Conspirituality – Details, episodes & analysis

Dems are laughing about Donny Dentures or #TrumpisDone, but the reality inside his head, and Mar a Lago, will be very grim, and there will be a lot of collateral damage. Mental health titans like Robert Lifton have reached the consensus that Trump has been mentally ill for a long time. They’ve diagnosed him with “narcissistic personality disorder, antisocial personality disorder, paranoid personality disorder, delusional disorder, malignant narcissist,” and so on. Such patients meet predictable ends when the wheels fall off. In the cult world (where Lifton has been so influential), there are bangs (Jim Jones) and there are whimpers (Keith Raniere). What might it look like for Trump? No one is more qualified to discuss the possibilities with Matthew than Daniel Shaw, LCSW, a psychotherapist trained in psychoanalysis as well as in trauma-informed psychotherapies. He is in private practice in New York City and in Nyack, New York; and Faculty and Supervisor at The National Institute for the Psychotherapies in New York. He is the author of Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation, published by Routledge in 2014, and nominated for the prestigious Gradiva Award. His book Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear was published in 2021. He is known for his work with cult trauma survivors and with clients who have experienced narcissistic abuse. Show Notes Daniel Shaw, LCSW Traumatic Narcissism: Relational Systems of Subjugation Traumatic Narcissism and Recovery: Leaving the Prison of Shame and Fear Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In one survey, 82% of young people aged 18-25 searched the internet for mental health advice. Another survey of university students found that 44% report using the internet to learn about sadness, anxiety, or confusion. Regardless of what mental health experts advise, people of all age groups are turning to the internet and social media for help. What are the potential risks and rewards of using these platforms to try to communicate credible mental health science? And what happens when you’re endlessly trolled for being a “Big Pharma shill,” even when you don’t have prescriptive powers and only offer talk therapy in your clinical practice? Clinical psychologist Jonathan Stea joins us to discuss these difficult questions. His new book, Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry, is a field guide that responds to some of the intense challenges earnest seekers face when trying to navigate waters filled with supplements-slinging sharks who believe they can diagnose mental health conditions with zero training. Show Notes AI-generated video of Trump on ayahuasca  Mind the Science: Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You’re an eight year-old girl. The purity culture of your evangelical church, ruled by men but policed by women, has you worried that the spaghetti straps on your summer top might be sinful. You learn from the women around you how to defer, serve, please, keep your voice girl-like forever, and use it to both signal obedience but also piously request relief from sexual aggression.  You’re a seven year-old boy. The holy laws of gender in your church dictate that when you’re the only male present at Bible study, you must lead the room full of women in reading and prayer. You must perform manliness in your boy’s body, assuming an anxious leadership role you did not earn. If you don’t puff yourself up, you’re a sissy—one of the girls alongside you learning the tones of the Fundie Baby Voice. These are parts of the stories of Julia Postema and Jeremiah Gibson, the co-hosts of the podcast Sexvangelicals: The Sex Education the Church Didn't Want You to Have. They are Boston-based licensed psychotherapists and certified sex therapists. They specialize in helping couples with negative religious backgrounds discover sexuality that works for their partnership. Julian and I sat down with them to learn about how their clients recover from purity culture, and sometimes in the process run smack into its mirror world: the tantric workshop land of divine masculine and feminine stereotypes plus fascinations with semen retention. Show Notes Sexvangelicals: Podcast | Website | Instagram | Substack Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The online pseudoscience clearing house, Human Garage, treats fascia as a cure-all to nearly every disease imaginable. Yet as today's guest, David Lesondak, Senior Structural Integrator and Fascia Specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center’s Center for Integrative Medicine and author of the bestselling Fascia: What It Is and Why It Matters, tells Derek, they begin with a little bit of truth before going full Quantum nonsense. David breaks down fascia this week: what it is, how it functions in the body, and why fascia pseudoscience is so dangerous. Show Notes David Lesondak's website The Tissue That Connects Our Muscles May Be a Key to Better Health Harvard scientists closer to solving centuries-old heart mystery Human Garage: Manifesting Through Fascia Human Garage: Anti-Gravity - Full Spinal Decompression Human Garage: Autoimmune Diseases Human Garage: Erectile Dysfunction Human Garage: Anal Sphincter Release Human Garage: Ileocecal Valve Human Garage: Trauma Stored in Fascia Human Garage: Trauma Release Maneuver Human Garage: Fascia Work Cures Hives Human Garage: Fascia Facial Release for Acne Human Garage: Heart is a Vortex Human Garage: Movement Instead of Medicine Human Garage: Faith Healing Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What happens when white knights role-play at saving all the children? What impacts do they have on the actual realities faced by trafficked children and adults? And how does their propaganda—rolled out in blockbuster trauma porn events like Sound of Freedom—stigmatize and endanger adult sex workers, especially those who are already marginalized? Esme Providence Brown returns as our correspondent to run it down. Brown retired from professional sex work in 2021 after twenty-year career in Manhattan. She first joined us on Episode 169 to talk about the strange overlaps between sex work and the neo-tantra yoga movement. In this richly-researched report and discussion with Matthew, she examines the history of and present-day ramifications of anti-trafficking movements—projects that often scapegoat women who are secretly desired but publicly hated. “Everybody wants to save the children,” Brown says, “but very few people want to step into the tangled web of what this actually means or the history of how ‘salvation’ movements - hobbled by grandiosity, white knighthood, and patriarchal ignorance—have incurred collateral damage while failing in their ultimate mission of liberation.”  Show notes for this one are extensive, and won’t fit into most pod apps. You can find them here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rightwing activist Chris Rufo recently led the charge in helping oust Claudine Gay from the Harvard presidency. While the charge is plagiarism—a charge Gay herself acknowledged—the reason for Rufo’s intense focus on her has little to do with academic pedigree. Rufo, a former vegetarian yogi, is leading the right-wing charge against DEI trainings, LGBTQ+ rights, and any mention of critical race theory. Rolling off his "victory" of Gay's resignation, he's published a blog post that he hopes will become the guiding manifesto for the "New Right." As Derek breaks down, this means returning America back to 1776 in many ways. Show Notes  The New Right Activism How We Squeezed Harvard to Push Claudine Gay Out Claudine Gay: my part in her downfall Bill Ackman’s wife is accused of plagiarizing part of her dissertation Contracts Between Hungarian Nonprofit and Christopher Rufo, Others, Raise Foreign Agent Concerns The Plagiarism War Has Begun A lesson in persuasion — Loretta Ross Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On January 6, 2021 Del Bigtree took the stage at the MAGA Health Freedom Rally a few blocks away from where Donald Trump had just instigated a riot. He joked about how the former president was a hard act to follow.  But he dug deep and persevered by stringing together key dog whistles of Trumpian disinformation and resentment: public health officials are corrupt, COVID is a scam, and the election was probably stolen. Such performances have gotten Bigtree’s Highwire show nuked by YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. But they’ve also made him wealthy, and with his new appointment as RFK Jr’s new Director of Communications, his political star is now rising. Matthew runs down what we know about Bigtree, and what he thinks this appointment will bring.   Show Notes An Important Message To The Medical Freedom Community from Del Bigtree  RFK Jr. hires top anti-vaccine activist as campaign communications director  The Disinformation Dozen — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH  Brief: RFK's Health Propaganda Roundtable — Conspirituality  Brief: RFK Jr Loses New Age Support Over Israel — Conspirituality  Pandemic Profiteers — Center for Countering Digital Hate | CCDH  Tracy Beanz - The HighWire  How three conspiracy theorists took 'Q' and sparked Qanon  Anti-Vaxxer Del Bigtree’s Unhinged Quest for Unvaccinated Blood Leads Him to Mexico Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, the Heritage Foundation published a 920-page document that lays out the conservative organization’s road map for the next Republican president’s first four months in office, which could very well be Donald Trump. Project 2025 rests on four pillars devoted to the implementation of the unitary executive theory—basically, all levers of the American government bowing down to the executive branch. If this sounds like a roadmap to authoritarianism, that’s because it is. With 54 conservative and religious organizations signing on and over 450 contributors, as well as untold millions in dark money, Heritage is leading the charge with this anti-abortion, anti-LBGTQ+, anti-DEI, anti-civil liberties game plan. To date, they’ve interviewed thousands of prospective candidates for the next administration, with the goal of hiring tens of thousands of subservient bureaucrats ready to implement this Christian Nationalistic plan. Today we break down what the document says and how it could rapidly erode American democracy. And if that sounds like hyperbole, it isn’t. Show Notes Project 2025 The Power Worshippers | Katherine Stewart Behind the Curtain — Scoop: The Trump job applications revealed The Conservative Plan to Take Over the Country (you need to know about this) The '3.5% rule': How a small minority can change the world Dr. Kevin Roberts | Catholic Citizens Annual Banquet Living a Life of Catholic Integrity in a Hostile World | Roger Severino Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friend of the pod and Straight White American Jesus host Brad Onishi returns to pick up with Matthew where they left off in their discussion of post-religious spirituality. They discuss what happens after disenchantment, the spirituality of boredom, and why, as we hurtle into the coming chaos of 2024, it’s good to keep an eye out for new allies in unlikely places.  This is Part Two of two-part conversation. Look for Part One in your pod feeds, dated December 30.  Show Notes Brad Onishi  Straight White American Jesus  Axis Mundi Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friend of the pod and Straight White American Jesus host Brad Onishi joins Matthew for a New Year’s discussion of post-religious spirituality. Onishi fills out the details on a nascent identity that many of you might resonate with: the “secular person of faith.” They talk about the false choice of Max Weber’s fork in the road: that either we commit to the sciences or languish in the churches. They discuss Jeffery Kosky’s idea of “disenchantment with disenchantment.” And they try to figure out what Thomas Altizer was going on about when he proposed a “Christian Atheism.” This is Part One of two-part conversation. Part Two drops Monday, New Year’s Day, on Patreon.  Show Notes Brad Onishi  Straight White American Jesus  Axis Mundi Media Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices