Conspirituality
Episodes
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-...
Brief: Is God Necessary in Spiritual Practices?
25 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There’s been a growing acceptance of religious belief from the previously religious-averse, especially in the Covid contrarian space. This comes in ...
207: Gaming Realities (w/Thi Nguyen)
23 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Philosopher Thi Nguyen first visited us 150 episodes ago (!!) to discuss how social media gamification exploded online conspiracy theories and audienc...
Bonus Sample: Russell Brand Is Christian Now?
20 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Russell Brand has accepted Jesus into his heart and been baptized in the spirit. But does his conversion to Christianity make sense along the New Age ...
Brief: The Outside Agitator Conspiracy Trope (w/Dr. Peniel Joseph)
18 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Two weeks ago, several university administrators asked militarized police units to smash pro-Palestinian encampment protests on quads and in occupied ...
206: Surviving Modern Yoga (w/ Matthew Remski)
16 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew is in the guest seat today! Why? Because in 2019—just months before the pandemic and this podcast kicked off—he published a book titled Pr...
Bonus Sample: The Force That Divides Us All
13 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In 2020, former NY Times journalist Isabel Wilkerson published Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. The book tells a compelling story: that the roo...
Brief: An Honest Discussion About Food (w/Dr Sarah Ballantyne)
11 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr Sarah Ballantyne forged a career in science communication and health education advocating for autoimmune solutions in food and the paleo diet. In 2...
205: Dismantling Movement Dogmas (w/Laurel Beversdorf & Sarah Court)
09 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
We have a real treat today for listeners who love all forms of movement, especially yoga and strength training. Derek and Julian talk to Movement Logi...
Bonus Sample: Imaginary Children #1: Fetal Remains
06 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In the first full episode of this ongoing series, Matthew looks at the anti-abortion arcs of two men: Rob Schenck and Frank Pavone. Both leaders inves...
Brief: Religion is Not Belief? (w/Blair Hodges)
04 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The late historian of religion James Carse (1932-2020) made a radical proposal in his 2012 book, The Religious Case Against Belief. He argued that bel...
204: What the Hell is RFK Jr Doing?
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Robert F Kennedy, Jr isn’t backing down. You can’t get away from his voice or his endless content stream. He’s banked on tech world oligarch ant...
Bonus Sample: Let's Talk About Gary Brecka
29 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
"Human Biologist" and life coach Gary Brecka's star rose after biohacking UFC President Dana White's health. Yet Derek has a few questions this week: ...
Deep Cut: On Belief
27 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A Deep Cut from our Patreon archive (July 2023) What do we mean when we say that we believe something? When the QAnon Shaman got dressed on the mornin...
203: Is This a Joke? (w/Neal Brennan)
25 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Neal Brennan has upped the artistic ante in stand-up comedy. In Netflix specials like "3 Mics and Blocks" he’s explored loneliness, isolation, and t...
Bonus Sample: The Dark Sun, The Red Cow, and The End of Days
22 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tensions between Israel and Iran escalated as supernaturally-charged conspiracy theories about the solar eclipse flooded the internet. And so Julian s...
Brief: Yoga Teacher’s Survival Guide (w/Theo Wildcroft & Harriet McAtee)
20 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew is joined by Theo Wildcroft and Harriet McAtee, co-editors of The Yoga Teacher's Survival Guide: Social Justice, Science, Politics, and Power ...
202: Steve Hassan and the Trans Cult Conspiracy Theory
18 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
“Cult expert” Steve Hassan has been publicly concerned with the complex sociology of trans youth since 2020. We track that interest back to his co...
Bonus Sample: Long Haul Stories: Matthew Stillman
15 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Following up on our Long COVID episode with Tara Haelle, Matthew will be expanding the Listener Stories portfolio with stories from listeners about na...
Brief: A History of the Gay Right (w/Neil Young)
13 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew is joined by historian Neil J. Young, co-host of the excellent Past Present Podcast, to talk about his new book: Coming Out Republican: a Hist...
201: Librarians Are Not Groomers (w/Heath Umbreit)
11 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
When Moms For Liberty attacks libraries with demands to ban books about MLK Jr and age-appropriate sex education, and claims that librarians are groom...
Bonus Sample: Project 2025's Disdain for Public Education
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan a...
Brief: The High Cost of Wellness
06 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A common sentiment in wellness spaces is that people turn to alt-med practices due to the exorbitant costs of American healthcare. While the latter is...
200: Rogan-Rufo Reality Check
04 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
This week we take stock of the full entrenchment of the Mirror World, where conspirituality influencers bask in the rays of confident delusion. After ...
Bonus Sample: The GOP Thinks Food Stamps Are the Real Problem
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan a...
Brief: Woman, Life, Freedom (w/Negin Shiraghaei)
30 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The death of Mahsa Jina Amini at the hands of the Islamic Republic’s “morality police” in September 2022 lit a fuse on a fervent global protest ...
Brief: Yes, Huberman’s Behavior Matters
30 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In response to Kerry Howley’s meticulous reporting on the deceptions of Andrew Huberman in New York Magazine, Huberstans around the world are brayin...
199: Inside Anti-Abortion Christian Nationalism (w/Rob Schenck)
28 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Reverend Rob Schenck spent 30 years on the front lines of the Evangelical war against Roe V. Wade. He blockaded abortion clinics, screamed at women in...
Bonus Sample: Conspirituality and the Imaginary Children (Series Intro)
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this series of audio essays, Matthew will examine how children as symbols—but not persons with their own internal lives—are at the center of co...
Brief: Unmasking Jay Shetty (w/John McDermott)
23 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Former monk turned spiritual influencer to the stars, Jay Shetty, has amassed 15 million followers on Instagram. He’s interviewed Michelle Obama, Ki...
198: Holy Food (w/Christina Ward)
21 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Does God have a recipe? That’s the first line of the blurb of Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat: An Ame...
Bonus Sample: Ketamine Soul Mates
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dolphins, drugs, new age music. Isolation tanks as a portal into other dimensions. True love and fake aliens. Julian shares a personal love story from...
Brief: RFK Jr Hijacks the “Crisis in Masculinity” (w/Natalia Petrzela)
16 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Masculinity, in all its wounded and preening anxiety, is the perennial currency of American populism. America’s foremost public historian on fitness...
197: Psychic Surgery (feat Brad Abrahams)
14 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The “healer” mutters prayers, flutters his hands over the patient’s belly, then rubs his fingers close to her navel. A stream of what looks like...
Bonus Sample: How to Stamp Out Racists (and more)
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 d...
Brief: The God Pivot: Rogan, Brand, & Huberman
09 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 redunda...
196: Julian Goes to the New Age Expo!
07 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For 22 years, astrologers, channelers, and UFO enthusiasts have run booths next to crystal healers, purveyors of esoteric books and pseudoscience prod...
Bonus Sample: “There Are Worse Things Than Dying”
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...
Brief: The CPAC Pope and the Icicle Babies (w/ Brad Onishi)
02 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Brad Onishi of Straight White American Jesus sits down with Matthew to analyze the debut of “America’s Bishop,” Joseph Strickland, on the CPAC s...
195: Long COVID (w/Tara Haelle)
29 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Bonus Sample: Through the Looking-Glass
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
After going undercover at the Conscious Life Expo, Julian examines the weird synchronicities between himself and his mirror-world doppelganger, the ec...
Brief: The “Super Reasonable” Dr. Vinay Prasad
24 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
A contrarian doctor “just asking questions.” Super reasonable. Certainly not anti-vax, just a regular guy who grievance-mongers about quarantine m...
194: The Power Worshippers (w/Katherine Stewart)
22 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
January 6, 2021. MAGA hats, tactical gear, American flags, poles turned into clubs. Another flag appears: white, with a blue corner square containing ...
Bonus Sample: Your Gut Isn't Leaking
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The Cleveland Clinic's website states that leaky gut is a "hypothetical condition." Yet Cleveland Clinic physician, Mark Hyman, claims that leaky gut ...
Brief: Plandemic Takes the Promenade
17 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
An anti-vax, COVID-grievance, climate-science denying, communism panic-generating film by Mikki Willis just won “Best Documentary Feature” at the ...
193: Speaking Truth to GOOP (w/Dr Jen Gunter)
15 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ca...
Bonus Sample: Living in the Enema Times
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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...
Brief: The Culture Warrior to Wellness Pipeline (w/Dax-Devlon Ross)
10 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Wellness influencers are quite capable of inventing and spreading health misinformation. When it comes to culture war issues, however, they're incapab...
192: Coffee is Your Friend, Not Your Enema (feat Mallory DeMille)
08 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 conspirat...
Bonus Sample: The GOP Takeover of Media
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan a...
Brief: Deep Church Conspiracy (w/David Lafferty)
03 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 a...
191: Extremely Online (w/Taylor Lorenz)
01 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 w...
Bonus Sample: The Plan to Dismantle Health Care
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan a...
Brief: New Year, Same Old Conspiritualists
27 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Do people radicalized into conspiracism or cults ever admit their errors? When the prophecy fails and evidence shows they were wrong, do they come cle...
190: Females Drive Evolution (w/Cat Bohannon)
25 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Science evolves, often through fits and starts. Yet for most of medical history, there’s been one consistent theme: most science has been conducted ...
Bonus Sample: Post-Catholic Music (w/Julia Tucker)
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 ...
Brief: Being Muslim Amidst the Wars (w/Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee)
20 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee joined us last January for a Brief on Jordan Peterson’s professional status as a shitposting registered psychologist. She re...
189: Leftists Who Turn Right (w/Jeff Sharlet)
18 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Nothing will stop Republicans from lining up behind Trump. But the left? It's in crisis. Fragmented. Perhaps in times of great flux fascists reflexive...
Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 6: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Control the Court. Overturn Roe. Funnel anonymous donations and shady gifts. Deregulate for Jesus. Roll back the cultural clock. Celebrate. Rinse and ...
Brief: Fascia Facts vs Fictions (w/David Lesondak)
13 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The online pseudoscience clearing house, Human Garage, treats fascia as a cure-all to nearly every disease imaginable. Yet as today's guest, David Les...
188: Everybody Wants to Save the Children (feat Esme Providence Brown)
11 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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 a...
Bonus Sample: Chris Rufo Wants America to Return to 1776
08 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rightwing activist Chris Rufo recently led the charge in helping oust Claudine Gay from the Harvard presidency. While the charge is plagiarism—a cha...
Brief: RFK Jr’s New Director of Propaganda
06 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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. H...
187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy
04 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, the Heritage Foundation published a 920-page document that lays out the conservative organization’s road map for the next Republican pres...
Bonus Sample: Secular Person of Faith: pt 2 (w/Brad Onishi)
01 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
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-r...
Brief: Secular Person of Faith: pt 1 (w/Brad Onishi)
30 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Friend of the pod and Straight White American Jesus host Brad Onishi joins Matthew for a New Year’s discussion of post-religious spirituality. Onish...
186: Coaches Coaching Coaches
28 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 Am...
Bonus Sample: Under the Xmas Starship
25 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The joys of Xmas, the wonder of parenting, the complexities of family, the distinctions between religions and cults, and the compassionate dignity of ...
Brief: Cop(Out)28 (w/Maya Lilly)
23 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
COP28, the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, recently took place in the UAE. The controversial conference included 2,500 fossil fuel indu...
185: Light in the Growing Darkness
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this annual meditation and reflection, the trio consider the past year's significant happenings in conspirituality, discuss their biggest influence...
Bonus Sample: Rife-Wing Misogyny
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In November, the comedian Matt Rife released his first Netflix special, "Natural Selection." Early in the show he made a joke about domestic violence ...
Brief: The Mother God Cult
16 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 nigh...
184: Lies That Take Lives (w/Scott Kennedy)
14 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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, t...
Bonus Sample: Post Lapsed Catholic?
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Matthew follows up on his interview with Mike Lewis about Bishop Strickland with thoughts about: 1) Building a bridge with progressive elements of a r...
Deep Cut: The Final Battle
09 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why did Trump kick-off his 2024 presidential campaign in Waco, Texas? Who were the Branch Davidians, anyway? Julian unpacks the incendiary streams of ...
183: Woke Pope Cancels America's Bishop (w/Mike Lewis)
07 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Conspiracy Theory Catholicism is back, bringing together Satanic Panickers, anti-vaxxers, tradwives who think (or at least say) birth control is an ab...
Bonus Sample: Goliath & Narcissus: A Brett Weinstein Breakdown
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 pa...
Brief: The Twin Flames Story (w/Alice Hines)
02 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Soulmates gone wrong. High-pressure sexual orientation and gender conversion in an MLM coaching cult. Journalist and producer Alice Hines discusses th...
182: Recovering from Conspiracy Theories (w/Stephanie Kemmerer)
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 politi...
Bonus Sample: Anti-vax Lifestyle Brands Are Here
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2021, the anti-vax dating site, Unjected, appeared on the scene. Between Unjected's conservative marketing campaigns, which leans conspiratorial an...