Lecture on Gurus/Conspiracy Theories at Temple University

Hi guys,

I had the pleasure of being invited to give a talk at the Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies at Temple University in Tokyo. The talk was filmed and I believe will be released in a week or two so I'll post a link when it comes out.

In the meantime, I just wanted to give a little bit of a report on the experience. It's probably the first time I've presented on the topic of secular gurus and conspiracy communities in an academic setting. Overall, I would say it went very well. The audience was impressively engaged for an academic talk and we had around 45 mins of questions afterwards, right up till the end time.

The Q&A also featured a rather irate John Campbell fan who was outraged that I had suggested Campbell had benefited monetarily from his pandering to an anti-vaccine audience. This was an interesting experience because you do not usually get such emotional responses to academic talks. The interaction took too long, other people in the audience ended up engaging, and the guy left shortly after saying his piece. It was not particularly traumatic, indeed, it was more of a tragic comedic scenario, in that he demonstrated to everyone present a lot of the dynamics I had been discussing. I presume the interaction will be in the recording because the Q&A section was filmed too, so you will probably be able to 'enjoy' the experience for yourself.

Three other random points about this interaction.

1. I was surprised when the guy incorrectly described Campbell as a physician. He is a retired nurse. It might have just been his nerves in the heat of the moment but I'm often struck by how often devoted fans of the gurus get things wrong/do not know details about the people they are defending with great emotion. I guess it is more of a vibe.

2. He explicitly mentioned how Campbell references papers and highlights specific sentences and this shows his diligence and scientific nature. If you have ever seen a Campbell video you will be familiar with this. It is absolutely a cosplay of scientific rigour but clearly it works.

3. I wanted to recommend a rebuttal for anyone interested to check afterwards. Unfortunately, in the moment I could not remember Dan Wilson or Susan Oliver's names so I ended up recommending the 'Debunk the Funk' channel. I think this did cause some whiplash for the audience as the conspiracy theory guy was recommending content from a medical professional, while the anti-conspiracist academic recommended a YouTube channel with a quirky title. I also made a mistake when the Campbell fan asked if Dan was credentialed and I said I think he is a biochemist. I checked with Dan afterwards and he is a molecular biologist. The difference with point 1) before people declare me a hypocrite is that I did not stand up to angrily rant in defence of Dan while declaring him a biochemist.

Anyway, overall it was very enjoyable to discuss these things in an academic setting and there were very good comments and questions from the audience. I've attached the slides for anyone interested.

On the podcast release, we know we are late with the Mick West episode. Matt ws busy with a grant proposal and I had some revisions for an article and this talk to prepare. We are now about 75% edited, so hopefully will finish today and we will be recording/releasing the next Decoding Academia TODAY. So DTG content *is* coming soon!

P.S. One or two Patreon members and DTG listeners were present. All were very nice, very sensible people so that was enjoyable too. Thanks to anyone here who lives in Tokyo and made the trek.