We dissect Marc Andreessen’s anarcho-capitalist attempt at a Silicon Valley religious doctrine, The Techno-Optimist Manifesto.

Bari Weiss recently held a "debate" about the failure of the sexual revolution. Derek gets the lowdown from journalist Michelle Lhooq, who wonders how the New Right captured the cool factor of the American counterculture—and how the Left gets it back.

Arizona’s recent increase in “sovereign citizen filings” connects to a New Age spiritual center called the Ultimate Light Mission. Julian talks to investigative reporter Isaac Stone Simonelli.

We look at choice man-stan statements from Charles Eisenstein (RFK Jr’s Director of Messaging), and psychonaut Daniel Pinchbeck. We also look at a pre-allegations interview Brand did with meditation guru Jack Kornfield to learn more about how Brand has ingratiated himself to wellness entrepreneurs flattered by his attention. 

On October 9, RFK Jr. brought his three-podcast-bros-in-a-trench-coat campaign to Philadelphia. On a dias across from Independence Hall, he announced his anticipated departure from the Democratic party and his new status as an independent candidate. Matthew and Julian profile his conspirituality credentials, his diagonalist politics, and his incoherent positions.

There no clear left-right polarity in conspirituality. And Horseshoe Theory won’t cut it. We’re in the age of Diagonalism, and things are very, very weird. 

Professor Tyson Yunkaporta of Apalech clan joins Matthew to discuss the complexities of Australian history—including how some vulnerable Indigenous folks have been lured into supporting the “No” vote and providing cover for libertarian and white supremacist agendas.

Drs Andrea Love and Jessica Steier from the “Unbiased Science” podcast tell Derek why the new COVID boosters are important, discuss the challenges of science communication in an age of misinformation, and confirm that colloidal silver and essential oils are not, in fact, immune boosters.

What the hell happened between the Dalai Lama and that Indian boy? The internet served up a raft of painfully inflammatory takes, so I took a month to talk with Tibetologists and review the literature on sexual abuse in Tibetan Buddhist contexts.

Derek is joined by Psymposia co-founder, editor, and producer, Brian Normand; medicine, society, and culture research fellow, Neşe Devenot, PhD; and managing editor and harm reduction advocate, David Nickles. This far-reaching discussion about the history and future of psychedelics touches upon numerous aspects of this burgeoning industry.

In light of the recent allegations, Matthew offers a backgrounder on what we’ve learned about Brand through conspirituality and cultic studies and from his opportunistic relationships to wellness, self-help, and Kundalini Yoga. Ending with a focus on how his yoga world LARPing became a launch pad for his success as a spirituality-coded conspiracy theorist in the age of COVID.

Author and friend of the pod Mike Rothschild is no relation to the banking family that has lived rent-free in the minds of antisemites and conspiracy theorists for over two centuries now. His new book is ​​Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories. Mike joins us to discuss.

Tommy Diacono is a five-time Burner. He also helped organize the climate protest at Burning Man 2023. He joins two-time Burner Derek for a discussion about why his crew blocked the roads, the importance of rituals, and the importance of knowing when rituals need to end.

Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip into the Mirror World is a polymathic work that serves up new political heuristics with the firepower we’ve come to expect from the coiner of “disaster capitalism.” A Dante-spiral through our circles of cultural hell, it’s also a memoir of demoralization, self-evaluation, and persistent hope.

Naomi Klein’s new book, “Doppelganger,” has landed like a Rosetta Stone for divining the incoherent politics of the figures we’ve covered all these years—and the cultural and moral vacuums they fill. But most surprisingly—and we think our listenership will be grateful for this—this rich memoir of demoralization and self-evaluation also offers a deep undercurrent of persistent hope.

Our guest today is award-winning journalist and author David Neiwert, whose book The Age of Insurrection explains how we got here—and points a way forward.

One piece of connective tissue between the right and wellness influencers we cover is their liberal use of the language of Civl Rights to describe their completely incomparable grievances. Derek covers a few recent examples, centered around one particularly troublesome analogy by a tech-bro entrepreneur using slavery as an analogy for his hustle.

A conversation about transparent vs. non-transparent labour practices, performative intimacy, the gendered inequalities of wellness work, and how Neo-Tantrics who use handguns in their foreplay made their presence known at the January 6th insurrection.

The anti-vaxxers have a new Bible: an anonymously published (and RFK Jr.-connected) 500+ page tome, Turtles All the Way Down. Julian talks with pediatrician and pediatric cardiologist, Dr. Frank Han of ScienceBasedMedicine.org, who is in the midst of a 10-part “grand debunk” of this 2022 compendium of pseudoscience scare-mongering.

Charismatic influence thrives in online spaces, regardless of spiritual overtones. Matt Browne and Chris Kavanagh of Decoding the Gurus have traced a path parallel to our own; examining the popular figures they call "secular gurus." They join us for a lively panel discussion on the overlaps and differences regarding conspiritualists, as well as their patented "Gurometer.”