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Listen to the full episode Matthew tracks the concept of "islamo-gauchisme," the French accusation that leftists are useful idiots for jihad. Pierre-André Taguieff's 2002 book on "new Judeophobia" is ground zero, and a forensic Twitter analysis has shown that far-right accounts pushed the term for years, until it was taken up by Macroniste ministers in 2020. The academic consensus is that it is a political slogan with no empirical reality.  But like any (potential) conspiracy theory, it also emerges from a constellation of partial truths: solidarity between leftists and the French immigrant working class, the contested influence of the Muslim Brotherhood on civil society, Mélenchon's pivot from friendship with the late Charlie Hebdo editor to an anti-Islamophobia position, and the LFI  refusing to condemn October 7 as an act of terrorism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew tracks the concept of "islamo-gauchisme," the French accusation that leftists are useful idiots for jihad. Pierre-André Taguieff's 2002 book on "new Judeophobia" is ground zero, and a forensic Twitter analysis has shown that far-right accounts pushed the term for years, until it was taken up by Macroniste ministers in 2020. The academic consensus is that it is a political slogan with no empirical reality. But like any (potential) conspiracy theory, it also emerges from a constellation of partial truths: solidarity between leftists and the French immigrant working class, the contested influence of the Muslim Brotherhood on civil society, Mélenchon's pivot from friendship with the late Charlie Hebdo editor to an anti-Islamophobia position, and the LFI refusing to condemn October 7 as an act of terrorism.

Election denialism didn’t go away after the Capitol Insurrection. If anything, the revolving door between the Trump administration, the far-right conspiracy-mongering media ecosystem, and those directly involved in (and even convicted and imprisoned for) undermining democracy has only gotten more elaborate and determined. As the elections loom, Julian talks to the VP of Media Matters for America, Julie Millican, about her organization’s excellent reporting on how figures like Steve Bannon, Jerome Corsi, and Cleta Mitchell (the attorney involved in the infamous Brad Raffsenberger phone call) are sowing distrust and calling for confiscation of ballots and voting machines.  They also discuss the armed ICE presence at polling sites and Tina Peters, who was convicted on charges involving attempts to overturn the 2020 election and sentenced to nine years in prison. After President Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from Colorado, the Governor commuted her sentence, freeing her to now reportedly meet personally with the President and work on “preserving election integrity.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen ad-free In 2021, the first secular embryo adoption organization received federal funding after decades of pro-life Christian organizations had hogged the kitty with their particular views on who is fit enough to raise a family. Then in 2026, a change in language and some apparently shady bookkeeping on the part of an agency under RFK Jr's HHS resulted in two ultra-religious organizations receiving nearly all funding. Derek is joined by Maya Grobel, who cofounded that secular organization, Empower with Moxi, to discuss the consequences of this funding direction. Show Notes Empower with Moxi Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen ad-free The protests in France were initially sparked in mid-September by high school kids as young as 14 in the poorer metro districts, articulating concrete grievances about their neglected schools, underpaid and absent teachers, an AI-driven vocational assignment algorithm that forces them to choose career paths at 15, and a pervasive culture of smug condescension from the adult world. Anthony Mansuy joins us today. You might know him as the French correspondent for QAnon Anonymous. He was part of a journalist team from Societe publication, a print-only magazine in France, that travelled to places like Creteil and Alencon to interview these kids, and he walks Matthew through what they told him.  First: the midterms are upon us, and so are new waves of MAGA b******t. Derek has an update on what MAHA action is up to in the final push and Julian catches up on how Team Trump is aiming to invalidate the polls before they open. Show Notes An Iowa Republican’s Unusual Connection to the Kochs (and Kansas) Calley Means, top MAHA ally, resigns from Trump administration Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mikki Willis is back with another installment of Plandemic—er, with a new book that further explains Plandemic, or something like that. Given how badly his sequels have gone, it appears that he’s looking for a new angle to mine (and monetize). Derek opens the pages of Bad Medicine: How COVID Protocols Turned Hospitals into Death Traps only to find Willis’s continual inability to grapple with reality is in book form. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mikki Willis is back with another installment of Plandemic—er, with a new book that further explains Plandemic, or something like that. Given how badly his sequels have gone, it appears that he’s looking for a new angle to mine (and monetize). Derek opens the pages of Bad Medicine: How COVID Protocols Turned Hospitals into Death Traps only to find Willis’s continual inability to grapple with reality is in book form. Note: I mistakenly say "dollars" instead of "deaths" in reference to the "10 million undercounted deaths" around the 16:00 mark. My apologies for misspeaking, and thanks to Guy for pointing it out. -- Derek

Listen ad-free Matthew welcomes friend of the pod, Brad Onishi, back to Conspirituality. Brad is the co-host of Straight White American Jesus, and he’s got a new book out called American Caesar: How Theocrats and Tech Lords Are Turning America into a Monarchy.  Onishi’s scholarship charts the Frankenstein alliance of reactionary Catholic integralists, Protestant Reconstructionists, and Silicon Valley monarchists who find a common vein of worship in their rejection of democratic rule and a preference for an unbound executive. But: How will the trad-Caths out-maneuvre Pope Leo? Why do Paul Weyrich and Leonard Leo see  Trump as a wrecking ball who precedes a Vance-type successor? How do they justify their openly minoritarian strategy?  And: can these post-liberal believers really subordinate markets to a "common good"? Or is that impossible, given the wrath of their true deity, capital itself? Show Notes American Caesar by Bradley OnishiPeter Thiel calls Greta Thunberg a servant of the Antichrist (CTV News/AFP)Thiel's Nashville Antichrist lectures target Pope Leo XIV over AI (Gizmodo)Paul M. WeyrichBarre Seid's $1.6 billion donation to Leonard Leo's Marble Freedom Trust (JTA)US government takes 10% stake in Intel (CBS News)Kevin Roberts and Dwarkesh Patel, "Tech and the American Republic"Catholic Land Movement gaining momentum (The Catholic Register)Jeff Bezos on AI and a three-day work week (VnExpress International)Review of David Harvey's The Enigma of CapitalKarl Marx, Capital, Volume One (Marxists Internet Archive) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen ad-free Charles Eisenstein’s very long essay, “The Coronation,” was the focus of EP1 of Conspirituality. The sacred economist turned philosopher king joined us on EPs 30 and 32 for a two-part interview about that very essay. We’ve had no contact since, even though the man turns up in the most unusual places. Including, recently, another podcast to take stock about his time serving as advisor to RFK Jr. We thought it would be a good time to reflect on the man’s post-Covid trajectory, and what it might mean for the ground of conspirituality writ large. Show Notes Public Citizen: How Trump Conned MAHA RFK Is Gloating That His Changes to HHS Are Permanent RFK Jr. Vaccine Injury Plan Rebuked for Skewed Doctor Incentives Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode The Church Universal and Triumphant became an international mainstream news story in 1990. Their leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, was poised, eloquent, and beautiful. She also claimed to have received messages directly from God about an impending nuclear holocaust. But it's more complicated than that: the theology of her new religious movement has significant overlap with three figures Julian has covered in the Roots of Conspirituality series.  In the realm of conspiracism, cults, and apocalyptic religion, history always repeats itself. What’s unique about this story is the combination of colorful New Age syncretism and dark survivalist paranoia. Armed to their throat chakras with AR15s, tripod-mounted semi-automatic rifles, and armored personnel carriers, the church had spent $25 million building the largest underground nuclear bunker network in America. It contained enough food for seven years and over 600,000 gallons of fuel. What could go wrong? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Church Universal and Triumphant became an international mainstream news story in 1990. Their leader, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, was poised, eloquent, and beautiful. She also claimed to have received messages directly from God about an impending nuclear holocaust. But it's more complicated than that: the theology of her new religious movement has significant overlap with three figures Julian has covered in the Roots of Conspirituality series. In the realm of conspiracism, cults, and apocalyptic religion, history always repeats itself. What’s unique about this story is the combination of colorful New Age syncretism and dark survivalist paranoia. Armed to their throat chakras with AR15s, tripod-mounted semi-automatic rifles, and armored personnel carriers, the church had spent $25 million building the largest underground nuclear bunker network in America. It contained enough food for seven years and over 600,000 gallons of fuel. What could go wrong?

Listen ad-free and support the podcast Although Beck David Hansen was born into Scientology, he’s never really practiced it. Except for that period where he did, heavily, when he even contemplated becoming an auditor. But then he left the church he was never really involved with—though pressure from the church appears to have completely ended his long-term relationship and close friendships. Does one of Gen X’s most iconic pop stars really believe in Thetans?  You’re not alone if you’ve ever wondered because Beck has remained one of the most elusive celebrities for over three decades—apparently from those closest to him, and maybe even himself.  Josephine Riesman returns to Conspirituality to discuss her exceptional new book, The Last Temptation of Beck, with Derek. Show Notes The Last Temptation of Beck Losing Beck Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen ad-free and support the podcast Paul Saladino doesn’t like peanut butter. Or whey protein. Or processed foods at all. Except when they’re his peanut butter whey protein bars that are, you guessed it, processed. But his bars are different: they're really good and totally natural processed foods. Those other guys make s****y non-food foodstuff products. Paul produces the real deal. Just don’t ask the psychiatrist turned carnivore “doctor” turned fruit and honey is ok sometimes and, screw it, I’ll just make my own unprocessed processed food products, too. And definitely don’t question him about it, as guest host Mallory DeMille did. Paul wants the criticisms to rain down on him, for this is a lifelong learner, you see. Just don’t call him a hypocrite, or else he might come after you, shirtless, barefoot, wandering around grocery store aisles filming content and maybe, just maybe, searching for a friend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode Max Haiven's The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to Twenty-First Century Fascism (MIT Press, 2026) argues that financialized capitalism has turned us all into speculative "players" in rigged games. It produces a "cheated player" whose resentment the far right redirects onto scapegoats rather than the ruling class. This is what contemporary fascism is.  Matthew reviews Haiven’s re-reading of the conspirituality era: QAnon as a participatory game, Gamergate as a prototype of the "playgrom," and January 6th as a swarm of user-generated fascism. He traces how his own frameworks for conspirituality have shifted: cult dynamics, Lagalisse on conspiracy theory as allegory, Dean's communicative capitalism, Lubrano on the limits of persuasion.  NOTE: Contains Squid Game spoilers through season 3. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Max Haiven's The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to Twenty-First Century Fascism (MIT Press, 2026) argues that financialized capitalism has turned us all into speculative "players" in rigged games. It produces a "cheated player" whose resentment the far right redirects onto scapegoats rather than the ruling class. This is what contemporary fascism is. Matthew reviews Haiven’s re-reading of the conspirituality era: QAnon as a participatory game, Gamergate as a prototype of the "playgrom," and January 6th as a swarm of user-generated fascism. He traces how his own frameworks for conspirituality have shifted: cult dynamics, Lagalisse on conspiracy theory as allegory, Dean's communicative capitalism, Lubrano on the limits of persuasion. NOTE: Contains Squid Game spoilers through season 3.