Two absolutely shattered academic heroes heroically drag themselves through yet another supplementary episode to bring you the important guru news in between their restorative breaks.

The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (Full Episode: 1hr 32 mins)

Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus

00:00 Introduction

02:13 Eliot Paisley's Anatomy of an Optimiser

08:52 Eric Weinstein wants a University Position and a Stipend

16:09 The Failure of the Anti-Woke Quasi Universities

19:19 Gary is Knackered Again

20:45 Gary is the best inequality economist in the world

24:36 How do I make a Documentary?

33:04 The End of the Year Approaches

37:44 Public Accountability

40:13 The Neurodivergent Trump Card

40:59 A clarification on bailiwicks

42:43 Tucker Carlson & Chris Cuomo discuss Russian Apologetics

48:53 Ukraine is selling weapons to Mexican Cartels

54:54 Civility Porn Judo

56:09 When Hasan met Prof. Jiang

01:01:37 Conspiracy Theory Buffet

01:07:24 Looking Good by Comparison

01:11:21 Comparing Epstein Conspiracies

01:24:03 Agreeable Conspiracism

01:27:13 Outro and Piers Morgan Invite

Links

• Eric Weinstein appeals to billionaires on Twitter
• Elliot Paisley: Chris Williamson Is A Slave
• Gary’s Economics: My Documentary is Coming Out THIS WEEK!! – why you should watch it
• The Times: Gary Stevenson: I want a wealth tax on the super-rich — like me
• News Nation: Tucker & Chris Cuomo: The FULL Conversation
• Hasan Debates Professor Jiang On His Wild Predictions | HasanAbi Archive

In this Decoding Academia episode, we venture into comparative psychology, focusing on a fascinating line of work by Fumihiro Kano and colleagues on social intelligence and theory of mind in great apes. By showing apes short videos and tracking where they look, researchers examine whether they expect others to act based on what they have seen, what they know, or what they falsely believe. This approach offers a remarkable window into the evolutionary roots of human social cognition or, alternatively, the most elaborate way yet devised to explore what a chimp thinks of a man in a chimpanzee costume.

We discuss what this kind of research might reveal about social intelligence across species: whether apes understand intentions, knowledge, and false beliefs; how their abilities compare with humans, dogs, and other animals; and why studying minds without language requires ingenuity, caution, and tolerance for participants who may simply decide the whole enterprise is beneath them.

There is also some discussion of the usual complications: small samples, difficult data, flexible analyses, replication, and the gap between a beautifully designed experiment and a result we should treat as settled fact. But the main story is the genuinely intriguing attempt to study Theory of Mind beyond humans.

Along the way, we discuss chimpanzee costumes, zoo life, dogs, and the disturbing possibility that crocodiles may be running more sophisticated cooperative hunting operations than most university committees.

*The full episode is available on Patreon (57 mins)*

00:00 Introduction

03:57 Chimpanzee Theory of Mind & Eye Tracking

13:03 Attention, Grabbing and Orientation

24:03 The Role of Memory in Anticipation

26:10 Revenge of the Researcher

31:21 Statistical Concerns

43:44 Comparative Psychology Thoughts

49:13 Non-climbing Tigers and Cooperative Crocodiles

51:20 Matt's New Friends and Outro

Relevant papers for the episode:

Kano, F., & Hirata, S. (2015). Great apes make anticipatory looks based on long-term memory of single events. Current Biology, 25(19), 2513-2517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.08.004

Kano, F., & Call, J. (2017). Great ape social attention. In Evolution of the brain, cognition, and emotion in vertebrates (pp. 187-206). Tokyo: Springer Japan.

We return for Part 2 of our coverage of “Professor” Jiang, the internet’s favourite new geopolitical prophet, secondary-school sage, and proud owner of an ever-expanding box of educational props. Having already treated us to multiple maps, chess pieces, and a sealed metal case of predictions, Jiang is back with more predictions, more props, and even higher-level insights.

This time, we get the dramatic unveiling of a fresh batch of forecasts, including the forthcoming U.S. civil war, AI surveillance states, a grand bargain with China, the Greater Israel project, and the coming East Asian conflict. During all of this, we pause to consider Jiang’s status as a Beijing-based geopolitical commentator who manages to be just critical enough of Chinese surveillance to sound daring, but yet is most reliably focused on predictions of imminent Western collapse, American hubris, and the doom of the U.S. empire.

But the real journey begins when Jiang sets the geopolitics aside and invites us into Plato’s Allegorical Cave, updating it for the modern era by linking it to Korean television melodramas. Out come ominous black blocks, stacked into a metaphorical tower of global control: the military-industrial complex, the financiers, the World Bank, the WTO, the media, Hollywood, schools, universities, and culture itself. What started as “predictive history” devolves into an Alex Jones-style conspiratorial rant about international financiers, globalist bankers, controlled media, and brave alternative truth-tellers seeing through the mainstream lies.

The alternative media occupies a Schrödinger-like position in Jiang’s system: corrupted and controlled when it suits his narrative but also brave and rebellious when it is giving a platform to people like Jiang. Stephen Bartlett, meanwhile, fulfils his podcasting duty as a perfectly crafted avatar of the Diary of a CEO audience: curious, credulous and very receptive to the message that the system is rigged, the shadows are fake, and you, dear listener, are one of the brave truth-seekers with the courage to listen and look behind the curtain.

Finally, we also reach Cosmic Jiang. The bankers are at war with the tech bros. Reality is consciousness. Matter is vibration. We are all fragments of God returning to Source. Hermetic philosophy explains Plato. Kabbalah explains the Middle East. Israel is trying to force the hand of God. The world will end; paradise will return. It turns out all of that geopolitical analysis was actually just a sideshow...

So join us for the conclusion of Professor Jiang: a masterclass in massive domino-based reasoning, geopolitical dressing on bog-standard conspiracy theory, and the enduring appeal of intellectual junk food.

Sources

• Diary of a CEO: Professor Jiang: World War 3 Is About To Begin, Let Me Explain!
• Mehdi Hasan vs. “Professor” Jiang
• Professor Jiang talking about the Nephilim and Other Such Stuff: The World Is a Prison – The Secret Meaning of God And Creation | Prof. Jiang Xueqin
• Professor Jiang promoting creationism and denying evolution
• The National Security Strategy of the United States Document

On Decoding the Gurus, we regularly get to hear a lot of truly “high-level” ideas, but the much-requested subject of this episode’s decoding is up there with the best of them. We are talking, of course, about “Professor” Jiang, the internet’s favourite new overly confident online guru, now that Jordan Peterson is indisposed. Jiang Xueqin is a secondary school teacher who has found an online audience thirsty for his particular style of confident bullshit, and he is more than ready to roll out his “predictive history” analyses on command.

Be prepared for some serious professorial cosplay as Stephen Bartlett, from Diary of a CEO, spares no expense in his endless quest to indulge every modern online crank, offering a grab bag of props as well as his usual thoughtful pauses and awe-inspiring requests for definitions. Thrill as the honorary professor performs as a grand seer and geopolitical strategist, complete with a tabletop world map, wargame prop pieces, whiteboard flowcharts, coloured chess sets, and a dramatic metal briefcase full of sealed predictions.

So get ready to experience his hit-parade of forecasts (Trump's 3rd term, endless war with Iran, eventual U.S. “loss”) along with his trademark conspiratorial mélange of real-ish facts, misstatements, and domino-chain inevitabilities. The end of Part 1 is a sign of things to come, featuring Jiang's post-apocalyptic advice on how the good people can rebuild society with the help of prophets and visionaries (AKA gurus) and soothe yourself with the knowledge that we are all ultimately just a God-derived fractal consciousness anyway.

<And if you can't wait, Part 2 is already available on the Patreon!>

Sources

• Diary of a CEO: Professor Jiang: World War 3 Is About To Begin, Let Me Explain!
• Mehdi Hasan vs. ‘Professor’ Jiang
• Professor Jiang talking about the Nephilim and Other Such Stuff: The World Is a Prison– The Secret Meaning of God And Creation | Prof. Jiang Xueqin
• Professor Jiang promoting creationism and denying evolution
• The National Security Strategy of the United States Document

We exercise good faith and grapple with the ever-versatile context window in this unintentionally thematic episode.

Supplementary Material 51

The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (Full Episode: 1hr 18 mins)

Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus

00:00 Introduction

01:40 Jordan Hall's Suspicious Semiotic Parasites

08:52 A New Covenant for the American Republic

14:33 Dave Rubin's support group after Jubilee

14:52 Dr. K vs 20 Depressed People

20:05 The Fifth Column Welcomes Batya Ungar Sargon (Again)

21:18 Anti-Semitism isn't really an issue on the Right

25:39 Moynihan agrees that Tucker Carlson is a Leftist

30:40 I don't really know what he has said...

37:38 When Taylor Lorenz met Brad Palumbo

41:24 Taylor is a Good Faith Person who is often misrepresented

44:32 Was Taylor cheering on the killing of healthcare CEOs?

51:16 Suggesting Targets or Providing "Context"

57:48 The Victimhood Pose

01:01:01 Selective "Understanding"

01:06:41 The Moral Grandstanding Escape Hatch

01:12:10 Strategic Ambiguity across the Spectrum

01:15:22 The Connecting Theme!

Links

• Jordan Hall discussing his neo-Nazi interview with David Fuller: Sensemaking, Gatekeeping & the Propertarians, Jordan Hall
• Sensemaking & Gatekeeping: Talking with Fascists
• Jordan Hall’s Markdown Tweet
• Dave Rubin Clip of him coping over his Jubilee Performance
• Batya Ungar-Sargon and the Status Revolution (Members Only #328)
• Brad CONFRONTS left-wing star journalist Taylor Lorenz!!
• DTG- Jordan Hall: Sensemaking, or the superficial pitter-patter on the neocortex?
• Taylor Lorenz: 'Somebody needs to do it'

In this Gurometer edition, Matt and Chris feed Iain McGilchrist into the sacred instrument to see where exactly refined country-parish-minister vibes land when combined with galaxy-brained hemispheres, civilisational decline narratives, decorative scholarship, and the other features of guruosity.

Iain McGilchrist Gurometer

00:27 Introduction

01:00 Iain McGilchrist Reactions

04:40 Galaxy Brain-ness

06:39 Cultishness

08:28 Anti-Establishmentarianism

11:39 Grievance Mongering

14:30 Self-Aggrandizement and Narcissism

17:21 Cassandra Complex

19:54 Revolutionary Theories

20:48 Pseudo-Profound Bullshit

24:10 Conspiracy Mongering

25:08 Excessive Profiteering

26:10 Moral Grandstanding

27:15 Overall Score

28:47 Bonus Round

33:04 Guru Binary Scores

37:18 Outro

We become highly effective at exploiting the gap between salience and relevance as we universalise semiotic capability and listen to more brave renegades talking about how amazing they are. Join us, won't you?

Supplementary Material 50 (Full Episode: 2hrs 23 mins)

00:24 Introduction

02:07 British People Struggling with Compliments

04:53 Matt loves SOME episode titles

08:42 Nachos Pronunciation

10:13 Brett Weinstein vs Michael Tracey

29:08 Brett pivots to his Anti-Vaxx Hits

42:32 The Hug Box World of Podcasting

45:55 When Eric met Joe (again)

47:29 Eric and Rogan re-litigate Sean Carroll's criticisms

55:55 Eric's insatiable desire to be linked with Epstein

01:14:36 Eric Weinstein is a Construct

01:16:36 When Ana met Candace

01:18:18 Useful Idiots and Shameless Propagandists

01:19:59 Ryan Grim's reaction to being in Iranian Propaganda Videos

01:26:22 Zeteo gets to the bottom of the Iranian Casualty Figures

01:30:24 Ana and Candace's Hug Session

01:36:31 A horse named shoe?

01:47:26 The Holocaust Media Industry

01:53:48 Jimmy Dore makes the Religious Pivot

02:01:39 The Brave Renegade Narrative that Never Gets Old

02:12:57 Horseshoe Populism

02:16:23 Jordan Hall x AI Instructions

02:21:46 Agent Hall infecting your Mattrix

Links

• The Romesh Ranganathan Show: Tom Davis On Success, Setbacks & Being a Dad
• FULL PANEL: Should we abolish all podcasts? Michael Tracey, Bret Weinstein, Lauren Southern
• Joe Rogan Experience #2503 - Eric Weinstein
• https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/internet/candace-owens-tate-brothers-visit-russia-kremlin-touts-thaw-rcna348311
• Candace Owens x Ana Kasparian
• Financial Times - How China is breaking apart a people and its culture
• Zeteo: Where Did the 40,000 Iran Protests Death Toll Number Come From?
• Ana Kasparian repeating anti-semitic conspiracies about 9/11
• More fun tweets from Ana
• The Young Turks: Tucker’s 9/11 Documentary Raises Some HUGE Questions
• Jimmy Dore has tapped into God after stopping smoking Pot
• Jordan Hall Decodes AI

The Decoders wrap up cult season by dissecting a titan of the cult scene, the founder of Scientology, Lafayette Ronald Hubbard or L. Ron for short. A prolific science fiction author, L. Ron founded an alternative self-help movement and then developed it into his cosmic self-help 'religion' of Scientology.

Scientology has now been the subject of multiple documentaries and even a fairly detailed South Park parody episode, so it feels like many are aware of the general 'deal' of Scientology. But how about L. Rob Hubbard as a guru... how many people have actually taken the time to sit down and just hear the guy out? Here at DTG HQ, we are all about the good-faith deep dives, so we decided to devote some time to analysing a 1966 Rhodesian TV interview with L. Ron Hubbard, in which a friendly Scientologist interviewer (not identified as such) politely tees up Hubbard to explain Scientology.

So join us to find out how L. Ron invented a “workable science,” a “religion of religions,” and a self-help machine that raises IQ, fixes life problems, and proves life after death. By modern standards L. Ron can seem a bit quaint, but because of that, he serves as a useful primer in the core techniques of Guru manipulation, including narcissistic invented biographies, disdain for materialism, a persecution complex, flattery of followers, and anti-establishment disparagement. All of the classics are on display!

So get ready to wake up to your true potential, process your engrams, and so forth.

Links

• Source Material Interview: Interview with L. Ron Hubbard in Zimbabwe
• Behind the Bastards: L. Ron Hubbard Series
• Going Clear: Scientology & the Prison of Belief (Documentary)
• My Scientology Movie: Louie Theroux

Matthew Browne, a high-profile advocate for pan-psychism, compels his reluctant co-host to endure a public struggle session on the topic of consciousness, hopefully for the last time.

Supplementary Material 49

00:00 Introduction

02:47 Returning to the Emerald Isle

03:44 Irish History Segment: The Titanic & Potato Famines

10:45 McGilchrist Reflections

12:51 Knowledge Fight has ended

26:23 Podcasting Motivations

34:37 Calibrated Expectations

41:03 The Problem with the Patreon Members

42:51 Shermer's Activist Skeptic Research

47:24 Research on Support for Political Violence in the US

54:35 Rob Henderson and Decorative Scholarship

58:11 Ryan Holiday Stoically Flames MAGA

01:04:41 Zuby and Motivated Reasoning

01:07:15 Monocausal Explanations for Declining Birth Rates

01:08:51 More credulity from Shermer

01:10:25 Bryan Johnson and Testicular Optimisation

01:14:41 Testicle Fixation Gurus

01:15:24 Professor Jiang thinks Trump is Immortal

01:19:57 When Dawkins Met Claude

01:30:00 The Great Consciousness Debate of 2026

01:42:47 When Cladius met Claudia

01:52:39 Chris's Concession

01:54:23 Animal Minds and AI Consciousness

01:56:31 Russell Brand vs Piers Morgan

02:10:13 Thirsty Christian dunks on Dawkins

02:13:18 Brand's Family's Response

02:22:39 Hasan Piker is the one who knocks!

02:27:44 Outro

02:28:36 A final message of hope!

Links

• Knowledge Fight's Last Episode – The End of the Road
• Jordan's video on the Onion
• Dan's blog on his next plans
• Rob Henderson’s thread promoting the Shermer Skeptic Study
• Polarization Research Lab- Low levels of support for partisan violence
• Polarization Research Lab - Did the 2024 Election Change American Attitudes About Democracy?
• Ryan Holiday’s response to the Shellenberger video
• Ryan Holiday responding to article that he is ‘fuming’ at Ivanka
• Zuby’s insights on Birth Rate Decline
• Vice article on the history of testicle transplants
• "Massive GRIFTER!" Piers Morgan Grills Russell Brand On Allegations, Prison, 'Truth' & Religion
• UnHerd: When Claudia met Claudius- So are they really conscious?
• UnHerd: When Dawkins met Claude Could this AI be conscious?
• ‘Professor’ Jiang on Trump’s Immortality
• Mehdi Hasan dunking on Dawkins

In this episode, we return to Iain McGilchrist as he spirals upwards from his binary hemispheric model into full cosmic spirituality. The rule is simple: everything McGilchrist likes is due to the subtle, nuanced, and deeply sophisticated right brain, while the left brain (pffft) is responsible for reductionism, modernity, and most of the problems in your life.

From this neuroscientific foundation, the theory expands with admirable ambition. Civilisations rise and fall depending on which hemisphere they inhabit. Ancient societies were properly attuned to the right brain, while the modern world has gone mechanical and spiritually bankrupt. The details are, of course, very complex, but the moral is clear.

Scientific evidence features occasionally, mostly in a decorative capacity or as parables of scientists being baffled by mystical forces. Hence, we learn that decapitated worms retain perfect memories, Nobel Prizes have been awarded for demonstrating a mystical direction powering evolution, and near-death experiences establish that memories form when the brain isn't functioning.

Alongside this hard science, McGilchrist also ventures into more spiritual realms, where we learn that artificial intelligence is likely to be channelling demons, schizophrenia might be caused by malign spiritual forces treating our brains as a luxury resort, and recently exorcised demons prefer to communicate via text message. No really...

Ultimately, what matters is that McGilchrist's bespoke theology, bespoke metaphysics, bespoke biological teleology, and bespoke panentheist philosophy are really very impressive. And if you don't find any of it compelling, well, we are sad to inform you that this itself proves you are stuck in the wrong mode of thinking and failing to recognise true profundity.

And if that doesn't work, then let's just say it was all a metaphor anyway!

Links

• Alex O' Connor: Why Evolution Gave You Two Brains - Iain McGilchrist
• Jonathan Pageau: Artificial Intelligence, Possession, and Mental Illness - Dr. Iain McGilchrist
• Think Faith: Philosopher Iain McGilchrist DEBATES neuroscientist Anil Seth on God & minds | Uncommon Ground
• Spezio, M. (2019). McGilchrist and hemisphere lateralization: a neuroscientific and metaanalytic assessment. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 387–399. https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2019.1604416
• Corballis, M. C. (2014). Left brain, right brain: facts and fantasies. PLoS biology, 12(1), e1001767.
• Carson, A. (2010). The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. By Iain McGilchrist. Yale University Press. 2009. US $38.00 (hb). 608 pp. ISBN: 9780300148787. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 196(6), 498-498.
• De Haan, D. (2019). McGilchrist’s hemispheric homunculi. Religion, Brain & Behavior, 9(4), 368-379.
• Shomrat, T., & Levin, M. (2013). An automated training paradigm reveals long-term memory in planarians and its persistence through head regeneration. Journal of Experimental Biology, 216(20), 3799-3810.

The hour grows late, and Matt the Grey-Haired rides once more from his quiet study, summoned by whispers from the ever-churning gurusphere. And so he goes, to seek counsel with Chris the Grey-Bearded, keeper of receipts, watcher of long-form content, and wielder of the sacred Gurometer. For the gurus stir again… and their nonsense must be decoded.

Supplementary Material 48: Grey Beard's Council, Late-Stage Anti-Capitalism, and Demonic Mould Health Updates

00:00 Greetings Old Friend

02:22 Decoding the Gamers

04:16 A Reckoning with Old Grey Hair

06:19 Joe Rogan determining US Medical Approvals

12:15 The Fall of Orban and the Silence of the Heterodox World

17:09 The Hypocrisy of Peter Boghossian

19:52 Dave Rubin and other Tenet Media Stooges

21:43 The Dugin, Jiang and Sneako Brain Trust discuss the ultra-hyper-globalists.

28:58 Trump attacks Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, & Megyn Kelly

32:39 A Return to Weinstein World

33:00 Bret's Moon Landing Conspiracies

39:03 Eric and his Silicon Friend are still having problems

42:47 Hasan Piker Discourse

54:33 The Radicalisation Funnel?

01:00:14 Hasan on Ukraine

01:03:21 Hasan doing China apologetics

01:14:03 More Apologetics

01:16:37 Hasan on the Vietnamese MAGA supporter

01:23:41 What about Destiny?

01:26:58 Yale is full of Snakes and Badgers

01:33:17 Micro Looting from the Corporations

01:41:36 Cenk Uyghur's Rent Gouging Credentials

01:44:47 Social Murder and Selective "Understanding"

01:54:26 Late-Stage Capitalist Anti-Capitalism

01:56:22 Tucker Carlson is Selling Russell Brand's Guide to Becoming a Christian

02:00:33 Sean Hannity chooses Trump over his Catholicism

02:04:18 Russell Brand and the spiritual marketplace

02:05:48 Postmodern Conservatism

02:07:28 Taking a Long View

02:10:14 AI Bouldering Gym Cages

02:11:30 Taylor Lorenz is making good points on Twitter!

02:19:52 Taylor's controversial take: AI is useful

02:21:36 Adam Conover engages in revisionist history on tech

02:24:14 Rotary Telephones and Typewriter Experiences

02:26:41 The Onion takeover of Infowars?

02:31:28 Knowledge Fight's Concerns

02:35:56 Jordan Peterson Health Update

02:40:07 Endlessly Misdiagnosed by "Experts"

02:44:32 The Dietary Cures

02:47:20 Experimental Stem Cell Treatments

02:50:04 Pageau blames Peterson's lack of faith

03:00:14 Letting the Pressure Out

03:01:07 Outro

03:02:01 We Must Join with the Mould

The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (3 hours, 3 minutes).

Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus

Links

• Joe Rogan crowing about his role in the White House executive order on Ibogaine
• Fact Check of Rogan's claims on PolitiFact
• Pancreatic cancer mRNA trial update: NBC report on six-year follow-up
• Article on NIH grant cancellations/funding cuts at Washington Post
• APHA release on lawsuit over politically driven grant terminations
• Ban on DEI words, including "polarization" by DOGE
• BBC Article on Orbán's loss
• Boghossian dodges criticism of Hungary in HardTalk interview
• Boghossian avoids dealing with protests in Hungary
• Dugin / Sneako / Professor Jiang interview
• Trump attacks Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, and Megyn Kelly
• Bret Weinstein's moon landing / Artemis clip highlighted by Bad Stats
• Eric Weinstein's tweets on commercial AI and theoretical physics
• Tucker Carlson's promotion for Russell Brand's new Christian-themed book
• Ezra Klein on Hasan Piker: RealClearPolitics mirror of the New York Times column
• Conduit: I Spent ONE WEEK Watching Hasan Piker ‪, And This Is What I Learned
• A generational divide over Trump among Vietnamese-Americans – BBC News
• Hasan reacts to the Vietnamese-American documentary
• Twitter Thread with most of the viral Hasan clips
• Noahpinion: Hasan Piker is bad for the Democrats
• Hasan's Yale Debate on YouTube
• Yair Rosenberg's article on the Atlantic: The Problem With Hasan Piker’s Einstein Story
• NYT: ‘The Rich Don’t Play by the Rules. So Why Should I?' Why petty theft might be the new political protest’
• LA Times article on the Onion's Infowars Takeover Bid
• Alex Jones clip of him roaming shirtless and complaining about the Onion
• Mikhaila Peterson: Jordan Peterson Health Update and Psych Med Injury Discussion
• Jonathan Pageau explains Jordan's illness is due to his refusal to submit to God
• Taylor Lorenz being correct about the past promotion of technology products
• Tech Dirt article on the recent court decisions against Meta and YouTube
• Sean Hannity endorses Trump over his Catholicism
• Taylor Lorenz: The Truth About the Social Media Addiction Trial