Conspirituality

In October 2020, three contrarian medical professionals published The Great Barrington Declaration to great applause by the pro-business, anti-closure crowd. One of them, Jay Bhattacharya, now runs the NIH.

Things are not going well under his watch. Last week, he was grilled in front of Congress about the $18B in proposed cuts to NIH funding. This happened a day after over 300 people under his guard published The Bethesda Declaration, a document filled with issues occurring under Bhattacharya's leadership.

Derek discusses this new declaration and listens in on the Congressional hearing.

The Bethesda Declaration

An Uproar at the NIH

The Disappearing Funds for Chronic Diseases

Show Notes

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Cable travel channels are filled with haunted houses and other paranormal activity, beyond History Channel’s Ancient Aliens and cryptozoology content. The more radicalized Gaia TV has close to a million paid subscribers gobbling up content about yoga, meditation, and psychedelic consciousness alongside accounts of inter-dimensional cryptids, Q-adjacent vampire reptilians, and channeled messages from benevolent ETs.

Julian’s talk with Pulitzer-nominated journalist Matt Hongoltz-Hetling about his new book, The Ghost Lab, How Bigfoot Hunters, Mediums, and Alien Enthusiasts are Wrecking Science. In it, he explores the history of ghost hunting and asks if failing trust in educational, religious, and government institutions is fueling a burgeoning obsession with the paranormal.

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From 1999-2002, VH1 ran a show called “Where Are They Now?” The irregularly produced series wondered aloud what happened to former cultural icons like eighties hair metal bands, kid actors, and one-hit wonders. While some people remained surprisingly relevant, most were confined to, at best, appearing at VFWs and regional summer festivals in parking lots or, tragically, gripped by an addiction and dreams of a better time that they couldn’t make last. 

Two years ago this month our book, Conspirituality, was published. We called one section Rogue’s Gallery to highlight a range of figures we’ve covered on the podcast. One of those chapters was dedicated to a man named Robert F Kennedy, Jr—don’t say we didn’t warn you. How about the other nine?

In our own version of “Where Are They Now,” we’re going to turn back the clock and revisit those other nine chapters. We’ll do it over three episodes in the coming weeks. This week, we begin with famed women’s health expert turned harp-playing conspiracy peddler, Christiane Northrup; self-proclaimed philosopher king, Charles Eisenstein; and former model turned middling new age filmmaker turned anti-vax documentarian Mikki Willis.

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Matthew continues the Antifascist Woodshed series with a two-part analysis of an extraordinary cultural event: rebellions within rebellions—or how a ragtag band of writers and worldbuilders Trojan-horsed an antifascist masterpiece into the Empire of streaming content.

Seven chapters: 

(This past Saturday, main feed:)

Space Wizards or Antifascism?

Star Wars Culture Wars

A Post-Fragmentary Left

(Today:)

Hope and Love  

Tony Gilroy’s Antifascist Field Manual

The Used Future

Antifascist Parents Are Better than Jedi Parents

NB: There will be spoilers for Andor!

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Matthew continues the Antifascist Woodshed series with a two-part analysis of an extraordinary cultural event: rebellions within rebellions—or how a ragtag band of writers and worldbuilders Trojan-horsed an antifascist masterpiece into the Empire of streaming content.

Seven chapters: 

Space Wizards or Antifascism?

Star Wars Culture Wars

A Post-Fragmentary Left

(Monday on Patreon:)

Hope and Love  

Tony Gilroy’s Antifascist Field Manual

The Used Future

Antifascist Parents Are Better than Jedi Parents

NB: There will be spoilers for Andor!

Show Notes

The Mythology of Star Wars with George Lucas and Bill Moyers

Special Interview: Nostalgia for the Superego (w/Sam Binkley) — Conspirituality 

Movie Review – THX 1138: The George Lucas Director's Cut – A Sci-Fi Geek Looks at George Lucas' First Film

8 women accuse screenwriter Max Landis of sexual, emotional abuse - National | Globalnews.ca

'Star Wars' Actress Amandla Stenberg's 'White People' Remark Sparks Fury - Newsweek 

'The Acolyte' Star Amandla Stenberg Cracks Up at 'Gayest Star Wars' Moniker: It's 'So Gay Already!' | Video 

Amandla Stenberg Slams Anti-‘Woke’ Attacks And ‘Intolerable Racism’ Over ‘The Acolyte’ 

Sorry, haters, Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ new characters more than make up for the movie’s sins | Vox

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 - Official 'Omega & Tech' Clip (2023)

The Bad Batch: Tech’s death and the neurodivergent community

Why Our Autism Community Loves Star Wars - Kerry Magro

Virtue Hoarders and the Rejection of Liberalism (w/ Catherine Liu) | The Chris Hedges Report 

The problem with identity politics | Counterfire

Transcript: Andor: Tony Gilroy on Oppressive Regimes and Popular Revolutions - The Peabody Awards 

Star Wars: A New Heap 

Music:

Brief: Star War fan-made music from Luis Humanoide: Trust Only in the Force 

Bonus: Star War fan-made music from Luis Humanoide: Dark Ruins Exploration

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Megamillionaire supplements and New Age life coach tycoon Aubrey Marcus recently claimed the goddess Isis told him that he must impregnate both his wife and the third member of their throuple while doing spiritual tourism in Egypt.

During a nearly three-hour podcast, the three explain their polygamous plans and heartaches while their on-call guru, Marc Gafni—an old-school spiritualist most famous for the long list of sexual assault and misconduct allegations against him—frames their drama as a sacred crisis.

We pick apart the spectacle, assessing how badly Marcus is getting his ass beat.

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Support Conspirituality on Patreon.

Does the word protestor conjure a masked figure in black clothing smashing windows and lighting fires or a weekend liberal ineffectually following rules while sipping on a creamy latte along the state-permitted protest route?

A popular media narrative is that peaceful protest works best, but has the power of nonviolent resistance been debunked? 

Julian responds to Matthew’s interview with political sociologist, Benjamin Case.

In the context of anarchist activism, Case points out that successful “nonviolent protest movements” have always featured property damage, street-fighting, and window smashing. His ethnographic research shows that rioting can also be personally transformative and empowering, as the participant experiences “contentious effervescence.”

His interview (and book, Street Rebellion) included a pointed critique of celebrated nonviolence advocate and academic, Erica Chenoweth, and their towering predecessor, Gene Sharp—who, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi, practically created the field of nonviolent resistance studies. Case has some excellent points, especially about how often Chenoweth’s work is misinterpreted.

But was Gene Sharp really a tool of American imperialism? Is Erica Chenoweth a willing lapdog to status quo liberalism and capitalist power? What kinds of protest strategy might serve us best in our terrifying authoritarian moment?

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Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad claim they're going to open the "black box" at the FDA, an agency they're now both employed at. So they started a podcast. It's not the first official FDA podcast, but it certainly fits into the contrarian ethos both men have cultivated since 2020. Derek and Julian listen in to see how much of that box is actually being opened.

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We’ve been talking about RFK Jr for years, and even dedicated an entire chapter to him in our 2023 book—and we’re going to keep covering him. Since his power and influence has only grown, and since he’s now in charge of America’s entire health apparatus, there’s no way to avoid it.

This week we catch up on the last few months of MAHA. Derek looks into why he believes Kennedy’s apparatus, despite claims of being about health, is really a cover for Project 2025’s deregulatory agenda. Julian discusses a recent paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine by Covid contrarians Marty Makary and Vinay Prasad, who now both work under Kennedy. Finally, Matthew will contemplate Kennedy’s crude remarks on autism through the lens of disability politics.

Show Notes

What Has All This Restaurant Food Done to My Gut?

Function Health is Another Theranosesque Scam

MAHA’s Goal Is Not Health: Robert Kennedy’s movement promises more privatization

RFK Jr. meets with health tech startups, most backed by Andreessen Horowitz

COVID infection no longer gives lasting immunity

Hybrid Immunity May Be the Key to Developing Better Vaccines

Makary, Bhattacharya in New England Journal of Medicine

Consequences of Work Requirements in Arkansas: Two-Year Impacts on Coverage, Employment, and Affordability of Care 

Concerns About ABA-Based Intervention: An Evaluation and Recommendations - PMC 

Adler-Bolton, Beatrice, and Artie Vierkant. 2022. Health Communism: A Surplus Manifesto. Verso Books.

SURPLUS. Adler-Bolton, The New Inquiry. October 18, 2022. 

Extractive Abandonment - Stimpunks Foundation 

Social and medical models of disability and mental health: evolution and renewal - PMC

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Calley Means is one of RFK Jr’s top advisors. Alongside Tucker Carlson, Means has claimed responsibility for shepherding Kennedy into Trump’s camp. Does this former business school graduate Heritage Foundation intern and business school graduate really care about the nation’s health? Derek listens to a recent interview with Politico and finds the deregulatory ethos that underlies all of Project 2025 is alive and well in MAHA.

Show Notes

Full interview with Calley Means | POLITICO Health Care Summit 2025

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