Conspirituality

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

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

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

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

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. Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

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. Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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 Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Head to factormeals.com/conspirituality50 and use code conspirituality50 to get 50% off your first box and 2 free wellness shots per box while subscription is active! Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Head to factormeals.com/conspirituality50 and use code conspirituality50 to get 50% off your first box and 2 free wellness shots per box while subscription is active! Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Head to factormeals.com/conspirituality50 and use code conspirituality50 to get 50% off your first box and 2 free wellness shots per box while subscription is active! Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free offer and get $20 off. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. Butcherbox Promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to get free chicken wings for a year. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Butcherbox Promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to get free chicken wings for a year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

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. Butcherbox Promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. Show Notes American Information Integrity Alliance D.O.U.B.T. (Discussing Our Unusual Beliefs Together) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Butcherbox Promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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. Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. To claim, go to GIVEWELL.ORG and pick PODCAST and enter Conspirituality at checkout. Show Notes The surveillance technology that will watch us all, all the time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. To claim, go to GIVEWELL.ORG and pick PODCAST and enter Conspirituality at checkout. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. To claim, go to GIVEWELL.ORG and pick PODCAST and enter Conspirituality at checkout. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Butcherbox promo: Sign up today at butcherbox.com/conspirituality and use code conspirituality to choose your free steak for a year and get $20 off. 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 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices