
119: We Are Slenderman (w/Kathleen Hale)
On May 31st, 2014, Morgan Geyser stabbed her onetime best friend Bella Leutner nineteen times, while her new best friend, Anissa Weier, looked on. All three girls were twelve years old. Geyser was li...
8 Sep 20221h 34min

Bonus Sample: The Consciousness Instinct
As we're all with family over the holiday weekend, here's a 2018 interview that Derek conducted with neuroscientist Michael Gazzaniga after the publication of his last book, The Consciousness Instinct...
5 Sep 20226min

118: Detoxing From Wellness (w/Kerri Kelly)
Do you ever stop to think about whether or not you can afford organic food—and then consider that many people don’t have such an option? Is Goop’s $295 incense holder a sign of feminine empowerment or...
1 Sep 202252min

Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 6 | Michelle Remembers: Literal Symbols
The homestretch of our study of Michelle Remembers zeroes in on the literal symbols—and symbols gone literal—of the Satanic Panic. Archetypes, gore, anxieties about sex and babies and filth: Lawrence ...
29 Aug 202210min

117: The Real Cost of Fitness in America (w/Natalia Petrzela)
Fitness is the beating heart of America. No, wait, that’s opportunistic capitalism. But opportunistic capitalism, as it turns out, is the beating heart of fitness. Yet fitness has a soul too—in fact, ...
25 Aug 20221h 9min

Bonus Sample: JP Sears is Definitely Binary
JP Sears constantly refers to himself as a freethinker. His increasing religiosity is counter to critical thinking, however. Derek responds to two recent videos that detail his religious thinking and ...
22 Aug 20226min

UNLOCKED: Swan Song Series 2 | Teal Swan: Art & Artifice (w/Paola Marino)
In this episode of the Swan Song Series, Matthew interviews Paola Marino about why she found Teal Swan a fascinating subject to film for 2018’s “Open Shadow.” They discuss aesthetics, the mystery of p...
18 Aug 20221h 49min

Bonus Sample: Swan Song Series 5 | Michelle Remembers: Themes & Framing
In the second of three episodes on Michelle Remembers, we recap its Catholic contexts, and Lawrence Pazder's quest to transcend the limitations of psychiatry through mystical nightmares. We then explo...
15 Aug 20228min




















