Conspirituality

Bonus Sample: Liberals Punching Left

18 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode In this contribution to an ongoing co-host conversation, Matthew argues that the liberal centre's habit of punching left i...

Brief: Spirituality After Atheism?

16 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It’s normal to feel lost after leaving a cult, transitioning out of fundamentalist religion, or abandoning conspiracy theories. Whether you’ve lef...

308: The AI Slop Machine is Worse Than You Think [feat Mallory DeMille]

14 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Two months ago, we recorded Episode 291: My Chinese Buddhist Israeli AI Guru, surveying the growing field of AI slopfluencers churning out wellness su...

Bonus Sample: What's Left?

11 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode Derek considers the online debates over leftism and liberalism in the context of coalition building. Learn more about your...

Brief: Antifascist Dad (Audiobook Excerpt)

09 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew reads the Introduction from Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ...

307: Conspiracy Reflex Syndrome

07 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As Cole Allen sprinted into the news cycle, social media accelerated to cover the story—and the conspiracy-beast in the basement flexed his fast-twi...

Bonus Sample: Hasan, Contrapoints, Ezra Klein, & The Dem Civil War

04 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode The Democratic Party is in free fall. Still suffering the aftershocks of the 2024 election, a civil war is brewing interna...

Brief: Women 3, Manosphere 0

02 May 2026

Contributed by Lukas

On the Whatever Podcast livestreams, alpha debate bros browbeat insecure betas and deride token guest female sex workers while possibly ignorant they'...

306: Antifascist Wellness

30 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Two-thirds of the Conspirituality staff have new books out: Matthew's AntiFascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times and Der...

Bonus Sample: Leo and Restless Hearts in Algeria

27 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In April 2026, Pope Leo XIV, deep in a public feud with President Trump over the Iran war, made his first trip to Africa. He chose Algeria: the birthp...

Brief: Well Enough (Book Excerpt)

25 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Derek reads two chapters from his recently published memoir, Well Enough: Finding Health Despite the Wellness Industry. In Chapters 3 & 4, he discusse...

305: AI’s Cultish Leader

23 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ronan Farrow is at it again. The reporter who launched the MeToo movement has a new feature in The New Yorker, written alongside staff writer Andrew M...

Bonus Sample: How the Self is Made...and Unmade

20 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Derek looks into behavioral economics to better understand the fluidity of the "self," finding that recent research aligns with a very old Buddhist co...

Brief: Pope Leo vs AI Slop Jesus Trump

18 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Donald Trump's shitpost attack on Pope Leo XIV, followed within the hour by an AI slop icon of himself as Jesus, has cracked open the evangelical-Cath...

304: Twisted Tantric Yogi

16 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Consider the bright-eyed students who signed up for tantric yoga and sacred sexuality courses through their local yoga studios, only to eventually fin...

Bonus Sample: The Philosopher, The King, & The Holy Man

13 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini received Western media in a small French village in 1978, he sat cross-legged in his robes and black turban under a...

Brief: Is There a "Deep Self"

11 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Billionaire tech bro Marc Andreessen recently claimed introspection is a pathology. Derek and Julian discuss the Trump advisor's claims while the inve...

303: When Men Gather

09 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

New Yorker writer Charles Bethea recently decided to attend men’s retreats—well, at least those who would admit him. His expose on the modern men’...

Bonus Sample: A Course in Miracles Reconsidered (w/Joseph Baker)

06 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode If you heard Matthew’s Brief from March 28, you’ll know longtime Conspirituality listener Joseph Baker died on Feb 4 a...

Brief: Mikki Willis and Russell Brand Rewrite History

04 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Mikki Willis recently joined Russell Brand to discuss a whole host of issues, including rather suspect rewritings of the histories of AIDS and Covid-1...

302: The Disinformation Dozen: Wuhan Drift

02 Apr 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Early in this podcast we covered the Disinformation Dozen, 12 wellness influencers and contrarian health figures responsible for spreading the lion’...

Bonus Sample: Peptides: Wellness’s Experimental Jab

30 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode The wellness industry has been repeating marketing strategies used by the fashion and diet book industries for decades. In...

Brief: Eulogy for Joseph Baker, Faithful Listener

28 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew eulogizes longtime Conspirituality listener Joseph Baker, who died on February 4 at the age of 51. They became online friends when Joseph reac...

301: Gen X Meets the Manosphere

26 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Did we all need a streaming manosphere documentary? Many did. Did we need one made in the GenX stop-and-mug slacker analysis-avoiding style of Louis T...

Bonus Sample: The New Age Muslim Apocalyptic Prophet

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From a repurposed orphanage in the North of England, Abdullah Hashem tells his audience in five languages, across two satellite TV companies, and mult...

Brief: The Book Men Actually Need

21 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

There's been talk about the "male loneliness epidemic" for years. Yet what about women? Derek reviews economist Corrine Low's recent book, Having It A...

300: Farming Ballerinas

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When Hannah and Daniel Neeleman recently went on camera to explain their position on raw milk, they assured their 22 million-plus following that they ...

Bonus Sample: Anxiety is The Pitt(s)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Pitt recently exposed fans to the complexities and reality of panic attacks. Derek uses that moment in the exceptional show to discuss his own lon...

Brief: The Stepford Wives Conference

14 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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

299: American Jihad

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As black rain falls from the smoke-choked skies of Tehran, the US and Israel continue their war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. From the start, ...

Bonus Sample: Michael Parenti Went to a Yoga Ashram

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew found out that the late Marxist historian Michael Parenti went on a yoga retreat at the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas. He clocked the BS imm...

Brief: Bishop Bootlicker Barron

07 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew digs into the fascism-enabling political theology of Bishop Robert Barron and the rightward slide of Big Catholic media. From his early admira...

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

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Despite saying “I believe glyphosate causes cancer” a few weeks ago, RFK Jr quickly pivoted when his boss declared an executive order calling for ...

Bonus Sample: On Death & Being Human

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortalit...

Brief: Re-reading Casey Means

28 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Casey Means was grilled by some Senators at her hearing for nomination of Surgeon General on Wednesday. Others lobbed softballs. Derek revisits the bo...

297: The Epstein Satanic Panic

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

It’s hard for some people to accept that the normalized and unbridled accumulation of wealth and power is a selection process for apex predators, wh...

Bonus Sample: MAHA’s Silence is Deafening

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

MAHA isn’t a health movement. It’s a marketing engine driving activist propaganda. Derek looks at Tony Lyons, one of MAHA’s key architects, and ...

Brief: Toxic Masculinity & The Epstein Files

21 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of the DOJ’s dump of 3 million documents from the FBI’s Epstein investigation, journalists, content creators, and everyday people are ...

296: The Chopra Files

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Deepak Chopra is all over the Epstein files. Are we surprised? Nope. But we are interested in the various layers of his entanglement and what they say...

Bonus Sample: Mark Carney’s Secular Catholicism

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

14 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew pokes at the contradictions behind Prime Minister Mark Carney’s polished Davos attempt to distance Canada from U.S. chaos, while Canadian co...

295: The Attia Files

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Over 1,000 children and women were potentially victims of Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking and sexual abuse. It is not clear how deeply Peter Attia was e...

Bonus Sample: Armed Struggle

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the wake of ICE murders, some are calling for more protestors with guns, or at least to prepare to meet fire with fire. Julian examines the history...

Brief: MAHA is a Supplements Grift

07 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Two new MAHA-approved bills would force insurance companies to cover supplements and shield homeopathic manufacturers from any liability while allowin...

294: ICE Resistance

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Prior to last month’s killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, many white American citizens felt obligated to use their privilege to actively disrupt...

Bonus Sample: An Ode to Curiosity

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When videos surfaced of Alex Pretti kicking an ICE vehicle's taillight 11 days before his murder, claims that the video was AI dominated social media....

Brief: Did MAHA Put MAGA In Power?

31 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The silence of MAHA influencers around the murder of Renee Good (and ICE generally) has been excessively loud. Yet that’s expected from the coalitio...

293: Trump and Fascist Dementia

29 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As Trump surges his Gestapo and threatens to annex new territory, his brain is collapsing. He’s sundowning on Truth Social, nodding off in meetings,...

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

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode Simone Weil was skeptical about the project of “rights.” They argued that obligations come before rights, and that rig...

Brief: Prospirituality Predictions for 2026

24 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

If conspirituality names the ways religion and spirituality are weaponized to justify power, prospirituality points to religious traditions doing the ...

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

22 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Noelle Cook’s The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging is the first ethnography of conspirituality, and it comes via someone w...

Bonus Sample: Oil, Power, and Theocracy

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1953 the CIA and MI6 participated in a coup d’etat in Iran. That true sentence (and what usually follows) can create an oversimplified distortion...

MAHA’s Selective Skepticism

17 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Whole milk is back! The war on protein is over! Mainline meat! Derek investigates the new inverted pyramid and everything lacking in the new dietary...

291: My Chinese Buddhist Israeli AI Guru

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

“Train your mind gently, not to deny what is hard, but to see what is still good” implores the monk sharing spiritual messages to his 2.5 million ...

Bonus Sample: Overwelled

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

From Andrew Huberman's Goop collab and Mel Robbins' protein shots to MAHA flipping the long-defunct food pyramid and making meningitis great again, th...

Brief: Censorship Industrial Complex

10 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Marco Rubio’s office published an official press release last month titled “Announcement of Actions to Combat the Global Censorship Industrial Com...

290: Trump Derangement Science

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What do fascists need to do to convince their rank and file that they’re the smartest in the room? They invent new science to trash the old science ...

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

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew reflects on the fifth anniversary of his mother’s death and revisits how her life, trauma, and values helped him understand the appeal—and...

Brief: Class Wars on Christmas

03 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In 1965, the US passed the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act, the reason every pack of cigarettes has a warning label informing you about...

Bonus Sample: Alien Abduction Mack Daddy

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode In 1994, Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatry professor John E. Mack became one of the most pedigreed proponents of U...

Brief: Nicki Minaj Goes MAGA

27 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Turning Point USA's AmFest 2025 saw a record number of attendees pour into Phoenix last weekend to watch a host of MAGA and MAHA luminaries proclaim t...

UNLOCKED: Chatbot Awakening to Love and Enlightenment!

25 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An unlock of a bonus episode from earlier this year. ⁠Access all of our bonus episodes here⁠. Happy holidays, everyone! -- -- Earlier this yea...

Bonus Sample: The Monetization of MAHA

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode RFK Jr trademarked MAHA in a giant swath of categories, including many he now advocates for in his position as Secretary o...

Brief: Dr Mike vs MAHA

20 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Mike has become one of the most effective debunkers of science misinformation. His second appearance on the uber-popular show, Jubilee's Surrounded...

288: Conspirituality Live with Dr Jessica Knurick

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Derek sits down with Dr Jessica Knurick at the Eudemonia Summit for this special live recording. They discuss combating health misinformation online, ...

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

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode Matthew explores Marx’s “opium of the people” passage by placing it back into the philosophical and political projec...

Brief: Demonic Karl Marx ATTACKS Private Property and DESTROYS Religion

13 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew examines how Karl Marx has long been framed as a demonic threat to religion and private property — a tactic that sidesteps Marx’s actual c...

287: She Did Nuzzi RFK Jr Coming

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode here Hasan Piker just spent two weeks in The People’s Republic of China. The famous streamer is often invoked as being a...

Brief: Have Tech Bros Killed Psychedelics?

06 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

"Immortality influencer" Bryan Johnson recently livestreamed his second-ever psilocybin trip "for science." But was it, really? Derek and Julian brea...

286: RFK Jr’s Great Crusade

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

RFK Jr is one of the greatest perpetrators of a firehose of falsehoods that we’ve ever covered. The stakes were raised when he was installed as head...

Bonus Sample: How Does Andrew Wakefield Keep Getting Resurrected?

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode. With the CDC recently updating its website with anti-vax propaganda under the direction of RFK Jr, disgraced and disbarre...

Brief: Black Friday’s Wellness Extravaganza

29 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Derek and Julian survey all of the incredible, life-changing deals going down this weekend in Wellnesslandia. Show Notes Influencers made millions p...

285: Can Peter Attia Live Forever?

27 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the wildly popular biohacking and longevity space, Peter Attia is often cited as one of the leading luminaries. His straightforward, science-backed...

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

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This bonus episode is Part 2 of Graeber vs Bannon, Anarchism vs Leninism.  I start in the 1870s with Marx and Bakunin fighting over the joys and tra...

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

22 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1954 a doomsday alien cult headed up by Chicagoland housewife Dorothy Martin was waiting for the cataclysmic flood that would herald the arrival of...

Bonus Sample: Temple of Blood & Fire

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

They offered initiation into ancient Christian mysticism, ritual communion with the spirits, an understanding of reincarnation, and the destined trans...

Brief: Does Calley Means Get Anything Right?

15 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

RFK Jr's senior advisor and supplements salesman, Calley Means, has repeatedly fabricated the story of Abraham Flexner and the birth of the modern med...

283: Guys

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Back in June, we published an episode about the "Speaking with American Men" (SAM) project, a $20 million initiative designed by political consultants...

Bonus Sample: MAHA Inaction

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode The nonprofit organization (and its adjoined Super PAC), MAHA Action, is leading semi-regular Zoom calls featuring a host ...

Brief: Taylor Swift Goes MAGA?

08 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Taylor Swift: Nazi sympathizer, freshly-minted racist, MAGA trad wife. Or so proponents of a recent conspiracy theory would have it. For years, the mo...

282: Mutual Aid Against ICE

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When restaurants and cafes in Portland and elsewhere link into networks of food pantries and soup kitchens, will mutual aid feel real in the US? When ...

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

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode on Patreon Part 2 follows the money flowing from US agencies and interests to anti-Liberation Theology figures in Latin Am...

Brief: US v. Liberation Theology (Part 1)

01 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

This is the first of a two-part deep dive into how U.S. foreign policy stared down the political threat of Liberation Theology by promoting Evangelica...

281: Jeffrey Tucker, MAHA Dandy

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Meet the man who built RFK Jr’s kitchen cabinet” goes the title of a recent investigative article in Politico. Yet that man, Jeffrey Tucker, is...

Bonus Sample: Chatbot Awakening to Love and Enlightenment!

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Earlier this year, a spate of news stories told of chatbot users travelling through the looking-glass right into Conspirituality. Paranoid conspiracie...

Brief: The Man Who Lives With 16 Cats

25 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Social media has been filled with clips of Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee for mayor of NYC. He's been proving quite the foil for Andrew Cuomo's ...

280: Peter Thiel is Definitely Not the Antichrist

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is no cuck philanthropist. The co-founder of Palantir is leading his company at the bleeding edge of mass surveillance, f...

Portland Has (Not) Fallen (For It)

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to the full episode on Patreon After attending the No Kings rally in Portland on Saturday, Derek shares some thoughts about the week leading u...

Brief: “Weird Stephen” Miller

18 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

279: They’re Shooting the Priests

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

ICE is on the loose in our cities, acting with seeming impunity. They've repelled from Black Hawk helicopters, thrown journalists and protestors to th...

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

14 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

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

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Full episode on Patreon Part 2 moves from Christofascist spectacle to the “mushy middle” of liberal Christianity—why it so often blesses order ...

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

11 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this first installment of Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus, Matthew revisits Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s journey from the theological classrooms o...

278: This Podcast is Illegal

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Our podcast is not actually illegal—yet. Thanks to Trump’s recent Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-7, or “Countering Domestic Terrorism an...

Bonus Sample: Death is Just A Doorway

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

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

Brief: He’s Coming For All Vaccines

04 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

RFK Jr posted a seven-minute video earlier this week that assures us that vaccines aren't all that great, actually. Derek reads the studies Kennedy re...

277: TikTokTylenol [feat Mallory DeMille]

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you hear about the pregnant woman who ingested too much Tylenol just to “own Trump” and is now on a ventilator and will likely not wake up, of...