62: Manifesting Something Awful (w/Dale Beran)

Exvangelical author Tia Levings joins Matthew to discuss her harrowing memoir of indoctrination, abuse, recovery, and advocacy, The Well-Trained Wife: My Escape from Christian Patriarchy. It’s a wild GenX journey that tells us a lot about the logic of evangelical support for Trumpism, and how those caught within it can see their way clear the gender terror, rape culture, and fantasies of retribution.  Show Notes Tia Levings  This season, Patreon is checking some big things off your wish list Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

7 Dec 202441min

If you’ve spent one minute on social media in the last few months, you’ve probably heard that seed oils are extremely toxic, food dyes are the reason for rising obesity rates—oh wait, that’s glyphosate—and vaccines are still causing autism. Nevermind the fact that the supposedly criminal preservative, thimerosal, was removed from almost all vaccinations in 2001. Clinical research is irrelevant in MAHA, RFK Jr’s Make America Healthy Again MAGA ripoff. Wellness acolytes have found a champion in Kennedy, who’s going to immediately end chronic diseases and reduce obesity rates by…checks notes…making sure every American has a gym membership. We’ve covered Bobby a lot on this podcast, so today our fearless correspondent, Mallory DeMille, returns to investigate one very vocal and very relieved cohort, the MAHA Mamas. They just know Kennedy is going to truly save the children, science be damned. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

5 Dec 202458min

An essay from Matthew on how MAGA religiosity obscures the religious nature of liberalism, and how both obscure the underlying religion of capitalism.  Inspired by Walter Benjamin, who in 1921 wrote: One can behold in capitalism a religion, that is to say, capitalism essentially serves to satisfy the same worries, anguish, and disquiet formerly answered by so-called religion. Capitalism is a pure religious cult, perhaps the most extreme there ever was. Within it everything only has meaning in direct relation to the cult: it knows no special dogma, no theology. Show Notes Mutual Aid Hub  Martin Luther King Jr: Dialectics, Materialism, and the Black Radical Critique of Racial Capitalism with Andrew J. Douglas and Jared A. Loggins  230: How Did We Get Here? Walter Benjamin, "Capitalism as Religion [Fragment 74],"  Max Weber and Walter Benjamin Without Dream or Mercy  Has Capitalism Become Our Religion? On the Concept of History - Walter Benjamin  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

2 Dec 20246min

The Free Press founder, Bari Weiss, recently hosted Peter Thiel on her podcast. While The FP markets itself as as a return to independent and non-partisan real journalism, Julian and Derek point out that's not the case at all—especially when the organization's $15M in funding comes from rightwing and libertarian VCs. Will Weiss factcheck Thiel's misinformation in real-time, as a "non-partisan" outlet should? Show Notes Lapdogs Of The "Counter-Elite" Authoritarians Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

30 Nov 202445min

Since the election, Democratic voter disbelief and despair has alternated between grief and rage. We watched some erstwhile vociferous critics of Trump in the legacy media, like Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski, kiss the ring and bend the knee, while others adopted a contorted posture of seeming legitimization, like NPR hosting Leonard Leo for a nice long sit-down interview.  Meanwhile, the big egos of MAGA 2.0 seem to rise like Soviet propaganda banners over the American landscape. Trump has named his cabinet picks at lightning speed. His list includes a pro-wrestling executive, a Hare Krishna cult member, a tech billionaire, an anti-vax conspiracy peddler, a FOX News host with far-right tattoos, an alt-med snake oil salesman, two sex offenders, a COVID-contrarian doctor—and, contrary to his claiming to know nothing about it during the election, prominent Project 2025 authors.  What most high profile nominations all have in common is being completely unqualified for the job. Maybe that’s the point. We look at the cabinet picks that intersect with our beat, as pseudoscience conspiracism now completes its journey from the social fringes to deciding White House policies—and all the consequences that entails. Show Notes Conspirituality’s Project 2025 coverage Everything You Need to Know About Donald Trump’s FDA Pick No, Medical Errors Are Not the Third Leading Cause of Death Dr. Oz Shilled for an Alternative to Medicare Trump picks former Florida Rep. Weldon to lead CDC 13 things everyone should know about Pete Hegseth  Trump reportedly plans to kick trans troops out of the military within days of inauguration Transgender Military Service in the United States Did RFK Jr. eat McDonald’s in that viral pic aboard Trump’s plane? Here’s the answer  Part One: Vince McMahon, History's Greatest Monster - Behind the Bastards C-03-CV-24-004019 — John Does suit against WWE, trigger warning.  Case 3:24-cv-00090 Document 1 Filed 01/25/24 — Janel Grant suit, trigger warning.  152: Tulsi Gabbard’s Krishna Consciousness (w/Nitai Joseph) Tulsi Gabbard's ties to the Science of Identity Foundation, a controversial religious sect that some call an abusive 'cult' Tulsi Gabbard Had a Very Strange Childhood What Does Tulsi Gabbard Believe? Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to secretive cult may explain her perplexing political journey Islamophobic World View of Tulsi Gabbard's Guru Revealed in Unearthed Recordings – Can she Still Run for President? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

28 Nov 20241h 8min

Matthew here with the fourth installment of Five Big Questions Posed to an Extremely Thoughtful Person.  Rob Schenck joined me in Episode 199 to discuss his deradicalization from the Evangelical anti-abortion movement. Today he joins me to discuss some things he’s learned about hope, faith, resilience and building community in hard times. Show Notes Costly Grace - Rob Schenck  199: Inside Anti-Abortion Christian Nationalism (w/Rob Schenck) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

26 Nov 202419min

The climate denialist who exposed the so-called “censorship industrial complex” returns, this time at another congressional hearing. Michael Shellenberger has come to blow the whistle on Big Government’s UFO cover-up.  Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, and Anna Paulina Luna alternate between showing off their knowledge of fantastical History Channel “documentaries” and playing bad cop interrogators. Reverse-engineered UFO’s! Recovered alien “biologics!” Interdimensional beings! Organic machines that defy the laws of physics!  Shellenberger and his fellow “witnesses” provide precisely zero evidence for any of these earth-shattering claims. Welcome to the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee circus. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

25 Nov 20246min

AG1 built a billion-dollar brand in large part by tapping into the fitness and wellness podcast and YouTube markets. Recently, AG1’s founder, Chris Ashenden, resigned after a decades-old real estate scam in his native New Zealand came to light. While Chris has mentioned it in passing, he’s always claimed to have paid full reparations for his crime—and it was a crime. Turns out that he hasn’t paid it all, as uncovered by New Zealand journalists Jonathan Milne and Mike Wesley-Smith. They join Derek to discuss their year-and-a-half long investigation that resulted in a billionaire founder leaving one of the most well-known supplements brands in the world. They also talk about why journalism still matters in a world seemingly run by billionaires.  Show Notes AG1 founder Chris Ashenden resigns amid scrutiny of NZ criminal history DELVE: Powder Keg podcast on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeart Trump sues for billions from media he says is biased against him Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

23 Nov 202438min