Conspirituality

Two months ago, we recorded Episode 291: My Chinese Buddhist Israeli AI Guru, surveying the growing field of AI slopfluencers churning out wellness supplements via Amazon affiliate links. At the time, we weren't clear on who was behind these accounts. Then Mallory DeMille went down a YouTube and TikTok rabbit hole and found the men making millions from these accounts. Today we're going to look at what they're doing, how they're doing it, and the cultural and racial dynamics at play in their slop. Show Notes An Amish Avatar and an A.I. Monk Are Pitching Supplements on Social Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode Derek considers the online debates over leftism and liberalism in the context of coalition building. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew reads the Introduction from Antifascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Cole Allen sprinted into the news cycle, social media accelerated to cover the story—and the conspiracy-beast in the basement flexed his fast-twitch muscle fibers. The now third assassination attempt on Donald Trump (this time at the White House Correspondents' Dinner) had to be staged. What else could explain it?  The one time Trump shows up, an assassin is waiting for him. What are the odds? How about the guy who just calmly kept eating his salad?   A highly suspicious AI video showed a security agent's hat morph into his hair, while another had Allen running faster than humanly possible, which fit with an elaborate story about the shooter actually being a time traveller.  We break down what happened, how quickly the conspiracy theories spread, and the cultural and political dynamics of this ubiquitous reflex. Show Notes False-flag Conspiracy Theories Swirl After WHCD The Era of Normie Extremism is Here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode The Democratic Party is in free fall. Still suffering the aftershocks of the 2024 election, a civil war is brewing internally between those who want to build coalitions that can win elections and those who see radicalization as the only way forward. In April, debate about whether Dems should embrace hugely popular leftist streamer Hasan Piker,or distance themselves from him dominated the discourse. A week later, two popular online personalities of the left—acclaimed transgender video essayist, Contrapoints, and artist/author Josh Citarella—sat down for an episode of his Doomscroll podcast. Contrapoints made the case for coalition building and pragmatic Democratic electoral politics. Their frank mutual criticisms of the online left outraged some. Meanwhile, NYT writer and podcaster, Ezra Klein's controversial comments on Charlie Kirk and highly-charged interviews with Ta Na-Hesi Coates and Sarah McBride (the first openly transgender person to serve in Congress) hovered in the background.  Julian clips key moments from these interactions and offers his thoughts on a way forward for Democrats as we approach the midterms and looming presidential race in 2028. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On the Whatever Podcast livestreams, alpha debate bros browbeat insecure betas and deride token guest female sex workers while possibly ignorant they're helping promote their OnlyFans accounts. But recently, three steely-eyed women have snuck in, decoded the matrix and fought their way up to stare down the ultimate boss—a chain-smoking, greasy-haired, foul-mouthed Christian nationalist named Andrew Wilson.  Julian features and celebrates the insurgent grit and intelligence of these three women, who've gone into a hostile environment, and not only held their own, but handed this smug prick and his minions their asses in ways both undeniable and elegant. While it may not be possible to drive a stake completely through the heart of misogyny's zombie internet dragon, destroying the main characters at their own game in front of their own fans sure tastes sweet. Who knows, perhaps it might make some of the younger and more impressionable viewers think twice about the hateful and irrational slop they're being fed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two-thirds of the Conspirituality staff have new books out: Matthew's AntiFascist Dad: Urgent Conversations with Young People in Chaotic Times and Derek's Well Enough:  Finding Health Despite the Wellness Industry. Julian "interviews" the co-hosts about themes of each book and their intersections with Conspirituality. But first, Derek discusses Glucose Goddess's recent partnership with medical device company, Dexcom. Show Notes The Sweet Embellishments of the Glucose Goddess Well Enough: Finding Health Despite the Wellness Industry Antifascist Dad by Matthew Remski Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In April 2026, Pope Leo XIV, deep in a public feud with President Trump over the Iran war, made his first trip to Africa. He chose Algeria: the birthplace of Augustine, the spiritual founder of his order. Algeria is demanding reparations from France for 132 years of colonial rule and 1.5 million dead. It's parliament declared French colonization a "state crime" just four months before Leo landed. Before visiting with any Catholics, Leo laid a wreath at an anticolonial martyrs' monument, removed his shoes in one of the world's largest mosques, condemned "neocolonial tendencies" to the diplomatic corps, and honored 19 Catholic martyrs who stayed to serve Algerian Muslims through a civil war that killed 200,000.  The right-wing press logged every stop as an outrage. The Arab press read it as vindication. And the old-school Algerian left noted that papal forgiveness might be easier for France to accept than a reparations bill. Matthew reads the visit through Augustine, historical materialism, liberation theology, and the testament of Christian de Chergé, prior of Tibhirine, who in 1994 wrote about his immanent martyrdom as the insurgents drew near. In his final testament, de Chergé wrote: I well know the contempt with which the Algerians taken as a whole have come to be dismissed. I also know the caricature of Islam that a certain kind of Islamism encourages. It is too easy to put one's conscience at rest by identifying this religion with the forms of fundamentalism of its extremists. Show Notes New Advent — Church Fathers: Confessions, St. Augustine NPR — Transcript of Cardinal Robert Prevost's first speech as Pope Leo XIV Vatican.va — Greeting to Journalists during the Rome–Algiers flight Vatican.va — Meeting with the Authorities, Civil Society and the Diplomatic Corps, Djamaa el Djazair Conference Cnter Vatican.va — Visit to the Great Mosque of Algiers Vatican.va — Meeting with the Algerian Catholic Community, Basilica of Our Lady of Africa Al Jazeera — Algeria declares France's colonial rule a crime in new law France 24 — French presidential hopeful Macron cealls colonisation a 'crime against humanity' OCSO — Testament of Christian de Chergé Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek reads two chapters from his recently published memoir, Well Enough: Finding Health Despite the Wellness Industry. In Chapters 3 & 4, he discusses his work as a patient monitor looking after suicidal patients in an emergency room, then ending up in an emergency room himself after having a full-blown panic attack. Show Notes Well Enough: Finding Health Despite the Wellness Industry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ronan Farrow is at it again. The reporter has a new feature in The New Yorker, written alongside staff writer Andrew Marantz, about OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In many ways, the 16,000-word investigation is a meditation on the existential risks of AI being placed in the hands of a few powerful men, and in this case a possible sociopath. Today we discuss the article and then zoom out on broader questions in AI: who is it for, how is it being used, and can it be reined in? Show Notes Sam Altman May Control Our Future—Can He Be Trusted? John Henry for the AI Era: Raging with the Machine Alex Bores rolls out “AI dividend” plan to share AI wealth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek looks into behavioral economics to better understand the fluidity of the "self," finding that recent research aligns with a very old Buddhist concept. Show Notes What Does Extreme Wealth Do To the Brain? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donald Trump's shitpost attack on Pope Leo XIV, followed within the hour by an AI slop icon of himself as Jesus, has cracked open the evangelical-Catholic coalition that has anchored American conservatism for fifty years.  Matthew walks through Leo's escalating confrontation with Trump, from his November 2025 immigration remarks to his Palm Sunday Isaiah citation ("your hands are full of blood"), his Holy Thursday liberation theology thread on "imperialist occupation," and the Good Friday Stations of the Cross — in which Father Francesco Patton's meditations called out the passion of deportation, surveillance, and war atrocities.  The backlash from MAGA Christians, including Marjorie Taylor Greene calling the AI image "an Antichrist spirit" and pastor Joel Webbon asking whether Trump is "demon possessed", reveals three deepening fissures: the Vatican-Trump feud over Iran and immigration, a theological split over Christian Zionism, and grassroots disillusionment over ICE enforcement near churches and schools, and blasphememes. Show Notes Pope Leo XIV's Palm Sunday homily, full text — Vatican.va Pope Leo XIV's Holy Thursday homily, full text — OSV News Good Friday Liturgy of the Lord's Passion, Vatican — EWTN News Hegseth prays for "overwhelming violence" at Pentagon service — PBS NewsHour Trump's Iran war is tearing apart his Catholic-evangelical coalition — Mother Jones MAGA recoils at Trump cosplaying as Christ — The Daily Beast List of conservatives rebuking Trump's Jesus image — Newsweek AI Jesus might be the thing that finally breaks MAGA's faith — Gizmodo Pope Leo responds to Trump: "I have no fear" — The New Republic Military archbishop says Iran war hard to see as "sponsored by the Lord" — CBS News Pentagon threatened Pope Leo's ambassador with Avignon Papacy — Letters from Leo "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," Isaac Watts (1707) — Hymnary.org Trump faces "Leo Fever" backlash over Pope feud — The Daily Beast Karoline Leavitt responds to Pope Leo's war prayer remarks — Newsweek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Consider the bright-eyed students who signed up for tantric yoga and sacred sexuality courses through their local yoga studios, only to eventually find they were sending the guru photos of themselves in bikinis to see if they qualified for a private initiation ceremony. What's unique about today's guru, Gregorian Bivolaru, is how his organization's in-depth courses reached into over 30 different countries, delivering a steady stream of young, starry-eyed women to be abused by him in Paris. A new documentary series, Twisted Yoga, tells the story of the women who've come forward to expose what they allege are the criminal actions of the guru and his cult. Julian cover the nuts and bolts, Matthew digs into Bivolaru's Soviet-era Romanian background, and then Derek interviews director Rowan Deacon, who reveals some info not covered in the series, such as the “meditations for Trump” going on at some of Bivolaru's yoga studios. Show Notes Gregorian Bivolaru official biography POV Magazine: How Twisted Yoga Centres Care Amid a Web of Lies Discourse Analysis of Public Communication Campaigns about Gregorian Bivolaru ACT Database: "Sucker Love is Heaven Sent" — A Romanian Yoga Cult Under Investigation NBC Bay Area: Romanian yoga leader Gregorian Bivolaru accused of sexual abuse CNN: French police arrest yoga guru in connection with alleged rape, human trafficking and kidnapping scheme Connexion France: 41 arrests over tantric yoga group accused of sex abuse in France Marxists Internet Archive: Alexandra Kollontai, Theses on Communist Morality in the Sphere of Marital Relations (1921) UPI (January 1990): Ceaușescu children lived it up while people suffered Dispărut, dar cu conturile pline. Guru Bivolaru face milioane de dolari anual  UPI (May 1990): Ceaușescu's playboy son on trial UNADFI: Abus de faiblesse Statute Law Review: Criminalizing Coercive Control — Cross-Jurisdictional Lessons Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini received Western media in a small French village in 1978, he sat cross-legged in his robes and black turban under an apple tree in the garden. They described him as “on another planet,” with “eyes of steel,” and compared him to an Eastern sage or ascetic guru. French philosopher Michel Foucault, most famous for his penetrating analysis of power, knowledge (and punitive coercion) was there as well. He called the holy man “an old saint in exile” who had no personal political ambitions. Visiting Iran during the revolution, the philosopher was captivated by what he called a new form of “spiritual politics” that he saw as “advancing toward a luminous and distant point.” Foucault dismissed Iranian feminists who warned of the true dangers of an Islamic state being established once the autocratic king—the Shah—had been overthrown. Today, as the reckless and destructive American and Israeli war against the Iranian regime continues, Julian revisits the political history of Iran and the complex regional power struggles between nationalists, monarchists, communists, and Islamists that played out on the Cold War stage. He examines the connections between the controversial 1953 CIA coup d'etat and the hugely popular 1979 Islamic Revolution, which led to the one-party totalitarian theocracy that dominates the Iranian people to this day. How did so many within Iran and in the West, including the most influential radical philosopher of his time, misperceive Khomeini and his ruthless intentions? Show Notes Foucault: What Are The Iranian's Dreaming About Did Foucault Disregard Iranian Feminists? Dr. Taimur Rahman's Red Star Lectures The CIA Coup That Never Was Iran's Decade of Assassinations Bayandor: Iran and The CIA Foucault's Iranian Folly Foucault and the Question of Orientalism The Shah, by Abbas Milani Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Billionaire tech bro Marc Andreessen recently claimed introspection is a pathology. Derek and Julian discuss the Trump advisor's claims while the investor continues making bank from defense technology. Show Notes The Mind is Flat: Nick Chater The Mind is Flat | Nick Chater | Talks at Google Susan Blackmore Review of The Mind is Flat The Tell-Tale Brain: VS Ramachandran Consciousness and the Brain: Stanislas Dehaene This Is Your Brain on Music: Dan Levitin Musicophilia: Oliver Sacks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New Yorker writer Charles Bethea recently decided to attend men's retreats—well, at least those who would admit him. His expose on the modern men's movement got us thinking about what's happening over those very expensive three-day weekends, as well as the inspiration behind these groups dating back to the seventies. And even how a movement tracing back to the work of Robert Bly was co-opted by the right-wing “alpha male” crowd. Today we discuss Bethea's article in the context of modern men's groups: where they come from, what function they serve, and what they might get wrong…and horribly wrong. Show Notes The Camps Promising to Turn You—or Your Son—Into an Alpha Male The ‘alpha male' myth, debunked Inside the high-priced retreats promising to help men reclaim their masculinity Brief: Galloway and the Mooch — The Lost Boys of Capitalism (Pt 1) Scott Galloway and Anthony Scaramucci, Lost Boys podcast Of Boys and Men A Statistical Book Review for 'Of Boys and Men' How a White Nationalist Club Thought It Found Safe Haven in a Montreal Gym The Fallout from Reporting on White Nationalism in Canada Active Clubs Are White Supremacy's New, Dangerous Frontier White Nationalist 'Active Clubs' Are Who 'Proud Boys Wanted to Be' Whom Is ICE Actually Recruiting? Experts Concerned About White Nationalist Imagery in ICE Recruitment Materials Male Fantasies, Vol. 1 Interview with Klaus Theweleit on Male Fantasies Today Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode If you heard Matthew's Brief from March 28, you'll know longtime Conspirituality listener Joseph Baker died on Feb 4 at the age of 51. Matthew recorded this conversation with Joseph on January 9, 2024. They explore Matthew's allergy to A Course in Miracles and Joseph's devotion to it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mikki Willis recently joined Russell Brand to discuss a whole host of issues, including rather suspect rewritings of the histories of AIDS and Covid-19. Derek and Julian discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Early in this podcast we covered the Disinformation Dozen, 12 wellness influencers and contrarian health figures responsible for spreading the lion's share of vaccine misinformation on major social media platforms. On a recent MAHA Action weekly call, Tony Lyons got the group back together for a victory lap after a court settlement seemed to justify their actions. Or did it? We break down the court case, then hear from the influencers who continue to inflate their own sense of self-importance while rewriting a history that only exists in their minds. Show Notes The Real Election Threat: Tech Oligarchs & Algorithms | The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart POLITICO: Do the Disinformation Dozen Still Matter State Dept. Imposes Sanctions on Disinfo Advocacy Groups Original Disinformation Dozen Report CDC “Whistleblower's Debunked Autism Claims Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode The wellness industry has been repeating marketing strategies used by the fashion and diet book industries for decades. Influencers are just exploiting novelty-seeking cognitive behaviors deeply embedded in human psychology. Derek reviews today's product du jour, peptides, by first looking into those dopamine-seeking behaviors, then exploring the history and present of these amino acid chains everywhere in wellness downlines. Show Notes Everyone's Doing Peptides. Is It All a Big Scam? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew eulogizes longtime Conspirituality listener Joseph Baker, who died on February 4 at the age of 51. They became online friends when Joseph reached out to say that maybe Matthew was being too harsh with people who found inspiration in A Course in Miracles. Expecting an irritating exchange, Matthew came to know an incisive political thinker who managed to radiate hope and forgiveness, and learned more about how a radical flank can develop in any spiritual community. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did we all need a streaming manosphere documentary? Many did. Did we need one made in the GenX stop-and-mug slacker analysis-avoiding style of Louis Theroux? Debatable. Today we review Theroux's Inside the Manosphere: its aesthetic mimicry of manosphere style, a potential ethics issue, how monetizing misogyny interacts with the gigwork incentives of OnlyFans, how all the bravado covers for legitimate fears, but only pays out at the top.  Many Mexican Americans this past week were devastated to learn that a hero of the UFW and the broader Chicano Movement, Cesar Chavez, was a coercive serial abuser and pedophile. I say many: because many women knew, connected and informed by a whisper network dating back over decades, and maintained by the pressure to not degrade the status and gains of the movement itself. Off the top today, we look at the influence of the Synanon cult on Chavez's tactics. Show Notes Cesar Chavez, a Civil Rights Icon, Is Accused of Abusing Girls for Years Oregon institutions reckon with removing Cesar Chavez's name following sexual abuse report From streets to murals, the erasure of Cesar Chavez is fast underway in California Inside the Manosphere: Louis Theroux opts for superficial spectacle over serious scrutiny  Myron Gaines releases private call with Louis Theroux after revealing he tried to get footage removed from doc  My Family's Story Is Proof That Documentaries Need Ethical Standards  Beyond "The Staircase": What happens when the documentary ends with subjects "left with the bill"? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From a repurposed orphanage in the North of England, Abdullah Hashem tells his audience in five languages, across two satellite TV companies, and multiple social media channels that he is the successor of Jesus and Mohammed, the “one true Pope” for Christians. In his carefully staged and ominously lit “basilica,” he lectures to his 200 residential followers (who emulate his idiosyncratic fashion style) about angels, aliens, reincarnation, and a planet where giant rabbits keep humans as pets. Oh and all about the coming apocalypse and his divinely chosen role in it. Who is this American-Egyptian cult leader? Hashem grew up in Indiana, and got his start in college making documentary films debunking cult leaders and UFO hoaxes. Some time in his early twenties he went full conspiritualist, made an eight-hour film about esoteric knowledge, Quranic-prophecy, the Illuminati, and the End Times. He moved to Egypt and declared himself the Mahdi—a messianic figure from Islamic eschatology. Former members tell of bizarre loyalty tests, financial exploitation, and other forms of abuse. Meanwhile Hashem broadcasts that the fall of the Iranian theocracy clears the way for his ascension into his divine appointment as philosopher king. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's been talk about the "male loneliness epidemic" for years. Yet what about women? Derek reviews economist Corrine Low's recent book, Having It All, in light of this question, contrasting it with Scott Galloway's recent self-help book for men. The contrasts between the books couldn't be clearer. Show Notes Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women's Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Hannah and Daniel Neeleman recently went on camera to explain their position on raw milk, they assured their 22 million-plus following that they were going to follow regulations—with a bit of a grudge. The couple behind Ballerina Farm wasn't going to let a little bacteria get in the way of their farming operations, so they'll just focus on pasteurized products. While not associated with MAHA, some of their takes on health certainly rhyme. So today we'll get into this uber-popular feed: who they are, what they're doing in the mountains of Utah, and how privilege plays out in farming and childbearing aesthetics. Show Notes Is Hannah Neeleman Mormon? Inside Ballerina Farm's Religion After Lifestyle Controversy The story of Ballerina Farm and the 2 co-CEOs behind it Meet the queen of the ‘trad wives' (and her eight children) Why influencers with 7, 8, or 10 kids are having a moment The Trad-Wife Revolution Is Upon Us Ballerina Farm pauses raw milk sales after samples fail health tests Ballerina Farm's Hannah Neeleman explains the dairy's decision to stop selling raw milk JetBlue's Founder Helped Fund A Stanford Study That Said The Coronavirus Wasn't That Deadly Hannah Neeleman's “Viral” Glowy Skin Secret You'll Never Really Know Ballerina Farm Postpartum Weight Retention Risk Factors and Relationship to Obesity at One Year - PMC Effect of grand multiparity on adverse maternal outcomes: A prospective cohort study Are tradwives and feminists two sides of the same coin on women's labor? | KUER  Tia Levings on Fundie Parenting  Number of siblings and intellectual development. The resource dilution explanation - PubMed WAGES AGAINST HOUSEWORK | caring labor  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pitt recently exposed fans to the complexities and reality of panic attacks. Derek uses that moment in the exceptional show to discuss his own longstanding struggle with anxiety, exploring the latest science and interventions for dealing with them. Show Notes Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder in Adults Management of generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder in general health care settings: new WHO recommendations Anxiety Disorders Guidelines Clinical Practice Guidelines for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies in Anxiety Disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders Interoceptive Exposure Short, intensive cognitive behavioral therapy can ease panic disorder Brief, intensive exercise helps patients with panic disorder more than standard care Panic attacks and interoceptive acuity for cardiac sensations Rapid Reconfiguration of the Functional Connectome after Chemogenetic Locus Coeruleus Activation Anxiety Disorders are Associated with Reduced Heart Rate Variability: A Meta-Analysis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Turning Point USA's Women's Leadership Conference returns to Dallas in June. Derek and Julian take a look inside. Show Notes Antifeminist women's summit: ‘The kitchen is where the real revolution starts' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As black rain falls from the smoke-choked skies of Tehran, the US and Israel continue their war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. From the start, Trump officials have seemed only to disagree on both the murky rationale and the objectives of their mission. Meanwhile, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been flooded with reports of commanding officers rallying their troops with apocalyptic pep talks in which Trump has been anointed by Jesus to kick-off Armageddon. This should come as no surprise, given that Sec of Def Pete Hegseth, has been holding Christian Nationalist prayer and worship services in the Pentagon since last May. Beyond the obviousness of this religious politics, Matthew looks at how Canadian PM, Mark Carney, supports Trump, and this war, while pretending not to, using deceptive language tricks that borrow from religion to blur the line between strength and values, power and principle. But, hey, if you want to distract yourself from all this, Polymarket is a wonderful place to bet on who's going to be bombed next. Derek breaks down how prediction markets have become a massively lucrative Rorschach-portrait of our times. Show Notes Troops Told Iran War is “Armageddon” Hegseth Joined Drollinger's White House Bible Study Hegseth Hosts Christian Nationalist Doug Wilson at Pentagon Religious Service The History of Prediction Markets: From Ancient Oracles to Blockchain Forecasting A brief history of prediction markets: from papal elections to Polymarket Three economists grabbed a beer. A multibillion-dollar industry was born. A Primer on Prediction Markets Prediction markets are booming. Why are their ads banned from the Super Bowl? Scandals, prediction markets: Is 2025 a turning point for sports betting? An Analysis Just Found Something Extremely Unflattering About What Happens to Users of Prediction Markets Trump administration backs Kalshi and Polymarket as states move to ban prediction markets Trump's CFTC Tries to Stop States From Regulating Prediction Markets Iran Bets on Prediction Markets Draw Scrutiny: ‘Suspected Insiders' Polymarket Pulls Bet on Nuclear Detonation in 2026 Trump to meet arms executives Friday in push to boost weapon supplies  Trump Privately Dreams of Iran Regime Change Glory as Democrats Cynically Weigh Political Benefits of War  “Principled and pragmatic: Canada's path” Prime Minister Carney addresses the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew found out that the late Marxist historian Michael Parenti went on a yoga retreat at the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas. He clocked the BS immediately—unlike Matthew when he showed up in spaces like that decades later. Was political training the difference?  Show Notes Michael Parenti "The Political Uses of Religion" Denver, Colorado 4.18.87  How a #MeToo Facebook Post Toppled a Yoga Icon | by Matthew Remski | GEN  Shielded for Decades, a Leader of Sivananda Yoga Finally Comes Under Fire for Alleged Abuse | GEN Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew digs into the fascism-enabling political theology of Bishop Robert Barron and the rightward slide of Big Catholic media. From his early admiration of Thomas Merton—carefully stripped of his antiwar and anti-capitalist passion—to his praise for Jordan Peterson, Marco Rubio, and Charlie Kirk, Barron repackages Red Scare tropes in the language of beauty, civility, and “religious liberty.” And what about his virtual silence on ICE operations in Minnesota and the suffering of immigrants within his own diocese? What does “religious freedom” mean when it defends  American exceptionalism more than human beings? Show Notes McGarry: Ireland and the Spanish Civil War  Ireland | Virtual Spanish Civil War  Diocese of Winona-Rochester settles with abuse survivors for $21.5 million | National Catholic Reporter  Word On Fire Catholic Ministries - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica  Evangelization, Movement, and the Word on Fire Institute  Word on Fire Institute  The Hundredth Anniversary of Thomas Merton's Birth - Word on Fire  The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon - Word on Fire  He Died with a Microphone in His Hand - First Things  Bishop Barron's Latest MAGA Crusade Sparks Vatican Alarm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Despite saying “I believe glyphosate causes cancer” a few weeks ago, RFK Jr quickly pivoted when his boss declared an executive order calling for the ramping up of glyphosate under a 75-year-old defense production act that also happens to give immunity to Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto. MAHA activists immediately went into a frenzy, shocked that their tallow daddy would betray them like this. Mallory DeMille not only coined the term “tallow daddy,” she's also been tracking the civil war that exploded in MAHA after Kennedy said, eh, maybe Roundup ain't so bad after all. Show Notes What to know about glyphosate, the herbicide behind a Trump executive order that's angered MAHA moms Glyphosate Use and Cancer Incidence in the Agricultural Health Study Exposure to glyphosate and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma: an updated meta-analysis Carcinogenic effects of long-term exposure from prenatal life to glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides in Sprague–Dawley rats Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortality projects” in the form of religion, culture, and political ideologies as unconscious ways  to override the terror we feel at our uniquely self-aware knowledge that we will one day die. Where the orthodox priest promises eternal life, the cult leader might predict an alien apocalypse, while the authoritarian strongman invokes the transcendent glory of leading a chosen nation and race. In light of a recent death in the family, Julian leans into Ernest Becker's Pulitzer Prize winning cultural anthropology text, The Denial of Death. He also draws on poetry and the archetypal psychology of Donald Kalsched to ask the big questions. Does existential acceptance of death lead inevitably to nihilism? Is belief in God(s) and an afterlife necessary? Are poor or deeply traumatized people only left with despair in the absence of supernatural faith? Will children raised with no religion have no moral compass? A rich discussion of philosophy and psychology alongside poems, myths, fairy tales, and deeply personal story-telling, especially about how to tell his 7-year-old that grandma won't be back for Xmas. Not to worry, though. This is, ultimately, an uplifting journey. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Casey Means was grilled by some Senators at her hearing for nomination of Surgeon General on Wednesday. Others lobbed softballs. Derek revisits the book that made her a star on the MAHA circuit, Good Energy, to detail all the misleading claims and outright misinformation.  Show Notes Well, That Didn't Sound Like Casey Means Casey Means, Critic of Mainstream Medicine, Poised to Become Nation's Top Doctor What is Shared Clinical Decision Making? Former Trump surgeon general: ‘Incomprehensible' Senate is considering Means "Good Energy" has very bad data Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's hard for some people to accept that the normalized and unbridled accumulation of wealth and power is a selection process for apex predators, who wind up having overwhelming influence over the systems that enabled them. The metaphysical reflex can provide a lot of relief: Epstein was uniquely evil, so different from the rest of us that he engaged in supernatural acts. He was a cosmic raider invading an otherwise balanced world. In the chaos of facts and allusions that swirl around the Epstein Files, the nearest available and resonant metaphysics are found in the recycling of Satanic Panic themes from the 1980s. These stories have been surging since QAnon erupted in 2017. Now they're reaching another peak in visibility and provocation, and their ability to reduce the problem of the Epstein Class to the unsolvable problem of evil.  Show Notes Michelle Remembers Series on Patreon Teal Swan Series on Patreon We have a whole chapter on Barbara Snow 50 Million People Suffer Today Under Global Slavery Many Countries Still Allow Child Marriage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MAHA isn't a health movement. It's a marketing engine driving activist propaganda. Derek looks at Tony Lyons, one of MAHA's key architects, and his recent strategic memo sent to Republican leadership about how to use MAHA talking points to retain power in the midterm elections.  Show Notes Tony Lyons's strategic memo to GOP leadership Examining Who Benefits From Kennedy's Anti-Science MAHA Push MAHA Supporters Form New Organization to Boost RFK's Goals in D.C. MAHA's money man has built a political machine. Will it matter for midterms? The co-founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. super PAC is a Steve Bannon and MAGA media ally As MAHA turns 1, a fired-up movement is still figuring out how to fulfill its promises Skyhorse Publishing: About Us MAHA Action American Values 2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of the DOJ's dump of 3 million documents from the FBI's Epstein investigation, journalists, content creators, and everyday people are forming narratives and schema for what it all means. Social media is flooded with survivor stories, overwhelming disgust, rage and grief, and reports of anxiety, sleep disturbance, and difficulty functioning in the world (mostly from women). Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy memes are being resurrected. Satanic Ritual Abuse materials are again circulating, which imbue sex trafficking and child abuse with sensationalized supernatural overtones. The Epstein class must be held accountable. Alongside that, Julian explores how toxic masculinity teaches men to dehumanize women and girls, as evidenced by email exchanges that play along with misogynistic attitudes and objectification. Making sense of the cultural and historical context for the global human trafficking trade, which extends far beyond movie villain elites, billionaires, and royal family members, requires that men speak up against casual everyday dehumanization of women and girls, while actively fostering relational intelligence within male culture. Show Notes 50 Million People Suffer Today Under Global Slavery Many Countries Still Allow Child Marriage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deepak Chopra is all over the Epstein files. Are we surprised? Nope. But we are interested in the various layers of his entanglement and what they say about the ethics and politics at play in the shadow of Big Wellness. Show Notes Self-Help Guru Sorry He Got Busted for Vile Epstein Emails Deepak Chopra: New Age Guru, UCSD Prof – and Epstein Confidant God Is A Construct, Cute Girls Are Real': Bestselling Spiritual Author Deepak Chopra's Emails To Epstein Revealed Deepak Chopra told Epstein to 'bring your girls.' Here's their entire email exchange Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mark Carney is a devout Catholic, and his economic vision came from a challenge posed by Pope Francis. Matthew walks through the contradictions of Carney's economic spirituality.  Show Notes Values by Mark Carney | Penguin Random House Canada  Pope Francis says he wasn't offended by 'communist crucifix' gift  The Catholic Case for Communism - America Magazine  Pope Francis: “If I See the Gospel in a Sociological Way Only, Yes, I Am a Communist, and So Too Is Jesus” - The American TFP  Exclusive: Pope Francis disusses Ukraine, U.S. bishops and more - America Magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew pokes at the contradictions behind Prime Minister Mark Carney's polished Davos attempt to distance Canada from U.S. chaos, while Canadian companies continue profiting from the U.S. domestic terror regime.  Drawing on reporting by Rachel Gilmore, Matthew looks at how Canada's “middle power” liberalism masks deep complicity with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through arms, surveillance tech, and security contracts.  Carney's benevolent affect continues the tradition of obscuring a longer history of exclusionary border politics. He's there to manage outrage without challenging the capitalist structures that escalate into authoritarian violence. Show Notes The Great White North: Canada's New Border Bill Appeases the Trump Administration | TechPolicy.Press  A list of Canadian companies profiting off of ICE and Trump's violent mass deportation regime  If TikTok News Is the Future, Rachel Gilmore Is Living It | The Tyee  Liberals Fear Closing Arms Export Loophole Would Anger U.S. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over 1,000 children and women were potentially victims of Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking and sexual abuse. It is not clear how deeply Peter Attia was enmeshed in Epstein's core activities, but we do know he belonged to an important tier of his operation: the influencer-celebrity-intelligentsia set that legitimized him as a sophisticate across a wide range of disciplines.  We revisit Attia in light of his 1,700+ appearances in the Epstein Files. Show Notes 285: Can Peter Attia Live Forever? Longevity guru Peter Attia keeps CBS News role despite showing up in Epstein files Peter Attia, the Epstein Files and the Lie Propping Up Big Wellness Bari Weiss Attempts to Get Past Her Rocky Start At CBS News Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the wake of ICE murders, some are calling for more protestors with guns, or at least to prepare to meet fire with fire. Julian examines the history of armed struggle in South Africa and Northern Ireland, as well as the arguments for nonviolent vs militant political movements.  Is there a way back from the turning point at which people recruit their friends and families into neighborhood militias, learn to kill soldiers and civilians in the name of a cause, and construct chains of command that justify executing informants and collaborators from within? Does this actually work? And do we risk becoming the very monsters we are fighting in the process? Show Notes The Role of Violence in Nonviolent Struggles Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two new MAHA-approved bills would force insurance companies to cover supplements and shield homeopathic manufacturers from any liability while allowing them to make more health claims. As Derek argues, this is what Kennedy has always been aiming for: shuffle as many alt-med products into circulation as possible while ensuring they don't need any of those pesky regulations pharmaceuticals must endure. Show Notes West Virginia House Bill 4760 Texas HR 7050 Supplements Are a $70 Billion Industry. RFK Jr. Is Good for Business. RFK Jr.'s MAHA Movement Picks Up Steam State by State With RFK Jr. in Charge, Supplement Makers See Chance To Cash In Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Prior to last month's killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, many white American citizens felt obligated to use their privilege to actively disrupt unjust ICE activities in their cities. But the stakes just got higher for everyone. In the wake of these tragic deaths, we look at how the MAGA propaganda machine dehumanizes opposition and demands loyalists not trust the evidence of their own eyes and ears. In segment two, Matthew will look into how renegade religious leaders, then in segment three Derek discusses brave community organizers in Portland currently resisting ICE and the authoritarianism it advances. Show Notes Christians, Let's Stop Abusing Romans 13  As a resident of Minnesota—Bishop Barron Bishop Barron's tendentious attack on Mayor Mamdani distorts doctrine | National Catholic Reporter  Leo ally: defund ICE BBC Audio US Military Archbishop, Faith and Gen Z, 'Understanding British Imams' project Fact-Checking Trump Admin Claims of Paid Protestors “Womanosphere” Influencers Urge Against the “Sin of Empathy” ‘Oregon was next': Trump targeted state after Minnesota, report says Feds at Portland ICE facility again deploy chemical agents against protesters PDX ICE Watch This nonviolent stuff'll get you killed : how guns made the civil rights movement possible : Cobb, Charles E., Jr., author : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive Brief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1) — Conspirituality   Omar Wasow on Non-Violent Protest Effectiveness Charles Tilly on Public Perception of Protest Movements William Gamson's Strategy Of Social Protest Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When videos surfaced of Alex Pretti kicking an ICE vehicle's taillight 11 days before his murder, claims that the video was AI dominated social media. Some commenters even posted articles that stated the opposite of what they thought they said. Derek explores the necessity of curiosity when coming across information that contradicts what you want to hear. First, he explores it through his love of books before applying the skill to situations like the Pretti video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The silence of MAHA influencers around the murder of Renee Good (and ICE generally) has been excessively loud. Yet that's expected from the coalition that voted for Donald Trump in order to install RFK Jr at this point. Many believe “health isn't political” while refusing to accept or acknowledge what their vote has empowered. Dr Jonathan Howard, a neurologist and psychiatrist at NYU Langone's Multiple Sclerosis Comprehensive Care Center, returns to the podcast to talk about MAGA's enablers in the MAHA movement with Derek and Julian. Show Notes MAHA Gave Us MAGA 2.0.  Remember the Enablers. Everyone Else is Lying to You: How our medical establishment weaponized doubt to spread COVID, normalize quackery, and undermine public health Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Trump surges his Gestapo and threatens to annex new territory, his brain is collapsing. He's sundowning on Truth Social, nodding off in meetings, slurring words, slurping at the saliva pooling in his mouth. His insults and aggressions are as constant and predictable as his arms are, reaching out for handholds. Up until this point, discourse on the mental health of this decrepit fascist leader has used the kid gloves of psychology, psychoanalysis, and psychiatry, in which even the most informed analyses were constrained by the fact that experts were interpreting his inner states. For our part, we've compared his fate to that of charismatic cult leaders at the end of the line—and we'll do more of that today. Now a new posse of clinical commentators on IG and TikTok have made it all much more biological: we are witnessing, they say, the predictable signs of fast-progressing dementia. Show Notes Goldwater Rule vs Duty to Warn, American Academy of Psychiatry and Law World Health Organization: Dementia Signs and Symptoms of Dementia Alzheimer's disease: a comprehensive review of epidemiology, risk factors, symptoms diagnosis, management, caregiving, advanced treatments and associated challenges USC study finds new evidence linking dementia to problems with the brain's waste clearance system A new drug could stop Alzheimer's before memory loss begins A 2025 update on treatment strategies for the Alzheimer's disease spectrum Dementia prevention, intervention, and care: 2024 report of the Lancet standing Commission Broadening dementia risk models: building on the 2024 Lancet Commission report for a more inclusive global framework Study finds disparities in diagnosis and treatment of dementia Decomposing Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Risk and Protective Factors of Dementia in the U.S. Mapping racial and ethnic healthcare disparities for persons living with dementia: A scoping review Dementia Diagnosis Disparities by Race and Ethnicity Racial disparities in dementia determined by social factors Straight-forward Explainer: What's Going on With NIH Cuts to Alzheimer's Research? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode Simone Weil was skeptical about the project of “rights.” They argued that obligations come before rights, and that rights only become real when obligations are recognized and lived.  Weil believed the French Revolution made a foundational error by grounding society in rights rather than eternal obligations, creating a contradiction that still haunts liberal democracies today. Rights, Weil argues, carry a bargaining spirit and ultimately depend on force for enforcement, while obligations arise unconditionally from the mere fact of another person's vulnerability. You owe something to others not because they've asserted a claim, but because they exist. Drawing from Weil's posthumous The Need for Roots, Matthew unpacks their critique of liberal rights discourse: that modern societies undermine their own moral claims by prioritizing abstractions over duties. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If conspirituality names the ways religion and spirituality are weaponized to justify power, prospirituality points to religious traditions doing the opposite: grounding resistance, ethical clarity, and solidarity in moments of crisis.  So: is there a growing prospirituality response to fascism, genocide, climate collapse, and AI-driven labor precarity? Matthew argues that yeah, there's some good news.  In Israel, scripture has been mobilized by political and religious leaders to sacralize violence in Gaza. But there's also a surge of Jewish religious resistance among U.S. rabbis and Peter Beinart's On Being Jewish After Gaza sets a new landmark of reckoning. Mona Haydar's rapping and chaplaincy models a form of Muslim spirituality that is feminist, anti-genocide, and rooted in mutual aid, while resisting both Islamophobia and liberal domestication.  Then there's Pope Leo's escalating critiques of U.S. immigration policy and his renewed emphasis on liberation theology. Show Notes Dark Mirror: A Torah View of Revenge, and its Reflection in Israeli Media During Operation Iron Swords Peter Beinart, “I No Longer Believe in a Jewish State,” The New York Times Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza by Peter Beinart: 9780593803899 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books Even if you hate it- I still wrap my hijab — Haydar Mona Haydar: Ask a Muslim Program Fights Prejudice Conservative Muslims and Islamophobes Have One Thing in Common: Hating Mona Haydar  Pope Leo replaces New York's Cardinal Dolan in shake-up of US Church | Reuters  New archbishop ‘committed' to immigration issues, accountability on abuse — and staying a Cubs fan  Pope's naming of New York archbishop signals continued challenge to Trump on immigration Pope Leo's new US bishops are critics of Trump's migrant crackdown | Reuters   Pope Leo calls for Venezuela to remain an independent country | Reuters  Pope Leo says Trump administration 'extremely disrespectful' to migrants | Reuters  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Noelle Cook's The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging is the first ethnography of conspirituality, and it comes via someone who was able to really embed themselves in a volatile culture and find its emotional logic. She's our guest today. Cook focuses on the travails of two middle-aged women following the January 6 Capitol riot. By spending years befriending and talking with Tammy Butry and Yvonne St. Cyr, Cook is able to document the impacts of childhood trauma and systemic neglect—as well as diverse personality quirks—that can drive folks toward QAnon.  They are starseeds. They are mama bears. They are on a divine mission to destroy the matrix and usher in the Great Awakening. For them, the algorithms were oracles, reinforcing isolation and radicalization by providing a sense of purpose to the purposeless, and visibility to the invisible. Cook has not written a book for answers, but a book filled with the next questions worth grappling with as we realize how deeply wounded some recruits to fascism are. Show Notes The Hottest Spot for Sunday Church Is a MAGA Dive Bar The Conspiracists: Women, Extremism, and the Lure of Belonging Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1953 the CIA and MI6 participated in a coup d'etat in Iran. That true sentence (and what usually follows) can create an oversimplified distortion of history—and present. But Iran is in the news again with the biggest protests since the 1979 Islamic Revolution bringing millions to the streets. The regime unsurprisingly cracked down hard: at least 2,700 protesters have been killed and 18,000 arrested. Though the initial impetus was economic, these are the latest in a wave of growing uprisings in Iran against the far-right theocratic authoritarian government—especially its treatment of women. How did we get here? What happened in 1953? Isn't this all just about oil anyway? Was the 1979 revolution really about religion? Weren't there Communists involved? Does all the turmoil in this region trace back to Western colonial imperialism? Julian explores the tangled threads of oil, empire, and religion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Whole milk is back! The war on protein is over! Mainline meat! Derek investigates the new inverted pyramid and everything lacking in the new dietary guidelines. Show Notes The New Dietary Guidelines and the “Flipped Pyramid” Several of Kennedy's Dietary Advisers Have Ties to Meat and Dairy Interests Carotenoid bioavailability is higher from salads ingested with full-fat than with fat-reduced salad dressings as measured with electrochemical detection Human health effects of conjugated linoleic acid from milk and supplements Enhancing the fatty acid profile of milk through forage-based rations, with nutrition modeling of diet outcomes Dietary Fats and Cardiovascular Disease: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease Effect of Interventions Aimed at Reducing or Modifying Saturated Fat Intake on Cholesterol, Mortality, and Major Cardiovascular Events : A Risk Stratified Systematic Review of Randomized Trials Omega-6 fats for the primary and secondary prevention of cardiovascular disease Butter and Plant-Based Oils Intake and Mortality Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices