Episódios
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There’s been a question gnawing at fans of Charles Eisenstein: what does he really feel about RFK Jr’s pivot to Trump? The always aspiring poet-philosopher was hired as a messaging advisor to Bobby, after all. We’ve spotted little fragments of Eisenstein’s exceptionally long essays sneaking their way into Bobby’s speeches. There was some influence, for sure, even after Charles went on multiple Costa Rican sabbaticals right in the middle of campaign season and apparently cut his consulting rate down from $21k per month, perhaps out of the goodness of the heart he knows is possible. And yet, for weeks after Bobby jumped the shark, Charles remained silent.
Until now, that is. With the publication of his recent 6,711-word essay, “Shades of Many Colors,” Eisenstein finally breaks his silence and lands firmly on the side of…well, we’re not quite sure. But one thing that’s emerged is Charles’s penchant for not crediting the source of some of his galaxy-brained ideas. Today, we’ll look at some of what Charles says in his latest opus, and try to figure out what exactly he’s saying.
Show Notes
mRNA vaccine spike protein differs from viral version
The effect of SARS-CoV-2 variant on respiratory features and mortality
SARS-CoV-2 Infections in mRNA Vaccinated Individuals are Biased for Viruses Encoding Spike E484K and Associated with Reduced Infectious Virus Loads that Correlate with Respiratory Antiviral IgG levels.
Autoimmune and Autoinflammatory Connective Tissue Disorders Following COVID-19
Risk of autoimmune diseases following COVID-19 and the potential protective effect from vaccination: a population-based cohort study
The Lancet: Most comprehensive study to date provides evidence on natural immunity protection by COVID-19 variant and how protection fades over time
Conspirituality 1: Coronation for Whom?
Brief: The New Age Origin Story of RFK Jr’s Campaign — Conspirituality
86: Charles Eisenstein, New Age Q — Conspirituality
Disavowing Disinformation - North Atlantic Books
Inside the Last Weeks of RFK Jr.’s Campaign
Charles Eisenstein - What is the Next Story? - Scientific and Medical Network
Brian Swimme: The Cosmos Watching Itself (E35)
Charles Eisenstein Whitewashes Trump, Caricatures & Demonizes Democrats in Post Decrying Caricatures & Demonization (Part 1)
Charles Eisenstein Endorses Trump, but Thinks You're Not Clever Enough to Notice (Part 2)
Cardiac Events Following Mpox Vaccine
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"Biohacking expert" Kayla Barnes recently published a 31-minute video about her morning routine, filled with EMF-blocking shields, grounding protocols, and 40 different daily supplements. Good if you can afford it, but then she sells questionable protocols at her Cleveland, Ohio-based clinic, Lyv Wellness, despite having no clinical training. Derek watches what she says, then watches what she sells.
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Tucker Carlson is the Steve Bannon of Joe Rogans. Tucker surpasses Rogan’s massive reach at times, but his curated guest list drives a deliberate agenda: normalizing neo-fascist political discourse. He does it all with an affable, friendly, just-asking-questions, I’m-not-as-smart-as-my-guests attitude that may disguise what he’s doing—like interviewing a Holocaust-denier Nazi apologist, or framing modern-day dictatorships as admirable, or promoting the anti-semitic Great Replacement Theory, or globe-trotting to flatteringly interviewing brutal enemies of democracy like Viktor Orban or Vladimir Putin.
In the wake of recent controversy about WWII revisionism on Carlson’s show, Julian breaks down the accelerationist contours of Tucker’s far-right influence and agenda. Being fired from FOX News and going “independent” has only made it worse.
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In 2022, Tucker Carlson produced a documentary called “The End of Men,” his contribution to the so-called “masculinity crisis.” That’s when testicle tanning hit the mainstream, which one astute observer dubbed “bromeopathic therapy.”
Turns out the former Fox News host isn’t done dabbling in conspirituality. This year, he’s platformed the QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley; lyme disease conspiracist, Kris Newby; the “other” Naomi, Naomi Wolf; brother-sister optimizers, Casey and Calley Means; and he’s currently on a 16-city tour with the likes of Russell Brand and Alex Jones. He’s also partly responsible for helping usher RFK Jr into Donald Trump’s camp.
While the former CNN and MSNBC host turned far right provocateur isn’t leading wellness retreats (yet), he’s certainly being shared by an increasing number of wellness influencers, and we want to know why.
Show Notes
DOJ Accuses Russia of Sprawling Election Interference Campaign
Homeland Violence and Diaspora Insecurity: An Analysis of Israel and American Jewry | Politics and Religion | Cambridge Core
Safety through Solidarity by Shane Burley, Ben Lorber
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Here’s the first installment of a regular timeline cleanser featuring interviews with folks reflecting on hope, faith, resilience and building community in hard times. You know—all the things that conspirituality itself can’t offer.These are short, personal visits in which Matthew asks each guest the same five questions about their life wisdom—at least as it’s coming together in this moment.To start this series, Matthew hearkens back to the roots of Conspirituality Podcast in the yoga world with guest Jivana Heyman. Jivana is the founder and director of Accessible Yoga, an organization dedicated to increasing access to the yoga teachings and supporting yoga teachers. He’s the author of Accessible Yoga: Poses and Practices for Every Body; Yoga Revolution: Building a Practice of Courage & Compassion; and The Teacher's Guide to Accessible Yoga: Best Practices for Sharing Yoga with Every Body. BTW: here are the five questions. You can think about them too.What terrifies you most in these times?What is the most meaningful and supportive idea or story you return to for reliable wisdom and relief?What is the greatest obstacle you face in forming community relationships, and how do you work to overcome it?If you were responsible for comforting and guiding a child terrified of climate catastrophe, how would you do it? What would you say? If your wisest ancestor came in a dream to offer you one piece of advice about living in difficult times, what would it be?Show Notesjivanaheyman.com9: Ableism in Conspiracy Theories (w/Jivana Heyman) — ConspiritualityLearn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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What does it mean to spill ink on dispelling conspiracy theories about non-existent children being murdered, while actual children are being murdered? At what point does the labour of debunking right wing wackjobs also do the shadow-work of supporting the liberal-center orthodoxy?
Matthew looks at how with QAnon, the liberal-center press criticized irrational responses to imaginary traumas, with a great sense of urgency. But on Gaza, they criticize rational responses to actual traumas, and imply that protesters are asking for too much, too fast.
What happens downstream of denials, minimizations, and contradictions? What are the social and mental health implications of moral injury? Are these not some of the same social conditions that generate conspiracism?
Content warning: discussion of children, genocide
Show Notes
Is Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza? New Report from BU School of Law’s International Human Rights Clinic Lays Out Case
Rights expert finds ‘reasonable grounds’ genocide is being committed in Gaza | UN News
Dems Gave the 'Uncommitted Movement' Space to Talk About Gaza — Just Not on TV
First-Ever DNC Panel on Palestinian Rights: We Need to “Restore the Soul of the Democratic Party”
“Stop Arming Israel”: Meet the DNC Delegates Who Unfurled Banner During Biden Speech
201: Librarians Are Not Groomers (w/Heath Umbreit) — Conspirituality
What I Saw Was “Unfathomable”: Doctor Who Worked in Gaza Speaks Out Against U.S. Arming of Israel
Counting the dead in Gaza: difficult but essential - The Lancet
Clearing Gaza of almost 40m tonnes of war rubble will take years, says UN
Israel Has Killed 2,100 Babies Under 2 Years Old in Gaza, Rights Group Says | Truthout
NYU barricades benches
College Administrators Spent Summer Break Dreaming Up Ways to Squash Gaza Protests
The Black Mark on the Democrats’ Big Party | The New Republic
Amnesty International Warns of U.S. Complicity in War Crimes in Gaza
Christian Wiman | Yale Divinity School
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Calley Means is the cofounder of TrueMed, a company that helps businesses qualify products and services like supplements and ice baths for HSA and FSA money. Casey Means is the founder of Levels, a continuous glucose monitor subscription service aimed at the biohacking community. The brother and sister recently appeared on Tucker Carlson's podcast to rage against seed oils, as well as the food and pharma industries' focus on profits over people.
Derek dug into their business models, finding them guilty of the same "crimes" they accuse others of.
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RFK Jr has dropped out of the presidential race and thrown his weight behind Trump. In our 10th episode on the man in the last year-and-a-half, we look at the potential dangers of this unholy alliance, and what it means for America.
Show notes are extensive, visit patreon.com/conspirituality or conspirituality.net for more.
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Born in 1831, Helena “Madame” Blavatsky pioneered the New Age grift. The Russian aristocrat plagiarized her books while claiming to be channeling the “Masters of Ancient Wisdom” to tell a dodgy heroic back-story. She founded the Theosophical Society in New York, claimed to have learned a secret Tibetan language, and laid the foundation for alien channelers and Woo-Anon. She also inspired the Nazis.
In this debut episode from a series on the pseudoscience New Age roots of today’s conspirituality phenomenon, Julian pins Blavatsky on the cork-board map.
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Dems are laughing about Donny Dentures or #TrumpisDone, but the reality inside his head, and Mar a Lago, will be very grim, and there will be a lot of collateral damage.
Mental health titans like Robert Lifton have reached the consensus that Trump has been mentally ill for a long time. They’ve diagnosed him with “narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, delusional disorder, malignant narcissist,” and so on.
Such patients meet predictable ends when the wheels fall off. In the cult world (where Lifton has been so influential), there are bangs (Jim Jones) and there are whimpers (Keith Raniere). What might it look like for Trump?
No one is more qualified to discuss the possibilities with Matthew than Daniel Shaw, LCSW, a psychotherapist trained in psychoanalysis as well as in trauma-informed psychotherapies. He is in private practice in New York City and in Nyack, New York; and Faculty and Supervisor at The National Institute for the Psychotherapies in New York. He is the author of Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation, published by Routledge in 2014, and nominated for the prestigious Gradiva Award. His book Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear was published in 2021. He is known for his work with cult trauma survivors and with clients who have experienced narcissistic abuse.
Show Notes
Daniel Shaw, LCSW
Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation
Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear
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In one survey, 82% of young people aged 18-25 searched the internet for mental health advice. Another survey of university students found that 44% report using the internet to learn about sadness, anxiety, or confusion. Regardless of what mental health experts advise, people of all age groups are turning to the internet and social media for help.
What are the potential risks and rewards of using these platforms to try to communicate credible mental health science? And what happens when you’re endlessly trolled for being a “Big Pharma shill,” even when you don’t have prescriptive powers and only offer talk therapy in your clinical practice?
Clinical psychologist Jonathan Stea joins us to discuss these difficult questions. His new book, Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry, is a field guide that responds to some of the intense challenges earnest seekers face when trying to navigate waters filled with supplements-slinging sharks who believe they can diagnose mental health conditions with zero training.
Show Notes
AI-generated video of Trump on ayahuasca
Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry
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Peter McCullough recently shared a ton of misinformation about mpox while speaking to Drew Pinsky; both men work for The Wellness Company, a supplements company that weaponizes anti-vax misinformation to sell products. Mikki Willis uses the Hero's Journey as a guide to dealing with mpox—and falsely represents Joseph Campbell's work. Russell Brand and Bret Weinstein claim mpox is a government psyop and nothing more.
Derek looks at the conspiritualist fervor bubbling up around what's turning out to be another dangerous virus by men who do everything but point to sound public health measures.
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ProPublica recently got a hold of 25 Project 2025 training videos—over 14 hours worth of content revealing the policies the Heritage Foundation would like to see implemented if Donald Trump regains the White House. Derek and Julian break down one of the most egregious.
Show Notes
Inside Project 2025’s Secret Training Videos
Undercover in Project 2025
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Did you hear that Taylor Swift is supporting Donald Trump for president? That’s right: last week, the former president shared photos of fans rocking “Swifties for Trump” t-shirts on Truth Social. Trump seemed pleased, replying to his online following of 24 billion people: “I accept.”
Yet something seemed off. Just like photos of Trump surrounded by seven-fingered Black Americans smiling on city stoops, these Swiftie endorsement photos were AI generated. As it turns out, AI is playing a more insidious and dangerous role in this year’s election—and in the conspiracy theory industry—than ever. The line between fact and fiction has long been blurred, but we’re entering a new reality where distinguishing between those two might prove impossible.
This week, we look at the stakes of the first AI-generated election in America—and wonder how much worse it can get, even in three short months.
Show Notes
Trump Promotes A.I. Images to Falsely Suggest Taylor Swift Endorsed Him
Christian Nationalists Are Opening Private Schools. Taxpayers Are Funding Them.
Fake Photos, Real Harm: AOC and the Fight Against AI Porn
Propaganda, foreign interference, and generative AI
AI Poses Risks to Both Authoritarian and Democratic Politics
Election disinformation takes a big leap with AI being used to deceive worldwide
B'Tselem report summary: "Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as Network of Torture Camps", August 2024
B'Tselem report: "Welcome to Hell: The Israeli Prison System as Network of Torture Camps", August 2024
Detention and alleged ill-treatment of detainees from Gaza during Israel-Hamas War
U.S. decries reported sexual abuse of Palestinian prisoners after graphic video aired on Israeli TV
US approves sale to Israel of $20 billion weapons package | Reuters
A record share of US electricity comes from zero-carbon sources - but more work is needed
China could exceed renewables generation target of 33% by 2025 | S&P Global Commodity Insights
Israeli Government Pays $2M for AI Influence Campaign
Israel-Funded Disinfo Campaign Targets US Lawmakers
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A short break-the-fourth-wall reflection from Matthew on his new regular series for our main feed, starting in September.
The Conspirituality Relief Project will provide regular timeline-cleanser interviews in which super interesting guests reflect on hope, faith, resilience, and building community in hard times.
You know, all of the things that conspirituality itself promises to do, but can’t, or won’t.
Every guest gets thirty minutes, and the same five questions:
What terrifies you most in these times?
What is the most meaningful and supportive idea or story you return to for reliable wisdom and relief?
What is the greatest obstacle you face in forming community relationships, and how do you work to overcome it?
If you were responsible for comforting and guiding a child terrified of climate catastrophe, how would you do it? What would you say?
If your wisest ancestor came in a dream to offer you one piece of advice about living in difficult times, what would it be?
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An unexpectedly cheerful followup to “JD Vance Taps into Parental Rage.” The alt titles today could be: “Tim Walz Taps into Parental Goals,” or “Disarming the Disinfo of the Right is Great, But Have You Tried Dad Jokes?”
Across social media, liberal millennial women are tagging Tim Walz as the return of the dad they lost to Fox News. Matthew digs into that graveyard with a survey of the tools that we’ve used to examine the nature and function of patriarchal bullshit as it dominates conspirituality, cults, and QAnon. The result is a stroll through a Madame Tussaud’s display of fragile and toxic influencer fathers, from Jordan Peterson to Jim Watkins to RFK Jr to Donald Trump.
Tim Walz not only doesn’t do any of the things these guys do—he might be rooting around in his special tool drawer now to find just the thing it’ll take to fix what they’ve done.
Note: this is not a blind love-fest or blanket endorsement of as-yet vague policies. But there is something powerful going on with Walz’s new-old modeling of Big Dad Energy.
Show Notes
A Balanced Assessment of Tim Walz’s Record from the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy | lvgaldieri
Tim Walz’s green resume has an oily stain
Minnesota activists criticize Tim Walz for refusing to meet with Palestinians – Mondoweiss
Donald Trump Likens His Schooling to Military Service in Book - The New York Times
Tim Walz was my teacher in high school. Here's what I've carried with me about him all these years later.
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Eight years ago, they called us cucks, libtards, and globalists. We were corrupted by cultural Marxism, teaching our kids to hate themselves. Four years ago they gloated over drinking liberal tears. They called us sheeple, groomers, vampires, pedos. We made up a pandemic so that we could brew up a kill shot, and force it on everyone after making ourselves soy-boy sick. We were exposing our kids to trans strippers in the library and showing them how to use buttplugs in kindergarten. When our children were sufficiently deranged and submissive, we drained them of adrenochrome and mutilated their privates.
JD Vance’s ONE JOB was to turn this bullying into policy, and encode it in the pages of Project 2025. Peter Thiel sent him forth to blend every shitpost into a radioactive slurry to power a cybertruck convoy carrying the titans of New Right capitalism into Washington.
He tried. He really did.
But then came the stories about him. That he fucked a couch. He wrote about it in his book, someone said. Someone else said he was getting off on dolphin porn. The lies spread, with glee and schadenfreude. And he folded. Like a foldaway.
Suddenly, all the green drained out of million shriveling Pepes and made the world verdant with hope. And from the middle of a cornfield football grid, Tim Walz manifests with his Big Dad grin and said, "Let’s roll up our sleeves and beat these creepy weirdos.”
Today we’ll talk about fighting conspiracy theories that started as jokes with jokes that defuse conspiracy theories. About what it takes to commandeer the attention economy, and how much of our souls we spend to do it. About the difference between meme wars and policy debates, and how far the Big Dad Energy vibes can take us.
Show Notes
RFK Jr.'s incredible disappearing campaign
Was J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy Really a True Story? All About the VP Candidate's Controversial Memoir
Walz on Morning Joe
The author of the viral joke post about JD Vance having sex with a couch breaks his silence
162 lies and distortions in a news conference. NPR fact checks former President Trump
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Tech billionaire Peter Thiel claims “freedom and democracy are incompatible.” Mentor and $15M donor behind JD Vance’s political career, Peter Thiel also has an influence: Mencius Moldbug, computer programmer and lead philosopher of the “Dark Enlightenment,” or “neoreactionary” movement.
Moldburg says, “if Americans want their government to change, they’re going to have to get over their dictator phobia.” Erstwhile pen-name of Curtis Yarvin, “Moldburg” is openly anti-democratic, advocating for one-party city-states ruled by CEO-kings. His takes on race, slavery, and the Nazis are equally alarming.
Vance has also publicly praised and cited his work, and Thiel gave $1.1 million to Yarvin’s tech start-up. Julian digs into the toxic pseudo-intellectual philosophy behind the next wave of MAGA authoritarianism.
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Ziklag’s ultra-wealthy network of Christian donors is spending nearly $12M to mobilize Republican voters in order to secure a Trump victory this November. ProPublica found that their plan involves purging 1M+ people from the voter rolls in key swing states. Unsurprisingly, this is yet another Christian nationalist group with ties to Project 2025.
Here’s the thing: Ziklag is classified as a 501c3 charity organization, which means they’re breaking longstanding rules of nonprofit governance. Will they be held accountable and lose their status? Derek and Julian discuss.
Show Notes
Inside Ziklag, the Secret Organization of Wealthy Christians Trying to Sway the Election and Change the Country
Ziklag Exposed: Secretive Christian Nationalist Network Tries to Purge Voters in Battleground States
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You’re an eight year-old girl. The purity culture of your evangelical church, ruled by men but policed by women, has you worried that the spaghetti straps on your summer top might be sinful. You learn from the women around you how to defer, serve, please, keep your voice girl-like forever, and use it to both signal obedience but also piously request relief from sexual aggression.
You’re a seven year-old boy. The holy laws of gender in your church dictate that when you’re the only male present at Bible study, you must lead the room full of women in reading and prayer. You must perform manliness in your boy’s body, assuming an anxious leadership role you did not earn. If you don’t puff yourself up, you’re a sissy—one of the girls alongside you learning the tones of the Fundie Baby Voice.
These are parts of the stories of Julia Postema and Jeremiah Gibson, the co-hosts of the podcast Sexvangelicals: The Sex Education the Church Didn't Want You to Have. They are Boston-based licensed psychotherapists and certified sex therapists. They specialize in helping couples with negative religious backgrounds discover sexuality that works for their partnership. Julian and I sat down with them to learn about how their clients recover from purity culture, and sometimes in the process run smack into its mirror world: the tantric workshop land of divine masculine and feminine stereotypes plus fascinations with semen retention.
Show Notes
Sexvangelicals: Podcast | Website | Instagram | Substack
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