How did we go from prophet to profit with Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, Deepak Chopra... one by one, the curtain got lifted? And we're left asking: who do we actually trust? Religious ethicist Dr. Liz Bucar has spent 25 years studying exactly that question. Her answers will surprise you.
What you'll learn in this episode:
Why the guru era is collapsing and what a good teacher actually looks like versus a predatory one
The hidden Orientalism behind Deepak Chopra and Jay Shetty's appeal — and the latent racism nobody's talking about
How a 19th century minister literally named after the Graham cracker gave us our food guilt
Why a single question from a tarot card reader reversed years of orthorexia when therapy and church couldn't touch it
What happened when a straight-edge religious studies professor did ayahuasca three times a day for three days in an Oregon yurt — and what it broke open about death, grief, and living well
What sangha means and why real community requires you to be inconvenienced
Prefer to watch on YouTube? https://youtu.be/5kXU5Cf2heE
Resources & Links:
ORDER Beyond Wellness book: https://amzn.to/4wQJypx
Liz's website: https://www.lizbucar.com/books
Liz's Substack (Religion, Reimagined): https://lizbucar.substack.com/
Liz on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizbucar/
Liz on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lizbucar
Work with Allison: https://allisonhare.com/freecall
NOTABLE TIMESTAMPS
00:00 — Intro: Prophet to profit. The guru era is over.
02:25 — Welcome Dr. Liz Bucar
03:25 — Is the guru era over? Jay Shetty, Deepak Chopra, and what cracked
07:35 — The halo effect: how platform-built gurus get their power
09:23 — Red flags of a bad spiritual teacher
10:57 — What a good teacher actually looks like
11:47 — The Orientalism and latent racism behind the wellness guru industry
13:43 — What is wellness — and why it's too low of a bar
15:05 — Women, optimization, and the anemic version of human life we've been sold
16:22 — What if dying well is part of living well?
17:56 — What a "none" borrows from religion without belonging to it
21:21 — Religion's PR problem and who's controlling the narrative
24:01 — Safety, belonging, and the search for somewhere to land
25:24 — Disordered eating, orthorexia, and the tarot reading that reversed it
30:01 — How bad theology gave us food moralizing (the Graham cracker guy)
34:26 — Ayahuasca: the plan Liz did NOT have
36:58 — Santo Daime, the sacrament of Daime, and a legal ayahuasca church in the US
39:12 — Why the religious container was everything
41:53 — Confronting her father's death in an Oregon yurt
43:18 — Death doulas, dying well, and the epiphany that changed everything
44:01 — Sangha: what community actually means
45:23 — Hope vs. optimism — and why the difference matters right now
48:20 — Rage has good intel. Embrace the ugly parts.
49:05 — Why individualism has done us dirty
50:33 — Biohacking, hustle culture, and inviting friction back in
51:06 — Real community requires showing up, not just extracting
52:46 — Where to find Liz and preorder Beyond Wellness
Allison's Offer:
Schedule a free podcast clarity call: https://allisonhare.com/freecall
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