220: Swifties for Trump (and Other AI Lies)

Friend of the pod and historian of American fitness culture, Natalia Petrzela, joins Matthew to shed light on a new development in RFK Jr’s campaign to disrupt the Democratic Party: his recent workout campaign videos from the barbell patio of Gold’s Gym in Venice beach.  Topics include the iconic status of Gold’s, why Bobby Muscles is in Wranglers rather than lycra, how he’s both drawing on and distorting the Kennedy fitness legacy, body mastery as the ultimate American frontier, political pissing contests, the ableist “sweatwashing” of complex health policy problems, the body-shaming of soft, flabby, unpatriotic liberals, and how the whole scene—pumped by biohackers and tech bros—has some alarming political echoes.  Show Notes Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession Matthew’s Twitter thread on Bobby Muscles echoing body fascism. "Go, you chicken fat, go!" — Meredith Wilson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

1 Jul 202337min

Chaos in Russia! Wagner’s pagan neo-Nazis. Is conspirituality unique to a failing American empire in the internet age? Does it require Californian New Age spirituality, with conspiracy theories that weave around alternative medicine, for-profit pharma with no social safety net, and the reactionary politics of White Christian Nationalism? This week, Julian explores a different version of Conspirituality. This form translates QAnon for a European audience and calls for a return to the golden age of the Russian empire, but also to an ancient pre-Christian Slavic identity united across borders in pagan faith. Show Notes The Everyday Religious Life in Wagner PMC, via Observatoire Candance Rondeaux on Wagner, Pan-Slavism, al-Qaeda Jan Zabka’s piece on QAnon in Czech/Slovakia, Prophets of Freedom and Doom Sofia Cherici’s piece on QAnon’s cross-cultural evolution, Translating QAnon Marlene Laurelle on the Rodnoverie Movement Fake News sites centered in Veles, Macedonia had Russian and American ties A Photographer and an Artist Walk into a Fake News Factory from Coda Story Original Book of Veles forgery Main interstitial music: Bus Ride to Gulu — Pete Kuzma Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

29 Jun 20231h 23min

Today in our Listeners’ Stories installment, Lynn Short joins her partner Justin to discuss how they met, grew up in, and grew out of a branch of “Gnosis,” a theosophical cult founded in the 1950s by Samael Aun Weor in Columbia. Weor was a classic old-school spiritual pervert, with 60-plus (likely ghostwritten) books to his name, and a passion for meddling in his followers’ sex lives. Lynn and Justin describe what it was like to wake up to each other again—and to normal lives—after 17 years of practicing non-orgasmic sex and missionary work. A unique and hopeful look into a relationship that survived coercive influence—a bond that didn’t become a trauma bond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

26 Jun 20237min

“It’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong," wrote Richard Feynman. But does curiosity end where awareness cuts off? Derek explores the positive and negative sides of the spiritual search, especially in light of the burgeoning eco-spiritual movement. Show Notes I’m “spiritual but not religious.” Here’s what that means for a physicist How to hold onto a sense of wonder  ‘Big Earth energy’: A new era of nature spirituality is here Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

24 Jun 202322min

To celebrate book launch month, we started a little “takeaway” series two weeks ago. First, Derek led us through “Science and Sensibility,” in which he shared some really good practices for science literacy, along with examples of how conspirituality maximizes social stress and struggling medical systems to exploit wellness consumers. Last week, Julian addressed the aching questions asked by those in love with the positive gifts of contemplative practice, but who now see the cognitive fallacies and naive psychology at play in many spiritual communities. This week, Matthew sets pseudoscience and spiritual bypassing into the social context of cultic relationships, reviewing some of the tortured dynamics we monitored during COVID, laying out a few cult-resistant hygiene rules, some pointers on avoiding stigmatization, and asking tough questions about where the whole cult discourse thing is going in this parasocial era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

22 Jun 20231h 28min

The exiled cult leader, the MAGA mastermind, the Chinese con-artist billionaire, and the CCP. Insatiable dragons, all. Each claims to be at war with evil, as their fiery propaganda melts the minds of far-right media consumers. Julian connects the dots on these overlapping stories of life in the “Dharma-ending times.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

19 Jun 20235min

We've spent three years tracking the slide from online wellness influencer to red-pilled conspiracy promoter, from yoga and breath work teacher to anti-vax ivermectin slinger, from vegan raw chocolate aficionado to anti-immigrant, transphobic, election denial. Turns out, the roots of this phenomenon run deep. Along the way we've gotten a lot of praise, plenty of pushback, and a slew of sincere and heartbroken questions about what may be left for those in love with the positive gifts of contemplative practice and community, who now see the pitfalls we've pointed out. We speak to these today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

15 Jun 20231h 10min

From Ron DeSantis's anti-woke presidential campaign to Bari Weiss's FAIR war on woke, the concept of "wokeness" has become an ideal devil in right-wing and right-leaning politics—even if (or especially because) no one can really define it. But as Derek discusses, a recent deep dive into FAIR shows, anti-woke crusaders are suffering from internal conflicts and coming up with troubling non-solutions, while monetizing their platforms along the way. Show Notes Is it possible to be both moderate and anti-woke? Morning Joe: June 5, 2023 Daily Wire host defends book bans Journalist or Heretic? | Bari Weiss | EP 175 Plandemic 3 Red Carpet moment Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

12 Jun 20236min