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
84: Red State Christians (w/Angela Denker)
"When we don't avoid people who think differently than we do, we gain an opportunity for growth and national renewal." So opens Red State Christians: Understanding the Voters Who Elected Donald Trump…
00:52:25 |
Thu 30 Dec 2021
Bonus Sample: The Language of Conspiritualist Merchants
Derek investigates the origins of language through thinkers like David Crystal, Michael Corballis, and others, to investigate how two popular figures—Deepak Chopra and Rick Warren—sell their spiritua…
00:09:50 |
Mon 27 Dec 2021
83: Climate Solstice (w/George Monbiot)
The global pandemic response is a microcosm of the global climate collapse response. In both we get to see what’s really under the hood when the pressure is on. In the face of endless and relentless…
01:05:05 |
Thu 23 Dec 2021
Bonus Sample: The Middle Circle
In the 1990s, Westerners searching for enlightenment flocked to India. The pilgrimage represented an affirmation of status and authority in the burgeoning yoga economy. Julian reflects on his three m…
00:09:55 |
Mon 20 Dec 2021
82: Steve Bannon, Mystic (w/Benjamin Teitelbaum)
While Americans were transforming esoteric strains of yoga into a commodifiable industry in 1980, a young naval officer named Steve Bannon was picking up theosophical texts in metaphysical bookstores…
01:19:03 |
Fri 17 Dec 2021
Bonus Sample: Not All Conspiritualities Are the Same
Matthew responds to the robust feedback on the Sam-Harris-is-a-highbrow-conspiritualist bonus, and then stretches the terms around harm in the conspirituality sphere in another way, by looking at the…
00:10:01 |
Mon 13 Dec 2021
81: Praying for Fire (w/Sean Prophet)
When Mike Flynn posted a video on July 4, 2020 in which his family recited QAnon slogans, it cemented the disgraced former National Security Advisor and U.S. Army lieutenant general as a MAGA patriot…
01:26:03 |
Fri 10 Dec 2021
Bonus Sample: Spiritual Consumerism
Derek shares a story from his time as a Lululemon brand ambassador to highlight the toxic merging of spiritual practices and consumerism. Not only does he detail Lulu's post-Chip Wilson pivot in an a…
00:13:50 |
Mon 06 Dec 2021
80: Lights, Camera, Yoga (w/Jill Miller)
We've talked a lot on this podcast about the selfie sermon: the kind of iPhone video native to Instagram influencers. Easily weaponized by conspiritualists, this sermon is equal parts intimate confes…
01:06:40 |
Fri 03 Dec 2021
Bonus Sample: Did We Choose to Be the Good Ones?
Kyle Rittenhouse walks away from the courthouse while Ahmaud Arbery's killers were found guilty and "QAnon Shaman," Jacob Chansley, was received significant jail time. Our opinions on each of these c…
00:08:57 |
Mon 29 Nov 2021
79: Anti-Hate Work in Canada (w/Dan Collen, Elizabeth Simons, & Morgan Yew)
COVID has been a recruiting windfall for hate groups in Canada, with new alliances and networks forged between white supremacists, xenophobes, and ethnonationalists in the fire of accelerated conspir…
01:21:25 |
Thu 25 Nov 2021
Bonus Sample: Sam Harris: High-Brow Secular Conspiritualist
Bonus episode, piloted by Matthew.There is a subtle form of conspirituality that rides on the familiar dialectic of political cynicism and spiritual promise—but it's dressed for a button-down salon d…
00:09:58 |
Mon 22 Nov 2021
78: Society of the Conspiracy
Conspiracy theories flourish during uncertain times. They're always with us, passed down through generations like alternate histories, yet they’re constantly reinvented when collective stress levels …
01:10:17 |
Fri 19 Nov 2021
Bonus Sample: Privilege in Wellness Spaces
Privilege is often blind and rampant across societies. But is the term also overused?Derek looks at two examples of privilege in wellness spaces, the danger of its overuse, and a possible reframing o…
00:09:11 |
Mon 15 Nov 2021
77: A Homeopathy Episode So Potent You Can’t Hear It (w/Jonathan Jarry)
To prepare this curative episode, we listened carefully to alternative health consumers for many hours, taking an exhaustive history of life challenges on physical, mental, and emotional planes. We s…
02:02:16 |
Fri 12 Nov 2021
Bonus Sample: Rational Emotions & Poetic Science
Are emotions really separate from rationality? Is trusting science similar to religious faith? Do poetry and mythic archetypes disclose a reality beyond the material world? What might characters like…
00:08:24 |
Mon 08 Nov 2021
76: A Field Guide to White Supremacy (w/Kathleen Belew)
There is no avoiding the fact that conspirituality plays out against a backdrop of racially-charged politics and the echoes of colonialism. And from the beginning of this podcast project we’ve tackle…
02:04:14 |
Thu 04 Nov 2021
Bonus Sample: My Religious Attitude Toward Science
Okay, maybe the title is overstated. But, as Matthew explores in this bonus episode: what are the contours of social comfort and habitus — supported by faith and ritual — that haunt any layperson's r…
00:08:26 |
Mon 01 Nov 2021
75: How to Talk to a Science Denier (w/Lee McIntyre)
What happens when a philosopher of science shows up at a flat earth conference to test out his theories about changing people's minds? This story catapults you into Lee Mcintyre’s new book, How to Ta…
01:52:12 |
Thu 28 Oct 2021
Bonus Sample: Charisma & Extroversion
It's been over a century since Dale Carnegie began teaching the importance of extroversion, bringing with it a cultural shift that champions an aggressive social and work style. Gone were the days of…
00:06:47 |
Mon 25 Oct 2021
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