Podcaster Attacks Conspirituality & Be Scofield for Not Doing Interviews
Be Scofield is a prominent cult reporter whose work is cited by the New York Times, Washington Post, People, Daily Beast, The Guardian and has led to coverage on Netflix, Dr. Phil, VICE, CNN and elsewhere. -> Follow on Facebook
January 8th, 2022
Sadly, I need to warn others about Katya Weiss-Anderson and her Love and Light Confessionals podcast. She’s now spread lies and smears about myself and the Conspirituality podcast right after we ignored her interview requests. Katya is not a genuine actor in this space, nor does she care about publishing accurate and honest information.
When I reached out to her to correct false information I experienced gaslighting, manipulation and narcissism. And she is highly calculating in her efforts to attack myself and the Conspirituality crew.
She messaged me on June 3rd saying, “I’ve been a fan of your work for a while…it would be an honor to have you on the show.” And she had told me previously “I love Conspirituality! And [Matthew] Remski’s work in general.” Matthew is co-host of Conspirituality.
When neither of us responded to her interview requests she tried to tear us down. It was highly strange as I’d only had a few brief email exchanges with her and she was a long-term fan of mine.
Just three weeks later on June 25th she released a podcast accusing me of being a “shady,” “lying,” grandiose writer who “artificially bolsters her own image.” She even compared me to a cult leader. Ouch.
She had just lashed out in a full podcast trying tear down Conspirituality. She chides them for liking her Instagram message interview request but not responding. It’s high school level stuff. Katya also attacks them for “long-winded” episode names, “ten-paragraph” Facebook posts and long bonus episodes. She misused a classic privilege call out and says they are taking up too much space but on the internet, which is literally impossible to do.
Katya Weiss-Anderson’s pathology reminds of Kathy Bates in Stephen King’s movie Misery. The obsessed woman says “I love you” to the author played by Paul Sheldon while abusing and tormenting him.
Katya’s polar flip between extremes is erratic and alarming. More importantly it’s destructive. For some people like Katya, even the slightest perception of rejection can cause immense pain and inner turmoil. It can cause them to lash out and wildly overreact.
In her podcast, Katya Weiss-Anderson claimed I am lying about having representation from United Talent Agency. She called them and I wasn’t on their official “talent roster.” I sent her my agents name, an article about her and screenshots of our email communications. I explained I’ve been represented since December 8th, 2017 and have full access to their legal and support teams. Not everyone represented by a UTA agent is formally listed on their company roster.
“It was a technicality error,” she told me over Instagram messenger fully acknowledging that she knows I didn’t lie about this.
Shockingly, when I asked her to correct the record she refused.
First off, how creepy and strange is it that this woman is calling my talent agency? Why is this person even investigating me? I thought she was a huge fan who’d be “honored” to have me on the show.
Secondly, any person acting in good faith would reach out for comment. I could have clarified that I do indeed have representation from United Talent Agency. But she never did, which is unfair and unethical.
It left me speechless and scratching my head. Why wouldn’t she change wrong information?
I 100% have representation from United Talent Agency. And she 100% knows this now. But she will not correct the record and include that I do in fact have an agent with UTA.
In the publishing world, no matter how much you dislike someone, you do not publish false information. It destroys your credibility. And if you do, you correct the record immediately.
She’s totally disconnected from the harm and pain her actions can cause. She doesn’t care.
This is classic narcissistic behavior. It’s so confusing and strange that people have a hard time understanding how someone like this could even exist. But they do. And they are toxic and highly manipulative.
In her Love and Light Confessionals podcast she fires off a bunch of other petty cheap shots. She questions if I’m actually mentioned in all the news press I claim I am. “The vast majority of mentions of her appear on her own websites and written by her,” she said. Ugh. I am actually mentioned in the NYTIMES, People, Washington Post, Daily Beast and many more. I sent her the press mentions but she refuses to correct her lies.
She wonders if those articles are actually based on my reporting. Yes, they are. She questions how many cults I’ve actually shut down. I exposed some, kicked out some, and shut down some. Who cares?
Katya lobs other jabs at me like “we know that Be Scofield does like to artificially bolster her own image” and “It raised some huge red flags for me that some of her motivations may be to fabricate a grandiose image of herself.”
Whoa. Where is this coming from out of nowhere?
“Self aggrandizement, grandiosity is a major, pretty ubiquitous character of cult leaders and spiritual charlatans everywhere, so it doesn’t sit well,” she says about me.
Ugh. Ok. I’m a cult leader. You got me.
These are cringeworthy petty cheap shots that she’s firing at me. One minute she’s a huge fan the next she’s tearing me down. I feel empathy for her as her pain is so clearly clouding her actions.
Seemingly desperate for anything to jab me with, she brings up my previous association with Sayer Ji and Kelly Brogan. They are influencers with controversial health views. Ten years ago I did web and digital design for them. And Katya chides me for still using Kelly’s testimonial. It’s about digital design, however, and she’s a NYTimes bestselling author so it’s powerful. I don’t share their health views.
Katya repeats an old cult smear that I was kicked off of Medium.com for repeatedly publishing false information. Medium never said that. I never fully knew, but the main reason I was told is that I kept using images without copyright. And it happened when I published a sexually graphic article about a sex cult, so perhaps that was the last straw.
Reach out to Katya and ask why she continues to publish false information about us and you’ll enter a parallel universe where up is down. Nothing will make sense and you’ll be left doubting your reality.
Disturbingly, Katya manipulates her audience by abusing social justice terms to deceptively use them against Conspirituality.
For example, she accuses Conspirituality of taking up too much space. This is a classic privilege call out. But she says they are taking up too much space on the internet because they have 2.5 hour long episodes and long bonus episodes. You can’t take up too much space on the internet. It’s their podcast. They are not sitting in a small room with ten people talking over them.
But because she uses terms that her audience recognizes it sounds like an important critique.
This passage from her podcast reveals how petty and superficial her critique is:
“Another red flag that came up for me with Conspirituality was how incredibly long winded every piece of their content was. Right down to the episode names and page-long episode descriptions. It was as if they felt no need to bother themselves respecting their listeners’ time because they were used to expecting people to hang off of their every word. I originally really wanted to keep up with their content but I noticed that I just couldn’t keep up with every ten paragraph Facebook essay, longform IGTV video, 2.5 hour weekly podcast episodes plus bonus episode clips that were only clips to the point that they were as long as many other shows full episodes. It was immediately very clear that these guys have no qualms with taking up as much space as possible with their voices, their written words, their faces, their videos.”
Many podcasts and shows take up many hours daily or weekly. Who cares? This is a manipulative abuse of the privilege call out of “taking up too much space.”
When Katya messaged Conspirituality on Instagram they redirected her to their new account. For this she chastises them for “reprimanding” her. Unbelievable.
Katya also calls Conspirituality intellectually pretentious but then fully admits to being just as intellectually pretentious at times. But she found a way to get the jab in.
Katya said: “Everything they said or wrote was trying to be a very poignant poetic academic essay. So I was very affected to the point where I couldn’t help but think ‘wow.’”
She says she’s not sure if its her “neurodivergent” status that is making her react to Conspirituality’s lengthy content.
Katya falsely accuses Matthew of centering anti-racist author Robin DiAngelo in his analysis. “Matthew kept referring to Robin DiAngelo and her book White Fragility as some kind of representation of intersectionality discourse…Centering Robin DiAngelo as some sort of representation of anti-racism discourse is out of touch in and of itself. “
Matthew did the exact opposite. He only said critical things about DiAngelo.
The purpose of Katya’s podcasts about us is to cast doubt and challenge our credibility. The way she cleverly employs manipulative and calculating methods to do so is creepy. I only see this level of sly, slick manipulation in narcissists and the cult leaders I expose.
I told her these petty attacks are merely a distraction from the real issues. I tried to compassionately call her “in” but she was in complete denial. It’s sad because she is doing otherwise good work.
It’s one thing to publish false information but it is another to refuse to correct the record when it’s been pointed out. Knowingly publishing false information is the worst of the worst behavior in the publishing space.