
Brief: Why Does Every Conspiracy Theory Lead Back to Antisemitism? (w/Ben Cohen)
Derek talks with The Banter founder, Ben Cohen, about the modern state of antisemitism and the questionable tactics of Russell Brand and Aubrey Marcus.

153: The Anti-Sunscreen Movement (w/Sara Aniano & Michelle Wong)
Derek talks to ADL disinformation analyst Sara Aniano and cosmetic chemist Michelle Wong about the anti-sunscreen movement.

Brief: Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Therapy Schtick
To see how her sleight-of-hand works, Matthew examines two classic Marianne Williamson encounters to show that the answers she gives on the stump aren’t much different from the answers she gives on her New Age retreats.

152: Tulsi Gabbard’s Krishna Consciousness (w/Nitai Joseph)
What does it mean for a prominent American politician to come into power as the sleeper cell of an eccentric Hindu-American cult? Nitai Joseph shares heritage with Tulsi Gabbard, as he also grew up in a Hare Krishna sect. He joins to discuss this lineage.

151: Satan Wants You Watch Party (Spoilers)
Canadian filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve Adams have a new documentary out called “Satan Wants You,” and it fills in a lot of the blanks in our prior “Swan Song Series” reporting with incredible archival footage and brave interviews from friends and family members.

Brief: Unmasking Liana Shanti (w/Jennings Brown)
Who is Liana Shanti, and why isn’t she Liane Wilson any more? Matthew talks to Jennings Brown to uncover an answer.

150: Spiritual Influencer Theory
Julian and Matthew go big-picture in this tour through all the elements that construct and drive spiritual Influencers.

Brief: The Promises & (Mostly) Perils of Ketamine Therapy
With Ketamine Wellness Centers and Field Trip Health shutting down ketamine clinics across the country, are psychedelic entrepreneurs placing too much emphasis on scaling and shareholders and not enough on healing, even though their marketing efforts claim the opposite?

149: Spiritual Heartbreak
Six stories of Spiritual Heartbreak from Conspirituality’s Patreon supporters.

Brief: The Spirituality of Vaccine & Mask Panics
Why do so many inflammatory culture war issues crystallize around vaccines and masks? What is so compelling about these forms of public health and mutual aid, that they become central to the right-wing imagination? Matthew argues that even those are surface stories, covering over a trembling anxiety about the status of the body in relation to the State, and God.

148: Marianne Williamson and Asshole Jesus
Marianne Williamson is running for president…again. How does her history with and belief in A Course in Miracles affect her campaign? And what about those charges of interpersonal abuse?

147: The Censorship Megaphone
Researching and documenting digital disinformation—and coordinating to combat its malevolent agendas—is now all being described as a pseudo-academic scam, a hoax covering up an authoritarian liberal campaign of vile and secretive censorship.

146: The Reality of Online Child Abuse (w/Håkon Høydal)
Matthew sits down with Håkon Høydal, an investigative journalist in Norway who has spent years researching and exposing the most abject behaviors on the dark web.

Special Interview: Nostalgia for the Superego (w/Sam Binkley)
Matthew sits down with Sam Binkley, Professor of Sociology at Emerson College in Boston to discuss his 2007 book Getting Loose: Lifestyle Consumption in the 1970s.

145: Fever Dream Goes Mainstream in Florida
The propaganda and sadism is so despairing that Derek might need religion, and Matthew might lose himself in retro fantasies of Disneyworld. Luckily, Julian talks with Sarasota anti-DeSantis activist Terra Kater about fighting the good fight under the hot sun.

Brief: Roku-Q, The Sequel (w/Alex Kaplan)
Senior online extremism and disinformation researcher, Alex Kaplan of Media Matters joins Julian to share his reporting on the latest developments on QAnon.

144: The Magic Spells of Wellness (w/Colleen Derkatch)
Professor of Rhetoric Colleen Derkatch joins Julian to discuss the techniques of the meaning miasma. Her focus is on wellness rhetoric specifically, and how it points to incipient illness, encourages recreational diagnostics, and describes daily routines as liturgies that grant membership in divine communities.

Brief: Flood the Zone (w/Dr Dan Wilson)
Answering the current wave of confusing vaccine misinformation. Julian is joined by molecular biologist Dr. Dan Wilson.

Brief: Reggae Muzak
Derek looks at the cultural damage done when musicians co-opt musical styles to promote their own propaganda, which is often at odds with the social struggles of the oppressed class that created the music.

142: Destination Rabbit Hole (w/Anna Merlan)
The Valentine's Day weekend crystals and angel cards fest of disjointed spirituality meets dodgy science, Conscious Life Expo, just celebrated its 21st year as the premiere gathering point for awakened seekers choosing to come out of sovereign superposition and manifest in space-time reality.