Conspirituality Podcast – Brief: Black Friday’s Wellness Extravaganza

Date: November 29, 2025
Hosts: Julian Walker & Derek Barris

Episode Overview

In this Conspirituality Brief, Julian Walker and Derek Barris explore the explosion of wellness marketing timed for Black Friday. They dive into how influencers and companies in the alternative health, wellness, and conspirituality spheres exploit sale culture—especially around Black Friday/Cyber Monday—to push overpriced, often unproven products ranging from detox protocols and coffee enemas to “liquid gold” colostrum. The episode blends biting humor and critical analysis to spotlight how consumer psychology, pseudo-science, and cultic marketing intertwine during the holiday sales frenzy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Black Friday’s Transformation & Online Wellness Boom

[03:32–04:08]

• Julian and Derek outline the history of Black Friday and the transition from chaotic brick-and-mortar sales events to aggressive, sometimes month-long digital marketing campaigns.
• Julian: “Yesterday was Black Friday...the busiest shopping day in the US and the official start of Christmas marketing.... But both the Internet and then Covid have led to behavioral changes that have moved a lot of Black Friday shopping online.”

The Wellness Sales Frenzy

[04:08–11:09]

• The hosts map out the wellness industry’s Black Friday tactics: influencers flooding feeds with discount codes for everything from supplements to high-ticket biohacking services.
• Julian meticulously tracks Instagram trends—searching terms like “detox,” “enemas,” and “Black Friday wellness”—noting a “deluge of promoted posts” for everything from coffee enemas to mushroom protocols.
• Julian: “It quickly became apparent that I was going to have to pick and choose...because there was so much there.”

Marketing Tactics: FOMO, Scarcity, and Identity

[06:28–08:23]

• Discussion of how cultish wellness brands (JP Sears, Mickey Willis, Rebel Line Threads) invoke urgency, identity, and belonging to hawk “truthwear” apparel, even while winding down brands that failed to sell.
• Notable Quote:
  • Nadia Willis (ad excerpt):
    “These aren’t just clothes. They’re bold reminders that you weren’t crazy. You were just early.” [06:28]
• Derek mocks the marketing hyperbole:
  “It’s like, fuck off. It’s a T shirt, and it’s a douchebag T shirt when you’re telling people not to take vaccines. So just, I just wish people would be more honest about what it is.” [07:23]

Debunking “Detox” and Coffee Enema Culture

[08:23–11:09]

• Spotlight on Happy Bum Company, selling “butt coffee” enemas at up to $549 for a starter kit.
• Julian emphasizes: no credible science behind coffee enemas—risks include infection and even death.
• Derek jokes about cross-promotion, “I see a Happy Bumko and Danger Coffee collab happening in the future here for sure.” [11:09]

Bioscam: From Colostrum to Human Milk Lactoferrin

[13:47–18:23]

• Wellness brands battle over “bioavailability” and product purity—peddling colostrum powders and pivoting to lab-made “human milk lactoferrin.”
• Sample pitches:
  • “Spending hundreds of dollars on white colostrum—you might as well just be lighting your money on fire.... Liquid gold or bust.” [15:33]
  • “If you’re taking bovine lactoferrin, you need to switch it to human milk lactoferrin... which is 15 times more potent...” [16:08]
• The absurdity of wellness fads: Derek riffs on bodybuilders buying breast milk, “these dudes are just guzzling breast milk and smoothies and this is the same crowd that won’t get vaccinated.” [17:06]

Grift at the Edge: The Free Birth Scandal

[18:23–22:51]

• Derek and Julian revisit the scandal of “free birth” influencer Yolan Norris Clark, subject of an explosive Guardian investigation. Her dangerous anti-medical teachings have been linked to child deaths, yet she pivots straight into a Black Friday sales pitch for her parenting courses.
• Yolan Norris Clark:
  “I’ve also been receiving tons of messages from women who have taken advantage of my Black Friday sale.... My toddler bundle...is a huge discount.” [20:05]
• Derek reacts, horrified:
  “A years long investigative journalism article about how her courses, which she made millions of dollars on, resulted in the death and disfigurements... And then she’s saying...if you want to take my course, I have a sale right now.” [20:54]
• Julian sums up:
  “This is the farthest extent of how bad this kind of stuff gets. It’s so appalling, it's so tragic and it's so nakedly opportunistic.” [21:23]

Mushrooms for the “Silly Season” & Rampant Claims

[22:51–26:25]

• Julian samples a manic Super Feast sales pitch (offering 40% off medicinal mushrooms), lampooning the over-the-top, pseudoscientific health guarantees (“change someone’s life...by gifting them these mushrooms”).
• Derek sighs, “Take a fucking breath, man. Jesus.” [24:33]
• Julian snarks on their testimonials: “The very first video features a young couple talking about being so horny from their adaptogenic mushroom blend that they had sex for 30 days in a row.” [25:08]

Conspirituality Sales “Logic” Exposed

[26:25–31:11]

• Derek critiques Carly Shankman (Carly Loves Kale), who “healed” her cancer with mainstream medicine but credits and sells “holistic” methods (gut coffee, juicers, trampolines etc.) as Black Friday essentials.
• Julian notes the “concierge” longevity testing space (Peter Attia’s company, Function Health) using paywalled annual/quarterly “health tracking” services, bundled with supplement subscriptions and predatory “quiz funnel” tactics.
• “Would you like to be doing even better because we’ve got something for you.” [31:50]

The Ultimate: Black Friday’s $5,000 Supplement Pile

[32:04–33:12]

• Julian reviews “Do Not Age”—the supplement bundle king, offering $8k+ of pills discounted to $5k for Black Friday (with branded water bottle and pill carrier, of course).
• Derek quips, “When I first read the script...I thought that said donut age. And I think for this weekend, that is going to be my supplement of choice.” [33:12]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“These aren’t just clothes. They’re bold reminders that you weren’t crazy. You were just early.”
—Nadia Willis, Rebel Line Threads [06:28]

“It’s a T shirt and it’s a douchebag T shirt when you’re telling people not to take vaccines. So just, I just wish people would be more honest about what it is.”
—Derek Barris [07:23]

“Their marketing photos feature...the ladies are slim and toned...they’re each holding various types of enema apparati or bags of butt coffee aloft like they’ve hit the Glow Up Wellness jackpot.”
—Julian Walker [09:30]

“Spending hundreds of dollars on white colostrum—you might as well just be lighting your money on fire.”
—Wonder Cow rep (via Julian) [15:33]

“If you’re taking bovine lactoferrin, you need to switch it to human milk lactoferrin...Now for the first time in history, we’re able to make human milk equivalent lactoferrin...”
—Capos rep [16:08]

“A years long investigative journalism article...resulted in the death and disfigurements... And then she’s saying...if you want to take my course, I have a sale right now.”
—Derek Barris [20:54]

“The very first video features a young couple talking about being so horny from their adaptogenic mushroom blend that they had sex for 30 days in a row.”
—Julian Walker [25:08]

“I answered in each different bucket...and why don't you guess—every one resulted in me needing some sort of supplement.”
—Derek Barris [31:11]

“Do Not Age...an ultimate bundle of 30 bottles of around 15 different anti aging supplements...marked down for Black Friday from $8,168 to $4,901...and blue light blocking glasses. I’m sold.”
—Julian Walker [32:04]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:30–04:08: Introduction to Black Friday’s transition and online shopping’s effect on wellness marketing
• 06:28–08:23: The end of “truthwear” brands and how scarcity is weaponized in sales pitches
• 09:30–11:09: Coffee enemas as a case study in unscientific but heavily marketed “wellness”
• 13:47–18:23: The “magic milk” competition: colostrum, lactoferrin, and escalating bioscams
• 18:23–22:51: Yolan Norris Clark and the free birth exposé; marketing amid tragedy
• 24:33–26:25: The Super Feast mushroom pitch and the exaggeration of health claims
• 26:25–31:11: Supplement quizzes and “concierge longevity” as sales funnels
• 32:04–33:12: $5,000 anti-aging supplement bundles

Tone and Takeaways

The hosts balance irreverent satire (“butt coffee,” “silly season mushrooms”) with serious warnings about the real-world consequences of wellness grifting—from the inane to the deadly. They highlight the predatory nature of these Black Friday sales, the psychological and cultic tactics at work, and the hollow logic of a wellness industry more invested in sales than actual science or health.

For listeners and newcomers alike, this episode is a sharp, often hilarious educational tour through the heart of wellness disinformation and the sales machinations that drive conspirituality online—especially when coupled with America’s biggest shopping day.