Brief: The Cult of Crossfit

Conspirituality

Derek Beres, Matthew Remski, Julian Walker

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

4.2 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 19 April 2025

⏱️ 36 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

When cultural and psychological anthropologist Katie Rose Hejtmanek set out to study Crossfit, she knew she had to throw herself into it fully. For seven years, she traveled to “boxes” around the world while committing herself to her local Brooklyn box. What she uncovered was a rabid fan base that deeply values community and a business model that offers a refreshing response to unfettered capitalism—as well as the misogyny, racism, and militarized Christian themes that inform this beloved and despised fitness regimen. She joins Derek to discuss her new book, The Cult of CrossFit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon. Show Notes The Cult of CrossFit: Christianity and the American Exercise Phenomenon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:03.5	CrossFit. Cross fit. I never really put it together, but reading Katie Rose Heymonek's new book, The Cult of CrossFit,
1:16.4	Christianity and the American Exercise phenomenon, it just kind of clicked what that cross
1:23.5	really entails. Although, as you're going to hear in our interview today, it's not always that, but it is that.
1:34.0	And she would know having spent seven years devoting her life to CrossFit and working out in the boxes.
1:42.3	So I really enjoyed this conversation.
1:44.7	I won't give too much away.
1:46.4	As always, you can find us on Instagram and threads.
1:49.1	A Conspiratuality Pod, and we're all individually on Blue Sky.
1:53.1	And if you are so apt and have the means to do so, you can support us on Patreon as well as via Apple subscriptions.
2:00.8	Katie Rose Hate Monick is a professor of anthropology and children and youth studies at
2:06.0	Brooklyn College, City University of New York.
2:08.7	She's the author of Friendship, Love, and Hip Hop, and Ethnography of African American Men
2:13.6	in Psychiatric Custody.
	...

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