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: Romancing the Stoned
So much suffering occurs because we romanticize a past that never actually existed in the belief that it's destined to become the future. In the middle we sit, here, now, with time marching forward. …
00:06:13 |
Mon 27 Feb 2023
Brief: Reggae Muzak
Continuing a conversation from EP142, Derek looks at the cultural damage done when musicians co-opt musical styles to promote their own propaganda, which is often at odds with the social struggles of…
00:27:05 |
Sat 25 Feb 2023
142: Destination Rabbit Hole (w/Anna Merlan)
Do visiting inter-dimensional spirits and stowaway UFO passengers use the LAX Airport to touch down among us? Well they do if they're in town for the Conscious Life Expo, conveniently located at the …
01:33:36 |
Thu 23 Feb 2023
Bonus Sample: Maggie the Good Conspiritualist
How does it feel to grow up in a back-to-the-land house that vibrates with the anxious passion of conspiracy theories? What would happen when the world began to disconfirm the conspiratorial lore? Ho…
00:06:36 |
Mon 20 Feb 2023
141: Does Canada Want Suffering Citizens to Die? (w/Taslim Alani-Verjee)
Is Canada trying to euthanize the mentally ill?
Self-professed "theocratic fascist" Matt Walsh says so. So does the OG anti-woke agitator, James Lindsay. Both cravenly distort Canada's proposed expa…
01:10:21 |
Thu 16 Feb 2023
Brief: Bikram Convoy Stopped by His Survivors
Hot yoga tycoon and sex offender Bikram Choudhury was set to teach his sweaty pseudoscience in Vancouver starting on February 20th. But a team of yoga allies, led by a woman who has sued Choudhury fo…
00:43:06 |
Tue 14 Feb 2023
Bonus Sample: Bad News Berenson on Brand
The Twitter Files are the grift that keeps on giving. This week, Derek and Julian look at Alex Berenson's recent appearance on Russell Brand's Rumble channel to talk about the conspiracies that only …
00:10:32 |
Mon 13 Feb 2023
140: Surviving Larry (w/Daniel Levin & Zach Heinzerling)
Today, Hulu releases a 3-episode doc series called “Stolen Youth,” directed by Zach Heinzerling.
The pole star for this low-dopamine, low-cortisol, non-true-crime, survivor-centred documentary is Da…
01:23:50 |
Thu 09 Feb 2023
Bonus Sample: What Are We Doing Here?
Sure, a big question: one Derek explores in the context of this nearly three-year-old Conspirituality project. Criticism and awareness are essential tools in a critical thinking kit, but to what end?…
00:10:16 |
Mon 06 Feb 2023
UNLOCKED: Leaving S-Factor (w/Jessica Hopper)
Those who fly high, fall hard. Pole dance company S-Factor crashed and burned in 2021 amidst a stack of complaints. Detractors said the company was conducting unlicensed group therapy, cosplaying enl…
02:55:14 |
Sat 04 Feb 2023
139: Comedy in the MAGAverse (w/Jordan Klepper)
Can you believe that Nancy Pelosi paid people to attack the Capitol on Jan 6 in order to make Republicans look bad? Actually, I mean, Jan 6 was the most peaceful gathering of a million patriots in hi…
00:52:02 |
Thu 02 Feb 2023
Brief: Long Live Guru Jagat (w/Emily Guerin)
Katie Griggs. Katie Day. Kundalini Katie. Guru Jagat. We hardly knew you.
The late "Queen of Conspiracy Theories" is now memorialized on NPR through Emily Guerin's LAist podcast "Imperfect Paradise."…
00:38:50 |
Tue 31 Jan 2023
Bonus Sample: Psychotherapy in the Age of TikTok Conspirituality (w/Alessia Caputo)
What do you do when your psychotherapy clients suffer from conspiracy theory anxiety? What do you do when the conspirituality-based therapy advice they get from TikTok is compelling, but also mislea…
00:05:56 |
Mon 30 Jan 2023
138: The Magical Quantum Healy Machine (feat/Mallory DeMille)
Using a combination of Alexa, Siri, and your extensive search history, we've been able to scan your bio energetic field, and are sending personalized quantum rebalancing and immune-boosting frequenci…
01:05:24 |
Thu 26 Jan 2023
Brief: Tate Crime
Did the Matrix kidnap Top G? Or is Andrew Tate the Matrix himself, now unplugged and shorting out in a Romanian jail?
While his self-confessed crimes against women come home to roost, the online spec…
00:28:05 |
Tue 24 Jan 2023
Bonus Sample: RUSSELL BRAND: RUSSIAN PSY-OP OR MISINFORMED RESEARCHER?
Ok, the title is a bit outlandish, but for a reason: many of Russell Brand's Rumble videos feature titles like "HERE WE GO" and "THE FALL OF FAUCI." When everything is at volume 11, nothing seems to …
00:05:46 |
Mon 23 Jan 2023
137: Addiction & The Wounded Influencer (w/Chris Boutte)
Perhaps you’ve seen the Rumi quote repeated on social media memes: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” The wounded healer is a popular archetype in wellness spaces, and indeed, somet…
01:12:09 |
Thu 19 Jan 2023
Bonus Sample: Matt Taibbi's Brand Building
In part two of Derek and Julian's deconstruction of the Russell Brand/Matt Taibbi Twitter Files Rumble Session, Matt and Russell swoon over their interactions with Elon Musk, discuss how the MSM unfa…
00:07:10 |
Mon 16 Jan 2023
Brief: Teal Swan’s Satanic Panic to Anti-Woke Pipeline
How do the screams of the Satanic Panic echo in anti-woke politics?
This past week, New Age Satanic Panic influencer Teal Swan released a new video to 1.5M YouTube subscribers about the dangers of "W…
00:29:38 |
Sat 14 Jan 2023
136: Virtual Strongmen (w/Ruth Ben-Ghiat)
Where have all the strongmen gone, long time scrolling? Where have all the strongmen gone, long time ago? Where have all the strongmen gone? Gone to posting, everyone. Oh when will they ever turn off…
01:20:18 |
Thu 12 Jan 2023
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