Decoding the Gurus  By  cover art

Decoding the Gurus

By: Christopher Kavanagh and Matthew Browne
  • Summary

  • 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!
    Copyright 2024 Christopher Kavanagh and Matthew Browne
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Episodes
  • Supplementary Material 5: Spiritual UFOs, Alternative Theories of Evolution, and Atlantean Grievances
    Apr 26 2024

    We watch in awe as the guru-sphere grapples with a host of 'alternative' theories:

    • Bret promotes pseudoscience on Polio and alternative theories on evolution
    • The Gurusphere collides with Tucker's takes on evolution
    • Rogan and Tucker praise Alex Jones' prophetic abilities
    • Tucker's views on spiritual UFOs
    • Hasan endorses Lex Fridman as the most genuine centrist
    • Contrasting Destiny and Hasan's transparency
    • World War 3 Warnings
    • The Great Archaeology Debate: Dibble vs. Hancock
    • Graham Hancock- A Grievance Mongering Masterclass
    • Intentional Misrepresentation
    • White Supremacy angers Great Joe
    • The Cass Review Controversy: A lesson in misinformation

    Links

    • The Untold Story of Polio – Forrest Maready on DarkHorse
    • Jerry Coyne's old takedown of Bret's confused theories about evolution
    • Bret's tweets defending Tucker
    • Joe Rogan Experience #2138 - Tucker Carlson
    • Joe Rogan Experience #2136 - Graham Hancock & Flint Dibble
    • The Iced Coffee Hour- Confronting Hasan Piker on Socialist Grift, Hypocrisy, and How “The Top 1%” Keeps You Poor!
    • The Iced Coffee Hour- Destiny on Debating Ben Shapiro, Toxic Wokeism and Getting Divorced
    • A comparison of the reactions to Iran's missile launches
    • More or Less (BBC)- 98%: Is misinformation being spread about a review of trans youth medicine?
    • The Cass Report
    • Systematic Reviews from the Cass Report

    The full episode is available for Patreon subscribers (1 hr 51 mins).

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

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    44 mins
  • Destiny: Debate King and/or Degenerate?
    Apr 22 2024

    In this episode, Matt and Chris dive deep into the world of online streamers, focusing on the pioneering and controversial figure Steven Bonell II, better known as Destiny (AKA Mr Borelli). As seasoned explorers of sense-making jungles, Petersonian crystalline structures, and mind-bending labyrinths in Weinstein World, they thought they were prepared for anything. However, the drama-infused degeneracy of the streamer swamps proves to offer some new challenges.

    Having previously dipped their toes in these waters by riding with Hasan on his joyous Houthi pirate ship (ignoring the screams of the imprisoned crew below decks), Matt and Chris now strip down to their decoding essentials and plunge head-first into streamer drama-infested waters as they search for the fabled true Destiny.

    Destiny is a popular live streamer and well-known debater with a long and colourful online history. He is also known for regularly generating controversy. With a literal mountain of content to sift through, there was no way to cover it all. Instead, Matt and Chris apply their usual decoding methods to sample a selection of Destiny's content, seeking to identify any underlying connective tissue and determine if he fits the secular guru mould.

    In so doing, they cover a wide range of topics, including:

    • Destiny's background and rise to prominence in the streaming world
    • How much of his brain precisely is devoted to wrangling conservatives?
    • What's it like to live with almost no private/public boundaries?
    • What are the ethics of debating neo-Nazis?
    • The nature of the Destiny's online community
    • Whether murder is a justified response to DDOS attacks?

    Whether they succeed or fail in their decoding will be for the listeners to judge, but one thing is certain: if this is your first exposure to the streaming world, you are in for a bit of a ride.

    Links

    • The Institute of Art and Ideas: Destiny and the new world of Internet politics | Steven Bonnell full interview
    • End of the Leftist Arc? - Destiny Addresses the Recent Drama
    • Iced Coffee Hour: Destiny on Debating Ben Shapiro, Toxic Wokeism and Getting Divorced
    • Helpful Reddit thread with a bunch of relevant videos and summaries
    • Documentary on Destiny Lore by Dingo: The Steven "Destiny" Bonnell II Iceberg
    • Destiny's Positions page on his dedicated Wiki
    • Destiny's Manifestos
    • MrGirl's anti-Destiny 'Report'

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    3 hrs and 16 mins
  • Supplementary Material 4: Passive Aggressive Therapists, Shit-posting Monks, and Weaponised Naivety
    Apr 13 2024

    We ponder whether, due to our naivety, do we actually deserve the gurus and other topics, including:

    • Is Hasan Piker even better than we said?
    • The ethical quandaries of online therapy with Dr. K
    • The False Halos of Status and Success
    • The Rest is History Luther series and parallels with Secular Gurus
    • The Power of Polemicists: Peterson, Trump, and Martin Luther?
    • Secular vs. Religious Gurus
    • Shit-posting Missives
    • Orthodoxic Atheism and Orthopraxic Religion
    • Lex Fridman's Reflections on Intellectual Humility
    • Some important Messages from the hosts

    Links

    • Game Rant Article about Hasan Piker's donation to Strike Funds
    • Uncovering the Higher Truth about Jay Shetty by John McDermott
    • Coffeezilla Interview with John McDermott
    • Dr. K and Doctor Mike: Debating The Value Of Eastern Medicine (Ayurveda)
    • That stream with Dr. K and his wife
    • The Rest is History: Series on Martin Luther
    • Article by Chris in Aeon about Orthopraxic Religion
    • Lex's extremely humble tweet about his intellectual humility

    The full episode is available for Patreon subscribers (1hr 19mins).

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

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    36 mins

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Thurough assessments

Wonderfully entertaining and insightful, as well as excessively verbose!
I adore the conversations.
I also appreciate not having to do my own research.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

A much needed podcast in the age of gurus.

Chris and Matt are carrying hammers trying to Whack-A-Mole all the gurus coming out of their misinformed, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing, conspiratorial podcast holes. The hosts are approaching the topics in good faith. If you are interested in understanding how gurus build their cult-like following, and the techniques they use to manipulate their listeners, then the boys have you covered. The main critique I have for the podcast is that it's a tad bit too long at times. If you don't find the topics interesting, they have funny accents.

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Toxic bigotted juveniles must be muted

Two ignorant rambling researchers think its hilarious to treat serious issues like gender dysphoria with toxic and immature mockery. What right do they have to causually cissplain (with a known transphobic Helen Lewis) anything to anyone? Do they realise what it's like to grow up confused about identity. Do they talk about the mental and physical abuse perpetrated by others on the LGBTQIA+ community or the unacceptable suicide rates? No. They just compare fighting for human decency and rights of every individual to the despicable orthodoxy of churches that believe in superbeings who created the earth and let all their disciples get away with pedophilia! They just pretend they are objective because their whole life has revolved around an insecure, fragile, colonial biased paradigm. Brainwashed and self-delusional. They think they are objective because they mock those hate crime mongers from the IDW. That childish sarcasm and laughter when talking about Peterson and the ilk, and then that vomit inducing feeling sorry/not sorry for being 'meanies' is nothing more than acting as apologists for those criminal misogynists and supporting hate speech. Barely able to listen to an older one on Ibram X Kendi but it is obvious they have a major issue with critical race theory, anti-racism and the BLM movement. I will issue a formal complaint about this podcast and hope you will do the same.

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