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: Encanto
Matthew takes a break from the news to expand on the possible origins of conspirituality—as being related to intergenerational trauma.What is conspirituality, if not the mobilization of forced, fragi…
00:10:13 |
Mon 07 Mar 2022
93: Roganomics (w/Daniel Latorre & Jessica Malaty Rivera)
A few weeks ago, you couldn’t turn to a social media platform without seeing that Joe Rogan was trending. The diversity of topics boggled the mind: COVID disinformation; misogyny, pseudoscience; tran…
02:38:54 |
Thu 03 Mar 2022
Bonus Sample: Left/Right Horseshoe
The Left-Right political spectrum doesn't really capture the breadth of political sentiment in America. Derek looks at a 2021 study by Pew Research on political typologies—as well as Jean-Pierre Faye…
00:09:03 |
Mon 28 Feb 2022
92: The Quiet Part, Loud (w/Sara Aniano and dappergander)
"Freedom Convoy" leader, Pat King, recently live-streamed his arrest on Facebook. His racist public incitements to violence belie claims that the convoy was non-partisan and peaceful. As with other c…
01:37:31 |
Thu 24 Feb 2022
Bonus Sample: Carpetbagger Pharaohs
They couldn’t be more different: the self-made, self-help guru to the stars, the antisemitic Black-separatist, the blue-blood anti-vax lawyer, and the founder of a science-fiction religion. But in th…
00:06:52 |
Mon 21 Feb 2022
91: We Need to Talk About Stephanie
When Stephanie Sibbio, owner of Glowing Mama Fitness in Toronto, livestreamed herself harassing workers in her local health food store over COVID policy, the world was introduced to a now-familiar ar…
01:46:00 |
Thu 17 Feb 2022
Bonus Sample: Spiritual, Um—Sorry—Canadian Bypassing
"An essential pleasure of white liberal identity in Canada is the schadenfreude of looking down our noses when we consider what’s south of us. It’s an unearned pride that says: “We’re not like that.”…
00:10:24 |
Mon 14 Feb 2022
90: The Convoy is an Occupation (w/Elizabeth Simons)
We cover a lot of ground in this episode. But to introduce it in seed form, we want to draw your attention to a 15-second video we’ve posted to our Instagram. It shows a little boy, clearly stressed,…
01:51:23 |
Thu 10 Feb 2022
Bonus Sample: The Ritual of Healing
Despite the binary conversations around vaccinations, healing has never been an either/or dependent on one factor. What works for one person isn't necessarily the correct course of action for someone…
00:06:35 |
Mon 07 Feb 2022
89: Till Death Do Us Part (w/Mary)
Mary joins Matthew for an extended interview about the last year of her husband’s life. Louis died of pancreatic cancer almost exactly a year ago, at the age of 45. Mary—who has asked that her last n…
01:45:50 |
Fri 04 Feb 2022
Bonus Sample: Misinformation Millionaires
Last week’s Defeat The Mandate March in Washington D.C. saw a who’s-who of conspiracists address thousands from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Live-streaming and mic’d up— some fresh from massive…
00:09:54 |
Mon 31 Jan 2022
88: New Age Crack
Snap. Crackle. Pop. That’s the release you’ve been waiting for—the ecstasy of small gas bubbles being “cracked” along your spine. While it’s debatable how much good chiropractic adjustments are doing…
01:17:53 |
Fri 28 Jan 2022
Bonus Sample: The Irrational Makes Sense
Inspired by a recent discussion on psychoanalysis and politics with Pat Blanchfield on Know Your Enemy, this brief meditation focuses on two aspects of the conspirituality landscape that have lurked …
00:10:00 |
Mon 24 Jan 2022
87: The Aubrey Marcus Spectacle
When we left our Austin conspirituality heroes in the last episode, Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q, was locking in his position as the philosopher—or jester—in the court of Aubrey Marcus. But what of …
01:20:18 |
Thu 20 Jan 2022
Special Report: Red-pilled Poet, Charles Eisenstein
Charles Eistenstein has had quite the pandemic. Essays read by millions, retweeted by Jack Dorsey, quoted by Ivanka Trump, held up as the poet philosopher of conspirituality—hell, he’s even been on t…
01:09:22 |
Tue 18 Jan 2022
Bonus Sample: Science Is Not a Religion
In 2017, Charles Eisenstein addressed the SAND (Science And Non-Duality) Conference on our "obsession with measurement." A clip of that talk, published in 2019, put forward the question Is Science a …
00:09:15 |
Mon 17 Jan 2022
86: Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q
Up to this point, we’ve understood Charles Eisenstein as the poet-philosopher of conspirituality, lending his Burning Man ritual workshop chops to the antivax faux-freedom movement. Out of deference …
01:33:40 |
Fri 14 Jan 2022
Bonus Sample: Red-pilled Poet, Charles Eisenstein
Charles Eistenstein has had quite the pandemic. Essays read by millions, retweeted by Jack Dorsey, quoted by Ivanka Trump, held up as the poet philosopher of conspirituality—hell, he’s even been on t…
00:10:24 |
Mon 10 Jan 2022
85: Gaia Buys Yoga International, Stocks Rise on Uranus
On the day after the Winter Solstice, as the world tucked in for an Omicron staycation, a news flash came over the wire. Yoga International—one of the largest yoga media companies in the world—had be…
01:24:35 |
Fri 07 Jan 2022
Bonus Sample: The Inventor of Yoga Teacher Training Was a Rapist Obsessed with UFOs
In 1969, Swami Vishnudevananda pioneered what has become a life transition ritual for the GenX and Millennial precariat: the Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) Programme. He was a cult leader rapist who tho…
00:10:19 |
Mon 03 Jan 2022
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