Épisodes

  • Brief: Olympics for Dopers
    Aug 16 2025
    The Enhanced Games promises to display the "true potential" of athletes by letting them use any sort of performance enhancement drugs available when it launches in Las Vegas in 2026. Yet why would a group of Silicon Valley billionaires and venture capitalists with no interest in sports be behind it? Likely because it's all a supplements grift, as Derek and Julian discuss. Show Notes The Definitive, Insane, Swimsuit-Bursting Story of the Steroid Olympics Joe Rogan Experience #2166 - Enhanced Games Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Voir plus Voir moins
    35 min
  • 270: Kennedy's Bloodbath
    Aug 14 2025
    The implications of awarding Robert F Kennedy, Jr with a position he’s completely unqualified for are becoming clearer by the day. While he’s made numerous egregious and dangerous moves as Secretary of HHS, canceling nearly $500 million of mRNA research grants is one of the most startling and shortsighted to date. Today we look at both the microcosm and macrocosm of such a move. Show Notes Kennedy Cancels Nearly $500 Million in mRNA Vaccine Contracts RFK Jr. slashed mRNA vaccine development funding. A Nobel Prize winner just responded Kennedy to halt $500 million in vaccine projects Exclusive: Medical journal rejects Kennedy's call for retraction of vaccine study Do All Celebrities Have Lyme Disease Now? CDC Lyme Disease Case Maps How mRNA Vaccines Work CDC Explaining How Vaccines Work Clinical Advances for mRNA Vaccines and Cancer Immunotherapy Katalin Kariko’s Brittanica page Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Voir plus Voir moins
    1 h
  • Bonus Sample: Nair, Mamdani, and Culture against the Culture War (Pt 1)
    Aug 11 2025
    Well, I seem to always be inspired by the person who is considered marginal. Firstly, their spirit of survival, their resilience, their lack of self-pity, the ability usually to laugh in the face of having nothing and to create a kind of sense of flamboyance and life at any cost, despite having you know no resources of any kind that are visible. That's what inspires me and I think in making portraits of the so-called outsiders, I'm also then allowed to question what is that society that deems us an outsider? — Mira Nair on BBC “Masterpiece”, 11/29/04 When official America speaks of good and bad Muslims, we must not think that they are speaking of the attitude of Muslims to Islam. They are actually talking about the attitude of Muslims to the U.S. A good Muslim is simply a pro-American Muslim and a bad Muslim is simply an anti-American Muslim. This is not about Islam, it is about America. — Mahmoud Mamdani, C-Span's Book TV series, hosted by the University of Michigan on April 15, 2005. Want to better understand Zohran Mamdani’s intellectual and emotional heritage? Want to understand how he seems to be thrashing the culture war with, well culture? Matthew did, and so he looked into the films of his mom Mira Nair (Part 1), and the scholarship of his dad, Mahmood (Part 2). Show Notes Masterpiece - Mira Nair - BBC Sounds Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Author Mahmood Mamdani Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Penguin Random House Secondary Education Reluctant Fundamentalist, The Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) Sam Harris on the Reality of Islam - Truthdig Samuel Huntington’s Great Idea Was Totally Wrong | The New Republic #ZeeJLF2018 | Mira Nair A timeline of JK Rowling's anti-trans shift Mori Araj Suno lyrics My secret debate with Sam Harris: A revealing 4-hour dialogue on Islam, racism & free-speech hypocrisy - Salon.com New Atheists and old prejudices - The Chronikler The Clash of Civilizations - If Books Could Kill - Apple Podcasts President Reagan welcomes al-Qaeda and Mujahideen leaders to the White House, May 1986 For Zohran Mamdani, Mom Mira Nair’s Films Were a Formative Influence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Voir plus Voir moins
    5 min
  • Brief: Nair, Mamdani, and Culture against the Culture War (Pt 1)
    Aug 9 2025
    Well, I seem to always be inspired by the person who is considered marginal. Firstly, their spirit of survival, their resilience, their lack of self-pity, the ability usually to laugh in the face of having nothing and to create a kind of sense of flamboyance and life at any cost, despite having you know no resources of any kind that are visible. That's what inspires me and I think in making portraits of the so-called outsiders, I'm also then allowed to question what is that society that deems us an outsider? — Mira Nair on BBC “Masterpiece”, 11/29/04 When official America speaks of good and bad Muslims, we must not think that they are speaking of the attitude of Muslims to Islam. They are actually talking about the attitude of Muslims to the U.S. A good Muslim is simply a pro-American Muslim and a bad Muslim is simply an anti-American Muslim. This is not about Islam, it is about America. — Mahmoud Mamdani, C-Span's Book TV series, hosted by the University of Michigan on April 15, 2005. Want to better understand Zohran Mamdani’s intellectual and emotional heritage? Want to understand how he seems to be thrashing the culture war with, well culture? Matthew did, and so he looked into the films of his mom Mira Nair (Part 1), and the scholarship of his dad, Mahmood (Part 2). Show Notes Masterpiece - Mira Nair - BBC Sounds Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Author Mahmood Mamdani Good Muslim, Bad Muslim | Penguin Random House Secondary Education Reluctant Fundamentalist, The Ben Affleck, Sam Harris and Bill Maher Debate Radical Islam | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) Sam Harris on the Reality of Islam - Truthdig Samuel Huntington’s Great Idea Was Totally Wrong | The New Republic #ZeeJLF2018 | Mira Nair A timeline of JK Rowling's anti-trans shift Mori Araj Suno lyrics My secret debate with Sam Harris: A revealing 4-hour dialogue on Islam, racism & free-speech hypocrisy - Salon.com New Atheists and old prejudices - The Chronikler The Clash of Civilizations - If Books Could Kill - Apple Podcasts President Reagan welcomes al-Qaeda and Mujahideen leaders to the White House, May 1986 For Zohran Mamdani, Mom Mira Nair’s Films Were a Formative Influence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Voir plus Voir moins
    43 min
  • 269: The Book of Gwyneth
    Aug 7 2025
    In her new biography of Gwyneth Paltrow, Amy Odell calls Goop “a powerful platform for spreading health misinformation.” So many topics Goop has covered favorably—yoni eggs, coffee enemas, celery juice—have been scrutinized on our podcast. Rolling off her successful biography of Anna Wintour, Odell decided to train her sight on the “It girl” of the nineties who pivoted to a lucrative but contentious wellness business that laid the groundwork for the influencer aesthetic. She joins Derek to discuss her new book. But first, we discuss our thoughts on Odell’s subject. Show Notes Gwyneth: The Biography BackRow by Amy Odell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Voir plus Voir moins
    1 h et 2 min
  • Bonus Sample: The '80s Zen Master Con Man
    Aug 4 2025
    Everything about Zen Master Rama was fake—except for the piles of money he made. His black belt in paranormal martial arts, three past lives as a Buddhist teacher, 31 meditation albums he claimed to compose in other dimensions, multiple computer software companies, and a bestseller based on being a “world-class snowboarder” were all smoke and mirrors. He had no training or talent in any of these areas. He was an expert con man, however. The man wore Versace suits and Rolex watches, bought mansions, and owned a collection of pricey cars. His headshots were by the top Hollywood photographer of the day; he made many TV appearances. His students believed he could fill rooms with golden light, skate on light-beams, and protect them from the demons he claimed wanted to steal their enlightened energy. He instructed them to be celibate but then manipulated and coerced the prettiest into joining him for tantric sex rituals he claimed would accelerate their enlightenment. It didn’t end well for anyone—including him. In the latest installment of the Roots of Conspirituality series, Julian tells the tale of Frederick Lenz, a quintessential 80's synthesizer of phoney Buddhism, New Age delusions, cultic abuse, and wealth as a signifier of spiritual progress. Show Notes The Code Cult of the CPU Guru Mentor to Some, Cult Leader to Others The Guru’s Latest Incarnation Atrocity Guide The Enlightenment Fraud of Zen Master Rama Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Voir plus Voir moins
    6 min
  • Brief: DJ Khaled of Pseudoscience
    Aug 2 2025
    Strange billboards have been popping up all over Los Angeles featuring disgraced Theranos founder, Elizabeth Holmes, and an unidentified man listing a new URL—one that redirects to the Theranos website. Against all odds, the brand is back, with a wellness twist, as the new founder is directly courting MAHA. Derek and Julian dive in. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Voir plus Voir moins
    23 min
  • 268: Rogan’s Christian President
    Jul 31 2025
    We catch up on three figures this week. First is Bari Weiss, who's trying to sell her upstart media org, The Free Press, to Skydance for a reported $250 million, just days after the network's merger with Paramount was approved and they said bye-bye to Stephen Colbert. Then we talk about RFK Jr's continued dismantling of our public health system, as well as an interesting lawsuit filed by the very nonprofit he founded. Finally, we look into Texas state representative and Presbyterian pastor-in-training, James Talarico, and discuss his viral moment on Joe Rogan. Show Notes Anti-vaccine group that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. founded files lawsuit against him over vaccine safety task force RFK Jr. to Oust Advisory Panel on Cancer Screenings, HIV Prevention Drugs Was Colbert Cancelled for Trump? Bari Weiss in Talks with Skydance for $250M Billionaires Back Anti-Woke “University.” James Talarico Delivers Sermon Against Christian Nationalism James Talarico Questions Republican Bill Forcing Ten Commandments To Be Displayed In Classrooms Joe Rogan Experience #2352 - James Talarico Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
    Voir plus Voir moins
    1 h et 14 min