Shows
ConspiritualityBrief: Nair, Mamdani, and Culture against the Culture War (Pt 1)Well, I seem to always be inspired by the person who is considered marginal. Firstly, their spirit of survival, their resilience, their lack of self-pity, the ability usually to laugh in the face of having nothing and to create a kind of sense of flamboyance and life at any cost, despite having you know no resources of any kind that are visible. That's what inspires me and I think in making portraits of the so-called outsiders, I'm also then allowed to question what is that society that deems us an outsider?
— Mira Nair on BBC “Masterpiece”, 11/29/04
When...2025-08-0943 minConspiritualityBonus Sample: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 2)Matthew is back today for more with Ben Case: profiling Gene Sharp and the (non)politics of strategic nonviolence, plus his strange funding sources. Also: why did Erica Chenoweth speak out against antifascist Trump protesters in January of 2017, and suggest their research proved that property damage and scuffles with the police would ruin any opposition movement to Trump? Also: where does the funding come from for all this bad research? Gene Sharp worked for the Department of Defense, and today, Bill Ackerman is a top funder of strategic nonviolence research.
Case is a retired professional Muaythai fighter, a...2025-05-1906 minConspiritualityBrief: Beyond Violence and Nonviolence (Part 1)You may have grown up with the term “nonviolence” shining like a pole star over every discussion of how we accomplish socio-political change. But what does it really mean? And who defines violence for that matter—beyond the police, the courts, and others in power?
Today, the theory of non-violence has grown beyond its Gandhian, spiritual aspiration roots, while retaining an irrational faith and offering a distorted view of resistance history. It is now a think-tank-approved, purportedly evidence-based method that guarantees movement success.
That reasoning comes from the pioneering scholarship of the pacifist Gene Sharp in the...2025-05-1747 minConspiritualityBrief: Post-Election Online Survivor Group DynamicsThe post-election online chaos has a lot in common with what can go wrong in online survivor groups. Matthew tracks how opportunities for connection and solidarity can crater into gravity wells of recrimination, trauma-dumping, moral outrage porn, and the rise of new influence hierarchies. Not just because of differences in politics and values and temperament—but because of inequality and privilege. A meditation on the difference between building a boat to sail in vs. a boat in a bottle, on considering the second arrow, and on when to log the fuck off. Show NotesMu...2024-11-1617 minConspirituality223: Tucker Carlson’s Toxic CleanseIn 2022, Tucker Carlson produced a documentary called “The End of Men,” his contribution to the so-called “masculinity crisis.” That’s when testicle tanning hit the mainstream, which one astute observer dubbed “bromeopathic therapy.”Turns out the former Fox News host isn’t done dabbling in conspirituality. This year, he’s platformed the QAnon Shaman, Jacob Chansley; lyme disease conspiracist, Kris Newby; the “other” Naomi, Naomi Wolf; brother-sister optimizers, Casey and Calley Means; and he’s currently on a 16-city tour with the likes of Russell Brand and Alex Jones. He’s also partly responsible for helping usher RFK Jr into Donald Trump’s...2024-09-121h 15ConspiritualityBrief: Unmasking Jay Shetty (w/John McDermott)Former monk turned spiritual influencer to the stars, Jay Shetty, has amassed 15 million followers on Instagram. He’s interviewed Michelle Obama, Kim Kardashian, and Kobe Bryant on his popular podcast. Shetty has received accolades from Gwenyth Paltrow and Ellen Degeneres. He even officiated J Lo and Ben Affleck’s wedding.Yet when LA-based writer John McDermott was assigned to cover Shetty for Esquire, something seemed…off. When he started pulling at some threads, Esquire pulled out of the feature. Fortunately, The Guardian agreed to publish McDermott’s investigative reporting, in which he found little of Shetty’s origin sto...2024-03-2329 minConspirituality178: Silicon Valley Veda5 am. Day 4 of executive plant medicine retreat. The venture capital tech bro sits on a metaverse mountaintop, immersed in deep meditation. He hears a hum—a vibration from the great beyond. A mantra rises up like kundalini gas bubbles just in front of his spine: techno-capital machine.Today we dissect Marc Andreessen’s anarcho-capitalist attempt at a Silicon Valley religious doctrine, The Techno-Optimist Manifesto.If you’ve never donated through GiveWell before, you can have your donation matched up to $100 before the end of the year or as long as matching funds last. To claim, go to...2023-11-021h 25
The Banter Roundtable PodcastConspirituality Book: How To Vaccinate Yourself From New Age MisinformationI recently spoke with Derek Beres from the Conspirituality Podcast about the new book he authored with Matthew Remski and Julian Walker ‘Conspirituality - How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat.’ It is an incredibly timely book that guides readers through the deeply troubling world of charismatic New Age conspiracy theorists. Based on their podcast that was birthed at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020, Beres, Remski and Walker look at the philosophical underpinnings of “Conspirituality” (a term used to describe the overlap of conspiracy theories and New Age spirituality), and navigate the rapidly evolving...2023-08-091h 03ConspiritualityBrief: Why Does Every Conspiracy Theory Lead Back to Antisemitism? (w/Ben Cohen)We've seen it over and over again: somehow, in some way, globalists are involved. George Soros is pulling the strings. Jews will replace us, with other minorities, or fund the interests that are against "us."Derek talks with The Banter founder, Ben Cohen, about the modern state of antisemitism. They also discuss Russell Brand's meteoric rise into right-wing celebrity, as well as Aubrey Marcus's uninformed takes on vaccines and politics.Show NotesThe Banter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices2023-05-1328 minConspirituality136: Virtual Strongmen (w/Ruth Ben-Ghiat)Where have all the strongmen gone, long time scrolling? Where have all the strongmen gone, long time ago? Where have all the strongmen gone? Gone to posting, everyone. Oh when will they ever turn off their phones? Not anytime soon. Trump on Truth Social, Modi on Instagram, Bolsonaro tweeting from a Kentucky Fried Chicken in Miami.Today we’re looking at the new strongmen at the top of our political circuses. According to our guest, strongman-whisperer historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, they’re of new breed. They’re not the steampunk fascists of 100 years ago. They’re not C...2023-01-121h 20ConspiritualityBrief: The Right-Wing Machinery of Stochastic TerrorIn this special report, Julian examines how the machinery of right-wing propaganda engineers the necessary conditions for stochastic terror. The recent waves of dehumanizing anti-LGBTQ bigotry heighten the probability of extremist violence. When it happens—as in November's tragic mass-shooting at Club Q, pointing this out leads right-wing media to quickly accuse the left of exploiting tragedy. Worse still, we're supposedly defending "groomers" and "child mutilation."Meanwhile literal swastika flag-waving Nazis, as well as Proud Boys, Patriot Front, and other armed militia-types are increasingly showing up outside LGBTQ venues across the country. Terrorists deliberately sabota...2022-12-1348 minConspirituality129: White Christian Nationalism (w/Philip Gorski & Samuel Perry)American-style white Christian Nationalism tells of a promised land given by God to the Puritan settlers. Their divine mandate for political dominance sanctifies a violent history that stretches from the 1690's all the way through to modern right-wing politics. Our interview today is with sociologists, Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry, authors of The Flag and The Cross. We discuss their study of Christian Nationalism as a white supremacist phenomenon that has always leaned into conspiracism and a primordial obsession with blood purity and blood sacrifice. With the dreaded midterm elections now in our rearview, Derek...2022-11-171h 42ConspiritualityBonus Sample: Kanye, Candace & The Christian BillionairesAntisemitism is in the news again, as Candace Owens defends Kanye West and Kyrie Irving, while her boss, Ben Shapiro shakes his head in dismay. In this Bonus special report, Julian looks into the Assembly of Yahweh family, which funds conservative new media giants, The Daily Wire and PragerU.How do we make sense of the racial and religious tensions created by the strange bedfellow alliances of right-wing propaganda?-- -- --Support us on PatreonPre-order Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat: America | Canada 2022-11-1408 minConspirituality68: The Jordan Peterson of Fitness Bros (w/Antonio Valladares)Paul Chek will tell you how much he’s influenced the fitness industry. He’ll tell you that he popularized Swiss Balls, and about his time working with the Jordan-era Chicago Bulls and then the championship Lakers. The kinesiologist and founder of the Chek Institute, which offers numerous training programs under the slogan, “We teach the science of living well,” claims that he’s always taken a holistic approach to weightlifting and the gym. In fact, the man does not mind telling you how vast his influence is.Embedded in Chek’s holistic approach is a penchant for conspira...2021-09-101h 13Conspirituality59: Is Rudolf Steiner Dead Yet? (w/Jennifer Sapio)What should a global network of popular and private schools do when faced with evidence that the foundation of their pedagogy was laid by a racist, proto-fascist pseudoscientist? What should they do when it becomes clear that they are evangelizing while pretending to teach secular humanism? These are the sticky questions raised by Dr. Jennifer Sapio in today’s interview with Matthew. Sapio taught for three years at the Austin Waldorf School. She was hired from her secular training, but gradually found herself drawn into what she calls an “inherently racist cult.” Her mentors pushed her towards accepting the 19th-cen...2021-07-092h 22ConspiritualityBonus: Sh*tposting and The Embodiment ConferenceMark Walsh, the proprietor of The Embodiment Conference, was recently challenged by cultural somaticist Tada Hozumi in an Open Letter, penned by Hozumi in lieu of accepting the invitation to speak at the Conference. Hozumi proposed that Walsh look more closely at the exclusionary economy of his ambitious project — specifically, at how it centers white men as the heroes of the somatic techniques that colonialism handed them. The letter, dignified and sincere, offered a concise and workable framing of a fraught issue. Walsh did not respond directly, but on his personal Facebook shitposted about being oppressed by “c*ntery” of soc...2020-11-0946 minConspirituality20: The Second Wave: Pastel Q Goes Undercover (w/Ben Lee)The reality of a second COVID wave started back in the Spring. Now that With over half of American states are experiencing increased cases, the conspiracy theories are surging. At least 32 White House staff and allies, as well as the president and his wife, have tested positive, likely originating in an unmasked close-quartered super-spreader Rose Garden celebration of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett.As Trump poses for wheezing conquering hero propaganda following his questionable return from Walter Reed, another type of second wave is being led by brandwashed conspiritualists. Yoga and wellness loyalists...2020-10-092h 21Conspirituality5: Disease as a Metaphor (w/Maggie Levantovskaya)Conspiritualists are compelling for numerous reasons: they’re charismatic; they claim to transcend polarized politics; they claim to speak the unspeakable in a quest for hidden truths. It makes sense that a key rhetorical instrument in their toolbox is poetry.“The real virus is fear” is a unifying metaphor for conspiritualists, but there are others. In conspiritual-ese, the immune system is like the Christian soul: eternal, perfect, and solitary. Masks are signs of submission that symbolize the suppression of free speech and even slavery. Public health departments are bureaucracies of death. Vaccines are poisons design...2020-06-261h 42