Conspirituality Podcast Episode 295: "The Attia Files"

Release Date: February 12, 2026
Hosts: Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Episode Overview

In this incisive episode, the Conspirituality team tackles the explosive revelations from the newly released Jeffrey Epstein files—focusing specifically on wellness influencer and "longevity guru" Dr. Peter Attia's involvement. The hosts dissect Attia's connections to Epstein, interrogate the complicity of media and wellness companies, and contextualize these developments within the larger ecosystem of conspirituality, class privilege, and media accountability. Using a combination of firsthand file analysis, critical commentary, and personal reflection, the hosts illuminate how the intersections of charisma, wealth, parasocial bonds, and pseudoscience have enabled abuse, cover-ups, and the grooming of public trust.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Peter Attia and the Epstein Files: Setting the Stage

• Attia’s Celebrity & Fallout:
  • “Despite basically every company that endorsed Peter Attia dropping him, his name appeared over 1700 times in the Epstein files…” (Derek, 04:23)
  • Attia found himself at the heart of the files as a member of Epstein's "influencer celebrity intelligentsia set," legitimizing Epstein through medical-adjacent social status.
• Bari Weiss and Media Defiance:
  • Free Press/CBS editor Bari Weiss kept Attia as a contributing expert, citing anti-cancel culture rhetoric, despite widespread sponsor and partner withdrawals.
  • “Barry Wise is said to be opposed to cutting Attia…does not want to be seen as reacting to the Epstein frenzy.” (Julian, 04:52)

2. Attia’s Defense and Medical Ethics

• Attia’s Non-Apology (Summarized by Derek):

  • Claims ignorance about Epstein’s crimes, saying he met Epstein (2014–2019) solely for research fundraising, and was “dazzled” by his wealth, not his criminal record.
  • Quote from Attia to Epstein:
    • "You know, the biggest problem with becoming friends with you, the life you lead is so outrageous. And yet I can't tell a soul." (Derek, 07:54)
  • Hosts’ Critique:
    • Attia’s excuses are flimsy—he shields himself within the “rich man’s code of honor” while admitting to intense parasocial attachment, e.g. “Epstein withdrawal” comments.
    • Attia denies being Epstein’s doctor but exchanged medical advice, sent biomarker kits, advised on medications, and discussed lab results in detail.
    • “In the US there are mandatory reporting laws…[Attia] gets to play loose with both laws and mores by using that MD…but skirting the responsibilities actual board certified physicians have to abide by.” (Derek, 12:13)

• Wellness Industry Accountability Gap:

  • “Influencers want so badly to be seen as medical and scientific experts without the responsibility of living up to their code of ethics.” (Derek, 12:13)
  • Longevity as a field is critiqued for elitism, eugenics history, and pretending that anti-aging is attainable for the wealthy but not the poor.

3. Parasocial Bonds, Charisma, and the Wellness Grift

• Cult of Personality Mechanism:
  • The hosts unpack the psychological and emotional attachment followers develop toward charismatic wellness influencers.
  • “The psychological mechanism…is rooted in this sort of religious impulse… Religions pretend that certain men are perfect and beyond reproach, and that likely primes us to then apply this to people we form these parasocial bonds with.” (Derek, 16:36)
  • “They want to be you. Like when they do your morning protocol with your products, they might be imagining what it would be like to have your wealthy, independent, powerful, vital life.” (Matthew, 17:50)

4. Wellness Industry, Media, and CBS News

• Sponsor Fallout:
  • AG1 and David Protein distanced themselves from Attia after the files became public, removing him from their sites—yet CBS (under Bari Weiss) stands firm.
  • “When pseudoscience companies have to fire brand ambassadors not over their pseudoscience, but because the charismatic glow that covers over the pseudoscience cracks apart…” (Matthew, 21:57)
• CBS & Free Press Dynamics:
  • Bari Weiss’s CBS hiring spree included Attia, Andrew Huberman, and Mark Hyman—all with wellness/functional medicine backgrounds (often critiqued as pseudoscience).
  • “Functional medicine is basically a brand name for what I call Medicine plus, which means you pay for all your regular prescriptions plus the off label ones with limited evidence and a bunch of unregulated supp pseudoscience treatments to boot.” (Julian, 25:23)
  • The media shakeups and company mergers are discussed, including the irony of ousting Stephen Colbert while welcoming Attia.

5. The Mechanisms of Power: Epstein’s Cultic Structure

• Sociology of Privilege and Abuse:
  • Matthew introduces Hannah Arendt’s “onion layer” model, explaining how complicity and plausible deniability are baked into elite networks:
    • Outer layer: bureaucracy, mundane contacts, plausible deniability.
    • Inner layers: increasing degrees of corrupt loyalty, criminality, and abuse.
  • “This spectrum is the thing that makes the files such an epistemological crisis, because the layers determine the difference between guilt by action or guilt by association…” (Matthew, 40:51)
• Intimate Bonds and Emotional Manipulation:
  • The files reveal how Epstein occupied roles as a confidant, therapist, and fixer for the elite—eliciting deep emotional disclosure and loyalty.
  • Example:
    • "You are the only person who knows everything about me. Don't go away." (Peter Mandelson to Epstein, 38:32)
  • These emotional bonds mimic cult leader–follower attachments, facilitating abuse and secrecy.

6. Wellness, Yoga, and Complicity

• Yoga in the Files:
  • Extensive mentions of yoga in Epstein’s correspondence—often as scheduling for private (often female) instructors, some possibly survivors themselves.
  • “Did you guys see the search for yoga in the files? And how many of the emails were about scheduling private yoga sessions with women?” (Matthew, 49:35)
  • Derek describes the personal shock of realizing Epstein had spent significant sums at the same studios where Derek once worked/trained.
• Privilege and Gig Economy Vulnerability:
  • The episode highlights how wellness gig workers (especially women) are vulnerable in elite service ecosystems, exposed to boundary violations under the veneer of spiritual practice.

7. Epistemic Crisis and the Revival of Satanic Panic

• Disinformation & Accountability Crisis:
  • The data dump’s ambiguous, incomplete, and sometimes sensational details fuel both legitimate research and conspiracy spirals.
  • “There is so much missing information…this dump is perhaps the most intoxicating invitation to do your own research that we've seen in the last six years.” (Julian, 46:26)
  • Hosts warn of renewed waves of Satanic Panic/Pizzagate hysteria, with recycled content from the 1980s–1990s—conflating real abuse with wild, evidence-free allegations.
• The Real vs. the Fantastical:
  • Matthew:
    • “It seems like no one is being held accountable, but they're not being held accountable for a completely wild set of fantastical allegations. Meanwhile, actual horrific abuse is happening in much more ordinary and ugly ways.” (Matthew, 48:41)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Bari Weiss and Cancel Culture:

  • “It's really incredible that a moral panic around cancellation has helped to completely eliminate the notion of accountability…accountability is now unknown.”
    — Matthew Remski (05:09)

• On Medical Responsibility in Wellness:

  • “He gets to play loose with both laws and mores by using that MD on his handle, but skirting the responsibilities actual board certified physicians have to abide by.”
    — Derek Beres (12:13)

• On Charisma and the Parasocial Bond:

  • “Most of the charismatic influencers we know rely on the branding of their personhood more than their content…If ATIA is attacked or called to account in that scenario, it's going to feel personal. If the identification is very strong. Attacking the charismatic exposes the possibility that the follower has neglected or abdicated their own own sense of self.”
    — Matthew Remski (17:50)

• On the Arendt “Onion” Model:

  • “…Players can shift between layers, but there are veils of obscurity between them. Like everybody is set up to never exactly know what's going on upstairs, or to pass the buck if they find out and often people on the outside will have scant information on the core.”
    — Matthew Remski (42:05)

• On Yoga, Class, and Complicity:

  • “When I was a yoga gig worker and despite my politics, I was on the lookout for lucrative clientele…I'm not ashamed of this…But, you know, I was a white CIS male and was not likely to have been harassed…”
    — Matthew Remski (51:22)
  • “There is this carrot that seems to be dangling out there, this, this sort of mythic sense of like you can, you can become the provider, whatever the services that you're offering in this kind of wellness world to, to wealthy and famous people. And somehow that is evidence of being really good at what you're doing.”
    — Julian Walker (54:36)

Key Timestamps

• [03:09] – Introduction to the Attia/Epstein connection; episode themes
• [04:23] – Mainstream sponsor/brand fallout; Bari Weiss’s defense
• [07:54] – Attia’s “I can’t tell a soul” quote and problematic justifications
• [09:41] – Analysis of Attia–Epstein emails: sexualized banter, medical advice
• [13:28] – Dr. Jen Gunter’s critique of the longevity movement
• [17:17] – Discussion on parasocial relationships and influencer charisma
• [21:57] – Wellness companies (AG1, David Protein) cut ties with Attia
• [24:20] – Bari Weiss’s new “outsider” CBS News direction and contributor list
• [26:35] – Explaining “functional medicine” and insurance trends
• [32:28] – Matthew’s field notes on researching the files and methodological challenges
• [38:32] – Mandelson to Epstein: “You are the only person who knows everything about me. Don't go away.”
• [40:51] – Introducing the Hannah Arendt “onion” model for understanding complicity
• [44:34] – Resurgence of Satanic Panic–style content in response to the document dump
• [49:35] – How yoga and wellness labor become entangled with elite exploitation
• [51:22] – Derek’s personal ethical shock: Epstein frequenting his former yoga studio
• [54:36] – Reflection on aspirations/pitfalls of service work in the wellness industry

Conclusion

This episode offers a dense, critical, and sometimes personal tour through the cracks in the wellness industrial complex and its toxic intersections with elite privilege, media institutions, and conspiracy subcultures. The hosts argue for accountability, transparency, and a rejection of both simplistically punitive “cancel culture” narratives and uncritical celebrity worship—while warning of the very real dangers in letting charismatic gurus, broken institutions, and conspiracy dogma direct public health and ethical debate.

The above summary preserves the hosts’ critical, wry tone and draws directly from their in-depth discussion and quotations. It is structured to help non-listeners grasp the rich, multi-layered analysis of the episode.