573 episodes

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.

Conspirituality Awakener

    • Religion & Spirituality

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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.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    211: Terrence Howard Solves Science

    211: Terrence Howard Solves Science

    Acclaimed actor Terrence Howard has a new role playing a heroic Galileo-like character on the YouTube and podcast stage, where he fearlessly points out the flaws in mainstream math and science.
    Howard's recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience gave him three hours to explain how his dreams and spiritual visions, along with his own research and deep study of maverick experts, have revealed unique answers to the deepest unsolved mysteries of physics. Turns out that none of this is new, the actor actually unveiled his discoveries in a surprising lecture at the Oxford Union in 2017.
    Today we'll break down these two cosmic events in space-time and discuss what it all means, and whether it's just a bit of fun or something more dangerous.
    Show Notes
    5 Craziest Moments from Terrence Howard on Rogan
    Prophetic Charisma By Len Oakes: A Brief Overview 
    Terrence Howard's Dangerous Mind 
    Terrence Howard Patents Debunked
    Howard Virtual reality Patent Claim
    John Keeley and The Etheric Force Machine
    Walter Russell Society, now named The University of Science and Philosophy
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    • 1 hr 9 min
    Deep Cut: Swamp Creatures 6: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker

    Deep Cut: Swamp Creatures 6: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker

    A Deep Cut from January's Patreon.
    Control the Court. Overturn Roe. Funnel anonymous donations and shady gifts. Deregulate for Jesus. Roll back the cultural clock. Celebrate. Rinse and Repeat.
    Leonard Leo’s libertarian Catholic agenda has made him a preeminent power-broker in right-wing American politics. He’s reshaping society while enjoying the pipeline of cash and influence that connects billionaire GOP mega-donors and the SCOTUS judges he helped install.
    Julian tracks how Leo’s Federalist Society used Trump as part of a decades-long systematic takeover of the judicial system that culminated in the current ethics and corruption scandal in the SCOTUS.
    Show Notes
    ProPublica “Friends of the Court” investigative journalism series
    The Guardian Club For Growth GOP Insurectionist Support
    Open Secret 2022 Donor List
    Dark Money Spending After Citizen’s United
    Senator Sheldon Whitehouse “The Front Group Swarms”
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    • 47 min
    Bonus Sample: 6 Chapters on Prospirituality

    Bonus Sample: 6 Chapters on Prospirituality

    Six chapters on approaches to prospirituality, now that we know (or think we know) what the hell conspirtuality is. This is a long episode, but there are evenly-placed breaks for you all to pause on!
    Chapter 1: Positions
    After 4 years, we’ve come to a natural question at the end of defining the problem of conspirituality. How do we orient ourselves towards possible answers?
    Chapter 2: The Prospirituality Challenge
    If you’re clear on how spirituality—including beliefs in the supernatural—can be medicine, you can be clearer on where it becomes poison.
    Chapter 3: I did not expect to be friends with Joseph Baker
    I never thought I would be friends with a student of A Course in Miracles: maybe my judgments about its inevitably bad impacts are misplaced. Also: it’s not a good idea to dismiss anyone on the basis of religious belief if you don’t know how that belief actually operates, and you won’t unless you talk to them. 
    Chapter 4: Buddhist Tolerance, Buddhist Repair
    Conspirituality is right at home within high-demand groups or cults. Paranoid and controlling social structures feed on paranoid and dissociative emotions and ideas. For members and observers alike, it can become difficult to tell whether the content of the religious group is intrinsic to its cruelty, or whether these can be separated. Surprisingly, some high-demand groups can foster reforms from within, with members reframing the very concepts that had been weaponized against them to liberate themselves. In that sense, the doctrines and beliefs can be part of the problem, but also part of the solution. 
    Chapter 5: Eve Sedgwick
    Cynicism about religion is an occupational hazard of this beat. It’s also popular. At times it’s worth questioning the critical economy focused more on deconstruction than on generating ideas and solidarity. 
    Chapter 6: The Trouble and Joy of Belief and Silence
    “You will know them by their fruits. Do we gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?”
    Matthew 7:16
    Show Notes
    Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People
    Survivors of an International Buddhist Cult Share Their Stories
    Paranoid Reading, Reparative Reading
    Baylor Religion Survey: 3 graphs
    On the Relation Between Religiosity and the Endorsement of Conspiracy Theories: The Role of Political Orientation
    Anxious attachment and belief in conspiracy theories
    There are higher levels of conspiracy beliefs in more corrupt countries
    The impact of economic inequality on conspiracy beliefs
    To trust or not to trust in the thrall of the COVID-19 pandemic: Conspiracy endorsement and the role of adverse childhood experiences, epistemic trust, and personality functioning
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    • 6 min
    6 Chapters on Prospirituality

    6 Chapters on Prospirituality

    Six chapters on approaches to prospirituality, now that we know (or think we know) what the hell conspirtuality is. This is a long episode, but there are evenly-placed breaks for you all to pause on!

    Chapter 1: Positions

    After 4 years, we’ve come to a natural question at the end of defining the problem of conspirituality. How do we orient ourselves towards possible answers?

    Chapter 2: The Prospirituality Challenge

    If you’re clear on how spirituality—including beliefs in the supernatural—can be medicine, you can be clearer on where it becomes poison.

    Chapter 3: I did not expect to be friends with Joseph Baker

    I never thought I would be friends with a student of A Course in Miracles: maybe my judgments about its inevitably bad impacts are misplaced. Also: it’s not a good idea to dismiss anyone on the basis of religious belief if you don’t know how that belief actually operates, and you won’t unless you talk to them. 

    Chapter 4: Buddhist Tolerance, Buddhist Repair

    Conspirituality is right at home within high-demand groups or cults. Paranoid and controlling social structures feed on paranoid and dissociative emotions and ideas. For members and observers alike, it can become difficult to tell whether the content of the religious group is intrinsic to its cruelty, or whether these can be separated. Surprisingly, some high-demand groups can foster reforms from within, with members reframing the very concepts that had been weaponized against them to liberate themselves. In that sense, the doctrines and beliefs can be part of the problem, but also part of the solution. 

    Chapter 5: Eve Sedgwick

    Cynicism about religion is an occupational hazard of this beat. It’s also popular. At times it’s worth questioning the critical economy focused more on deconstruction than on generating ideas and solidarity. 

    Chapter 6: The Trouble and Joy of Belief and Silence

    “You will know them by their fruits. Do we gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles?” -- Matthew 7:16

    Brief: Math Class with Terrence Howard & Eric Weinstein

    Brief: Math Class with Terrence Howard & Eric Weinstein

    Terrence Howard recently made waves (again) when appearing on Joe Rogan’s podcast to discuss “Terryology,” a language of logic which he claims proves one times one equals two. Since he announced his theory in 2015 (and published it on Twitter in 2017), he’s been repeatedly criticized. In this latest round, that criticism is coming from Eric Weinstein, who appeared on physicist Brian Keating’s podcast to discuss Howard’s math. As usual with Weinstein, the conversation went in a million directions. Derek and Julian discuss.
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    • 34 min
    210: Bioquacking Bro Science (feat Mallory DeMille)

    210: Bioquacking Bro Science (feat Mallory DeMille)

    Are you ready to “live beyond 180? That’s the tagline of the 10th Annual Biohacking Conference, which went down in Dallas two weeks ago. The brainchild of Dave Asprey, the conference focused on numerous “hacks” to help you live not only longer, but better and longer. This has been a decades-long goal of Asprey, who you might know as the founder of Bulletproof Coffee—you know, despite mountains of clinical evidence stating otherwise, this tech entrepreneur is certain that melting a stick of butter in your coffee every morning is the key to longevity.
    Was the key, that is. Dave is now behind the supposed “mold-free” coffee company, Danger Coffee, alongside a whole bunch of other sciencey gimmicks, like his “Wasabi Method,” which was launched at the conference. The key to longevity, it seems, is knowing that your sales funnel always depends on there being another key. That’s the vibe our returning correspondent, Mallory DeMille, got when reviewing the many reels and videos that surfaced from the conference rooms at the Fairmont Hotel.
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    • 1 hr 6 min

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