Conspirituality

Bonus Sample: Methylene Blues

10 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Methylene blue will give you more energy! It’s neuroprotective! Your skin will never look better! Your bunghole will never be bluer!This week, Derek...

UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

08 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There's no Teal Swan without the Satanic Panic. And there's no Satanic Panic without the 1980 publication of Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder an...

123: The Red-Pilled "Academic" Who Named Our Podcast

06 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mystery topic today. Emergency episode. Breaking story. Amazing if true! Totally transformative plot twist. You gotta listen through for the big revea...

Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 7 | Girl, Interrupted (pt 1)

03 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Julian and Matthew take a long look at the 1999 film Teal Swan was reportedly obsessed with as a teen. Girl, Interrupted is a bold adaptation of a 199...

122: Timeline Retox: Biohacking and Fascism and Stuff

29 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The book is filed. Our mental health is in check. And, as it turns out, Matthew found a new guru. We return to trio work by investigating his fellow C...

Bonus Sample: A Course in Monstrosities

26 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you tune into your favorite Instagram wellness influencer or financial life coach, you’ll learn that money is really a state of mind—right? Thi...

UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 3 | Listening to Teal Swan’s Mom and Dad

24 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Some of the most valuable material that come to us from Paula Marino's Open Shadow film of 2017 is an extended interview with Swan's parent's, the Bos...

121: The Gospel of Wellness (w/Rina Raphael)

22 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Are you ready to biohack your brain with buttered coffee? How about going “within” at the Drybar of acupuncture? What if we told you that cannabis...

Bonus Sample: Listener Stories: Christina (part 2)

19 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Christina Flinders returns for the second of a two-part tour through her experience with cultic dynamics, conspirituality, and the long road towards f...

120: Overripe Avocado (w/Jill Ettinger)

15 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that Joe Biden is a Satanic alien Nazi pedophile intent on bringing about the New World Order? Or that Donald Trump is the only thing tha...

Bonus Sample: Listener Stories: Christina (part 1)

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Christina Flinders is our honoured guest today for the first of a two-part tour through her  experience with cultic dynamics and conspirituality. Mat...

119: We Are Slenderman (w/Kathleen Hale)

08 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On May 31st, 2014, Morgan Geyser stabbed her onetime best friend Bella Leutner nineteen times, while her new best friend, Anissa Weier, looked on. All...

Bonus Sample: The Consciousness Instinct

05 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As we're all with family over the holiday weekend, here's a 2018 interview that Derek conducted with neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga after the public...

118: Detoxing From Wellness (w/Kerri Kelly)

01 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Do you ever stop to think about whether or not you can afford organic food—and then consider that many people don’t have such an option? Is Goop’...

Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 6 | Michelle Remembers: Literal Symbols

29 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The homestretch of our study of Michelle Remembers zeroes in on the literal symbols—and symbols gone literal—of the Satanic Panic. Archetypes, gor...

117: The Real Cost of Fitness in America (w/Natalia Petrzela)

25 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Fitness is the beating heart of America. No, wait, that’s opportunistic capitalism. But opportunistic capitalism, as it turns out, is the beating he...

Bonus Sample: JP Sears is Definitely Binary

22 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

JP Sears constantly refers to himself as a freethinker. His increasing religiosity is counter to critical thinking, however. Derek responds to two rec...

UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 2 | Teal Swan: Art & Artifice (w/Paola Marino)

18 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of the Swan Song Series, Matthew interviews Paola Marino about why she found Teal Swan a fascinating subject to film for 2018’s “O...

Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 5 | Michelle Remembers: Themes & Framing

15 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the second of three episodes on Michelle Remembers, we recap its Catholic contexts, and Lawrence Pazder's quest to transcend the limitations of psy...

116: History is Not a Placebo: Chinese Medicine in America (w/Tamara Venit-Shelton)

11 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Traditional Chinese Medicine is an ancient medical system that has persisted in its homeland for countless generations before being exported to the re...

Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

08 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

There's no Teal Swan without the Satanic Panic. And there's no Satanic Panic without the 1980 publication of Michelle Remembers, by Lawrence Pazder an...

UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 1 | Close to Home

06 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We can't understand Teal Swan without understanding the Satanic Panic. And we can't really understand that historical disaster with out feeling our wa...

115: Controlling Women's Bodies "Naturally" (w/EJ Dickson)

04 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew sits down with ace journalist EJ Dickson to explore her deep archive of reporting on the policing of women's bodies, and how it reflects on he...

Bonus Sample: The Wellness Theory of Depression

01 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A recent review questioning the serotonin theory of depression has revived a generations-long debate over the very notion of "chemical imbalances." Wh...

114: Guns, Germs & Fear (w/Alan Levinovitz)

28 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Life is scary. Natural disasters, violent intruders, and deadly viruses threaten our survival and endanger our loved ones. When ordinary solutions and...

Bonus Sample: Listening to Teal Swan’s Mom and Dad

25 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Some of the most valuable material that comes to us from Paula Marino's Open Shadow film of 2017 is an extended interview with Swan's parent's, the Bo...

113: A Course in Conspiracies (w/Sam Kestenbaum)

21 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We spend so much time on this podcast discussing the wellness industry’s paranoia around anything from the medical “establishment” or the Lucife...

Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 2 | Teal Swan: Art and Artifice (w/Paola Marino)

18 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode of the Swan Song Series, Matthew interviews Paola Marino about why she found Teal Swan a fascinating subject to film for 2018’s “O...

112: The Science Whisperer (w/Danielle Belardo)

14 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This podcast was born in response to COVID and vaccine disinformation that, while bubbling up for some time, flooded the population with the release o...

Bonus Sample: The Music of the Conspirituality Podcast

11 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Derek steps back from conspiracies and wellness this week to discuss something very healing and personal to him: music. Specifically, how music has sh...

111: Who's Afraid of Teal Swan (pt 2) (w/Jennings Brown)

07 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our guest today, Jennings Brown, is a bright light in an increasingly chaotic cult-content economy. His 2018 podcast on Teal Swan, The Gateway, produc...

Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series: Close to Home

04 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We can't understand Teal Swan without understanding the Satanic Panic. And we can't really understand that historical disaster with out feeling our wa...

110: Temple of the Gun

01 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Rosaries made of shell casings. A breakaway Unification Church sect that holds rituals with gilded ARs. JP Sears on the gun range. The unholy American...

Bonus Sample: The Chapels in Our Brains

27 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew introduces Julian to the solipsism of an old Catholic catechism. Julian remembers meditating on non-duality. What spaces in our brains do thes...

109. Who’s Afraid of Teal Swan? (w/Jon Kasbe)

23 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If the world has become too much to bear—and the bots know it from your search history— you will likely find Teal Swan. She will appear, an angel ...

Bonus Sample: Giving Up the Gun

20 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After becoming global leaders in gun manufacturing in the 16th century, Japan banished all guns from their country for two centuries. How did this hap...

108: Downeast with Christiane Northrup (w/ Mooncat, Andy O’Brien, & Alyce Ornella)

16 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Half-a-million Facebook followers. Hundreds of videos in a series called “The Great Awakening.” Christiane Northrup, the matriarch of New Age wome...

Bonus Sample: Julian Goes to Church

13 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Julian recently attended his first Catholic funeral and found himself equal parts supportive friend and atheist anthropologist. This week, Matthew dra...

107: An Open Letter to Aubrey Marcus

09 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Aubrey Marcus really wants to not be a cult leader. He really wants Fit For Service to not be labeled a cult. He’s come out and said so, in a bold b...

Bonus Sample: Jordan Peterson, Derrick Jensen, and the Anti-Trans Laugh Emoji

06 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

An audio essay from Matthew about how anti-trans ideology can so curdle the soul that an otherwise progressive eco-activist—Derrick Jensen of Deep G...

106: Conspiracy Dojo (w/Stephan Kesting)

02 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We've gone deep on yoga communities infected by conspiracy theories. We've looked at essential oils and supplements influencers peddling in misinforma...

Bonus Sample: The Ruthless Sovereignty of Kelly Brogan

30 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew and Julian have to thank Kelly Brogan for hanging out on an episode of Aubrey Marcus's podcast, where she lays bare the emotional avoidance an...

105: TikTok, Cults, & Conspiracies (w/Abbie Richards)

26 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Is humanity doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past? This week, Julian traces a timeline from the bright-eyed early days of the internet to the dark...

Bonus Sample: Alt-Med Treadmill

23 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Julian and Matthew decompress after the interview with Gavin Ryan and discuss the "alt-med treadmill" and what it means to never quite know where the ...

104: Leaving Ramtha's Ranch (w/Cortney & Shana)

19 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cortney and Shana can’t remember exactly how they first became aware of the New Age promises and anxieties that would come to dominate every aspect ...

Bonus Sample: Yoga & the Body in Time (Pt 2)

16 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the crew is in the final stages of submitting their forthcoming book, Julian and Derek reflect on how yoga has evolved in their personal lives. In ...

103: Roe Against the Machine (w/Kiera Butler)

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since day one, we've been covering medical disinformation on this podcast, always wondering where it would move next. Our collective breaths were stol...

Bonus Sample: Yoga & the Body in Time (Pt 1)

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the crew is in the final stages of submitting their forthcoming book, Julian and Derek reflect on how yoga has evolved in their personal lives. In ...

102: Conspirituality, Cancer, & Compassion (w/Gavin Ryan)

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After we published episode 98 on “Placebo Joe” Dispenza, an Australian artist named Gavin Ryan posted a comment to Facebook in response:“My wife...

Bonus Sample: Cash Grab

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Manifestation workshops. MLM downlines. The supplement grift. Cash is king everywhere in the conspirituality sphere, even—especially—when disguise...

101: Eugenic Pandemic (w/ Beatrice Adler-Bolton)

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this conversation, Beatrice Adler-Bolton—disability justice advocate and co-host of Death Panel Podcast—says something twice:"Under capitalism,...

Bonus Sample: Taking the Con Out of Spirituality

25 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Derek and Julian discuss the literary influences and yogic practices that led them to yoga in the first place, while also discussing what spirituality...

100: State of Disinformation (w/Imran Ahmed)

21 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In July 2020, just as we were finding our sea legs with this podcast, Imran Ahmed joined to discuss the state of disinformation occurring around the w...

Bonus Sample: Zach Bush and the Holy Sardines

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Sermon of the Sardines is etched into our very souls. Picture the scene, as dreamboat doctor Zach Bush recounts his shimmering story of swimming o...

99: Conspirituality Goes to Therapy (w/Rachel Bernstein)

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Listeners: there’s a revolution going on. Legions of Twitter counselors and Instagram therapists has risen up to offer unsolicited sermons on cults,...

Bonus Sample: Watch What They Say, Watch What They Sell

11 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Since early on in this conspirituality experiment, Derek has been using the catchphrase that is the title of this week's bonus episode. Julian joins i...

98: Placebo Joe Dispenza

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

If you get treated by someone who says they’re a doctor, but they’re not, can they still have a placebo effect? That’s the question we’d like ...

Bonus Sample: Conspirituality Casting Call

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew and Julian draw back the curtain to take you behind the scenes of the book-writing process. They step back to consider the pantheon of conspir...

97: Brand Awareness

31 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This week we’re “just asking questions.” You probably recognize that quip from Joe Rogan, of course, but today’s focus is another actor and co...

Bonus Sample: Feedback Monday

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Hey everyone... Matthew and Julian here with a more relaxed format. We'll be periodically checking in on feedback going forward, starting with a look ...

96: The Terrain Theory Grift (w/Dr Dan Wilson)

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You might have heard some revolutionary news: germs don’t exist. Ok, they exist, but they only make you sick after you ruin your relationship with y...

Bonus Sample: Reading Tony Robbins

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The world's top life coach has a new book, Life Force. Seemingly bulletproof to criticism due to connections in high places (and a litigious legal tea...

95: Aleksandr Dugin: Kali Yuga Chess

17 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The mystical politics of Aleksandr Dugin, the mercurial philosopher and geopolitical strategist hovering behind Vladimir Putin, is front and center th...

Bonus Sample: Conspirituality Timeline Stories (pt 1)

14 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew brushes off and polishes stories and analyses we’ve only had the time to glance at in various episodes. A second or even 3rd instalment may ...

94: Conspirituality Goes to War

11 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

After two years of being lied to about COVID, are you really going to believe the mainstream media about what’s happening in Ukraine? Didn’t you k...

Bonus Sample: Encanto

07 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew takes a break from the news to expand on the possible origins of conspirituality—as being related to intergenerational trauma.What is conspi...

93: Roganomics (w/Daniel Latorre & Jessica Malaty Rivera)

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A few weeks ago, you couldn’t turn to a social media platform without seeing that Joe Rogan was trending. The diversity of topics boggled the mind: ...

Bonus Sample: Left/Right Horseshoe

28 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Left-Right political spectrum doesn't really capture the breadth of political sentiment in America. Derek looks at a 2021 study by Pew Research on...

92: The Quiet Part, Loud (w/Sara Aniano and dappergander)

24 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"Freedom Convoy" leader, Pat King, recently live-streamed his arrest on Facebook. His racist public incitements to violence belie claims that the conv...

Bonus Sample: Carpetbagger Pharaohs

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

They couldn’t be more different: the self-made, self-help guru to the stars, the antisemitic Black-separatist, the blue-blood anti-vax lawyer, and t...

91: We Need to Talk About Stephanie

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Stephanie Sibbio, owner of Glowing Mama Fitness in Toronto, livestreamed herself harassing workers in her local health food store over COVID poli...

Bonus Sample: Spiritual, Um—Sorry—Canadian Bypassing

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

"An essential pleasure of white liberal identity in Canada is the schadenfreude of looking down our noses when we consider what’s south of us. It’...

90: The Convoy is an Occupation (w/Elizabeth Simons)

10 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

We cover a lot of ground in this episode. But to introduce it in seed form, we want to draw your attention to a 15-second video we’ve posted to our ...

Bonus Sample: The Ritual of Healing

07 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Despite the binary conversations around vaccinations, healing has never been an either/or dependent on one factor. What works for one person isn't nec...

89: Till Death Do Us Part (w/Mary)

04 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Mary joins Matthew for an extended interview about the last year of her husband’s life. Louis died of pancreatic cancer almost exactly a year ago, a...

Bonus Sample: Misinformation Millionaires

31 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Last week’s Defeat The Mandate March in Washington D.C. saw a who’s-who of conspiracists address thousands from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial....

88: New Age Crack

28 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Snap. Crackle. Pop. That’s the release you’ve been waiting for—the ecstasy of small gas bubbles being “cracked” along your spine. While it’...

Bonus Sample: The Irrational Makes Sense

24 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Inspired by a recent discussion on psychoanalysis and politics with Pat Blanchfield on Know Your Enemy, this brief meditation focuses on two aspects o...

87: The Aubrey Marcus Spectacle

20 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When we left our Austin conspirituality heroes in the last episode, Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q, was locking in his position as the philosopher—or...

Special Report: Red-pilled Poet, Charles Eisenstein

18 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Eistenstein has had quite the pandemic. Essays read by millions, retweeted by Jack Dorsey, quoted by Ivanka Trump, held up as the poet philoso...

Bonus Sample: Science Is Not a Religion

17 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2017, Charles Eisenstein addressed the SAND (Science And Non-Duality) Conference on our "obsession with measurement." A clip of that talk, publishe...

86: Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q

14 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Up to this point, we’ve understood Charles Eisenstein as the poet-philosopher of conspirituality, lending his Burning Man ritual workshop chops to t...

Bonus Sample: Red-pilled Poet, Charles Eisenstein

10 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Eistenstein has had quite the pandemic. Essays read by millions, retweeted by Jack Dorsey, quoted by Ivanka Trump, held up as the poet philoso...

85: Gaia Buys Yoga International, Stocks Rise on Uranus

07 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

On the day after the Winter Solstice, as the world tucked in for an Omicron staycation, a news flash came over the wire. Yoga International—one of t...

Bonus Sample: The Inventor of Yoga Teacher Training Was a Rapist Obsessed with UFOs

03 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 1969, Swami Vishnudevananda pioneered what has become a life transition ritual for the GenX and Millennial precariat: the Yoga Teacher Training (YT...

84: Red State Christians (w/Angela Denker)

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"When we don't avoid people who think differently than we do, we gain an opportunity for growth and national renewal." So opens Red State Christians: ...

Bonus Sample: The Language of Conspiritualist Merchants

27 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Derek investigates the origins of language through thinkers like David Crystal, Michael Corballis, and others, to investigate how two popular figures—...

83: Climate Solstice (w/George Monbiot)

23 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The global pandemic response is a microcosm of the global climate collapse response. In both  we get to see what’s really under the hood when the p...

Bonus Sample: The Middle Circle

20 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the 1990s, Westerners searching for enlightenment flocked to India. The pilgrimage represented an affirmation of status and authority in the burgeo...

82: Steve Bannon, Mystic (w/Benjamin Teitelbaum)

17 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While Americans were transforming esoteric strains of yoga into a commodifiable industry in 1980, a young naval officer named Steve Bannon was picking...

Bonus Sample: Not All Conspiritualities Are the Same

13 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Matthew responds to the robust feedback on the Sam-Harris-is-a-highbrow-conspiritualist bonus, and then stretches the terms around harm in the conspir...

81: Praying for Fire (w/Sean Prophet)

10 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

When Mike Flynn posted a video on July 4, 2020 in which his family recited QAnon slogans, it cemented the disgraced former National Security Advisor a...

Bonus Sample: Spiritual Consumerism

06 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Derek shares a story from his time as a Lululemon brand ambassador to highlight the toxic merging of spiritual practices and consumerism. Not only doe...

80: Lights, Camera, Yoga (w/Jill Miller)

03 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We've talked a lot on this podcast about the selfie sermon: the kind of iPhone video native to Instagram influencers. Easily weaponized by conspiritua...

Bonus Sample: Did We Choose to Be the Good Ones?

29 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kyle Rittenhouse walks away from the courthouse while Ahmaud Arbery's killers were found guilty and "QAnon Shaman," Jacob Chansley, was received signi...

79: Anti-Hate Work in Canada (w/Dan Collen, Elizabeth Simons, & Morgan Yew)

25 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

COVID has been a recruiting windfall for hate groups in Canada, with new alliances and networks forged between white supremacists, xenophobes, and eth...

Bonus Sample: Sam Harris: High-Brow Secular Conspiritualist

22 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bonus episode, piloted by Matthew.There is a subtle form of conspirituality that rides on the familiar dialectic of political cynicism and spiritual p...

78: Society of the Conspiracy

19 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Conspiracy theories flourish during uncertain times. They're always with us, passed down through generations like alternate histories, yet they’re c...

Bonus Sample: Privilege in Wellness Spaces

15 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Privilege is often blind and rampant across societies. But is the term also overused?Derek looks at two examples of privilege in wellness spaces, the ...

77: A Homeopathy Episode So Potent You Can’t Hear It (w/Jonathan Jarry)

12 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To prepare this curative episode, we listened carefully to alternative health consumers for many hours, taking an exhaustive history of life challenge...