Conspirituality

Listen to the full episode on Patreon After attending the No Kings rally in Portland on Saturday, Derek shares some thoughts about the week leading up to the nationwide protests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Stephen Miller is once again making headlines for saying the quiet part out loud. Derek and Julian look into this strange little man from Santa Monica. Show Notes Stephen Miller: Understanding the man who became ‘Trump’s brain’ through his Chronicle opinion column ‘I love Hitler’: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat What Stephen Miller Was Like in High School - Charles Gould Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ICE is on the loose in our cities, acting with seeming impunity. They've repelled from Black Hawk helicopters, thrown journalists and protestors to the ground, and belligerently refused to unmask, provide identification, or present warrants for the people they're kidnapping. Among the social media videos documenting this despicable stormtrooper behavior came the image of a priest being hit in the head and knocked to the ground by a pepper ball shot from an ICE building rooftop. We've homed in on this disturbing moment to ask if what we'd seen so far had not crossed a red line for the American public, what does it mean to shoot at a priest protesting injustice in prayer? Show Notes Surge in U.S. Concern About Immigration Has Abated Portland’s ‘War Zone’ Is Like Burning Man for the Terminally Online DC Churches to Trump: Stay Out of Our Parking Lots Religious protesters say ICE threatens religious freedom in Chicago  In LA, faith leaders protest to stand up for the detained and keep the peace Chicago Pastor Sues Trump Admin After Allegedly Being Shot by ICE Agents Federal lawsuit brought by Black et al against Noem and DHS  Evangelical Pastor Doug Pagitt on Christian Nationalism  Exclusive: The Churches Fighting Back Against ICE  Religious leaders offering communion to detainees turned away at Broadview ICE facility Bishop Rojas on rise in ICE raids: ‘It is not of the Gospel of Jesus Christ' Religious leaders offering communion to detainees turned away at Broadview ICE facility Signs of Faith Against Fascism: An Interview with Eric MartinPaul Elie: Daniel Berrigan was a fierce critic of the United States. He was also a great American. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey everyone… special drop today: the inaugural episode of Matthew’s new side project, Antifascist Dad Podcast.  Matthew sits down with songwriter Nathan Evans Fox to talk about kinship, Appalachia, and the viral hymn that’s resonating across communities. Nathan shares the roots of his concept of yallidarity—solidarity rooted in labor, joy, food, music, and taking care of one another. They discuss the myths and realities of Appalachia, the erasure of labor history, and the dangers of “bootstrap” individualism. Nathan tells about his upbringing in fringe charismatic churches, the connections between charismatic Christianity and Trump-style politics, and how faith traditions can nurture resilience—or be co-opted by empire. They dig into Nathan’s viral “Hillbilly Hymn”: why the cops disappear when Jesus returns, why kinship always beats bootstraps, and how to imagine an abolitionist future that doesn't erase culture but reorients it toward joy, justice, and care.All theme music by the amazing www.kalliemarie.com. Show Notes Everything Nathan Evans Fox Gaza Sumud flotilla: How Israel breaks international maritime law | Israel-Palestine conflict News | Al Jazeera Gaza-bound flotilla rejects Israeli claims of Hamas funding | Euronews Contact Restored with Global Sumud Flotilla after Israeli Interference - Palestine Chronicle The Sabbath Year and the Year of Jubilee Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Full episode on Patreon Part 2 moves from Christofascist spectacle to the “mushy middle” of liberal Christianity—why it so often blesses order over justice and falters when fascism rises. Drawing on MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, Reggie Williams’s Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus, and lived experience inside white urban churches, he traces how bureaucratic piety, respectability politics, and spiritual bypassing drain the Gospel of conduct and courage—what Bonhoeffer called a “funeral wreath” laid on the culture. How do institutions become procedurally compassionate yet politically inert? Matthew weaves in memories of global South Christian art, Denys Arcand’s Jesus of Montréal, and the everyday service-industry grind of parish life to show how care without solidarity becomes maintenance—while Black Jesus points to co-suffering, mutual aid, and material resistance. Touching grass means moving from abstraction to accompaniment and from decorum to defense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this first installment of Antifascist Christianity: Black Jesus, Matthew revisits Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s journey from the theological classrooms of Berlin to the Black churches of Harlem — where he encountered a Jesus entirely unlike the imperial figure of his upbringing. Bonhoeffer arrived in New York a servant of white European Christendom, and left transformed by the radical, suffering, and liberatory presence of Black Jesus. Matthew connects Bonhoeffer’s awakening to today’s spectacle of white nationalism in worship — from the triumphalist religion on display at Charlie Kirk’s memorial to the enduring cultural power of “white Jesus” as theology for empire. Drawing on Reggie Williams’s Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus, Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism, and Jeanelle Hope and Bill Mullen’s The Black Antifascist Tradition, the episode traces how colonialism created a Christ built to bless domination, and how the Black church reclaimed him through solidarity, suffering, and resistance. The contrast between the fortress hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God and the spiritual Were You There becomes the turning point in Bonhoeffer’s faith — from triumph to trembling, from power to empathy. Part 2, out Monday on Patreon, explores how liberal Christianity tried to stand between these poles, and why it failed. Show Notes Hope, Jeanelle K., and Bill V. Mullen. The Black Antifascist Tradition. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books, 2023. Robinson, Cedric J. Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Revised and Updated Third Edition. Foreword by Robin D. G. Kelley. Preface by Damien Sojoyner and Tiffany Willoughby-Herard. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2020. Williams, Reggie L. Bonhoeffer’s Black Jesus: Harlem Renaissance Theology and an Ethic of Resistance. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2014. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our podcast is not actually illegal—yet. Thanks to Trump’s recent Security Presidential Memorandum, NSPM-7, or “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” it soon could be. Today we talk about one of the starkest moves into fascism Americans have yet seen from MAGA: what it is, how pre-crimes can soon be reality, and the fear factor this memo is designed to inspire. We’ll also discuss some possible responses to the next phase of MAGA authoritarianism. Show Notes Trump’s NSPM-7 Labels Common Beliefs As Terrorism “Indicators” What Is NSPM-7? Over 3,000 Nonprofits Sound Alarm on New Trump Directive Trump Orders Broad Effort to Root Out Groups He Says Organize Political Violence The meme-ification of political violence The Upside of Collapse Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The People’s Temple in Jonestown, Heaven’s Gate, The Order of the Solar Temple. All cults that ended in tragic mass suicides. How could such lofty aspirations end so badly? For today’s self-contained installment of The Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian explores the shadow side of the anxiety-relieving religious notion that death is just a doorway into a better place. How do charismatic prophets indoctrinate believers into ending their lives, and often the lives of their children, in the name of spirituality? Julian briefly examines each of these groups, along with Paul Nthenge Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministry—450 of whose followers starved themselves to death in a Kenyan forest in 2023. Then he transitions into exploring philosophical, psychological, evolutionary, and neuroscience-based ways of understanding the elements that make these spiritualized perversions of our survival instincts possible. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

RFK Jr posted a seven-minute video earlier this week that assures us that vaccines aren't all that great, actually. Derek reads the studies Kennedy references as proof. You might be surprised to learn the HHS Secretary has very selective reading. Show Notes Annual Summary of Vital Statistics: Trends in the Health of Americans During the 20th Century The Questionable Contribution of Medical Measures to the
Decline of Mortality in the
United States in the Twentieth Century Infectious Diseases and Social Change Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Did you hear about the pregnant woman who ingested too much Tylenol just to “own Trump” and is now on a ventilator and will likely not wake up, offing both herself and her baby? If you were tapped into social media at all this past week, you likely saw dozens of wellness and right-wing influencers sharing it, each with their own hot take. One problem: there’s still no proof this woman exists.  Mallory DeMille returns to discuss this cursed game of telephone, as well as unpack the mad rush that wellness influencers have been on to sell you their completely legitimate acetaminophen alternatives. Science rocks, y’all. Show Notes Meet The ‘American Frontline Nurses’ Telling Parents To Give Kids Ivermectin Homeopathy is a scam that causes real harm Kelly Brogan's Conspiracy Machine Giving Birth in Yogaland Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode here. When RFK Jr announced that Tylenol might be implicated in autism, he forefronted correlative research that has yet to prove causation. That didn’t stop a number of MAHA-pilled wellness influencers from running with the narrative. Derek looks at their posts, as well as the immediate pushback, after breaking down Kennedy’s slipperiness during the press conference. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MAGA congressman Clay Higgins recently sent a letter to top tech executives demanding subservience when it comes to "acceptable" speech. This comes two years after Higgins co-sponsored a bill protecting freedom of speech. Given recent capitulations to the Trump administration by tech CEOs, we shouldn't write off Higgins's aggressive push. Derek and Julian discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charlie Kirk became the latest victim of gun violence in America on September 10. And he wasn't the only person shot on a school campus that day, nor was he the only political figure killed this year.  Unlike Melissa Hortman and her husband, the motivation for Kirk’s murder remains unclear. That hasn’t stopped right-wing pundits and politicians from framing it as typical extremist left-wing violence.  In between calls for civil war and censorship, the ramping up of police-state authoritarianism, and painting of the slain Christian Nationalist activist as a noble martyr, anti-racist icon Ta-Nehisi Coates called out the strange reflex from some left-of-center figures (like Ezra Klein) to participate in whitewashing Kirk's hateful politics. Today we discuss what happened and what it might mean. Show Notes ⁠From Secular Activist to Christian Nationalist⁠ ⁠Doug Wilson on Abortion, Gays, Women Voting⁠ ⁠Meet The New Apostolic Reformation⁠ 167: Straight White American Jesus (w/Bradley Onishi)⁠ ⁠129: White Christian Nationalism (w/Philip Gorski and Samuel Perry)⁠ ⁠Stealing Democracy for Jesus⁠ ⁠Blackpill Aesthetics: A Crash Course in Meme Extremism⁠ ⁠Charlie Kirk, Redeemed: A Political Class Finds Its Lost Cause Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The second installment in a two-part exploration of Simon(e) Weil for the ongoing Antifascist Christianity series and the Antifascist Woodshed project.  At the heart of the episode is Weil’s terse, luminous definition of love—“belief in the existence of other human beings as such”—and Richard Gilman-Opalsky’s unpacking of how that love rejects projections and demands the generosity of attention, shared joys and miseries, and a deprivatized ethic of care. Matthew contrasts this with caricatures of Weil as an ascetic or body-denier, arguing instead for a portrait of a neurodivergent activist whose stressed nervous system made hypocrisy intolerable and whose spirituality emerged from embodied encounters.  Weil presented a lot of scrambling data—gender nonconformity, ambivalent sexuality, eating and touch aversions, migraines and hypergraphia. Theological and philosophical commentators often pathologize or misread Weil, while sidestepping their autism. As for Weil’s Christianity: it wasn’t about churchly allegiance but an experiential, anti-hypocrisy faith that found Jesus in direct action and in taking liturgical symbols seriously enough to live them. For Weil, “this is my body” became a present-tense statement of antifascist solidarity: the breaking and sharing of bread and body as an F-you to the imperials, and a call to communal repair. Show Notes:Coles, Robert. Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage. Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2001. Fitzgerald, Michael. The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006. Gilman-Opalsky, Richard. The Communism of Love: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Exchange Value. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2020. Lawson, Kathryn. Ecological Ethics and the Philosophy of Simone Weil. New York: Routledge, 2024. doi:10.4324/9781003449621. McCullough, Lissa. The Religious Philosophy of Simone Weil: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2014. Plant, Stephen. Simone Weil: A Brief Introduction. Revised and expanded edition. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008. Song, Youming, Tingting Nie, Wendian Shi, Xudong Zhao, and Yongyong Yang. "Empathy Impairment in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions From a Multidimensional Perspective: A Meta-Analysis." Frontiers in Psychology 10 (October 9, 2019): 01902. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01902. Wallace, Cynthia R. The Literary Afterlives of Simone Weil: Feminism, Justice, and the Challenge of Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024. Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind. Translated by Arthur Wills. With a preface by T. S. Eliot. Routledge Classics. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. Weil, Simone. Modern Classics Simone Weil: An Anthology. Edited and Introduced by Siân Miles. London: Penguin Books, 2005. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew begins a two-part exploration of Simone Weil—French philosopher, mystic, and antifascist activist—through the lens of autism, embodiment, and political courage. Following the earlier Antifascist Christianity Woodshed series on Dietrich Bonhoeffer, this installment positions Weil as a kind of spiritual auntie to Greta Thunberg, whose uncompromising honesty, rooted in autistic perception, continues to disrupt fascist, capitalist, and liberal narrative. Matthew traces Weil’s journey from childhood acts of solidarity, like giving up sugar during WW1, to her immersion in factory labor, revolutionary syndicalism, and frontline service in the Spanish Civil War. Weil’s refusal of privilege and their lifelong impulse to take on suffering emerge as core features of both her philosophy and her autistic experience. They also stood up to Leon Trotsky, calling out Soviet authoritarianism long before its collapse. Weil can be understood not only through the posthumous notebooks and essays that editors and institutions reshaped into seventeen volumes, but through the lived reality of their embodied resistance. Their ideas remain striking: the notion of attention as the rarest form of generosity; the insistence that obligations come before rights; the practice of “decreation” as a release of ego in the service of love; and the “need for roots” as an antifascist alternative to blood-and-soil nationalism. Part 2 of this series drops Monday on Patreon, where Matthew goes deeper into Weil’s autistic traits, their spiritual life, and how their philosophy continues to confront liberalism and fascism alike. Support us on Patreon to access Part 2 and the full Antifascist Woodshed series. Show NotesColes, Robert. Simone Weil: A Modern Pilgrimage. Woodstock, VT: SkyLight Paths Publishing, 2001. Fitzgerald, Michael. The Genesis of Artistic Creativity: Asperger's Syndrome and the Arts. London and Philadelphia: Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2006. Gilman-Opalsky, Richard. The Communism of Love: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Exchange Value. Chico, CA: AK Press, 2020. Lawson, Kathryn. Ecological Ethics and the Philosophy of Simone Weil. New York: Routledge, 2024. doi:10.4324/9781003449621. McCullough, Lissa. The Religious Philosophy of Simone Weil: An Introduction. London: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd, 2014. Plant, Stephen. Simone Weil: A Brief Introduction. Revised and expanded edition. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2008. Song, Youming, Tingting Nie, Wendian Shi, Xudong Zhao, and Yongyong Yang. "Empathy Impairment in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Conditions From a Multidimensional Perspective: A Meta-Analysis." Frontiers in Psychology 10 (October 9, 2019): 01902. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01902. Wallace, Cynthia R. The Literary Afterlives of Simone Weil: Feminism, Justice, and the Challenge of Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024. Weil, Simone. The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind. Translated by Arthur Wills. With a preface by T. S. Eliot. Routledge Classics. London and New York: Routledge, 2002. Weil, Simone. Modern Classics Simone Weil: An Anthology. Edited and Introduced by Siân Miles. London: Penguin Books, 2005. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Less than two weeks after a shooter unloaded 500 rounds at the CDC in Atlanta, RFK Jr gutted that agency's violence prevention research by firing 100 employees. Less than a month later, Charlie Kirk was shot in front of a crowd of 3K at a Utah university. Millions saw the graphic clip online, which ignited a propaganda and disinformation culture war. Meanwhile, yet another child shot his classmates at a Denver high school that same day. It's not the guns though, say the GOP pundits and politicians, it's the violent rhetoric from the left, and those hateful transgender antifascists. Just ask RFK Jr. He'll confirm that it's not the guns, but all those kids overmedicated on dangerous antidepressants. What are SSRIs anyway, do hurt people hurt people, and do gun laws have any effect? Show Notes No, Antidepressants Do Not Provoke Mass Shootings Mental Illness and Lone Actor Terrorism Is There a Link Between Mental Health and Mass Shootings? | Columbia University Department of Psychiatry Politically-Motivated Violence is Rare in the US No Statistical Support for SSRI-Mass Shooting Connection Mass Shooters and Political Assassins Have Similar Profiles The Violence Prevention Project Characteristics of Lone Wolf Violent Offenders Blackpill Aesthetics: A Crash Course in Meme Extremism  62: Manifesting Something Awful (w/Dale Beran) — Conspirituality Gun Purchases by Year Correlation Between States with Weak Laws/High Ownership and Gun Deaths Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The events of September 11, 2001 changed the world. Julian reflects on several interpretations of what they meant, proposing that each is a kind of Rorschach-test result based on our own religious and political beliefs, backgrounds, and social conditioning.  The conspiracy theorist simply can’t believe something like that could happen to America, going in search of complicated alternative explanations that exist outside of the “official narrative,” even of reality itself. Where the Christian conservative might see a call to Holy War signaling that the End Times is near, Neocon warhawks surrounding Bush observe an opportunity to enact plans for maintaining economic and political power and security. Meanwhile, many on the left see the attack as justifiable “blowback” against American imperialism, Cold War atrocities, and Western colonialism. Religion is merely an inflaming of a fundamentalist minority based on political injustices. What about the Soviet Union? The history of political Islam and massive Muslim caliphates that ruled for nearly 1,300 years? The intractable sectarian conflicts and the multiple internal ideologies vying for control over the Middle East? There may be no easy answers, but perhaps engaging with these different perspectives can allow us to name some of the many factors that got us to 9/11 and the seemingly unsolvable dilemmas of our world today. Show Notes Popular Mechanics on 911 conspiracies Noam Chomsky on 911 conspiracies Pilger on Project for A New American Century NYT 2023 Piece on the Reasons for Iraq War Saddam’s Ruthless Purge CNN on Kabul attitudes after US Invasion Polling of Iraqis Mahmood Mamdani Good Muslim, Bad Muslim Interview Human Rights Watch on Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan Taimur Rahman’s Red Star History of Political Islam Lectures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek worked for nearly 10 months on a NY Times opinions video, "You Might Have Already Fallen for MAHA’s Conspiracy Theories," which was published this week. He discusses what it took to produce this video with his collaborator, Alex Stockton, as well as the role journalism has to play in dispelling health misinformation. Show Notes You Might Have Already Fallen for MAHA’s Conspiracy Theories Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If it wasn't all so tragic, politics might seem like a bad joke. But how did comedy become so unfunny, so politically toxic?  From his hideout in a remote mountain cabin, anonymous video collage artist and essayist The Elephant Graveyard has finally cracked the code. According to him, Joe Rogan has created a doomsday death cult that feeds the dad-shaped hole in the hearts of its followers. In this allegory, his Comedy Mothership theater in Austin is like the alien spacecraft zooming in from behind the Hale Bop comet to take the Heaven's Gate group suicide victims home, freed from their earth-suits.  And it turns out tech oligarchs Peter Thiel and Elon Musk are really behind it all. Show Notes Vile Grifters Are Taking Over Establishment Media How Comedy Was Destroyed by an Anti-Reality Doomsday Cult Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Biostatistician Halbert Dunn's 1961 book, High Level Wellness, set the stage for the modern wellness movement. Derek reads it alongside some of today's top conspiritualists, noticing the themes (and differences) that run throughout Dunn's work. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices