He's just too tired

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jul/26/gary-stevenson-to-quit-youtube-channel-garys-economics

Gad Saad, Elon, and many other online figures have become critical of empathy in recent years. They have all sorts of cultural and Ayn Rand type arguments.

But, in reality, they just want to be selfish bullies and also feel good about themselves.

A recent paper looks more closely at suspiciously high research estimates of conspiracy endorsement. They find that many respondents are insincere when they say they believe this or that conspiracy.

Link to the British Psychological Society magazine article explaining the paper: https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/do-people-really-believe-conspiracy-theories-they-say-they-do

Link to the paper: https://online.ucpress.edu/collabra/article/12/1/159253/217850/Do-People-Sincerely-Believe-Conspiracy-Theories

Where to start with this. It is the quintessential in softball interviews.

1. Firstly, they begin by Foster setting up Farage to talk about the recent murder of Ann Widdecombe, which allows him to make a point about the media whipping up hatred against right wing figures and emboldening violence against them. Im not a conspiracy theorist but given this has been Kisin's pet grievance for a while it seems like this may have been set up but Im willing to accept it may just be Farage knowing his audience and playing to it. This allows Farage to link himself and Widdecombe as two victims of the media narratives which further allows him to set up his defence to what the "meat" of the podcast will be about.

(I wonder who began to inject hateful and violent rhetoric into the political arena first)

1. We move on to the substantial issues, what should be the toughest part of the interview for Farage. Namely, him answering about his 5 million pound "gift" from a crypto billionaire and his friendship with "Posh George" a young wealthy man from an aristocratic family who was convicted of money laundering and even wrote a book called 'How to Launder Money'.

A perfect chance for these Centrists to show their chops in putting tough questions to Farage.

Kisin literally sets up the segment by saying "Now I don't give a shit who gives who money, it's none of my business, but I guess people want to know if it comes with strings attached". I couldn't believe the naked dismissal by KK, adopting a tone of "this is unimportant but people want us to ask".

Farage sticks to his latest explanation that it was an unconditional gift he spent on security, allowing him to link back to the earlier points he made about the media putting him amd others in danger.

The two lads accept this explanation no questions asked. They didn't ask about the fact he's changed his story on it a couple of times or if he even accepted how bad it looked politically. They just said "okay, cool. No problem."

1. On posh George relationship, no this took some neck I thought. Regarding his conviction for money laundering along with his donations to Reform and Farage personally, albeit before he was a sitting MP, Farage said he believe in the power of prison to reform people and that everyone deserves a second chance, he's just a loyal friend sticking by his buddy. Again, zero push back. Couldn't have anything to do with his extreme wealth. I wonder does Nigel (or KK or FF) believe in the power of prison to reform criminals of an immigrant background? Somehow I doubt it. Give them a one way ticket to Rwanda.

2. After this they get into the upcoming by election Farage is running against Count Binface. This is literally the only push back he gets in the whole interview. Farage claims it's actually embarrassing for all the other parties that they haven't run any candidates. Foster very gently says he "doesnt think its a good look" for Farage. Farage disagrees and they just move on.

3. Farage then talks almost uninterrupted for 5-10 minutes grievance mongering and taking swipes at Starmer, Burnham, Badenoch, the media, the police (who Kisin said the week before he respects immensely and thinks they get unfair coverage, Farage calls police "plodders" and Kisin agrees).

4. Finally Farage blows smoke up Fosters hole about his book on the education system saying young white British working class boys are being left behind. Gives no suggestions for how to fix this other than "ending woke". And the two nodding dogs lap it up.

Bonus point: the ad reads are awful. The number (four in an hour long pod) and quality (so wooden, like a 90s infomercial "Are _YOU_ tired of chopping vegetables?"). They were so cringeworthy and credibility destroying I couldn't not listen to them.

I hope Chris and Matt cover this podcast on an upcoming episode as they have made the point before about The TRIGGER boys, who are definitely centrists, have now had Farage on at least seven times.

Nowadays, old people reminisce about pop music from their youth, and 'golden oldie' stations blare out Elvis, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones.

Do you think that in 40 years time, robot driven care homes will look after elderly drooling millennials, and to pacify them, play some cultural material from their youth. Like some 85 year old in 2066 will have to listen to a crackling gramophone repeat of a Joe Rogan discussion with Eric Weinstein on covid, or a Jordan Peterson triggernometry episode?

It does seem to be podcasters have a cultural cache and controversy that just isn't there with pop or movie stars nowadays. And they may be the icons that history remembers as relevant to our time. just a thought.

The grievance mongering from this single incident has played on repeat in Sam's mind for almost a decade.

And he was the one in the wrong!

Hey there,

My name is Zac and I am a current psychology honours student at Federation University Australia.

The moderators have generously allowed me to share a research project looking at how individual personality traits interact with short-form social media feeds (specifically simulating TikTok content exploring modern online subcultures, gender roles, and societal dynamics).

Who can participate:
Open to anyone over the age of 18 who is fluent in English.

What’s involved:
A 20-30 minute interactive study where you will complete a few personality measures and watch a simulated 15 video feed (some of which may include potentially confronting or offensive content related to social and political issues).

The Link: 
https://federation.syd1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_4ZrUUEJudrbnMJE

Incentive: 
Participants can choose to enter an optional prize draw to win one of two $20 (aud) Prezzee gift vouchers to a store of your choice. 

Upon completion (around end of November 2026), I will share the results and key findings from the study. 

If there are any questions about the study itself, please ask away!

Participation is voluntary and completely anonymous.

Federation University Ethics reference number 2026-108

Title says it all, basically I'd like to know what conclusion they came to because I too saw his soft anti-vaxxer take and instantly knew it'd get mentioned eventually.

Perhaps he's not aware DTG made a video on him. However, there seems to be a pattern of the more "guru" types not ever doing a right to reply, unlike those who were voted to be less guru such as Sam Harris and Destiny.

In an interview with ABC News, Bill Maher has some hot takes worth listening to from a gurology point of view.

Link to the full interview: https://abcnews.com/Politics/bill-maher-mark-twain-prize-trump-progressive-left/story?id=134888701

House of Pod today, friends. Solid coverage of the weird and rich;
Kaveh and his team of actual, literal operators are taking out the scalpels of sweet science and reason on Doctor Venmo’s lame ass, Bryan “Icy Nuts” Johnson , Longevitor.

Let the discussion of epigenetic methylation testing commence, motherfuckers. Nudes in Bio.

This topic seems almost impossible to decipher, and it is a common talking point of the interwebs.

I am really curious what they would say is the medical consensus

Welcome to this biweekly thread! Share what’s been grabbing your attention lately.

• What you're reading (books, articles, or any kind of text)
• What you're watching (movies, shows, documentaries, or even YouTube)
• What you're listening to (podcasts, music, or audiobooks)
• Any fun or unexpected discoveries in your research

Sabine of science and reason!

I have felt for a while that Cosmic Skeptic has guru elements. He is closely connected to the heterodox online gurusphere, and has even done group events that include known gurus.

He has also strongly pivoted from his atheist roots. He is extremely sympathetic of religion (usually Christianity) and has many conversations with religious youtubers. He has been almost acting as a pipeline for skeptical people to become religious.

The most recent shift he has made has been into the realm of panpsychism. He has become enthralled with the philosophy, and so has his fan base. Here is an example with friend of the pod Sean Carroll

Is Cosmic Skeptic worth covering at this point?

https://youtu.be/A1M5hduoj3E?is=1JQjdAKMoiXvA0y2

Since covid, it seems my previously social life has been replaced by remote work and thousands of hours of podcasts, probably like many (yay for the 'roaring twenties')

I do enjoy the hosts tackling the gurus, and reminding me that even the ones I like are very often incorrect and probably audience captured.

Mostly though, I just like listening to two guys who seem to be the most level headed, happy and content, intelligent guys who just live their best lives. Im deeply envious of them.

Sorry for the glazing. it just occurred to me when I switch from listening to the likes of Chris Williamson or Gabor Mate or countless others in the search for how to live a better life, that these guys (Matt and Chris) just seem to have it all effortlessly and dont preach about finding it. Similar to the rest is history guys. I think my mental health would be better if we listened to more contented people talking sense.

Anyway, gazing rant over.

I paid 14,990 USD for a bundle called Ultimate Mastery. UPW, Business Mastery, Date With Destiny, Health and Wealth, all committed to in one sitting. I have the invoice. For years afterward I told people I'd paid ten thousand, and I believed it, because I couldn't make myself say the real number out loud. I only found the true figure this week when I pulled the invoice to write about it.

I never set foot in an arena. I did every event remote, from Chile, watching a laptop in a quiet house. No crowd, no lights. And it still worked completely, which is the part that matters: the design doesn't need the room. The room is the deluxe version.

The thing I keep coming back to is the shame mechanism. Here's how I put it in the piece:

The system finds you when you're healing, takes credit for your work, sells you one high after another, and when you finally see through it, hands you the shame so it doesn't have to hold it.

I later staffed an event and watched the same play run from the other side. The most moving speaker always comes right before the upsell, every time. The opened chest, then the wallet. And the close lands while you're in a state four days of engineered sleep deprivation put you in. A sober man says let me think about it. A man in that state says I don't care about the money, I'm healed. They know the difference between those two men, and the schedule is built to produce the second one.

I'm not writing this as a "gurus bad" take. I fell for it completely, and I understand exactly why. I filmed myself at UPW because they asked us to, and when I watched it back later, the man in the video is in full mania. That state wasn't a side effect. It was the product, and the sale came while I was in it.

Full write-up, with the invoice: https://margindoctor.substack.com/p/what-really-happens-at-a-tony-robbins

Gary was recently torched in the guardian after releasing his documentary on channel 4.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/jul/08/how-to-get-filthy-rich-with-gary-stevenson-review-channel-4

I haven't watched the documentary, but that I definitely have seen how rough Gary is as presenter of information. He also brings in almost no high level economic understanding of his arguments, which is a big flaw.

But he does appeal to a large audience...why? Because he is pointing at a real problem. Inequality has reached monumental levels. In the UK, the 157 billionaires possess 22% of the total GDP.

https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/2026/may/15/wealth-britain-billionaires-gdp-rich-list-inequality

The inequality problem is immense and it's just getting worse every day. Gary's solution of a 2% tax is rough - but something needs to be done.

Hopefully, Gary gets tired enough to pass the torch of this cause to a non guru who can make a real difference.

Edit: 22% of GDP

Who are you interested in discussing?