Conspirituality

Support the podcast The MAHA Chiropractic Hub had a big launch in Washington DC this week, with RFK Jr extolling the benefits of the practice—and promising to redirect research funds their way as his movement attempts to spread chiropractic throughout the American healthcare system. But can back cracks really "reset the entire nervous system," as one MAHA-endorsed speaker claims? Or is the profess...

Support the pod on Patreon The pharmaceutical industry is filled with greedy businessmen getting innocent consumers hooked on their toxic products in order to barely keep them alive. But if you want to actually thrive, an entire array of natural supplements are just a click away. So goes most every wellness pitch on social media. Mallory DeMille returns to break down the marketing techniques as we...

Listen to the full episode Matthew considers two registers of painful eulogy: spectacles thrown for elite terrible people, and the music offered for ordinary terrible people, when we can manage it.  Lindsey Graham's death triggered a wave of bullshit from Trump, Harris, Booker, Netanyahu, and Canadian PM Mark Carney — while online ghouls predicted the same fate for Mitch McConnell and Trump.&...

Access ad-free listening and support the podcast Graham Platner’s recent 11-minute video, where he announced he was dropping out of his bid for the US Senate, is filled with some of the hallmarks we heard during peak QAnon: there's a deep state conspiracy between powerful politicians and the media to destroy me. The truth, as Derek and Julian cover, is anything but. They look at Platner’s campaign...

Jordan Peterson is back. After a hiatus due to a, well, a whole lot of problems, he’s up for regular posting on his social media channels. We’re going to take a look at what’s happened over the last year or so of his absence, followed by his influence in the so-called manosphere podcast world. Then Matthew will offer a different perspective on podcasting that’s making waves: the Dominican Sisters...

Listen to the full episode A cyclospora outbreak has caused thousands of Americans to experience explosive diarrhea across 18 states. The CDC still has no idea where it's coming from. This has caused doctors to issue public health guidance, while even Taco Bell has pulled items from its menu nationwide to prevent any issues. RFK Jr? Not a peep on it. Derek looks at the many cuts that have led to t...

On July 1, 2026, the Society of Saint Pius X consecrated four bishops at its Écône seminary, defying Pope Leo XIV's direct plea to "turn back." Within 24 hours, Rome declared the SSPX's bishops and roughly 750 priests excommunicated and schismatic — invalidating confessions and marriages going forward.  Matthew traces SSPX's origins through Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre's formation in the shadow...

Support the pod on Patreon With so much emphasis on global politics and the World Cup in recent weeks, we’re going to focus on the somewhat quieter but intensely important bureaucratic dismantling of expertise occurring in health and science. First, Derek looks into a recent 412-page OMB proposal that hands political appointees veto power over federal science grants, effectively killing peer revie...

Listen to the full episode Three events converge—everything is connected.  Steven Spielberg releases his new sci-fi film Disclosure Day The American government’s UAP Disclosure Act drops three waves of declassified UFO documents Well-known 2012 prophecy-popularizer, Disclosure movement advocate, and History Channel’s Ancient Aliens host, David Wilcock, tragically ends his own life In the 16th inst...

“I do not love America, and never have, especially now.” With an opening sentence like that, you know you’re in for a ride, and Eddie Glaude Jr does not disappoint. Derek discusses touch points from America, U.S.A.: How Race Shadows the Nation's Anniversaries, with a slight diversion into the surging online activism that purports to be about justice for all yet time and again refuses to acknowledg...

Wellness for everyone. That’s how virtually every wellness event pitches their offering. If the everyman and woman did these practices or ingested these products or adopted these mindsets, we’d all be better off as a species. Yet what happens when the wellness event in question is hosted in an expensive resort town on the French Riviera and features top-tier celebrities like Oprah Winfrey speaking...

JD Vance calls Catholic Social Teaching (CST) a "fully integrated theory of a good human life" — and he's not wrong that it sounds good. So how’s he going to weaponize it? Matthew traces why CST's moral critique of capitalism, innovated by Leo XIII in Rerum Novarum (1891), is tailor-made for Vance's political project. CST may be sincere about human dignity, but it actively suppresses structural an...

Has former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s career been scripted and controlled by the strange leader of a breakaway Hare Krishna group? Chris Butler formed the Science of Identity organization in the seventies. Gabbard’s parents joined when she was two years old. Gabbard claims Butler has no influence on her political life, yet bombshell reporting by the Washington Post piece une...

Recent reporting in the Washington Post found that Tulsi Gabbard has been taking policy guidance from her guru. We revisit our episode from May 2023, where we lay out Gabbard's lifelong involvement in this cult: What does it mean for a prominent American politician to come into power as the sleeper cell of an eccentric Hindu-American cult? Does she act independently, or has her God-man got her on...

As the gases slowly leak from Trump’s orifices and IV holes, the bright flame of his inspiration to MAGA Christians is fading. Did he drain the swamp? Prosecute the pedophiles? Save the Holy Land? Lower gas prices? Give all the grill dads better health care? What was all the speaking in tongues for? JD Vance has an answer for the MAGA faithful: another memoir, another rebrand that turns to the dev...

Listen to the full episode RFK Jr has been one of the loudest champions of the Trump's work requirements for Medicaid and SNAP recipients. While he frames it in the language of health, he's really just reviving a generations-old argument first made by Ronald Reagan. Derek digs into the archival tapes to deliver the goods. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew applies three interlocking frameworks to the conspirituality phenomenon—and to the podcast itself. Drawing on Jodi Dean's theory of neofeudalism, Yanis Varoufakis's technofeudalism, and McKenzie Wark's vectoralism, he argues that conspirituality is an epistemic crisis—a problem of bad information spreading through inadequately critical communities—but also a structural product of platform...

A decade ago, JP Sears built a large following poking fun at yogis and wellness types with his “ultra spiritual life” videos. Then Covid came and Sears took a hard right turn. In fact, he credits the pandemic with “opening his eyes” to many of the world’s problems—in his eyes, that means Anthony Fauci, vaccines, and transgender “ideology.” Sears is one of the very first people we covered on this p...

Listen to the full episode Influential right-wing pundit turned celebrity conspiracy-peddler, Candace Owens, just visited Russia for the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. While at “Russia’s Davos” she marvelled at the cleanliness and beauty of Moscow, explained that Americans were never given any real reason why Putin invading Ukraine was bad, and deflected questions about her potential...

In the first edition of the Conspirituality Book Club, Derek dives into Food Intelligence: The Science of How Food Both Nourishes and Harms Us by Julia Belluz and Kevin Hall, PhD. First, he looks at how RFK Jr and Jay Bhattacharya forced Hall out of his nutrition research position at the NIH in 2025. Then he covers some of the book's most intriguing findings, including: Why most people don't have...

A plague is coming. We don’t know when or which one, but we do know that since humans started gathering in groups numbering in the thousands, plagues became a consistent feature of existence. So a plague is always on the horizon, and public health is the response of a healthy society. How healthy is America right now? Given that a recent NY Times investigation found that RFK Jr is laser-focused on...

Matthew investigates whether Pope Leo XIV's appeals to Liberation Theology represent genuine solidarity with the poor or a sophisticated form of spiritual bypassing.  Drawing on Ole Jakob Løland's analysis of Francis's papacy, Remski traces how Rome has metabolized Liberation Theology into compatibility with 135 years of Catholic Social Teaching by absorbing its pastoral language while suppressing...

The FDA is bleeding out Covid contrarians. Marty Makary, Vinay Prasad, Tracy Beth Høeg—all gone. Jonathan Howard returns to discuss why so many RFK Jr's friends have reached the end of their bureaucratic road. Show Notes FDA Swaps Top Drug and Vaccine Regulators in Staff Overhaul F.D.A. Commissioner Marty Makary Resigns After Weeks of Pressure No One Should Care About or Trust Anything Dr. Marty M...

Leo the XIV wrote a big letter about a hyperobject. Many thoughts and debates are triggered. Today we’ll look at what the hell an encyclical is, the Vatican's decade-long conversation with Silicon Valley about coding morally-sound AI, and the broken and laundered echoes of Liberation Theology in Leo’s text. Show Notes Rerum Novarum, Leo XIII, May 15 1891 Catholic Church largest non-governmental la...

Derek reports on the role of journalism after attending the News and Documentary Emmy Awards in New York City last week. Show Notes 2026 News & Documentary Emmy Awards | NEWS NIGHT (LIVE) You Might Have Already Fallen for MAHA’s Conspiracy Theories Student awarded CBS News scholarship explains why he called out network at event: ‘I had to do it’ Jorge Ramos, who's anchored the news for nearly 4 de...