Our Next Guru: Oprah Winfrey
Added 2023-03-22 12:57:13 +0000 UTCThat's right! The next decoding episode will be on Oprah Winfrey.
She's been long requested and we agree it is overdue even if she is something a bit closer to the traditional alternative health guru archetype.
In any case, she was a guru figure long before the new crop appeared and she remains something of a king/queen-maker and still influential.
Finding content that isn't primarily focused on other people is hard but this interview despite being from 8 years seems to give some good insights into her worldviews that are echoed in her newer content.
If people have alternative suggestions or comments, please let us know below!
Comments
She and her host of guest gurus are highlighted as the inspiration for the lighthouse Cult, subject of the recent BBC podcats series: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2x1aAnvWxhl9v1jshqS1p4?si=SIeqJ7jBTd-OAlT2AQpbXw
Nina Davies
2023-04-09 08:52:22 +0000 UTCDidn't Louise Hay ultimately become famous from her Oprah appearance which brought us the entire Hay House empire of spiritual gurus? Without Oprah none of the people she has elevated would have seen the light of day and the New Age Movement may have just remained a background movement. The whole spiritual realm we have now full of wellness influencers might have had to find real jobs had we not had The Secret & the cast like James A Ray on her show, Gabby Bernstein, Tony Robbins even.
Peter
2023-04-05 05:28:36 +0000 UTChttps://www.oprahdaily.com/life/a42507903/oprah-intention-wholeness/
Kirsten Greed
2023-03-31 06:59:56 +0000 UTCoh and Oprah's books of course
Kirsten Greed
2023-03-31 06:58:14 +0000 UTChttps://www.oprahdaily.com/entertainment/books/g23067476/oprah-book-club-list/
Kirsten Greed
2023-03-31 06:57:46 +0000 UTChttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8yhsEY57uv0
Kirsten Greed
2023-03-31 06:53:05 +0000 UTCAh! Full disclosure, I'm an Oprah apologist. I love her so much but I'm fully open to your analysis. I actually paid $147 to see her when she came to Vancouver. I know she's stepped into some bad material over the years. And she promoted workaholism to all of her employees and she's had narcissistic gurus on her show over the years. But I can't stop thinking or get away from her beginnings. She pulled herself out of a life of basically being a maid to a white family, met her biological mother late in life, went through sexual abuse as a child, and of course was a descendant of slaves. I know that she's done some questionable things. She has promoted the idea of "manifestation" which I got caught up in, and have now recovered from. I'm looking forward to hearing your breakdown.
JC Larke
2023-03-31 03:41:07 +0000 UTCI can't wait!
Jennydiver
2023-03-30 16:02:39 +0000 UTCI'm still angry with her for giving Dr. Phil a career in media lol
ketracel-white
2023-03-28 18:26:58 +0000 UTCPerhaps, but remember that Carl Sagan was also “decoded”! I don’t know that much about her (and have seen some good things), but I do detect some red flags. Seems more into building a brand (and profiting from it) vs. simply trying to communicate science to the public. Also very into supplements and other things that I don’t think match the scientific consensus. I think she might tend to read too much into single papers.
Leslie
2023-03-27 19:50:45 +0000 UTCShe's hardly a 'Guru' though! She's a scientist and she actually speaks like one too - By refraining from using absolutes, and by instead stating what the research says, and doesn't say. Personally, I think Dr. Patrick would be quite a stretch for this podcast.
Mandy
2023-03-27 19:17:47 +0000 UTCJust wanted to let you know that Oprah does still make content and it's all quite intimate conversations with people, so there's sure to be a lot of her personal thoughts in these too. She has a few series on Apple TV: - The Conversation: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/the-oprah-conversation/umc.cmc.49yt85r7ow6904u0177r694qy - The Me You Can't See: https://tv.apple.com/us/episode/a-path-forward/umc.cmc.3lfqcjl4zcrqpfksaftvzrhv8 She also has a more recent series called Super Soul Sundays: https://www.oprah.com/app/supersoul-sunday-full-episodes.html I really think you should pull content from any of these, as 8 years is such a long time ago, and I'd prefer to hear your thoughts on what she's actually like *now*
Mandy
2023-03-27 19:14:26 +0000 UTCI just heard on your latest episode that your also looking for females to interview as well as female gurus. Me and my friends love Aubrey Gordon. I think she's been on Conspirituality pod recently. Anyway she could be a good co-decoder for a wellness guru. She's smart and hilarious! https://www.maintenancephase.com/ ohh and what would be really fun would be hearing Aubrey on Mikhaila Peterson!
Emma
2023-03-27 11:16:50 +0000 UTCPlease do Balaji, I can't with his tweets anymore, he needs to be decoded! 😮💨
Kai
2023-03-24 19:14:13 +0000 UTCOprah is an ok choice, but you known that you will have tot do Balaji, right?
Kai
2023-03-24 19:09:19 +0000 UTCShe has ‘made’ those people and if there is justice in the cosmos she should 🔥 or 🥶 for an extended time in the afterlife (should there be one).
Tom McCool
2023-03-24 14:10:52 +0000 UTChttps://www.oprah.com/app/supersoul-sunday-full-episodes.html Gary Zukav, Deepak Chopra and lots more. hey Elizabeth Gilbert she is a guru.
Kirsten Greed
2023-03-24 08:55:59 +0000 UTCOoooh this will be fun!
Peter
2023-03-23 05:49:19 +0000 UTCI have not listened to the interview yet. The things I like about Oprah - her back story - the work, it’s was good and it’s a good story. Creating the studio in the west loop of Chicago. It was huge. It made an investment where the city was falling apart (although there is ample criticism of that too) but now the west loop is absolutely thriving. The things I think are questionable - the way she hand selects people to be the next celebrity guru. dr Phil, Dr oz, that interior design guy.. the lance armstrong episode - as if confessing on Oprah makes things “okay” it was as if Oprah had suddenly lost her bullshit filter and blindly platform these crockpots. The favorite things episodes… The book club! The Oprah lifestyle isn’t “bad” but it definitely introduced a lot of people to what turned out to be questionably bad people and ideas. And UGGs.
Jason Trock
2023-03-23 04:47:51 +0000 UTCHahaha actually he might just
Ryan Nesselrodt
2023-03-23 00:33:13 +0000 UTCRogan’s ex favourite!
Christopher Kavanagh
2023-03-22 23:54:20 +0000 UTCOn the list.
Christopher Kavanagh
2023-03-22 23:53:54 +0000 UTCHe would really appreciate that…
Christopher Kavanagh
2023-03-22 23:52:56 +0000 UTCY’all should do Robert Evans sometime
Ryan Nesselrodt
2023-03-22 22:01:25 +0000 UTCDr Christiane Northrup. Its amazing how common it is to refer to male doctors with the title doctor, but to not do the same for female doctors. l mean she is absolutely whakadoodle! But no more than Dr Oz. I insist on calling crazy female doctors by their title as well as crazy male doctors. Because feminism!
Emma
2023-03-22 18:58:42 +0000 UTCOhh excited for this! I think inspite of her being a bit dated she is still a figure with a huge amount of cultural influence. Maybe almost another one of your sigma gurus like Elon because she's so successful? I feel a bit torn about her because on one hand you have to admire a black woman becoming so successful in an era and industry that was and still is incredibly sexist and racist! And I feel that her heart is mostly in the right place and she's done some good stuff. But then at the same time I think she has also done a lot of harm. Mostly by pushing some really bad weight loss ideas and toxic wellness influencers. Plus she also has almost a secularish prosperity gospel take on money where she talks about 'concious capitalism'.
Emma
2023-03-22 18:46:17 +0000 UTCOprah should be interesting. Another female guru suggestion: Rhonda Patrick.
Leslie
2023-03-22 18:17:02 +0000 UTCLooking forward to this, also have you ever considered Tim Ferris?
Max
2023-03-22 17:01:12 +0000 UTCShe also contributed a lot to the satanic panic. Besides that, she was constantly promoting/giving a platform to a lot pseudo-psychological weirdos, kinda what Rogan is doing today.
lun
2023-03-22 16:54:18 +0000 UTCAs I remember from childhood, there’s always been a block of boring afternoon tv that was not cartoons. Before Oprah, it was Donahue. These shows are extended commercials for whatever the guests are selling, stuff that isn’t very interesting to me, but likely interesting to adults that watch broadcast tv in the afternoon. Those people will always be there and will always patronize and venerate whoever addresses them from inside the boob tube. There will always be a talk show MD, a talk show shrink, etc. And they will always suck.
Michael
2023-03-22 16:23:34 +0000 UTCShe also shows many narccissistic tendencies: interrupting guests to give her own views; relating everything to her own experiences; subtle influencing and even kind of bullying or threatenting some people when they fool or mislead her (how DARE you make me look bad?); firm hold on her staff and their ideas (she's the Queen and has final say on absolutely *everything*). I only ever watched sporadically but the more cumulative times I did the more I disliked her. I could never figure out the idolism towards her.
Suzan Lemont
2023-03-22 15:11:41 +0000 UTCThanks to Oprah we got Dr. Oz, Dr. Phil, Christiane Northrup, and a bunch of other (started off as secular) nutjobs doing major damage to the current situation. I've never really liked her/am no kind of fan whatsoever, and haven't suggested her but fully support this Decoding!
Suzan Lemont
2023-03-22 15:07:11 +0000 UTCI’m looking forward to this. I used to watch her but stopped when she pivoted to totally woo topics. She started a dedicated segment called “About the Spirit” or something. I think it was around the same time as her turn towards anti-vax (platforming Jenny McCarthy). I think the very last show I watched of hers was when she covered The Secret. I thought, OK I’m done here
Jennifer Nelson
2023-03-22 14:53:04 +0000 UTCExcited for this. I’ve heard some critiques of Oprah but they’ve mostly focused on certain topics that she’s spread misinformation about, mostly about health products as you note, but I don’t think I’ve heard a breakdown of her rhetorical strategies specifically. I get the sense there may be a lot of Paltrow overlap, though they may have slightly different styles so I’ll be interested to see that impression is correct or not.
Ali B
2023-03-22 14:37:58 +0000 UTCThose are just her superfans flooding the ballot box, like those Randians that drive Atlas Shrugged to the top of the best sellers list.
Michael
2023-03-22 14:22:18 +0000 UTCShe is one of the most requested people to cover. I don't think people make these suggestions based on audience overlap. Red Scare people are on the list.
Christopher Kavanagh
2023-03-22 14:17:23 +0000 UTCThe Joe Rogan for women!
MaxPlan
2023-03-22 14:00:44 +0000 UTCThis sounds awesome. I never thought about her but it really seems to make sense. Obviously not too similar to the others, but she's definitely a force to be reckoned with. And has a ton of sway in the wider culture. I mean she practically made Deepak, JD Vance, Oz, and countless others into who they are today.
Cesare, But Def Not A Borgia
2023-03-22 13:56:57 +0000 UTCOprah is old news and there is likely zero overlap between fans of DtG and Oprah. Do Red Scare. It’ll be timely, there’s a new season of Succession starting soon.
Michael
2023-03-22 13:21:37 +0000 UTCI am very hyped for this. I think she has a lot of interesting rhetorical techniques. In a similar vein I would really love a gurometer reading of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh/Osho. Obviously he’s really skirting the line of “secular”, but most of his talks aren’t particularly religious. I think he is interesting beyond the stuff in the Netflix documentary, he went in all sorts of directions and has a very captivating style. Same for Sadhguru. He is a strong rhetorician but probably too traditionally religious to be appropriate for this show. However he was interviewed by Joe Rogan, so there’s some true guru on new guru action there.
Podcast Phanatic
2023-03-22 13:06:21 +0000 UTC
