Brief: An Atheist's Guide to Spirituality
“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
159: Cults & Cultures
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
Bonus Sample: Devouring Dragons
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
158: Spirituality Without the Con
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
Bonus Sample: The Anti-Woke Industrial Complex
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
Brief: Updates on Countering Hate
How can we protect ourselves and our children from online hate and misinformation? Julian interviews Imran Ahmed about the latest work the Center for Countering Digital Hate has done on TikTok, Twitter, and Facebook ads for state-sponsored antisemitic propaganda from Iran. Show Notes Parents Guide to TikTok Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
10 Jun 202339min
157: Science & Sensibility
How did “following the science” get so confusing during the pandemic? As the publication of our book draws closer, Derek shares his best practices for science literacy, and examples of where grifters and conspiracists maximized confusion to exploit wellness consumers. This is the first in a three-part series on what we’ve learned though writing our book and working on the podcast. Each episode is piloted by one host with commentary by the other two. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
8 Jun 20231h 25min
Bonus Sample: Conspirituality Marches on the White House (pt 2)
After reviewing how Mother Marianne and Bobby Kennedy Jr are set to disrupt the race in Part 1, we turn now to Mr. “Coronavirus is a Coronation for all,” Charles Eisenstein, has just disclosed that he’s working on Bobby’s campaign as Director of Messaging. Holy shit. It’s like our book is so accurate that Steve Bannon fed a digital ARC into a LLM to spit out AIs of all the characters in it so he could play them like chess pieces across the 2024 electoral map. Matthew and Julian take stock of this new stage: the routinization and institutionalization of conspirituality. Show Notes A Major Life Change - Charles Eisenstein https://twitter.com/jack/status/1247343782279839744 Charles Eisenstein | Zika and the Mentality of Control Keys to the Navajo Nation’s COVID-19 Vaccination Success | Johns Hopkins | Bloomberg School of Public Health The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible w/Sayer Ji Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
5 Jun 202312min
