Brief: Woman, Life, Freedom (w/Negin Shiraghaei)
The death of Mahsa Jina Amini at the hands of the Islamic Republic’s “morality police” in September 2022 lit a fuse on a fervent global protest movement. Jina’s crime was wearing an “improper” headsca...
30 Maalis 202434min
Brief: Yes, Huberman’s Behavior Matters
In response to Kerry Howley’s meticulous reporting on the deceptions of Andrew Huberman in New York Magazine, Huberstans around the world are braying that the man’s private life has nothing to do with...
30 Maalis 202427min
199: Inside Anti-Abortion Christian Nationalism (w/Rob Schenck)
Reverend Rob Schenck spent 30 years on the front lines of the Evangelical war against Roe V. Wade. He blockaded abortion clinics, screamed at women in crisis, used fetal remains as political props, an...
28 Maalis 20241h 12min
Bonus Sample: Conspirituality and the Imaginary Children (Series Intro)
In this series of audio essays, Matthew will examine how children as symbols—but not persons with their own internal lives—are at the center of conspirituality anxiety and discourse. There are two ty...
25 Maalis 20248min
Brief: 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...
23 Maalis 202429min
198: Holy Food (w/Christina Ward)
Does God have a recipe? That’s the first line of the blurb of Holy Food: How Cults, Communes, and Religious Movements Influenced What We Eat: An American History by independent food historian, Christi...
21 Maalis 20241h 6min
Bonus Sample: Ketamine Soul Mates
Dolphins, drugs, new age music. Isolation tanks as a portal into other dimensions. True love and fake aliens. Julian shares a personal love story from the nineties that intersects with the work of pro...
18 Maalis 20245min
Brief: RFK Jr Hijacks the “Crisis in Masculinity” (w/Natalia Petrzela)
Masculinity, in all its wounded and preening anxiety, is the perennial currency of American populism. America’s foremost public historian on fitness and education, Natalia Petrzela, returns to the pod...
16 Maalis 202431min
