Conspirituality21 Aug 2025

271: The Miseducation of PragerU

The right has waged a war on “woke” Sesame Street for generations. When the party passed the 2025 Recissions Act, they were finally able to take a significant field advantage in this battle—one which Big Bird and Mr Snuffleupagus never wanted to be in. That bill stripped $1.1 billion from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, greatly damaging NPR, PBS, and mostly their member stations. The CPB announced it will have to close in January 2026. What will take its place? Well, the right has a plan for that, or so Vox speculates: PragerU. Founded in 2009 as a right-wing alternative to reality, the sprawling, well-funded network teaches kids to hate DEI, love paying taxes, and recognize that the Bible offers the only salvation on this planet. Could it replace Sesame Street, however? Well, it’s already in use in numerous classrooms—and the right wants it in all of them. Show Notes The White House has a preferred alternative to PBS. It may already be in countless classrooms. What Percentage of White Southerners Owned Slaves How Neoliberalism Swallowed Arts Policy The Global Liberal Arts Challenge | Ethics & International Affairs When the Arts Are Attacked, Democracy Is at Risk | Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council Davis, Michael. Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street. New York: Penguin Books, 2014. Kamp, David. Sunny Days. New York: Simon & Schuster, n.d. Ledbetter, James. Made Possible By...: The Death of Public Broadcasting in the United States. London; New York: Verso, 1997. Stewart, David C.The PBS Companion: A History of Public Television. New York: TV Books, 1999. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Episoder(841)

Bonus Sample: Piker, the Zhongshan Suit, and Left Melancholy

Listen to the full episode There’s a lot going on when Hasan Piker wears a Zhongshan suit and praises Maoism. Matthew uses Wendy Brown's 1999 essay "Resisting Left Melancholy", which cites Walter Ben...

31 Aug 5min

Book Club: Plastic Shaman

During James Arthur Ray’s 2009 Spiritual Warrior retreat in Sedona, the self-proclaimed spiritual teacher exhorted participants to “play full-on” in order to overcome their limiting beliefs and fear o...

29 Aug 36min

323: Joe Rogan Defects?

Support the podcast and listen ad-free Someday in the future, Joe Rogan may ask Jamie to be his mirror, and facilitate the next and most important psychedelic experience of his life: a walkthrough o...

27 Aug 1h 10min

Bonus Sample: Has RFK Jr Kept His Promises?

Listen to the full episode Presidential hopeful Robert F Kennedy Jr held a “health policy roundtable” on Rumble on June 27, 2023, just as he was shoring up support from a band of contrarian doctors, ...

24 Aug 5min

Brief: Wetiko: Original, New Age & Marxist Views

Matthew traces the concept of wetiko — a Cree figure for a cannibal spirit whose hunger grows with what it consumes — from its original anticolonial and anti-imperialist meaning in Jack Forbes's 1992 ...

22 Aug 27min

322: The Cult of Spiralism

Support the podcast Spiralism is a quasi-spiritual online movement that emerged from long, intense conversations between humans and AI chatbots. Across users, platforms, and models, chatbots have eng...

20 Aug 1h 11min

Bonus Sample: 1970’s Violent Revolutionary Chic

Listen to the full episode The “Summer of Love” ushered in a decade of revolutionary terrorism in the West. “Bring the war home” went the slogan of the Weather Underground, a small and highly-educate...

17 Aug 8min

Book Club: How the Internet Disrupted Science

How the Internet Disrupted Science is an enlightening gaze into the shady world of for-profit and open access scientific publishing. Authors Kent Anderson and Joy Moore join Derek to discuss their exc...

15 Aug 38min