Conspirituality

Someones got dirt on RFK Jr. MAHA voters went MAGA because Bobby said he was going to end vaccine mandatestheir code for ending vaccines, period. No longer would food be dyed and oils be made of seeds. Everyone would get free gym memberships. Americas chronic disease epidemic would end overnight, as hes repeatedly claimed.

Then Mr Kennedy goes to Washington only to declare that antisemitism is a public health crisis? And to say that the MMR vaccine is the most effective way to prevent measles? How could he say such a thing when, as Mikki Willis recently claimed, this version of measles is a bioweapon designed to infect the Mennonite population?

This week we look way too deeply into Candace Owenss recent episodes about the blackmailing of RFK Jr, a story that quickly spread its tentacles into the microphones of a number of contrarian right-wing podcasters. Well give you the lowdown on the story and how, like a childrens game of telephone, it repeatedly got distorted and reframed with every mind it touched.

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When the aliens landed, they told a young musician and wannabe race car driver that he was the chosen one, and they were the real gods. He should build them an embassy with a UFO landing pad in order to prepare humanity for their arrival. They taught him the secrets of sex meditation and cloning DNA as a way to keep switching bodies and never die.

Not much in his story was original, but this was the 1970s, so free love hippies flocked to his French communethen it all turned to shit. Somehow Claude kept landing on his feet. He took his schtick to Quebec, then Japan, and even found thousands of followers in Africa. Still no embassy, no divine alien arrival, no cloned human babiesbut he kept raising funds from the gullible and living like a king with a ballerina bride 40 years his junior.

For the latest installment in Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian muses on the epic tale of the Raelians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When cultural and psychological anthropologist Katie Rose Hejtmanek set out to study Crossfit, she knew she had to throw herself into it fully. For seven years, she traveled to “boxes” around the world while committing herself to her local Brooklyn box. What she uncovered was a rabid fan base that deeply values community and a business model that offers a refreshing response to unfettered capitalism—as well as the misogyny, racism, and militarized Christian themes that inform this beloved and despised fitness regimen. She joins Derek to discuss her new book, The Cult of CrossFit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon. Show Notes The Cult of CrossFit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"In order to have the future we want, we have to build and invent more of the things we need." That’s the central claim of Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson’s new book, Abundance. They argue that Democrat-run cities and states have suffered self-inflicted wounds that are causing a mass exodus to red states, where life is simply more affordable. To stop the bleeding, Dems need to take action on a bold new vision that cuts through red tape to improve people’s lives and address the crises in housing, climate, healthcare and politics. But many on the left are suspicious. Is this just Reaganomics wrapped up in the intellectualized language of the NY Times? Is Abundance the privileged prosperity gospel for white liberals?

Show Notes

The Abundance Agenda: Neoliberalism’s Rebrand Abundance: The Left Hates It Summary of Abundance Critiques Politico: False Choice Between Abundance and Antitrust Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's been quite the week at HHS with Robert F Kennedy Jr in charge. Derek considers what's been going on: Bobby's announcement that he's going to "determine" the cause of autism by September; his social media marketing-driven visit to grieving families in Texas; his pivot on the MMR vaccine; and his recommendation to the CDC that fluoride be removed from public water supplies.

Show Notes

RFK Jr. says HHS will determine the cause of autism by September RFK Jr. says he plans to tell CDC to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water What RFK Jr. Told Grieving Texas Families About the Measles Vaccine

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