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
165: Outrage Machine (w/Tobias Rose-Stockwell)
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 dea…
01:14:07 |
Thu 03 Aug 2023
Bonus Sample: Psychedelic Fundamentalism
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, th…
00:11:14 |
Mon 31 Jul 2023
Deep Cut: Post-Cult Shame
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 ins…
01:03:29 |
Sat 29 Jul 2023
164: The Two Faces of Robert Francis Kennedy Jr.
We’ve been tracking Bobby’s misinformation, contradictions, and cursed networks for three years. And now he’s having his moment, and it’s anyone’s guess how far he’ll run. But why is he so appealing …
01:23:39 |
Thu 27 Jul 2023
Bonus Sample: EMF and 5G and chemtrails oh my!
Derek unpacks what’s really going on in conspiritualist messages about the "climate change narrative" and how they use an assault of varying degrees of credible information to conflate issues, some o…
00:06:08 |
Mon 24 Jul 2023
Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign
A granular—let’s say quantum-sized—look at how RFK Jr.’s wealthiest and most influential New Age supporters are thinking about his candidacy. Aubrey Marcus and Charles Eisenstein disclosed it all on …
01:01:08 |
Sat 22 Jul 2023
163: The Huberman Paradox (w/Jonathan Jarry)
Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has become one of the most popular science podcasters in the world. His regular two- to four-hour episodes feature a dizzying assault of information on topics like phys…
01:29:19 |
Thu 20 Jul 2023
Bonus Sample: Bobby Kennedy Scares You Shitless And Makes You Swoon
Bobby provokes a “disorganized attachment” response in would-be followers.This is the emotional vortex that begins to churn when a charismatic leader draws followers into a vision of the world as irr…
00:12:01 |
Mon 17 Jul 2023
162: Is Our Book a Conspiracy Theory?
Nazis loved yoga. Rudolf Steiner set the stage for COVID denialism. Modern social justice warriors have a fondness for Hindu nationalism. Antivax activists are stuck in 19th century Gothic novels. Yo…
01:36:00 |
Thu 13 Jul 2023
Bonus Sample: On Belief
What do we mean when we say that we believe something? When the QAnon Shaman got dressed on the morning of January 6, he put on his red, white, and blue face paint, his postmodern quasi-Native Americ…
00:06:08 |
Mon 10 Jul 2023
Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable
On June 26, presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, Jr hosted a "health policy roundtable" on Rumble. His guests included Joe Mercola, Sherri Tenpenny, Mikki Willis, and a host of other anti-vax lum…
00:55:24 |
Sat 08 Jul 2023
161: The Timeline is Chaotic (Conspirituality Audiobook Excerpt)
Matthew narrates the first three sections of the audiobook, Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat.
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01:10:25 |
Thu 06 Jul 2023
Bonus Sample: From Pranams to Pogroms
Derek discusses the new Conspirituality book with filmmaker and podcaster Mike Hull at Powell's Books on June 26, 2023.
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00:08:26 |
Mon 03 Jul 2023
Brief: RFK Jr Flirts with Body Fascism (w/Natalia Petrzela)
Friend of the pod and historian of American fitness culture, Natalia Petrzela, joins Matthew to shed light on a new development in RFK Jr’s campaign to disrupt the Democratic Party: his recent workou…
00:37:49 |
Sat 01 Jul 2023
160: Empire of Lies (w/Sofia Cherici & Jan Zabka)
Chaos in Russia! Wagner’s pagan neo-Nazis. Is conspirituality unique to a failing American empire in the internet age? Does it require Californian New Age spirituality, with conspiracy theories that …
01:23:45 |
Thu 29 Jun 2023
Bonus Sample: God Seemed Like A Dumb Reason to Break Up
Today in our Listeners’ Stories installment, Lynn Short joins her partner Justin to discuss how they met, grew up in, and grew out of a branch of “Gnosis,” a theosophical cult founded in the 1950s by…
00:07:37 |
Mon 26 Jun 2023
Brief: An Atheist's Guide to Spirituality
“It’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong," wrote Richard Feynman. But does curiosity end where awareness cuts off? Derek explores the positive and neg…
00:22:37 |
Sat 24 Jun 2023
159: Cults & Cultures
To celebrate book launch month, we started a little “takeaway” series two weeks ago. First, Derek led us through “Science and Sensibility,” in which he shared some really good practices for science l…
01:28:51 |
Thu 22 Jun 2023
Bonus Sample: Devouring Dragons
The exiled cult leader, the MAGA mastermind, the Chinese con-artist billionaire, and the CCP. Insatiable dragons, all. Each claims to be at war with evil, as their fiery propaganda melts the minds of…
00:05:00 |
Mon 19 Jun 2023
158: Spirituality Without the Con
We've spent three years tracking the slide from online wellness influencer to red-pilled conspiracy promoter, from yoga and breath work teacher to anti-vax ivermectin slinger, from vegan raw chocolat…
01:10:50 |
Thu 15 Jun 2023
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