Decoding the Gurus
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!
Episodes
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 experie...
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...
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...
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 favou...
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 Warre...
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 d...
Supplementary Material 43: Red-Blooded Americans, Real Life Alan Partridge, and Rationalist Eulogies
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
10:0...
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 t...
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 Insig...
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, T...
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 ...
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 ...
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 interpe...
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.
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 emotio...
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...
Welcome back to Cult Season, where we continue our sincere attempt to make you feel a little bit worse about the world and everything in it.
This week, we turn to Stefan Molyneux, online pioneer, prolific content creator, and self-proclaimed most popular philosopher in the world. Alternatively his wikipedia entry describes him as "an Irish-born Canadian white nationalist podcaster and proponent of conspiracy theories, white supremac...
This week, we are joined by Kevin Mitchell, Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin, who has committed the unforgivable sin of pointing out that an entire academic and media hype cycle might be built on… well, very little actually. His new co-authored paper in Neuron politely dismantles the highly promoted link between the gut microbiome and autism, which turns out to rest on flawed studies, contr...
We are joined by Alexander Beiner, current founder of Kainos and former co-founder of Rebel Wisdom, to grapple with that eternally slippery concept: sensemaking. Naturally, this leads us through interdisciplinary adventurism, reflections on the (il)legitimacy of academia, and the recurring “meaning crisis” that haunts our times. Sense will be made, unmade, and possibly reinvented along the way.
Links
Chris and Matt walk into a bar with an atheist sensemaker, an Ayurvedic Guru, and a Christian Apologist, and predictable frivolities ensue. Featuring not one but two good-natured, robust exchanges of opinion between our two hosts.
The full episode is available to Patreon subscribers (1 hour, 42 minutes).
Join us at: https://www.patreon.com/DecodingTheGurus
Supplementary Material 39: Panpsychics, Sensemakers, and Bad Guys
00:00 Introduc...
Popular Podcasts
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.
Listen to the latest news from the 2026 Winter Olympics.
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan Cortina are here and have everyone talking. iHeartPodcasts is buzzing with content in honor of the XXV Winter Olympics We’re bringing you episodes from a variety of iHeartPodcast shows to help you keep up with the action. Follow Milan Cortina Winter Olympics so you don’t miss any coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympics, and if you like what you hear, be sure to follow each Podcast in the feed for more great content from iHeartPodcasts.
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com