Bonus Sample: We Already Know What September Will Bring
It's been quite the week at HHS with Robert F Kennedy Jr in charge. Derek considers what's been going on: Bobby's announcement that he's going to "determine" the cause of autism by September; his social media marketing-driven visit to grieving families in Texas; his pivot on the MMR vaccine; and his recommendation to the CDC that fluoride be removed from public water supplies.
Show Notes
RFK Jr. says HHS will determine the cause of autism by September
RFK Jr. says he plans to tell CDC to stop recommending fluoride in drinking water
What RFK Jr. Told Grieving Texas Families About the Measles Vaccine
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6:06
Brief: Karma & Christ at the NIH
Jay Bhattacharya, Covid contrarian and co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration, is now the Director of the NIH. The day before beginning his new job, he gave his first official interview to Bari Weiss on her podcast, Honestly. Derek and Julian discuss.
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38:21
252: Netflix vs. Andrew Tate (On “Adolescence”)
There’s a mystery of violence swirling in and amongst the kids these days. Especially boys. What could it be? Snapchat? Video games? Andrew Tate? A hit Netflix series points to issues, and policy. But is it pointing in the right direction?
Today we’ll look at “Adolescence”: the origin story, the strengths and liabilities of its one-take technique, and its deceptively conservative messaging. Should it be shown in Parliament? Schools? Does it tell us much about the kids it is worried about? Does it offload responsibility for misogyny and violence onto ambient internet chaos, when there are so many other causes closer to home? And why, if it is a meditation on violence committed by boys, do we learn so little about the girls who are harmed?
___
Correction: In the episode, Matthew said that Axel Rudakabana was of South Asian descent. He was born in the UK of parents from Rwanda.
Show Notes
Brief: Tate Crime
Teachers Warn That Misogynist Andrew Tate Has 'Radicalized' School-Age Boys
180: Is This the Next Andrew Tate?
Stephen Graham shares the heartbreaking stories that inspired Netflix's Adolescence
'Adolescence' Becomes Netflix's Most-Watched Limited Series in First 2 Weeks With 66.3 Million Views
Elon Musk blasted for spreading 'concerning' misinformation about Netflix's Adolescence
Netflix’s Adolescence makes TV history in the UK
“Netflix hit Adolescence has lessons for us all” says Northumbria PCC Susan Dungworth, as she welcomes PM backing for it to be shown in UK Schools
Netflix's Adolescence inspired by true story of Croydon girl's horrific murder - MyLondon
UK experts warn of dangers of violent content being readily available online | Southport attack
Croydon schoolgirl Elianne Andam stabbed in ‘white-hot anger’, court told | UK news
Hassan Sentamu sentencing remarks
Sentencing Remarks: In the matter of the murder of Ava White
Crime in England and Wales: year ending September 2024
The facts about firearm violence
Firearm Violence in the United States | Center for Gun Violence Solutions
Online gangs of teenage boys sharing extreme material are ‘emerging threat’ in UK | NCA (National Crime Agency)
Beyond the Headlines 2024 Summary | Youth Endowment Fund
Spotify takes down Andrew Tate ‘pimping’ podcast after complaints
Kyle Clifford watched Andrew Tate videos before triple murder
The Terrifying Truth Behind Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’
Stephen Graham Netflix series Adolescence inspired by two real-life crimes
"Objective realism," ethnographic cinema, and the classical model of visual-anthropological research
PACE Code C 2023
GCSEs harm our young people. Ministers should have the guts to abolish them – and start again
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1:14:29
Bonus Sample: Antifascist Woodshed 3.1: The Kids are Alright
Part Two: Matthew remembers the snow job of “The Sound of Music.” Also: more on Sophie Scholl, introducing the Edelweiss Pirates, the “adult gaze”, what trusting kids means, notes from Emma Goldman and Janusz Korczak, and excerpts from a poem by Aku Päiviö, father of Jules, who traveled from Northern Ontario to Spain in 1937 to volunteer in the International Brigade.
____
When fascism rises, and some young people are drawn into its orbit, because everyone from Jordan Peterson to Andrew Tate has figured out how to exploit resentment at the failures of capitalism, we have an opportunity to give our kids a lot more than moralistic calls for a return to normalcy, compliance, warnings about screen time, striving to be better students, doing more sports, and not making too much of a ruckus.
The kind of parenting that limits itself to restoring the status quo for younger people in an age of fascism is not engaged parenting.
It’s not enough to be a good boy or girl. Antifascism takes more than that.
Show Notes
Op-ed: Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions
Death toll since Israel's aggression on Gaza on October 7 rises to 31,819 (March, 2024)
Austerity Has Always Been a Project to Empower Capital at the Expense of Workers
It's Not Them; It's Us: Thoughts on the Show Adolescence
Adolescence is a really well made depiction of misogyny that fails to critique it | by Mallory Moore | Mar, 2025
Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ Taps Into the Latest Moral Panic
Jonathan Haidt’s Claims On Kids & Tech Crumble Under Scrutiny From Top Expert, Candice Odgers | Techdirt
UK government's own estimate says welfare cuts to push 250,000 into poverty | Reuters
Labour’s cuts to PIP will drag a quarter of a million people into absolute poverty, DWP figures show – Disability News Service
55: Games Against Humanity (w/ Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality
207: Gaming Realities (w/Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality
Reminder to the media: Research video games before reporting on them
Out of the Ruins:The Emergence of Radical Informal Learning Spaces
Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader
The People's Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State
Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work
Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom
TRUST KIDS! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy
Refusing Complicity: The Bravery of Sophie Scholl - Radical Tea Towel
Sophie Scholl and the youth resistance against the Nazis – DW – 02/22/2023
The majority of news influencers are conservative men, study finds
An Unclaimed Country: The Austrian Image in American Film and the Sociopolitics of The Sound of Music
The politics of The Sound of Music | Peter Levine
Edelweiss Pirate Walter Mayer
The Edelweiss Pirates: A Story of Freedom, Love and Life
Walter Meyer describes his 1943 trial for looting, and the impact of his role in the Edelweiss Pirates on the sentence he received | Holocaust Encyclopedia
The Edelweiss Pirates
The Child and Its Enemies | The Anarchist Library —Emma Goldman
DECLARATION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS—Janusz Korczak
The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak - Betty Jean Lifton
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days
Remember the Mac-Paps - rabble.ca
The Canadians In The Spanish Civil War
'Gentleman Jules' lived for just causes | Sudbury Star
Poetry – Friends and Veterans
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6:05
Brief: Antifascist Woodshed 3: The Kids are Alright
But the parents? Meh.
When fascism rises, and some young people are drawn into its orbit, because everyone from Jordan Peterson to Andrew Tate has figured out how to exploit resentment at the failures of capitalism, we have an opportunity to give our kids a lot more than moralistic calls for a return to normalcy, compliance, warnings about screen time, striving to be better students, doing more sports, and not making too much of a ruckus (as Marco Rubio calls it).
The kind of parenting that limits itself to restoring the status quo for younger people in an age of fascism is not engaged parenting.
It’s not enough to be a good boy or girl. Antifascism takes more than that.
In this Part One, Matthew previews our main feed discussion of Adolescence (coming this Thursday), parses a speech by Gareth Southgate, wonders why Jonathan Haidt knows nothing about gaming, and remembers Sophie Scholl.
Show Notes
Op-ed: Try again, President Kumar: Renewing calls for Tufts to adopt March 4 TCU Senate resolutions
Death toll since Israel's aggression on Gaza on October 7 rises to 31,819 (March, 2024)
Austerity Has Always Been a Project to Empower Capital at the Expense of Workers
It's Not Them; It's Us: Thoughts on the Show Adolescence
Adolescence is a really well made depiction of misogyny that fails to critique it | by Mallory Moore | Mar, 2025
Netflix’s ‘Adolescence’ Taps Into the Latest Moral Panic
Jonathan Haidt’s Claims On Kids & Tech Crumble Under Scrutiny From Top Expert, Candice Odgers | Techdirt
UK government's own estimate says welfare cuts to push 250,000 into poverty | Reuters
Labour’s cuts to PIP will drag a quarter of a million people into absolute poverty, DWP figures show – Disability News Service
55: Games Against Humanity (w/ Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality
207: Gaming Realities (w/Thi Nguyen) — Conspirituality
Reminder to the media: Research video games before reporting on them
Out of the Ruins:The Emergence of Radical Informal Learning Spaces
Anarchist Education and the Modern School: A Francisco Ferrer Reader
The People's Republic of Neverland: The Child versus the State
Raising Free People: Unschooling as Liberation and Healing Work
Teaching Resistance: Radicals, Revolutionaries, and Cultural Subversives in the Classroom
TRUST KIDS! Stories on Youth Autonomy and Confronting Adult Supremacy
Refusing Complicity: The Bravery of Sophie Scholl - Radical Tea Towel
Sophie Scholl and the youth resistance against the Nazis – DW – 02/22/2023
The majority of news influencers are conservative men, study finds
An Unclaimed Country: The Austrian Image in American Film and the Sociopolitics of The Sound of Music
The politics of The Sound of Music | Peter Levine
Edelweiss Pirate Walter Mayer
The Edelweiss Pirates: A Story of Freedom, Love and Life
Walter Meyer describes his 1943 trial for looting, and the impact of his role in the Edelweiss Pirates on the sentence he received | Holocaust Encyclopedia
The Edelweiss Pirates
The Child and Its Enemies | The Anarchist Library —Emma Goldman
DECLARATION OF CHILDREN'S RIGHTS—Janusz Korczak
The King of Children: A Biography of Janusz Korczak - Betty Jean Lifton
Sophie Scholl – The Final Days
Remember the Mac-Paps - rabble.ca
The Canadians In The Spanish Civil War
'Gentleman Jules' lived for just causes | Sudbury Star
Poetry – Friends and Veterans
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Dismantling New Age cults, wellness grifters, and conspiracy-mad yogis. At best, the conspirituality movement attacks public health efforts in times of crisis. At worst, it fronts and recruits for the fever-dream of QAnon. As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, clear discourse, and good intentions get smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by co-opting conspiracy theories on a spectrum of intensity ranging from vaccines to child trafficking. In the process, spiritual beliefs that have nurtured creativity and meaning are transforming into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia. Conspirituality Podcast attempts to bring understanding to this landscape. A journalist, a cult researcher, and a philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds. Mainstream outlets have noticed the problem. We crowd-source, research, analyze, and dream answers to it.
Listen to Conspirituality, Our Paranormal Afterlife : Finding Proof of Life After Death and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app