Keith Raniere was found hy authorities in MX, not Brasil. A quite cursory understanding of NXIVM would reveal this fact. It’s NXIVM 101.

They have total blinders as to the fact that they indeed, have a very specific worldview and are not arbiters of any sort of “truth” beyond this worldview.

A lot of wasteful chatter at the beginning. When they finally get to it, the format is short, selective clips of whoever is being “decoded” followed by some snippy comments. I was hoping for something more substantial and in depth, but this wasn’t it.

Came here for the decoding and just got a bunch of ego instead. You lost me in the latest episode when the (Irish? Scottish??) guy pretended not to know how to pronounce "Epstein" as if it's like yesterdays news or something unimportant. Very weird behavior and judging by the reviews, I'm not the only one that feels this way. Neeeeext.

So I’ve gotten through episode 1 and these two nutcrackers take themselves way too seriously. It’s clear they believe that they are the pillars of truth above all else. Luckily there are a couple hundred episodes for me to review… this type of gatekeeping in academics will not stand. Ohh and I WILL be telling my friends and family about this podcast as well. DOWN WITH THE D.I.S.C.!

Even though Chris thinks we only like the show when they are criticizing people, I hate, quite the opposite is true for me! My favorite episodes are featuring people that I like a bit. They have talked me out of my fondness for Douglas Murray, and have prevented me from entering the world of the Weinstein Brothers. They have helped me see some inconsistencies in Sam Harris’s position, but I am still a fan of his. My biggest Takeaway is to really watch out for anyone who is putting themselves in the center of their messaging. Also, that hocking supplements is a big flaming red flag.

A bit too much palavering rather than actual decoding.

I’ve really been enjoying their critiques of the IDW, sensemaking, etc. Sure, they’re physicalists but nobody’s perfect.

The finest sense making on the internet, and maybe ever.

But they are at least very entertaining libs with very fun accents.

Worth listening just to hear what new, depraved and beautiful way Chris will pronounce the word “now” in each episode.

Keep it up!

Two hosts (or at least one) who only understand irony in the Canadian-Morissettean sense; Matthew Mcconaughey’s dream is ironic: the content says nightmare but the meaning says the opposite (the name of which appears to be censored on Apple reviews). Maybe “irony” means something different in the commonwealth countries — and that’s exactly what this podcast offers: a commonwealth perspective on the greatest minds and intellectual titans (American) of the internet age.

These academics are quick to call out pseudoscience and grifting, yet remain blind to the immense harm caused by their own choices—like eating animals (or displaying sentient beings in glass boxes). Critiquing others while supporting industries built on suffering and environmental degradation isn’t critical thinking—it’s selective ethics. Take a break from podcasting and pick up some books.

…is, dare I say, as encompassing and monstrous as that of Lex Friedman’s love for mankind. Let love of their decoding reign!

It is so calming to my nervous system to hear crimes of grift and incoherency broken down in a slow and methodical fashion, in forensic detail.

I’m enjoying checking this out! Two very knowledgeable fellows who do great research. I would advise them to basically stop talking about left wing politics, since it’s clearly not an area of expertise. In the Yarvin episode, they go from mocking the small left wing faction of the American Democratic Party and calling their politics “edgelord progressism” to then mocking the US for not having socialized healthcare. Lads, it sounds like the American left can’t win in your eyes, so maybe just leave it.

It seems like the hosts attempt to break down arguments of obviously intelligent or witty people without using much evidence or science in the contrary, or evidence of anything besides “I just don’t see it that way”. They use statements from someone else’s study and they pick any minor shortfalls in the process as an argument against it, without providing any of their own study results besides their personal experiences. It seems mostly anecdotal. In attacking some people’s humor, it comes across as unfunny whatsoever, even if they think they are. Basically just guys wanting to break intelectual people and podcasts down. It’s not funny, not witty, and flat. In listening, I’m just curious as to why they are compelled to try to nitpick intelligent arguments. Do they get enjoyment or consider themselves podcast warriors? Hours worth of weird takes and misplaced laughter that are not worth listening to.

Snark and sarcasm doesn’t decode anything. Was hoping for knowledge and understanding from qualified experts but instead was disappointed with just another layman’s opinion.

Great show - really insightful and often hilarious. I have a paid membership to very few podcasts and this is one of them.

I love these guys. Smart, funny, tongue-in-cheek reviews of the goings on in guru land.

An absolute go-to podcast if you want an informative, funny and well researched antidote to the liars and pretenders and intellectually vain charlatans of today’s internet media ecosystem. Slay those dragons boys!

I wouldn’t give two bits to these conspiracy hypothesizers but I’m just a broke bloke surfing the IDW from the spare bedroom in my parents’ two and a half car garage. At least they aren’t trying to sell me supplements or karmic crystals.

is a conspiracy theorist/MAGA. That’s basically the show. Listening to their show on Michael Shellenberger they seem to not know much about him or his history and then work backwards from the idea that he’s bad.

Normally the thought of listening to two academics pontificating endlessly about people I find extremely annoying would make me want to slit my wrists. But since these two are constantly taking the piss out of so called intellectuals who are even more pretentious than they are I’m willing to give them a pass. The fact that I get one or two good chuckles out of every episode makes it totally worth the price of admission, which is nothing. Thanks eggheads, keep “sticking it to the man”!

The podcast is fun, and good. But it is almost entirely uncharitable. I get the sense that most of the time they are not accurately representing their person of interest, and I would be more interested in even-handed takedowns. If you can never grant a person with opposing viewpoints makes occasional good points then I will doubt your analyses. Of course, some of this comes with the territory, they are not randomly sampling people they disagree with, but constant dunking on “gurus” gets old.

Love to hear a couple of smart, thoughtful and knowledgeable guys (politely and with humor) take down some of the plethora of pseudo-intellectuals or outright crackpots out there. Scratches an itch I didn’t know I had.

Meh

Don’t be fooled by Matt’s agreeableness or Chris’s faux Scientism. The DTG team might act like they are bringing a critical lens to the content and rhetoric of modern polemical gurus - thats exactly what they want you to think! Don’t be fooled! In reality these revolutionary thinkers have run the seventy paradigms, simultaneously (and not with the aim of distilling them into a single master paradigm), and therefore converged on a clear mission to spread the good word first uttered by the likes of the Weinsteins, Petersons, and Adams of the world. Listen closely, and you will find that Brown and Cavanagh fully endorse the whole range of takes on offer from Sam Harris, they recognize the profound political insights of Hassan Piker, and persistently deliver content with the tact of Destiny at his most unhinged. Just beware of falling into their weird and desperate cadre of polyamorous orbiters, for these guys are master manipulators of para-social relationships. You have been warned, now dive in and enjoy the show!

Love listening to you guys break down my heroes and villains into their mundane, slippery parts. Please do an episode on the popular left podcaster Sam Seder, a proper challenge for you soft left leaning liberals

You guys got that right, I’m paranoid and proud of it😁

You guys are the best! I’ve never purchased a Patreon subscription until I found your podcast. Especially good one today on the US election, thanks for everything y’all do to expose the gurus.

Found this podcast via Reddit… wow that’s embarrassing. Anyhow, I think Chris and Mat are funny, partially due to their accents, some of the content especially regarding the brain damage coma guy, but mainly their odd, yet compatible (for chris this should be replaced with combative) personalities. I’ve started from the beginning and have gotten through quite a few episodes thus far, and just finished the 3 hour marathon with Sam Harris. I think Chris is partially right regarding some of his criticisms regarding Sam’s blind spots. There was a portion where you nicely illustrated and got Sam to contradict himself. He likes to tail against stand point epidemiology (identity politics) which is good to a degree to recognize its shortcomings, however, he illustrates that he’s slightly hypocritical because of the reasoning of ‘I can understand Bin Laden better because of my spirituality/meditation/whatever.’ However, I do think that Sam does a good job defending some of the criticisms that Chris levies. Anyhow, keep up the good work and would really like to listen to some more precise criticisms of deplorable, degens.

Matt I know you have a good posh voice but Chris is carrying you on his back doing all the work his annoying voice notwithstanding. The poor fool is lining your pockets with Patreon largesse and you reward him by telling him you have go after positing such inane views as Trump and his supporters really aren’t right wing.

Be warned. At their best, Chris and Matt’s “this is stupid, right?” mode is pure catharsis. Thanks Guys.

Love the insight, candor and wit.

William Ulsterman and Crocodile Dundee like you’ve never heard them before and it’s insightful

This podcast is so refreshing to listen to. I love the cynicism, I love their sense of humor, I love the critical analyses. I genuinely laugh out loud to their banter and sarcasm every episode. This has easily become one of my favorite podcasts. Thank you for what you guys do!!

That’s all I came here to say.

Helps me feel a bit more sane. My mum was raised in a cult, and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure that out. This helps. Thanks!

This show is entertaining, informative, and humane, even if the sheer scale of the guru-sphere and the idiocy of it’s proponents leaves me feeling fairly hopeless about the future of a reality based politics, or even the future of humanity.

I am both personally and professionally dedicated to evidence-based practice and doing something about the pseudoscience and misinformation that abounds us. This podcast is one of the few that really breaks down the rhetoric and logical fallacies used by gurus and pseudoscientists, which I find interesting and valuable to listen to and learn.

I love listening!

Admittedly I don’t know what they are talking about some of the time but it’s still funny. I don’t know what my dosha is bc I can’t find a quiz that doesn’t ask for my email. It doesn’t really matter what my dosha is though bc I don’t have any health problems. If something crops up I guess I’ll try harder at a quiz. Also, neither of them have a face for radio which is an added perk for a Patreon supporter bc they post videos.

I have a PhD in Weinsteinian physics. Given this background, I was initially critical of the analysis of Chris and Matt, who seemed like mere neurons compared to the infinite computational power of the Weinsteins, James Lindsay, and so on. However, my skepticism was halted when on one of my sense making walks I had a spiritual experience. I was listening to the podcast—balking at how little sense they were making, of course—when suddenly I was struck by the realization that Chris and Matt’s sense making capacity was not intellectual but spiritual! Their voices harmonized instantiating a mellifluousness orders of magnitude greater than that of Sam Harris. Every sound, sight, perception, and sensation emitted more sense for me to make. Everything made sense, sense making made sense! Sense making became not only the making of sense but the process by which sense itself creates the conditions in which sense is made via the act of sense making consciousness. This is not a mere podcast, no, it’s a verbal hypnosis to induce the state of sense making consciousness. Chris and Matt just pose as slouches to attract angry sense makers to show how far he hierarchy of sense extends! Needless to say, it all makes sense now. Five stars

The Gabor Mate episode was painful to listen to, I couldn’t believe that one of the hosts is a psychologist. Even a research psychologist must have heard of attachment theory, childhood aces and the vast body of research into the other aspects of developmental trauma. The references to Freud really date how long it must be since Matt studied anything relevant to clinical psychology.

What an amazing growth model- accuse more successful podcasters until they appear on your show to boost engagement. Doesn’t sound familiar at all…

The bottom is falling out of the “DESTINY/VAUSH debate” space. I’d make a point of withdrawing the endorsement you’ve given to that moron though. Trust me.

Going to watch the Foundation series just to hear then talk about it on an old episode!!

I wanted to write an ironic review criticizing Matt and Chris for being beta soy boys or neoliberal shills or blue church lizard people or whatever, but I just love this podcast so much I can only be earnest in my praise. It helped me make sense of things when I was coming out of my IDW phase (around the time many of those people lost their minds after covid) and has since become my all time favorite podcast. They’re hilarious and likeable, sarcastic without being mean spirited, and skeptical but fair. Sadly I can never turn friends onto this because usually it goes: “hey, remember that guy you like? Well check out these two nerds having a nuanced discussion in good faith that shows the ways he’s a bit delusional, self-absorbed, and grifty.” And now my friends hate me, but I don’t need them because I have Matt and Chris.