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Published on:

13th Jun 2025

Supplementary Material 31: Aquatic Nightmares, Strategic Obliviousness, & Race Realists

We venture into the darker corners of the gurusphere and marvel at some very, very brave individuals, their valiant efforts to play devil's advocate, and some world-class discourse surfing skills. Join us, won't you?

Supplementary Material 31: Aquatic Nightmares, Strategic Obliviousness, & Race Realists

00:00 Introduction & Ol Squeaky Cameo

02:57 Matt's Aquarium Trauma & Stress Dreams

09:45 RFK Jr's war on science continues

11:17 Robert Malone & other 'Covid Contrarians' rewarded under Trump

14:35 The LA Protests, Riots, and Anti-Immigrant Narratives

20:12 Flint Dibble calls out Joe Rogan

25:24 Joe Rogan is a polemical ideologue and anti-vaccine advocate

27:34 Cassandra Kavanagh?

32:37 If Books Could Kill on Lab Leak

35:10 Popular Perceptions of the Covid Pandemic vs Reality

38:38 Debating COVID-19 Measures

38:59 Clarifying the Role of Sam's Manager

42:56 Discussing Trump, Musk, and DOGE's Political Impact

47:12 The Meaning Crisis and the Comfort of Religion

50:35 The Effects of Social Media

53:15 Matt and Chris Friendly Shadowboxing

56:19 The horror of directly stating your opinions

58:14 Sam Harris' Preparation for Conversations

01:05:02 Strategic Obliviousness

01:12:26 A little bit of TRT Discourse

01:16:17 Lex's Insufferable Tweet:  Celebrating Humanity and Responding to Critics

01:18:46 The Bravery of the All In Podcast Besties

01:20:33 Elon Musk and Donald Trump: A Complex Relationship

01:23:42 Mike from PA and Dunking Safely Online

01:26:10 Scientific Racism and Controversial Podcasts

01:34:02 Paul Bloom and Subjective Redlines

01:41:10 The Neo-Nazi Smoke in the Race Realism World

01:48:36 Daniël Lakens on Bryan Johnson on Mortality Salience

01:50:16 Matt's Foodie Corner

01:52:21 Outro

The full episode is available for Patreon subscribers (1hr 54 mins).

Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus

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About the Podcast

Decoding the Gurus
A psychologist and an anthropologist try to make sense of the world's greatest self-declared Gurus.
An exiled Northern Irish anthropologist and a hitchhiking Australian psychologist take a close look at the contemporary crop of 'secular gurus', iconoclasts, and other exiles from the mainstream, offering their own brands of unique takes and special insights.

Leveraging two of the most diverse accents in modern podcasting, Chris and Matt dig deep into the claims, peek behind the psychological curtains, and try to figure out once and for all... What's it all About?

Join us, as we try to puzzle our way through and talk some smart-sounding smack about the intellectual giants of our age, from Jordan Peterson to Robin DiAngelo. Are they revolutionary thinkers or just grifters with delusions of grandeur?

Join us and let's find out!
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About your hosts

Christopher Kavanagh

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A Northern Irish cognitive anthropologist who occasionally moonlights as a social psychologist. Chris has long standing interests in the psychology of conspiracy theorists and pseudoscience. His academic research focuses on the Cognitive Science of Religion and ritual psychology. He lives happily in Japan with his family.

Matthew Browne

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An Australian psychologist and numbers-guy. He does research on all kinds of stuff, but particularly enjoys looking into why people believe the things they do: religion, conspiracy theories, alternative medicine and stuff. He's into social media in the same way people slow down for car accidents.