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 ch ...
…
continue reading
The Free Press founder, Bari Weiss, recently hosted Peter Thiel on her podcast. While The FP markets itself as as a return to independent and non-partisan real journalism, Julian and Derek point out that's not the case at all—especially when the organization's $15M in funding comes from rightwing and libertarian VCs. Will Weiss factcheck Thiel's mi…
…
continue reading
1
234: Trump’s Conspiracist Cabinet
1:12:56
1:12:56
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
1:12:56
Since the election, Democratic voter disbelief and despair has alternated between grief and rage. We watched some erstwhile vociferous critics of Trump in the legacy media, like Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, kiss the ring and bend the knee, while others adopted a contorted posture of seeming legitimization, like NPR hosting Leonard Leo for a…
…
continue reading
Matthew here with the fourth installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person. Rob Schenck joined me in Episode 199 to discuss his deradicalization from the Evangelical anti-abortion movement. Today he joins me to discuss some things he’s learned about hope, faith, resilience and building community in hard times. Show Notes…
…
continue reading
1
Bonus Sample: The UFOs Are Being Censored!
6:00
6:00
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
6:00
The climate denialist who exposed the so-called “censorship industrial complex” returns, this time at another congressional hearing. Michael Shellenberger has come to blow the whistle on Big Government’s UFO cover-up. Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, and Anna Paulina Luna alternate between showing off their knowledge of fantastical History Channel “docu…
…
continue reading
1
Brief: How to Fire a Billionaire
38:07
38:07
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
38:07
AG1 built a billion-dollar brand in large part by tapping into the fitness and wellness podcast and YouTube markets. Recently, AG1’s founder, Chris Ashenden, resigned after a decades-old real estate scam in his native New Zealand came to light. While Chris has mentioned it in passing, he’s always claimed to have paid full reparations for his crime—…
…
continue reading
1
233: DC’s Catholic Power Center (w/Gareth Gore)
1:18:18
1:18:18
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
1:18:18
Josemaria Escriva founded Opus Dei, an ultra-conservative, high-demand, secretive Catholic organization in Madrid, Spain, after receiving a supposed vision from God in 1928. His small inner circle initially initiated university students into strict obedience, celibacy, medieval practices of self-flagellation, and deceptive recruitment techniques to…
…
continue reading
1
Bonus Sample: Thinking About "Holism"
5:56
5:56
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
5:56
A personal journey through health describing what led Derek to focus on health, science, and healthcare as a career and, eventually, this podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesOleh Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker
…
continue reading
1
Brief: Post-Election Online Survivor Group Dynamics
17:38
17:38
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
17:38
The post-election online chaos has a lot in common with what can go wrong in online survivor groups. Matthew tracks how opportunities for connection and solidarity can crater into gravity wells of recrimination, trauma-dumping, moral outrage porn, and the rise of new influence hierarchies. Not just because of differences in politics and values and …
…
continue reading
1
232: Gaslighting The Election
1:11:16
1:11:16
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
1:11:16
Once upon a time, there was a golden age. A time when the news media was fair and balanced, unbiased and honest. But we've lost all that to the corrupting influence of big money, political correctness, and woke censorship. Blame the radical left. Not to worry: the online charisma of heterodox new media figures like Bari Weiss and her plucky, centri…
…
continue reading
1
Bonus Sample: “What will happen?” (asks a 12 year-old)
5:36
5:36
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
5:36
Matthew got The Question on the morning after the election. At that moment, he came up with nothing but a hug. But then he chewed on it for days, and came up with eleven things to consider. So here are some notes for possible conversations with tweens about anxiety, bullies, fascism, friends, mutual aid, and love. Learn more about your ad choices. …
…
continue reading
1
Brief: Tucker Carlson's Daddy Issues
28:31
28:31
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
28:31
Derek discusses Tucker Carlson advocating for corporal punishment as a way to discipline children in his appearance at the Turning Points USA MAGA rally. This is an unlock from a recent Patreon bonus, with a new intro from Matthew. Show Notes Stephen Colbert: Tucker Carlson’s Weird Daddy Issues Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a…
…
continue reading
1
231: New Age Bible, Postmodern Novel (w/ Sheila Heti)
1:09:32
1:09:32
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
1:09:32
Rapid-response electoral punditry is not our lane. So, while we gather our feelings and thoughts, Matthew hosts novelist Sheila Heti for a discussion of her encounter with A Course in Miracles, and what she discovered when she investigated its origin story for Harper’s Magazine. Was Helen Schucman, the book’s “scribe”, mentally ill? Was she unduly …
…
continue reading
1
Bonus Sample: Elections on 3 Continents
6:00
6:00
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
6:00
Having lived under Apartheid in South Africa, voted in the UK, and now staring down this terrifying US election, Julian reflects on the political differences between the three countries. Stay tuned for some hopeful poetry at the end. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesOleh Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker
…
continue reading
1
Brief: No Really, They’re Coming For Your Pets
25:30
25:30
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
25:30
Recently, “holistic veterinarian” Marcie Fallek, whose latest book, “Little Miracles Everywhere: My Unorthodox Path to Holistic Veterinary Medicine," is the #1 bestseller on Amazon in the Alternative Holistic Medicine category, appeared on Children's Health Defense's daily morning show. During “Pet Vaccines and Holistic Vet Care" she spreads the sa…
…
continue reading
1
230: How Did We Get Here?
1:32:07
1:32:07
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
1:32:07
With days left before the most consequential US election in our lifetime, we reflect on the last 4.5 years of this podcast while expressing our hopes–and our own reporting goals—for the future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesOleh Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker
…
continue reading
1
Relief Project #3: Michelle Cassandra Johnson
31:33
31:33
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
31:33
Matthew here with the third installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person. Michelle Cassandra Johnson was an early guest on our show and helped us lay the groundwork for understanding the reality and impacts of racism in the worlds of wellness and new spirituality. She’s an author, activist, and racial equity trainer. He…
…
continue reading
1
Bonus Sample: Tucker Carlson's Daddy Issues
6:07
6:07
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
6:07
Derek discusses Tucker Carlson advocating for corporal punishment as a way to discipline children in his appearance at the Turning Points USA MAGA rally. Show Notes Stephen Colbert: Tucker Carlson’s Weird Daddy Issues Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesOleh Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker
…
continue reading
1
Brief: Leonard Leo’s Plan to “Crush” Democracy
37:36
37:36
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
37:36
Billionaire legal activist Leonard Leo has had a role in placing all six conservative justices on the SCOTUS, and so therefore is in large part responsible for the overturning of Roe V Wade. But his right-wing activism isn’t even close to over, as he recently stated during a rare interview with The Daily Wire. Derek and Julian discuss Leo’s dark vi…
…
continue reading
On Oct 4, Jay Bhattacharya, a professor of medicine, economics, and health research policy at Stanford, held a symposium at his university. Titled “Pandemic Policy: Planning the Future, Assessing the Past,” it was marketed as an open-minded series of panel discussions involving a range of experts to debate and discuss the efficacy of Covid mitigati…
…
continue reading
1
Bonus Sample: The Apocalyptic Portal
6:09
6:09
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
6:09
As the world watches, Israel and Iran are squaring off for a potential war. Meanwhile, a Texas evangelical preacher, who runs the biggest Christian Zionist group in the world, is cheering on the coming apocalypse—as predicted in his 2005 book, Jerusalem Countdown. John Hagee even flew to DC to persuade Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, to jam thr…
…
continue reading
Trump’s Town Hall DJ love-in stumped a lot of folks. From the conspirituality angle, however, there’s something familiar about this improvised ritual. Because the world we cover is strewn with the wreckage of charismatic patriarchs who bleed their followers dry in the closed-loop system of cultic dynamics. When leaders like Trump get to the end of …
…
continue reading
People will reach for anything to relieve the stress of climate anxiety. There’s outright denial: this can’t be happening. It doesn’t fit in with my understanding of the world. The science must be wrong. During Milton, Catturd wonders why the wind speed keeps changing on the weather reports. They must be making it up. Or the guy in Galveston, TX, p…
…
continue reading
1
Bonus Sample: Surviving Modern Yoga Panel (w/Ann Gleig & Michelle C. Johnson)
6:01
6:01
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
6:01
Matthew fields excellent questions about his new book from colleagues Ann Gleig and Michelle C. Johnson. NAB Show Notes This event includes discussions on sensitive topics related to abuse; sexual assault; high-demand tactics; racism; gender-based violence; and systems of dominance, patriarchy, and oppression. We know that these topics may be distr…
…
continue reading
1
Deep Cut: The OG New Age Grifter: Madame Blavatsky
51:49
51:49
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
51:49
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 ch…
…
continue reading
1
227: Rescue Remedy for The Republic
1:13:58
1:13:58
Main Kemudian
Main Kemudian
Senarai
Suka
Disukai
1:13:58
On September 29, a predicted one million people were going to show up for the Rescue the Republic event in Washington DC. Founded by the libertarian party chair, the Defeat the Mandates founder, and “professor in exile,” Bret Weinstein, about 1,500 mostly MAGA acolytes showed up. Yet the event represents something a long time building in America: t…
…
continue reading