Conspirituality

In the spring of 2017, Jordan Peterson first went viral by writing this in Canada’s National Post:  I will never use words I hate, like the trendy and artificially constructed words “zhe” and “zher.” These words are at the vanguard of a post-modern, radical leftist ideology that I detest, and which is, in my professional opinion, frighteningly similar to the Marxist doctrines that killed at least 100 million people in the 20th century. Remember that horseshit, or things like it? Did you guffaw because he was obviously absurd? Did you try to reason with his stans online? Did you see him as a crank influencer, or a dangerous political figure?  Did you hope his ideas would be beaten down in the marketplace of ideas? Or did you seek him out at a public event and shout him down with a bullhorn? Today, word salad like this is everywhere—including in Project 2025, now driving the Trump admin.  Matthew visits the antifascist woodshed to investigate the liberal manners, free speech naivety, and lack of community alliances that dissuaded him from grabbing the mic during a Peterson Q&A in 2017 and shouting:  “Your ideas are fascist and you should STFU. You are endangering trans people with your bullshit. Why do you care about how they experience their bodies, you whining pervert? Why are you inciting hatred against young people who want a better world?” Because… look where we are now. Show Notes Read the Memo Pausing Federal Grants and Loans - The New York Times  President George H.W. Bush on political correctness (1991) The History of Political Correctness—Lind The Pitfalls of Liberalism — Kwame Ture The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic | Scientific American  Jordan Peterson: The right to be politically incorrect | National Post  Bill C-16, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity or expression)  Jordan Peterson is trying to make sense of the world — including his own strange journey Postmodern Neo-Marxism — Jordan Peterson’s Shadow   Doug Ford met Jordan Peterson, appointment calendar reveals | CBC News  Why are the Proud Boys so violent? Ask Gavin McInnes — SPLC   Jordan Peterson revealed he once earned $400,000 a month Antifa by Mark Bray Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edward Snowden is largely only a public name thanks to Glenn Greenwald’s reporting, for which he was one of the contributors to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series for The Guardian in 2014. For a while, Matt Taibbi was considered the heir to Hunter Thompson when his gonzo journalism tore open the 2008 financial crisis and gave the public the term “vampire squids.”  Yet in more recent years, both men have swerved right: Glenn became a darling on Fox News and Taibbi was recruited by Elon Musk as one of the Twitter Files “journalists.” How did that happen? We’re joined by journalist Eoin Higgins, whose new book, Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left, dives into the career arcs of both Greenwald and Taibbi, and how they confuse and distort right-left alignments. Show Notes Sharath Jois, Heir to Founder of Ashtanga Yoga, Dies at 53 - The New York Times Sharath’s Statement on Pattabhi Jois’s Assaults: Context, Links, Notes – Matthew Remski  Surviving Modern Yoga - North Atlantic Books  Owned: How Tech Billionaires on the Right Bought the Loudest Voices on the Left Eoin Higgins Morning Brew | Bluesky Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Part 2 of Matthew’s sit down with sex-work veteran and social justice advocate Esme Providence Brown to discuss New Age / wellness antifeminist, Kelly Brogan, and how her craven politics bolster the permission structure for Trumpian misogyny. They track her political and aesthetic journey from labcoat wearer to wellness pole dancer to BDSM cosplayer—a spiral through deepening layers of appropriation, disavowal of responsibility, and cringe-tastic ideas. Esme concludes with some deep insights on what it means for artisanal BDSM to be stripped of its political and consent-culture context, and who Brogan’s “feminism is a psy-op” argument really serves. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When asked if he thought Mark Zuckerberg’s effective ending of fact checking was in response to threats that he would “put him in jail for a very long time,” Trump replied, “Probably. Yeah, probably.” A week later, TikTok voluntarily disabled their app for users, then put up an announcement saying that Trump was going to bring them back.  Julian talks to digital disinformation expert Renee Diresta about the massive Big Tech realignment with MAGA, which now means Meta, X, and TikTok may become more like TruthSocial. If fact checking is biased, content moderation is censorship, and combating foreign propaganda is anti-free speech, where does that leave us now? Show Notes If you Give A Mouse a Cookie: Renee Diresta Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What the ever loving fuck. That’s our intro today. But we do have a structure. Julian’s going to review the Executive Order chaos, including the pardoning and deputizing of fascist street gangs. Derek’s going to explain what the ever loving fuck it means for health agencies to turn off access to health data. And I’ll look at two Xtian responses to fascism: one hypocritical and one poetic… but maybe toothless. Show Notes Freed Capitol riot ringleaders regroup - and vow 'retribution' Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Full episode available here. The alien from Venus in George King’s head said: “Prepare yourself. You are to be the voice of interplanetary parliament.” It’s 1952 and the Englishman has been meditating deeply. Eight days later, a famous yogi from India materializes to explain what’s going on. These experiences became the basis for the Aetherius Society—an organization that still has 35 chapters around the planet today. They claim the world’s governments are covering up their communication with a spiritually enlightened galactic federation, so as to maintain control over humanity. If that sounds like 2020 red-pilled Instagram grift, you’re right! Everything old is new again. Julian’s series, The Roots of Conspirituality, a history of new age conspiracism, is now conveniently organized under the “Collections” tab at the top of our Patreon page. Each episode is self-contained—but listen from the start if you want to trace the journey from the 1840’s “burned over region” of the American North East to today! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Jan 10, the Oregon Nurses Association launched the largest healthcare strike in Oregon state history. Some 5k frontline caregivers from 8 Providence hospitals and 6 clinics have been holding the line in freezing temperatures as they fight for basic rights that their employer—a Catholic nonprofit healthcare system whose C Suite members make millions of dollars every year—refuses to give them. Derek discusses why such strikes, and unions in general, are so important as the new administration takes office. He breaks down some of Providence’s past legal problems, discusses his own experience as a Providence patient, and talks to some of the nurses on the strike line. Show Notes Dr Jennifer Lincoln Oregon Nurses Association Resources for striking healthcare professionals It's Time for Providence to Put Patients Before Profits  Providence, striking Oregon health workers remain apart on key issues They Were Entitled to Free Care. Hospitals Hounded Them to Pay. Hospital System to Refund Poor Patients Who Were Entitled to Free Care Wealthiest Hospitals Got Billions in Bailout for Struggling Health Providers Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the top podcasts in the world—even beating out Rogan for a few hours—is popularizing a well-meaning intervention for non-speaking autistic people. Unfortunately, that intervention happens to be a proven failure, and may set autistic and disability rights discourse back by decades.  Filmmaker Ky Dicken’s The Telepathy Tapes podcast delves into the world of Facilitated Communication, in which non-speaking people are believed to miraculously gain access to complex written language after lives of silence. According to Dickson, non-speaking people can also gather in transdimensional spaces and channel spiritual knowledge. But there’s a problem. Every controlled test shows that the messages produced through letterboards and iPads are coming from the facilitators—not the non-speaking persons. In this episode, Matthew interviews experts in pseudoscience and autism, including Janyce Boynton, a former (now dissident) practitioner of Facilitated Communication who explains how seductive and promising it was to practice, but how it ultimately steals agency and dignity from the autistic client. And... this is also a story about parents dealing with crushing levels of unpaid and invisible labour. They are already doing miraculous work. A fantasy is no replacement for true support and recognition. Show Notes Podcast About 'Telepathic' Autistic Children Briefly Knocks Joe Rogan Out Of No. 1 Spot   Ky Dickens Director | Filmmaker  Facilitated Communication—what harm it can do: Confessions of a former facilitator MD25438 - Powell, Diane Hennacy, MD - OR License Verification - 01/12/2025 11:07:47 AM  The Telepathy Tapes: Separating Science From Pseudoscience In Autism Communication  Stolen Voices: Facilitated Communication Devalues Autism | Psychology Today Canada Multiple method validation study of facilitated communication: II. Individual differences and subgroup results - PubMed   The Telepathy Tapes Prove We All Want to Believe "The Telepathy Tapes" is Taking America by Storm. But it Has its Roots in Old Autism Controversies.  Mixed Messages: Validity and Ethics of Facilitated Communication | Disability Studies Quarterly  Is There Science Behind That? Facilitated Communication  Controlled Studies — Facilitated Communication Served people with severe communication impairments — Obit for Rosemary Crossley More Doubts over Disability ‘Miracle’  Katharine Beals Jonathan Jarry MSc - Science Communicator   FCisNotScience - YouTube — Janyce Boynton’s awesome YouTube channel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The seventh installment of Matthew’s Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.  Sam Adler-Bell is a journalist, political theorist, and co-host of one of Matthew’s favourite podcasts, Know Your Enemy—a show about the American right. They discuss the normalization of genocide, the stark comforts of Freud and Janet Malcolm, the relief of DW Winnicott, how we can’t avoid playing the role of our own mothers, and also good advice from his dad, a labour lawyer who knows something about long, uncertain, but always worthwhile battles for the common good.  Show Notes Sam Adler-Bell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Twitter Files journalist Alex Berenson recently published two articles claiming that Moderna covered up a child's death from a Moderna Covid booster trial—and the FDA is complicit. Children’s Health Defense then hosted him on their TV program to learn more about this outrageous scandal. Do Berenson's claims hold up? All Derek did was click on the links in his own article to discover the "truth." He looks at this phenomenon through the lens of the 2020 book, Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World. Show Notes Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World Alex Berenson’s article Children’s Health Defense interview The Lancet study on Covid vaccination in children Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We know Bryan Johnson gobbles 100 pills a day. He pumps his son’s plasma through his veins. He does light therapy on his junk and wants to live forever. But do we understand how Johnson’s fascinations reflect his Mormon heritage? No. No we don’t.  That’s why we called our very own Salt Lake City expert, Blair Hodges, host of the Relationscapes podcast.  Blair joins Matthew to discuss Johnson’s transhumanism, which has roots in the LDS but has also led him away from it. They cover the spirituality of his money, whether he’s trying to become a living god, and how his home gym has some distinctive Mormon temple elements. Also: is Bryan really as polite as he seems, or is he hiding Blair has degrees in journalism, religious studies, and disability studies from the University of Utah and Georgetown University. He directed communications for the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Studies at Brigham Young University before moving to the nonprofit sector. He has served as communications director for Volunteers of America, Utah and RMHC of the Intermountain Area. He’s currently working on a research project on the history of intellectual disabilities in Mormon thought. Show Notes Relationscapes—Blair Hodges Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In January, 2023, Bloomberg published an article about how tech entrepreneur turned longevity stan, Bryan Johnson, spends $2 million a year in an attempt to live forever—or at least until age 200, as the goalposts shift. Then a Netflix documentary, Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever, dropped on January 1, taking a deep dive into Johnson’s quest and complex personal life. A strange thing happened along the way: Johnson felt much more personable and relatable than ever before to many viewers. Given the Bloomberg journalist is one of the producers, is this the latest propaganda piece by a supplements-pushing huckster, or is Johnson tapping into something much older and deeper about the human condition? Show Notes How to Be 18 Years Old Again for Only $2 Million a Year Politico piece on Mayor Karen Bass and LA Fires Anna Merlan on LA Fire conspiracies Ally Carter Diddy-List Fire Conspiracy Theory Shared by Former Bush Official Nutritionist Reviews The Blueprint Supplements Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A one-time drop of Derek's new podcast, Clarity Lab, the official podcast of Siris Health, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit building a free educational platform and curating social media channels that feature experts presenting health and science in a clear, compelling manner. Celery juice. Coffee enemas. Ozone therapy. The list of pseudoscientific cancer "treatments" is endless. Yet they all risk pushing people in vulnerable positions toward untenable "cures." Dr Andrea Love joins Derek Beres to discuss the dangers of cancer misinformation, as well as why the field of cancer research is so complex—and rewarding. Dr Andrea Love is an immunologist and microbiologist, as well as subject-matter expert in infectious disease immunology, cancer immunology, and autoimmunity. She writes the Immunologic newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew sits down with sex-work veteran and social justice advocate Esme Providence Brown for the first of two chinwags about our famous New Age / wellness antifeminist, Kelly Brogan, and how her craven politics bolster the permission structure for Trumpian misogyny. They track her political and aesthetic journey from labcoat-wearer to wellness pole dancer to BDSM cosplayer—a spiral through deepening layers of appropriation, disavowal of responsibility, and cringe-tastic ideas. This is only Part One! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

UCSF epidemiology and biostatistics professor Vinay Prasad's star rose when he compared the US response to Covid-19 to the beginnings of the Third Reich in October, 2021. Though a less famous contrarian than others in the MAHA sphere, the hematologist-oncologist has honed his social media trolling over the past few years, always ready for a fight, evidence be damned. Derek and Julian look at two recent videos that signal Prasad might be angling for a position in a potential RFK Jr-run HHS—and all the misinformation he continues to spread. Show Notes BMJ's Systematic Review on Quarantine Measures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Like it or not, 2025 is here. What happens in post-truth America when formerly fringe conspiracy theorists, religious extremists, pseudoscience-peddlers, and wannabe authoritarians become a government—now weaponized against their personal enemies, both foreign and domestic? Should political analysis take a page from academics who study professional wrestling? We each offer our views on what's ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

George van Tassel was the original UFO contactee. He claimed to have been visited by aliens from Venus in 1953, which led to him hosting thousands of people at the annual Interplanetary Spacecraft Convention for almost 20 years. He channeled “Ashtar, ”a figure still popular in “Galactic Federation” conspiritualist circles today, and spent 25 years building a time machine based on telepathic communications with aliens.  Julian unpacks the wild story of van Tassel’s airstrip, the Mojave Desert’s Giant Rock, and how the FBI may have been involved in his mysterious death and subsequent disappearance of his cellular rejuvenation equipment. This is part of a series of free-standing episodes that excavates the history of pseudoscience and conspiracism beneath contemporary New Age spirituality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist and author Josie Reisman says we can’t understand the Trump era without understanding his life-long pro-wrestling fandom, and his bonds with one of his closest friends, WWE tycoon Vince McMahon.  Reisman argues that McMahon’s invention of “neokayfabe,” in which storylines and real life are purposefully and artfully confused, blurs the distinction between fact and fiction. It makes consumers, followers, and voters complicit in creating a spectacle of cruelty.  It’s the kind of argument that once seen, can’t be unseen. It helps explain the contradictory and performative politics of Trump—and how, under his leadership, the administrative state may not be destroyed by fascism directly, but by a theatre of cynicism and catharsis that will allow the latent fascism of the American Empire to explode.  Show Notes Welcome to Neokayfabe  Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America — Abraham Josephine Riesman // Writer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

British entrepreneur and investor Steven Bartlett launched his podcast, Diary of a CEO, in 2017. He quickly found an audience in the tech world, which gave him access to a wide range of celebrities and businesspeople from various domains. By 2024, the podcast became one of the top 5 in the world, netting Bartlett and his team a reported $25M this year alone. Yet as Bartlett’s star rose, his guest list began becoming more and more suspect. Pertinent to our beat, contrarian wellness influencers and philosophers appeared, spreading Covid conspiracies and health misinformation. In his role as curious everyman, Bartlett rarely challenged their narratives, sometimes playing along with their conspiratorial hot takes to an audience in the millions. We look at a few conspiritualist crossovers this week, and discuss what it really takes to become a top 5 podcaster—and the information and integrity that’s sacrificed along the way. Show Notes The Canonization of St. Luigi Sacred Heart of Luigi hanging up at Vito's Pizza  Extremist “Saints Culture” Catholic ethicists condemn ‘indifference to suffering’ shown by those celebrating Luigi Mangione 41% of young voters say UnitedHealthcare CEO killing "acceptable"  69% Blame CEO Murder on US Healthcare System  Mainstreaming of Violent Accelerationism December Wave 2 2024 AmeriSpeak Omnibus | NORC at the University of Chicago   Steven Bartlett sharing harmful health misinformation in Diary of CEO podcast What the Most Famous Book About Trauma Gets Wrong Teal Swan Collection—Patreon Bessel van der Kolk: Role in the Satanic Panic He Built a Wellness Empire While Adventuring With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Only 7% of American Adults Have Good Cardiometabolic Health Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Happy New Year’s Eve! The sixth installment of Matthew’s Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.  Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of more than 20 books on feminism, western and indigenous history, popular power, social change and insurrection, wandering  and walking, hope and disaster. Show Notes Rebecca Solnit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices