In considering who wins and loses with this new development, Matthew reviews recent U.S. yoga-war history: battles between the Hindu American Foundation and Yoga Journal, the rise of Christian non-yoga-yoga "Praise Moves", and Encinitas Union School District got sued for allegedly violating the Establishment Clause by contracting devotees of Pattabhi Jois to teach the kids yoga.

Matthew and Julian talk to Dr. Bradley Onishi, author of Preparing for War and host of the podcast, Straight White American Jesus.

Following up on our review and coverage of Satan Wants You, Matthew talks with Canadian filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve Adams about how they excavated the origin story of the Satanic Panic movement.

QAnon Anonymous podcast hosts, Travis View and Jake Rockatansky, join for the crossover episode we’ve been waiting for.

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. 

In light of a recent labor lawsuit, Derek looks at GT Dave's origins, the unrealistic health claims he made about kombucha, the many troubles the company has endured over the decades, and how GT's response aligns with the conspiritualist playbook.

Media researcher Tobias Rose-Stockwell joins Derek for an in-depth conversation about the history of news and the future of media literacy through the lens of his new book, Outrage Machine.

In this contemplation, Matthew unpacks various aspects of survivor shame, with help from the writing of cult theorists and recovery counselors Alexandra Stein, Daniel Shaw, and Holocaust survivor Primo Levi.

RFK Jr 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.

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.

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.

No, our book is not a conspiracy theory. There’s no one piloting this plane. And yet, the patterns we’ve tracked on this podcast and in our book at times suggest something organized and coherent.

On June 26, presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy, Jr hosted a "health policy roundtable" on Rumble. His guests included Joe Mercola, Sherri Tenpenny, Mikki Willis, and a host of other anti-vax luminaries.

Matthew narrates the first three sections of the audiobook, Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat.

Friend of the pod and historian of American fitness culture, Natalia Petrzela, joins Matthew to shed light on a new development in RFK Jr’s campaign to disrupt the Democratic Party: his recent workout campaign videos from the barbell patio of Gold’s Gym in Venice beach. 

Julian explores a different version of Conspirituality. This form translates QAnon for a European audience and calls for a return to the golden age of the Russian empire, but also to an ancient pre-Christian Slavic identity united across borders in pagan faith.

“It’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong," wrote Richard Feynman. But does curiosity end where awareness cuts off? Derek explores the positive and negative sides of the spiritual search, especially in light of the burgeoning eco-spiritual movement.

Matthew sets pseudoscience and spiritual bypassing into the social context of cultic relationships, reviewing some of the tortured dynamics we monitored during COVID, laying out a few cult-resistant hygiene rules, some pointers on avoiding stigmatization, and asking tough questions about where the whole cult discourse thing is going in this parasocial era.

We've spent three years tracking the slide from online wellness influencer to red-pilled conspiracy promoter, from yoga and breath work teacher to anti-vax ivermectin slinger, from vegan raw chocolate aficionado to anti-immigrant, transphobic, election denial. Turns out, the roots of this phenomenon run deep. We speak to these today.

How can we protect ourselves and our children from online hate and misinformation? Julian interviews Imran Ahmed about the latest work the Center for Countering Digital Hate has done on TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook ads for state-sponsored antisemitic propaganda from Iran.