Conspirituality

We catch up on three figures this week. First is Bari Weiss, who's trying to sell her upstart media org, The Free Press, to Skydance for a reported $250 million, just days after the network's merger with Paramount was approved and they said bye-bye to Stephen Colbert. Then we talk about RFK Jr's continued dismantling of our public health system, as well as an interesting lawsuit filed by the very...

MAHA hates petroleum-based food dyes. Yet, as Derek unpacks, many of the main influencers in this movement monetize products synthesized by the same exact chemical process. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mehdi Hasan's recent Jubilee appearance has blown up—and so has criticism of the entire media operation. Derek and Julian discuss the value and pitfalls of this format, contrasting the far-right participants sitting across from Hasan from another recent episode, when atheists went to battle with Jordan Peterson. Show Notes 1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives (ft. Mehdi Hasan) Jordan Peters...

Jeffrey Epstein’s name is being screamed into the headlines again. The late and former self-described best-friend of Donald Trump's highly suspicious 2019 death following his arrest for child sex trafficking has been a loose thread for both rabid conspiracists and the reality-based community. Now that prominent conspiracy personalities are in the highest positions in America's law enforcement agen...

On the horizon: a new liberal-center manosphere, yearning to reach out to the young men poached by Trumpism, but offering what, exactly?  Professor Scott Galloway and Anthony Scaramucci are earnest and charming in their way, and they have Trump’s number. But with their new project, Lost Boys podcast, they’re stuck in a paradox. They know enough to admit that the capitalist logic that made them bot...

On the horizon: a new liberal-center manosphere, yearning to reach out to the young men poached by Trumpism, but offering what, exactly?  Professor Scott Galloway and Anthony Scaramucci are earnest and charming in their way, and they have Trump’s number. But with their new project, Lost Boys podcast, they’re stuck in a paradox. They know enough to admit that the capitalist logic that made them bot...

Body image is a phenomenon that has long simmered below the surface of the wellness industry. We’ve spent years covering the hard and soft eugenics that inform so many physical and spiritual practices, and how the notion of an ideal self persists and, as we get into today, grown in the online world.  Just as shaming and skewed body perceptions proliferate in the comments sections and fitfluencer p...

Protest slogans are designed to pack a punch. They communicate potent emotions and persuasive ideas to the public while galvanizing activist allies. At 5 '11, wearing an elegant hijab over jet-black hair, Nerdeen Kiswani cuts an elegant figure. “From the river to the sea,” she cries, and the loyal group around her repeats it back, loudly. “Palestine will be free!” Again the repeated phrase comes b...

In 1898, British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace published a pamphlet entitled, "Vaccination a Delusion; Its Penal Enforcement a Crime." This work became the foundation of the modern anti-vax movement. Derek discusses how even though vaccination science is constantly evolving, the rhetoric of people like RFK Jr is just rehashing old and outdated ideas. Show Notes Vaccination a Delusion; Its Penal...

We return to the ongoing saga of Aubrey Marcus. As a wealthy, anti-vax New Ager who campaigned for RFK Jr (before going MAGA), he’s a pole star for the conspirituality moment and its political manias. He’s also a ceaseless innovator of guru narrative tech, with his latest trick being the attempt to turn his own implosion into top-tier content by enlisting an ex-fiance to prove his spiritual bona f...

Zohran Mamdani's win in the NYC democratic mayoral primary has been filled with deflections and pivots so that politicians and pundits don't have to focus on the core issues he's talking about. The left has a path worth considering. The democratic establishment is, for the most part, refusing to endorse him. Derek wonders if the rest of the left can avoid similar traps. Show Notes Globesonic On th...

On June 24, Brian Johnson, aka The Liver King, was arrested in Austin for threatening Joe Rogan. The infamous raw organ "primal" influencer has since published dozens of videos detailing what appears to be a downward spiral—though the problems date back years. Derek and Julian detail the crash. Show Notes 'Liver King' arrested in Austin after allegedly threatening Joe Rogan 'Liver King' says he 'w...

"Tonight we made history," grinned Zohran Mamdani as his supporters cheered with delight, "I will be your Democratic nominee for the mayor of New York City. His victory over disgraced former governor Andrew Cuomo in this primary election has made Mamdani, the 33-year-old fresh-faced Indian Muslim assemblyman from Queens, into a national sensation—and one of the biggest news stories in the week whe...

Greta Thunberg is a burr in the ass of the powerful throughout the world—and not only for rightwing sociopaths. Increasingly, as she grows up, learns more, and networks with other activists around the world, she’s become a scourge for liberals as well. Many of them would prefer she remain a child, providing a theatre of emotional catharsis for a climate crisis industry more interested in raising m...

Greta Thunberg is a burr in the ass of the powerful throughout the world—and not only for rightwing sociopaths. Increasingly, as she grows up, learns more, and networks with other activists around the world, she’s become a scourge for liberals as well. Many of them would prefer she remain a child, providing a theatre of emotional catharsis for a climate crisis industry more interested in raising m...

“Dad went to war last night” read Vance Boelter's text to his family in the early hours of June 14. This was sent after his shooting rampage aimed at Democratic lawmakers, which left two dead and two critically wounded.  Turns out Boelter is an ordained pastor in a church associated with the New Apostolic Reformation, which sees the world as a spiritual battlefield and whose leaders have preached...

He built a lucrative seminar empire in the 80s, owned an Italian Villa, founded a “spiritual university,” and travelled the world with a harem of handsome young initiates. Roger Hinkins claimed to be inhabited by another consciousness that he called “John the Beloved” and the “Mystical Traveller,” which taught the secrets of out-of-body experiences. As he copied those teachings from elsewhere, his...

What dangers does an RFK Jr HHS pose to Americans, really? Derek dives into science writer's Laurie Garrett's work, who spoke to the dangers we're facing today in 1994—and who has raised an alarm about the consequences of destroying public health ever since. Show Notes The Coming Plague — Laurie Garrett Betrayal of Trust — Laurie Garrett Laurie Garrett on This Week in Virology Learn more about you...

takeover—legacy media and Democratic strategists have the same question on their lips: What is going on with young men? Though Kamala Harris won the overall 18- to 29-year-old demographic, Trump improved his share by 9 points. Men in this age group voted for Trump by 16% more than women did. What explains this? Perhaps this is due to the right inflaming the anxieties and resentments of young men o...

In October 2020, three contrarian medical professionals published The Great Barrington Declaration to great applause by the pro-business, anti-closure crowd. One of them, Jay Bhattacharya, now runs the NIH. Things are not going well under his watch. Last week, he was grilled in front of Congress about the $18B in proposed cuts to NIH funding. This happened a day after over 300 people under his gua...

Cable travel channels are filled with haunted houses and other paranormal activity, beyond History Channel’s Ancient Aliens and cryptozoology content. The more radicalized Gaia TV has close to a million paid subscribers gobbling up content about yoga, meditation, and psychedelic consciousness alongside accounts of inter-dimensional cryptids, Q-adjacent vampire reptilians, and channeled messages fr...

From 1999-2002, VH1 ran a show called “Where Are They Now?” The irregularly produced series wondered aloud what happened to former cultural icons like eighties hair metal bands, kid actors, and one-hit wonders. While some people remained surprisingly relevant, most were confined to, at best, appearing at VFWs and regional summer festivals in parking lots or, tragically, gripped by an addiction and...

Matthew continues the Antifascist Woodshed series with a two-part analysis of an extraordinary cultural event: rebellions within rebellions—or how a ragtag band of writers and worldbuilders Trojan-horsed an antifascist masterpiece into the Empire of streaming content. Seven chapters:  (This past Saturday, main feed:) Space Wizards or Antifascism? Star Wars Culture Wars A Post-Fragmentary Left (Tod...

Matthew continues the Antifascist Woodshed series with a two-part analysis of an extraordinary cultural event: rebellions within rebellions—or how a ragtag band of writers and worldbuilders Trojan-horsed an antifascist masterpiece into the Empire of streaming content. Seven chapters:  Space Wizards or Antifascism? Star Wars Culture Wars A Post-Fragmentary Left (Monday on Patreon:) Hope and Love  ...

Megamillionaire supplements and New Age life coach tycoon Aubrey Marcus recently claimed the goddess Isis told him that he must impregnate both his wife and the third member of their throuple while doing spiritual tourism in Egypt. During a nearly three-hour podcast, the three explain their polygamous plans and heartaches while their on-call guru, Marc Gafni—an old-school spiritualist most famous...