Derek meditates on a recent conversation about the left-right divide between Ezra Klein and James Pogue.Show Notes<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNlhwAWnMA&amp;t">MAGA’s Big Tech Divide: Ezra Klein Show</a><a href="https://www.theamericanconservative.com/going-back-to-cincinnati/">Going Back to Cincinnati</a> — James Pogue<a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/04/inside-the-new-right-where-peter-thiel-is-placing-his-biggest-bets">Inside the New Right, Where Peter Thiel Is Placing His Biggest Bets</a> — James Pogue Learn more about your ad choices. Visit <a href="https://megaphone.fm/adchoices">megaphone.fm/adchoices</a>

244: Battle for the Onesies

Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon. As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse, and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child trafficking. In the process, spiritual beliefs that have nurtured creativity and meaning are transforming into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia. Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.