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Hey everyone,

Thought it might be good to give a little update on the forthcoming content that you can expect. Our recording schedule is a little tight at the moment due to Chris's teaching load, but to balance that, Matt has a new microphone(!), a greased-up chair, and an energy bar that lasts till at least the late afternoon! Before we get to the new stuff, however, let's just take a minute to take stock of the last list we put out and what we have cleared off!

A Return to Gary

Interview with James Bloodworth

Chris & Matt's Economics (Decoding Academia)

Matthew McConaughey Gurometer

'Mini' Decoding on Sabine Hossenfelder

Naval Ravikant Decoding

Required Reading: The Genius Myth by Helen Lewis (Decoding Academia)

A Return to Sensemaking

6/8 isn't bad! And the two outstanding Decoding Academia content are coming this week! One is in the editing bay, and the other is 50% recorded (to be finished this week).

Also, you may be excited to learn that we are launching a new season(!) just in time for Halloween. That's right, we are going to start a season examining cult leaders. This doesn't mean every episode will feature a cult leader, but rather that every other decoding will likely be someone from the cult-ish world. If you have suggestions for figures (and suggested content) you would like us to cover, please put them in the comments section below. And with that in mind, here is a revised list of upcoming episodes.

Chris & Matt's economics (Decoding Academia) (Editing now)

Interview with Philipp Markolin on his Lab Leak book (Editing now)

Required Reading: The Genius Myth by Helen Lewis (50% Recorded)

Supplementary Material 38 (This week)

Interview with comedian/podcaster Al Murray on Revisionist History and WW2 Gurus

Keith Raniere Decoding: Leader of NXIVM (Cult Season)

Stefan Molyneux Decoding: Online cult leader & White nationalist (Cult Season)

Interview with Sensemaker Alexander Bernier about Sensemaking

L. Ron Hubbard Decoding: Scientology Founder (Cult Season)

Interview with journalist/podcaster Sarah Marshall on the Satanic Panic

The 2025 Christmas Quiz Special with Helen Lewis!

There will be other episodes that jump the queue, and if there is any long-promised episode that we have forgotten about, then please let us know in the comments below.

Files

Comments

Lillie

👏👏

332

The sensemaking is coming from inside the house

Linda Sears

Sounds great!! Last night I rewatched a documentary called Satan Wants You that featured Sarah Marshall. For cult leaders, I’d be curious to hear you cover David Koresh, but I’m not sure how much audio material there is available to work with.

George

Very exciting

Frances goulart

An impressive to-do (and done) list. We all appreciate how much you guys put into this many spendored creation called DTG! Now which ones will be on the final? PS: How about getting after Dave Ramsey, the longevity optimizer?? He has a huge adoring following and some pretty looney tune ideas, starting with his confidence that he will live to 180 IN PERFECT HEALTH!

Robert Andrews

Could something related to Soka Gakkai be interesting? There are some Western celebrities who are into it. It has a party in the coalition government in Japan that is connected to it, and there is even a building near my house from which cult-ish rays emanate. I once mistook it for a Romanian restaurant because of the flag that was flying outside it.

Randy

Small time cult, but pretty interesting is the Sarah Lawrence college situation. A student's dad basically started a sex cult (is there any other kind?) there.

Steve Edge

Looking forward to listening to Al Murray.

Roland Weber

Sounds great! And Helen has confirmed the Christmas Special before we reviewed her book!

Joanna Go

Can't wait, can't wait! Especially the interview with Sarah Marshall

Nancy Hale

So many cults, too little time! Another really interesting cult was Synanon, which started out with good intentions as a secular drug treatment program. It then got wealthy and weird. Its leader, Charles Deiderich, gave lectures, but I don’t know if recordings of them are publicly available.

Ingvar Vanir

Thanks a lot for the update on the forthcoming episodes! 😀 I would like to pitch the Art of Living organisation for the next decoding, whose leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a prime example of a guru in my opinion. When a wellness brand treats breathing like a trade secret and hires lawyers to protect it, you’re not just buying calm—you’re buying a cosmology. AOL markets a wellness-cum-spiritual brand around a charismatic founder and a proprietary breathing method (“SKY”). Behind the glossy humanitarian messaging are classic high-demand-group tactics: secrecy around core teachings, litigation and reputation management against critics, pay-to-progress course ladders with teacher-training gatekeeping, sacralised leader-centrism, bold health/immune claims outpacing the evidence base, and a history of environmental harm downplayed as PR. This is prime DtG material. AOL remains globally active (courses, retreats, mass festivals, politics-adjacent PR). The mix of pop-science claims about respiration, mental health, and “immunity” is zeitgeisty—and testable. 🤓 Website: https://www.artofliving.org

Dank Sparrow

Some decode suggestion: George Dillman, Steve Seagal, Jeremy DeWitt, Nick Fuentes, Elizabeth Holmes,

CHUSSTERR

You guys should decode Bryan Namesayin

Marvin

Have you considered doing Bhagwan / Osho as part of the cult season?

Linda Sears

If you want a female cult leader Teal Swan could be interesting. There’s a good deal of her audio material out there.

Herr K.

Can't wait for the cult season soundtrack to drop!

Lucyna

If you want to dive into Stefan Molyneux, look up Tru Shibes mirror Youtube videos. I think she deleted the originals, but there are clips of his early days of crafting the cult strategy and the psychology behind his motives. His anarcho-capitalist ass DMCAd her for criticism and she sued him. He then had to apologize publicly on his forum, as part of the settlement . SM was incredibly dangerous at the height of his cult. He got out in-laws to cut off most contact. He damaged a lot of families. Ironically his shift to white nationalism was what broke the spell for my BIL.

Nina Davies

I am submerged in the history of the nonconformist in Wales at the moment. The Baptist revivals are very interesting- every 60 years or so hundreds of people turning up of a Sunday to be baptised in freezing rivers with great enthusiasm. It is making me think about people and their need for gurus and cultic activity quite differently.

Andrew Condon

That's a really strong upcoming lineup!

Damien

Fair play, lads - can't wait for the Cult Season. And thanks for not forgetting Sarah...

Conor Carey

@Infinite Guff, AI generated thumbnails - can we sway Chris K away from them 🤢

Damien

Can we have a season of F*ckin' Eejits? Blindboy, Joe Brolly, Francis spring to mind.

Herr K.

Graham Hancock! Arguably he deserves a decoding, and this has been acknowledged on the pod before