Matthew Browne, a high-profile advocate for pan-psychism, compels his reluctant co-host to endure a public struggle session on the topic of consciousness, hopefully for the last time. Supplementary Material 49 00:00 Introduction 02:47 Returning to the Emerald Isle 03:44 Irish History Segment: The Titanic & Potato Famines 10:45 McGilchrist Reflections 12:51 Knowledge Fight has ended 26:23 Podcasting Motivations 34:37 Calibrated Expectations 41:03 The Problem with the Patreon Members 42:51 She...
May 12, 2026•45 min
In this episode, we return to Iain McGilchrist as he spirals upwards from his binary hemispheric model into full cosmic spirituality. The rule is simple: everything McGilchrist likes is due to the subtle, nuanced, and deeply sophisticated right brain, while the left brain (pffft) is responsible for reductionism, modernity, and most of the problems in your life. From this neuroscientific foundation, the theory expands with admirable ambition. Civilisations rise and fall depending on which hemisph...
May 04, 2026•3 hr 10 min•Ep. 161
The hour grows late, and Matt the Grey-Haired rides once more from his quiet study, summoned by whispers from the ever-churning gurusphere. And so he goes, to seek counsel with Chris the Grey-Bearded, keeper of receipts, watcher of long-form content, and wielder of the sacred Gurometer. For the gurus stir again… and their nonsense must be decoded. Supplementary Material 48: Grey Beard's Council, Late-Stage Anti-Capitalism, and Demonic Mould Health Updates 00:00 Greetings Old Friend 02:22 Decodin...
Apr 25, 2026•44 min
In this episode, we take a journey into the mind, traversing both the left and right hemispheres, but mostly the left, as we engage with the truly mind-bending insights of British psychiatrist-philosopher-neuroscientist-theologian-author Iain McGilchrist. Best known for his 2009 book "The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World" but also a much lauded academic and sensemaker. We outline McGilchrist’s extremely complicated thesis that the two hemispheres of ...
Apr 11, 2026•2 hr 4 min•Ep. 160
On this episode, we’re joined by Stevie Baskin, a skeptic and YouTuber who released a five-hour detailed critique of the “meta-deception” of Oz Pearlman. He argues that mentalism differs from traditional magic by introducing an additional meta-deception because, unlike magicians, mentalists often leave their audiences with inaccurate beliefs about body language reading, subliminal influence, NLP, and general psychology. In Stevie’s framework, this places mentalists closer to psychics and mediums...
Apr 08, 2026•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 159
Our cover is blown. Our secret funders unmasked. Code Red: Abort! Abort! This is not a drill. Supplementary Material 47: The DTG Conspiracy UNMASKED, Quantum Idiots, and Triggernometry Prophecies 00:00 Glowing Introduction 03:14 The Secret Conspiracy at the Heart of the Podcast 08:17 The Israel Connection 19:09 Cenk Uygur's Pickleball Conspiracy 23:25 Comment Section Conspiracies 30:20 Pizzagate Conspiracies Revisited 37:55 The Value of debating with ChadBigCum 42:26 AI discourse reflections 43:...
Apr 03, 2026•44 min
Mickey is BACK with two new papers he has co-authored, a bunch of opinions, and a very unwelcome idea: maybe the problem with AI isn't that it doesn't work but that it works too well! The first paper, Against Frictionless AI, argues that AI assistance and its ability to take away the effort from thinking, writing, and smooth out social(like) interactions could be robbing those activities of the very thing that makes them worthwhile. The second paper is a more empirical investigation that present...
Mar 28, 2026•1 hr 38 min•Ep. 158
Ken Wilber, the grand architect of Integral Theory , enters the Decoding chamber (wearing a striking but slightly unconvincing wig) as we explore a worldview that confidently absorbs every religion, philosophy, and half-remembered psychology paper into one majestic, Borg-like synthesis. Resistance, as it turns out, is not just futile... it is probably “first-tier thinking". This is a world of elaborate, baroque cosmologies. Layers within layers, quadrants within stages, spirals within states, wi...
Mar 22, 2026•2 hr 39 min•Ep. 157
In this Gurometer double bill, Matt and Chris break out the much-sought-after Gurometer™ to score Teal Swan and Scott Galloway across the 11 recurring guru traits. In one efficient episode, we compare cosmic-certified spirituality with secular man-talk (and a surprising amount of puffer-jacket merchandising). As a bonus, get ready to thrill at Matt's eternal puzzlement at his own simple binary question of 'guru-osity'. Links Gurometer scores to date The full episode is available for Patreon subs...
Mar 18, 2026•19 min
In our never-ending quest to alienate all potential online audiences, we finger-wag about rampant Epstein conspiracism and explain why we are, on balance, anti-murder. The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (2 hours, 42 minutes). Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus In our never-ending quest to alienate all potential online audiences, we finger-wag about rampant Epstein conspiracism and explain why we are, on balance, anti-murder. 00:00 Intro 03:39 Flooding Adventur...
Mar 14, 2026•37 min
In Part 2, Matt and Chris return to Blindboy, now broadcasting from a solar-powered podcast and therefore morally unimpeachable. The darkness, however, remains. Having established in Part 1 that the global elite are a vampiric class of depraved blackmailers who traffic children and delight in cruelty, in Part 2, Blindboy offers us some welcome relief in the form of answering the question of what it looks like to be one of the good ones. You may be surprised to learn that it involves a missing dr...
Mar 14, 2026•1 hr 49 min•Ep. 156
In this episode, Matt and Chris turn their attention to Blindboy Boatclub, the Irish podcaster, satirist, and former member of the Rubberbandits. Blindboy is recognisable for his plastic-bag headwear, which has transitioned from a comedy prop into something a bit deeper and more philosophical. His podcast blends ASMR-style delivery, stream-of-consciousness storytelling, and cultural and political commentary, drifting between reflections on mental health, colonialism, Irish history, and the origi...
Mar 05, 2026•2 hr 21 min•Ep. 155
Another episode where the guest is not a sense-making prophet or a galaxy-brained guru, as we engage in academic dialogos with Oxford psychologist Andrew Przybylski. This is a preview of our Decoding Academia series on Patreon (now 30+ episodes deep), where we swap internet gurus and rhetoric for actual researchers and empirical debates. Andrew’s work spans motivation, gaming, and digital technology. His most recent crime is that he studies the impact of technology and has not found evidence tha...
Feb 27, 2026•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 154
We return to some old friends, and almost immediately, we regret the decision. Also, get ready for some heady insights from history, a new conspiracy hypothesis, and Game Theory based insights. The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (1 hour, 37 minutes). Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus Supplementary Material 45 00:00 Introduction 01:15 Mick Drop 04:44 Scott Galloway's Favourite Conservative 06:37 Konstantin Kisin: Neither Right Nor Left 11:51 Insane Ad Reads in...
Feb 19, 2026•34 min
Ever heard of cognitive dissonance? That thing a psychology lecturer might have explained to you once upon a time, likely using the same UFO cult example everyone else uses. Well, a new paper by Thomas Kelly suggests that the UFO cult example might have been ever so slightly oversold. Kelly's archival work suggests that the researchers didn't just observe the cult as reported. Instead, they infiltrated it, faked supernatural experiences, assumed quasi-leadership roles, and then wrote up the resu...
Feb 16, 2026•37 min
Cult Season rumbles on as Chris and Matt expand their minds in an attempt to absorb the cosmic insights of spiritual influencer and alleged cult leader Teal Swan (born Mary Teal Bosworth, 1984). Our intrepid hosts explore her recent appearance on the Just Tap In podcast with Emilio “starchild” Ortiz — a beanie-wearing vessel of pure credulity, lobbing softball metaphysical questions gently into the astral winds. The topic covered is ostensibly “Major 2026 Predictions” but this is really just an ...
Feb 12, 2026•2 hr 59 min•Ep. 153
In this Decoding Academia episode, we take a look at a 2025 paper by Daria Ovsyannikova, Victoria Olden, and Mickey Inzlicht, asking a question that might make some people uncomfortable/angry, specifically, are AI-generated responses perceived as more empathetic than those written by actual humans? We walk through the design in detail (including why this is a genuinely severe test), hand out deserved open-science brownie points, and discuss why AI seems to excel particularly when responding to n...
Feb 12, 2026•23 min
In this interview episode, we are joined by physicists Sam Gregson ( Bad Boy of Science YouTube channel) and Tim Henke to examine the rise of science populism : a style of science communication that borrows the tactics of political populism, including grievance narratives, institutional distrust, and conspiratorial framing, while presenting its advocates as lone truth-tellers battling a corrupt academic elite. We discuss how DTG favourites like Sabine Hossenfelder and Eric Weinstein, as well as ...
Feb 09, 2026•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 152
We descend once more into the Gurusphere, encountering secret peasant archmages, decline narratives, Epstein emails, and endless moral panics. The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (1 hour, 37 minutes). Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus 00:00 SM 44 PF 00:23 Introduction 01:30 Konstantin Kisin: Not Left Or Right, Just Right 05:20 Boghossian is shocked by pessimistic French people 08:50 Konstantin and Warren Smith as relics of the anti-SJW era 12:45 A PSA! Hyper C...
Feb 07, 2026•33 min
In a rare departure from our usual diet of online weirdos, this episode features an academic who is very much not a guru. We’re joined by Julia Rohrer, a psychologist at Leipzig University whose work straddles the disciplinary boundaries of open science, research transparency, and causal inference. Julia is also an editor at Psychological Science and has spent much of the last decade politely pointing out that psychologists often don’t quite know what they’re estimating, why, or under which assu...
Jan 30, 2026•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 151
We crawl around the dark crevices of the internet so you don't have to. And what wonders we have to show you... The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (1 hour, 34 minutes). Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus Supplementary Material 43 00:00 Introduction and Banter Allotment 01:23 The Hypocrisy of the Defenders of Western Civilisation 10:07 An Optimistic Take? 17:02 Scott Adams' Controversial Legacy 18:43 Scott Alexander's Rationalist Eulogy for Scott Adams 32:31 A ...
Jan 24, 2026•22 min
We return for Part 2 of our Scott Galloway deep dive, where the vibes remain strong, the confidence unwavering, and the relationship with empirical evidence increasingly… decorative. Returning to our Modern Wisdom safari, we continue navigating the forbidden terrain of men, masculinity, and male suffering: a topic so dangerous that it requires constant ritual disclaimers, whispered caveats, and the occasional nervous glance around the bar to make sure we can take out the other men if necessary. ...
Jan 23, 2026•3 hr 9 min•Ep. 150
We dig deep into the online world to DO OUR OWN RESEARCH and return with horrors never dreamt of by man. The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (1 hour, 23 minutes). Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus Supplementary Material 42 00:00 Introduction 11:13 Rogan and Shane Gillis on Nick Fuentes vs Piers Morgan 17:49 Jimmy Carr's Physics Insights 24:00 The comedian shuffle 25:12 Andrew Huberman teams up with Goop! 30:41 Huberman injects his dog with testosterone. 32:09 ...
Jan 08, 2026•35 min
We return to the podcast circuit in 2026 to examine Scott Galloway: NYU professor, prolific podcaster, and, more recently, part-time life coach for struggling young men. Joining him on an episode of Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson, we are invited into one of the few remaining forbidden conversational spaces: men, masculinity, and men’s problems. You may have been misled by the relentless popularity of Joe Rogan, Modern Wisdom, The Tucker Carlson Show, Triggernometry, The Diary of a CEO, Hube...
Jan 04, 2026•2 hr 51 min•Ep. 149
In this festive descent into methodological despair, Chris and Matt convene a secret cabal of elite psychology podcasters within the Decoding Cloister, operating under the distant yet reassuring gaze of Arch-Wizard Paul Bloom, whose role is largely ceremonial but nonetheless morally binding. Joining them are Dave Pizarro ( Very Bad Wizards ) and Michael Inzlicht ( Two Psychologists Four Beers , emeritus), for what can only be described as an end-of-year audit of social psychology’s moral charact...
Dec 25, 2025•1 hr 30 min•Ep. 148
In this special Christmas episode, Helen’s annual Guru Quiz returns, lightly dusted with Trump, podcast tours, and the unsettling realisation that the Guru-sphere and the MAGA-sphere have quietly fused into a single, monetised, vibes-based organism. That's right, the regular decoding team are joined by renowned journalist, author, podcaster... and occasional DTG quiz master, Helen Lewis, who once again brings her festive cheer, an uncanny ability to identify exactly who will be unbearable next y...
Dec 22, 2025•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 147
In this tragic episode, we pay tribute to a fallen comrade and honour his memory with a discussion of a melange of truly terrible people, some of whom are much worse than others. The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (2 hours, 33 minutes). Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus Supplementary Material 41 00:00 Introduction and Swimming Update 02:34 The Tragic Tale of Old Squeaky 09:01 Sam Harris interpersonal bias & Megyn Kelly 26:05 Gary Stevenson vs Rory Stewart...
Dec 18, 2025•44 min
In this unlocked bonus episode, Chris and Matt complete their forensic/esoteric/scientific assessment of the charming Stefan Molyneux, consigning him (sadly) to the eternal archives of the Gurometer.
Dec 13, 2025•33 min
Cult Season continues, and much like Stefan himself, you may have hoped this would go away after Part 1. Unfortunately, like all persistent internet hauntings, Molyneux has returned. And this time, Chris and Matt venture even deeper into the Moly-Hole, a place where truth is redefined, callers are slowly gaslit into existential confusion, and every philosophical insight is served with the overwhelming scent of narcissism and emotional manipulation. We return to the joyful world of Stefan’s calle...
Dec 04, 2025•1 hr 32 min•Ep. 146
We set down the Chardonnay at the latest heterodox dinner party and lean in for some hearty ‘civil discourse’ to once again defend the trembling pillars of Western civilization. The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (2 hours, 13 minutes). Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus Supplementary Material 40: YouTube Builders, the Discourse Grind, and Sam Harris' Dinner Parties 00:00 Introduction 01:15 Feedback on the Molyneux Episode 10:26 Jordan Peterson still defeated b...
Nov 29, 2025•43 min
