Conspirituality

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

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 NotesEXCLUSIVE: 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

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 NotesL.A.’s kombucha empire exploited workers for yearsMeet the King of KombuchaWhat Science Says About the Potential Health Benefits of KombuchaThe Disinformation DozenToxic Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tobias Rose-Stockwell is a media researcher, writer, designer, and author of the new book, Outrage Machine: How Tech Amplifies Discontent, Disrupts Democracy—And What We Can Do About It. The book deals with tough questions about who we are as individuals and a society, reminding us that we all help shape our surroundings by what we pay attention to, how we understand and process the information we ingest, and perhaps most importantly, what we do with it.Tobias joins Derek for an in-depth conversation about the history of news and the future of media literacy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Explore the spectrum of altered states, from enhancing human flourishing to perpetuating dangerous delusions. Delve into psychedelics, the 2012 prophecy, the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire, and brain typologies that underlie visionary religious experiences. Gain practical advice on drugs, awareness practice, cults, and staying sane.

Deep Cut pulls from our bonus episode archive to unearth previous ideas that remain relevant today.Survivor shame over what has been lost, and how one has been complicit.Apologist shame: turned inside out and externalized as aggression.Popular shaming, which tries to deflect attention from how close to home cultic dynamics really are.In the cult landscape, shame is a common denominator. In this contemplation, Matthew unpacks various aspects, with help from the writing of cult theorists and recovery counselors Alexandra Stein, Daniel Shaw, and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi.Deep Cut Intro MusicSingle Origins — Pete KuzmaShow NotesPrimo Levi: The Drowned and the SavedThe Relational System of the Traumatizing Narcissist — ShawRachel Bernstein's “One More Thing” at the end of Betrayal and Power w/ Nitai Joseph, former Hare Krishna — S4E5.All of Rachel Bernstein’s IndoctriNation podcast.What’s Behind the Blowback You’ll Get When You Engage Cult Members"Deception, Dependence, Dread of Leaving" — Langone"I Got Mine-ism"Selected Bibliography:Ainsworth, Mary D. Salter. Patterns of Attachment: a Psychological Study of the Strange Situation. Routledge, 2015.Arendt, Hannah. The Origins of Totalitarianism. Penguin Classics, 2017.Freyd, Jennifer J. Betrayal Trauma: the Logic of Forgetting Childhood Abuse. Harvard University Press, 1998.Freyd, Jennifer J., and Pamela Birrell. Blind to Betrayal: Why We Fool Ourselves We Arent Being Fooled. Wiley, 2013.Hassan, Steven. Combating Cult Mind Control: the #1 Best-Selling Guide to Protection, Rescue, and Recovery from Destructive Cults. Freedom of Mind Press, 2016.Kramer, Joel, and Diana Alstad. The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power. North Atlantic Books/Frog, 1993.Lalich, Janja, and Madeleine Landau. Tobias. Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships. Bay Tree Pub., 2006.Lalich, Janja. Escaping Utopia: Growing up in a Cult, Getting out, and Starting Over. Routledge, 2018.Langone, Michael D. Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse. W.W. Norton, 1995.Lifton, Robert Jay. Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: a Study of “Brainwashing” in China.W.W. Norton, 1961.Miller, Alice, et al. For Your Own Good: Hidden Cruelty in Child-Rearing and the Roots of Violence. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2002.Oakes, Len. Prophetic Charisma: the Psychology of Revolutionary Religious Personalities. Syracuse University Press, 1997.Shaw, Daniel. Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2014.Stein, Alexandra. Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attachment in Cults and Totalitarian Systems. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2017. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’ve been tracking Bobby’s misinformation, contradictions, and cursed networks for three years. And now he’s having his moment, and it’s anyone’s guess how far he’ll run. But why is he so appealing on the presidential stage? Why is he polling at 20%, with his favorability in double digits against Biden? It’s not just that his endless rhetoric appeals to libertarians on the right and paranoiacs on the left. It’s that he casts a charismatic spell that echoes, exacerbates, and amplifies some of the deepest conflicts in the American psyche—between tradition and rebellion, nostalgia and grievance, idealism and paranoia.Bobby, you see, is never quite who he seems to be. In one moment he’s the prodigal prince of Camelot, seen through a sepia lens. In the next he’s a tortured and braying conspiracy theorist, lit by the blue light of countless screens.Show NotesRFK Jr. says COVID may have been 'ethnically targeted' to spare Jews A Kennedy and His Mentor Part Ways Over River Group - The New York Times Robert F Kennedy Jr says he has ‘conversations with dead people’ | Democrats | The Guardian Transcript for Robert F. Kennedy Jr: CIA, Power, Corruption, War, Freedom, and Meaning | Lex Fridman Podcast #388Beware: we ignore Robert F Kennedy Jr’s candidacy at our peril | Naomi Klein | The Guardian Most People Believe In JFK Conspiracy Theories | FiveThirtyEight Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek unpacks what’s really going on in conspiritualist messages about the "climate change narrative" and how they use an assault of varying degrees of credible information to conflate issues, some of which they then monetize.Then, he looks at how messages go horribly astray when the full context is missing—something quite common in social media, and which upcoming main episode guest, Tobias Rose-Stockwell, calls “context creep.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A granular—let’s say quantum-sized—look at how RFK Jr.’s wealthiest and most influential New Age supporters are thinking about his candidacy. Aubrey Marcus and Charles Eisenstein disclosed it all on a two-hour podcast released on June 21, providing a nearly-perfect encapsulation of every theme of our beat. Their performance shows how dedicated conspiritualists keep the faith as they graduate out of the group-encounter retreat economy and into the mainstream political arena.Show NotesThe Future Of The World Depends On Us w/ Charles Eisenstein  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Neuroscientist Andrew Huberman has become one of the most popular science podcasters in the world. His regular two- to four-hour episodes feature a dizzying assault of information on topics like physical and mental fitness, psychedelics, hair loss, brain optimization, and a host of other topics, sometimes with expert guests, while at other times he goes solo. And many of these episodes are super informative and inspirational. And yet, at times it seems like Huberman is sacrificing quality for quantity. This week, we look at three instances in which Andrew Huberman appears to be speaking outside of his lane, or perhaps overhyping supplements for his own benefit, and we want to know what else is being sacrificed along the way. McGill Office for Science and Society science communicator, Jonathan Jarry, joins the discussion.Show NotesAndrew Huberman Has Supplements on the BrainHow Podcaster Andrew Huberman Got America to Care About ScienceThe Real-Life Diet of Andrew Huberman, Who Switches to Red Party Lights After DarkThe Huberman EffectNEUROSCIENTIST: This Habit Makes You UGLY | Andrew HubermanPaul Ingraham critique of Huberman“Evidence-Based Medicine” vs Science-Based MedicineDave Asprey’s Use of PED’sNew York Times review of Tim Ferris’s book 4-Hour BodyMichelle Wong’s query about sunscreen crossing blood-brain barrierNeuroscientist Asaf Weisman’s opinion on HubermanSports Scientist Matt Stranberg opinion on Huberman“Health Nerd” Gideon Meyer-Katz on misrepresented “cold-plunge” paper Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices