329: Does Claude Have Charisma?

This is episode 1 of a new side project Julian is doing with Azi Ghaffari, Dr. Inna Kanevsky, and Aaron McCall. Find upcoming episodes via Grifty Podcast and at grifty.org  The wellness people think your toothpaste is poisoning you. Finance bros think empathy is bad economics. Somebody on the far right thinks Taylor Swift is a Democrat psy-op, while someone on the far left thinks your aunt buying hummus is personally funding colonialism. On parts of both fringes, everything is somehow Israel’s fault. The old antisemitic conspiracies apparently have remarkable staying power among people who think they’re having brand-new thoughts. Then, while the MAGA right was helpfully laying out its intentions in Project 2025, a corner of the online left looked at Russia and the Islamic Republic of Iran, a regime that jails journalists, murders protesters, brutalizes women, and executes gay people, and thought, “Maybe these guys have a point.” It’s impressive how much authoritarianism you can overlook once you’ve decided the authoritarians hate the right people. Different politics, same inability to enjoy Thanksgiving. And somehow, all of these people have podcasts. Actually, so do we. Welcome to Grifty Pod. We’re opening a season about how America lost its mind, which every podcast host seems to have already solved. In our defense, we’re planning to disagree with each other, which is a terrible way to run a cult. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen ad-free and support the podcast When we started this show, the charismatic influencers we covered had identifiable tactics of hard-selling, finding pain points, using disorganized attachment strategies like cult leaders do, to scare followers with sometimes real, sometimes fictitious stories that only they could understand and help solve. Beyond the patterns shared by supplement hawkers, alien channelers, and New Age enema healers, each had something unique: a style, a manner of cadence, a particular intensity of intrusive eye contact. Are these not embodied, somatic skills that will outlast the AI jobs apocalypse? Can the chat bots really displace the guru economy? We explore how we may be losing this precious resource to the brutal extractivism of our tech overlords. Show Notes Popular Health Guru Sayer Ji Curates the Scientific Literature with His Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy A Dozen Misguided Influencers Spread Most of the Anti-Vaccination Content on Social Media Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart — Nicholas Carr Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen to the full episode Last week, MAHA Action once again blurred the lines between activist organization and government entity, with RFK Jr, JD Vance, Dr Oz and other officials sharing the stage with dozens of corporate sponsors and private healthcare executives—and Russell Brand. Derek tunes in to this nine-hour fiasco. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew examines how Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has paired an 18-month austerity rampage with approval ratings near 60%. Centralized power, new surveillance and protest laws, refugee restrictions, public-service cuts, a tripling of the military budget, climate rollbacks, a seeming refusal to protect the basics of Medicare. Why do so many people love him? Carney's appeal and ability to absorb critique rests on more than managerial competence. A devout Catholic, Carney manages to make many people feel like they should be respectful and polite and not make a fuss during the high mass of finance, in which crisis is transformed into eternal life.  Matthew traces Carney's low-key Catholicism through the Pope Francis parable that opens Value(s), his role in the Vatican-backed Council for Inclusive Capitalism, and his practice of the Ignatian daily examen, and how he appeals to medieval canonists as forerunners of stakeholder capitalism.  Show Notes Prime Minister of Canada – Statement on the passing of Pope Francis Open Canada – Book Review: Value(s) Vatican – Pope Francis to the Members of the Council for Inclusive Capitalism (11 November 2019) The Catholic Register – The Catholic or the Davos Man? The Catholic Register – Carney can confirm his Catholic credentials The Catholic Register – A little Catholic, a bit Davos APTN – Former day school students say Robert Carney was their principal Greenpeace Canada – Carney's bills explained: C-2, C-12, C-8 and C-9 The Hub – The Carney government's expanding power to identify Canadians online Littler – Bill C-39 and federal collective bargaining National Observer – Budget vows to cut 40,000 jobs from public service by 2029 Environmental Defence – Carbon pricing rollback undermines climate goals PBI USA – Canadian company equips ICE with armored vehicles CTV – Canada supports U.S. strikes on Iran "with regret" Religion News Service – Pope Leo calls just war theory "outdated" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2013, businessman turned independent journalist Jesse Brown launched Canadaland as a podcast focused on media criticism. He grew the business to include many other podcasts, creating his own small media empire. Then October 7 happened and things took a turn. Recently, he hosted anti-vax contrarian doctor, Peter McCullough, in what he claims was a focus on media, but which really turned into a science-denying sh*t show.  We’ve covered McCullough for years, especially since becoming Chief Medical Officer of supplements grifters, The Wellness Company. There’s a lot to understand about his media tactics, which we’re going to dive into in segments two and three. But first, Matthew fills us in on the rise and stumble of his fellow Canadian’s media journey. Show Notes How a B.C. business scion flipped to hawking supplements and conspiracy theories Risk of Myocarditis after Vaccination Incidence of COVID-related Myocarditis Higher in Unvaccinated Clinical Outcomes Worse for Unvaccinated US Adverse COVID Vaccine Event Deaths 55 Adverse Reaction Deaths Worldwide, 13 Billion Doses Delivered Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation by Kevin Donovan Canadaland staff file to unionize Scott Martin, "What We Lost with Canadaland's Decline" HESEG Foundation Jesse Brown Destroyed Canadaland's Credibility  Justin Ling quits Canadaland hosting role Noor Azrieh and Cherise Seucharan, "A response to Canadaland's interview with Israel's ambassador to Canada" Jesse Brown Insists He's Done Nothing Wrong Avi Lewis, Yom Kippur post on X Olivia Chow opts out of antisemitism debate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who was behind the gunman that shot Pope John Paul II in 1981? We know the man who pulled the trigger was a Turkish member of the Grey Wolves. We know he planned to flee via the Bulgarian Embassy. We know an Italian nun ensured he didn’t get away.  But had someone ordered the assassination? One possible clue is held in the answer to this next question: how did the Soviet Union collapse? We also know three unlikely heroic figures played pivotal roles: a Czechoslovakian playwright, a salt-of-the-earth electrician, and the Polish Pope. Even as the totalitarian Soviet empire cracked down against uprisings in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, the voices of people crying out for democratic freedoms, human rights, and equal opportunity became undeniable. In his latest historical narrative, Julian weaves together powerful stories of three people who risked everything to defy an authoritarian power. They exemplify the playwright’s ideal of “living in truth,” the electrician’s movement known as “Solidarity,” and John Paul II’s advice that his people “be not afraid.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When the Black, 30-year-old Michael Jackson impersonator stepped onto the F train in Manhattan on May 1, 2023, he was ranting angrily about being hungry and thirsty, willing to kill, die, or go to jail for life. His name was Jordan Neely. He was clearly in distress. Daniel Penny, a white, 24-year-old former Marine put him in a chokehold and pulled him to the ground. Neely struggled for almost 6 minutes before dying. Julian reviews Anand Girirdhardas’ new book that places this event at its center. Man In The Mirror: Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City is Anand’s fifth book. He appeared on Conspirituality in January 2022 to talk about The Persuaders. In his new book, he takes readers into a deep and rich background of the broken New York City system of social services for unhoused and mentally ill people. He tells the story of how these two very different lives collided, and the consequences that ensued. Show Notes Man in the Mirror:  Hope, Struggle, and Belonging in an American City 135: The Persuaders (w/Anand Giridharadas) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Listen ad free Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been meeting with MAHA activists in an attempt to bring the coalition to the Democratic party. Recent reporting reveals that she’s been meeting (or trying to meet) with some close to RFK Jr, as well as those who have been critical of the HHS Secretary. It might be a sound political strategy, but what happens when you start courting conspiracy theorists? Derek looks into that first.  Julian then looks at where MAHA currently is based on two recent Kennedy appearances. Matthew returns to AOCto ask how the DSA might assess her MAHA pivot. Show Notes Inside AOC’s MAHA outreach Rep. AOC Joins the Majority Report MAHA & The Midterms What are Contrails? Trust in Measles Vaccine Falling Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's Drop is a crosspost of an interview Matthew Remski did with Brianna Patten of the Surviving Satchidananda Podcast.  Patten asked him a bunch of really good questions about high control groups, both as a former member and as someone who went on to research their sociology. Matthew finds Satchidananda's Integral Yoga fascinating, because Satchidananda's ascendancy through his Woodstock headline position in 1969 initiated the inward turn of 1960s liberation movements and fostered a tradition of reactionary values dressed as counterculture. Patten asked about how Matthew got into high-control groups. He talked about how both groups he joined offered a kind of socialism, a hint of a different way to share resources. This echoed the brush with liberation theology he'd had in his Catholic upbringing. As a Gen X person, he was depoliticized, and he probably had undiagnosed depression that made him yearn for whatever impossible thing was being promised. On the leaving side, Patten asked him if the pain ever goes away. He said maybe, but only as you resocialize into a purposeful life and real friendships, and there are no guarantees. They also talked about how unmoderated survivor forums can reproduce cult dynamics and claustrophobic fixation. Show Notes Surviving Satchidananda Podcast  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew tracks the attack on disability justice activist Beatrice Adler-Bolton after a clip from her Socialism 2026 panel — "Health Fascism, Body Politics, and the Anti-State State" — was stripped of context by a right wing rage-farmer, and made to go viral. Adler-Bolton used the word "dysgenic" ironically, as a reclamation, arguing the left shouldn't try to out-fitness fascists. The clip drew 12 million views and wound up on Rogan. Matthew unpacks what his colleague Adler-Bolton actually said, and why swoletarians in the “Left Manosphere”—as per Ayman Makarem's framework—misheard her point about fitness as an attack on their attempts to prepare for revolution.  Show Notes Health Fascism, Body Politics, and the Anti-State State  Death Panel podcast Ayman Makarem, "The Leftist Manosphere and Identity Politics" Elite Capture by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò The Combahee River Collective Statement, 1977 Ben Case, Street Rebellion: Resistance Beyond Violence and Nonviolence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices