Conspirituality

This is episode 1 of a new side project Julian is doing with Azi Ghaffari, Dr. Inna Kanevsky, and Aaron McCall. Find upcoming episodes via Grifty Podcast and at grifty.org

The wellness people think your toothpaste is poisoning you. Finance bros think empathy is bad economics. Somebody on the far right thinks Taylor Swift is a Democrat psy-op, while someone on the far left thinks your aunt buying hummus is personally funding colonialism. On parts of both fringes, everything is somehow Israel’s fault. The old antisemitic conspiracies apparently have remarkable staying power among people who think they’re having brand-new thoughts.

Then, while the MAGA right was helpfully laying out its intentions in Project 2025, a corner of the online left looked at Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime that jails journalists, murders protesters, brutalizes women, and executes gay people, and thought, “Maybe these guys have a point.” It’s impressive how much authoritarianism you can overlook once you’ve decided the authoritarians hate the right people.

Different politics, same inability to enjoy Thanksgiving. And somehow, all of these people have podcasts. Actually, so do we. Welcome to Grifty Pod. We’re opening a season about how America lost its mind, which every podcast host seems to have already solved. In our defense, we’re planning to disagree with each other, which is a terrible way to run a cult.

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When we started this show, the charismatic influencers we covered had identifiable tactics of hard-selling, finding pain points, using disorganized attachment strategies like cult leaders do, to scare followers with sometimes real, sometimes fictitious stories that only they could understand and help solve.

Beyond the patterns shared by supplement hawkers, alien channelers, and New Age enema healers, each had something unique: a style, a manner of cadence, a particular intensity of intrusive eye contact. Are these not embodied, somatic skills that will outlast the AI jobs apocalypse? Can the chat bots really displace the guru economy?

We explore how we may be losing this precious resource to the brutal extractivism of our tech overlords.

Show Notes

Popular Health Guru Sayer Ji Curates the Scientific Literature with His Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy

A Dozen Misguided Influencers Spread Most of the Anti-Vaccination Content on Social Media

Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart — Nicholas Carr
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Last week, MAHA Action once again blurred the lines between activist organization and government entity, with RFK Jr, JD Vance, Dr Oz and other officials sharing the stage with dozens of corporate sponsors and private healthcare executives—and Russell Brand. Derek tunes in to this nine-hour fiasco.
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Matthew examines how Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has paired an 18-month austerity rampage with approval ratings near 60%.

Centralized power, new surveillance and protest laws, refugee restrictions, public-service cuts, a tripling of the military budget, climate rollbacks, a seeming refusal to protect the basics of Medicare. Why do so many people love him?

Carney's appeal and ability to absorb critique rests on more than managerial competence. A devout Catholic, Carney manages to make many people feel like they should be respectful and polite and not make a fuss during the high mass of finance, in which crisis is transformed into eternal life.

Matthew traces Carney's low-key Catholicism through the Pope Francis parable that opens Value(s), his role in the Vatican-backed Council for Inclusive Capitalism, and his practice of the Ignatian daily examen, and how he appeals to medieval canonists as forerunners of stakeholder capitalism.

Show Notes

Prime Minister of Canada – Statement on the passing of Pope Francis

Open Canada – Book Review: Value(s)

Vatican – Pope Francis to the Members of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism (11 November 2019)

The Catholic Register – The Catholic or the Davos Man?

The Catholic Register – Carney can confirm his Catholic credentials

The Catholic Register – A little Catholic, a bit Davos

APTN – Former day school students say Robert Carney was their principal

Greenpeace Canada – Carney's bills explained: C-2, C-12, C-8 and C-9

The Hub – The Carney government's expanding power to identify Canadians online

Littler – Bill C-39 and federal collective bargaining

National Observer – Budget vows to cut 40,000 jobs from public service by 2029

Environmental Defence – Carbon pricing rollback undermines climate goals

PBI USA – Canadian company equips ICE with armored vehicles

CTV – Canada supports U.S. strikes on Iran "with regret"

Religion News Service – Pope Leo calls just war theory "outdated"
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In 2013, businessman turned independent journalist Jesse Brown launched Canadaland as a podcast focused on media criticism. He grew the business to include many other podcasts, creating his own small media empire. Then October 7 happened and things took a turn. Recently, he hosted anti-vax contrarian doctor, Peter McCullough, in what he claims was a focus on media, but which really turned into a science-denying sh*t show.

We’ve covered McCullough for years, especially since becoming Chief Medical Officer of supplements grifters, The Wellness Company. There’s a lot to understand about his media tactics, which we’re going to dive into in segments two and three. But first, Matthew fills us in on the rise and stumble of his fellow Canadian’s media journey.

Show Notes

How a B.C. business scion flipped to hawking supplements and conspiracy theories

Risk of Myocarditis after Vaccination

Incidence of COVID-related Myocarditis Higher in Unvaccinated

Clinical Outcomes Worse for Unvaccinated

US Adverse COVID Vaccine Event Deaths

55 Adverse Reaction Deaths Worldwide, 13 Billion Doses Delivered

Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation by Kevin Donovan

Canadaland staff file to unionize

Scott Martin, "What We Lost with Canadaland's Decline"

HESEG Foundation

Jesse Brown Destroyed Canadaland's Credibility

Justin Ling quits Canadaland hosting role

Noor Azrieh and Cherise Seucharan, "A response to Canadaland's interview with Israel's ambassador to Canada"

Jesse Brown Insists He's Done Nothing Wrong

Avi Lewis, Yom Kippur post on X

Olivia Chow opts out of antisemitism debate
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