415 episodes
Conspirituality Awakener
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- Religion & Spirituality
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4.4 • 130 Ratings
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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.
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172: Why Always the Jews? (w/Mike Rothschild)
Who could be a better guide through the fever dream of modern anti-semitism—the socialism of fools—than a scrappy young scion of the House of Rothschild? How has Mike, this mysterious insider—visible on CNN but a seeming ghost in real life—used his inheritance and connections to score book deals with the Fake News Media? Will he redeem his family name?
Just joking! Author and friend of the pod Mike Rothschild is no relation to the banking family that has lived rent-free in the minds of antisemites and conspiracy theorists for over two centuries now. He is the author of 2021’s The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything. His new book out less that two years later, is Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories. Mike joins us now from his summer palace in the South of France, um, actually his home office in Los Angeles to discuss the very stupid but dangerous groundswell of Jew hatred now filling our feeds.
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Show Notes
Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories
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Bonus Sample: You Can’t Just Take Things Away from People
When we deconstruct harmful ideas and beliefs—from antivax positions to reactionary social views—we will inevitably be seen or felt as attacking the relationships that people form through those views. That’s a big problem in a lonely world, and there will be blowback. What to do?
Matthew steps off the debunkery hamster wheel, and remembers an old piece of yoga advice.
Show Notes
The Religious Case Against Belief by James P. Carse
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You Can’t Just Take Things Away from People
When we deconstruct harmful ideas and beliefs—from antivax positions to reactionary social views—we will inevitably be seen or felt as attacking the relationships that people form through those views. That’s a big problem in a lonely world, and there will be blowback. What to do?
Matthew steps off the debunkery hamster wheel, and remembers an old piece of yoga advice.
Show Notes
The Religious Case Against Belief by James P. Carse -
Brief: The Planet is Burning, Man (w/Tommy Diacono)
Burning Man 2023 will forever be burned in memory with two images: a group of climate activists blocking the single road into Black Rock City and the sea of mud that a climate change-induced hurricane turned the playa into. The jigsaw puzzle is pretty complete. Will Burners see it?
Tommy Diacono is a five-time Burner. He also helped organize the protest. He joins two-time Burner Derek for a discussion about why his crew blocked the roads, the importance of rituals, and the importance of knowing when rituals need to end.
Show Notes
FULL VIDEO: Climate Protesters Shut Down BURNING MAN, Rangers Ram Through Blockade
Tommy Diacono on Instagram
Burn it all down — Derek Beres
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171: Cracking the Mirror World (w/Naomi Klein)
Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World is a polymathic work that serves up new political heuristics with the firepower we’ve come to expect from the coiner of “disaster capitalism.” A Dante-spiral through our circles of cultural hell, it’s also a memoir of demoralization, self-evaluation, and persistent hope.
If this sounds overly ambitious or grandiose—that’s a fair suspicion in this age of galaxy-brained pundits who want to write *that book about everything.* In less humble, less feminist hands, a project like this could feel like a vanity vehicle for an author’s unbearably brilliant mind.
But that doesn’t happen here, because Klein’s intersectional discipline—which despite many flights of fancy, she never abandons—serves the values of economic, racial, and climate justice, and she does it by always citing her sources and elevating the voices of the marginalized.
Derek, Julian, and Matthew discuss briefly before Klein joins Matthew to discuss her way into and out of this bizarre and demoralizing land.
Show Notes
Doppelganger — Naomi Klein
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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 2: Roger Stone
The Forrest Gump dandy of right-wing dirty tricks is in the news again. Strategizing from the Willard Hotel as January 6 unfolded; protected by a coterie of now convicted Oathkeepers; captured on video dictating Trump’s fake electors scheme for an email. These are just a few of the things Roger Stone has done.
Stone may be the swampiest of Deep State operatives our politics has seen. Julian gives a colorful breakdown of this longtime Trump ally who's been involved in every anti-democratic scheme, from Watergate to Bush’s 2000 steal to 2016’s Russian interference—raking in millions from the “torturer’s lobby” along the way. Stone has always slithered away from accountability, but maybe this time he’ll pay the price.
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Customer Reviews
Wish it was more accessible
I’m grateful for this podcast for spreading a message I’ve been looking for for a long time.
My one critique - sometimes the discourse is so dense and lofty it’s impossible to follow in audio format. It feels like it’s more for the hosts than the audience, which is actually exactly how the conspiritualists spread misinformation. Using plain speech and accessible language, even if it’s not as “academic” or “rigorous” is more accessible from a disability rights perspective and from a listener engagement perspective. I hope the hosts will consider this.
Also would appreciate the hosts introducing themselves at the beginning of each episode because they sound quite similar!
Interesting intellectually but contemptuous in tone
Quite an interesting listen at times and I’ve come back a few times to consume the content. So thank you! I have given a 2 star rating as I have found it troubling in moments when the satisfyingly rich intellectual commentary and journalistic analysis gives way to rather snotty, snide judgmental intolerance of points of view that adjunct their own philosophical or political leanings. In these moments it stands out that maybe the this podcast provides a space for the commentators need to express bitterness and contemptuousness. I find it a shame as the commentators have a nice ability to communicate complex issues, but to me it seems the contempt they hold sabotages their capacity for real wisdom and artful insight. I would love it if the commentators could bridge more empathy and humility into their conversations. I would appreciate it if they came down from their high chairs and spoke with more unknowing and curiosity about the experiences and truths of other paths, stories and perspectives.
Now ruined by plugs and ads
Was 4-5 stars until the recent “shift” to ads in the “free” episodes that are not locked behind the paywall. Apparently, patreon and subscription just don’t bring in enough dosh. This is a smart move, as it gives me more time to listen to other podcasts.