Conspirituality - TopPodcast.com

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

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:

168: Decoding the Gurus (w/Chris Kavanagh and Matt Browne) Aug 24, 2023

Show notes

Charismatic influence thrives in online spaces, regardless of spiritual overtones. Matt Browne and Chris Kavanagh of Decoding the Gurus have traced a path parallel to our own; examining the popular figures they call "secular gurus."

They join us for a lively panel discussion on the overlaps and differences regarding conspiritualists, as well as their patented "Gurometer'' method of decoding and ranking contrarian influencers.

As scholars of psychology, anthropology, and religion, we also asked them to finally resolve the enduring argument between Matthew and Julian about the power of sacred beliefs to shape political worldviews and motivate actions in the world.

8/21: Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and manage your money the easy way by going to rocketmoney.com/conspirtuality

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Sample: Swamp Creatures Aug 21, 2023

Show notes

Trump promised to “drain the swamp.” But his campaign attracted a carnival of corrupt influence peddlers and conspiracy mongerers. He pretended to be in a holy war against the “deep state” but his administration was defined by cronyism and long-time amoral operatives who groomed him to enable their own enrichment.

Now he’s finally, hopefully, being held to account—but who were those swamp creatures who slithered around his ankles and whispered in his ears? In this new Bonus series, Julian tells the intersecting stories behind the news of the 7 years that culminate in Trump’s latest slew of criminal indictments.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Deep Cut: What Will Yoga Do to Our Children? Aug 19, 2023

Show notes

Deep Cut pulls from our bonus episode archive to unearth previous ideas that remain relevant today.

News from Alabama: after a 23-year ban on yoga in schools, generated by a Republican moral panic, Governor Kay Ivey signs a bill that lets kids do yoga again, but with some restrictions:

"All instruction in yoga shall be limited exclusively to poses, exercises, and stretching techniques. All poses shall be limited exclusively to sitting, standing, reclining, twisting, and balancing. All poses, exercises, and stretching techniques shall have exclusively English descriptive names. Chanting, mantras, mudras, use of mandalas, induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, and namaste greetings shall be expressly prohibited."

Those who promote yoga as universal goodwill welcome this Indian art form being made more accessible for children in a State with terrible educational markers. Hindu nationalists, on the other hand, might be outraged at a secularized version of yoga, stripped not only of references to Hinduism but of signs of any type of Indian spirituality. And a lot of white yoga progressives will look at this policy—mostly from the urban North— and worry about authenticity and appropriation.

How will the children feel?

In considering who wins and loses with this new development, Matthew reviews recent U.S. yoga-war history: battles between the Hindu American Foundation and Yoga Journal, the rise of Christian non-yoga-yoga "Praise Moves", and Encinitas Union School District got sued for allegedly violating the Establishment Clause by contracting devotees of Pattabhi Jois to teach the kids yoga.

It's not a stretch to see an overlap between this theme and the medical-moral panic over vaccines. In both cases, the focus is on the imagined corruption of children, whether by poison, politics, or inner quiet.

Go to HelloFresh.com/50conspirituality and use code 50conspirituality for 50% off plus free shipping.

Deep Cut Intro Music

Single Origins — Pete Kuzma

Show Notes

Alabama lifts three-decade-old ban on yoga in public schools—with a catch.

New study ranks Alabama as 43rd for student achievement, grade of D+

12 Reasons Why Yoga is NOT Good for Christians

Hindu Group Stirs Debate in Fight for Soul of Yoga

Hindu American Foundation: Hindu Roots of Yoga

Shukla's letter: Is Hindu a bad word?

Explained: The Hindu American Foundation’s defamation case against Hindus for Human Rights founders

Audrey Truschke's tweet

Over 300 Writers, Academics and Scholars Repudiate HAF's Attempt to Silence Hindus for Human Rights — Hindus for Human Rights

Detroit's Satanic Statue Has A Political Point to Make

Encinitas school yoga lawsuit stretches on

Yoga-for-Trophy-Wives Fitness Fad That’s Alienating Discipline Devotees

Next Article Yoga's Culture of Sexual Abuse: Nine Women Tell Their Stories

Candy Gunther Brown amicus brief for the plaintiffs, against the yoga programme

Mark Singleton amicus brief for the defendants, for the yoga programme

Chris Chapple amicus brief for the defendants, for the yoga programme

Yoga Alliance amicus brief for the defendants, for the yoga programme

Sedlock v. Baird - Brown’s summary

SEDLOCK v. Yes! Yoga for Encinitas Students, Intervener and Respondent

Yes! Yoga for Encinitas Students filing

The World's Most Influential Yoga Teacher is a Homophobic Right-Wing Activist

Translation of the Dattātreyayogaśāstra, the earliest text to teach haṭhayoga

Barkataki: How to Decolonize Your Yoga Practice

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

167: Straight White American Jesus (w/Bradley Onishi) Aug 17, 2023

Show notes

Dr. Bradley Onishi, is the author of Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism - And What Comes Next. He is the co-host of the excellent Straight White American Jesus podcast. His work has appeared in the New York Times, NBC News, Politico, Rolling Stone, Huffpost, and many other outlets.

Bradley got personally drawn into evangelical Christianity as a teenager—and from a secular family—and had the strange experience of burying his part-Japanese heritage in a white coded, Christian Nationalist identity. It took him years of scholarship to see how this political ideology had been baked into the religious indoctrination. Now he’s a religious studies scholar, doing work in the world from that perspective. And his struggles with all of this stuff have brought his empathy and his humility up to the surface in really profound ways.

Bradley has a lot of family history in Maui, and on his behalf and for people there who have just survived a catastrophic fire and now must bury their dead and rebuild, we would like to encourage you to consider donating to the Maui Mutual Aid Fund.

Show Notes

Straight White American Jesus

Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism--and What Comes Next

Go to HelloFresh.com/50conspirituality and use code 50conspirituality for 50% off plus free shipping.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Sample: The Anxiety of Wellness Aug 14, 2023

Show notes

Are you ready to live your best life ever? Because if you’re not always on volume 10, eating the purest foods and shouting your truth at every turn, you’re certainly doing life wrong.

Derek looks at the ever-growing anxiety marketed as optimal health in wellness spaces, wondering when will enough be…enough?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brief: Documenting Michelle Remembers (w/Sean Horlor & Steve Adams) Aug 12, 2023

Show notes

Following up on our review and coverage of Satan Wants You, Matthew talks with Canadian filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve Adams about how they excavated the origin story of the Satanic Panic movement.

Show Notes

151: Satan Wants You Watch Party (Spoilers)

Satan Wants You

Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 4 | Michelle Remembers: Context & History

Conspirituality: UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 5 | Michelle Remembers: Themes & Framing

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: Michelle Remembers: Literal Symbols

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 1

Conspirituality - UNLOCKED: The Courage to Heal Pt. 2

The Smoke of Satan on the Silver Screen: The Catholic Horror Film, Vatican II, and the Revival of Demonology

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

166: QAnonAnonymous Goes to Hollywood (w/Travis View and Jake Rockatansky) Aug 10, 2023

Show notes

In 2017, 4chan user "Q" started LARPing as a Deep State insider with predictions about Hillary Clinton and the pedophile cabal. 10 months later, the online antifascist world assembled its emergency podcast response team: three dubiously-credentialed shitposters( two using pseudonyms themselves) dedicated to covering “the best conspiracy theories of the post-truth era. Exploring online fever swamps and tripping over deranged historical facts that make conspiracy theories sound sane.”

The digital soldiers of QAnonAnonymous Podcast subjected themselves to the most cursed content the internet has to offer. But the real world they traveled through was just as smelly. They went to live QAnon protests, parades, and conferences. They conducted the first interviews with the QAnon Shaman. They attended ball-slapping workshops to raise their testosterone for the Great Awakening. They caught COVID many, many times, all for the cause. And now, as their reward, they get to see their favorite redpilled celebrity, and Mel Gibson's favorite Jesus, Jim Caviezel, star in the fake-u-mentary, "Sound of Freedom."

It’s been a long road to Hollywood for our guests Travis View and Jake Rockatansky, but this is their red-carpet moment where we get to ask them: How did they like working on this show?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Sample: Disgust Management Aug 07, 2023

Show notes

Notes from Matthew in response to a great question from a listener:

How do you keep from hating these people? The blasé unimaginative crackpots like Aubrey Marcus, the gaslighting meanderings of RFK Jr., the hordes of ignorant, ignorant, ignorant (trying to keep from saying st*pid) jackasses that follow in their wake, so desperately certain of their completely subjective fever dreams?

It’s not easy, but there are some ways of avoiding hatred and disgust, and it’s important to lean into them.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special Report: Marianne Williamson’s Ex- Staffers Speak Out Aug 06, 2023

Show notes

Seven ex-staffers who worked on Marianne Williamson’s campaign have written an open letter describing her campaign as an “exercise in deception.”

Matthew analyzes the open letter, and contextualizes its allegations within Williamson’s worldview and history.

Show Notes

EXCLUSIVE: Seven Ex-Marianne Williamson Staffers Say Stop Supporting Her

148: Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus — Conspirituality

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brief: Kombucha Krash Aug 05, 2023

Show notes

GT Dave's kombucha origin story is the stuff of legend—at least how he frames it. But when the LA Times broke the story of a judge awarding workers nearly half a million dollars in back and overtime pay, citing GT's abuse of employees and contradictory evidence, a different story unfolds.

Derek looks at this kombucha company's origins, unrealistic health claims, and the many troubles its endured over the decades, and how GT's response aligns with the conspiritualist playbook.

Show Notes

L.A.’s kombucha empire exploited workers for years

Meet the King of Kombucha

What Science Says About the Potential Health Benefits of Kombucha

The Disinformation Dozen

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Related Podcasts