A bit of a break of form for this episode as I’m traveling and haven’t finished production on upcoming episodes I’ve recorded. I was invited to join a discussion last week on the MLM and cult-like nature of the online wellness industry and the nature of online branding and content creation at large by my friend Ben Jarvis who has found himself at conflict with some of the teachings of Yoga Teacher Training he has been working through the past few months. Joining us in the discussion is Colorado based Acupuncturist, Ben Hawes.

Worth noting, our own cultural connection to each other is a sub-Reddit community, r/AcidMarxism, which as best as I can describe is a community of folks preparing for and seeking a more compassionate, cosmopolitan, Marxist political alternative to the current model of neoliberal capitalism we see on a trajectory for mass extinction. It’s not a cult… I swear. (Or is it?) The group spawned from the “GrillPill” philosophy ramblings of, Matt Christman, a host of the leftist comedy podcast Chapo Trap House. GrillPill is an extremely online way of explaining to extremely online people that we can’t change the world by being extremely online.

All of this is a long way to say, we have some contextual language built in to our relationship and discussion you can probably disregard while still getting the bigger picture. Just roll with it.

Want to come on the podcast? Have a friend I should talk to? Want to just say what’s up? Get in touch!

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