Conspirituality
Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon. As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse, and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child trafficking. In the process, spiritual beliefs that have nurtured creativity and meaning are transforming into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia. Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.
- Update frequency
- every 2 days
- Average duration
- 48 minutes
- Episodes
- 686
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
Bonus Sample: The GOP Takeover of Media
Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan aims to implement the "unitary executive theory," wh…
00:06:13 |
Mon 05 Feb 2024
Brief: Deep Church Conspiracy (w/David Lafferty)
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 an Italian redpilled Vatican diplomat: Cardinal Carl…
00:45:24 |
Sat 03 Feb 2024
191: Extremely Online (w/Taylor Lorenz)
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 world. This one just feels, at times, so disorient…
00:52:24 |
Thu 01 Feb 2024
Bonus Sample: The Plan to Dismantle Health Care
Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan aims to implement the "unitary executive theory," wh…
00:06:54 |
Mon 29 Jan 2024
Brief: New Year, Same Old Conspiritualists
Do people radicalized into conspiracism or cults ever admit their errors? When the prophecy fails and evidence shows they were wrong, do they come clean or double-down?
Julian checks in on some of t…
00:45:31 |
Sat 27 Jan 2024
190: Females Drive Evolution (w/Cat Bohannon)
Science evolves, often through fits and starts. Yet for most of medical history, there’s been one consistent theme: most science has been conducted on male bodies. And this has created a range of pro…
01:10:22 |
Thu 25 Jan 2024
Bonus Sample: Post-Catholic Music (w/Julia Tucker)
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 a minor celebrity on the reactionary right. In th…
00:06:43 |
Mon 22 Jan 2024
Brief: Being Muslim Amidst the Wars (w/Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee)
Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee joined us last January for a Brief on Jordan Peterson’s professional status as a shitposting registered psychologist. She returned for Episode 141 on whether it makes sense th…
00:46:59 |
Sat 20 Jan 2024
189: Leftists Who Turn Right (w/Jeff Sharlet)
Nothing will stop Republicans from lining up behind Trump. But the left? It's in crisis. Fragmented. Perhaps in times of great flux fascists reflexively double-down while progressives slide into a cl…
00:57:04 |
Thu 18 Jan 2024
Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 6: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker
Control the Court. Overturn Roe. Funnel anonymous donations and shady gifts. Deregulate for Jesus. Roll back the cultural clock. Celebrate. Rinse and Repeat.
Leonard Leo’s libertarian Catholic agend…
00:09:05 |
Mon 15 Jan 2024
Brief: Fascia Facts vs Fictions (w/David Lesondak)
The online pseudoscience clearing house, Human Garage, treats fascia as a cure-all to nearly every disease imaginable. Yet as today's guest, David Lesondak, Senior Structural Integrator and Fascia Sp…
00:35:12 |
Sat 13 Jan 2024
188: Everybody Wants to Save the Children (feat Esme Providence Brown)
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 and adults? And how does their propaganda—rolled o…
01:29:09 |
Thu 11 Jan 2024
Bonus Sample: Chris Rufo Wants America to Return to 1776
Rightwing activist Chris Rufo recently led the charge in helping oust Claudine Gay from the Harvard presidency. While the charge is plagiarism—a charge Gay herself acknowledged—the reason for Rufo’s …
00:06:08 |
Mon 08 Jan 2024
Brief: RFK Jr’s New Director of Propaganda
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. He joked about how the former president was a hard…
00:26:26 |
Sat 06 Jan 2024
187: Project 2025: An Authoritarian Conspiracy
Last year, the Heritage Foundation published a 920-page document that lays out the conservative organization’s road map for the next Republican president’s first four months in office, which could ve…
01:20:50 |
Thu 04 Jan 2024
Bonus Sample: Secular Person of Faith: pt 2 (w/Brad Onishi)
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-religious spirituality. They discuss what happens …
00:06:54 |
Mon 01 Jan 2024
Brief: Secular Person of Faith: pt 1 (w/Brad Onishi)
Friend of the pod and Straight White American Jesus host Brad Onishi joins Matthew for a New Year’s discussion of post-religious spirituality. Onishi fills out the details on a nascent identity that …
00:41:08 |
Sat 30 Dec 2023
186: Coaches Coaching Coaches
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 America. The International Coaching Federation repo…
01:07:02 |
Thu 28 Dec 2023
Bonus Sample: Under the Xmas Starship
The joys of Xmas, the wonder of parenting, the complexities of family, the distinctions between religions and cults, and the compassionate dignity of locating the sacred in our mortal humanity. Julia…
00:08:09 |
Mon 25 Dec 2023
Brief: Cop(Out)28 (w/Maya Lilly)
COP28, the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, recently took place in the UAE. The controversial conference included 2,500 fossil fuel industry lobbyists and featured billionaires flying i…
00:30:23 |
Sat 23 Dec 2023
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are the property of Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker. This content is not affiliated with or endorsed by eachpod.com.