Song Series.

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UNLOCKED: Michelle Remembers: Literal Symbols

Sat, 19 Nov 2022 21:00:00 -0000

The homestretch of our study of Michelle Remembers zeroes in on the literal symbols—and symbols gone literal—of the Satanic Panic. (This is episode 6 of the Swan Song Series.)

Archetypes, gore, anxieties about sex and babies and filth: Lawrence Pazder mined it all, using modes of abstraction and dehumanization as old as religion itself to weave a story he claimed was all about Michelle—but was really an exercise of his own fetishes.

Michelle Smith could have received proper care for her understandable stresses. She could have offered up her feelings and sensations and images from dreams for discussion and contemplation, and an actual therapist would have held that material safely for her to explore. But in Pazder, Smith found someone who wasn’t interested in common human complexity. He was interested in cosmic warfare, and the role he could LARP within it.

But Pazder was so blind to his craven narcissism that he couldn’t help but tell on himself. In the final passage we analyze, Pazder records Smith demanding to end therapy. “If I could tear out my tongue,” she says, “I would never have to speak again.” But in the very next paragraph, the man who is forcing her to “remember” symbolically tears out her tongue, rejecting her plea to end the sessions, interpreting her demand as though it were coming from Satan himself.

She imagines herself getting in a car and driving and driving, anywhere. Away from this psychiatrist who wanted to be an exorcist, away from his story, perhaps to find her own.

Show Notes

HIGHEST GAME IN TOWN

‘I See His Blood Upon the Rose’

How to Lose Weight (Weight Loss and Obesity) - Teal Swan

The Cause of Obesity - Teal Swan Articles

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129: White Christian Nationalism (w/Philip Gorski & Samuel Perry)

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 11:00:00 -0000

American-style white Christian Nationalism tells of a promised land given by God to the Puritan settlers. Their divine mandate for political dominance sanctifies a violent history that stretches from the 1690's all the way through to modern right-wing politics.

Our interview today is with sociologists, Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry, authors of The Flag and The Cross. We discuss their study of Christian Nationalism as a white supremacist phenomenon that has always leaned into conspiracism and a primordial obsession with blood purity and blood sacrifice.

With the dreaded midterm elections now in our rearview, Derek covers the Muscular Christian masturbation rules of bro-science influencer Ben Greenfield, while we reflect on the prophesied red wave that never crashed.

Show Notes

The Flag and the Cross—Gorski and Perry

Is Christian nationalism growing or declining? Both.

Most Republicans Support Declaring the United States a Christian Nation

Rally Urges US Midterm Voting Connected to Christianity

Ben Greefield: How I Practice The Spiritual Disciplines, Practical Ways To Build Your Spiritual Muscles, Listener Q&A On God, Religion, Reincarnation, Masturbation & Much More.

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Bonus Sample: Kanye, Candace & The Christian Billionaires

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Antisemitism is in the news again, as Candace Owens defends Kanye West and Kyrie Irving, while her boss, Ben Shapiro shakes his head in dismay. In this Bonus special report, Julian looks into the Assembly of Yahweh family, which funds conservative new media giants, The Daily Wire and PragerU.

How do we make sense of the racial and religious tensions created by the strange bedfellow alliances of right-wing propaganda?

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128: The Trauma of Caste (w/Thenmozhi Soundararajan)

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 10:00:00 -0000

An ancient text at the root of the culture that gave birth to the yoga tradition says that if an outcaste person—a Dalit—dares to learn the holy language of Sanskrit, they must be tortured. Molten lead must be poured into their ears. Their tongue must be cut out.

In the Ramayana, a Shudra (caste oppressed) who dared to practice yoga was murdered so that the sickly child of a priestly family might regain his health. In the Mahabharata, an Adivasi (South Asian Indigenous) boy is commanded to cut off his own thumb for the sin of being self-taught and skilled above his station. The pious are told that these obscene retributions maintain the divine order.

Indian wisdom traditions have globalized to the extent that its evangelists have laundered the spiritualization of caste-based violence, and hidden its history from erstwhile progressives. Many of those evangelists have either been caste privileged, or caste apologists. The yoga they constructed for export has become a form of soft power, serving Hindu nationalist objectives.

The Trauma of Caste: A Dalit Feminist Meditation on Survivorship, Healing, and Abolition by Thenmozhi Soundararajan puts this history under a microscope. It pulls back the curtain on the carceral impacts of terms like dharma and karma, and concepts like purity, pollution, and reincarnation.

In terms of our work here at Conspirituality, Soundararajan's text cuts through the romantic Orientalism used by influencers, cult leaders, and nationalists to exploit emotional vulnerabilities. It also points to—and updates—a vision of spiritual practice first articulated by the Dalit leader B. R. Ambedkar, rooted in the ancient Buddhist call to compassion and equality.

Show Notes

The Trauma of Caste by Thenmozhi Soundararajan

Thenmozhi Soundararajan: Transmedia Artist, Theorist & Futurist

B. R. Ambedkar

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Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 9 | Courage to Heal Pt. 1

Mon, 07 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Matthew and Julian sit down for the first of a two-part examination of the 1988 bestseller at the heart of the recovered memory movement—which played a central role in validating Satanic Panic testimonials.

The basic premise of The Courage to Heal, by creative writing instructors Ellen Bass and Linda Davis, is that memories of childhood abuse, especially child sexual abuse, can be recovered and articulated by survivors who are given the proper space, tools, and validation. The book explores how this be facilitated within the context of journaling, writing poetry, and writing memoir, and what the therapeutic benefits of full confessional articulation can be.

While countless people affirm that this book was a lifeline during a time in which recovery resources for child abuse survivors were rare, there are substantial problems with the book's method, claims about memory, dodgy sources, and endorsement of outright Satanic Panic propaganda.

Show Notes

Controversy Behind the False Memory Syndrome Foundation

The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

Truth and reconciliation

Cases That Have Resulted in Convictions

Why The Courage to Heal Isn't on My Recommended Reading List | HealthyPlace
Creating Hysteria

25 Years of Trauma Treatment Networker 2014

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UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 5 | Michelle Remembers: Themes & Framing

Sat, 05 Nov 2022 15:00:00 -0000

In the second of three episodes on Michelle Remembers, we recap its Catholic contexts, and Lawrence Pazder's quest to transcend the limitations of psychiatry through mystical nightmares. We then explore the front matter: how Pazder introduces his project (and himself), and the ambivalent endorsement of Remi de Roo, Archbishop of Victoria. In Pazder's many clerical alliances, a crucial theme is established: the rapprochement between psychiatry and the priesthood, in which the former submits to the latter to restore the reality of the supernatural.

We also look at the pre-emptively defensive intro penned by the publisher, Thomas B. Congdon Jr. He claimed to have verified the substance of the book through interviews, and thought that Pazder and Smith were very earnest and forthcoming people when he hosted them for editorial meetings. Okay sure.

Show Notes

Remi De Roo

Thomas B. Congdon, Editor of Best Sellers Like 'Jaws,' Dies at 77

The Beginning of a Community

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127: Doing Good in Impossibly Bad Times (w/Rebecca Carter-Chand, Mark Roseman & Peter Staudenmaier)

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Mark Roseman opens Lives Reclaimed, his compelling history of the “Bund”—a leftist communitarian group that resisted fascism and protected Jews during the Reich—with a quote from Michael Ondaatje’s novel The Cat’s Table: “That was a small lesson I learned on the journey. What is interesting and important happens mostly in secret, in places where there is no power.” Roseman, a professor of Jewish and German Studies at University of Indiana at Bloomington, joins Matthew to paint a picture of methodical, relational, and spiritual resistance to the speed and terror of fascism. At the center of the conversation is the quandary of how the Bund made generative use of many of the same naturalistic and spiritualist ideals and practices that were central to the physical culture of fascism. Joining the panel are Peter Staudenmaier, professor of modern Germany history at Marquette, and Rebecca Carter-Chand, historian at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Peter and Rebecca add their expertise on the tangled ferment of religious and ideological passions in the background of Nazism, and how persistent, even through the worst of times, our flickers of altruism and empathy can be.

But before all that: we’ll cover the Q-pilled assassination attempt on Nancy Pelosi that has left Paul Pelosi in urgent care, and far-right media scrambling to overwrite the facts.

Show Notes

Lives Reclaimed — Roseman

Dr. Rebecca Carter-Chand — United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Dr. Peter Staudenmaier - History

The Futurist Manifesto Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

The Awful Truth: Paul Pelosi Was Drunk Again, And In a Dispute With a Male Prostitute Early Friday Morning.

Pelosi attack suspect David DePape shared conspiracy theories

Criminal complaint: David Depape

Depape’s archived site

Pelosi attacker was immersed in 2020 election conspiracies

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Bonus Sample: Shurka Tank

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Imagine a technology so powerful it's been directly downloaded from spirit during a Scorpio eclipse. This revolutionary tool can cure burn victims, remove cysts from dogs, and endow you with ultimate productivity. Thanks to phase conjugation, this bioenhanced scalar tech will change the way you view medicine and healing forever—provided you don't have any expectations and remain open to source, that is. And whatever any of that means, Derek will try to decipher—and fail, though some other aspects become clearer in the process.

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126: Light Language TikTok (feat Mallory DeMille)

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Listeners: today’s episode marks a turning point for us all here at Conspirituality HQ.

Humbled by a recent quantum download, we realize that we have for too long been relying on our critical faculties. For too long we have insisted that words mean things. Our poisoned irony has calcified our throat chakras and burned your ears to the point you may never trust a spiritual influencer again.

Today we release our addiction to meaning, our fetish for precision in words. We begin to trust the inner babbler of heart-language. We hearken to the oracles, the speakers in tongues, the oompa loompa doompety doos, the glossalalics who trimper the ainions with seedgly refurns. Our hope is that with their help, we can begin to scrize the colong of wolfile stenoses.

But we cannot enter this new world of activated communication alone. Our guide today is correspondent Mallory DeMille, who comes to us from the land of TikTok, where Light Language has gone viral, and is making bank, bank, bankity bing bong bank.

Show Notes

Mallory on Instagram | Twitter

Kundun - Nechung oracle

Blonk performs Ursonate with real-time typography

Sofia for anxiety: Reply to @jennam1127 anxiety relief

Sofia: “Removing Darkness”

Sofia helping with everyone’s kidneys

Sofia’s light language was “opened up” by ayahuasca

Sofia has her activations turned into tie dye wraps so awesome

“Become a Light Language Practitioner” with Sofia

Sofia provides light language for loneliness

Sheryl presents: Light Language Love

Sheryl needs you to sit TF down

Sheryl’s waiver

Lily on

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Bonus Sample: Luciano's Good Death

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 09:00:00 -0000

A departure today, as Matthew eulogizes his teacher and friend Luciano Iacobelli.

From the opening:

This story may be a little personal and indulgent, but I’ll take a risk on it because I think it hints at an answer to a question we often get on the podcast about our own beliefs in the existential or spiritual categories.

We spend a lot of time eviscerating bog-standard hypocrisy in the economy of spirituality. Listeners resonate with this, but the project is also depressing, and in the parasocial contract they form with us, finding out that we still believe in something, or that something still provides relief—this becomes important.

It’s never a comfortable question to answer in the abstract. It's a gift when something comes along that shows instead of tells.

Show Notes

Conversation with Luciano Iacobelli

SEED Part One – Michael Barker

IN MEMORIAM: Remembering Luciano Iacobelli – Accenti Magazine

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125: Deliver Us From “Evil” (w/Amy Berg)

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 13:00:00 -0000

What is the state of the documentary film in the age of manipulative online propaganda? In the hands and eyes of a documentarian like Amy Berg we find a journalistic commitment to the truth combined with the artistry of compelling and intimate story-telling. Along the way, her projects are guided by an obsession with justice. In two cases—that of the West Memphis Three, and more recently the murder trial of Adnen Syed— her film-making played a role in changing the real-world narrative; leading to the release of those wrongfully convicted via cultural bias, moral panic, and conspiracy theories. In other instances Amy's work has embodied investigative journalism to show how real conspiracies hide the awful abuse of innocents, while protecting the powerful. We ask her how she measures her instincts against the evidence, how she gains the trust of people who have been ignored for decades, how she managed to log days of interview time with an abusive ex-priest, and how she keeps her mental health intact amidst all the uncertainty.

In This Week in Conspirituality, Matthew covers an example of the co-optation of trauma-informed jargon by women in the land of the Three Percenters.

Show Notes

Pro-Trump brand is fined by FTC for incorrect ‘Made in the USA’ labels

The Lion: Sean Whalen Is Empowering Thousands to Take Accountability for Their Lives

Aubrey Marcus's "Code of the Sentient Savage"

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Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 8 | Girl, Interrupted (pt 2)

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 10:00:00 -0000

The second part of Julian and Matthew's long look at the 1999 film Teal Swan was reportedly obsessed with as a teen. Girl, Interrupted is a freewheeling adaptation of a 1993 memoir by Susanna Kaysen about the 18 months she spent undergoing treatment for Borderline Personality Disorder in a Massachusetts psychiatric facility in the late 1960s.

This study is provoked by a memory recounted by Swan's childhood friend, Diana Hansen Ribera, that Swan identified with the character of Lisa Rowe in the film. Angelina Jolie won an Oscar for her searing performance of Rowe, a sociopath.

In this second episode, we explore several characters that Swan may have (and may yet) identify with, discuss the awkwardness of portraying mental health narratives on the big screen, and what it would really take for such an intense film to be digestible for typical teenagers. Matthew ends with a meditation on immersive/claustrophobic media—which Swan goes on to master—compared with the relief of developing a meta-view capable of inhabiting many stories, as opposed to imitating one.

Show Notes

SENECA THE YOUNGER, HERCULES FURENS - Theoi Classical Texts Library

Hercules (Seneca)

Girl, Interrupted — Susanna Kaysen

1607: Growing up with Teal Swan - Diana Hansen Ribera

Mad, Bad, and Sad: Women and the Mind Doctors by Lisa Appignanesi

Brittany Murphy: Inside Her Sudden Death at 32 That Still Confounds Hollywood

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124: No Bad Idea Ever Dies (w/Thomas Lecaque)

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 22:00:00 -0000

For the prophet and the revolutionary alike, the time is always now. Gird up your loins brave heroes, and show your true faith! The signs portend that The Last World Emperor is rising to do battle against the AntiChrist. The time is always now, but in that flat circle of iterative history, no bad idea is really new under the Black Sun—it's just been engineered to go more viral.

Our guest today is history professor Thomas Lecaque, who writes about how medieval ethnonationalist holy war is woven into hugely popular video games, right-wing political rhetoric, and even how assault weapons are marketed. Julian talks with him about the Hobbit-fetish of new Italian PM and heir to Mussolini, Giorgia Meloni, as well as the American right’s obsession with the Templar Knights, and the troubling midterm election trend of open White Christian Nationalism.

For TWIC, Matthew muses on the overlaps between conspirituality and neo-fascism, but first Derek reports on the battle between testicular cuisine and buttery coffee.

Show Notes

Manclan Episode 1: Liver King vs the Soy Boys

Cornell Expert Warns Against Megadosing Vitamins

Dietary Supplements Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report

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Bonus Sample: Methylene Blues

Mon, 10 Oct 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Methylene blue will give you more energy! It’s neuroprotective! Your skin will never look better! Your bunghole will never be bluer!

This week, Derek investigates one of biohacking’s hottest trends: a textile dye that does, in fact, have medical applications—just not the ones optimizers are promoting, and optimizing. He’ll look into this organic compound’s history, how it’s being marketed by the butter coffee guy, and finally, reading from Aubrey Marcus’s latest newsletter on blue buttholes.

Show Notes

So You Want to Pop Into a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber to Rid Yourself of Wrinkles?

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Get the Facts

When Medicines Go Rogue, Part 1: Methylene Blue

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UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

Sat, 08 Oct 2022 20:00:00 -0000

There's no Teal Swan without the Satanic Panic. And there's no Satanic Panic without the 1980 publication of Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith.

In this first of three segments on this melted book, Matthew and Julian cover its historical, cultural, and mass media context. We start with a review of a 1985 20/20 episode called “The Devil Worshippers” for a taste of how mainstream outlets hosted cranks like Pazder, giving him a hall pass on evidence, and overlooking how his Catholic fetishes and paranoias played a huge role in the fictions he spun.

The post Vatican 2 context is crucial, especially as we bear witness to the current political triumphs of Trad-Cath propaganda and politics in our post-Roe, QAnon -fried world. For help, we look to an excellent essay by social historian Bernard Doherty about the genre and elements of the Catholic Horror Film, which begins with Rosemary's Baby in 1968. This reactionary genre attempted to respond to modernizing—or postmodernizing, as Jordan Peterson might say—changes in Church doctrine.

Bottom line? The Satanic Panic largely begins in and is sustained by Catholic-flavoured conspirituality anxiety about secularization, sex, babies, and abortion.

CORRECTIONS: My dad informs me that I've made some Pope mistakes! Pius X was the last legitimate Pope according to the sedavacantists, and John XXIII, not Paul XXIII, opened the Vatican 2 proceedings. Thx dad. MR

Show Notes

Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall cover Michelle Remembers with great skill.

"20/20" the Devil Worshippers - May 16, 1985

West of Memphis movie review & film summary

Mel Gibson: The man without a pope

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

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123: The Red-Pilled "Academic" Who Named Our Podcast

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 22:00:00 -0000

Mystery topic today. Emergency episode. Breaking story. Amazing if true! Totally transformative plot twist. You gotta listen through for the big reveal, and then hit smash for more.

Spoiler alert: QAnon was foreshadowed by Pizzagate, but Pizzagate was foreshadowed by a moral panic in London, England that was driven in part by someone the three of us are karmically bound to, for good or ill, forever.

But first, Derek’s got a This Week in Conspirituality segment on the boom times for pseudoscience telehealth. Psychic healing for Zoom, as he calls it.

Show Notes

Network of right-wing health care providers is making millions off hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, hacked data reveals

The Anti-vax founder of America’s Frontline Doctors now has a license to practice in Florida

US cardiologist makes false claims about Covid-19 vaccination

Hoaxed

Teal Swan allegations documents

Re P and Q (Children: Care Proceedings: Fact Finding)

Jacqui Farmer's "Hampstead Research"

Illuminati Party! - Reasons Not to Be Scared of the Illuminati.

Charlotte Ward’s conspirituality.org About page

Full article: The Emergence of Conspirituality

Hoaxtead Research

Charlotte writing as Jacqui on conspirituality.org

Charlotte Ward denounces ‘Hampstead psy op’ | HOAXTEAD RESEARCH

Charlotte Ward - Academia.edu

Ward cites Icke

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Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 7 | Girl, Interrupted (pt 1)

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 10:00:00 -0000

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122: Timeline Retox: Biohacking and Fascism and Stuff

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 22:00:00 -0000

The book is filed. Our mental health is in check. And, as it turns out, Matthew found a new guru. We return to trio work by investigating his fellow Canadian's cure for, uh, anything, or maybe something, as well diving into two biohacking conferences and the conspiritualist's new favorite fascist on the block.

Show Notes

Tip of the iceberg: erectile dysfunction and COVID-19 | International Journal of Impotence Research

Will in the News, TV & Internet Culture

Umberto Eco Makes a List of the 14 Common Features of Fascism | Open Culture

The Cruelty Is the Point

Alessio Di Giulio's Racist Selfie With Roma Woman Enrages Italy

Meloni holding melons

CPAC: The Whole World is Watching - Giorgia Meloni

Dal rugby allo yoga, tutto lo sport di Giorgia Meloni

Pierre Poilievre rubs his old wood

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Bonus Sample: A Course in Monstrosities

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 13:00:00 -0000

If you tune into your favorite Instagram wellness influencer or financial life coach, you’ll learn that money is really a state of mind—right? Thinking the right thoughts is the truest judge of character, and therefore indicative of your bottom line. This week Derek looks at research from behavioral economics, which found the perceived relationship between wealth and morality dates back to post-WWII America—and has damaged the poorest among us for generations. He weighs evidence from this field, which looks at the real societal and political causes of wealth disparity, against the metaphysical bullshit that proponents of the “mindset creates wealth” uber-text, A Course in Miracles, try to sell you.

Show Notes

Why we shouldn’t push a positive mindset on those in poverty

The Causal Effects of Place on Health and Longevity

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UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 3 | Listening to Teal Swan’s Mom and Dad

Sat, 24 Sep 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Some of the most valuable material that come to us from Paula Marino's Open Shadow film of 2017 is an extended interview with Swan's parent's, the Bosworths. They speak about Swan's sensory sensitivity as a young child, and how that morphed into a staunchly independent but sometimes isolated social life. They describe Swan's secret runic writing, their belief in her capacities as a medical intuitive, and discuss the gaps in psychiatric care that failed them all when her mental health needed help. This episode examines this interview, and then cross-checks some aspects against the account of Swan's childhood friend, Diana Hansen Ribera.

Here we have the unique insight into parents speaking vulnerably and transparently about their baffling child—which means we can really lean into the primal material that pre-exists the charged questions about whether Teal Swan is running a cult or encouraging suicide. What we find, between the accounts of the Bosworths and Ribera, is a collection of commonplace phenomena: high sensitivity, parents learning as they go, the intrusion of internet pornography, and a likely abusive figure who was too close to the family.

In this episode, Matthew and Julian discuss the mystery of familial memory, idealizing vs. pathologizing children, the appeals of fantasy as a mode of relief, whether the Satanic Panic was a collective cry for help to resolve commonplace domestic and community abuse, and the possibility that cult formation is a social form of post traumatic play.

Show Notes

Open Shadow — Paula Marino

Do You Cry Easily? You May Be a 'Highly Sensitive Person'

The science behind why some of us are shy

Study: Pornography does not cause violent sex crimes

When Children Act Out Sexually: A Guide for Parents and Teachers

1607: Growing up with Teal Swan - Diana Hansen Ribera

“Forbidden Games”: Post-Traumatic Child's Play — Lenore Terr

Valerie L. Dripchak (2007). Posttraumatic Play: Towards Acceptance and Resolution. , 35(2), 125–134. doi:10.1007/s10615-006-0068-y

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121: The Gospel of Wellness (w/Rina Raphael)

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Are you ready to biohack your brain with buttered coffee? How about going “within” at the Drybar of acupuncture? What if we told you that cannabis will catapult your chakras into higher consciousness—all it costs is a $5,000 retreat entry fee, not including airfare and hotel? In the $4.4 trillion wellness industry, is any cost really too expensive to achieve true self-care—even if it never really seems like you arrive anywhere at all?

Rina Raphael was getting burnt out as a millennial digital news producer at NBC News. And so she did what anyone would do: she moved to Los Angeles in search of that self-care. Yet she could never shake her journalistic chops, and so she ended up writing about the wellness industry for the NY Times, the LA Times, Fast Company, and other publications. Her skeptical eye and earnest curiosity lead her to write her brand new book, The Gospel of Wellness: Gyms, Gurus, Goop, and the False Promise of Self-Care. And she’s here this week to talk to us this week about her adventures in modern spirituality—its teachings as well as its traps.

Show Notes

The Gospel of Wellness

Well To Do — Rina Raphael

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Bonus Sample: Listener Stories: Christina (part 2)

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Christina Flinders returns for the second of a two-part tour through her experience with cultic dynamics, conspirituality, and the long road towards finding her place in the world.

Picking up where she left off, Flinders discusses breaking free of the sexually abusive cult of Eknath Easwaren, finding ambivalent agency as a stripper, and then graduating to yoga teaching—where she then had to dodge being redpilled.

Thanks again to Christina for her generosity and lucidity, and her family for their support.

If you'd like to share your story with us and our Patreon community of listeners, please get in touch.

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120: Overripe Avocado (w/Jill Ettinger)

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Did you know that Joe Biden is a Satanic alien Nazi pedophile intent on bringing about the New World Order? Or that Donald Trump is the only thing that will save us from complete tyranny? How about the fact that COVID vaccines are bioweapons destroying the global population? But that’s okay, because colloidal silver is the magic bullet that will boost your immune system to help you fend off this scamdemic. Add that to your herbal stack alongside Lung Health Organic Herbal Spray which is definitively proven to boost your immunity even though it’s never been clinically tested.

Oh, and have we mentioned that chocolate is an octave of the sun?

Strap in, folks, because this week we’re finally looking at David “Avocado” Wolfe, whose paranoid Telegram channel boasts all of the above claims and much, much more. And we’re not just clipping recent podcast talks and driver’s seat rants. We’re joined by longtime journalist, health food marketing guru, and co-founder of the website, Ethos, Jill Ettinger, who worked side-by-side with David for many years. She’ll tell her side of it—and honestly, it’s not all bad, except for recent years. In effect, we’re looking at a conspiracy-prone health food guru turn full conspiritualist over the last two decades. Bonus: Jill brought Derek along to many events across the country in the aughts, and David was often there, so we’ll hear about this descent from people who watched it happen.

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Bonus Sample: Listener Stories: Christina (part 1)

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Christina Flinders is our honoured guest today for the first of a two-part tour through her experience with cultic dynamics and conspirituality. Matthew and Julian learn about her family's enmeshment in the cult of Eknath Easwaren, and her subsequent journey through rebellion, self discovery, and political awakening.

We'd like to thank Christina for her generosity and lucidity, and her family for supporting her in this.

We hope that this will be the first in a series. If you'd like to share your story with us and the Patreon community of listeners here, please get in touch.

Show Notes

Comment from Pratik Joshi on Easwaren's abuse history in India

PEOPLE v. RUPPENTHAL

Eknath Easwaran on the Training of Attention

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119: We Are Slenderman (w/Kathleen Hale)

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 10:00:00 -0000

On May 31st, 2014, Morgan Geyser stabbed her onetime best friend Bella Leutner nineteen times, while her new best friend, Anissa Weier, looked on. All three girls were twelve years old.

Geyser was living with schizophrenia, and Weier had introduced her to the crowd-sourced internet phantasm known as Slenderman, who first appeared on Something Awful, the message board at the root of chan culture. Together, Geyser and Weier came to believe that Slenderman was demanding a sacrifice in exchange for his protection. Their crime, at once naïve and brutal, sparked a moral panic.

Author Kathleen Hale joins Matthew to discuss her reporting on this story in her riveting and compassionate new book, Slenderman: Online Obsession, Mental Illness, and the Violent Crime of Two Midwestern Girls.

Slenderman is brimming with tenderness for these girls, who are all creative, confused, scared, and ultimately bound to each other through social contagion and mental illness. Hale's writing is accessible but elliptical as it uncovers jagged details, but never easy answers, about a world that predicts our own.

On this podcast we spend a lot of time on the virtual demons that animate conspirituality and QAnon, driving some devotees to violence. Hale's work is good medicine for those who know that internet chaos and mental precarity will remain locked in feedback loops for the foreseeable future. Her meticulous investigation—enriched by hours spent interviewing Morgan Geyser—shows that the road to understanding is always paved with empathy.

Show Notes

Slenderman — Kathleen Hale

Am I being catfished? An author confronts her number one online critic | Books | The Guardian

Folklore, Horror Stories, and the Slender Man: The Development of an Internet Mythology

The Slender Man Wiki | Fandom

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Bonus Sample: The Consciousness Instinct

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 13:00:00 -0000

As we're all with family over the holiday weekend, here's a 2018 interview that Derek conducted with neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga after the publication of his last book, The Consciousness Instinct: Unraveling the Mystery of How the Brain Makes the Mind. Michael revolutionized the field of neuroscience in the 1960s with his work on split-brain patients and remains a towering figure in his field.

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118: Detoxing From Wellness (w/Kerri Kelly)

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Do you ever stop to think about whether or not you can afford organic food—and then consider that many people don’t have such an option? Is Goop’s $295 incense holder a sign of feminine empowerment or merely another Gwneth Paltrow grift? Will that $32 spin class that features an endless litany of positive affirmations make you more likely to slip $5 to the homeless person camped outside of the studio—or does it increase your happiness or contentment levels at all, once the endorphins wear off?

These are just some of the questions posed by CTZNWELL founder, Kerri Kelly, in her new book, American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal. Beginning with her own transformational moment after 9/11, Kerri has long asked difficult questions of both herself and the industry she’s spent decades immersed in. In fact, while Derek and Julian were co-founding the Conspirituality pre-cursor, YogaBrains, over a decade ago, Kerri was an integral member of yoga-activist organization, Off the Mat, Into the World. She joins us this week as co-host to discuss her own origin myth and to tell us exactly how she’s detoxing from America these days.

Show Notes

American Detox: The Myth of Wellness and How We Can Truly Heal

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Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 6 | Michelle Remembers: Literal Symbols

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 11:00:00 -0000

The homestretch of our study of Michelle Remembers zeroes in on the literal symbols—and symbols gone literal—of the Satanic Panic. Archetypes, gore, anxieties about sex and babies and filth: Lawrence Pazder mined it all, using modes of abstraction and dehumanization as old as religion itself to weave a story he claimed was all about Michelle—but was really an exercise of his own fetishes.

Michelle Smith could have received proper care for her understandable stresses. She could have offered up her feelings and sensations and images from dreams for discussion and contemplation, and an actual therapist would have held that material safely for her to explore. But in Pazder, Smith found someone who wasn’t interested in common human complexity. He was interested in cosmic warfare, and the role he could LARP within it.

But Pazder was so blind to his craven narcissism that he couldn’t help but tell on himself. In the final passage we analyze, Pazder records Smith demanding to end therapy. “If I could tear out my tongue,” she says, “I would never have to speak again.” But in the very next paragraph, the man who is forcing her to “remember” symbolically tears out her tongue, rejecting her plea to end the sessions, interpreting her demand as though it were coming from Satan himself.

She imagines herself getting in a car and driving and driving, anywhere. Away from this psychiatrist who wanted to be an exorcist, away from his story, perhaps to find her own.

Show Notes

HIGHEST GAME IN TOWN

‘I See His Blood Upon the Rose’ | Franciscan Media

How to Lose Weight (Weight Loss and Obesity) - Teal Swan

The Cause of Obesity - Teal Swan Articles

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117: The Real Cost of Fitness in America (w/Natalia Petrzela)

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Fitness is the beating heart of America. No, wait, that’s opportunistic capitalism. But opportunistic capitalism, as it turns out, is the beating heart of fitness. Yet fitness has a soul too—in fact, mysticism, capitalism, and fitness have been dancing together for a very long time, while politics calls the tune, as historian and assistant professor at The New School, Natalia Petrzela, is here to tell us about today. We should also note that Natalia is our only four-time guest.

She’s also the author of an incredible new book, to be published this December by the University of Chicago Press, titled Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession. The book spans over a hundred years, chronicling shifting cultural attitudes, gendered expectations, political inflections, and jackpot innovations in how Americans have celebrated, reviled, bought, sold, and been turned-on or enlightened by rituals of exercise.

Like us, Natalia loves physical culture, but contradictions abound in the collisions between embodiment, politics, and commerce. If, as the marketing has told us over the years, recreational running is better for the mind than psychotherapy, moonlit naked hottubing at Esalen can save the world, women can simultaneously embrace dance studio fitness as a path of feminist liberation and a way to titilate the male gaze, and yoga can promise freedom from ever needing drugs or surgery, is it any wonder that a country so obsessed with exercise is so notoriously unhealthy?

Show Notes

Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession

From Performance to Participation: The Origins of the Fit Nation

Working On The Work of Working Out: A history of fitness in America

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Bonus Sample: JP Sears is Definitely Binary

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 13:00:00 -0000

JP Sears constantly refers to himself as a freethinker. His increasing religiosity is counter to critical thinking, however. Derek responds to two recent videos that detail his religious thinking and transphobia, showing how a specific strain of Christianity—and binary thinking—is not freethought, but propaganda.

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UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 2 | Teal Swan: Art & Artifice (w/Paola Marino)

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 13:00:00 -0000

In this episode of the Swan Song Series, Matthew interviews Paola Marino about why she found Teal Swan a fascinating subject to film for 2018’s “Open Shadow.” They discuss aesthetics, the mystery of personality, why Swan’s parents agreed to sit down with her. Matthew also surprised her with the newly-revealed translations of Swan’s coded journal pages.

Prefacing the interview is a discussion between Julian and Matthew about art, artifice, the risks of doing and not doing hard journalism on the subjects we cover. They discuss James Joyce’s proverb about noble art, in which he describes “aesthetic arrest” as the middle way between propaganda and pornography.

Marino’s work attempts to find that path, while Jon Kasbe’s The Deep End falters to both sides. On one hand Kasbe’s film titillates viewers with high drama. On the other hand it tells viewers what they should think. And in both cases it creates a story where the truth would suffice.

The feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to possess, to go to something; loathing urges us to abandon, to go from something. These are kinetic emotions. The arts which excite them, pornographical or didactic, are therefore improper arts. The esthetic emotion (I use the general term) is therefore static. The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing. —James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Show Notes

Open Shadow—Paola Marino

Gizmodo Launches 'The Gateway,' an Investigative Podcast About a Controversial Internet Spiritual Guru

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Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 5 | Michelle Remembers: Themes & Framing

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 09:00:00 -0000

In the second of three episodes on Michelle Remembers, we recap its Catholic contexts, and Lawrence Pazder's quest to transcend the limitations of psychiatry through mystical nightmares. We then explore the front matter: how Pazder introduces his project (and himself), and the ambivalent endorsement of Remi de Roo, Archbishop of Victoria. In Pazder's many clerical alliances, a crucial theme is established: the rapprochement between psychiatry and the priesthood, in which the former submits to the latter to restore the reality of the supernatural.

We also look at the pre-emptively defensive intro penned by the publisher, Thomas B. Congdon Jr. He claimed to have verified the substance of the book through interviews, and thought that Pazder and Smith were very earnest and forthcoming people when he hosted them for editorial meetings. Okay sure.

Show Notes

Remi De Roo - Wikipedia

Thomas B. Congdon, Editor of Best Sellers Like 'Jaws,' Dies at 77

The Beginning of a Community

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116: History is Not a Placebo: Chinese Medicine in America (w/Tamara Venit-Shelton)

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 21:00:00 -0000

Traditional Chinese Medicine is an ancient medical system that has persisted in its homeland for countless generations before being exported to the rest of the world—right? Well, not exactly, but that doesn’t mean the varying sets of practices have not made an impact in China and abroad.

This week, historian Tamara Venit-Shelton joins the podcast to talk to Derek about the history of Chinese Medicine in America. The author of Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace, they discuss the xenophobia and racism that Chinese encountered in the 19th century West, how early Chinese doctors used the exoticism of their system to their advantage when advertising to disaffected Americans who were suspicious of the dominant health care system, the moment that these varying practices became unified by Chairman Mao in the middle of the 20th century, and how the acupuncture needles we use today are not actually Chinese in origin—we can thank the Japanese for the world’s recent widespread adoption of that practice.

Show Notes

Herbs and Roots: A History of Chinese Doctors in the American Medical Marketplace

Tamara Venit-Shelton gets to the roots of Chinese medicine in America

Evidence Map of Acupuncture review of systematic reviews on 1,500 RCT’s.

David Gorski “Acupuncture is a theatrical placebo, retconned beyond recognition.”

$2.5 Spent—No Alternative Cures Found by the NCCIH

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Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 10:00:00 -0000

There's no Teal Swan without the Satanic Panic. And there's no Satanic Panic without the 1980 publication of Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder and Michelle Smith.

In this first of three segments on this melted book, Matthew and Julian cover its historical, cultural, and mass media context. We start with a review of a 1985 20/20 episode called “The Devil Worshippers” for a taste of how mainstream outlets hosted cranks like Pazder, giving him a hall pass on evidence, and overlooking how his Catholic fetishes and paranoias played a huge role in the fictions he spun.

The post Vatican 2 context is crucial, especially as we bear witness to the current political triumphs of Trad-Cath propaganda and politics in our post-Roe, QAnon -fried world. For help, we look to an excellent essay by social historian Bernard Doherty about the genre and elements of the Catholic Horror Film, which begins with Rosemary's Baby in 1968. This reactionary genre attempted to respond to modernizing—or postmodernizing, as Jordan Peterson might say—changes in Church doctrine.

Bottom line? The Satanic Panic largely begins in and is sustained by Catholic-flavoured conspirituality anxiety about secularization, sex, babies, and abortion.

Show Notes

Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall cover Michelle Remembers with great skill.

"20/20" the Devil Worshippers - May 16, 1985

West of Memphis movie review & film summary (2012) | Roger Ebert

Mel Gibson: The man without a pope - Where Peter Is

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology | Journal for the Academic Study of Religion

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UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 1 | Close to Home

Sat, 06 Aug 2022 14:00:00 -0000

We can't understand Teal Swan without understanding the Satanic Panic. And we can't really understand that historical disaster with out feeling our way into the mysteries of memory, fantasy, shame, and terror.

Many of you will have heard about therapists interfering in a family constellation by insinuating the client has has memories of abuse to uncover, and that they can’t go forward in their lives without doing that work. This is the bread and butter of Swan's technique, with the result being that many of her close followers come to tell stories about their childhoods that echo hers. Swan's own story of childhood abuse crystallized after she goes through treatment with a leading Satanic Panic therapist, Barbara Snow.

Those are stories on the page. But today, to kick off the Swan Song Series, Julian shares the moment-by-moment mechanics of how this disastrous parody of therapy turned his own life inside out, and alienated him from his family for a decade.

Content warning for listeners: we’ll be talking about stories of child sexual abuse.

Show Notes

The Gateway

Michelle Remembers, covered by Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes

Forrest Yoga students ask A. Forrest to stop using the Zia Nation symbol

A. Forrest's ostensible mentor

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115: Controlling Women's Bodies "Naturally" (w/EJ Dickson)

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew sits down with ace journalist EJ Dickson to explore her deep archive of reporting on the policing of women's bodies, and how it reflects on her own experience of childbirth.

This episode opens and closes with reference to the essay that first introduced Matthew to this world, "Giving Birth in Yogaland," written by his partner Alix, after two C-section deliveries.

Show Notes

"Giving Birth in Yogaland" —Alix Cale

raggapunzel on Instagram —water birth on the beach

Covid-19 Vaccine: How Dommes Are Convincing Submissives to Get Jabs

Matt Gaetz, QAnon Followers, and the GOP Are Exploiting the #FreeBritney Movement

Are Sex-Negative 'Puriteens' Actually Taking Over the Internet?

'Pastel QAnon' Is Infiltrating the Natural Parenting Community

Princess Diana Struggled With Bulimia. Does 'The Crown' Do Her Justice?

The Baby-Formula Shortage Has Spawned a New Brand of Mom-Shamers

Roe v. Wade: Top Influencers Avoid Abortion Debate - Rolling Stone

Amber Heard, Johnny Depp: TikTok Reenactments of Testimony Goes Viral

Michelle Phan: How YouTube Beauty Guru Fell in With Bullshit Peddler

There Are a Million Reasons to Get An Abortion. This Was Mine.

Bentinho Massaro: Instagram Guru 'F-king' His Followers 'To Freedom'

In Minnie Mouse's D

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Bonus Sample: The Wellness Theory of Depression

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 13:00:00 -0000

A recent review questioning the serotonin theory of depression has revived a generations-long debate over the very notion of "chemical imbalances." While there are plenty of important debates about the roles of pharmacology and psychotherapy in mental health disorders, conspiritualists from both wellness spaces and the far right have been using mental health to promote (and monetize) their own agendas. Derek investigates.

Show Notes

The serotonin theory of depression: a systematic umbrella review of the evidence

The New Study on Serotonin and Depression Isn’t About Antidepressants

Inside Kelly Brogan’s Covid-Denying, Vax-Resistant Conspiracy Machine

The Far Right’s Next Target for a Bullshit Moral Panic: Antidepressants

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114: Guns, Germs & Fear (w/Alan Levinovitz)

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 20:00:00 -0000

Life is scary. Natural disasters, violent intruders, and deadly viruses threaten our survival and endanger our loved ones. When ordinary solutions and institutions are not trusted, we may reach for talismanic help; crystals, herbal remedies, ritual prayer and magical thinking, or we might consult the charismatic oracle who channels prophecies from the Great Beyond—right on your iPhone.

But what about weaponry? Even though guns exert devastating real-world impact, our guest argues that they also carry an important symbolic power. While most may never use it, the knowledge that cold hard steel is nearby is one attempt at managing an anxiety that is all-too human. In fact, coping strategies both magical and militaristic are woven into the American political psyche—and as the pandemic has demonstrated, flare up dramatically during social crises; even at times becoming strange bedfellows.

Philosophy and religion professor Alan Levinovitz calls this "empowerment epistemology" and describes it as a connective tissue between the seemingly distant domains of gun culture and the wellness sphere. In both cases, this longing for empowerment in the face of helplessness motivates us to cleave to what we believe protects us, regardless of evidence to the contrary—or the tragic consequences in our middle schools and medical ICUs.

Show Notes

Oprah's 'happiness guru' designed apartments to maximize joy — and they start at $5 million

Killing does not come easy for soldiers - The Washington Post

Hanns Johst “Schlageter”

Quote/Counterquote: “Whenever I hear the word 'culture'…”

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Bonus Sample: Listening to Teal Swan’s Mom and Dad

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Some of the most valuable material that comes to us from Paula Marino's Open Shadow film of 2017 is an extended interview with Swan's parent's, the Bosworths. They speak about Swan's sensory sensitivity as a young child, and how that morphed into a staunchly independent but sometimes isolated social life. They describe Swan's secret runic writing, their belief in her capacities as a medical intuitive, and discuss the gaps in psychiatric care that failed them all when her mental health needed help. This episode examines this interview, and then cross-checks some aspects against the account of Swan's childhood friend, Diana Hansen Ribera.

Here we have the unique insight into parents speaking vulnerably and transparently about their baffling child—which means we can really lean into the primal material that pre-exists the charged questions about whether Teal Swan is running a cult or encouraging suicide. What we find, between the accounts of the Bosworths and Ribera, is a collection of commonplace phenomena: high sensitivity, parents learning as they go, the intrusion of internet pornography, and a likely abusive figure who was too close to the family.

In this episode, Matthew and Julian discuss the mystery of familial memory, idealizing vs. pathologizing children, the appeals of fantasy as a mode of relief, whether the Satanic Panic was a collective cry for help to resolve commonplace domestic and community abuse, and the possibility that cult formation is a social form of post traumatic play.

Show Notes

Open Shadow — Paula Marino

Do You Cry Easily? You May Be a 'Highly Sensitive Person'

The science behind why some of us are shy

Study: Pornography does not cause violent sex crimes

When Children Act Out Sexually: A Guide for Parents and Teachers

1607: Growing up with Teal Swan - Diana Hansen Ribera

“Forbidden Games”: Post-Traumatic Child's Play — Lenore Terr

Valerie L. Dripchak (2007). Posttraumatic Play: Towards Acceptance and Resolution. , 35(2), 125–134. doi:10.1007/s10615-006-0068-y

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113: A Course in Conspiracies (w/Sam Kestenbaum)

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 10:00:00 -0000

We spend so much time on this podcast discussing the wellness industry’s paranoia around anything from the medical “establishment” or the Luciferean nature of “Big Pharma,” but there’s another devil that’s lurking around every corner: the Mainstream Media.

Derek has long argued that there’s no such thing. Media organizations are competing businesses, and while there can be sloppiness when trying to break a story or laziness when rewriting press releases for clicks, the notion of a media “Deep State” is usually part of the conspiritualist’s sales technique, not the reality of modern media.

Derek began his career as a religion journalist, and this week he interviews Sam Kestenbaum, who’s made a career in this field. Sam has written for the NY Times and the Washington Post, where he recently published an expose on Christiane Northrup. Derek asks him about this story in particular, as well as his process of reporting on religion, the differences between spirituality and religion, and the coming post-pandemic spirituality surge—and how conspiritualists are already monetizing it.

Show Notes

Christiane Northrup, once a New Age health guru, now spreads covid disinformation

Life After Proclaiming a Trump Re-election As Divinely Ordained

Godspeak Calvary Church Defies Quarantine, Attendance Soars

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Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 2 | Teal Swan: Art and Artifice (w/Paola Marino)

Mon, 18 Jul 2022 09:00:00 -0000

In this episode of the Swan Song Series, Matthew interviews Paola Marino about why she found Teal Swan a fascinating subject to film for 2018’s “Open Shadow.” They discuss aesthetics, the mystery of personality, why Swan’s parents agreed to sit down with her. Matthew also surprised her with the newly-revealed translations of Swan’s coded journal pages.

Prefacing the interview is a discussion between Julian and Matthew about art, artifice, the risks of doing and not doing hard journalism on the subjects we cover. They discuss James Joyce’s proverb about noble art, in which he describes “aesthetic arrest” as the middle way between propaganda and pornography.

Marino’s work attempts to find that path, while Jon Kasbe’s The Deep End falters to both sides. On one hand Kasbe’s film titillates viewers with high drama. On the other hand it tells viewers what they should think. And in both cases it creates a story where the truth would suffice.

The feelings excited by improper art are kinetic, desire or loathing. Desire urges us to possess, to go to something; loathing urges us to abandon, to go from something. These are kinetic emotions. The arts which excite them, pornographical or didactic, are therefore improper arts. The esthetic emotion (I use the general term) is therefore static. The mind is arrested and raised above desire and loathing. — James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

Show Notes

Open Shadow—Paola Marino

Gizmodo Launches 'The Gateway,' an Investigative Podcast About a Controversial Internet Spiritual Guru

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112: The Science Whisperer (w/Danielle Belardo)

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 10:00:00 -0000

This podcast was born in response to COVID and vaccine disinformation that, while bubbling up for some time, flooded the population with the release of the pseudodocumentary, “Plandemic.” Ever since then, we’ve wondered how to combat the constant tides of pseudoscience masquerading as “natural remedies” that conspiritualists champion, then sell for a profit.

One of our earliest champions was the Southern California-based cardiologist, Danielle Belardo, who built up a large social media following even before the pandemic ravaged the world. Not only was she on the actual frontlines of COVID wards, but she’s been leading the charge on providing evidence-based information on her social media feeds, as well as her excellent podcast, Wellness: Fact Vs Fiction.

Derek was recently a guest on that podcast, and now Danielle returns the favor, joining him to discuss her thoughts on being a science communicator and a female cardiologist in a male-dominated field, as well as many of the wellness myths circling around social media, including supplements, statins, sunscreen, veganism, organic foods, and GMOs.

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Bonus Sample: The Music of the Conspirituality Podcast

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Derek steps back from conspiracies and wellness this week to discuss something very healing and personal to him: music. Specifically, how music has shaped his career, as well as the story behind the music you hear every week on this podcast.

Show Notes

EarthRise SoundSystem on Spotify

Earthrise SoundSystem vs Nina Simone: Come Ye

Bole 2 Harlem

Pete Kuzma

Global Beat Fusion: The History of the Future of Music

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111: Who's Afraid of Teal Swan (pt 2) (w/Jennings Brown)

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Our guest today, Jennings Brown, is a bright light in an increasingly chaotic cult-content economy. His 2018 podcast on Teal Swan, The Gateway, produced with Gizmodo, sets a high-watermark standard for research, fairness, and sensitivity. A lot has happened since that pod dropped: #MeToo, MAGA, QAnon, COVID, and now a post-reality Supreme Court in which Justice Thomas publishes a concurrence in which he states that COVID vaccines use the tissues of aborted fetuses. All of which is to say: we don’t know how intensely the insanity of the era will escalate, but we do know that clear, ethical reporting on difficult issues is a very thin lifeline back to sanity, communication, and trying to do something.

If you listened to episode 109 (if you haven’t we encourage you to stop here and go there), you’ll hear our criticisms of The Deep End docuseries about Teal Swan. You’ll hear us interview the director, Jon Kasbe. We lean on him, maybe too gently, on the numerous integrity issues with his film. Bottom line: with deceptive edits and a vacuum of expert commentary and research, we feel that this project is a real setback for everyone trying to understand cultic dynamics in the online age. And as we’ll report at the top of the show, before our interview with Brown, the story of this embedment is only getting messier.

Our interview with Jennings steers clear of the muck, because what we really wanted to hear was all about his process, his editorial decisions, and the help he got from his producers. We were also very lucky to have him drop some previously unreported data into the mix. Spoiler alert: it’s about the types of things that Swan used to write in her secret runic alien language.

Show Notes

Jennings Brown — About page with tip line contact info

Episode 109: Who's Afraid of Teal Swan? w/ Jon Kasbe

Jon Kasbe wishing Teal Swan happy birthday

Bits Sola rapping Teal Swan happy birthday

Gizmodo Launches 'The Gateway,' an Investigative Podcast About a Controversial Internet Spiritual Guru

Open Shadow — Paola Marino

Paola Marino on The Deep End (clip)

Jennings Brown — Revelations

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Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series: Close to Home

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 09:00:00 -0000

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110: Temple of the Gun

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 00:00:00 -0000

Rosaries made of shell casings. A breakaway Unification Church sect that holds rituals with gilded ARs. JP Sears on the gun range. The unholy American trinity of conservative politics, religious extremism, and gun culture is deep into its liturgical calendar. And it looks like conspiritualist influencers in the yoga and wellness space are setting up their juice bars outside the temple of the gun.

Is Christiane Northrup LARPing when she talks about murdering political enemies? What would Mikki Willis wear to tactical boot camp? Amidst the carnage of Uvalde and the Supreme Court, are conspiritualists gearing up to offer logistical or merely symbolic support for political violence? Does it even make a difference? When does the Temple of the Gun become a firing range, and then a staging ground?

We’ll cover these questions this week in part one of our look at guns and spirituality. Then in three weeks, Julian will talk to sociologist of religion Alan Levinovitz about how New Age spirituality and US gun culture shake hands through an “epistemology of individual empowerment,” which, he argues, has emerged amidst a crash in social solidarity.

Show Notes

New York Times report on Guns in GOP Ads

How Many Lives Were Saved by The Assault Weapons Ban?

Christian Nationalists and the Holy Gun Crusade

Rod Of Iron Ministries Buys “Spiritual Retreat” Property in Tennessee

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Bonus Sample: The Chapels in Our Brains

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Matthew introduces Julian to the solipsism of an old Catholic catechism. Julian remembers meditating on non-duality. What spaces in our brains do these exercises create? Did we need those spaces for safety, or to hide from ourselves and the world? What happens to these spaces when we no longer need them? If we learned how to take pleasure in “cognitive closure” through religion or spirituality, can we use that skill forever, but detached from the ideologies that want to steal that fire?

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109. Who’s Afraid of Teal Swan? (w/Jon Kasbe)

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 21:00:00 -0000

If the world has become too much to bear—and the bots know it from your search history— you will likely find Teal Swan. She will appear, an angel of the algorithms, part icon and part anime avenger. Against a backdrop of flowing water or turning constellations, she will gaze into your despair. She will speak in a drone at once hypnotic and relieving, giving words to feelings you thought were taboo. At 3am, this might feel like mystical luck, but it’s no accident. Swan is open about recruiting suicidal seekers to her content, and she has the tech chops to do it.

Now, with Jon Kasbe’s series, “The Deep End” airing on Hulu, Swan has entered some A-list limelight. But what do we really learn from this docutainment event, radiating out from an embedment in Swan’s inner circle? According to Kasbe’s own words, we don’t learn the “Capital T Truth” of Swan’s day-to-day, but rather the immersive feeling of what it is like to be under her spell.

Or do we? Swan accuses Kasbe of casting his own spell, with deceptive editing that scrambles timelines and conflates interactions, and even different people. And it appears she might not be wrong. We talk to Kasbe in this episode about his vision and blindspots, and the ironic risk of creating a film of Satanic-Panic level false memories about an influencer who says she specializes in retrieving past trauma.

This episode will pilot a series of Patreon bonus episodes in which we’ll study the Teal Swan spectacle in detail, and how important it is to not only report on it well, but to be fair to an influencer like Swan and her dedicated followers, lest they lose even more trust in the real world.

CORRECTION: Matthew referred to Jennings Brown's role on The Deep End production incorrectly during the episode. His title is "Development Executive Producer."

Show Notes

The Deep End

The Gateway Podcast

Teal Swan 2014 interview on her backstory.

Teal Swan: Gucci Guru article by Be Scofield

Barbara Snow’s seminal Satanic Panic article: Ritualistic Child Abuse In A Neighborhood Setting

Recovered Memory Therapist Placed on Probation

Michelle Remembers & The Satanic Panic

Teal’s Responses to The Deep End Start HERE

Teal Swan Defense :Testimonial Deep End Defamation—Sylvan

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Bonus Sample: Giving Up the Gun

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 13:00:00 -0000

After becoming global leaders in gun manufacturing in the 16th century, Japan banished all guns from their country for two centuries. How did this happen? And what were the results? Well, even today, the nation of 127 million experiences under 10 gun deaths every year.

Derek looks back at this period in history to find out what happens when a society seems to move backward when in reality progress is made. He also looks at the psychology of warfare while noting that as bad as society can become, nothing is inevitable.

Show Notes

Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879

The demographics of gun ownership

America's gun culture - in seven charts

Packy McCormick: Optimism

Japan has almost completely eliminated gun deaths — here's how

A Terrible Love of War: James Hillman

War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning: Chris Hedges

Tribe: Sebastian Junger

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108: Downeast with Christiane Northrup (w/ Mooncat, Andy O’Brien, & Alyce Ornella)

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Half-a-million Facebook followers. Hundreds of videos in a series called “The Great Awakening.” Christiane Northrup, the matriarch of New Age women’s wellness, warns her followers about fake viruses, and tells them to avoid sex with their vaccinated partners. She stumps alongside QAnon celebrities, shovels campaign contributions to Trump, and dotes over sovereign citizen sheriffs. To ease your symptoms of ascension, she offers bath recipes of alfalfa greens and Dr. Bronner’s soap. You can have a good soak and listen to her golden harp.

But in this nowhere world, where oh where is Christiane Northrup? Who is she? Is she flesh and blood, or a social media hologram generated by a Louise Hay AI? Is that mansion she broadcasts from a sound stage, or is there real soil and manure and flowers there? Our guests today know Northrup as super-real, because they live in her home state of Maine. Alyce Ornella, Andy O’Brien, and Mooncat have known her as a doctor, an MLM diva, antivax rabble rouser, and QAnon tour promoter.

Now, they tell us, another Northrup may be crystallizing on Maine’s rocky shore, floating past the lighthouses and over the cranberry bogs on a cloud of essential oils. She’s been seen haunting the blueberry patches, wearing a chunky necklace of lobster claws. As Northrup begins to hold revival meetings in Down East churches, and openly fantasize about murdering political enemies, they wonder if she is assuming her ultimate form—as an IRL cult leader.

Show Notes

Dear Dr. Northrup

Dr. No: Christiane Northrup

Republican barred from inviting guests into State House

Naomi Wolf: “Five Freedoms” speech, April 2021.

Arise USA rally draws crowds inside, outside Crosby Center

Arise USA Meets Maine Stands Up

Inside the Disastrous Conspiracy Roadshow That Likely Killed a COVID-Denying Ex-CIA Agent

Maine Republican compared the governor to Nazi Josef Mengele

ME state rep compares COVID vaccine mandate to Nazism

Northrup bo

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Bonus Sample: Julian Goes to Church

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Julian recently attended his first Catholic funeral and found himself equal parts supportive friend and atheist anthropologist. This week, Matthew draws on his Catholic upbringing and experience as church organist (for close to 1,000 funerals) to help unpack this experience.

In hindsight, it turns out that the rote blandness of organized religion may serve communities more honestly than the monetized performative charisma of New Age ritual. The conversation touches on the mythological and social dimensions of religion, as well as both Julian and Matthew’s experience of corporal punishment at school, meted out by the same authority figures who donned ceremonial robes for church.

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107: An Open Letter to Aubrey Marcus

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Aubrey Marcus really wants to not be a cult leader. He really wants Fit For Service to not be labeled a cult. He’s come out and said so, in a bold but vague response to criticism of his content from our podcast. Matthew takes him at his word, and puts on his cult research hat to give some pointers on how Aubrey can avoid abusing his power. Key bits of advice include: rejecting high intensity recruitment techniques, not depicting the world outside Fit For Service as “upside down” or insane, and not platforming alleged child molesters like Marc Gafni.

While this open letter is addressed to Aubrey, his Fit For Service clients might also find it useful as they decide whether to keep spending up to 20K USD per year participating in the program. Also, if Aubrey feels that this episode contains information that will help current and future participants assess whether he is really making good on his promise to provide “radical self-sovereignty,” we at Conspirituality Podcast would happily give permission for this episode to be included with Fit For Service materials, pro bono.

This letter is also open in a broader sense, because it contains solid tips for all earnest charismatic influencers who want to improve their ethics game. We believe you can do it, influencers! You can dig deep, and live your better life, by fucking over fewer people!

Show Notes

A Holocaust Denier Is Travelling Across Canada Building Up The Country's Newest Far-Right Militia Movement - Canadian Anti-Hate Network

'I Was 13 When Marc Gafni's Abuse Began' – The Forward

Former Rabbi Accused of Improper Sexual Conduct Now Rising Star in U.S. Spiritual Movement

Gafni Faces Fallout From New Age Community

Marc Gafni Named In Latest Sexual Abuse Lawsuit Against Yeshiva University

Popular New Age author Marc Gafni molested 13-year-old girl in 1980, lawsuit says

Sara Kabakov lawsuit docket

“Jane Doe” lawsuit

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Bonus Sample: Jordan Peterson, Derrick Jensen, and the Anti-Trans Laugh Emoji

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 10:00:00 -0000

An audio essay from Matthew about how anti-trans ideology can so curdle the soul that an otherwise progressive eco-activist—Derrick Jensen of Deep Green Resistance—can blow up his entire career over it, disrupting the very thing he says he lives for, and destroying the movement he spent years building up.

The story starts more than a decade ago, but comes to its peak absurdity, for Matthew at least, on Facebook. He posted some thoughts about Jordan Peterson freaking out over that woman on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And then Jensen visited his page.

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106: Conspiracy Dojo (w/Stephan Kesting)

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 13:00:00 -0000

We've gone deep on yoga communities infected by conspiracy theories. We've looked at essential oils and supplements influencers peddling in misinformation. There are channelers and astrologers and chiropractors. But there's another world we've only mentioned in passing: martial arts practitioners, which turn out to be another influential vector for disinformation.

This week, Stephan Kesting, longtime BJJ black belt and instructor (and so much more) joins Derek to look at the conspiratorial frame of Joe Rogan, Dana White, and many other figures peddling misinformation in the arts.

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Bonus Sample: The Ruthless Sovereignty of Kelly Brogan

Mon, 30 May 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Matthew and Julian have to thank Kelly Brogan for hanging out on an episode of Aubrey Marcus's podcast, where she lays bare the emotional avoidance and cruelty that conspirituality attempts to sublimate—or dispel the guilt of.

Here's the pull quote for the ages:

So when I am sick, right, chronically sick, what do I get? I get compassion built in to my life from others who pity me. Right? And who offer me that surrogate hit of love. I get to say no without having to actually learn to assert my boundaries and express my desires in this clear, indirect way because of course, I'm limited by my illness. I can't do that. I get to say no all the time. I get to experience the validation of this felt sense of wrongness and brokenness that's always lived within me out of all my patients told me that the first time they got a diagnosis, they felt like See, I knew something was wrong with me. Yeah. And it's like, you know, ends up being like the prison number you know, that's put on their vest, but it feels in the moment like it's somebody's finally seeing their hurt. And when, you know, we end up over identifying with that wound with the cancer diagnosis with the, you know, the mental illness…

She goes on in the episode to say: "victim consciousness is the only human pathology."

Show Notes

Premka Memoir

If you want to STAY SICK, Don't Watch This | Dr. Kelly Brogan MD on Aubrey Marcus Podcast

Lesson 136: Sickness is a defense against the… | ACIM

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105: TikTok, Cults, & Conspiracies (w/Abbie Richards)

Thu, 26 May 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Is humanity doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past?

This week, Julian traces a timeline from the bright-eyed early days of the internet to the dark message boards where QAnon emerged—and that still foment white supremacist mass shootings. to the dizzying infinite scroll on TikTok. Each new evolution of social media exploits innate human vulnerabilities more effectively, delivering more potent strains of deceptive manipulation to receptive young minds.

No surprise, then, that a crew of talented dancers with huge TikTok audiences appears to have been recruited into a high-demand evangelical group with a divine mandate to conquer all aspects of American life for Jesus. We'll hear from friends and family anxiously wondering what is going on.

For today's interview, Abbie Richards returns. She's the the mis and disinformation researcher with special expertise on the "clock app."

Show Notes

How Lonelygirl15 Changed The Internet

Analyzing TikTok Usage and Growth

Is "The Garden" a TikTok Cult?

Dancing In The Name of The Lord

Inside the $2.5M LA Mansion Where Alleged TikTok "Cult" Shoots Videos

Shekinah Church "About" Page

The Modern Apostles Who Want To Want To Reshape America Ahead of the End Times

HBO Recruits Instagram Independent Reporters

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Bonus Sample: Alt-Med Treadmill

Mon, 23 May 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Julian and Matthew decompress after the interview with Gavin Ryan and discuss the "alt-med treadmill" and what it means to never quite know where the threshold of evidence lies.

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104: Leaving Ramtha's Ranch (w/Cortney & Shana)

Thu, 19 May 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Cortney and Shana can’t remember exactly how they first became aware of the New Age promises and anxieties that would come to dominate every aspect of their lives. Their mom brought it into the house and their daily rhythms bit by bit.

As kids in the early 1980s, they would fall asleep to visualizations by the self-help guru Wayne Dyer, on audiocassette. Or mom would read passages from Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda, after tucking them into bed. Cortney remembers an eerie photograph of the yogi’s corpse in a glass coffin in the mortuary. The lore was that he just wouldn’t decay. “Mom had a real fascination with beating death,” she told us.

When the girls were still in elementary school, mom took them to an “attunement”, which must have made them the youngest Reiki Masters in Green Bay, Wisconsin—if not the whole midwest. “She was on a search,” Shana told us.

And at some point the local massage training, the flyers in the health food stores, and the mail-order books weren’t enough. Mom started going to events, a long way from home—all the way out in Washington State. One time she came home with a VHS tape and played it for the girls. It showed a woman named J.Z. Knight transform into someone she called “Ramtha,” who she said was 35,000 years old, and carried the wisdom of the ages. She also brought audiocassettes of Ramtha, which they played in the car.

This was their introduction to “channeling.” They were young teens, and didn’t know what to think. Was it magic? Was it funny? Ramtha sounded like the Great Gazoo, after all. When mom wasn’t home they’d show the VHS tape to their friends and giggle. But they also felt strange about it. Embarrassed.

“I remember yelling at my mom, ‘Why can't you be normal?’” Shana said. What they understand now is how much she desperately needed to find something that was meaningful.

“She was really struggling in the Catholic religion,” Shana said, “And her marriage,” Cortney added. “And midlife. It was the perfect storm.”

Matthew sits down with Cortney and Shana as they share their story publicly for the first time.

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Bonus Sample: Yoga & the Body in Time (Pt 2)

Mon, 16 May 2022 13:00:00 -0000

As the crew is in the final stages of submitting their forthcoming book, Julian and Derek reflect on how yoga has evolved in their personal lives. In Part 2, they talk about yoga in aging bodies, the pursuit of philosophy, and leaving the damn cell phone out of yoga studios.

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103: Roe Against the Machine (w/Kiera Butler)

Thu, 12 May 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Since day one, we've been covering medical disinformation on this podcast, always wondering where it would move next. Our collective breaths were stolen when learning about the seemingly inevitable overturning of Roe v Wade last week—and the extensive implications that could have for American society.

Mother Jones senior editor, Kiera Butler, has been reporting on medical disinformation in parenting groups for years. Her most recent piece points out the next potential freedom to be stripped from women: the use of contraception. She joins Derek this week to talk about this seemingly dystopian present we're moving into, as well as the continued merging of the Christian Right and wellness influencers—which is very much a part of this movement.

Show Notes

The Anti-Abortion Movement’s Next Target: Birth Control

The Terrifying Story of How QAnon Infiltrated Moms’ Groups

The Death of Roe Is Going to Tear America Apart

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Bonus Sample: Yoga & the Body in Time (Pt 1)

Mon, 09 May 2022 13:00:00 -0000

As the crew is in the final stages of submitting their forthcoming book, Julian and Derek reflect on how yoga has evolved in their personal lives. In Part 1, they discuss the origins of their yoga practices, what led them to teaching, and some ideas about yoga philosophy in general.

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102: Conspirituality, Cancer, & Compassion (w/Gavin Ryan)

Thu, 05 May 2022 10:00:00 -0000

After we published episode 98 on “Placebo Joe” Dispenza, an Australian artist named Gavin Ryan posted a comment to Facebook in response:

“My wife was full of this stuff, when she stopped taking all the treatments that had finally turned her breast cancer around, right up to the day she died of it. Still fully convinced she was going to heal herself by sheer force of wishful thinking.” We reached out, and Gavin agreed to an interview.

Fey was 47 years old when she died under the coconut palms and stars of Ubud, with Gavin at her side. She’d spent six years feverishly trying to keep ahead of breast cancer with alternative medicine and New Age spirituality. She received several turns of evidence-based care that had served her body well. But she would always return to the energy work, herbs, and meditations that spoke to her soul.

Gavin was there with her all the way. He found himself stretched thin between advocating for treatments that worked, and honoring her need for magic.

We're really grateful that he has shared this story with us.

Show Notes

Here's the full recording of Fey reciting "Karuna Breath."

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Bonus Sample: Cash Grab

Mon, 02 May 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Manifestation workshops. MLM downlines. The supplement grift. Cash is king everywhere in the conspirituality sphere, even—especially—when disguised in the jargon of spiritual-ese. Derek and Julian step back and discuss the cash grab impulse, as well as talk about their own feelings on money and its value.

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101: Eugenic Pandemic (w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton)

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 11:00:00 -0000

In this conversation, Beatrice Adler-Bolton—disability justice advocate and co-host of Death Panel Podcast—says something twice:

"Under capitalism, you’re only entitled to the survival you can buy."

Her forthcoming co-authored book is called, provocatively, Health Communism. Part of its argument is that we have to imagine a society in which everyone is entitled to the survival we can share.

How disquieting it is that the natural instinct we have as individuals to ask: "What is this going to cost me?" is microcosmic to neoliberal obsessions—austerity, productivity, and dreams of a better future purchased with moral sacrifices in the present. It’s microcosmic to the brutal decisions our societies are now making about who is worthy of protection and who isn't, and which political constituencies we can't afford to piss off by appealing to the small amount of generosity and humility it takes to wear a mask.

We're living in a culture of What is it going to cost me? And that's not really a culture at all.

If we don't do better, then how exactly are the conspiritualists wrong? Not about the details, but about the existential condition. They imagine a Cabal at the top of everything, making nefarious decisions, and this is easy to dismiss. Less easy to dismiss is the feeling they articulate, that many of us share: that unseen and impersonal forces are working against the spirit of human generosity. They know that sometimes we all feel ourselves participating in that process, which means we have to do something—perhaps as radical as waking up. Not to the magic of turmeric, or the realization that we’re starseeds. Something far more radical than that, and much more mundane: that we can organize ourselves in more fair and loving ways.

Beatrice Adler-Bolton is a blind/low vision and chronically ill artist, writer, and disability justice advocate. Beatrice studies radical patient groups and the capitalist political economy of health as an independent researcher and is earning a master's in Disability Studies at CUNY. She is the co-host of the Death Panel podcast with Artie Vierkant and Phil Rocco.

Note from Beatrice:

If you'd like to give your listeners a little more info on Disability Justice (DJ), I would recommend this link from Sins Invalid, which is a short and foundational DJ text and a really quick primer on what it is written by Patty Berne and Sins Invalid: tinyurl.com/DJ10Principles.

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Bonus Sample: Taking the Con Out of Spirituality

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Derek and Julian discuss the literary influences and yogic practices that led them to yoga in the first place, while also discussing what spirituality in a post-pandemic world could look like.

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100: State of Disinformation (w/Imran Ahmed)

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 20:00:00 -0000

In July 2020, just as we were finding our sea legs with this podcast, Imran Ahmed joined to discuss the state of disinformation occurring around the world. As the founder of the UK’s Center for Countering Digital Hate, he had just produced a report that found anti-vax organizations were reaching 58 million people on social media—and this was well before the COVID vaccines were developed. The total amount of money spent by anti-vax groups and advertisers targeting their followers on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube turned out to be roughly $1 billion.

Imran’s group kept reporting and we kept covering them. You probably remember the Center thanks to its Disinformation Dozen report, which profoundly impacted awareness of just how much anti-vax leaders were monetizing their supplements, seminars, and other supposed COVID “interventions.” The report even reached the White House where Joe Biden called out the Disinformation Dozen during a press conference.

What’s changed in the nearly two years since we had Imran on? Well, a lot—and in some ways, not much at all. Julian interviews Imran this time around after having met up in person at the Defeat the Mandates rally in downtown Los Angeles. Imran discusses what’s changed, what hasn’t, and how the bottom line remains the same: namely, the conspiritualist’s bottom line. They also talk about the nature of free speech in an internet filled with disinformation.

Before hearing from Imran, Derek and Julian briefly discuss the state of disinformation and free speech online, which Derek frames in terms of urban planning and the concept of legibility.

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Bonus Sample: Zach Bush and the Holy Sardines

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 13:00:00 -0000

The Sermon of the Sardines is etched into our very souls. Picture the scene, as dreamboat doctor Zach Bush recounts his shimmering story of swimming off the coast of Tulum with thousands of tiny heroic fish, for Rich Roll’s Tuscany retreat participants. In this week’s Bonus episode Matthew and Julian connect the dots between Zach’s quivering amphibious ecstasy, his fascist notions of holy sacrifice in warfare via “non-empathic presence,” how he praises his hospice staff for using reiki as opposed to pain meds, and inspires his listeners to have no fear of death. After all—it’s the ultimate upgrade. From Sardine to Salvation, Bush has it covered.

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99: Conspirituality Goes to Therapy (w/Rachel Bernstein)

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 22:00:00 -0000

Listeners: there’s a revolution going on. Legions of Twitter counselors and Instagram therapists has risen up to offer unsolicited sermons on cults, cult leaders, and cult recovery. With COVID closing down the studios, every third yoga teacher has become an expert in trauma. They’re starting Facebook groups. They’re selling courses. They’re doing their Family Systems work out in the open, displaying heroic levels of vulnerability. We’re just waiting for the first QAnon recovery MLM to launch on Kickstarter. We know it’s coming. There will be oils, and breathing exercises, and some very long emotional check-ins on Zoom.

Meanwhile, Netflix is distinguishing itself from GaiaTV, the Netflix of cults, with an explosion of cult documentaries. There’s a gold rush on. Scouts for all of the streaming companies are lined up outside of the ashrams, vetting survivors to see who has the chops to carry a series. We seem to love them, but sometimes not as much as the sociopaths themselves. The cult doc is the new true crime chill.

Beneath the feeding frenzy, there’s real work to be done. The QAnon Casualities subreddit has 235K followers as of today. We get dozens of emails and DMs from people who have had their lives upended by conspirituality and cults. We have hints and whispers to offer them, but no answers. Yes, we live in a capitalist hellscape in which emotional turmoil of the people is commodified and sold back to them in the form of workshops and bingeable series. But we are also able to host Rachel Bernstein, cult recovery therapist, to get some clarity on the basic phenomena that dominate our commons today.

Program note: We’re going to try to stretch this out to 90 minutes so that we can each say we got a 45-minute free consult on why TF we’re doing this job.

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Bonus Sample: Watch What They Say, Watch What They Sell

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Since early on in this conspirituality experiment, Derek has been using the catchphrase that is the title of this week's bonus episode. Julian joins in to discuss exactly what the phrase means in the landscape of conspiritualists, who the most egregious offenders are, and the origin story of the term. If you think your coffee is moldy or those glasses are really blocking blue light, think again.

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98: Placebo Joe Dispenza

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -0000

If you get treated by someone who says they’re a doctor, but they’re not, can they still have a placebo effect? That’s the question we’d like to ask Dr. Joe Dispenza, who’s not a doctor, but who plays one on the internet, treating one and all with the placebo of his bafflegab about Quantum healing and TimeSpace.

Placebo Joe. Who is he? How do you take the measure of a Quantum Man? We’ll shine our browsers into the slit experiment and observe a particle here, a wave there. The particles of video clips, the waves of affiliate links. We’ll run our signature experiment: Schrodinger’s Influencer, to find out just how many parallel Joe Dispenzas are populating the multiple universes he is trying to crack back to alignment with his chiropractic panache. There’s the Joe of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, Joe who starred in “What The Bleep Do We Know?” There’s faith healer Joe, and Joe who now headlines, alongside David Icke, for the Netflix of conspirituality, Gaia TV.

Joking aside: in episode 89, we heard from Mary, whose husband almost gave up on chemotherapy for aggressive pancreatic cancer under the influence of Placebo Joe. And today we’ll watch him pretend to be able to cure infertility, and romance Aubrey Marcus. We’ll also puzzle over his strangely undramatic origin story. We’ll suss out the normalizing impact Joe has on a whole raft of bullshit. We’ll wonder why this boy from a nice working class famiglia in Jersey wanted to be a doctor so badly, he was willing to talk himself into it.

Show Notes

Gaia Acquires Yoga International, a Leading Digital Yoga Service

You Are The Placebo

Why Some People Are More Susceptible to Placebos

$2.5B Spent by the NCCIH

Placebo Myths Debunked

Feedback Monday Bonus: Responding to Lissa Rankin

Merv Griffin Show JZ Knight As Ramtha - 1985 - 14 minutes

RSE: 4 axioms

Life University loses accreditation

Dispenza Quantum University bio

Joe Dispenza "I am the Placebo"

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Bonus Sample: Conspirituality Casting Call

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Matthew and Julian draw back the curtain to take you behind the scenes of the book-writing process. They step back to consider the pantheon of conspiritualists we’ve covered over the last two years; the kaleidoscope of themes they represent, and the key moments they’ve had on the big cultural stage as the pandemic has unfolded. Who among them is worthy of being cast in the rogue’s gallery we will include in the book that will officially document all of our work over almost 100 episodes now?

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97: Brand Awareness

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 21:00:00 -0000

This week we’re “just asking questions.” You probably recognize that quip from Joe Rogan, of course, but today’s focus is another actor and comedian turned popular podcaster, Russell Brand. As with Rogan, who he recently said he loved being compared to, Brand is amassing an increasingly large following—trust us, he’ll remind you of that number at the top of every episode—thanks to his high-energy solo rants about the conspiracy of, well, seemingly everything.

But what’s Russell really saying? We’ve listened to hours of his podcasts and watched further hours of videos and, to be honest, we can’t really tell. Pseudo-spiritual musings mesh with benign revolutionary politicizing with a healthy dose of his live performance schedule and reminders to smash the subscribe button thrown in. Russell is exceptionally good at evoking emotions and firing listeners up with his high-energy, seemingly stream-of-consciousness diatribes, yet when you break down the sentences, you find that he’s pretty content-free. Well, except when he’s marketing himself, which, at the end of the day, seems to be the only thing Russell is truly interested in.

Show Notes

Hybrid immunity offers increased protection that is longer-lasting against Covid-19 reinfection, studies show

Russell Brand: My Response

Russell Brand: How Did We Miss This?

Russell Brand & Nigel Farage clash over immigration on Question Time

Russell Brand: 'I've never voted, never will'

Johnson & Johnson Announces Real-World Evidence and Phase 3 Data Confirming Strong and Long-Lasting Protection of Single-Shot COVID-19 Vaccine in the U.S.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Vaccine Boosting in Persons Already Protected by Natural or Vaccine-Induced Immunity

Effectiveness of the BNT162b2 Vaccine after Recovery from Covid-19

Protection against SARS-CoV-2 after Covid-19 Vaccination and Previous Infection

World Economic Forum: Digital Identity

Watch Russell Brand Read From A Couple Of My Articles

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Bonus Sample: Feedback Monday

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 12:00:00 -0000

Hey everyone... Matthew and Julian here with a more relaxed format. We'll be periodically checking in on feedback going forward, starting with a look at some shade thrown by Lissa Rankin at the pod. We're not entirely buying what she's selling, but it does give us pause to reflect on communication styles, satire, and empathy.

Here's what Rankin had to say: https://www.facebook.com/lissarankin/posts/521303766024162.

And here's how Matthew responded: https://www.facebook.com/matthew.remski/posts/10166401550575602

(Apologies about Matthew's sound quality. Kittens knocked over the mic stand and snapped the connectors. Derek is shipping out a hand-me-down for Thursday!)

-- -- --

Canadian Anti-Hate Network

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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96: The Terrain Theory Grift (w/Dr Dan Wilson)

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 13:00:00 -0000

You might have heard some revolutionary news: germs don’t exist. Ok, they exist, but they only make you sick after you ruin your relationship with your environment—the terrain. Actually, the idea isn’t new. Initially floated in the 19th century, terrain theory was never proven in real-world experiments, and so fell dormant—until now. As with many terrible 19th-century science metaphysics, conspiritualists are feeling nostalgic. And do we have a group to introduce you to this week.

To help us debunk this funk, Dr Dan Wilson returns to the pod to offer his keen ear in breaking down the bullsh*t being shoveled by Tom Cowan and Andrew Kaufman during The Event 2021. First, Derek offers a brief history of the battle between germ theory and terrain theory—one that produced a clear winner in Louis Pasteur, which, as conspiritualists now spin it, is just further evidence of the Deep State conspiracy holding us all back.

Show Notes

Dan Wilson on YouTube | Instagram | Twitter

This pseudoscience movement wants to wipe germs from existence

Germ theory denialism is alive and well – and taking the nuance out of scientific debate

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Bonus Sample: Reading Tony Robbins

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 13:00:00 -0000

The world's top life coach has a new book, Life Force. Seemingly bulletproof to criticism due to connections in high places (and a litigious legal team), Tony Robbins's new book is a perfect example of the conspiritualist grift: mix science with sciencey sentiment and package it in a shiny revolutionary marketing package that promises much and delivers little more than confusion. Derek reviews.

Show Notes

A single blood test claims to detect dozens of cancers. Skeptics wouldn’t bet your life on it.

The 700-calorie breakfast you should eat if you want to live forever, according to a futurist who spends $1 million a year on pills and eating right

What supplements does Ray Kurzweil take and why?

Instagram: Low testosterone is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions in American men

Epigenetics: It doesn't mean what quacks think it means

Siddhartha Mukherjee: The Gene

Detox: What “They” Don’t Want You To Know

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95: Aleksandr Dugin: Kali Yuga Chess

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 13:00:00 -0000

The mystical politics of Aleksandr Dugin, the mercurial philosopher and geopolitical strategist hovering behind Vladimir Putin, is front and center this week. Last week, we covered the phenomenon of Western conspiritualists folding the Russian invasion of Ukraine into their fact-free claims about what's really going on. It turns out that once you're all-in on the cabal, the Great Reset, mole children, and vaccine genocide, whatever happens in the world means you were right all along.

Conspiritualists are claiming that, just like Donald Trump, Putin is really a light worker fighting to save the children and destroy Anthony Fauci's secret bioweapons labs in Ukraine while heralding the true Great Awakening. But an entirely different prophecy, one promising a Soviet spiritual rebirth, appears to be inspiring Vladimir Putin's actions—as well as Russia's disruptive interference in American politics.

Julian unpacks the perennialist religious movement, Traditionalism, and how it speaks to fascist political actors around the world, including Steve Bannon. This is especially relevant in light of tragic events in Europe, a stark reminder of those of us who remember the Cold War. This time, Dugin and Putin dream of a new Russian Empire.

Show Notes

Aleksandr Dugin Ukraine Invasion Press Conference

Moscow Patriarch Stokes Religious Tensions with Ukraine Remarks

Dugin, Putin & The 2016 Election

The Rise of Traditionalism by Benjamin Teitelbaum

Steve Bannon’s Ideological Soulmate

Dugin Fired from University Post for Inciting Genocide

The London Dinner that Brought Europe’s Far-Right Together

Bannon Cites Julius Evola

Inside The Strange Origins of Bannon’s Nationalist Fantasia

Dugin’s Foundations of Geopolitics Reviewed

Dugin’s Eurasianism & The Am

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Bonus Sample: Conspirituality Timeline Stories (pt 1)

Mon, 14 Mar 2022 13:00:00 -0000

Matthew brushes off and polishes stories and analyses we’ve only had the time to glance at in various episodes. A second or even 3rd instalment may be forthcoming.

Presented in chronological order, dating from a year before the WHO declared the pandemic, up to just after they did.

March, 2019: How JZ Knight, aka Ramtha, began forging alliances with Qanon promoters back in the spring of 2019.
February, 2020: How Joe Mercola positioned himself very early as the go-to for COVID quackery, and how his platform primed the pump for circulating terrible ideas right out of the gate.
March 11, 2020: How Dr. Tom Cowan resurrected R Steiner for his wisdom on COVID.
March 20, 2020: How Mak Parhar, a Flat Earther Bikram Yoga teacher, was the first yoga studio owner in Canada to defy the shutdown. What was he thinking? He later died of COVID.

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94: Conspirituality Goes to War

Fri, 11 Mar 2022 02:00:00 -0000

After two years of being lied to about COVID, are you really going to believe the mainstream media about what’s happening in Ukraine? Didn’t you know that Ukraine is a child-trafficking hub? That it’s full of US-funded bioweapons labs? Do you really think Putin is evil, or do you just think what you’re told to think? Look at you, with your all-new, personalized, more terrifying feed to doom scroll. Only it’s not new, just more intense. If it wasn’t, how would the powers-that-be keep your attention while they instantly convert your money into social credit and make you pay $10 for a gallon of gas? Wake up! See through the green-screen battle scenes and crisis actors covered in stage blood. The explosions are revelations, the flashes of light are miracles waiting to be recognized.

Yes, dear listeners: Conspirituality influencers have gone to war, and they’ve dragged us kicking and screaming to the front lines. But now that we’re here, we’re committed to understanding and negotiating this liminal space. We are podcast peacekeepers. Our rations are non-GMO. We have our helmets of analysis securely fastened; our flak jackets will protect our vital organs. Most importantly, our hearts will stay intact.

To you at home: we urge you to plant your victory gardens now and keep the faith. Conspiritualists have launched a brutal, illegal attack on a humanitarian crisis. They’re monetizing a war in which starving 19-year-olds are killing civilians. Our influencers may well meet the reality of their empty souls on this battlefield. When they come home bandaged, they will need soup and real jobs—and that will be up to us.

Show Notes

Who is Gene Decode?

Signposts On The Road To Ascension Trailer #1 — Witzeman

Ukraine Invasion & Putin’s Spiritual Advisor Alexandr Dugin

Teal Swan on The War Inside

Christiane Northrup Shares Patriot Underground on the Khazarian Mafia

JP Sears Hot Tub Hot Take

Pro-Publica on Fake Fact-Checks About Invasion

Maajid Nawaz on Facebook and Azov Battalion

NATO on National Women’s Day

BBC on Claims of “crisis actors” in Ukraine

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Bonus Sample: Encanto

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 10:00:00 -0000

Matthew takes a break from the news to expand on the possible origins of conspirituality—as being related to intergenerational trauma.

What is conspirituality, if not the mobilization of forced, fragile, and ultimately empty spiritual aspirations, made to temper hypervigilance?

It's also just a relief and a pleasure to spend time away from the feeds, and immersed in this brilliant film.

Show Notes

Dr. Nerurkar on the glorification of trauma

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93: Roganomics (w/Daniel Latorre & Jessica Malaty Rivera)

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 23:00:00 -0000

A few weeks ago, you couldn’t turn to a social media platform without seeing that Joe Rogan was trending. The diversity of topics boggled the mind: COVID disinformation; misogyny, pseudoscience; transphobia; and, of course, racism, thanks to the infamous N-word mixtape. Then a parallel argument came through: fair pay for musicians on Spotify. Given that Rogan was given $100 million for his podcasting contract—a number we’d later find out was closer to $200 million—the economic discussion brought another dimension into the conversation. But given all of the topics being discussed, which dimension should we have focused on?

That thought led Derek to write a series of tweets on the topic, followed by a more in-depth Substack article contemplating the three main issues of concern: scientific misinformation, racism, and fair pay. The tweets led to a lot of pushback, which we’ll be looking at through the lens of conversation and debate, as well as a 2021 Pew Research poll on American political typologies. It also led to today’s guests—infectious disease epidemiologist and science communicator, Jessica Malaty Rivera, and civic product leader and community activist, Daniel Latorre—offering their own views on the topics, first on social media, then here on the podcast. But first, we’ll discuss the implications of intersectionality and progressive politics in a world in which social media can distort as much as it amplifies. Matthew will dish on how much he loathes everything Joe Rogan stands for, and why—but also wonders about how pragmatic his seething hatred is, or could be.

Just a note before we begin. Between our last episode—in which Julian caught up with Sara Aniano and dappergander on current events in the QAnon world—and today, Russia has invaded Ukraine, and all of the news is terrible and terrifying. Since the first rockets hit, we’ve been monitoring how conspirituality influencers are responding, and we’ll bring you that data next week, as it continues to show the adaptability of the movement and the willingness of its influencers to say literally anything to remain at the center of the attention and outrage economy.

Show Notes

Joe Rogan: We are in Kali Yuga

Joe Rogan shares Sadhguru: “It is fashionable to suffer”

Matthew Sheffield on Right-Left “balance” on Rogan.

McInnes appearance on Rogan “instrumental” to Proud Boys’ growth: Rolling Stone

Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology

Race & Class at Spotify

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Bonus Sample: Left/Right Horseshoe

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 14:00:00 -0000

The Left-Right political spectrum doesn't really capture the breadth of political sentiment in America. Derek looks at a 2021 study by Pew Research on political typologies—as well as Jean-Pierre Faye's horseshoe theory—to better understand the multivariate dynamics at play, as well as its implications for democracy in America moving forward.

Show Notes

Pew Research: Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology

Rational Wiki: Horseshoe Theory

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92: The Quiet Part, Loud (w/Sara Aniano and dappergander)

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 14:00:00 -0000

"Freedom Convoy" leader, Pat King, recently live-streamed his arrest on Facebook. His racist public incitements to violence belie claims that the convoy was non-partisan and peaceful. As with other conspiracy-based events, inner circle communications and public relations messaging prove to be contradictory.

From RFK Jr appearing at a Far Right rally in Berlin and militias storming the US Capitol on Jan 6 to anti-vaxxers gathering at the Lincoln memorial and the Ottawa truckers tying up traffic and trade for over a month, QAnon appears everywhere.

This week, Julian pilots solo to interview extremism experts Sara Aniano (who regularly reports on the alt-tech far-right cess-pool, Telegram) and dappergander about recent developments in the Q-adjacent conspiracy sphere, implications for the planned American convoy, and the coming midterm elections in America. They also discuss surviving the emotional toll of their research and offer advice for those trying to help themselves—or someone they love—escape.

Show Notes

dappergander on Twitter

Sara Aniano on Twitter

Grid.News Reporting on Planned American Trucker Convoy

Q-Adjacent Convoy Protestor Arrested in Ottawa Cries Out “I’m Being “Stuck with a Vaccine”

Convoy Leader Signs Off Her Speech at Occupation with WWG1WGA Rallying Cry

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Bonus Sample: Carpetbagger Pharaohs

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 14:00:00 -0000

They couldn’t be more different: the self-made, self-help guru to the stars, the antisemitic Black-separatist, the blue-blood anti-vax lawyer, and the founder of a science-fiction religion. But in the cult-conspiracy economy, strange bedfellows are often the norm.

Julian investigates how—underneath cultural, racial, political, and even religious differences—opportunistic grifters can always find common cause in the pursuit of wealth and influence. In the end, they’re all carpetbaggers dressed up as pharaohs.

Show Notes

The Lies of RFK Jr’s Medical Racism Documentary

Samoan Measles Outbreak

Somali Measles Outbreak

Measles Outbreak Amongst Brooklyn Orthodox Jews

RFK Jr. At Berlin protest with Neo-Nazis

Weaponizing Racism for Anti-Vax Activism

Werner Erhard: Father of Self-Help

Anti-Vax Infiltrates Nation of Islam

Scientology Money Project

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91: We Need to Talk About Stephanie

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 13:00:00 -0000

When Stephanie Sibbio, owner of Glowing Mama Fitness in Toronto, livestreamed herself harassing workers in her local health food store over COVID policy, the world was introduced to a now-familiar archetype: the petulant anti-masker who cares as little about science as she does about others. Sibbio has since developed this role with gusto, becoming a minor celebrity in the Canadian antivax movement. Recently, she threw her support behind the Occupation of Ottawa.

But everyone comes from somewhere: a family, a network, a circle. Beneath a persona hardened by the social media spectacle, there’s a person to be known, remembered, and perhaps welcomed back.

Today Matthew sits down with four friends who have known and loved Stephanie since junior high school. They share stories of the bonds they nurtured growing up, and how quickly and violently antivax ideology and social media smashed their circle.

An honest and transparent discussion about the emotional and social costs of conspirituality.

Show Notes

Glowing Mama Anti-Masker. Toronto Influencer Socially Toilets in…

The Unbearable Feelings of the Anti-Masker

Oppression Fantasies of White Anti-Vax Moms

That Time When I Was in a Cult and Got a Loving Letter from a Friend

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Bonus Sample: Spiritual, Um—Sorry—Canadian Bypassing

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0000

"An essential pleasure of white liberal identity in Canada is the schadenfreude of looking down our noses when we consider what’s south of us. It’s an unearned pride that says: “We’re not like that.” It’s delusional. We are absolutely like that, with tougher gun laws and the moderating effect of the Parliamentary process—but absolutely like that. We want to say “QAnon wouldn’t find a foothold here.” and it does. We want to say “We’re a long way off from Jan 6,” but we’re not. Democracy is as fragile as the human body."

An editorial piece from Matthew on a harsh awakening in the Great White Liberal North.

Show Notes

Land acknowledgments meant to honor Indigenous people too often do the opposite – erasing American Indians and sanitizing history instead

Harsha Walia on historical continuity

Ottawa police discover children living in protesters' trucks | The Star

Land Acknowledgement – City of Toronto

Toronto Cops Say They Did 'Tremendous Job' After Beating People, Destroying Homeless Camp

Nearly $2 million spent on clearing encampments should have gone to housing, advocates say

300 people trapped. 4 hours. Pouring rain. The day I was kettled by police in Toronto.

'We regret that mistakes were made': Toronto police acknowledge 'unacceptable' mass arrests at 2010 G20 protests

Lawsuit filed against convoy organizers, seeking damages on behalf of downtown Ottawa residents

We're not Tragically Hip fans — and yes, we're Canadian

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90: The Convoy is an Occupation (w/Elizabeth Simons)

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 22:00:00 -0000

We cover a lot of ground in this episode. But to introduce it in seed form, we want to draw your attention to a 15-second video we’ve posted to our Instagram. It shows a little boy, clearly stressed, sitting in the cab of an expensive black pickup truck with the window open, holding his ears against the incredible noise of the air horns as his mother takes a triumphant pan-shot video of a convoy rally.

The clip encapsulates the surreal chaos of a deceptive, astroturfed, funded-from-outside, social-media-driven catastrophe that is right in line with the worst of the conspirituality world. A torrent of misinformation, co-opted trauma, and “freedom-fighters” LARPing, in which children are weaponized by super-pilled parents, in which we can witness the cycles of social neglect and psychic violence turning in real time.

We open today with a review of the Occupation of Ottawa and what we know so far, and a discussion of how our conspirituality friends are co-opting and distorting events in ways that are not only craven, but will increase the chances that this event will end in violence. Finally, Matthew interviews Elizabeth Simons of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network on the deep background, the big picture, and the horizon.

CORRECTION: Matthew incorrectly stated that The Branches Yoga in Kitchener Waterloo hosted a workshop by Selam Debs. They did not host it, but they did promote it to their community.

Show Notes

New Age Healers and Right-Wing Militants Come Together in Ottawa

Canadian Yoga Teacher and Anti-Racism Educator Targetted

The 'Freedom Convoy' Is Nothing But A Vehicle For The Far Right

Mayor of Windsor: “Some occupiers are willing to die.”

A Holocaust Denier Is Travelling Across Canada Building Up The Country's Newest Far-Right Militia Movement - Canadian Anti-Hate Network

Canada's “Freedom Convoy” Is a Front for a Right-Wing, Anti-Worker Agenda

Ottawa police discover children living in protesters' trucks | The Star

Freedom Convoy Brings the Far-Right

-- -- --

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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Bonus Sample: The Ritual of Healing

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 14:00:00 -0000

Despite the binary conversations around vaccinations, healing has never been an either/or dependent on one factor. What works for one person isn't necessarily the correct course of action for someone else. One criticism of modern health care certainly stands out: the ritual of healing has been sacrificed for the convenience of scripts and hasty dialogues between doctors and patients.

Derek looks at the intersection of healing and ritual through the lens of placebo studies and psychedelics, arguing that regardless of the discipline, "therapy" is a holistic endeavor.

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89: Till Death Do Us Part (w/Mary)

Fri, 04 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0000

Mary joins Matthew for an extended interview about the last year of her husband’s life. Louis died of pancreatic cancer almost exactly a year ago, at the age of 45. Mary—who has asked that her last name be kept off the record for privacy concerns—loved him and cared for him throughout that journey. It was hard, not only for the reasons we all share, but because Louis spent his last months under the influence of quantum chiropractor Joe Dispenza. At one crucial point, he was on the verge of stopping his chemotherapy treatment, believing that a Dispenza meditation technique might be more effective.

Mary is an Applied Psychologist with a science background and an evidence-based mindset. She didn’t share Louis’s beliefs or ideals, and at points was terrified that his death would be hastened by conspirituality. But of course, she loved and served him nonetheless. And it seems he had a good death, perhaps blessed by beliefs that made Mary wonder if they might provide relief for her as well.

If we’ve learned one thing over the course of this project, it’s that we’ll be living and dying together for a long time at the crossroads of data and imagination, science and spirituality, evidence and the unknown. We’re grateful that Mary has shared this love story of how she navigated it all.

Note: If you have recently lost someone close to you, you may find this episode difficult to listen to.

Show Notes

John-Roger, New Age Spiritual Leader in California, Dies at 80 - The New York Times

ARCHIVE Cult Leader John-Roger, Who Says He's Inhabited by a Divine Spirit, Stands Accused of a Campaign of Hate

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Bonus Sample: Misinformation Millionaires

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 14:00:00 -0000

Last week’s Defeat The Mandate March in Washington D.C. saw a who’s-who of conspiracists address thousands from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Live-streaming and mic’d up— some fresh from massive exposure on the Joe Rogan Experience—they complained about censorship and tyranny, and compared vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.

They present themselves as bold outsiders who reveal forbidden knowledge and stand up against the corrupt establishment. But scratch the surface of anti-vax celebrity and Covid-conspiracism and you’ll find the well-oiled machinery of affiliate marketing and global quack-medicine sales networks.

Julian reports on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Simone Gold, Pierre Kory, and Sayer Ji. He follows the money and asks, “What’s the difference between a misguided activist and a cynical grifter?”

Show Notes

Kennedy Xmas Party Hypocrisy

Ravens’ Theory of Mind Research

Primate Theory of Mind

Goldfish-Broccoli Study

$1M in PPP Loans for Anti-Vax Groups

CCDH Pandemic Profiteers

Grandview Research on CAM Global Market

NCCIH Spent $2.5 on Failed Alt-Med Studies

Skeptical Inquirer Report on CAM Grants

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88: New Age Crack

Fri, 28 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0000

Snap. Crackle. Pop. That’s the release you’ve been waiting for—the ecstasy of small gas bubbles being “cracked” along your spine. While it’s debatable how much good chiropractic adjustments are doing for your body—there’s some evidence that it alleviates lower back pain, alongside a litany of unsubstantiated claims—what’s not debatable is the number of anti-vax, pseudoscience-prone chiropractors clogging the conspirituality pipeline these days.

This isn’t a “chiropractor takedown” episode, as both Derek and Julian have benefited from treatments in the past. Indeed, there’s a whole realm of “mixers” that try to follow best practices and clinical science. Yet there’s a strong conspiritualist lean among a number of chiropractors and we want to know why. To that end, Derek offers a history of the practice, which is, perhaps unsurprisingly, rooted in an anti-vax, anti-medicine strain of 19th-century vitalism. Julian discusses some of his experiences while Matthew questions consent and harm in the industry. The team then breaks down chiropractor Melissa Sell’s discussion of the antisemitic Germanic New Medicine, which she recently championed on the pseudopalooza of online disinformation conferences, The Event 2021.

Show Notes

U.S. Judge Finds Medical Group Conspired Against Chiropractors

Chiropractors Charged in Insurance Scam

Can Indecision Cause Hemorrhoids?

Goodbye to All Yoga Bullies. | by Matthew Remski | Medium

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Bonus Sample: The Irrational Makes Sense

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 11:00:00 -0000

Inspired by a recent discussion on psychoanalysis and politics with Pat Blanchfield on Know Your Enemy, this brief meditation focuses on two aspects of the conspirituality landscape that have lurked in the unconscious of the pod:

People do not make sense. There are conflicting impulses and voices within us all. One objective of our project is akin to the goal psychoanalysis: to get those parts talking.
Calling people hypocrites for not making sense is a terrible way of getting them to make sense. What we call hypocrisy, they have used for coherence and survival. The blowback isn't stubbornness, but a confession of needs.

Matthew looks at how the contradictions of Kelly Brogan and JP Sears make sense. Brogan rails against "mommy medicine" while installing herself as "mommy shaman." Sears tells us "Don't outsource your truth," while he absorbs data from Bitchute and Rogan.

Brogan's followers are attracted by the simultaneous rejection and reconstitution of authority. JP Sears is a hollow husk of a man, telling his followers to look inside.

But when you meet a contradiction or a defence that is harmful, you can’t just argue it away. You have to work towards a better answer to the condition the defence is trying to ease.

Show Notes

Freud and Politics (w/ Pat Blanchfield)

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87: The Aubrey Marcus Spectacle

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 14:00:00 -0000

When we left our Austin conspirituality heroes in the last episode, Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q, was locking in his position as the philosopher—or jester—in the court of Aubrey Marcus.

But what of this court? Matthew’s scene by scene analysis of some prime Marcus marketing porn will give us some clues. The video in question is for Marcus’s life-coaching programme, which is called “Fit for Service.” The visuals centre around what looks like a haka ritual dance, through which customers release their inner warriors, nurture their affiliate links and jazz up their socials.

On point for the influencer age, the ritual plays out in a narcissistic hall of mirrors, choreographed for performance by programme participants in order to promote the programme they are performing in. Naturally, Matthew will be using the analytical frameworks of spectacle and simulation from Guy Debord and Jean Baudrillard to make sense of it. He’ll also apply Renato Rosaldo’s concept of “imperialist nostalgia” to explore the ugly conflicts in Marcus’s indigenous cosplay.

Show Notes

Fit for Service homepage

fit.for.service: A Dandelion In A Field Is Un-killable

A poet’s plea to save our planet | IN-Q | TED Institute

"Revolution": The FORGOTTEN Voices of The Pandemic Will Have You In Tears

The 5 Desires: Marcus on FFS promises

Aubrey Marcus - Fit For Service Mastermind - Review – Max Hug

The Wellness Pornographers. Gamifying intimacy, abusing public… | by Matthew Remski | Medium

Heresy Labs on Heilung

Renato Rosaldo: Imperialist Nostalgia

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Special Report: Red-pilled Poet, Charles Eisenstein

Tue, 18 Jan 2022 22:00:00 -0000

Given the response to this bonus episode, we've decided to release it into the wild as an important companion to Conspirituality 86. Julian tracks the transformative arc of malformed ideas garnished with spiritualized language that has made Eisenstein the romantic mascot of anti-vax, Covid-contrarian wellness. This is how he finds himself now poised to become the mythic storyteller-in-residence of an emerging Austin-based cult of psychedelic bro science and “medical freedom.”

-- -- --

Show Notes

Hello, YogAnon! Selfish Care Rituals | by Matthew Remski | Medium

How a #MeToo Facebook Post Toppled a Yoga Icon | by Matthew Remski | GEN

Shielded for Decades, a Leader of Sivananda Yoga Finally Comes Under Fire for Alleged Abuse | GEN

John of Fraud. How did slack journalism and New Age… | by Matthew Remski | Medium

Practice and All Is Coming – Matthew Remski

Jivamukti sexual harassment lawsuit says the yoga studio is a cult.

Jivamukti, Dark and Light: Holly Faurot, Sharon Gannon, and David Life Speak Out - Decolonizing Yoga

Terry Eagleton in the New Statesman Re

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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Bonus Sample: Science Is Not a Religion

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 14:00:00 -0000

In 2017, Charles Eisenstein addressed the SAND (Science And Non-Duality) Conference on our "obsession with measurement." A clip of that talk, published in 2019, put forward the question Is Science a Religion? Charles answered yes, offering a number of supposed parallels.

Only—most of them don't hold water. Derek responds to his talk, breaking down Charles's analysis point-by-point. He also bookends the episode with clips from a thinker who brilliantly drew parallels between science and religion without conflating them: Oliver Sacks.

Show Notes

Is Science a Religion? — Charles Eisenstein

Oliver Sacks on Humans and Myth-making

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86: Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0000

Up to this point, we’ve understood Charles Eisenstein as the poet-philosopher of conspirituality, lending his Burning Man ritual workshop chops to the antivax faux-freedom movement. Out of deference to his apparent sensitivity and respectable writing skills, we’ve given him the benefit of the doubt—we even invited him on this show for two episodes to see whether we could find common ground. We didn’t.

In our last Bonus episode, Julian tracked how Eisenstein has accelerated and intensified his rhetoric. Today, we’ll see how he’s fortifying his money networks, and starting to say the quiet parts out loud. He’s no longer “just” dog-whistling violence and QAnon.

We’re reviewing a recent video he’s co-produced with Onnit multimillionaire and Austin bro-poet Aubrey Marcus. It’s an anime rendition of the ending of his 2013 bestseller, The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know is Possible. In the book, Eisenstein presents “The Gathering of the Tribe” as a kind of personal mythology. As he levels up to the big leagues, this story about belonging to a group of blessed alien shamans sent to wake up humanity carries clear real-world literalness—and a culty vibe.

If the high-end video doesn’t convince you, a tape from a hipster New Year’s Eve party in Ithaca NY might do the trick. As he holds guru-court for All the Big Questions, Eisenstein tells an Iraq vet that he has special gifts to deploy against the (fictional) building of COVID concentration camps in Rhode Island. Then he says he hopes the “pedophile elite” will just stop. Sound familiar?

Eisenstein’s content is poetic and vague. Its implications are plausibly deniable. It pours out through an endless stream of radiant and inscrutable essay drops. He has mastered the cryptic prompt that either speaks to your soul, to your appetite for disrupting public health, or to your recent tactical training regimen. Who can really tell? His skill is to stand beside and above it all. He can avoid being pinned down. It’s almost as if he’s not really there, but only reflecting the zeitgeist of our broken moment. It’s time to just name him for what he is: New Age Q.

Show Notes

A Gathering of the Tribe | POWERFUL Short Film by Charles Eisenstein w/ Jon Hopkins & Aubrey Marcus

A Gathering of the Tribe | Reality Sandwich (original, 2009)

A Gathering of the Tribe (full version Charles’s site)

Interview with Charles Eisenstein | Inner World Press | Shift in Consciousness Ezine

In the Miracle (Eisenstein essay, 2009)

Charles Eisenstein at Resonance NYE

The Man Behind th

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Bonus Sample: Red-pilled Poet, Charles Eisenstein

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 14:00:00 -0000

Charles Eistenstein has had quite the pandemic. Essays read by millions, retweeted by Jack Dorsey, quoted by Ivanka Trump, held up as the poet philosopher of conspirituality—hell, he’s even been on the podcast!

Julian tracks the transformative arc of malformed ideas garnished with spiritualized language that has made Eisenstein the romantic mascot of anti-vax, Covid-contrarian wellness. This is how he finds himself now poised to become the mythic storyteller-in-residence of an emerging Austin-based cult of psychedelic bro science and “medical freedom.”

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85: Gaia Buys Yoga International, Stocks Rise on Uranus

Fri, 07 Jan 2022 01:00:00 -0000

On the day after the Winter Solstice, as the world tucked in for an Omicron staycation, a news flash came over the wire. Yoga International—one of the largest yoga media companies in the world—had been acquired by Gaia—one of the largest pseudoscience, pseudointellectual, conspiracy theory platforms in the world. While the CEO of Yoga International immediately assured nervous content providers that the platform will remain editorially independent, only time will tell.

What we do know is that countless print articles written by earnest yogis and thousands of hours of classes created by earnest yoga instructors will now share space with David Icke, an antisemitic conspiracy theorist who believes lizard people have coopted world governments—and that’s only the start.

The acquisition predicts even more brain-melting in yogaland, exposing even more vulnerable and credulous seekers to a dumpster fire of meaning dressed up in a simulation of spirituality. Julian covers some Gaia history. Derek makes us suffer through some Gaia content. Matthew opens by tracking the century-long descent of yoga media to this conspiritualistic nadir.

Show Notes

Rob Price Interview on Gaia and Conspiracy Theories

Gaia Acquires Yoga International, a Leading Digital Yoga Service

Yoga guru in compromising position / Celebrity instructor Rodney Yee faces allegations of misconduct with students

The Case against Swami Rama of the Himalayas

How to Respond to Sexual Abuse Within a Yoga or Spiritual Community

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Bonus Sample: The Inventor of Yoga Teacher Training Was a Rapist Obsessed with UFOs

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0000

In 1969, Swami Vishnudevananda pioneered what has become a life transition ritual for the GenX and Millennial precariat: the Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) Programme. He was a cult leader rapist who thought yoga would help the world understand messages sent by UFOs. Not exactly confidence-inspiring.

Not every YTT programme is bad—today's bonus host Matthew has worked in some good ones for over a decade. But on the whole, we're talking about an industry that has graduated up to 500K ppl over 50 years through a pseudo-educational process that has greased the epistemological pipeline towards conspirituality.

YTTs are unregulated by any academic or professional consensus. They are driven by the anxious charisma of urban yoga studio entrepreneurs who need to sell big-ticket products to counter the rising overheads of the gentrification they're helping to drive. Their curricula offers a pastiche of uncited resources. They pad contact hours with sermons and meditation sessions.

The typical YTT training manual is an unironic postmodern meat-grinder in which Iron Age philosophy and high school anatomy are blended with quotes from Carl Jung and Rumi. As an example, Matthew looks at a Jivamukti Yoga School manual from a 2007 training hosted at Omega Institute.

Again: not all YTTs are bad, or lead to QAnon. But the ritual and charismatic pedagogy that most offer has a lot in common with the sacrament of redpilling—albeit more socially acceptable and aspirational.

Conspirituality went viral in 2020. It's time to ask whether the YTT industry compromised a culture's immunity to it.

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84: Red State Christians (w/Angela Denker)

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 14:00:00 -0000

"When we don't avoid people who think differently than we do, we gain an opportunity for growth and national renewal." So opens Red State Christians: Understanding the Voters Who Elected Donald Trump, a fascinating and insightful book by Lutheran pastor and journalist Angela Denker.

Denker spent years on the road talking to Christians who voted for Donald Trump—listening to their motives and writing honestly, but not uncritically, about their reasoning. To her surprise, she discovered a much more diverse coalition than you’d likely imagine—just like the Left is not the monolith that conservatives sometimes paint. From abortion rights and racial issues to immigration and football, Denker offers an inside look at the American mindset.

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Bonus Sample: The Language of Conspiritualist Merchants

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0000

Derek investigates the origins of language through thinkers like David Crystal, Michael Corballis, and others, to investigate how two popular figures—Deepak Chopra and Rick Warren—sell their spiritual wares. Their patterns reveal the model many conspiritualist influencers use today.

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83: Climate Solstice (w/George Monbiot)

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 11:00:00 -0000

The global pandemic response is a microcosm of the global climate collapse response. In both we get to see what’s really under the hood when the pressure is on. In the face of endless and relentless odds and near-constant demoralization, what stories do we turn to, what bonds do we form, and who do they help?

Climate journalist emeritus George Monbiot joins Matthew to discuss the never-ending road of empathy and activism, and what happens on that road when otherwise brilliant and sensitive people “lose their mirror,” or sense of responsibility to the commons. What happens when they aestheticize grief. What happens when they have enough privilege to fetishize renunciation.

Their discussion orbits around the recent conspirituality spiral of a writer who has been a hero to many in the realm of climate literature and consideration. Paul Kingsnorth has recently converted to Romanian Orthodox Christianity... and vaccine skepticism. He's also wondered aloud whether the virus is not "a delicious little sign from God" that humanity deserves punishment.

Show Notes

The Dark Mountain Manifesto

Earth Talk: Five years on a mountain - Paul Kingsnorth and Dougald Hine

Is there any point in fighting to stave off industrial apocalypse? | Paul Kingsnorth and George Monbiot | The Guardian

After the failure of Cop26, there is only one last hope for our survival | George Monbiot

The Vaccine Moment, part one - by Paul Kingsnorth

The Vaccine Moment, part two - by Paul Kingsnorth

The Vaccine Moment, part three - by Paul Kingsnorth

George Monbiot on Twitter: "I've read Paul Kingsnorth's anti-vaccine essay on Substack, and I suspect it might contribute to quite a few deaths. Why? Because his writing is elegant and powerful, but some of his facts are simply wrong. Here's a very small sample: Thread/"

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Bonus Sample: The Middle Circle

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 14:00:00 -0000

In the 1990s, Westerners searching for enlightenment flocked to India. The pilgrimage represented an affirmation of status and authority in the burgeoning yoga economy. Julian reflects on his three months in the “middle circle” of the Osho Ashram in Pune, where he chased a destiny seeded years before in a South African basement. As an earnest yet skeptical seeker passing though cultic territory, he points out the overlaps between meaningful experience and group indoctrination.

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82: Steve Bannon, Mystic (w/Benjamin Teitelbaum)

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0000

While Americans were transforming esoteric strains of yoga into a commodifiable industry in 1980, a young naval officer named Steve Bannon was picking up theosophical texts in metaphysical bookstores and practicing Zen meditation in secret while stationed in Hong Kong. He was wary of his countrymates liberal explorations of Eastern philosophies, aware of the nationalistic roots upon which these “mystical” systems were founded. Then he stumbled into Traditionalism, a perennial philosophy that consumed all world religions, as popularized by the likes of French metaphysicist René Guénon and Italian antisemitic conspiracy theorist Julius Evola.

This week we welcome Benjamin Teitelbaum, an Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology and International Affairs at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and author of the book, War for Eternity: The Return of Traditionalism and the Rise of the Populist Right. Teitelbaum gained access to leading right-wing figures around the world, including Steve Bannon. He’s got their number and brings receipts. Get ready for a long, strange trip.

Show Notes

The rise of the traditionalists: how a mystical doctrine is reshaping the right

Covid-19 Is the Crisis Radical ‘Traditionalists’ Have Been Waiting For

The People Who Pray for the Apocalypse | Benjamin Teitelbaum | The Glenn Beck Podcast

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Bonus Sample: Not All Conspiritualities Are the Same

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 14:00:00 -0000

Matthew responds to the robust feedback on the Sam-Harris-is-a-highbrow-conspiritualist bonus, and then stretches the terms around harm in the conspirituality sphere in another way, by looking at the spectrum of agency offered by different wellness/spirituality products. He interrogates the premise implicit in some of our reporting that the cognitive errors and magical thinking of alt-health and New Age paradigms are all on a slippery slope to ruin. TLDR: isn’t it always more about sociology than ideology?

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81: Praying for Fire (w/Sean Prophet)

Fri, 10 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0000

When Mike Flynn posted a video on July 4, 2020 in which his family recited QAnon slogans, it cemented the disgraced former National Security Advisor and U.S. Army lieutenant general as a MAGA patriot super-hero. On September 17, just 14 short months later, Flynn took the stage, bathed in light at the Lord of Hosts Church in Omaha, Nebraska to lead a political prayer that was a fiery angelic call-to-arms. But, oops! It turns out that this prayer traces back to New Age doomsday cult leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. Now the Q-faithful have turned on their hero, accusing him of being in league with the Satanic cabal. We’ll ask today’s guest host, Sean Prophet—who happens to be the eldest son of that cult leader—how he got out, and how we got here.

Show Notes

The Radical Secular podcast with Sean Prophet

Relevant episodes:

9: QAnon and Conspirituality: with Matthew Remski - 08.24.20

16: Before Q, There Was CUT: with Joe Szimhart - 10.19.20

22: Getting out of Cults and Harmful Religions - Bonus Episode

54: Blavatsky, the I Am, and The Summit Lighthouse - 07.19.21

Black Sun Journal » Happy Birthday, Mom!: 2006 Article by Sean Prophet on final interaction with Elizabeth Clare Prophet

Church Universal and Triumphant - Nightline - May 17th 1990

CUT/Summit Lighthouse on Oprah 5 with Streiker and Hassan

QAnon Fall Out from Mike Flynn using I Am Prayer

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Bonus Sample: Spiritual Consumerism

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 13:00:00 -0000

Derek shares a story from his time as a Lululemon brand ambassador to highlight the toxic merging of spiritual practices and consumerism. Not only does he detail Lulu's post-Chip Wilson pivot in an attempt to "own yoga," he also explores the histories of branding, money, and markets in an attempt to understand how we arrived at the influencer culture that dominates social media today.

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80: Lights, Camera, Yoga (w/Jill Miller)

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 00:00:00 -0000

We've talked a lot on this podcast about the selfie sermon: the kind of iPhone video native to Instagram influencers. Easily weaponized by conspiritualists, this sermon is equal parts intimate confessional, prophecy download, and motivational coaching, directly transmitted from your favorite self-anointed maverick expert. Social media seems perfectly designed for such hypnotic performances and spiritual darshans. But in the brick-and-mortar world, yoga teachers have long blurred the line between acting and teaching, space holding and theater, and ritual ceremony and fitness. If all the world's a stage, as Shakespeare had it, the wooden planks of the yoga studio—and the digital platforms built in ether—demand that teachers embrace a role, adopt a script, and sell a story to their audience. What we want to know is: where does the performance end and yoga begin, or perhaps more to the point, is there even a difference?

Our guest host today is Jill Miller, who many listeners will know from her hugely influential body of work in yoga and movement as founder of Tune-Up Fitness. She's also a former actor, which played an important role in her transition to full-time yoga instructor. We're going to start today with an excerpt from her 2017 TED-style talk that she gave in Toronto titled, “Lights, Camera, Yoga."

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Bonus Sample: Did We Choose to Be the Good Ones?

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 14:00:00 -0000

Kyle Rittenhouse walks away from the courthouse while Ahmaud Arbery's killers were found guilty and "QAnon Shaman," Jacob Chansley, was received significant jail time. Our opinions on each of these cases are likely determined by our political affiliations, which in turn are a reflection of how we think about morality, crime, and punishment.

Julian draws on scientific research into how genetics and the brain shape our politics, thought experiments in moral philosophy, and the work of moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt.

As he questions whether or not any of us have freely chosen to be the good ones, he wonders if a way out of our toxic polarization might be found through understanding the underlying moral values and emotional reactions that drive one another's political beliefs.

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79: Anti-Hate Work in Canada (w/Dan Collen, Elizabeth Simons, & Morgan Yew)

Thu, 25 Nov 2021 17:00:00 -0000

COVID has been a recruiting windfall for hate groups in Canada, with new alliances and networks forged between white supremacists, xenophobes, and ethnonationalists in the fire of accelerated conspiracism. Joining Matthew to map out this landscape are street-level anti-hate activists Elizabeth Simons, the deputy director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, Dan Collen, a researcher with the Neuberger Holocaust Education Center's Online Hate Education and Research Project, and Morgan Yew, a video journalist and DJ from Kamloops, whose coverage of Toronto's anti-lockdown protests has been rich and revealing.

We cover a lot in this one: the “irony poisoning” white nationalist recruiting tactics that target 14 year-old boys, the rogue’s gallery of extremists wreaking havoc at anti-lockdown rallies, racists trying on “sovereign citizen” pseudolaw in the courts, and their craven appropriation of Indigenous rights discourse when they lurch into “Pretendian” territory. We’ll also look at the People’s Party of Canada, and discuss why it is not very smart to write it off as QAnon foolishness.

Content Warning: analysis of hateful views, including notes from a white supremacist recruiting manual that is instructing followers on how to indoctrinate children.

Show Notes

Canadian Anti-Hate Network

Dan Collen’s fantastic articles on Medium: dancollen.medium.com

Morgan Yew’s awesome Twitter feed

Canadian Anti-Semites and Far-Right Conspiracy Theorists Try New Tactic: Aligning with Indigenous Communities

Mediasmarts

Learning for Justice | Education Resources

Wisdom2Action – Facilitate Change. Strengthen Communities.

The 519- nonprofit promoting 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion serving Toronto - The 519 - Space For Change - The519

Egale Canada - nonprofit promoting 2SLGBTQ+ inclusion serving Canada Home - Egale

CASSA - Council of Agencies Serving South Asians - http://cassa.on.ca/

The Neuberger Holocaust Education Centre - https://www.holocaustcentre.com/

Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice - https://ccncsj.ca/

Timeline cleanse. Some of Morgan’s video nurturance journalism.

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Bonus Sample: Sam Harris: High-Brow Secular Conspiritualist

Mon, 22 Nov 2021 11:00:00 -0000

Bonus episode, piloted by Matthew.

There is a subtle form of conspirituality that rides on the familiar dialectic of political cynicism and spiritual promise—but it's dressed for a button-down salon dinner in Harvard Square. No crystals in sight, no essential oils wafting through the room.

Sam Harris isn’t sounding the alarm about the Cabal or the Illuminati: his bugaboos are Islam, or “wokeism,” or “cancel culture.”

And he isn’t saying that starseeds will save the day, or that a Great Awakening is upon us. He’s not so low-brow.

His salvation product is meditation, which he says can validate his political insights. And hey, there's an app for that!

Show Notes

Celebrity Crusaders For Empire

Towards a geopolitics of atheism

Why the arguments of the 'New Atheists' are often just as violent as religion

Harris daydreaming about a nuclear strike

Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web

Will the "University of Austin" ever actually exist?

Sam Harris & Charles Murray

Harris. “A Few Points of Confusion.”

Decoding the Gurus: Sam Harris & Meditation is all you need

Gurometer— Kavanaugh and Browne

Buddhist Studies Has a Whiteness Problem

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78: Society of the Conspiracy

Fri, 19 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0000

Conspiracy theories flourish during uncertain times. They're always with us, passed down through generations like alternate histories, yet they’re constantly reinvented when collective stress levels peak. Julian reports on the QAnon spin-off group that’s been camped out in Dallas’s Dealey Plaza for two weeks, hoping to catch a glimpse of a pantheon of resurrected dead celebrities. In light of the Astroworld concert tragedy, which killed 10 people, being interpreted as a ritual Satanic sacrifice on social media, Derek wonders if conspiracies are just how we process everything now. Matthew points out the legitimate reasons conspiracy theorists have for their paranoia while warning against the media's tendency to titillate by misusing the terminology of cult research. And he also reads a bit from Paradise Lost. A conversational recap week as we’re working on some Big Shows in the next few weeks.

Show Notes

Riots, deaths, sexual assault: Maybe Woodstock was always a nightmare

The Bizarre Travis Scott Claims Show That Conspiracies Are Just How We Process Things

TikTok and QAnon Panic Over ‘Satanism’ Conspiracies at Deadly Travis Scott Concert

QAnon’s Refuse to Leave Dallas After JFK Jr. Fails to Appear

Inside The QAnon Cult Waiting for JFK Jr.

On The Ground At Dealey Plaza

Twitter videos/thread on Michael Brian Protzman

What Biden is keeping secret in the JFK files

QAnon Influencer Recruiting Secretary of State Candidates

Academic Research on Conspiracy Theories in Times of Social Crisis

Karen Douglas PhD on The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

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Bonus Sample: Privilege in Wellness Spaces

Mon, 15 Nov 2021 14:00:00 -0000

Privilege is often blind and rampant across societies. But is the term also overused?

Derek looks at two examples of privilege in wellness spaces, the danger of its overuse, and a possible reframing of how to approach the topic.

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77: A Homeopathy Episode So Potent You Can’t Hear It (w/Jonathan Jarry)

Fri, 12 Nov 2021 00:00:00 -0000

To prepare this curative episode, we listened carefully to alternative health consumers for many hours, taking an exhaustive history of life challenges on physical, mental, and emotional planes. We scanned the symptoms against our compendium of disease states and prescribed the precise substances that would mirror them.

Then, we took minuscule audio samples from our podcasting apothecary — skepticism, melancholy, and empathy. We mixed these, diluted them a thousand times, to the point at which they became completely inaudible. Then we shook them up and down while chanting the spell of this bespoke remedy: Conspiritualitis investigarium.

Please don’t try to turn up your volume on this episode. You can’t actually hear it, and that’s what makes it so powerful.

But seriously folks. Welcome to our long-awaited homeopathy show — and not a week too soon. NFL’s leading quarterback Aaron Rodgers has just admitted to endangering the entire league by opting to be “immunized” via homeopathy rather than complying with the league’s vaccination requirements. (He’s also a lying liar.) There are reports of homeopaths selling COVID19 remedies — through both small ops in the U.S., and federally-approved dispensers in India, where Narendra Modi’s Hindu Nationalists mingled sugar pills with astrology to help disguise their negligent pandemic response.

Derek takes us on a tour through the strange history of this medicine that isn’t there, and interviews Jonathan Jarry of the McGill Office for Science and Society on why it haunts us. Julian contextualizes homeopathy against the broader “Complementary and Alternative Medicine” landscape. And Matthew wonders about the uses of magic.

Show Notes

A brief history of homeopathy

Vaccines and Homeopath

Homeopathy: A History

Berlin Wall pills: a cure for emotional trauma – or royal-endorsed quackery

Jonathan Jarry's homeopathy video

Jonathan's articles for McGill University

Homeopathy And Its Founder: Views Of A British Researcher

MEASURING MYTHOLOGY: Startling Concepts in NCCAM Grant

$2.5 billion spent, no alternative cures found

Complementary And Alternative Medicine

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Bonus Sample: Rational Emotions & Poetic Science

Mon, 08 Nov 2021 14:00:00 -0000

Are emotions really separate from rationality? Is trusting science similar to religious faith? Do poetry and mythic archetypes disclose a reality beyond the material world? What might characters like Mr. Spock reveal about logical thinking?

Julian explores the relationships between scientific and religious world views through the lenses of emotions, metaphors, and the brain. He draws on clips from neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, philosopher Julia Galef, linguist George Lakoff, biology professor Robert Sapolsky, and neurologist Vilayanur Ramachandran.

Show Notes

This Time With Feeling: David Brooks and Antonio Damasio

40/40 Vision Lecture: Neurology and the Passion for Art

George Lakoff - How Does Philosophy Illuminate the Physical World?

24. Schizophrenia

The Straw Vulcan, Julia Galef Skepticon 4

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76: A Field Guide to White Supremacy (w/Kathleen Belew)

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 23:00:00 -0000

There is no avoiding the fact that conspirituality plays out against a backdrop of racially-charged politics and the echoes of colonialism. And from the beginning of this podcast project we’ve tackled things like the origins of yoga and wellness being tangled up with European fascist movements and racist eugenics. We’re speaking from and into a culture that is predominantly white, and has the disposable income to afford boutique health ideologies. We know it’s naturally allergic to the project of public health. We know that it ignores the social determinants of health — because if it didn’t, it couldn’t sell its green-smoothie-based hero’s journeys.

But reporting on race and conspirituality is only going to get harder. In this episode, Matthew reviews a new volume of essays that might help. A Field Guide to White Supremacy, edited by Drs. Kathleen Belew and Ramon Gutierrez, brings together a pile of resources for journalists and policy-makers who want to engage thoughtfully with issues of equality. And he interviews Dr. Belew on best practices, The Great Replacement conspiracy theory, and why there are no “lone wolves.”

In a debrief discussion, Derek and Julian join in to puzzle out the complexities of reporting on Robert F. Kennedy Jr. platforming Black anti-vax activists, how the sources of vax-hesitancy shown by Aaron Rogers and Kyrie Irving might be coming from different places, and how to think empathetically about vaccine hesitancy in Black liberation movements.

Show Notes

Kathleen Belew

A Field Guide to White Supremacy by Kathleen Belew, Ramon A. Gutierrez

RFK Jr is one of the Disinformation Dozen, and He has actively courted and collaborated with Black communities and leaders

Twitter thread of Barclay's Center protest clips

The Creator Of 'The Punisher' Wants To Reclaim The Iconic Skull From Police And Fringe Admirers

Kyrie Irving hints at redpilling followers on IG

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Bonus Sample: My Religious Attitude Toward Science

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 13:00:00 -0000

Okay, maybe the title is overstated. But, as Matthew explores in this bonus episode: what are the contours of social comfort and habitus — supported by faith and ritual — that haunt any layperson's relationship to science? When the pressure is on, be it acute or existential, do we really display "critical thinking" — or are we really skilled at post-hoc rationalizing choices that embody the social status we wish to identify with?

What are the psychosocial scents that waft from institutional actors vs. influencers, and what does it say about history and personal experience that one or the other is inviting, or terrifying?

Finally: both Steve Hassan and Lee McIntyre have proposed that careful 1:1 conversations can re-establish interpersonal trust with the indoctrinated. But when we're talking about making vulnerable populations less susceptible to pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, is this really sufficient? Or must we consider broader forms of social atonement, like reparations?

Show Notes

Sapolsky: Religious Ritual is OCD

B.C. health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry on COVID-19

333,000 children were abused within France's Catholic Church, a report finds

Santa Claus and Dr. Tam have a video chat

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75: How to Talk to a Science Denier (w/Lee McIntyre)

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 21:00:00 -0000

What happens when a philosopher of science shows up at a flat earth conference to test out his theories about changing people's minds? This story catapults you into Lee Mcintyre’s new book, How to Talk to a Science Denier.

As anti-vaccine and anti-quarantine protests flare up around the world, and the pandemic drags us all through financial and emotional destruction, discussing science communication has become more necessary than ever. Mcintyre's 2018 book, Post-Truth, examined the manipulative world of “alternative facts.” As a sort of addendum, his latest charts a boots-on-the-ground course to understanding and engaging with false beliefs. Julian's interview with Lee is the main focus of today's episode. After we run the interview, the crew debriefs and discusses.

Show Notes

Talking to science deniers and sceptics is not hopeless

When Corrections Fail: The Persistence of Political Misperceptions

Santa Claus and Dr. Tam have a video chat

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Bonus Sample: Charisma & Extroversion

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 13:00:00 -0000

It's been over a century since Dale Carnegie began teaching the importance of extroversion, bringing with it a cultural shift that champions an aggressive social and work style. Gone were the days of championing introspection.

Derek explores his own relationship with introversion in Yogaland, wondering how a quiet form of self-investigation that often champions the loud and bombastic on social media. The influence of the extrovert has dominated many domains, but none more insidiously than the wellness influencers feigning compassion in an attempt to influence people but not necessarily win friends.

Show Notes

People Aren’t Meant to Talk This Much

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

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74: Elena Brower Could Stop Selling doTERRA

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 20:14:37 -0000

What happens when MLM sales and neoliberal life coaching collide with a yoga charisma that oozes with pseudofeminism? Where do we even begin? Exploitation. Heartbreak. Toxic mimicries of therapy, mentorship, political awareness, and community.

In this investigative report, Matthew digs into the background of a recent article posted to Medium called “Open Letter to Elena Brower.” He interviews the author, Tatum Fjerstad, who Brower mentored from 2014 to 2016, and Liz Fullen, who worked as Brower’s unpaid yoga class assistant for approximately three years. He’ll also play excerpts from a legally-recorded Zoom call in which Brower gives non-consensual “coaching” to a stranger.

Friend of the pod Dr. Natalia Petrzela joins the story to recount her personal brush with the Handel Coaching Method. Brower is a Handel “expert coach”, and has merged the Method with her yoga training to produce peak cognitive-dissonant messaging:

You’re fabulous, but you're fucked. You’re already perfect and you know what’s right for you, but you have a lot of work to do, and I can show you how to do it.

Other themes include “performative therapy abuse”, the perils of unlicensed therapy, and how the power pyramids that hide in plain sight may be more vulnerable than we know, especially when we begin to talk about them clearly.

Show Notes

Open Letter to Elena Brower. CW: spiritual and emotional abuse | by tatum fjerstad | Sep, 2021 | Medium

mlmtruth.org's killer list of research and resources

New Presidential Diamond announcement: Brower

Conspirituality Instagram post on "Performative Therapy Abuse"

Yoga Teachers Are Not Doctors, Doctors Are Not Priests

IYNAUS independent investigation of Manouso Manos

The American Yoga ReVolution with Iyengar disciples Manouso Manos and Patricia Walden

“Betrayal of Trust”: 1991 Mercury News Investigation of Sexual Assault Allegations Against Manouso Manos — by Bob Frost

The Yoga Mogul: John Friend, Creator of the Anusara School

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Bonus Sample: Radical Denial

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 14:10:44 -0000

With a new variant of QAnon circulating through white evangelical churches, protests against masks and vaccines are becoming more aggressive around the world. In Germany, a gas station attendant who asked a customer to mask-up was shot dead this week, and a Maryland man allegedly killed his pharmacist brother and sister in law, believing that they were poisoning people with vaccines.

Demonstrations have turned violent in Australia; in New York, a mobile-free Covid-test site was up-ended. In LA, Beverly Hills protest organizer Shiva Bagheri was caught on video punching a breast cancer patient outside a clinic and harassing parents and kids as they walked into an elementary school, yelling that vaccines are a form of child-rape.

For this week’s Bonus, Julian looks at these developments through the lens of research on radicalization and fascist political movements. While Westboro Baptist Church tip-toes right up to the edge of violence with their hateful fundamentalist activism, the anti-abortion movement has included terrorism in the form of bombing, kidnapping, and murder.

But it’s not all bad news. This episode ends with data from a recent study on what supports de-radicalization, as well as a hopeful personal account of how compassionate online interactions led one woman to exit a hate group she was born into, and advocate now for tolerance.

Show Notes

What does Radicalisation Look Like? Four Visualisations of Socialisation into Violent Extremism

Watch a Beverly Hills Anti-Vaxxer Scream at School Kids Vaccines Are ‘Rape’

‘It’s evil’: Jim Acosta reacts to Trump’s remark during interview

The Link Between the Capitol Riot and Anti-Abortion Extremism

What Do Former Extremists and Their Families Say About Radicalization and Deradicalization in America?

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73: Eating Disorders in Yogaland (w/Jason Nagata & Chelsea Roff)

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 21:11:20 -0000

Meat is toxic. Dairy is toxic. Eggs? As dangerous as cigarettes. Garlic stokes the hormones. Avoid nightshades at all costs. Organic or bust. Eat according to your blood type. Eat according to your chronotype. Cacao resonates with the frequency of the sun, but never, ever add sugar to it. Sugar is toxic. Juice cleanses lead you to your highest self.

If you’re exhausted already, so are we. This week, Derek anchors our look at how the wellness world disguises eating disorders as purity tests and pathways to “clean” eating. He opens up about his 15-year-battle with orthorexia, an eating disorder he believes to be rampant in yoga and wellness, as well as the broader fitness world, where men hide their own eating disorders with protein shakes and ketogenic fasting. Matthew adds kitchen notes from the spiritual cult front lines.

Julian talks with Chelsea Roff, founder of Eat Breathe Thrive, about her own struggles with food before discussing her decade of experience working with eating disorder victims in Yogaland. Derek then chats with Dr. Jason Nagata about the challenges of treating boys and men in clinical settings, and what to do about a phenomenon so many suffer from yet so few are able to find a language for.

Show Notes

This Is What It’s Like For Men With Eating Disorders

Eating Disorders in Teens Have ‘Exploded’ in the Pandemic

Eating Disorders Surged Among Adolescents in Pandemic

Men obsessed with building muscle mass have higher mental health risks

Uncovering and Destigmatizing Male Body Dysmorphia in Popular Culture

Doctors alerted to dangerous dry scooping workout trend

Prospective health associations of drive for muscularity in young adult males

What Is Orthorexia?

Body dysmorphic disorder

Film Theory 101 – Laura Mulvey: The Male Gaze Theory

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Bonus Sample: Talking to Children About Conspirituality

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 10:47:47 -0000

An audio essay loosely based on conversations Matthew has while parenting. Content is possibly appropriate for ages 7 to 11 — although who really knows. The main point is to deflate the media persona and cut back on the cynicism and hot-takery to discuss these things in a way that leaves the door open for growth and hope. Rules: use simple sentences, many examples, frame bad news within good news, and never call anyone stupid. Don’t give a kid a story that has no way out. Don’t people their world with hopeless cases.Questions include:

What is a conspiracy?
What’s the difference between a good and bad conspiracy?
So what are conspiracy theories?
Are all conspiracy theories bad?
How can people can believe COVID isn’t real when they can see how many people are getting sick and dying?
Why do conspiracy theorists make things worse than they actually are?
Why would the government cover up aliens?
What is spirituality?
What do conspiracy theories have to do with spirituality?
So if you grew up believing in Jesus, did you used to believe in conspirituality?

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72: John of Fraud (w/Lisa Braun Dubbels and Mirna Wabi-Sabi)

Fri, 08 Oct 2021 02:07:37 -0000

Whatever one’s conception of “God” is, “John of God” should now be a nauseating name. For decades, João Teixeira de Faria pretended to heal an endless stream of pilgrims to his center in rural central Brazil through the Spiritist practice of “psychic surgery.” In reality, the miracle healing claims worked to cover up an obvious truth. João was sexually assaulting and raping women, in public and in private, likely every day of his “working” life. As he did so, he amassed a vast fortune in affiliate businesses, farming operations, real estate, referral rackets, and sales of crystals and fake remedies.

In this episode we won’t retell this history, now poignantly captured by a new Brazilian-made documentary on Netflix. Instead, we’ll look at how lazy and motivated journalism shook hands with the entrepreneurial New Age to validate and accelerate the absurd claims of a monster. In addition to original reporting on how João made his mark in the U.S., Matthew is joined by former New Age publicist Lisa Braun Dubbels and Brazilian journalist Mirna Wabi Sabi to discuss the globalization of magic and abuse.

Trigger warnings for this episode: rape, sexual assault, fraud, spiritual abuse.

Show Notes

Biles, Maroney, Raisman and Nichols opening statements before Congress

Chico Xavier | Obituary

Is ‘John of God’ a Healer or a Charlatan?

John of God — Skepdic

James Randi ABC comments debrief

The trouble with Dr. Oz

John of God 2006 Atlanta Program

About Heather Cummings

Oprah March 13, 2010: “Do You Believe in Miracles?” (webarchive)

Leap of Faith: Meet John of God — Susan Casey (webarchive)

Part One: John of God: Oprah’s Favorite Ghost-Channeling Rapist Surgeon – Behind the Bastards

Famous Brazilian spiritual healer accused of sexual abuse | 60 Minutes Australia

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Bonus Sample: Flow States & Humility

Mon, 04 Oct 2021 14:14:53 -0000

During Thursday’s episode, Derek briefly described Flow States in the context of a universal form of spirituality. He explores that concept in a little more depth, pulling audio from Hungarian-American psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s 2004 TED Talk about the social ramifications of Flow States.

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71: So Do We Believe in Anything at All?

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 22:47:38 -0000

We’re grounding down. We’re letting go. We are going deep. We are finding the metta in our meta and tuning in to Source. This week we’ll either answer or transcend the core questions our listeners post in moments of parasocial vulnerability:

Do you guys believe in anything at all? Are there any wholesome spiritual communities out there? Are all spiritual teachers toxic?

This four-hour immersive encounter between three white guys is not to be missed!

(Seriously tho: we’ve got some huge interviews and investigative pieces coming up in the next few weeks, so we’re kicking back a little here to talk basics and regroup.)

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Bonus Sample: Reality Bites: The Tragedy of Magical Thinking

Mon, 27 Sep 2021 14:40:57 -0000

Julian traces the roots of today’s pandemic-era conspirituality back to What The Bleep’s quantum woo, The Secret’s privileged denial and grandiosity, and the dark lessons of why beliefs really matter, as revealed by James Arthur Ray’s deadly Spiritual Warrior Retreat.

Show Notes

Laura Tucker’s response to Nine Perfect Strangers

Guru: The Dark Side of Enlightenment

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70: Conspiracy Theories Conceal a Burning World (w/Daniel Sherrell)

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 20:59:20 -0000

Daniel Sherrell is the author of an extraordinary memoir and prayer book, Warmth: Coming of Age at the End of Our World, in which he recounts how, as a climate activist born in 1990, he has fought to manage, digest, and even celebrate the desperate tasks of the only age he’s known: the Anthropocene. The book is his homage to the resources that help him meditate on weaning ourselves from the dissociations of Twitter and doing the hard work of transforming climate grief into climate integrity.

In our feature interview this week, Matthew sits down with Daniel to discuss the real conspiracy of climate denialism, and how conspiracy theories provide relief to those who cannot contemplate our condition.

We start the show with Derek’s contemplation of Amitav Ghosh’s “The Great Derangement” and Julian’s notes on climate denialism dwarfing the disinformation we typically interrogate in the wellness world.

Show Notes

Warmth by Daniel Sherrell

Sherrell and Dorothy Fortenberry on Know Your Enemy

Why Grief can be Strength in a Warming World | Daniel Sherrell |

Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene – Scranton

Laudato si’ (24 May 2015) | Francis

Tucker Carlson on Military Vaccine Mandate

Dr. Wilson (Debunk the Funk) on Mike Yeadon

Big Oil’s War on Science

UCSA Climate Skeptic Disinformation List

The Climate Disinformation Playbook

Desmog Database

Steven Koonin, the “Obama Scientist”

Daniel Sherrell’s Reading List

Ducks, Newburyport — Ellman

The Summer Book – Jannson

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Bonus Sample: Spirit Island No Garbage

Mon, 20 Sep 2021 13:18:30 -0000

On his family’s yearly trip to Manitoulin Island, Matthew detoxes from conspirituality influencer garbage, and returns with parts of a new plan.

Show Notes

Warmth by Daniel Sherrell: 9780143136538 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books

Living at the End of Our World (w/ Daniel Sherrell & Dorothy Fortenberry) | Know Your Enemy

Lives Reclaimed — Mark Roseman

What Conspiritualists and Anti-Vaxxers Get Right | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium

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69: Fascism Down Under!!! (w/Dr. Izzy Smith)

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 22:47:56 -0000

This week, California Governor Gavin Newsom rode sane pandemic messaging to victory against the Republican-led recall election by a huge margin. Unsurprisingly, voting patterns perfectly matched the state COVID heat map, with fans of the recall suffering the worst outbreaks. Meanwhile, a strict lockdown in Australia, which is experiencing a Delta outbreak, led to American libertarians and right-wing commentators screaming fascism! We talk to Decoding the Gurus co-host (and real-life Australian) Matthew Browne about the situation on the ground. Later in the episode, Julian interviews another Aussie, Dr. Izzy Smith, about her online anti-conspiracy theory activism and science advocacy.

In the Ticker, Derek looks at JP Sears’s new cryptocurrency grift, which appears to be inspired by fellow Austinite Mikki Willis—who also announced a supplement grift this week. Matthew talks briefly to Toronto video journalist Morgan Yew to begin making sense of the alarming convergence of racist alt-right groups with aggressive anti-mask, anti-vaccine protestors at medical facilities in Canada.

Show Notes

How the media helped fuel the anti-vaxx movement

The Non-Fungible Freedom Column

Atlantic article “Australia Traded Away Too Much Liberty”

Josh Szeps Twitter thread response to The Atlantic

Federalist article Pursuing Covid-Zero Has Turned Australia into an Authoritarian State

Opinion | Meet the police chief turned yoga instructor prodding wealthy suburbanites to civil war

Ex-La Habra police chief Alan Hostetter, 5 others charged in Jan. 6 Capitol riot

When QAnon Came to Canada

Glowing Mama Anti-Masker. Toronto Influencer Socially Toilets in… | by Matthew Remski | Medium

Morgan Yew (@weynagrom)

Morgan Yew interviewing Sarah Choujounian of Canadian Frontline Nurses

Morgan Yew: Plan to “Interview” Racist Anti-Lockdown Influencer Ends in Violence

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Bonus Sample: Mikki Willis Rewrites History

Mon, 13 Sep 2021 14:14:46 -0000

In June, Planedemic creator Mikki Willis appeared on Living 4D with Paul Chek to discuss what “really happened” at the Capitol on Jan 6. During the long-ranging talk, Willis took some time to attack a VICE News article that we were featured in. Unfortunately for Willis, we have the audio from the Election Night party in Austin being referenced. Derek updates Willis’s memory.

Show Notes

Living 4D With Paul Check, EP 141 – Mikki Willis 2: What’s Really Going On?

The Election Night audio

Leading New Age Conspiracy Influencers Plan Their Retreat to Utopian Lagoon

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68: The Jordan Peterson of Fitness Bros (w/Antonio Valladares)

Fri, 10 Sep 2021 00:22:08 -0000

Paul Chek will tell you how much he’s influenced the fitness industry. He’ll tell you that he popularized Swiss Balls, and about his time working with the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls and then the championship Lakers. The kinesiologist and founder of the Chek Institute, which offers numerous training programs under the slogan, “We teach the science of living well,” claims that he’s always taken a holistic approach to weightlifting and the gym. In fact, the man does not mind telling you how vast his influence is.

Embedded in Chek’s holistic approach is a penchant for conspiratorial thinking. He trained JP Sears, traded podcasts with biohacker Ben Greenfield, hung with anus sunshiner Troy Casey, and hosted Mikki Willis twice in the last year on his own podcast, Living 4D with Paul Chek. Today’s co-host, NYC-based fitness expert Antonio Valladares, also trained with Chek, but unlike many of Chek’s acolytes, Antonio has used his time and knowledge debunking conspiracy theories in nutrition and fitness, not adding to the fire.

In this week’s closer, Matthew reviews and contextualizes a Facebook post from the charismatic dissectionist Gil Hedley. Hedley’s post leaned into familiar anti-vax territory. But he deleted it — and, in a positive email exchange, revealed some earnest motivations and empathetic impulses. A good lesson that you never quite know where people are coming from, or where they’re going.

Show Notes

Deconstructing Paul Chek

Who is Paul Chek: Holistic Lifestyle Coach

Plandemic Director Mikki Willis Explains His Presence at Capitol Riot — Matthew Remski

About Gil Hedley

Gil Hedley: Fascia and stretching: The Fuzz Speech

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Bonus Sample: Hollow Men: The QAnon Roadshow Flop

Mon, 06 Sep 2021 15:45:38 -0000

A QAnon-themed Stop The Steal, anti-vax, Covid-denial roadshow came to an untimely end in mid-August with their fearless leader succumbing to COVID pneumonia on a ventilator in Florida. He denied the virus was real until his last breath.

This week, Julian chronicles the 84-stop Arise USA Resurrection Tour led by the recently deceased former CIA agent, Robert David Steele.

Characters on this Ill-fated tour include the aging wanna-be rock star slam-poet conspiracist Sacha Stone, anti-vax Urban Health Alliance leader Kevin Jenkins, cowboy-costumed MC Trent Loos, and a presidential impersonator named Lincoln Bob.

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67: The Promise & Peril of Psychedelics

Fri, 03 Sep 2021 00:42:01 -0000

Psychedelics are all the rage in the investment world, with hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into research-based startups in the hope of finding interventions for addiction, depression, PTSD, end-of-life anxieties, and much more. But is it too much? Are we, as has happened with numerous substances in the past, placing too much faith in plant medicine? Will investors expecting a return on investment skew the research? And, more to the point of this podcast, is the burgeoning crop of yoga instructors turned shamans promising more than they can deliver?

With Matthew on a much-deserved vacation this week, Julian interviews Derek about these topics based on Derek’s 2020 book, Hero’s Dose: The Case for Psychedelics in Ritual & Therapy.

In the Ticker this week, Julian looks at the growing list of anti-vax, COVID-is-a-hoax conservative radio hosts dying of COVID. We begin with the obvious: Joe Rogan recently contracted COVID, and admitted to undergoing what might be the most insane drug regimen to date.

Show Notes

Robert David Steele Dies from Covid, While Denying Covid

Anti-Vax Conservative Radio Hosts Dying from Covid

Caleb Wallace, 30-year-old Freedom Rally Organizer Dies from Covid

Texas GOP official who Mocked Covid, dies from it

Hero’s Dose: The Case for Psychedelics in Ritual & Therapy

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Bonus Sample: I Don’t Know Who My Friends Are

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 14:46:00 -0000

After watching the Almost 30 podcast hosts bond over Zach Bush’s Jesus-like qualities, Matthew explores the barren friendship landscape of wellness gigworkers.

From the transcript:

We engage with friendship pornography by consuming attractive images and vicarious sensations of friendship for the sake of pleasure, without having to engage with the complexity of social conditions, class differences, boredom, sickness, or death, and without having to be responsible for the other in any sustainable way.Why is this relevant to conspirituality? Because at every turn on this podcast, we are talking about economies built within demographics sewn together by consumerism. It’s a world in which charisma is the currency and emotions are the commodities. When the influencer sells you on their subscription “community”, they are offering a toxic mimic of friendship — that’s clear… Think of how MLMs co-opt the lingo of “community”, “tribe”, etc, when what they’re really doing is turning every single social interaction within a given demographic into a sales pitch.

Show Notes

About Lindsey & Krista: Almost 30

SoulCycle changed fitness. Its culture and toxic work environment made growth impossible.

The Wellness Pornographers. Gamifying intimacy, abusing public… | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium

Anti-Vax Doctor Manifests as Jesus. Wellness Ladies Weep with Joy. — Matthew Remski

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66: Spirituality & Status (w/Will Storr)

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 14:01:54 -0000

Spirituality, ill-defined a term that it is, often implies both an emptying out and an addition. What leaves is the vacuous clinging to achievements that are supposedly preventing us from seeing our true nature. What’s granted is a new mindset, a novel way of being, one in which you are at peace with both yourself and the world.

Where does the drive for status play into this quest? As journalist Will Storr points out in his new book, The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It, you can’t escape our impulse for achieving status. You can learn to dampen its hold on you, however. Derek catches up with Will to discuss how status plays a role in anti-vax groups, spiritual communities, and political groups.

We start this week with a Ticker by Matthew, who previews a bonus episode on the friendship porn we see on the Almost 30 episode in which the hosts share tears after being snowjobbed by Zach Bush.

Show Notes

Almost 30 podcast, Ep.451: Dr. Zach Bush on Fear, The Immune System, & The Real Meaning of Life

The Status Game by Will Storr review — how the fight for status defines our world

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Bonus Sample: The Question of Consciousness

Mon, 23 Aug 2021 15:03:40 -0000

One of the most debated topics in spirituality (and beyond) involves the origins of consciousness. Most neuroscientists agree that it’s emergent—the physiological systems of the body create what we call “consciousness.”

Derek revisits his 2018 conversation with Michael Gazzaniga, whose 1961 studies on split-brain patients revolutionized the discipline of neuroscience.

Show Notes

Neuroscientist Anil Seth: ‘We risk not understanding the central mystery of life’

VS Ramachandran: 3 Clues to Understanding Your Brain

Decoding the Brain’s Cacophony

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65: Long-Haul QAnon (w/Rachel Bernstein & Jitarth Jadeja)

Fri, 20 Aug 2021 00:27:12 -0000

Santa Barbara surf coach Matthew Coleman murdered his two young children in Mexico nearly two weeks ago. He told the FBI that he was “enlightened by QAnon and Illuminati conspiracy theories and was receiving visions and signs revealing that his wife possessed serpent DNA and had passed it on to his children.”

Beneath the peak chaos of this story lies a social fabric torn to shreds by QAnon and related conspiracy theories. Marriages are ending, custody battles are raging, and parents and children are negotiating painful silences or estrangements.

Joining us today as a co-host is Jitarth Jadeya, one of the few ex-QAnon followers so far who has been willing and able to discuss what this fever dream did to him and his family. Marriage and Family therapist Rachel Bernstein, the host of the brilliant IndoctriNation Podcast, also joins to discuss her experiences working with cult survivors and providing recovery resources.

In this week’s closer, Derek examines the scientific hipsterism of Zach Bush, who has recently co-opted Malcolm X as a posthumous endorser, when Malcolm would have probably hated his gut biome.

Show Notes

Surf Instructor Killed His Children and Claimed QAnon Made Him Do It, F.B.I. Says

QAnon: a timeline of violence linked to the conspiracy theory

Former QAnon follower Jitarth Jadeja on “The Takeout” — 2/12/2021

Former QAnon believer says following the conspiracy “was absolutely a drug”

He went down the QAnon rabbit hole for almost two years. Here’s how he got out

How Ex-QAnon Followers Escaped The Cultish Conspiracy Theory

He’s a former QAnon believer. He doesn’t want to tell his story, but thinks it might help.

Rachel Bernstein’s excellent IndoctriNation Podcast

QAnon Casualties on Reddit

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Bonus Sample: Strongman Heroes, Barefoot Science, & Fake Victims

Mon, 16 Aug 2021 14:51:44 -0000

Conspiritualists amp up their victimhood-fetish by comparing anti-vaxxers to Jim Crow-era African Americans and Jews under the Holocaust. Meanwhile, Tucker Carlson questions vaccines, bangs the CRT red-scare propaganda drum, and swoons over Hungarian fascist Viktor Orban.

ulian compares Fox News’s idealizing coverage of Orban to how they treat another famous Hungarian, boogeyman of the far-right, George Soros. He also tells the tragic tale of Trofim Lysenko—Stalin’s “barefoot scientist,” to illustrate how pseudoscience actually flourishes (to everyone’s detriment) under real totalitarianism.

Show Notes

The Soviet Era’s Deadliest Scientist Is Regaining Popularity in Russia

Under fascism, a generation of scientific knowledge was lost in Spain

Hungarian scientists are on edge as country is poised to force out top university

Say it with statues: Brick-and-mortar revisionism in Orban’s Hungary

Orban shocks the world again: He admits to being a Nazi pilot, calling him a knight and a hero

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64: Remembering Guru Jagat: a Panel

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 23:30:55 -0000

With guests: Philip Deslippe, Jules Hartley, Janja Lalich, and Stacie Stukin

We’ve convened an expert panel this week to remember and discuss Katie Griggs, aka GJ. She died in an LA hospital on the evening of August 1st. LA Magazine was the first outlet to confirm the death with the RA MA Institute, which Griggs co-founded in Venice, CA.

The cause of death has not been confirmed, but according to a eulogy film put out by the RA MA Institute, Griggs reportedly broke her ankle in Berlin on July 11th, and on the 15th had surgery to repair it in Los Angeles. Subsequently, she developed a pulmonary embolism, which proved fatal.

In episodes 36 and 37, Philip and Stacie joined me to discuss Griggs’s adopted culture and religion, Kundalini Yoga, and where she stood in relation to the legacy of KY’s abusive founder, Yogi Bhajan. They are uniquely equipped for that background: Philip is an expert in KY history, and Stacie has published excellent investigative work on the #metoo wave that swept through the community to uncover long-suppressed stories of Bhajan’s abuses.

Joining us today to dig even deeper are former Kundalini Yoga student Jules Hartley, and renowned cult expert Janja Lalich.

In our earlier episodes, we discussed how Griggs went on the offensive in the midst of the Kundalini abuse scandal, publicly attacking Bhajan’s survivors. We also discussed how she quickly pivoted into conspiracy theories about COVID and BLM when the pandemic hit. We also discussed the culture and cultural impact of Griggs’s RA MA Institute.

We continue that discussion in somber tones today.

Show Notes

Philip Deslippe’s website

Jules Hartley on IMDB

Janja Lalich’s website and 2021 Recommended Reading List

Stacie Stukin on Twitter

LA Magazine Griggs death notice

Inside the Dubious World of RA MA Yoga, and Its Girl Boss Guru to the Stars — Cassidy George, VICE

Guru Jagat Dies. A Saint Is Born. | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium

Guru Jagat Mourned in Person with Breathing Exercises, No Masks — Matthew Remski

(PDF) From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga — Philip Deslippe

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Bonus Sample: Wellness Pornography as Abuse

Mon, 09 Aug 2021 09:36:52 -0000

This past week, Matthew defined “Wellness Pornography”, working from the ideas of C. Thi Nguyen and Bekka Williams in their essay “Moral Outrage Porn.” In this bonus episode, he asks:

How do we measure the violence of wellness pornography when it becomes clear that it fuels vaccine hesitancy?
When wellness pornographers directly indoctrinate people against public health, are they, like the sexual pornographers eviscerated by Andrea Dworkin, violating civil rights to security and safety?
If we start to see the death concealed by wellness pornography, will we also see through the ads for pickup trucks to the ecocide they conceal? Will that help?
What will we do with all of this rage?

Show Notes

The Wellness Pornographers. Gamifying intimacy, abusing public… | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium (PDF)

Moral Outrage Porn — Nguyen and Williams

Kohut and the self-object Andrea Dworkin’s Testimony to the Attorney General On Pornography (all trigger warnings)

Hunger Strike: Starving Amidst Plenty by Susie Orbach

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63: Yoga and the Jab (w/Colin Hall & Sarah Garden)

Fri, 06 Aug 2021 00:03:00 -0000

The YogaVaxGate Instagram post turns out to have been a bellwether for the $88B industry packed with science skeptics and spiritual bypassers. When Wolf Terry got trolled for daring to argue in Yoga Journal that getting vaccinated was an act of non-harming, the stormfront was clear. As thousands of yoga studios ponder opening amidst the stop-and-start waves of Delta and beyond, one question dominates staff meetings: “Will we ask our returning clients for proof of vaccination?”

Matthew interviews Sarah Garden and Colin Hall of Bodhi Tree Yoga in Saskatchewan, who made national news when they announced that yes, they would. Bodhi Tree clients will have to show their card; if they can’t or don’t want to be vaccinated, online classes are still available. Simple, right? Not in Yogaland. We’ll be reading from emails describing the backlash — from the absurd to the abhorrent — faced by studio owners who are taking the no-brainer Bodhi Tree path.

In the Ticker, Derek looks at Antisemitism in vaccine disinformation campaigns while Julian checks in with Joseph Mercola, who announced he’ll be removing all content from his website this week. In the Jab, Julian lays out the “base-rate fallacy” anti-vaxxers are using to falsely claim that vaccinations are not helping to stop COVID-19. And off the top, we’ll briefly flag the topic for next week: the sudden death of conspiritualist Kundalini leader Katie Griggs.

Show Notes

How About Not Using the Holocaust to Spread Vaccine Disinformation?

Mob Morality and the Unvaxxed

Inside the Dubious World of RA MA Yoga, and Its Girl Boss Guru to the Stars

Griggs LAMag obit

Matthew: Guru Jagat Dies. A Saint is Born.

‘Bold decisions’: Regina yoga studio cancels in-person classes, calls on others to follow suit – Regina | Globalnews.ca

Regina yoga studio requiring proof of vaccination to attend classes

Lawyer says yoga studio should be legally allowed to ask clients for vaccination status

Bodhi Tree Yoga, Regina SK

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