The Friendly Atheist Podcast

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Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.

— Evangelist Franklin Graham is glad the U.S. women’s soccer team lost the World Cup. (1:08)

— Desperate to show Democrats are “promoting atheism,” Republicans divulged sensitive data. (16:36)

— Texas judge: Airline must get religious freedom training from Christian hate group. (39:40)

— An Arkansas lawmaker’s wife is swapping pro-LGBTQ books with bibles in Little Free Libraries. (49:42)

— California county adopts error-laden “American Christian History Month” proclamation. (58:06)

— A Texas district called for 22 days of prayer to launch the new school year. (1:03:25)

— These Christians took preacher Robin D. Bullock seriously. Now they’re screwed. (1:06:01)

— SPONSOR: Factor, America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit. Head to factormeals.com/friendly50 and use code friendly50 to get 50% off.

Join our private Facebook group and Discord server!

Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.

— Longtime atheist activist and mentor Woody Kaplan has died. (0:15)

— The #1 Christian album in the country belongs to drag queen Flamy Grant. (4:00)

— Richard Dawkins used his new podcast to promote more transphobic lies. (13:20)

— A Catholic school expelled a boy to retaliate against his outspoken mother. (59:31)

— A lawsuit could block Oklahoma’s taxpayer-funded Catholic charter school. (1:11:06)

— SPONSOR: Factor, America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit. Head to factormeals.com/friendly50 and use code friendly50 to get 50% off.

Join our private Facebook group and Discord server!

Jessica and I spoke about several stories from the past week involving religion and politics.

— For absurd reasons, MAGA cultists think FOX News supports The Satanic Temple. (2:15)

— Survey: Belief in God, Heaven, Hell, angels, and the devil is lower than ever before. (14:45)

— Does Vivek Ramaswamy‘s Hinduism really matter to GOP voters? (25:55)

— Texas atheists sue Fort Worth for rejecting ads for event opposing Christian Nationalism. (39:33)

— Christian hate-preacher: Even if your husband’s an axe murderer, “you cannot divorce him.” (44:50)

— Judge: WV prison officials can’t force an atheist inmate to profess Christianity. (51:15)

— Don’t believe the lie that growing megachurches tend to avoid politics. (58:41)

— Two more House Democrats have (quietly) joined the Congressional Freethought Caucus. (1:08:33)

— An Alabama church’s $4.5 million “pastoral recovery center” raises so many red flags. (1:12:10)

— SPONSOR: Factor, America’s #1 Ready-To-Eat Meal Kit. Head to factormeals.com/friendly50 and use code friendly50 to get 50% off.

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For a lot of listeners, I suspect conspiratorial thinking is something you connect with religion or right-wing politics. But of course it’s also rampant in the world of New Age spirituality. Think Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Kennedy, Jr. They’re not explicitly religious, but their fans are not exactly known for their critical thinking skills.

My guests today have been dissecting that kind of BS for years. Julian Walker has written extensively on cults and gurus and New Age nonsense. Derek Beres is an author & media expert who’s worked with a number of media and tech companies. Julian and Derek are also active yoga enthusiasts, a practice that’s become rife with spiritual silliness that they oppose.

Both of them, along with Matthew Remski, are co-hosts of the podcast Conspirituality, which tackles how spiritual beliefs that can nurture creativity and meaning have transformed into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia.

They just published a book about this topic called “Conspirituality: How New Age Conspiracy Theories Became a Health Threat.” (Affiliate link)

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0:00 Intro

1:45 Introductions

4:30 Your podcast began shortly after the pandemic shut everything down. What was it about that time that made you think this was the right time to talk about these issues?

7:20 What is it about being a contrarian that makes people—right-wing atheists or New Age believers—susceptible to propaganda?

12:00 You recently had an excerpt of your book, a part about RFK, run in Time magazine. What’s the danger of RFK for people who haven’t followed his career?

14:30 Why is anti-vax propaganda so powerful given that we just went through a global pandemic?

18:10 Who is responsible for spreading spiritual misinformation? It’s not like the New Age crowd has a FOX News or Newsmax.

21:21 Why do conspiracy theories always seem to align with right-wing politics?

24:20 Do the purveyors of this nonsense know it’s BS or are they True Believers?

28:00 Is it helpful when people like Dr. Oz and RFK run for office and lose? Or are those still opportunities to spread misinformation regardless of the outcome?

32:48 What has frustrated you both about media coverage of spiritual grifters?

36:45 Who’s more dangerous: Gwyneth Paltrow or Alex Jones?

41:00 What is the “eugenics to yoga pipeline”?

45:20 What one question do you wish people would ask when grifters pitch a product?

49:25 Should we be debating vaccine efficacy?

55:15 What’s effective in combatting these lies?