85: Gaia Buys Yoga International, Stocks Rise on Uranus
On the day after the Winter Solstice, as the world tucked in for an Omicron staycation, a news flash came over the wire. Yoga International—one of the largest yoga media companies in the world—had bee...
7 Jan 20221h 24min
Bonus Sample: The Inventor of Yoga Teacher Training Was a Rapist Obsessed with UFOs
In 1969, Swami Vishnudevananda pioneered what has become a life transition ritual for the GenX and Millennial precariat: the Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) Programme. He was a cult leader rapist who thou...
3 Jan 202210min
84: Red State Christians (w/Angela Denker)
"When we don't avoid people who think differently than we do, we gain an opportunity for growth and national renewal." So opens Red State Christians: Understanding the Voters Who Elected Donald Trump,...
30 Des 202152min
Bonus Sample: The Language of Conspiritualist Merchants
Derek investigates the origins of language through thinkers like David Crystal, Michael Corballis, and others, to investigate how two popular figures—Deepak Chopra and Rick Warren—sell their spiritual...
27 Des 20219min
83: Climate Solstice (w/George Monbiot)
The global pandemic response is a microcosm of the global climate collapse response. In both we get to see what’s really under the hood when the pressure is on. In the face of endless and relentless ...
23 Des 20211h 5min
Bonus Sample: The Middle Circle
In the 1990s, Westerners searching for enlightenment flocked to India. The pilgrimage represented an affirmation of status and authority in the burgeoning yoga economy. Julian reflects on his three mo...
20 Des 20219min
82: Steve Bannon, Mystic (w/Benjamin Teitelbaum)
While Americans were transforming esoteric strains of yoga into a commodifiable industry in 1980, a young naval officer named Steve Bannon was picking up theosophical texts in metaphysical bookstores ...
17 Des 20211h 19min
Bonus Sample: Not All Conspiritualities Are the Same
Matthew responds to the robust feedback on the Sam-Harris-is-a-highbrow-conspiritualist bonus, and then stretches the terms around harm in the conspirituality sphere in another way, by looking at the ...
13 Des 202110min
