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Conspirituality

Conspirituality

By: Derek Beres Matthew Remski Julian Walker
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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.© 2023 Conspirituality Philosophy Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • 278: This Podcast is Illegal

    278: This Podcast is Illegal
    Oct 9 2025
    Our podcast is not actually illegal—yet. Thanks to Trump’s recent Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-7, or “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” it soon could be. Today we talk about one of the starkest moves into fascism Americans have yet seen from MAGA: what it is, how pre-crimes can soon be reality, and the fear factor this memo is designed to inspire. We’ll also discuss some possible responses to the next phase of MAGA authoritarianism. Show Notes Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators” What Is NSPM-7? Over 3,000 Nonprofits Sound Alarm on New Trump Directive Trump Orders Broad Effort to Root Out Groups He Says Organize Political Violence The meme-ification of political violence The Upside of Collapse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    57 mins
  • Bonus Sample: Death is Just A Doorway

    Bonus Sample: Death is Just A Doorway
    Oct 6 2025
    The People’s Temple in Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, The Order of the Solar Temple. All cults that ended in tragic mass suicides. How could such lofty aspirations end so badly? For today’s self-contained installment of The Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian explores the shadow side of the anxiety-relieving religious notion that death is just a doorway into a better place. How do charismatic prophets indoctrinate believers into ending their lives, and often the lives of their children, in the name of spirituality? Julian briefly examines each of these groups, along with Paul Nthenge Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministry—450 of whose followers starved themselves to death in a Kenyan forest in 2023. Then he transitions into exploring philosophical, psychological, evolutionary, and neuroscience-based ways of understanding the elements that make these spiritualized perversions of our survival instincts possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    6 mins
  • Brief: He’s Coming For All Vaccines

    Brief: He’s Coming For All Vaccines
    Oct 4 2025
    RFK Jr posted a seven-minute video earlier this week that assures us that vaccines aren't all that great, actually. Derek reads the studies Kennedy references as proof. You might be surprised to learn the HHS Secretary has very selective reading. Show Notes Annual Summary of Vital Statistics: Trends in the Health of Americans During the 20th Century The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the
Decline of Mortality in the
United States in the Twentieth Century Infectious Diseases and Social Change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    26 mins
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