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Conspirituality — Philosophy
Conspirituality

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.

Copyright: © 2023 Conspirituality

Latest Episodes:

Bonus Sample: The GOP Takeover of Media Feb 05, 2024

Show notes

Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan aims to implement the "unitary executive theory," which would give all of the power of the US government to the executive branch. This week, Derek and Julian investigate the chapter on US media agencies and the GOP's plan to create a true state-sponsored media beholden exclusively to the president.

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Brief: Deep Church Conspiracy (w/David Lafferty) Feb 03, 2024

Show notes

From the Supreme Court to Project 2025, reactionary Catholics are on the frontlines of this year’s war on democracy. Many of them bend the knee to an Italian redpilled Vatican diplomat: Cardinal Carlo Maria Viganò.

Who is this guy, and who let him onto the internet?

In 2018, Viganò rebranded Pizzagate for Catholics, by accusing Pope Francis and his progressive allies of supporting “homosexual networks, which are now widespread in many dioceses, seminaries, religious orders,” and “act under the concealment of secrecy and lies with the power of octopus tentacles, and strangle innocent victims and priestly vocations.”

Viganò went on to pen an open letter to Trump—in the style of one spiritual leader to another—in which he spoke of the great war between the “children of light and the children of darkness.” His 19th century flair, boosted by Trump himself, was such a hit it got featured in a Qdrop, got echoed by Mike Flynn, and won him an invite into the world of Steve Bannon.

Catholic political commentator Dr. David Lafferty has been following Viganò for years. He walks Matthew through how the Cardinal Catholicized MAGA fever dreams to discredit the progressive administration of Pope Francis—going so far as to wish death upon him—while inspiring a generation of TradCath crusaders.

Show Notes

Puccini meets Watergate in 'Vatileaks' scandal

Former ambassador Vigano accuses Vatican of covering up McCarrick scandal for years

The Man Who Took On Pope Francis: The Story Behind the Viganò Letter

The (Growing) List of Catholic Prelates and Other Notable Catholics Supporting Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò. : r/Catholicism

‘It Is Not a Closet. It Is a Cage.’ Gay Catholic Priests Speak Out

Open Letter to President Donald Trump from the Carlo Maria Vigano, Archbishop of Ulpiana

Vigano's most pilled tweet

Viganò, QAnon, and the 'Deep Church' explained

Another Viganò Wake-Up Call

“An infamous betrayal of the mission of the Church”: Interview with Archbishop Viganò - Crisis Magazine (CW: Steve Bannon BS ahead)

Americans, including Catholics, continue to have favorable views of Pope Francis — Pew Research

The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism, Jordan

Decadence and Catholicism — Hanson

The Causes and Context of Sexual Abuse of Minors by Catholic Priests in the United States, 1950-2010

John Jay Report: On Not Blaming Homosexual Priests

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191: Extremely Online (w/Taylor Lorenz) Feb 01, 2024

Show notes

The internet has changed not only how we communicate with each other, but how we understand the world. All technologies reorient how we navigate the world. This one just feels, at times, so disorienting—especially if you are, like the three of us today, extremely online.

That’s the title of Washington Post columnist Taylor Lorenz’s recent book. Taylor has been covering internet culture since starting in social media for the Daily Mail in 2011, which led to positions as a technology reporter for Business Insider, the Daily Beast, and the NY Times. In her insightful book, she details the history of internet culture, and she joins us today to discuss reporting in an age of conspiracy theories and online trolling, the challenges of covering long Covid in an age of overwhelming health misinformation, and what it’s like to be extremely online.

Show Notes

Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet

Taylor Lorenz on YouTube

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Bonus Sample: The Plan to Dismantle Health Care Jan 29, 2024

Show notes

Project 2025 is the libertarian conservative Heritage Foundation’s systematic governance plan for the next Republican president. The 920-page plan aims to implement the "unitary executive theory," which would give all of the power of the US government to the executive branch. This week, Derek and Julian break down the dystopic chapter on the Department of Health and Human Services, written by the anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+ Catholic nationalist, Roger Severino.

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Brief: New Year, Same Old Conspiritualists Jan 27, 2024

Show notes

Do people radicalized into conspiracism or cults ever admit their errors? When the prophecy fails and evidence shows they were wrong, do they come clean or double-down?

Julian checks in on some of the legacy conspiritualists profiled in our book—Russell Brand, Dr. Christiane Northrup, Mikki Willis, JP Sears, and Lorie Ladd—to see what their online messaging around Christmas and the New Year tells us.

These figures drove the anti-vax, Covid denial, QAnon virality, and rightward political trend in conspirituality during 2020-21. We’ll find out if they’ve seen the error of their ways in the aftermath of the 5th dimensional Great Awakening that never happened.

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190: Females Drive Evolution (w/Cat Bohannon) Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

Science evolves, often through fits and starts. Yet for most of medical history, there’s been one consistent theme: most science has been conducted on male bodies. And this has created a range of problems for women.

Thankfully, says Cat Bohannon, that’s changing. As more women and BIPOC are entering the STEM fields, we’re undergoing a renaissance in our understanding of a more inclusive and expansive science. On today’s episode, the author of Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution tells Derek how much science has gotten wrong by focusing exclusively on male bodies—and what we’re now doing right.

Show Notes

Epidemic Podcast | Tony Fauci: from one pandemic to another

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Bonus Sample: Post-Catholic Music (w/Julia Tucker) Jan 22, 2024

Show notes

Julia Tucker is a professional church organist in Savannah, Georgia. She grew up homeschooled in a TradCath home presided over by a father who is now a minor celebrity on the reactionary right. In this Listener Story, she discusses her long strange trip out of Catholic revanchism, the unexpected freedoms of homeschooling, sneaking around in sacristries, why she believes that figures like Bishop Strickland and the Catholics heading up Project 2025 are more ominous and effective than Evangelical leaders, how music began to displace religion for her, and why she’ll continue playing the organ in church.

Show Notes

Julia Tucker, Organist

Julia Tucker, Recital

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Brief: Being Muslim Amidst the Wars (w/Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee) Jan 20, 2024

Show notes

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee joined us last January for a Brief on Jordan Peterson’s professional status as a shitposting registered psychologist. She returned for Episode 141 on whether it makes sense that the Canadian Medical Assistance in Dying act is fuelling conspiracy theories about state neglect.

Today she returns, as a psychologist and as a practicing Muslim, to discuss with Matthew how it feels to see her community drawn into culture war territory over sex ed and gender issues. Matthew also asks about her clinical practice with Muslim and Jewish clients in the shadow of the current Israel-Gaza war. This episode was recorded in November, but the themes are as current as ever.

Show Notes

Dr. Taslim Alani-Verjee

Brief: Is Jordan Peterson Really a Licensed Psychologist? — Conspirituality

141: Does Canada Want Suffering Citizens to Die? (w/Taslim Alani-Verjee)

Hate on Display at the 1 Million March 4 Children Rally in Calgary

Cross-country rallies against 'gender ideology' in schools meet with counter-protests

Statement by MAC on Statements by Canadian Leaders and School Boards on Recent Protests

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189: Leftists Who Turn Right (w/Jeff Sharlet) Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

Nothing will stop Republicans from lining up behind Trump. But the left? It's in crisis. Fragmented. Perhaps in times of great flux fascists reflexively double-down while progressives slide into a cloud of self-doubt. There, strange bedfellows are sometimes found in the dark.

To help us understand this territory—what it is and how to navigate it—we're joined by journalist, professor, and documentarian, Jeff Sharlet. His books, The Undertow: Scenes From a Slow Civil War and The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power are field guides for understanding modern America.

Show Notes

Losing the Plot: The “Leftists” Who Turn Right

The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War

The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power

The Family on Netflix

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Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures 6: Leonard Leo, Judicial Kingmaker Jan 15, 2024

Show notes

Control the Court. Overturn Roe. Funnel anonymous donations and shady gifts. Deregulate for Jesus. Roll back the cultural clock. Celebrate. Rinse and Repeat.

Leonard Leo’s libertarian Catholic agenda has made him a preeminent power-broker in right-wing American politics. He’s reshaping society while enjoying the pipeline of cash and influence that connects billionaire GOP mega-donors and the SCOTUS judges he helped install.

Julian tracks how Leo’s Federalist Society used Trump as part of a decades-long systematic takeover of the judicial system that culminated in the current ethics and corruption scandal in the SCOTUS.

Show Notes

ProPublica “Friends of the Court” investigative journalism series

The Guardian Club For Growth GOP Insurectionist Support

Open Secret 2022 Donor List

Dark Money Spending After Citizen’s United

Senator Sheldon Whitehouse “The Front Group Swarms”

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