Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. ...
Derek and Julian discuss Robert Paxton's 2004 book, The Anatomy of Fascism, in light of 2025 America.
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43:37
250: The Mercola Tapes
McGill University science communicator, Jonathan Jarry, was recently given hundreds of hours of Zoom calls between alt-med salesman, Joseph Mercola, and a supposed clairvoyant that goes by Bahlon. Jonathan joins us to discuss what he found.
Show Notes
Brad Schimel Admitted to Having "Psychologically Beat the Daylights Out" Of His 8-Year-Old Daughter - MeidasTouch News
Rallying Anti-Musk Donors, Liberal Judge Raises $24 Million in Key Court Contest - The New York Times
Here are claims about Wisconsin’s Supreme Court candidates — and the facts
Ahead of Wisconsin Supreme Court election, Elon Musk PAC offers cash for pledge - WPR
Trump backs Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate in hotly contested race - ABC News
Billionaires become a focus of the 2025 Wisconsin Supreme Court race
Brad Schimel Begins Campaigning With Anti-MLK Advocate Charlie Kirk - MeidasTouch News
Exclusive Videos Show Dr. Joe Mercola’s Dangerous Ideas Whipped up by Alleged Medium
Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable
Terminated HHS grants
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1:00:18
Bonus Sample: The War on Fat People
The Wellness Company is now selling retatrutide, a weight loss drug currently undergoing stage 3 trials by Eli Lilly. An anti-vax company that uses fear-based marketing to push supplements appears to be overstepping legal lines. Yet will they be held accountable in an RFK Jr-led HHS?
Derek looks at private market healthcare propaganda from Ronald Reagan to Kennedy, showing how health is not the real goal of MAHA. But if they can sell untested products to fat and chronically ill patients along the way, all the better.
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6:07
Brief: Jordan Peterson’s Shady Billionaire Backers
Julian covers the recent Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference in London. Headlined by Jordan Peterson, featuring Konstantin Kisin, Ayan Hirsi Ali, Jonathan Pageau, and Eric Weinstein, the conference positioned itself as an inspiring cultural gathering focused on reclaiming Western values.
Behind the scenes, a hedge-fund billionaire new media baron, conservative libertarian think tank, shady funding source in Dubai, and an evangelical English aristocrat use the prestige of ARC and its celebrity figureheads to popularize a very specific political, economic, and religious agenda.
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40:41
249: Kings of Pain
Trump administration Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, recently stated the American economy is going to need a "detox" period. And so today we look at peak the conspirituality convergences between biological and political purification projects.
Quinn Slobodian, professor of international history at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, joins Matthew in the final segment to offer his big picture view on the Kings of Pain.
Show Notes
Johns Hopkins to lose 2,000 jobs after Trump’s $800m cut in USAid funding
Young scientists see career pathways vanish as schools adapt to federal funding cuts
Report: mRNA vaccines are in RFK Jr’s crosshairs; funding in question
FDA Makes Flu Vaccine Recommendations Without Convening Advisors
HHS sends all employees a $25,000 voluntary buyout offer
Exclusive: US CDC plans study into vaccines and autism, sources say
USDA gears up for MAHA dietary guidelines update
Musk Said No One Has Died Since Aid Was Cut. That Isn’t True.
Watch CNBC's full interview with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent
Why we must teach medical students about the role of physicians during the Holocaust | AAMC
Teaching Hard Truths About Medicine and the Holocaust | Journal of Ethics | American Medical Association
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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.
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