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August 26, 2025 74 mins

This week, Ken talks to author and cultural provocateur Stewart Home about his explosive new book Fascist Yoga: Grifters, Occultists, White Supremacists and the New Order in Wellness (Pluto Press). They dive into the strange, hidden history of yoga in the West, its unexpected ties to fascism, and how those shadows still linger in the modern wellness industry.

This week:

  • The carnival-barker roots of yoga in the West and the con artistry of Pierre Bernard

  • How racial myth-making turned yoga into an “Aryan science” for early fascists

  • Guido Keller, the Rijeka YOGA group, and the bizarre avant-garde politics of proto-fascism

  • Major J. F. C. Fuller: from Crowleyan yogi to architect of modern warfare

  • Francis Yeats-Brown, Hitler fandom, and yoga propaganda

  • How fascist mysticism evolved into post-war yoga evangelism and daytime TV gurus

  • Why the modern wellness industry still carries the DNA of its darker past

Show Notes

Get Stewart’s book at Pluto Press: https://www.plutobooks.com

Pierre Bernard – Wikipedia (The “Great Oom,” early yoga grifter) https://twitter.com/stewarthomesoc

Support Right Where You Are Sitting Now on Patreon: https://sittingnow.co.uk

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