Esoterica

The Sun is defying forecasts

The Sun's activity is defying forecasts and highlighting how difficult it is to predict the machinations of Earth's nearest star.

Why it matters: Space weather, which is largely driven by the Sun, can shorten the lifespans of satellites, cause radio blackouts and, in extreme solar storms, bring down power grids.

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• Sunspots — dark areas on the face of the Sun — can spit out major solar flares that sometimes come with coronal mass ejections (CMEs), bursts of electrically charged plasma that can interfere with satellites, electrical grids and supercharge the auroras.
• If coronal holes — cooler spots in the Sun's atmosphere — rotate into the view of Earth, they can send extremely fast solar winds into our part of space, warping Earth's magnetic fields in the process.

Yes, but: The Sun is extremely complicated and even after decades of study, researchers don't understand exactly how it works.

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Bursting the bubble: Morgan Tyler on Leaving the Church

In the age of social media, many of us are aware that choices are increasingly made for us by algorithms—which is unfortunately not a reference to Vice President Al Gore’s dancing abilities.

But even if we are living in our own little bubbles, it doesn’t quite match the extremities of, let’s say, someone who was raised within a radically nondenominational Christian sect, wherein music, media, beliefs, and friends were all hand selected by a group of men who decided they were pastors and wanted an ironclad grip on their families and followers.

Such was unfortunately the case for Morgan Hayley, now 32-years-old and far from her beginnings in Louisville, Kentucky. The oldest of seven siblings, Hayley managed to escape her marriage and the Church to live her life as an out-and-proud lesbian while still maintaining a real (albeit heavily strained) relationship with some of her family. In doing so, she learned that perhaps her family’s belief that life is about sacrifice and being miserable means you’re doing something right is NOT the most fun way to live life!

Now, it’s safe to say Morgan is making all her decisions for herself as a prominent fitness and yoga instructor, and is much happier for it.

Episode available since July 17, 2023

Nature vs. Man

In what some are calling the "feel-good story of the year," killer whales — obviously sick of being cheap entertainment for Sea World voyeurs — seem to have declared war on yachts.

The boat in question is an intensely fancy Bali 4.8 catamaran-style sailboat run by the charter management company Catamaran Guru. Boasting six bedrooms and six bathrooms, the boat is nicer than most people’s homes. But orcas don’t care about your supersized interior or onboard ice maker—orcas care about their home, and other orcas.

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An eerie portend of things to come, humanity! I particularly like when the orca returned for the last little bit of rudder and surfaced briefly as if to say “ha ha, who’s got the rudder now!”

Researchers believe a whale nicknamed Gladis was traumatized by an illegal fishing boat and is seeking her revenge by instructing other young orcas in how to attack rudders. The attacks are disabling boats traversing through the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Mediterranean Sea to the Atlantic, with Spain on one side and Morocco on the other. While the attacks began in 2020, there have been 20 such attacks in the last month alone.

But the orca vs. man fracas is not an isolated example of a roiling collision of interests. Nature, it seems, is sick of our shit, and she's fighting back.

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Behind the “Reality:” Jessica Willis Fisher on her Childhood Abuse

While in their youth, Jessica Willis Fisher and her eleven siblings were thrust into the spotlight for being the perfect musical family. Having achieved nation-wide fame on America’s Got Talent, the Willis Fishers scored their own reality show in 2015, letting cameras into their pristine and heavily Christian home to document the daily lives of a happy, smiley family trying to make it in the famously non-toxic (just kidding) entertainment biz. So when allegations of child abuse and molestation broke out against the family’s patriarch, Toby Willis, Americans and onlookers across the globe were in disbelief. How could this family, which had been put on a pedestal and idolized extensively as “picture perfect,” possess such insanely disturbing secrets?

Because the world is fucked up, hellooo! But our listeners already knew that.

On today’s episode, Jessica joins us to discuss her story, as well as parallels she sees between her family and others that shared the reality show spotlight. She’s begun releasing new music again as a form of healing—you can check out her album Brand New Day here. You can also read her memoir, Unspeakable: Surviving My Childhood and Finding My Voice, here.

Please note, this series includes details of sexual abuse. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you, or someone who know, is a survivor of sexual assault, abuse, grooming, child abuse, or human trafficking, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers support at 800.656.HOPE (4673).

Episode available since July 10, 2023

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Subversive Science: Isabella Constantino on NXIVM’s Tourettes Study (Part 2)

Of the many subplots within the NXIVM story, one of the most unusual (and that says a lot) was the cult’s dance with Tourettes Syndrome and research surrounding it. TS for short, the syndrome involves involuntary tics and has no known cure.

On today’s episode, which is a continuation from last week, our guest Isabella Constantino discusses the final punctuation to her time with NXIVM after being brought in hoping that they cult could help with her TS—a claim NXIVM was boasting about without a ton of empirical scientific evidence to back it. This time, we’re focusing more on Constantino’s departure and the half-decade she’s spent recovering her “sense of self” and navigating life post-NXIVM.

. . .

Please note, this series includes details of sexual abuse. Listener discretion is strongly advised. If you, or someone who know, is a survivor of sexual assault, abuse, grooming, child abuse, or human trafficking, RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Hotline offers support at 800.656.HOPE (4673).

Episode available since July 03, 2023

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Subversive Science: Isabella Constantino on NXIVM’s Tourettes Study (Part 1)

NXIVM’s timeline unfolds like a (horror) film with its own subplots. One of the cult’s best known smaller mythologies was its ability to cure Tourette's Syndrome, which is a condition in the nervous system that causes tics like sudden and uncontrollable movements or vocal outbursts. It should be noted that while there are certainly various treatments for managing TS, there is still no known cure.

This explains why today’s guest, Isabella Constantino, was attracted to NXIVM and the extraordinary results they were boasting about with their TS study. Ultimately, Constantino wound up postponing her last semester of college and moving to Albany in order to engrain herself in the study and to pursue personal growth, both of which she did for a total of three years before finally escaping. Now, she’s spent half a decade recovering her “sense of self” and navigating life post-NXIVM.

But how did NXIVM actually approach this “scientific” study, and what abusive methods did they apply from their typical conditioning in order to combat Tourette’s? Lastly, did any of their techniques actually help with TS, and if so, at what cost?

Episode available since June 26, 2023

Esoterica

UFO Bombshell: U.S. Intelligence Whistleblower Says Feds Have 'Intact' Craft

A whistleblower who served in the U.S. military and in several intelligence roles says the federal government has multiple craft of “non-human” origin ― and has been working overtime to cover it up.

“These are retrieving non-human origin technical vehicles, call it spacecraft if you will, non-human exotic origin vehicles that have either landed or crashed,” David Grusch told NewsNation on Monday evening.

In some cases, agents found more than just vehicles.

“Well, naturally, when you recover something that’s either landed or crashed, sometimes you encounter dead pilots and, believe it or not, as fantastical as that sounds, it’s true,” he said.

Earlier in the day, The Debrief reported that Grusch has told both Congress and the U.S. Inspector General that this information was illegally withheld from lawmakers, who have recently held hearings on UFO activity.

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Shiny Happy Wife: Tia Levings On Christian Fundamentalism (Part 2)

If you didn’t listen to part 1 of this double whammy—stop, drop, and scroll down (or up, depending) because you’ll be lost without the context.

On this continuation, we hear more from author Tia Levings about her experiences with Christian Fundamentalism, and more specifically how she got out of a situation that was “a little bit culty,” to say the least. We also dip back into the Duggar family and the recent documentary uncovering the less-than-perfect reality hidden by a shiny, happy front. The story is, unfortunately, far more common than you might think.

You can learn more about Tia’s own story in her forthcoming memoir, ‘A Well-Trained Wife,’ which will be released in August of 2024.

Episode available since June 19, 2023

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Shiny Happy Wife: Tia Levings on Christian Fundamentalism (Part 1)

Just as roses have thorns, so too do pristine, seemingly blemish-free families have their own dark sides. For example, we have the Duggar family and their show 19 and Counting, which broadcasted the daily lives of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their army of children between 2008 and 2015 to millions of viewers around the world. Now, a new documentary on the family called Shiny Happy People, according to TIME, “includes testimonies from daughter Jill (Duggar) Dillard, her husband Derick Dillard, niece Amy (Duggar) King, as well as several former IBLP members, reveals that the family and larger religious group was dealing with allegations of sex abuse, child abuse and financial mistreatment.”

Our guest today, author Tia Levings, spoke in this documentary based on her experiences as a thought leader on abuse within Christian Fundamentalism, but also a survivor of such abuse herself. Having grown up in a Southern Baptist Megachurch, Levings gets into how she slowly but surely slipped into a high-control group (read: cult) wherein men are considered accountable for their wives before God, and therefore must lead and discipline them.

Her memoir, A Well-Trained Wife, will be released in August of 2024.

Episode available since June 12, 2023

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I Was a Child Bride: Dr. Tamara MC on the Language of Manipulation (Part 2)

In part two of our conversation with Dr. Tamara MC, we get into everything that happened after she was married in a secret wedding ceremony, including attending the 8th grade (she was only 12-years-old) and keeping her religious life a secret from the rest of the world.

As a reminder (and don’t forget to listen to part one if you haven’t), Dr. Tamara MC’s father introduced her to a highly abusive religious cult in which, above all else, men controlled every aspect of womens’ lives, including their bodies. They were mercilessly overworked, underfed, and treated as second class citizens to…peacocks.

Now, Tamara has earned a Ph. D. in Applied Linguistics, specifically studying how language can be used to manipulate vulnerable populations. She advocates against gender-based violence and has written prolifically about the nightmarish experiences that punctuated her youth, d0ing as much as she humanly can to prevent this from happening as frequently in the future.

Episode available since June 05, 2023

Esoterica

When Satan Club went to school: What’s behind the group that created controversy in Chesapeake

The Satanic Temple was ready to pick a fight — lots of fights, actually, and it got them — in Illinois, in Pennsylvania and in Chesapeake.

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Eventually, after the ACLU of Virginia took on the issue, the club held its first meeting in February and has continued to gather monthly since.

. . .

“Because of their actions, people who normally talk about the importance of religious freedom, some of them have said, ‘Actually, I don’t like religious freedom, if religious freedom means satanists can do this kind of stuff.’”

“This small group has kind of been able to punch above its weight in forcing these kinds of questions on people.”