Conspirituality
byDerek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker
ScienceSocialSocietyCulturePhilosophy
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...
Episodes(40 episodes)
Bonus Sample: The New Age Muslim Apocalyptic Prophet
From a repurposed orphanage in the North of England, Abdullah Hashem tells his audience in five languages, across two satellite TV companies, and multiple social media channels that he is the successor of Jesus and Mohammed, the “one true Pope” for Christians. In his carefully staged and ominously lit “basilica,” he lectures to his 200 residential followers (who emulate his idiosyncratic fashion style) about angels, aliens, reincarnation, and a planet where giant rabbits keep humans as pets. Oh and all about the coming apocalypse and his divinely chosen role in it.
Who is this American-Egyptian cult leader? Hashem grew up...
Published: Mar 23, 2026Duration: 8m 25s
Brief: The Book Men Actually Need
There's been talk about the "male loneliness epidemic" for years. Yet what about women? Derek reviews economist Corinne Low's recent book, Having It All, in light of this question, contrasting it with Scott Galloway's recent self-help book for men. The contrasts between the books couldn't be clearer.
Show Notes
Having It All: What Data Tells Us About Women's Lives and Getting the Most Out of Yours Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published: Mar 21, 2026Duration: 29m 36s
300: Farming Ballerinas
When Hannah and Daniel Neeleman recently went on camera to explain their position on raw milk, they assured their 22 million-plus following that they were going to follow regulations—with a bit of a grudge. The couple behind Ballerina Farm wasn’t going to let a little bacteria get in the way of their farming operations, so they’ll just focus on pasteurized products.
While not associated with MAHA, some of their takes on health certainly rhyme. So today we’ll get into this uber-popular feed: who they are, what they’re doing in the mountains of Utah, and how pr...
Published: Mar 19, 2026Duration: 56m 22s
Bonus Sample: Anxiety is The Pitt(s)
The Pitt recently exposed fans to the complexities and reality of panic attacks. Derek uses that moment in the exceptional show to discuss his own longstanding struggle with anxiety, exploring the latest science and interventions for dealing with them.
Show Notes
Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Panic Disorder in Adults
Management of generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder in general health care settings: new WHO recommendations
Anxiety Disorders Guidelines
Clinical Practice Guidelines for Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies in Anxiety Disorders and Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
Interoceptive Exposure
Short...
Published: Mar 16, 2026Duration: 6m 57s
Brief: The Stepford Wives Conference
Turning Point USA's Women’s Leadership Conference returns to Dallas in June. Derek and Julian take a look inside.
Show Notes
Antifeminist women’s summit: ‘The kitchen is where the real revolution starts’
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Published: Mar 14, 2026Duration: 29m 41s
299: American Jihad
As black rain falls from the smoke-choked skies of Tehran, the US and Israel continue their war against the Islamic Republic of Iran. From the start, Trump officials have seemed only to disagree on both the murky rationale and the objectives of their mission.
Meanwhile, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been flooded with reports of commanding officers rallying their troops with apocalyptic pep talks in which Trump has been anointed by Jesus to kick-off Armageddon. This should come as no surprise, given that Sec of Def Pete Hegseth, has been holding Christian Nationalist prayer and worship...
Published: Mar 12, 2026Duration: 1h 14m 38s
Bonus Sample: Michael Parenti Went to a Yoga Ashram
Matthew found out that the late Marxist historian Michael Parenti went on a yoga retreat at the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas. He clocked the BS immediately—unlike Matthew when he showed up in spaces like that decades later. Was political training the difference?
Show Notes
Michael Parenti "The Political Uses of Religion" Denver, Colorado 4.18.87
How a #MeToo Facebook Post Toppled a Yoga Icon | by Matthew Remski | GEN
Shielded for Decades, a Leader of Sivananda Yoga Finally Comes Under Fire for Alleged Abuse | GEN Learn more about your...
Published: Mar 9, 2026Duration: 5m 15s
Brief: Bishop Bootlicker Barron
Matthew digs into the fascism-enabling political theology of Bishop Robert Barron and the rightward slide of Big Catholic media. From his early admiration of Thomas Merton—carefully stripped of his antiwar and anti-capitalist passion—to his praise for Jordan Peterson, Marco Rubio, and Charlie Kirk, Barron repackages Red Scare tropes in the language of beauty, civility, and “religious liberty.”
And what about his virtual silence on ICE operations in Minnesota and the suffering of immigrants within his own diocese? What does “religious freedom” mean when it defends American exceptionalism more than human beings?
Show Notes
McGarry...
Published: Mar 7, 2026Duration: 45m 14s
298: MAHA’s Glyphosate Meltdown [feat Mallory DeMille]
Despite saying “I believe glyphosate causes cancer” a few weeks ago, RFK Jr quickly pivoted when his boss declared an executive order calling for the ramping up of glyphosate under a 75-year-old defense production act that also happens to give immunity to Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto.
MAHA activists immediately went into a frenzy, shocked that their tallow daddy would betray them like this. Mallory DeMille not only coined the term “tallow daddy,” she’s also been tracking the civil war that exploded in MAHA after Kennedy said, eh, maybe Roundup ain’t so bad after all.
...
Published: Mar 5, 2026Duration: 49m 43s
Bonus Sample: On Death & Being Human
Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortality projects” in the form of religion, culture, and political ideologies as unconscious ways to override the terror we feel at our uniquely self-aware knowledge that we will one day die. Where the orthodox priest promises eternal life, the cult leader might predict an alien apocalypse, while the authoritarian strongman invokes the transcendent glory of leading a chosen nation and race.
In light of a recent death in the family, Julian leans into Ernest Becker’s Pulit...
Published: Mar 2, 2026Duration: 8m 51s
Brief: Re-reading Casey Means
Casey Means was grilled by some Senators at her hearing for nomination of Surgeon General on Wednesday. Others lobbed softballs. Derek revisits the book that made her a star on the MAHA circuit, Good Energy, to detail all the misleading claims and outright misinformation.
Show Notes
Well, That Didn’t Sound Like Casey Means
Casey Means, Critic of Mainstream Medicine, Poised to Become Nation’s Top Doctor
What is Shared Clinical Decision Making?
Former Trump surgeon general: ‘Incomprehensible’ Senate is considering Means
"Good Energy" has very bad data
...
Published: Feb 28, 2026Duration: 25m 41s
297: The Epstein Satanic Panic
It’s hard for some people to accept that the normalized and unbridled accumulation of wealth and power is a selection process for apex predators, who wind up having overwhelming influence over the systems that enabled them.
The metaphysical reflex can provide a lot of relief: Epstein was uniquely evil, so different from the rest of us that he engaged in supernatural acts. He was a cosmic raider invading an otherwise balanced world.
In the chaos of facts and allusions that swirl around the Epstein Files, the nearest available and resonant metaphysics are found in th...
Published: Feb 26, 2026Duration: 1h 22m 45s
Bonus Sample: MAHA’s Silence is Deafening
MAHA isn’t a health movement. It’s a marketing engine driving activist propaganda. Derek looks at Tony Lyons, one of MAHA’s key architects, and his recent strategic memo sent to Republican leadership about how to use MAHA talking points to retain power in the midterm elections.
Show Notes
Tony Lyons’s strategic memo to GOP leadership
Examining Who Benefits From Kennedy’s Anti-Science MAHA Push
MAHA Supporters Form New Organization to Boost RFK’s Goals in D.C.
MAHA’s money man has built a political machine. Will it matter...
Published: Feb 23, 2026Duration: 5m 38s
Brief: Toxic Masculinity & The Epstein Files
In the wake of the DOJ’s dump of 3 million documents from the FBI’s Epstein investigation, journalists, content creators, and everyday people are forming narratives and schema for what it all means.
Social media is flooded with survivor stories, overwhelming disgust, rage and grief, and reports of anxiety, sleep disturbance, and difficulty functioning in the world (mostly from women). Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy memes are being resurrected. Satanic Ritual Abuse materials are again circulating, which imbue sex trafficking and child abuse with sensationalized supernatural overtones.
The Epstein class must be held accountable. Alongside that, Juli...
Published: Feb 21, 2026Duration: 36m 58s
296: The Chopra Files
Deepak Chopra is all over the Epstein files. Are we surprised? Nope. But we are interested in the various layers of his entanglement and what they say about the ethics and politics at play in the shadow of Big Wellness.
Show Notes
Self-Help Guru Sorry He Got Busted for Vile Epstein Emails
Deepak Chopra: New Age Guru, UCSD Prof – and Epstein Confidant
God Is A Construct, Cute Girls Are Real': Bestselling Spiritual Author Deepak Chopra's Emails To Epstein Revealed
Deepak Chopra told Epstein to 'bring your girls.' Here's th...
Published: Feb 19, 2026Duration: 59m 32s
Bonus Sample: Mark Carney’s Secular Catholicism
Mark Carney is a devout Catholic, and his economic vision came from a challenge posed by Pope Francis. Matthew walks through the contradictions of Carney’s economic spirituality.
Show Notes
Values by Mark Carney | Penguin Random House Canada
Pope Francis says he wasn't offended by 'communist crucifix' gift
The Catholic Case for Communism - America Magazine
Pope Francis: “If I See the Gospel in a Sociological Way Only, Yes, I Am a Communist, and So Too Is Jesus” - The American TFP
Exclusive: Pope Francis disusses Ukraine, U.S. bishop...
Published: Feb 16, 2026Duration: 5m 3s
Brief: Mark Carney’s Nice But Canada Sells Arms to ICE
Matthew pokes at the contradictions behind Prime Minister Mark Carney’s polished Davos attempt to distance Canada from U.S. chaos, while Canadian companies continue profiting from the U.S. domestic terror regime.
Drawing on reporting by Rachel Gilmore, Matthew looks at how Canada’s “middle power” liberalism masks deep complicity with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through arms, surveillance tech, and security contracts.
Carney’s benevolent affect continues the tradition of obscuring a longer history of exclusionary border politics. He’s there to manage outrage without challenging the capitalist structures that escalate into authoritarian...
Published: Feb 14, 2026Duration: 19m 51s
295: The Attia Files
Over 1,000 children and women were potentially victims of Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking and sexual abuse. It is not clear how deeply Peter Attia was enmeshed in Epstein's core activities, but we do know he belonged to an important tier of his operation: the influencer-celebrity-intelligentsia set that legitimized him as a sophisticate across a wide range of disciplines.
We revisit Attia in light of his 1,700+ appearances in the Epstein Files.
Show Notes
285: Can Peter Attia Live Forever?
Longevity guru Peter Attia keeps CBS News role despite showing up in Epstein files
P...
Published: Feb 12, 2026Duration: 58m 10s
Bonus Sample: Armed Struggle
In the wake of ICE murders, some are calling for more protestors with guns, or at least to prepare to meet fire with fire. Julian examines the history of armed struggle in South Africa and Northern Ireland, as well as the arguments for nonviolent vs militant political movements.
Is there a way back from the turning point at which people recruit their friends and families into neighborhood militias, learn to kill soldiers and civilians in the name of a cause, and construct chains of command that justify executing informants and collaborators from within?
Does this a...
Published: Feb 9, 2026Duration: 6m 28s
Brief: MAHA is a Supplements Grift
Two new MAHA-approved bills would force insurance companies to cover supplements and shield homeopathic manufacturers from any liability while allowing them to make more health claims. As Derek argues, this is what Kennedy has always been aiming for: shuffle as many alt-med products into circulation as possible while ensuring they don't need any of those pesky regulations pharmaceuticals must endure.
Show Notes
West Virginia House Bill 4760
Texas HR 7050
Supplements Are a $70 Billion Industry. RFK Jr. Is Good for Business.
RFK Jr.’s MAHA Movement Picks Up Steam State by St...
Published: Feb 7, 2026Duration: 23m 24s