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
- 685
- Years Active
- 2020 - 2025
Bonus: The White Yogi, The Brown Activist, and the Evil Billionaire
Who’s right, who’s confused, who’s noble, who’s the bad guy?Nothing exists in a cultural vacuum. The emergence of yoga as a hugely popular and lucrative phenomenon in the West is no exception.In this…
00:27:08 |
Mon 12 Oct 2020
20: The Second Wave: Pastel Q Goes Undercover (w/Ben Lee)
The reality of a second COVID wave started back in the Spring. Now that With over half of American states are experiencing increased cases, the conspiracy theories are surging. At least 32 White Hous…
02:21:44 |
Thu 08 Oct 2020
Bonus: Bullying Gates, Bullying Biden: The Conspiracy of Male Violence
Bill Gates is unknowable—except to close and estranged friends, family members, his therapist if he has one. His empire sprawls; his philanthropy is tangled. He’s clearly not any one thing. But what …
00:25:14 |
Mon 05 Oct 2020
19: Hurtling Into the Q-Hole (w/Mike Rains)
Thirty-two days out from the election and every hour reveals another layer of intensity. The more widely conspirituality and QAnon spreads, the more normalized mundane political violence becomes.
In…
01:44:20 |
Thu 01 Oct 2020
Bonus: Demons in QAnon & Beyond (w/Professor Jonathan O’Donnell)
For our inaugural bonus episode of Conspirituality Podcast, we feature a single interview: a deep dive into the demonology of QAnon and Xtian evangelicalism with Dublin-based Religious Studies schola…
00:54:34 |
Mon 28 Sep 2020
18: From Psych Meds to Red Pills (w/Jules Evans)
Some wellness influencers offer compelling critiques of Big Pharma, factory farming, and psychiatric malpractice. What happens when their arguments become honeypots for snake oil? In this episode, De…
02:08:26 |
Thu 24 Sep 2020
17: The Politics of QAnon Spirituality (w/Seane Corn & Jared Yates Sexton)
At this point, we can say for sure that American spiritual and wellness communities are not only vulnerable to conspiracy brainworms but they’re actively hosting and spreading them. Seane Corn joins …
02:26:50 |
Thu 17 Sep 2020
16: So You Want to Save the Earth? (w/John Roulac)
Yoga-crazed Hindu nationalists murder Muslims for eating beef, believing that the cow embodies the religious gift of India’s soil. American white supremacists chug gallons of local milk to prove thei…
01:56:13 |
Thu 10 Sep 2020
15: Tantra: Sex, Death, & Chaos (w/Alex Auder)
For decades, Neo-Tantra has focused on sex workshops and orgasmic bliss, overlooking the fact that the Kama Sutra is effectively a patriarchal instruction manual as well as Tantra’s grassroots origin…
02:15:59 |
Thu 03 Sep 2020
14: The Problem with Revelation: Psychedelics and Conspiracies (w/Lorna Liana)
This week we announce and discuss a refinement in our podcast’s direction. Real talk: conspirituality has clearly become both a front and a gateway for the fever-dream of QAnon. As mainstream news ou…
02:08:16 |
Thu 27 Aug 2020
13: Religion Can Be A Dangerous Verb (w/Dr Theo Wildcroft)
Dr. Theodora Wildcroft joins us again to take us through the basics of contemporary Religious Studies. She discusses how the discipline approaches issues of ritual, value, meaning, charisma, and role…
02:16:15 |
Thu 20 Aug 2020
12: So You Want To Stop Child Abuse (w/Regan Williams & Dr Theo Wildcroft)
Last week, we started to explore how the real issue of child trafficking is being weaponized by bad-faith actors. This week we’re joined by two experts that explain the overt and subtle impacts invol…
02:19:16 |
Thu 13 Aug 2020
11: Cults and Disaster Spirituality
Two of this podcast’s hosts have been involved in destructive cult dynamics. Matthew’s three years with Michael Roach and three years at Endeavor Academy are at the root of his cult research and jour…
01:52:49 |
Thu 06 Aug 2020
10: The Anti-Vax Agenda (w/Imran Ahmed)
A recent report by the UK’s Center for Countering Digital Hate found that anti-vaxx organizations reach 58 million people on social media. The total amount of money spent by anti-vax groups and adver…
01:57:02 |
Thu 30 Jul 2020
9: Ableism in Conspiracy Theories (w/Jivana Heyman)
Percolating alongside racism and classism, one of the most pernicious subtexts of conspirituality propaganda is ableism. Proponents spout accusatory mantras like: “You have an immune system!,” “You’d…
01:55:59 |
Thu 23 Jul 2020
8: Taking Dr. Christiane Northrup Seriously (w/ Professor Jacqueline Antonovich)
As Christiane Northrup’s social media feed descends even further into the delusional zone — this week she retweeted explicitly identified QAnon content — we ask Professor Jacqueline Antonovich of Nur…
02:01:22 |
Thu 16 Jul 2020
7: Doctoring COVID: Christiane Northrup’s Great Truther Awakening (w/Britt Hermes)
OB/GYN Dr. Christiane Northrup has been a giant in women’s healthcare advocacy for decades. She has persuasively argued for lower-intervention childbirth, an end to circumcision, and policies that pl…
01:31:57 |
Thu 09 Jul 2020
6: Grappling with the Cult of Trump (w/Steven Hassan)
It can be as hard to talk with your well-meaning yoga-world friend about their COVID-conspiracy beliefs as it is to talk with a family member about their devotion to Donald Trump. This isn’t an accid…
01:58:52 |
Thu 02 Jul 2020
5: Disease as a Metaphor (w/Maggie Levantovskaya)
Conspiritualists are compelling for numerous reasons: they’re charismatic; they claim to transcend polarized politics; they claim to speak the unspeakable in a quest for hidden truths. It makes sense…
01:42:27 |
Thu 25 Jun 2020
4: Racism in Wellness Culture (w/Dr Natalia Petrzela & Dax-Devlon Ross)
On one hand, we have the CEO of Crossfit tweeting that “Floyd-19” is the real problem. (He got canceled.) On the other, COVID-truther psychiatrist Kelly Brogan is using Hopi mythology to support the …
01:24:43 |
Thu 18 Jun 2020
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