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Conspirituality

Conspirituality

Written by: Derek Beres Matthew Remski Julian Walker
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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.© 2023 Conspirituality Philosophy Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 290: Trump Derangement Science

    290: Trump Derangement Science
    Jan 8 2026
    What do fascists need to do to convince their rank and file that they’re the smartest in the room? They invent new science to trash the old science they didn’t like. First, we look into how RFK Jr is “making the proof” for all his scientific endeavors, then unpacking a new proposal from the AZ state sena Janae Shamp about how she’s going to get to the bottom of the clinical diagnosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome. First, we read a lovely bio-romance poem from our favorite ex-Mormon vampire millionaire, Bryan Johnson. Show Notes CDC awards $1.6 million for hepatitis B vaccine study by controversial Danish researchers US awards no-bid contract to Denmark scientists studying hepatitis B vaccine in African babies Now is the Time to Scale Up Birth-Dose Hepatitis B Vaccine in Low- and Middle-Income Countries The CDC is Funding an Unethical Vaccine Trial in Guinea-Bissau The False Narrative of Nonspecific Vaccine Effects Randomized trials show no evidence of non-specific vaccine effects Hepatitis B and C in the adult population of Bissau, Guinea-Bissau: a cross-sectional survey Fiftieth Anniversary of Uncovering the Tuskegee Syphilis Study: The Story and Timeless Lessons Chronic Hepatitis Is Common and Often Untreated Among Children With Hepatitis B Infection in the United States and Canada Fired Nurse to Fierce Senator: Janae Shamp Exposes the Border Crisis & Government Betrayal State Sen. Janae Shamp on Border Security, Housing Affordability, and Health Care in Arizona States Look to Religious Leaders to Fill Mental Health Gap Charles Krauthammer: Bush Derangement Syndrome is spreading Zakaria: Liberals have to avoid Trump Derangement Syndrome Krauthammer: You can’t govern by id New Yorker: Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s Battering RamGreat job by Bret Baier in his Interview with Lyin’ Kamala Harris Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Bonus Sample: What My Late Mom Would Have Thought About Jordan Peterson

    Bonus Sample: What My Late Mom Would Have Thought About Jordan Peterson
    Jan 5 2026
    Matthew reflects on the fifth anniversary of his mother’s death and revisits how her life, trauma, and values helped him understand the appeal—and fatal flaw—of Jordan Peterson’s worldview. Toughness can be an expression of love without becoming a politics of cruelty. Show Notes 33: Manipulating the Hero’s Journey Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    6 mins
  • Brief: Class Wars on Christmas

    Brief: Class Wars on Christmas
    Jan 3 2026
    Have you seen the “Grinch prank” video trend? Bad parenting, yes. But also a nod to the conflicts, ancient and modern, embedded in Christmas. Contrary to what Bill O’Reilly would tell you, there has never been a “war on Christmas.” Rather, Christmas itself has always been a battleground over love, dignity, and resources. What we’re really fighting over is who gets care in systems built on scarcity and extraction. Vignette 1: The Original Creche Vignette 2: Krampus Vignette 3: Dickens, Chekhov, and Andersen Vignette 4: The Christmas Truce, 1914 Vignette 5: Dr. Seuss and the Grinch Show Notes Andersen, Hans Christian. The Little Match Girl. Copenhagen, 1845.https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10623 Boyle, James. “The Second Enclosure Movement and the Construction of the Public Domain.” Law and Contemporary Problems 66, no. 1–2 (2003).https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/lcp/vol66/iss1/2/ Chekhov, Anton. “Vanka.” 1892.https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/13418 Dickens, Charles. A Christmas Carol. London: Chapman & Hall, 1843.https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/46 Imperial War Museums. “Christmas Truce, 1914.”https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/christmas-truce-1914 Imperial War Museums. “Letter Describing the Christmas Truce.”https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030000503 Lenin, Vladimir Ilyich. The Principles of Socialism and the War of 1914–1915. Marxists Internet Archive.https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1915/princip/ McCoy, Michael. “What Is Tinsel Made Of? (and How It Changed Over the Years).” Chemical & Engineering News, December 15, 2014.https://cen.acs.org/articles/92/i50/Tinsel-Made.html Mitterauer, Michael. “Peasant and Non-Peasant Forms of Family Organization in Relation to the Physical Environment and the Local Economy.” Journal of Family History 2, no. 2 (1977).https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/036319907700200203 Nel, Philip. Dr. Seuss: American Icon. New York: Continuum, 2004.https://books.google.com/books?id=Yt4QAQAAIAAJ Nissenbaum, Stephen. The Battle for Christmas. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/171502/the-battle-for-christmas-by-stephen-nissenbaum/ Restad, Penne L. Christmas in America: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.https://global.oup.com/academic/product/christmas-in-america-9780195043659 Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Consumer Rites: The Buying and Selling of American Holidays. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691018448/consumer-rites Science History Institute. “History and Future of Plastics.”https://www.sciencehistory.org/topics/plastics Smithsonian Magazine. “The Origin of Krampus, Europe’s Evil Twist on Santa.” December 4, 2015.https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-origin-of-krampus-europes-evil-twist-on-santa-180957438/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    36 mins
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