Conspirituality

Who could be a better guide through the fever dream of modern anti-semitism—the socialism of fools—than a scrappy young scion of the House of Rothschild? How has Mike, this mysterious insider—visible on CNN but a seeming ghost in real life—used his inheritance and connections to score book deals with the Fake News Media? Will he redeem his family name? Just joking! Author and friend of the pod Mik...

When we deconstruct harmful ideas and beliefs—from antivax positions to reactionary social views—we will inevitably be seen or felt as attacking the relationships that people form through those views. That’s a big problem in a lonely world, and there will be blowback. What to do? Matthew steps off the debunkery hamster wheel, and remembers an old piece of yoga advice.  Show Notes The Religious Cas...

Burning Man 2023 will forever be burned in memory with two images: a group of climate activists blocking the single road into Black Rock City and the sea of mud that a climate change-induced hurricane turned the playa into. The jigsaw puzzle is pretty complete. Will Burners see it? Tommy Diacono is a five-time Burner. He also helped organize the protest. He joins two-time Burner Derek for a discus...

Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World is a polymathic work that serves up new political heuristics with the firepower we’ve come to expect from the coiner of “disaster capitalism.” A Dante-spiral through our circles of cultural hell, it’s also a memoir of demoralization, self-evaluation, and persistent hope. If this sounds overly ambitious or grandiose—that’s a fair suspicion in...

The Forrest Gump dandy of right-wing dirty tricks is in the news again. Strategizing from the Willard Hotel as January 6 unfolded; protected by a coterie of now convicted Oathkeepers; captured on video dictating Trump’s fake electors scheme for an email. These are just a few of the things Roger Stone has done.  Stone may be the swampiest of Deep State operatives our politics has seen. Julian gives...

Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World is an exuberant, polymathic effort, in which Klein develops several new political heuristics that pack the punch we’ve come to expect from the originator of “disaster capitalism.” Reading it is like getting walloped by a novel political theory virus— or a potent vaccine for the times. It’s also a Dante-esque spiral down through our endless circles of hist...

Do you ever feel like American society is caught in limbo? The bardo-realm between two election cycles. The dial-up static between invasive social media and quarantine isolation. Stacking sandbags against the deluge of conspiracies and disinformation as we await the slow-motion countermeasures of science and the justice system. The disruptions of Trump, COVID, QAnon, conspirituality, and January 6...

Claiming your First Amendment rights are being violated is a sure way to have the spotlight shone on you. It's also an effective way to shut down criticism of whatever you're selling. From the 1940s-60s, supplements manufacturers used the free speech gambit to keep regulators away from their products, resulting in a 1969 Supreme Court case. Derek looks at the 20th century evolution of medical regu...

One piece of connective tissue between the right and wellness influencers we cover is their liberal use of the language of Civl Rights to describe their completely incomparable grievances. Derek covers a few recent examples, centered around one particularly troublesome analogy by a tech-bro entrepreneur using slavery as an analogy for his hustle. Sign up today at butcherbox.com/CONSPIRITUALITY and...

Several months ago, we received an email from Esme Providence Brown (a pseudonym, and we’ll discuss why she’s using it off the top of the interview). Esme asked if we would like to discuss the strange and taboo overlaps between yoga, wellness, neo-tantra, and sex work. I wrote back immediately to say yes.  Esme has worked as a professional dominatrix and kink provider for the past twenty years. In...

They fell into a rabbit hole.  Matthew examines the blindspots thrown up by this common and unexamined phrase: — The assumption that we all know what the rabbit hole is. — The assumption that right up to the edge of the rabbit hole, the world makes sense. — The assumption that everyone who avoided falling (or being pushed) in is simply more rational, balanced, and normal. All of these assumptions...

The anti-vaxxers have a new Bible: an anonymously published (and RFK Jr.-connected) 500+ page tome, Turtles All the Way Down. Julian talks with pediatrician and pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Frank Han of ScienceBasedMedicine.org, who is in the midst of a 10-part “grand debunk” of this 2022 compendium of pseudoscience scare-mongering. Show Notes Frank Han’s Grand Debunk Learn more about your ad choic...

Charismatic influence thrives in online spaces, regardless of spiritual overtones. Matt Browne and Chris Kavanagh of Decoding the Gurus have traced a path parallel to our own; examining the popular figures they call "secular gurus." They join us for a lively panel discussion on the overlaps and differences regarding conspiritualists, as well as their patented "Gurometer'' method of decoding and ra...

Trump promised to “drain the swamp.” But his campaign attracted a carnival of corrupt influence peddlers and conspiracy mongerers. He pretended to be in a holy war against the “deep state” but his administration was defined by cronyism and long-time amoral operatives who groomed him to enable their own enrichment. Now he’s finally, hopefully, being held to account—but who were those swamp creature...

Deep Cut pulls from our bonus episode archive to unearth previous ideas that remain relevant today. News from Alabama: after a 23-year ban on yoga in schools, generated by a Republican moral panic, Governor Kay Ivey signs a bill that lets kids do yoga again, but with some restrictions: "All instruction in yoga shall be limited exclusively to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques. All poses s...

Dr. Bradley Onishi, is the author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism - And What Comes Next. He is the co-host of the excellent Straight White American Jesus podcast. His work has appeared in the New York Times, NBC News, Politico, Rolling Stone, Huffpost, and many other outlets.  Bradley got personally drawn into evangelical Christianity as a teenager—and fr...

Are you ready to live your best life ever? Because if you’re not always on volume 10, eating the purest foods and shouting your truth at every turn, you’re certainly doing life wrong.  Derek looks at the ever-growing anxiety marketed as optimal health in wellness spaces, wondering when will enough be…enough? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Following up on our review and coverage of Satan Wants You, Matthew talks with Canadian filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve Adams about how they excavated the origin story of the Satanic Panic movement. Show Notes 151: Satan Wants You Watch Party (Spoilers) Satan Wants You Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series...

In 2017, 4chan user "Q" started LARPing as a Deep State insider with predictions about Hillary Clinton and the pedophile cabal. 10 months later, the online antifascist world assembled its emergency podcast response team: three dubiously-credentialed shitposters( two using pseudonyms themselves) dedicated to covering “the best conspiracy theories of the post-truth era. Exploring online fever swamps...

Notes from Matthew in response to a great question from a listener: How do you keep from hating these people? The blasé unimaginative crackpots like Aubrey Marcus, the gaslighting meanderings of RFK Jr., the hordes of ignorant, ignorant, ignorant (trying to keep from saying st*pid) jackasses that follow in their wake, so desperately certain of their completely subjective fever dreams? It’s not eas...

Seven ex-staffers who worked on Marianne Williamson’s campaign have written an open letter describing her campaign as an “exercise in deception.” Matthew analyzes the open letter, and contextualizes its allegations within Williamson’s worldview and history.  Show Notes EXCLUSIVE: Seven Ex-Marianne Williamson Staffers Say Stop Supporting Her  148: Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus — Conspiritua...

GT Dave's kombucha origin story is the stuff of legend—at least how he frames it. But when the LA Times broke the story of a judge awarding workers nearly half a million dollars in back and overtime pay, citing GT's abuse of employees and contradictory evidence, a different story unfolds. Derek looks at this kombucha company's origins, unrealistic health claims, and the many troubles its endured o...

Tobias Rose-Stockwell is a media researcher, writer, designer, and author of the new book, Outrage Machine: How Tech Amplifies Discontent, Disrupts Democracy—And What We Can Do About It. The book deals with tough questions about who we are as individuals and a society, reminding us that we all help shape our surroundings by what we pay attention to, how we understand and process the information we...

Altered states exist on a spectrum, from enhancing human flourishing to perpetuating dangerous delusions. Daniel Pinchbeck’s recent comments on our book inspire Julian’s journey into psychedelics, the 2012 prophecy, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and the brain typologies that underlie visionary religious experience. Tune in for practical advice and guidelines about drugs, awareness prac...

Deep Cut pulls from our bonus episode archive to unearth previous ideas that remain relevant today. Survivor shame over what has been lost, and how one has been complicit. Apologist shame: turned inside out and externalized as aggression. Popular shaming, which tries to deflect attention from how close to home cultic dynamics really are. In the cult landscape, shame is a common denominator. In thi...