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PODCAST

Conspirituality

Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon. As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse, and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child

society & culture philosophy

All Episodes

5:28

Bonus Sample: US v. Liberation Theology (Part 2)

Conspirituality ·

2025/11/03

Listen to the full episode on PatreonPart 2 follows the money flowing from US agencies and interests to anti-Liberation Theology figures in Latin America. We meet Jesuit operator Roger Vekemans, who in the 1960s drew funding from the CIA, USAID, West German bishops, and U.S. conservative foundations to undermine Liberation and Christian socialism in Chile and beyond. Nelson Rockefeller used Protestant missions as a model for soft power in the region, including the Summer Institute of Linguistics

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39:11

Brief: US v. Liberation Theology (Part 1)

Conspirituality ·

2025/11/01

This is the first of a two-part deep dive into how U.S. foreign policy stared down the political threat of Liberation Theology by promoting Evangelical Christianity in Latin America. The CIA and USAID, in league with Vatican conservatives like Cardinal Ratzinger, spent money and social capital on the suppression of this vital new movement which insisted that poverty is political and that faith without structural change is hollow. By contrast, the Evangelical emphasis on individual sin, salvation,

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53:45

281: Jeffrey Tucker, MAHA Dandy

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/30

“Meet the man who built RFK Jr’s kitchen cabinet” goes the title of a recent investigative article in Politico. Yet that man, Jeffrey Tucker, is much more than that. In fact, you can make the case, as Politico does, that Tucker is one of the main driving forces behind MAHA.We’ve covered Tucker before on this podcast, including two previous interviews with his estranged daughter, Julia—who Matthew will again be talking to in segment 2 today. Derek will then talk to Duke professor Gavin Yamey, who

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6:07

Bonus Sample: Chatbot Awakening to Love and...

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/27

Earlier this year, a spate of news stories told of chatbot users travelling through the looking-glass right into Conspirituality. Paranoid conspiracies, spiritual awakenings, even falling head-over-heels in love with the simulated personalities of large language models like ChatGPT.Could AI have finally crossed the threshold into autonomous sentient consciousness? Could it be that chatbots were anointing new prophets—or, conversely, that very special users were awakening their very special friends

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33:21

Brief: The Man Who Lives With 16 Cats

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/25

Social media has been filled with clips of Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee for mayor of NYC. He's been proving quite the foil for Andrew Cuomo's attempt to upset Zohran Mamdani. But who is this man, exactly? Derek and Julian discuss. Show Notes 16 Cats, 320 Square Feet and One Long-Shot Candidate for Mayor 7 Takeaways From the Final N.Y.C. Mayoral Debate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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68:14

280: Peter Thiel is Definitely Not the Antichrist

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/23

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel is no cuck philanthropist. The co-founder of Palantir is leading his company at the bleeding edge of mass surveillance, facial recognition, predictive policing, and AI-assisted warfare. He also fancies himself a political player, responsible for funding his protege, JD Vance, to a heartbeat away from the presidency. Considering this CV, the announcement that Thiel would give a series of four lectures on the AntiChrist was puzzling. Why would a tech-bro with a

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5:23

Portland Has (Not) Fallen (For It)

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/20

Listen to the full episode on PatreonAfter attending the No Kings rally in Portland on Saturday, Derek shares some thoughts about the week leading up to the nationwide protests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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31:38

Brief: “Weird Stephen” Miller

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/18

Stephen Miller is once again making headlines for saying the quiet part out loud. Derek and Julian look into this strange little man from Santa Monica.Show Notes Stephen Miller: Understanding the man who became ‘Trump’s brain’ through his Chronicle opinion column ‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat What Stephen Miller Was Like in High School - Charles Gould Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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56:24

279: They’re Shooting the Priests

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/16

ICE is on the loose in our cities, acting with seeming impunity. They've repelled from Black Hawk helicopters, thrown journalists and protestors to the ground, and belligerently refused to unmask, provide identification, or present warrants for the people they're kidnapping. Among the social media videos documenting this despicable stormtrooper behavior came the image of a priest being hit in the head and knocked to the ground by a pepper ball shot from an ICE building rooftop. We've homed in on

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46:36

Yallidarity (w/Nathan Evans Fox) [Introducing...

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/14

Hey everyone… special drop today: the inaugural episode of Matthew’s new side project, Antifascist Dad Podcast. Matthew sits down with songwriter Nathan Evans Fox to talk about kinship, Appalachia, and the viral hymn that’s resonating across communities. Nathan shares the roots of his concept of yallidarity—solidarity rooted in labor, joy, food, music, and taking care of one another. They discuss the myths and realities of Appalachia, the erasure of labor history, and the dangers of “bootstrap”

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5:40

Bonus Sample: Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus...

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/13

Full episode on Patreon Part 2 moves from Christofascist spectacle to the “mushy middle” of liberal Christianity—why it so often blesses order over justice and falters when fascism rises. Drawing on MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, Reggie Williams’s Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus, and lived experience inside white urban churches, he traces how bureaucratic piety, respectability politics, and spiritual bypassing drain the Gospel of conduct and courage—what Bonhoeffer called a “funeral wreath” laid on

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35:48

Brief: Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus (Pt. 1)

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/11

In this first installment of Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus, Matthew revisits Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s journey from the theological classrooms of Berlin to the Black churches of Harlem — where he encountered a Jesus entirely unlike the imperial figure of his upbringing. Bonhoeffer arrived in New York a servant of white European Christendom, and left transformed by the radical, suffering, and liberatory presence of Black Jesus.Matthew connects Bonhoeffer’s awakening to today’s spectacle of

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56:41

278: This Podcast is Illegal

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/09

Our podcast is not actually illegal—yet. Thanks to Trump’s recent Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-7, or “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” it soon could be.Today we talk about one of the starkest moves into fascism Americans have yet seen from MAGA: what it is, how pre-crimes can soon be reality, and the fear factor this memo is designed to inspire. We’ll also discuss some possible responses to the next phase of MAGA authoritarianism. Show Notes Trump’s

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6:04

Bonus Sample: Death is Just A Doorway

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/06

The People’s Temple in Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, The Order of the Solar Temple. All cults that ended in tragic mass suicides. How could such lofty aspirations end so badly?For today’s self-contained installment of The Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian explores the shadow side of the anxiety-relieving religious notion that death is just a doorway into a better place. How do charismatic prophets indoctrinate believers into ending their lives, and often the lives of their children, in the name

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26:28

Brief: He’s Coming For All Vaccines

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/04

RFK Jr posted a seven-minute video earlier this week that assures us that vaccines aren't all that great, actually. Derek reads the studies Kennedy references as proof. You might be surprised to learn the HHS Secretary has very selective reading. Show Notes Annual Summary of Vital Statistics: Trends in the Health of Americans During the 20th Century The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the Decline of Mortality in the United States in the Twentieth Century Infectious Diseases and

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62:35

277: TikTokTylenol [feat Mallory DeMille]

Conspirituality ·

2025/10/02

Did you hear about the pregnant woman who ingested too much Tylenol just to “own Trump” and is now on a ventilator and will likely not wake up, offing both herself and her baby? If you were tapped into social media at all this past week, you likely saw dozens of wellness and right-wing influencers sharing it, each with their own hot take. One problem: there’s still no proof this woman exists. Mallory DeMille returns to discuss this cursed game of telephone, as well as unpack the mad rush that

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4:31

Bonus Sample: The Wellness Civil War

Conspirituality ·

2025/09/29

Listen to the full episode here. When RFK Jr announced that Tylenol might be implicated in autism, he forefronted correlative research that has yet to prove causation. That didn’t stop a number of MAHA-pilled wellness influencers from running with the narrative. Derek looks at their posts, as well as the immediate pushback, after breaking down Kennedy’s slipperiness during the press conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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27:18

Brief: MAGA’s Censorship Hypocrisy

Conspirituality ·

2025/09/27

MAGA congressman Clay Higgins recently sent a letter to top tech executives demanding subservience when it comes to "acceptable" speech. This comes two years after Higgins co-sponsored a bill protecting freedom of speech. Given recent capitulations to the Trump administration by tech CEOs, we shouldn't write off Higgins's aggressive push. Derek and Julian discuss.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

en

71:01

276: Inventing Saint Charlie Kirk

Conspirituality ·

2025/09/25

Charlie Kirk became the latest victim of gun violence in America on September 10. And he wasn't the only person shot on a school campus that day, nor was he the only political figure killed this year. Unlike Melissa Hortman and her husband, the motivation for Kirk’s murder remains unclear. That hasn’t stopped right-wing pundits and politicians from framing it as typical extremist left-wing violence. In between calls for civil war and censorship, the ramping up of police-state authoritarianism,

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5:48

Bonus Sample: Antifascist (Autistic) Christianity —...

Conspirituality ·

2025/09/22

The second installment in a two-part exploration of Simon(e) Weil for the ongoing Antifascist Christianity series and the Antifascist Woodshed project. At the heart of the episode is Weil’s terse, luminous definition of love—“belief in the existence of other human beings as such”—and Richard Gilman-Opalsky’s unpacking of how that love rejects projections and demands the generosity of attention, shared joys and miseries, and a deprivatized ethic of care. Matthew contrasts this with caricatures of

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