Conspirituality

Relief Project #6: Rebecca Solnit

31 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Happy New Year’s Eve! The sixth installment of Matthew’s Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.  Writer, historian, and acti...

Bonus Sample: Why Big Wellness Hates Ozempic

30 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ozempic might be all the rage among people who want to lose weight, but wellness influencers and MAHA acolytes are raging against the antidiabetic med...

Brief: The Free Press Tastes Its Own (Polio) Medicine

28 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We've been highly critical of The Free Press in the past, but a recent memoir-article about grappling with a familial history of polio by Jana Kozlows...

Unlocked: “What will happen?” (asks a 12 year-old)

26 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A special Patreon bonus unlocked episode as we enjoy the holidays with our families and friends. Matthew got The Question on the morning after the ele...

Bonus Sample: Blessed NeoKayfabe of Santa Claus

23 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“If you grow up with it, religion is real until you realize it is also imagined. And after a period of disenchantment or even depression that associ...

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

21 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Jeffery Tucker is the founder of the MAGA thinktank Brownstone Institute. In 2020, Brownstone published The Great Barrington Declaration, with lead au...

237: Your Revolution is Out of Network

19 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The murder of United HealthCare CEO Brian Thompson has set off shockwaves across America. This week we look at the story’s online impact, people myt...

Relief Project #5: Annie Kelly

17 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The fifth installment of Matthew's Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.  Dr. Annie Kelly joined us in Episode 61 to lay out he...

Bonus Sample: TheoBros, Political Religion, and Christmas

16 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Extremely online, bearded, Millennial pastors in tailored suits want to repeal women’s suffrage, criminalize gays, and Make America Christian Again....

Brief: The Unfreedom of Others (w/Talia Lavin)

14 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist Talia Lavin joins Derek to discuss her recent book, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America.  Show Notes Wild Faith: Ho...

236: Damage Control

12 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As we ride out the aftershocks of the election and prepare for Trump 2.0, it’s as if nothing is bolted down. Trump’s cabinet appointments signal a...

Bonus Sample: The Raw Truth About Health

09 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Researchers in California recently warned that just one mutation in H5N1, the bird flu virus, could make the disease transmissible between humans. Whi...

Brief: Freeing the Well-Trained Wife (w/Tia Levings)

07 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Exvangelical author Tia Levings joins Matthew to discuss her harrowing memoir of indoctrination, abuse, recovery, and advocacy, The Well-Trained Wife:...

235: MAHA Mamas (feat Mallory DeMille)

05 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you’ve spent one minute on social media in the last few months, you’ve probably heard that seed oils are extremely toxic, food dyes are the rea...

Bonus Sample: Deep State Religion

02 Dec 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An essay from Matthew on how MAGA religiosity obscures the religious nature of liberalism, and how both obscure the underlying religion of capitalism....

Brief: The $100M Free Press

30 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Free Press founder, Bari Weiss, recently hosted Peter Thiel on her podcast. While The FP markets itself as as a return to independent and non-part...

234: Trump’s Conspiracist Cabinet

28 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since the election, Democratic voter disbelief and despair has alternated between grief and rage. We watched some erstwhile vociferous critics of Trum...

Relief Project #4: Rob Schenck

26 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew here with the fourth installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.  Rob Schenck joined me in Episode 199 to disc...

Bonus Sample: The UFOs Are Being Censored!

25 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The climate denialist who exposed the so-called “censorship industrial complex” returns, this time at another congressional hearing. Michael Shell...

Brief: How to Fire a Billionaire

23 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

AG1 built a billion-dollar brand in large part by tapping into the fitness and wellness podcast and YouTube markets. Recently, AG1’s founder, Chris ...

233: DC’s Catholic Power Center (w/Gareth Gore)

21 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Josemaria Escriva founded Opus Dei, an ultra-conservative, high-demand, secretive Catholic organization in Madrid, Spain, after receiving a supposed v...

Bonus Sample: Thinking About "Holism"

18 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A personal journey through health describing what led Derek to focus on health, science, and healthcare as a career and, eventually, this podcast. Lea...

Brief: Post-Election Online Survivor Group Dynamics

16 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The post-election online chaos has a lot in common with what can go wrong in online survivor groups. Matthew tracks how opportunities for connection a...

232: Gaslighting The Election

14 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Once upon a time, there was a golden age. A time when the news media was fair and balanced, unbiased and honest. But we've lost all that to the corrup...

Bonus Sample: “What will happen?” (asks a 12 year-old)

11 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew got The Question on the morning after the election. At that moment, he came up with nothing but a hug. But then he chewed on it for days, and ...

Brief: Tucker Carlson's Daddy Issues

09 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Derek discusses Tucker Carlson advocating for corporal punishment as a way to discipline children in his appearance at the Turning Points USA MAGA ral...

231: New Age Bible, Postmodern Novel (w/ Sheila Heti)

07 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rapid-response electoral punditry is not our lane. So, while we gather our feelings and thoughts, Matthew hosts novelist Sheila Heti for a discussion ...

Bonus Sample: Elections on 3 Continents

04 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Having lived under Apartheid in South Africa, voted in the UK, and now staring down this terrifying US election, Julian reflects on the political diff...

Brief: No Really, They’re Coming For Your Pets

02 Nov 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Recently, “holistic veterinarian” Marcie Fallek, whose latest book, “Little Miracles Everywhere: My Unorthodox Path to Holistic Veterinary Medic...

230: How Did We Get Here?

31 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With days left before the most consequential US election in our lifetime, we reflect on the last 4.5 years of this podcast while expressing our hopes–...

Relief Project #3: Michelle Cassandra Johnson

29 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew here with the third installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.  Michelle Cassandra Johnson was an early guest...

Bonus Sample: Tucker Carlson's Daddy Issues

28 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Derek discusses Tucker Carlson advocating for corporal punishment as a way to discipline children in his appearance at the Turning Points USA MAGA ral...

Brief: Leonard Leo’s Plan to “Crush” Democracy

26 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Billionaire legal activist Leonard Leo has had a role in placing all six conservative justices on the SCOTUS, and so therefore is in large part respon...

229: Stanford Has Fallen

24 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On Oct 4, Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford, held a symposium at his university. Titled “...

Bonus Sample: The Apocalyptic Portal

21 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As the world watches, Israel and Iran are squaring off for a potential war. Meanwhile, a Texas evangelical preacher, who runs the biggest Christian Zi...

Brief: Trump Temple Playlist

19 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Trump’s Town Hall DJ love-in stumped a lot of folks. From the conspirituality angle, however, there’s something familiar about this improvised rit...

228: Hurricane Trump

17 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

People will reach for anything to relieve the stress of climate anxiety.  There’s outright denial: this can’t be happening. It doesn’t fit in ...

Bonus Sample: Surviving Modern Yoga Panel (w/Ann Gleig & Michelle C. Johnson)

14 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew fields excellent questions about his new book from colleagues Ann Gleig and Michelle C. Johnson.  NAB Show Notes This event includes discussi...

Deep Cut: The OG New Age Grifter: Madame Blavatsky

12 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Born in 1831, Helena "Madame" Blavatsky pioneered the New Age grift. The Russian aristocrat plagiarized her books while claiming to be channeling the ...

227: Rescue Remedy for The Republic

10 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On September 29, a predicted one million people were going to show up for the Rescue the Republic event in Washington DC. Founded by the libertarian p...

Bonus Sample: What Are We Doing About Health?

07 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

With MAHA taking over stages nationwide, we’re experiencing a deluge of wellness influence and contrarians screaming about systemic issues with food...

Brief: RFK Jr Screws His Followers

05 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Finally: a dedicated, concise report on RFK Jr’s sordid history with women, with all the sources. Why?  Because now one of the allegations involves...

226: MAHA Storms the Capitol

03 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Cleanse the soil! Purify the blood! Save the children! Make America Healthy Again! On Sept 23, Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr., rising alt-health stars Casey...

Relief Project #2: Natalie Wynn/Contrapoints

01 Oct 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew here with the second installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.  Does Natalie Wynn need an introduction? Or d...

Bonus Sample: Faith: Unearned and Earned

30 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An essay from Matthew exploring the problem of authenticity which plagues every investigation we do on the spiritual influencer beat.  There are quea...

Brief: The Actual Biggest Losers

28 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On Monday, Senator Ron Johnson sponsored a congressional panel entitled "American Health and Nutrition: A Second Opinion." Unfortunately no actual hea...

225: Trauma Healing for Trump

26 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of people will be flocking to Washington DC this Sunday as Rumble comes to life during Rescue the Republic, a one-day event featuring RFK Jr, Rus...

Bonus Sample: The Child Messiah Fantasy

23 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The British occultists took the thin and sickly but beautiful boy away from his family. Groomed him for 20 years to become the savior of humanity. Tra...

Brief: RFK Jr Says the Devil Measures Carbon

21 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

“God talks to human beings through many vectors. But nowhere with such detail, and grace and joy, as through creation. When we destroy nature, we di...

224: RFK Jr’s Pet Guru Blesses Trump

19 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

There’s been a question gnawing at fans of Charles Eisenstein: what does he really feel about RFK Jr’s pivot to Trump? The always aspiring poet-ph...

Bonus Sample: Waking Up With the Biohackers

16 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"Biohacking expert" Kayla Barnes recently published a 31-minute video about her morning routine, filled with EMF-blocking shields, grounding protocols...

Brief: Tucker Carlson’s Friendly Fascism

14 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tucker Carlson is the Steve Bannon of Joe Rogans. Tucker surpasses Rogan’s massive reach at times, but his curated guest list drives a deliberate ag...

223: Tucker Carlson’s Toxic Cleanse

12 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 2022, Tucker Carlson produced a documentary called “The End of Men,” his contribution to the so-called “masculinity crisis.” That’s when ...

Relief Project #1: Jivana Heyman

10 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Here’s the first installment of a regular timeline cleanser featuring interviews with folks reflecting on hope, faith, resilience and building commu...

Bonus Sample: Imaginary Children # 3: Mole Children vs. Gazan Children

09 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does it mean to spill ink on dispelling conspiracy theories about non-existent children being murdered, while actual children are being murdered?...

Brief: Ultra-processed Pseudoscience

07 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Calley Means is the cofounder of TrueMed, a company that helps businesses qualify products and services like supplements and ice baths for HSA and FSA...

222: RFK Jr: As the Worm Turns

05 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

RFK Jr has dropped out of the presidential race and thrown his weight behind Trump. In our 10th episode on the man in the last year-and-a-half, we loo...

Bonus Sample: The OG New Age Grifter: Madame Blavatsky

02 Sep 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Born in 1831, Helena “Madame” Blavatsky pioneered the New Age grift. The Russian aristocrat plagiarized her books while claiming to be channeling ...

Brief: Trump’s Impending Ego Implosion (w/ Daniel Shaw)

31 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Dems are laughing about Donny Dentures or #TrumpisDone, but the reality inside his head, and Mar a Lago, will be very grim, and there will be a lot of...

221: The Dangers of Dr Google (w/Dr Jonathan Stea)

29 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In one survey, 82% of young people aged 18-25 searched the internet for mental health advice. Another survey of university students found that 44% rep...

Bonus Sample: The Next Plandemic Grift

26 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Peter McCullough recently shared a ton of misinformation about mpox while speaking to Drew Pinsky; both men work for The Wellness Company, a supplemen...

Brief: Dictatorship for Dummies

24 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

ProPublica recently got a hold of 25 Project 2025 training videos—over 14 hours worth of content revealing the policies the Heritage Foundation woul...

220: Swifties for Trump (and Other AI Lies)

22 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Did you hear that Taylor Swift is supporting Donald Trump for president? That’s right: last week, the former president shared photos of fans rocking...

Bonus Sample: Introducing the Conspirituality Relief Project

19 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A short break-the-fourth-wall reflection from Matthew on his new regular series for our main feed, starting in September.  The Conspirituality Relief...

Brief: Big Dad Energy

17 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

An unexpectedly cheerful followup to “JD Vance Taps into Parental Rage.” The alt titles today could be: “Tim Walz Taps into Parental Goals,” o...

219: Dems Learn to Sh*tpost

15 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Eight years ago, they called us cucks, libtards, and globalists. We were corrupted by cultural Marxism, teaching our kids to hate themselves. Four yea...

Bonus Sample: JD Vance’s Dictator Fetish

12 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel claims “freedom and democracy are incompatible.” Mentor and $15M donor behind JD Vance’s political career, Peter Th...

Brief: Stealing Democracy for Jesus

10 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Ziklag’s ultra-wealthy network of Christian donors is spending nearly $12M to mobilize Republican voters in order to secure a Trump victory this Nov...

218: Meet the Sexvangelicals (w/Julia Postema & Jeremiah Gibson)

08 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

You’re an eight year-old girl. The purity culture of your evangelical church, ruled by men but policed by women, has you worried that the spaghetti ...

Bonus Sample: The "Crisis" of Meaning

05 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Scroll through masculinity influencer social media feeds and you're constantly told there's a "crisis of meaning." But is that really true? Has a shar...

Brief: JD Vance Taps into Parental Rage

03 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The “childless cat lady” thing is as ridiculous as JD Vance is. But it’s not stupid. It’s tapping into something powerful, because it’s sham...

217: Childless Cat Lady

01 Aug 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If something real occurs in this timeline, but no conspiracy theorist is there to FUBAR it, does it actually happen? An old man, weakened by COVID, pi...

Bonus Sample: Imaginary Children: “God’s Word on Spanking”

29 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

This is the second episode in “Conspirituality and the Imaginary Children,” an occasional series on how children, as symbols (but not persons with...

Brief: Bret Weinstein: “The Biden Psy-Op”

27 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A tale of two tweets: Dark Horse podcast cohost and “conspiracy hypothesizer” Bret Weinstein took to Twitter twice this month, first dropping a vi...

216: J.D. Vance, Conspiracy Hobbit

25 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Just two days after surviving an assassination attempt, Donald Trump announced JD Vance as his VP pick. Vance has made a dramatic U-turn from calling ...

Bonus Sample: Project 2025 on Worker's "Rights"

22 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Project 2025's plan for workers is clear: crush unions, eliminate minority protections, curtail reproductive health care benefits, and make the workpl...

Brief: Cult of the Lamb Anti-Cult School? (w/Riley MacLeod)

20 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We cover conspiracy theories, spiritual abuse, and religious and right-wing extremism. We cover showmen and charismatics suffering from King Victim Co...

215: Divinely Protected

18 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Two landmark Supreme Court decisions—the Trump immunity case and the overturning of the Chevron doctrine—represent the legal institutionalization ...

Bonus Sample: Project 2025's Plan: Let It Burn

15 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Project 2025's approach to environmental issues is pretty straightforward: deny climate science, dismantle the EPA, clear a path that prioritizes co...

Brief: Project 2025’s “Bloodless” Coup

13 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

While speaking on Steve Bannon’s podcast, The War Room, Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts recently stated, “We are in the process of the...

214: Aubrey Marcus is Totally Not a Cult Leader

11 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Today we’re looking at a lavish infomercial put out by New Age oligarch and RFK Jr superfan Aubrey Marcus, in which he tries to show the world that ...

Bonus Sample: You Can’t Do Religion on the Internet

08 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Back in 2011, Ward and Voas wrote that conspirituality was a mainly-online movement, and they were right about that. They didn’t do fieldwork at eve...

Brief: The Freebirth to Born-Again Pipeline

06 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The stress of influencing in the New Age / alt-med world is rough. You have to pretend to know everything, from vaccine science to the origins of auti...

213: Yoga for Gaza, Yoga for Israel

03 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Can yoga bring hostages home? No. Can yoga stop a genocide? Also no. But this won’t stop earnest practitioners from instrumentalizing practice for b...

Bonus Sample: The Prophet & the Electrical Storm

01 Jul 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What does it really mean to be a prophet, found a religion, and persuade millions of people that god speaks directly to you?  And what does this god ...

Brief: Jordan Peterson Teaches Russell Brand Theology

29 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Last month, Russell Brand visited Jordan Peterson's podcast for “The Evolution of Theology.” Which, given these two figures, had to focus on topic...

212: US Military Tells RFK Jr-Style Lies

27 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On June 14, Reuters published an article about the US Military’s clandestine program to discredit China’s Sinovac vaccine during the early days of...

Bonus Sample: Sanctimonious Spirituality

24 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What is the distance between spiritual practice and social action? Derek has weighed this question for decades. This unscripted meditation on the topi...

Deep Cut: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker

22 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

A Deep Cut from January's Patreon. Control the Court. Overturn Roe. Funnel anonymous donations and shady gifts. Deregulate for Jesus. Roll back the cu...

211: Terrence Howard Solves Science

20 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Acclaimed actor Terrence Howard has a new role playing a heroic Galileo-like character on the YouTube and podcast stage, where he fearlessly points o...

Bonus Sample: 6 Chapters on Prospirituality

17 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Six chapters on approaches to prospirituality, now that we know (or think we know) what the hell conspirtuality is. This is a long episode, but there ...

Brief: Math Class with Terrence Howard & Eric Weinstein

15 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Terrence Howard recently made waves (again) when appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast to discuss “Terryology,” a language of logic which he claims p...

210: Bioquacking Bro Science (feat Mallory DeMille)

13 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Are you ready to “live beyond 180? That’s the tagline of the 10th Annual Biohacking Conference, which went down in Dallas two weeks ago. The brain...

Bonus Sample: Speak Through Me

10 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

QAnon’s “Great Awakening,” influencers claiming to channel spirits or aliens, prophecies of a glorious Christian apocalypse—all aspects of the...

Brief: The Theatre of Trump (w/Hank Willenbrink)

08 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It’s all just a show, and sometimes that makes it all the more real. Playwright and theater scholar Hank Willenbrink joins Matthew to look at the sp...

209: The Right’s Fantasy Super-Villain (w/Renee Diresta)

06 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

We talked to Renee Diresta, when she in the middle of a life-changing crisis. Elon Musk’s hand-picked "journalists" were testifying in front of Cong...

Bonus Sample: Nicole Shanahan Talks DEI with Scott Adams

03 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr's VP pick, has recently started her own podcast. Dilbert creator Scott Adams joined. The conversation quickly turned into a co...

Brief: Dancing for the Devil (w/Derek Doneen)

01 Jun 2024

Contributed by Lukas

When young TikTok dance stars joined 7M Films, they got access to big production budgets, luxurious locations, and exciting career opportunities. Ther...

208: Dirty Dozen Disinformation (w/Drs Andrea Love & Michelle Wong)

30 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Every year, the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, DC-based lobbying group, publishes its “Dirty Dozen” report, which supposedly informs c...

Bonus Sample: Public Theology and Hospice Care (w/Jude Mills)

27 May 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In this Listener Stories episode, Matthew sits down with Jude Mills, an old friend from the yoga world, to hear her story about growing up in an anti-...