Matthew found out that the late Marxist historian Michael Parenti went on a yoga retreat at the Sivananda Ashram in the Bahamas. He clocked the BS immediately—unlike Matthew when he showed up in spaces like that decades later. Was political training the difference? 

Show Notes

Michael Parenti "The Political Uses of Religion" Denver, Colorado 4.18.87 

How a #MeToo Facebook Post Toppled a Yoga Icon | by Matthew Remski | GEN 

Shielded for Decades, a Leader of Sivananda Yoga Finally Comes Under Fire for Alleged Abuse | GEN

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Matthew digs into the fascism-enabling political theology of Bishop Robert Barron and the rightward slide of Big Catholic media. From his early admiration of Thomas Merton—carefully stripped of his antiwar and anti-capitalist passion—to his praise for Jordan Peterson, Marco Rubio, and Charlie Kirk, Barron repackages Red Scare tropes in the language of beauty, civility, and “religious liberty.”

And what about his virtual silence on ICE operations in Minnesota and the suffering of immigrants within his own diocese? What does “religious freedom” mean when it defends  American exceptionalism more than human beings?

Show Notes

McGarry: Ireland and the Spanish Civil War 

Ireland | Virtual Spanish Civil War 

Diocese of Winona-Rochester settles with abuse survivors for $21.5 million | National Catholic Reporter 

Word On Fire Catholic Ministries - Nonprofit Explorer - ProPublica 

Evangelization, Movement, and the Word on Fire Institute 

Word on Fire Institute 

The Hundredth Anniversary of Thomas Merton’s Birth - Word on Fire 

The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon - Word on Fire 

He Died with a Microphone in His Hand - First Things 

Bishop Barron’s Latest MAGA Crusade Sparks Vatican Alarm

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Despite saying “I believe glyphosate causes cancer” a few weeks ago, RFK Jr quickly pivoted when his boss declared an executive order calling for the ramping up of glyphosate under a 75-year-old defense production act that also happens to give immunity to Bayer, the parent company of Monsanto.

MAHA activists immediately went into a frenzy, shocked that their tallow daddy would betray them like this. Mallory DeMille not only coined the term “tallow daddy,” she’s also been tracking the civil war that exploded in MAHA after Kennedy said, eh, maybe Roundup ain’t so bad after all.

Show Notes

What to know about glyphosate, the herbicide behind a Trump executive order that’s angered MAHA moms

Glyphosate Use and Cancer Incidence in the Agricultural Health Study

Exposure to glyphosate and risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma and multiple myeloma: an updated meta-analysis

Carcinogenic effects of long-term exposure from prenatal life to glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides in Sprague–Dawley rats

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Cult leaders, religious fanatics, dictators, and charlatans all have one thing in common: they exploit our fear of death. Humans act out “immortality projects” in the form of religion, culture, and political ideologies as unconscious ways  to override the terror we feel at our uniquely self-aware knowledge that we will one day die. Where the orthodox priest promises eternal life, the cult leader might predict an alien apocalypse, while the authoritarian strongman invokes the transcendent glory of leading a chosen nation and race.

In light of a recent death in the family, Julian leans into Ernest Becker’s Pulitzer Prize winning cultural anthropology text, The Denial of Death. He also draws on poetry and the archetypal psychology of Donald Kalsched to ask the big questions.

Does existential acceptance of death lead inevitably to nihilism? Is belief in God(s) and an afterlife necessary? Are poor or deeply traumatized people only left with despair in the absence of supernatural faith? Will children raised with no religion have no moral compass?

A rich discussion of philosophy and psychology alongside poems, myths, fairy tales, and deeply personal story-telling, especially about how to tell his 7-year-old that grandma won’t be back for Xmas.

Not to worry, though. This is, ultimately, an uplifting journey.

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Casey Means was grilled by some Senators at her hearing for nomination of Surgeon General on Wednesday. Others lobbed softballs. Derek revisits the book that made her a star on the MAHA circuit, Good Energy, to detail all the misleading claims and outright misinformation. 

Show Notes

Well, That Didn’t Sound Like Casey Means

Casey Means, Critic of Mainstream Medicine, Poised to Become Nation’s Top Doctor

What is Shared Clinical Decision Making?

Former Trump surgeon general: ‘Incomprehensible’ Senate is considering Means

"Good Energy" has very bad data

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It’s hard for some people to accept that the normalized and unbridled accumulation of wealth and power is a selection process for apex predators, who wind up having overwhelming influence over the systems that enabled them.

The metaphysical reflex can provide a lot of relief: Epstein was uniquely evil, so different from the rest of us that he engaged in supernatural acts. He was a cosmic raider invading an otherwise balanced world.

In the chaos of facts and allusions that swirl around the Epstein Files, the nearest available and resonant metaphysics are found in the recycling of Satanic Panic themes from the 1980s. These stories have been surging since QAnon erupted in 2017. Now they’re reaching another peak in visibility and provocation, and their ability to reduce the problem of the Epstein Class to the unsolvable problem of evil. 

Show Notes

Michelle Remembers Series on Patreon

Teal Swan Series on Patreon

We have a whole chapter on Barbara Snow

50 Million People Suffer Today Under Global Slavery

Many Countries Still Allow Child Marriage

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MAHA isn’t a health movement. It’s a marketing engine driving activist propaganda. Derek looks at Tony Lyons, one of MAHA’s key architects, and his recent strategic memo sent to Republican leadership about how to use MAHA talking points to retain power in the midterm elections. 

Show Notes

Tony Lyons’s strategic memo to GOP leadership

Examining Who Benefits From Kennedy’s Anti-Science MAHA Push

MAHA Supporters Form New Organization to Boost RFK’s Goals in D.C.

MAHA’s money man has built a political machine. Will it matter for midterms?

The co-founder of the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. super PAC is a Steve Bannon and MAGA media ally

As MAHA turns 1, a fired-up movement is still figuring out how to fulfill its promises

Skyhorse Publishing: About Us

MAHA Action

American Values 2024

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In the wake of the DOJ’s dump of 3 million documents from the FBI’s Epstein investigation, journalists, content creators, and everyday people are forming narratives and schema for what it all means.

Social media is flooded with survivor stories, overwhelming disgust, rage and grief, and reports of anxiety, sleep disturbance, and difficulty functioning in the world (mostly from women). Pizzagate and QAnon conspiracy memes are being resurrected. Satanic Ritual Abuse materials are again circulating, which imbue sex trafficking and child abuse with sensationalized supernatural overtones.

The Epstein class must be held accountable. Alongside that, Julian explores how toxic masculinity teaches men to dehumanize women and girls, as evidenced by email exchanges that play along with misogynistic attitudes and objectification.

Making sense of the cultural and historical context for the global human trafficking trade, which extends far beyond movie villain elites, billionaires, and royal family members, requires that men speak up against casual everyday dehumanization of women and girls, while actively fostering relational intelligence within male culture.

Show Notes

50 Million People Suffer Today Under Global Slavery

Many Countries Still Allow Child Marriage

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Deepak Chopra is all over the Epstein files. Are we surprised? Nope. But we are interested in the various layers of his entanglement and what they say about the ethics and politics at play in the shadow of Big Wellness.

Show Notes

Self-Help Guru Sorry He Got Busted for Vile Epstein Emails

Deepak Chopra: New Age Guru, UCSD Prof – and Epstein Confidant

God Is A Construct, Cute Girls Are Real': Bestselling Spiritual Author Deepak Chopra's Emails To Epstein Revealed

Deepak Chopra told Epstein to 'bring your girls.' Here's their entire email exchange

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Mark Carney is a devout Catholic, and his economic vision came from a challenge posed by Pope Francis. Matthew walks through the contradictions of Carney’s economic spirituality. 

Show Notes

Values by Mark Carney | Penguin Random House Canada 

Pope Francis says he wasn't offended by 'communist crucifix' gift 

The Catholic Case for Communism - America Magazine 

Pope Francis: “If I See the Gospel in a Sociological Way Only, Yes, I Am a Communist, and So Too Is Jesus” - The American TFP 

Exclusive: Pope Francis disusses Ukraine, U.S. bishops and more - America Magazine

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Matthew pokes at the contradictions behind Prime Minister Mark Carney’s polished Davos attempt to distance Canada from U.S. chaos, while Canadian companies continue profiting from the U.S. domestic terror regime. 

Drawing on reporting by Rachel Gilmore, Matthew looks at how Canada’s “middle power” liberalism masks deep complicity with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement through arms, surveillance tech, and security contracts. 

Carney’s benevolent affect continues the tradition of obscuring a longer history of exclusionary border politics. He’s there to manage outrage without challenging the capitalist structures that escalate into authoritarian violence.

Show Notes

The Great White North: Canada’s New Border Bill Appeases the Trump Administration | TechPolicy.Press 

A list of Canadian companies profiting off of ICE and Trump's violent mass deportation regime 

If TikTok News Is the Future, Rachel Gilmore Is Living It | The Tyee 

Liberals Fear Closing Arms Export Loophole Would Anger U.S.

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