Robert F Kennedy, Jr isn’t backing down. You can’t get away from his voice or his endless content stream. He’s banked on tech world oligarch anti-vax mom, Nicole Shanahan, to nail down the VP slot. His Children’s Health Defense charity is casting doubt on whether polio was even a virus. And he keeps claiming he’s not against vaccines himself, but his messaging around it tells a different story.
It’s been a few months since we’ve checked up on Chaos Kennedy, so it’s high time we did: to look at polling, rhetoric, and charismatic technique.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

204: What the Hell is RFK Jr Doing?

Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon.As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse, and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child trafficking. In the process, spiritual beliefs that have nurtured creativity and meaning are transforming into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia.Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.

Society & Culture

Personal Journals

History

Philosophy

Places & Travel

Social Sciences

Science & Medicine

Religion & Spirituality

Other

Spirituality

Christianity

Buddhism

Hinduism

Judaism

Islam

Science

When young TikTok dance stars joined 7M Films, they got access to big production budgets, luxurious locations, and exciting career opportunities. There was a problem, however. Their boss, Robert Shinn, was a self-styled Christian pastor who placed increasing pressure on their time and finances, demanded unquestioning devotion, and isolated them from the outside world. (Julian covered the story of a family trying to regain contact with their daughter, Miranda Derrick, who had disappeared into Shinn’s Shekinah Church for Conspirituality 105: TikTok, Cults & Conspiracies.)
A new Netflix docuseries picks up where we left off. Julian talks to the series director, Derek Doneen, to discuss “Dancing for the Devil.”
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brief: Dancing for the Devil (w/Derek Doneen)

Every year, the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, DC-based lobbying group, publishes its “Dirty Dozen” report, which supposedly informs consumers about the 12 “dirtiest” fruits and vegetables. The report is repeated verbatim by major media outlets, which routinely demonize strawberries, blueberries, and other conventionally-grown produce. But does their science hold up?
Not according to the majority of scientists and researchers. Over the decades, the EWG has slammed some pesticides but not others, ignored data on dosages, and even wondered out loud if all that mercury in vaccines might just be causing autism. They also routinely ignore potentially hazardous organic chemicals, while selling “verified” labels for skin care products and sunscreens.
Today Derek is going to walk me, the non-science journalist, through the work of the EWG before he talks to biomedical scientist Dr Andrea Love and cosmetic chemist Dr Michelle Wong about the group’s questionable methodologies and fear-mongering tactics.
Show Notes
Environmental Working Group and the Dirty Dozen
The Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list is a danger to public health put out by an organic industry funded activist group
Influence Watch: Environmental Working Group
Dietary Exposure to Pesticide Residues from Commodities Alleged to Contain the Highest Contamination Levels
Ken Cook: The Story of The Environmental Working Group 
What Biden’s oil record means for the industry’s future
Alleged ‘deal’ offer from Trump to big oil could save industry $110bn, study finds
10 years after Flint's lead water crisis began, a lack of urgency stalls 'proper justice'
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

208: Dirty Dozen Disinformation (w/Drs Andrea Love & Michelle Wong)

In this Listener Stories episode, Matthew sits down with Jude Mills, an old friend from the yoga world, to hear her story about growing up in an anti-theist home in hyper-sectarian Scotland, but feeling the inexorable call of religion. So started a long journey toward her vocation as a hospice chaplain at the height of COVID. 
They discuss the needs of the dying, regardless of beliefs, and how losing dignity to institutional abuse does not necessarily mean losing faith. In discussing how some former believers feel excluded from community life, Jude says something remarkable: “Everyone has a right to a sacramental life.”
Jude has a Master’s degree in Public Theology and research interests which include: podcasting as a medium for theological reflection and enquiry; narratives of spiritual and religious abuse and harm and issues of disabled, neurodivergent and LGBTQ+ inclusivity in church contexts. Her podcast 'Fkd Up By Faith' will be the research subject for her PhD. 
Show Notes
Jude's website
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bonus Sample: Public Theology and Hospice Care (w/Jude Mills)

There’s been a growing acceptance of religious belief from the previously religious-averse, especially in the Covid contrarian space. This comes in the wake of a number of recent high-profile conversions, most notably Russell Brand getting baptized. Why are the skeptical suddenly finding faith? 
Derek and Julian discuss their atheism in the context of these recent changes of heart—including Brand’s recent appearance on Bret Weinstein’s Dark Horse podcast. They share how their own skepticism has evolved and informs their work, debating on what value religion and, specifically, a belief in a god, holds for spiritual practices today.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brief: Is God Necessary in Spiritual Practices?

Philosopher Thi Nguyen first visited us 150 episodes ago (!!) to discuss how social media gamification exploded online conspiracy theories and audience capture drags content producers toward the seductions of premature clarity—and the ecstasy of fascism. 
Nguyen returns to discuss “value capture”: how simplified and portable metrics in institutions, technology, and media landscapes erode our moral capacities as we pursue goals we never signed up for. (We even consider this influence on podcasting!)
Throughout, we also talk about the heart of Nguyen’s book, Games: Agency as Art, in which he explores the liberatory nature of games that offer the pleasures of striving and absorption. We wonder whether—if we valued and understood play for its own sake—we might not need to gamify the world. 
Show Notes
Games: Agency as Art 
Games and the Art of Agency (Philosophical Review) (2020 APA Article Prize; selected for Philosopher Annual‘s “10 Best Philosophy Articles of 2019”)
Value Capture (JESP)
Trust as an Unquestioning Attitude (OSE)
Transparency is Surveillance (Philosophy and Phenomenological Research) (short summary)
Hostile Epistemology (keynote for the 2022 NASSP.)
Autonomy and Aesthetic Engagement (Mind) (audio)
Art as a Shelter from Science (Aristotelian Society Supplementary)
The Arts of Action (Philosopher’s Imprint)
Moral Outrage Porn with Bekka Williams (Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy) (selected for Philosopher Annual‘s “10 Best Philosophy Articles of 2020”)
How Twitter Gamifies Communication (Applied Epistemology, OUP) (And a shortened version for students, with suggested classroom exercises.)
Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles (Episteme)
The Seductions of Clarity (RIPS)
Cultural Appropriation and the Intimacy of Groups, with Matt Strohl (Philosophical Studies)
Trust and Antitrust — Annette Baier
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

204: What the Hell is RFK Jr Doing?

Download our free app to listen on your phone