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: TheoBros, Political Religion, and Christmas
Extremely online, bearded, Millennial pastors in tailored suits want to repeal women’s suffrage, criminalize gays, and Make America Christian Again. These “TheoBros” even have a guy on the inside: JD…
00:05:24 |
Mon 16 Dec 2024
Brief: The Unfreedom of Others (w/Talia Lavin)
Journalist Talia Lavin joins Derek to discuss her recent book, Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America.
Show Notes
Wild Faith: How the Christian Right is Taking Over America
Lear…
00:27:09 |
Sat 14 Dec 2024
236: Damage Control
As we ride out the aftershocks of the election and prepare for Trump 2.0, it’s as if nothing is bolted down. Trump’s cabinet appointments signal a disregard for competence or temperament as he seems …
01:16:30 |
Thu 12 Dec 2024
Bonus Sample: The Raw Truth About Health
Researchers in California recently warned that just one mutation in H5N1, the bird flu virus, could make the disease transmissible between humans. While the virus was first identified in 1959 (and be…
00:04:36 |
Mon 09 Dec 2024
Brief: Freeing the Well-Trained Wife (w/Tia Levings)
Exvangelical author Tia Levings joins Matthew to discuss her harrowing memoir of indoctrination, abuse, recovery, and advocacy, The Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy. It’s a wild…
00:41:16 |
Sat 07 Dec 2024
235: MAHA Mamas (feat Mallory DeMille)
If you’ve spent one minute on social media in the last few months, you’ve probably heard that seed oils are extremely toxic, food dyes are the reason for rising obesity rates—oh wait, that’s glyphosa…
00:58:14 |
Thu 05 Dec 2024
Bonus Sample: Deep State Religion
An essay from Matthew on how MAGA religiosity obscures the religious nature of liberalism, and how both obscure the underlying religion of capitalism.
Inspired by Walter Benjamin, who in 1921 wrote:…
00:06:09 |
Mon 02 Dec 2024
Brief: The $100M Free Press
The Free Press founder, Bari Weiss, recently hosted Peter Thiel on her podcast. While The FP markets itself as as a return to independent and non-partisan real journalism, Julian and Derek point out …
00:45:18 |
Sat 30 Nov 2024
234: Trump’s Conspiracist Cabinet
Since the election, Democratic voter disbelief and despair has alternated between grief and rage. We watched some erstwhile vociferous critics of Trump in the legacy media, like Joe Scarborough and M…
01:08:56 |
Thu 28 Nov 2024
Relief Project #4: Rob Schenck
Matthew here with the fourth installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.
Rob Schenck joined me in Episode 199 to discuss his deradicalization from the Evangelical anti…
00:19:09 |
Tue 26 Nov 2024
Bonus Sample: The UFOs Are Being Censored!
The climate denialist who exposed the so-called “censorship industrial complex” returns, this time at another congressional hearing. Michael Shellenberger has come to blow the whistle on Big Governme…
00:06:00 |
Mon 25 Nov 2024
Brief: How to Fire a Billionaire
AG1 built a billion-dollar brand in large part by tapping into the fitness and wellness podcast and YouTube markets. Recently, AG1’s founder, Chris Ashenden, resigned after a decades-old real estate …
00:38:07 |
Sat 23 Nov 2024
233: DC’s Catholic Power Center (w/Gareth Gore)
Josemaria Escriva founded Opus Dei, an ultra-conservative, high-demand, secretive Catholic organization in Madrid, Spain, after receiving a supposed vision from God in 1928. His small inner circle in…
01:14:18 |
Thu 21 Nov 2024
Bonus Sample: Thinking About "Holism"
A personal journey through health describing what led Derek to focus on health, science, and healthcare as a career and, eventually, this podcast.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm…
00:05:56 |
Mon 18 Nov 2024
Brief: Post-Election Online Survivor Group Dynamics
The post-election online chaos has a lot in common with what can go wrong in online survivor groups. Matthew tracks how opportunities for connection and solidarity can crater into gravity wells of re…
00:17:38 |
Sat 16 Nov 2024
232: Gaslighting The Election
Once upon a time, there was a golden age. A time when the news media was fair and balanced, unbiased and honest. But we've lost all that to the corrupting influence of big money, political correctnes…
01:07:16 |
Thu 14 Nov 2024
Bonus Sample: “What will happen?” (asks a 12 year-old)
Matthew got The Question on the morning after the election. At that moment, he came up with nothing but a hug. But then he chewed on it for days, and came up with eleven things to consider.
So here …
00:05:36 |
Mon 11 Nov 2024
Brief: Tucker Carlson's Daddy Issues
Derek discusses Tucker Carlson advocating for corporal punishment as a way to discipline children in his appearance at the Turning Points USA MAGA rally.
This is an unlock from a recent Patreon bonus…
00:28:31 |
Sat 09 Nov 2024
231: New Age Bible, Postmodern Novel (w/ Sheila Heti)
Rapid-response electoral punditry is not our lane. So, while we gather our feelings and thoughts, Matthew hosts novelist Sheila Heti for a discussion of her encounter with A Course in Miracles, and w…
01:05:32 |
Thu 07 Nov 2024
Bonus Sample: Elections on 3 Continents
Having lived under Apartheid in South Africa, voted in the UK, and now staring down this terrifying US election, Julian reflects on the political differences between the three countries.
Stay tuned f…
00:06:00 |
Mon 04 Nov 2024
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