291: My Chinese Buddhist Israeli AI Guru
Turns out AI isn’t just for spirituality. There’s an entire industry of health slopfluencers pushing untested supplements, as Derek covers before Matthew breaks down the AI Orientalism of Yang Mun.
Brief: Censorship Industrial Complex
Derek and Julian break down the US government’s decision to begin deporting people whose views they don’t like, including repeat Conspirituality guest, Imran Ahmed.
290: Trump Derangement Science
What do fascists need to do to convince their rank and file that they’re the smartest in the room? They invent new science to trash the old science they didn’t like. First, we look into how RFK Jr is “making the proof” for all his scientific endeavors, then unpacking a new proposal from the AZ state sena Janae Shamp about how she’s going to get to the bottom of the clinical diagnosis of Trump Derangement Syndrome. First, we read a lovely bio-romance poem from our favorite ex-Mormon vampire millionaire, Bryan Johnson.
Brief: Class Wars on Christmas
Contrary to what Bill O’Reilly would tell you, there has never been a “war on Christmas.” Rather, Christmas itself has always been a battleground over love, dignity, and resources. What we’re really fighting over is who gets care in systems built on scarcity and extraction.
289: Big Wellness’s Nicotine Gambit [feat Mallory DeMille]
Mallory DeMille returns to report on one of the most mind-numbing wellness hacks of recent years: nicotine. Apparently, patches don’t just give you energy, they’re also good for…”spike proteins,” cancer, and autism?
Brief: Nicki Minaj Goes MAGA
Turning Point USA's AmFest 2025 saw a record number of attendees pour into Phoenix last weekend to watch a host of MAGA and MAHA luminaries proclaim they're raging against the Deep State—even though their coalition is now the Deep State. Derek and Julian look at the conference through the lens of the white, Christian Nationalist identity politics on display.
Brief: Dr Mike vs MAHA
Dr Mike has become one of the most effective debunkers of science misinformation. His second appearance on the uber-popular show, Jubilee's Surrounded, pitted him against 20 fans of RFK Jr. Derek and Julian discuss the debate, as well as the value of Jubilee in an oversaturated media environment.
288: Conspirituality Live with Dr Jessica Knurick
Derek sits down with Dr Jessica Knurick at the Eudemonia Summit for this special live recording. They discuss combating health misinformation online, what MAHA gets right and wrong, whether or not "nutritionist" should be a protected term, and Jessica's possible political ambitions.
Brief: Demonic Karl Marx ATTACKS Private Property and DESTROYS Religion
Matthew examines how Karl Marx has long been framed as a demonic threat to religion and private property — a tactic that sidesteps Marx’s actual critique of capitalism.
287: She Did Nuzzi RFK Jr Coming
Olivia Nuzzi’s memoir about her sexting scandal with RFK Jr, American Canto, has been published. We scavenge the pages for clues about Kennedy and how the hell this journalism disaster happened.
Brief: Have Tech Bros Killed Psychedelics?
"Immortality influencer" Bryan Johnson recently livestreamed his second-ever psilocybin trip "for science." But was it, really? Derek and Julian break down the performative nature of this stunt and discuss the growing right-wing influence on psychedelics culture.
286: RFK Jr’s Great Crusade
RFK Jr is one of the greatest perpetrators of a firehose of falsehoods that we’ve ever covered. The stakes were raised when he was installed as head of America’s public health system. A new longform article in The Atlantic offers an inside look at the history and current thinking of this man, as insightful for what it offers as telling for what it omits. We discuss the role of journalism in an age defined by propaganda.
Brief: Black Friday’s Wellness Extravaganza
Derek and Julian survey all of the incredible, life-changing deals going down this weekend in Wellnesslandia.
285: Can Peter Attia Live Forever?
In the wildly popular biohacking and longevity space, Peter Attia is often cited as one of the leading luminaries. But does his science live up to the hype?
Brief: Graeber vs Bannon, Anarchism vs Leninism (Part 1)
In this first of a two-part series, Matthew digs into a century-long debate within revolutionary politics—one that now shapes the fault lines between MAGA authoritarianism and the fragmented resistance against it.
284: When Prophecy-Science Fails (w/Thomas Kelly)
Thomas Kelly joins to discuss his investigation of Dorthy Martin’s cult thanks to newly unsealed archival materials.
Brief: Does Calley Means Get Anything Right?
RFK Jr's senior advisor and supplements salesman, Calley Means, has repeatedly fabricated the story of Abraham Flexner and the birth of the modern medical system. Derek looks into his historical revisionism and what it could mean for the MAHA movement.
Brief: Taylor Swift Goes MAGA?
Julian peels apart the layers of a highly charged political conspiracy theory about Taylor Swift going MAGA and looks at what it may represent.
282: Mutual Aid Against ICE
When restaurants and cafes in Portland and elsewhere link into networks of food pantries and soup kitchens, will mutual aid feel real in the US? When regular folks come out of their houses to shame and chase ICE thugs out of the neighborhood, will that feeling of power from below catch on? Will it create some craving for a different way of doing things and understanding authority and order?