Episodes

  • Book Club: How the Internet Disrupted Science

    Book Club: How the Internet Disrupted Science
    Aug 15 2026
    How the Internet Disrupted Science is an enlightening gaze into the shady world of for-profit and open access scientific publishing. Authors Kent Anderson and Joy Moore join Derek to discuss their exceptional new work. Show Notes How the Internet Disrupted Science Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    38 mins
  • 321: Inflammation Pseudoscience

    321: Inflammation Pseudoscience
    Aug 13 2026
    Inflammation is an important and necessary part of the body’s healing process. It’s also long been a wellness buzzword used to sell products that do very little to treat it. This week, we look at inflammation through the lens of a new Mother Jones article, “The Great Inflammation Panic,” including an interview with the author, Julia Métraux, in segment two. We’ll also discuss what inflammation is, how wellness influencers weaponize it, and what it represents in the context of Ayurveda. Show Notes The Great Inflammation Panic Chronic Inflammation and Cancer NIH Autoimmune Diseases Celiac Disease Cambridge press release — "Chronic diseases misdiagnosed as psychosomatic can lead to long term damage" Sloan et al., "I still can't forget those words" — Rheumatology (2025), DOI 10.1093/rheumatology/keaf115 Vasculitis diagnostic-delay data — PubMed Miranda Fricker interview — Philosophy Bites Bleuler 1911 coinage — NCBI Bookshelf, The Metamorphosis of Autism Bleuler's original 1911 text excerpt — Autism History Project Sontag, "Illness as Metaphor" — full text, NYRB Louise Hay — Natural Ways to Treat Autoimmune Disease Gabor Maté, When the Body Says No — critical review, Globe and Mail Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Bonus Sample: Conspirituality in the Age of Hyperpolitics

    Bonus Sample: Conspirituality in the Age of Hyperpolitics
    Aug 10 2026
    Listen to the full episode Matthew applies Anton Jäger's Hyperpolitics—a theory of extreme politicization without institutional consequence—to conspirituality and to his own political biography. Continuing a mini-series begun with "Conspirituality Viewed Through Neofeudalism and Vectoralism," Matthew traces Jäger's periodization (mass politics, postpolitics, antipolitics, hyperpolitics) through his own life: his grandparents' union halls and church auxiliaries, the "collective amnesia" of the 1990s, his years in cults and the reformist Toronto yoga world, and the pivot from brick-and-mortar ashram cults to digital influencer cults during COVID. Drawing on Jäger's proposal that renewal must be sought in sites of social reproduction, Matthew wonders about a hypothetical "Care Labour Compact," or organizing unpaid caregiving labor into durable political power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    6 mins
  • Brief: The Ceuta Crisis Great Replacement Conspiracy

    Brief: The Ceuta Crisis Great Replacement Conspiracy
    Aug 8 2026
    Last week, around 72,000 migrants flooded from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. What really happened? Was a local girl abducted, never to be seen again? Did the Moroccan border guards step aside (or even collaborate) in an organized operation? Right-wing politicians and pundits were quick to crank up the moral panic machine. This is what open borders look like! They’re heading for our country next. Donald Trump said it was nothing compared to what would happen in the US if Democrats win the mid-terms. Then came the conspiracy theories. Was Morocco retaliating against Spain for a recent deal with their enemy, Algeria? Were America and Israel behind it as punishment for Spain’s socialist prime minister being staunchly pro-Palestine and refusing to support the war in Iran? For a few magical days, right- and left-wing conspiracy theorists spread overlapping versions of the Great Replacement Theory. Julian dives into the diplomatic complexities, ideological contradictions, and historical twists to make sense of relations between Spain, Algeria, Morocco, Western Sahara, and Israel to ask: are there any good guys or is it colonizers all the way down? Show Notes AP Fact Checks Unsubstantiated Ceuta Claims The Far Right Is Distorting Ceuta The Real Story Behind Ceuta How X Turned Ceuta Crisis into A Global Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory in 72 Hours Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    32 mins
  • DROP: Who Killed Charlie Kirk? (w/Brandy Zadrozny)

    DROP: Who Killed Charlie Kirk? (w/Brandy Zadrozny)
    Aug 7 2026
    Support the podcast MS NOW senior reporter Brandy Zadrozny spent 10 months tracking the conspiracy theories that evolved online in the wake of the death of Charlie Kirk. She joins Derek to discuss what her investigation found. Show Notes Deep End: Who Killed Charlie Kirk? Charlie Kirk’s murder case has a conspiracy theory problem Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    32 mins
  • 320: The Fauci Files

    320: The Fauci Files
    Aug 6 2026
    During an extraordinary career, Dr. Anthony Fauci led the federal response to HIV-AIDS, SARS, H1N1, Ebola, and Zika. He always advocated funding for pandemic preparedness, vaccine development, immunology and pathogen research. Then came COVID-19, which, unlike outbreaks past, was trapped in a politicized online disinformation and conspiracy-mongering stew. As he was pushing 80, Fauci rode the dragon of a novel coronavirus pandemic that was leaving piles of bodies in Italy, India, and New York. He served as the interface between scientists, government, and the public, all while learning about the virus in real-time. Like any good public health communicator, he sought to save lives using the best available knowledge. Like any good scientist, he kept an open mind about what was not yet known. But the pandemic-grievance industry made him the face of a conspiracy theory. Did he cause a catastrophically deadly pandemic, decimate American freedoms, or ruin the economy over a largely harmless flu? Today we discuss the release of his “diaries” and tune into last week's Senate hearings, where crackpots bullied, berated, and slandered the 85-year old public servant. Show Notes Beyond Gain of Function: Strengthening Oversight of Research Genetic Tracing of Market Wildlife and Viruses at Epicenter of COVID-19 Anthony Fauci biography New report reveals consequences of Trump administration's HIV/AIDS funding cuts The Doctor and His Diary: What Fauci’s Innermost Musings Reveal Did Fauci suffer pulmonary infarction due to COVID-19 vaccine? What we know Lab Leak Fever with Philipp Markolin Lab Leak Fever: The COVID-19 Origin Theory that Sabotaged Science and Society Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • Bonus Sample: The Fauci Show Trial

    Bonus Sample: The Fauci Show Trial
    Aug 3 2026
    In the lead-up to our full episode on Anthony Fauci this Thursday, Derek looks at a recent MAHA Action webinar that focused on Rand Paul's publicly releasing over 1,100 pages of diary entries and other related material. As with all things MAHA, the event largely turned into a marketing pitch for the speakers' books. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    10 mins
  • Brief: Red Scare Rising

    Brief: Red Scare Rising
    Aug 1 2026
    Back in the fall, Trump's NSPM-7 redirected the FBI, DOJ, and IRS toward "left-wing political violence," opening the door to labeling domestic groups terrorist organizations — despite three independent datasets (New America, CSIS, even the ADL!) showing right-wing violence outpacing left-wing violence by factors of 9-to-1 or greater. Last week, Rubio's "Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism" internationalized this McCarthy reboot. Central to the rhetoric of Rubio and Miller is framing leftist politics as being driven by envy and resentment rather than a response to inequality. Matthew traces this rhetoric, empirically contradicted by relative deprivation research, back through Nietzsche, Scheler, Schoeck, and Rand. Four days after the Ministerial, the State Department's Cuba report named 70+ Americans — from spies to wedding guests — as one undifferentiated network, a scapegoat machine now churning out congressional subpoenas, a federal grand jury, and a widening dragnet. Show Notes NSPM-7, full text — The White House NSPM-7 constitutional analysis — The Conversation New America, "Terrorism in America After 9/11" impact summary CSIS, "Left-Wing Terrorism and Political Violence in the United States" Just Security rebuttal of the CSIS report ADL, "Murder and Extremism in the United States in 2024" Rubio and Miller Ministerial remarks, full transcript Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (1887), full text Scheler, Ressentiment (1912), full text PDF Schoeck, Envy: A Theory of Social Behaviour — Online Library of Liberty Ayn Rand, "The Age of Envy" — Ayn Rand Institute U.S. Department of State, Cuba: The Capital of 21st Century Communism (July 20, 2026) National Lawyers Guild, "The National Lawyers Guild Reaffirms its Solidarity with Cuba in the Face of Increasing McCarthyite Repression" (July 2026) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    42 mins