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:

139: Comedy in the MAGAverse (w/Jordan Klepper) Feb 02, 2023

Show notes

Can you believe that Nancy Pelosi paid people to attack the Capitol on Jan 6 in order to make Republicans look bad? Actually, I mean, Jan 6 was the most peaceful gathering of a million patriots in history. Wait, hold on: Jan 6 was an antifa operative to act as cover for the fact that the election was, indeed, stolen.

Do any of these stories sound familiar? Now imagine hearing them all, and dozens more like them, all in the same day, and you’ll get a glimpse of what Daily Show correspondent and host of the podcast, Fingers the Conspiracy, Jordan Klepper, endures on a regular basis. Today Jordan joins us to talk about the cursed world of conspiracies that he’s witnessed, up close and in person, with the people who spread them, what it was like to be at the Capitol on Jan 6, and the bewildering intersection of comedy and politics.

-- -- --

Support us on Patreon

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

Brief: Long Live Guru Jagat (w/Emily Guerin) Jan 31, 2023

Show notes

Katie Griggs. Katie Day. Kundalini Katie. Guru Jagat. We hardly knew you.

The late "Queen of Conspiracy Theories" is now memorialized on NPR through Emily Guerin's LAist podcast "Imperfect Paradise."

Matthew sits down with Emily to explore how we cover figures like Griggs, what it was like to interview her family, and what we can ultimately say about the compromised feminist empowerment she offered her followers—and whether she could have taken another route.

Show Notes

She was a popular yoga guru. Then she embraced QAnon conspiracy theories — NPR, LAist

36: Guru Jagat’s Pandemic Brandwash (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

37: Guru Jagat Cultjacks Kundalini Yoga (w/Philip Deslippe & Stacie Stukin)

(PDF) From Maharaj to Mahan Tantric: The Construction of Yogi Bhajan’s Kundalini Yoga — Philip Deslippe

Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two Generations of Followers Reeling from Alleged Abuse — Stacie Stukin

Inside the Dubious World of RA MA Yoga, and Its Girl Boss Guru to the Stars — Cassidy George, VICE

Guru Jagat Dies. A Saint Is Born. | by Matthew Remski | Aug, 2021 | Medium

Guru Jagat Mourned in Person with Breathing Exercises, No Masks — Matthew Remski

-- -- --

Support us on Patreon

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

Bonus Sample: Psychotherapy in the Age of TikTok Conspirituality (w/Alessia Caputo) Jan 30, 2023

Show notes

What do you do when your psychotherapy clients suffer from conspiracy theory anxiety?
What do you do when the conspirituality-based therapy advice they get from TikTok is compelling, but also misleading?
Toronto-based Registered Psychotherapist Alessia Caputo joins Matthew for this Listener Story installment to discuss the changing therapeutic landscape, in the office and online.

-- -- --
Support us on Patreon
Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada
Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian
Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

138: The Magical Quantum Healy Machine (feat/Mallory DeMille) Jan 26, 2023

Show notes

Using a combination of Alexa, Siri, and your extensive search history, we've been able to scan your bio energetic field, and are sending personalized quantum rebalancing and immune-boosting frequencies your way as you listen. Can you feel it?! Can your pet feel it? Because, dear listener, there’s a program for them, too. In fact, there’s a program for everything and everyone because frequencies don’t discriminate—as long as you’re not into Big Pharma, that is. All you need is to invest in this little $1,000 machine—$4,000 if you want the “professional edition”—that clips onto your Lulu gear and injects quantum vibes straight into your soul.

That’s right, this week we’re talking about the Healy. Our correspondent, Mallory DeMille, has scanned the ethereal social media frequencies to find a greatest hits collection of influencers attempting to energetically guide you into their downline. Derek offers a bit of Healy history, which is rooted in the anti-EMF movement, while Matthew and I wonder: why is it that the same wellness crew that’s afraid of 5G and vaccine technology is so willing to wear this mysterious device?

Show Notes

Healy World Official on YouTube

Marcus Schmieke explains the Technology and Science behind Healy

@trusting_birth questioning Healy

See conspirituality.net/episodes for screenshots mentioned during this episode

-- -- --

Support us on Patreon

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

Brief: Tate Crime Jan 24, 2023

Show notes

Did the Matrix kidnap Top G? Or is Andrew Tate the Matrix himself, now unplugged and shorting out in a Romanian jail?

While his self-confessed crimes against women come home to roost, the online spectacle his arrest has generated provides a litmus test for just how fast the cognitive dissonance of culture war chaos can plummet.

Welcome to the broader “Tate crime”: a spectacle of acute reality-reversal, fueled by reactionary politics and driven by a cultic network of devotees and SEO managers, where culture war punditry is funded by bogus self-help courses and online pornography.

Show Notes

The PHD Program (“Pimping Hos Degree)

Andrew Tate said he broke a woman's jaw and that his business was a 'scam' ahead of Romanian charges

Tate admits to statutory rape

Part One: Andrew Tate, and the Mythopoetic Men's Movement - Behind the Bastards | iHeart

The Dangerous Rise of Andrew Tate

"From Pick-Up Artists to Incels: Con(fidence) Games, Networked Misogyny, and the Failure of Neoliberalism"

A Coordinated Group Of 4,500 Bots Tweeted In Support Of Andrew Tate

Teachers Warn That Misogynist Andrew Tate Has 'Radicalized' School-Age Boys

-- -- --

Support us on Patreon

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

Bonus Sample: RUSSELL BRAND: RUSSIAN PSY-OP OR MISINFORMED RESEARCHER? Jan 23, 2023

Show notes

Ok, the title is a bit outlandish, but for a reason: many of Russell Brand's Rumble videos feature titles like "HERE WE GO" and "THE FALL OF FAUCI." When everything is at volume 11, nothing seems to make sense—which is a bit how Derek and Julian feel after listening to his recent interview with Bari Weiss.

Not that Bari isn't a solid presenter—she is, even if we don't agree with everything she says. We'll pick apart her portion of the Twitter Files, while also continuing our investigation into Russell's always-on and always-loud tactics that disorient as much as obscure.

-- -- --
Support us on Patreon
Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada
Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian
Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

137: Addiction & The Wounded Influencer (w/Chris Boutte) Jan 19, 2023

Show notes

Perhaps you’ve seen the Rumi quote repeated on social media memes: “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” The wounded healer is a popular archetype in wellness spaces, and indeed, sometimes experience teaches wisdom, enabling the victim to overcome their trauma and help others. But in conspiritualist spaces, the wounded healer can also begin a monetization stream where everything becomes evidence of trauma, only to be healed through this book, or that course, or a brand-new brand of meditation that’s only the marketing scheme of an old form.

Speaking of brands, we look at the wounded healer through the lens of Russell Brand, among others. This leads to Derek’s interview with YouTuber and podcaster, Chris Boutte, aka The Rewired Soul, who happens to be in recovery and watched firsthand as Russell went from helpful figure to shadowy archetype. Can an addiction to drugs be healed, only to lead to an addiction to clicks and likes? Stay tuned…

-- -- --

Support us on Patreon

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

Bonus Sample: Matt Taibbi's Brand Building Jan 16, 2023

Show notes

In part two of Derek and Julian's deconstruction of the Russell Brand/Matt Taibbi Twitter Files Rumble Session, Matt and Russell swoon over their interactions with Elon Musk, discuss how the MSM unfairly maligns Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine, and chat about the old regime at Twitter being in service of the sinister agenda of global institutions like the IMF.

Strap in.

-- -- --
Support us on Patreon
Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada
Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian
Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

Brief: Teal Swan’s Satanic Panic to Anti-Woke Pipeline Jan 14, 2023

Show notes

How do the screams of the Satanic Panic echo in anti-woke politics?

This past week, New Age Satanic Panic influencer Teal Swan released a new video to 1.5M YouTube subscribers about the dangers of "Wokeism." Yesterday, Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) announced plans to form a Congressional Anti-Woke Caucus.

We know by now that conspirituality is a machine charismatics can use to generate mystical solutions to exaggerated or imagined crises. With Swan’s pivot into anti-woke discourse, she is taking the next logical step in broadening and secularizing her message.

What's not entirely clear is the pathway Swan has taken from Satanic Panic influencer to a New Age starseed, to unlicensed trauma recovery expert, to this potential future as a culture warrior. This Brief connects some of the dots, as the entanglement between New Age wellness objectives and reactionary populism tightens.

Show Notes

"Wokeism" and Today's "Woke" Society

109. Who’s Afraid of Teal Swan? (w/Jon Kasbe)

111: Who's Afraid of Teal Swan (pt 2) (w/Jennings Brown)

UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 1 | Close to Home (please search "Swan Song Series to find all unlocked episodes)

From QAnon to Anti-Woke. A New Age guru pivots to a new… | by Matthew Remski

Qanon - The Great Awakening: PsyOp or the Real Deal? - Piercing the Veil of Reality Bernhard Guenther

The January 6th Capitol Siege has indelibly linked QAnon to domestic terrorism.

The deletion of vast networks of QAnon influencers and groups from social channels like FB and Twitter

Cullen Hoback’s Q: Into the Storm documentary

Rep. Jim Banks announces the Anti-Woke Caucus

Fighting the Woke Agenda in Congress - The American Mind

-- -- --

Support us on Patreon

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

136: Virtual Strongmen (w/Ruth Ben-Ghiat) Jan 12, 2023

Show notes

Where have all the strongmen gone, long time scrolling? Where have all the strongmen gone, long time ago? Where have all the strongmen gone? Gone to posting, everyone. Oh when will they ever turn off their phones? Not anytime soon. Trump on Truth Social, Modi on Instagram, Bolsonaro tweeting from a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Miami.

Today we’re looking at the new strongmen at the top of our political circuses. According to our guest, strongman-whisperer historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, they’re of new breed. They’re not the steampunk fascists of 100 years ago. They’re not Cold War autocrats, installed by the CIA. These guys are posters. They do not need to seize the means of production. Their goal is to disrupt the production of meaning.

Julian’s interview with Ben-Ghiat gives us a great opportunity to look at the strongman fetish in conspirituality, and to rate the top male influencers in our book on a scale of 10 Gaddafis.

Show Notes

Twitter’s moderation system is in tatters

Who is the 'Trump of the Tropics?': Brazil's divisive new president, Jair Bolsonaro— in his own words

-- -- --

Support us on Patreon

Pre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada

Follow us on Instagram | Twitter: Derek | Matthew | Julian

Original music by EarthRise SoundSystem

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

Related Podcasts