Conspirituality

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.”
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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)
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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

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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
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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

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