Conspirituality

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. Sign up today at butcherbox.com/CONSPIRITUALITY and use code CONSPIRITUALITY to get two 100% grass-fed filet mignons and two wild-caught lobster tails for FREE in your first box plus $20 off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Sign up today at butcherbox.com/CONSPIRITUALITY and use code CONSPIRITUALITY to get two 100% grass-fed filet mignons and two wild-caught lobster tails for FREE in your first box plus $20 off your first order. Show Notes Dietary Supplements: A Framework for Evaluating Safety United States v Kordel Some Implications of the Kordel Decision 163: The Huberman Paradox Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Sign up today at butcherbox.com/CONSPIRITUALITY and use code CONSPIRITUALITY to get two 100% grass-fed filet mignons and two wild-caught lobster tails for FREE in your first box plus $20 off your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Sign up today at butcherbox.com/CONSPIRITUALITY and use code CONSPIRITUALITY to get two 100% grass-fed filet mignons and two wild-caught lobster tails for FREE in your first box plus $20 off your first order. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Go to HelloFresh.com/50conspirituality and use code 50conspirituality for 50% off plus free shipping. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek discusses the new Conspirituality book with filmmaker and podcaster Mike Hull at Powell's Books on June 26, 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Full Show Notes on Patreon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices