Brief: RFK Jr Flirts with Body Fascism (w/Natalia Petrzela)

Conspirituality

Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

Spirituality, Social Sciences, Religion & Spirituality, Science, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 July 2023

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Friend of the pod and historian of American fitness culture, Natalia Petrzela, joins Matthew to shed light on a new development in RFK Jr’s campaign to disrupt the Democratic Party: his recent workout campaign videos from the barbell patio of Gold’s Gym in Venice beach. Topics include the iconic status of Gold’s, why Bobby Muscles is in Wranglers rather than lycra, how he’s both drawing on and distorting the Kennedy fitness legacy, body mastery as the ultimate American frontier, political pissing contests, the ableist “sweatwashing” of complex health policy problems, the body-shaming of soft, flabby, unpatriotic liberals, and how the whole scene—pumped by biohackers and tech bros—has some alarming political echoes. Show Notes Fit Nation: The Gains and Pains of America’s Exercise Obsession Matthew’s Twitter thread on Bobby Muscles echoing body fascism. "Go, you chicken fat, go!" — Meredith Wilson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:02.0	Hello, everybody.
1:03.0	I'm Matthew Remsky with the Conspirituality Podcast.
1:06.0	Brief called RFK Junior Flirts with Body Fascism, with special return guest, friend of the pod,
1:12.0	historian of American fitness culture at Natalia PetraZella, who will help me shed light on a new development in RFK Junior's campaign to disrupt the Democratic Party.
1:23.0	Yes, we'll be talking about his recent workout campaign videos and political messaging from the benches of Gold's Gym in Venice Beach.
1:32.0	And as I posted to Twitter, the themes he's now made explicit belong to a long tradition of what we call body fascism, and I'll be asking Natalia about those roots, and also how they've been laundered and normalized down through the decades.
1:48.0	One bit of housekeeping before we dive in, our book is out, as you know, it's available wherever you get books.
1:54.0	It's called Conspirituality, How New Age Conspiracy Theory became a health threat.
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