Deprogrammed with Keri Smith

Join us for Keri Smith's #Deprogrammed interview with Brian Graupner of the industrial bands The Gothsicles and Gasoline Invertebrate, and host of Space Couch. Brian went through one of the craziest cancellations in the music industry, which included an intervention, a divorce (in part because he had a "secret" Daily Wire subscription) and the turning on him of many in his audience, replete with cancellations of gigs and more. All because he's willing to talk with people, anyone, who disagrees with him, and listen to a variety of ideas. What he did after was a fiery bit of alchemy that speaks to standing for truth over social pressure. Brian Graupner's "dumb band," as he describes it - The Gothsicles - was more successful than anyone, including himself, ever thought possible. In his own words: What started (and largely stayed) as some skinny nerd from Wisconsin emitting ear-splitting caterwauling comedy music about video games (a novel idea in 2002) and various animals I think are cool over industrial beats and marketing it to crowds that banked on eyeliner and sadness was destined to never find purchase. I mean, I called the thing “The Gothsicles” for goodness sake. Yet somehow, the project remained viable for decades and spanned the globe including (and often headlining) spots at international industrial festivals worldwide (Resistanz in England, Kinetik in Canada, Mechanismus in Seattle, Species in Ireland, all the big ones), European tours and US tours, playing “goth cruises” to the Bahamas and Alaska, along with a headlining spot at Dragon*Con in Atlanta, and “gamer” / sci-fi cons coast to coast. Kickstarters for albums were regularly funded in a matter of hours, going on to several times their capacity, and the resulting albums received glowing reviews. I mean, people would write me poems about how I changed their life & stuff. Here’s us in Finland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WG4VQDKrnzs&t=14s Here’s a music video about stag beetles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo-OGSt2Hr8 And here’s one about howler monkeys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1vzPq8II7M And this is a fun one about Ice Hockey for the Nintendo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4qCzoQWzoE Then I started branching out! I tried my hand at “serious” music with a project called “Gasoline Invertebrate” and whaddyaknow, it hit #2 on the German Alternative Charts (the “DAC”)! A high school dream come true! I was “canonized” as the model for a card in Vampire: The Eternal Struggle, this card game I’ve been playing forever! Check it out! I started a record label and people loved it! The community built-up therein became a true global family and some of the stuff we put out hit number #1 on bandcamp (fleetingly, but hey, I’ll take it)! We did online festivals and put out some crazy releases (En Ensch of KMFDM, even, whaaaat). And I had 3 podcasts I was doing, all to relative success! And the real kicker was my “show”, Space Couch. It was basically a live Skype call on which people could comment in real time (which was a novel idea before the lockdown). And again, this Space Couch thing got bigger than I would have ever imagined! I interviewed high school heroes and movie directors and published comic book creators and ever bigger bands (Orgy! Combichrist! bonkers!) Made crazy connections! All those are still up at facebook.com/spacecouchshow/videos, actually. And then I did a reciprocal interview for someone who had me on her show and it all went away over a weekend. People had found she’d made some tweets critical of the trans community and told me not to have her on and I did anyway ‘cause I think it’s okay to talk to people. I don’t agree with gender ideology anyway, but it’s not like I was going around making that my thing. People went nuts. Like BONKERS. I was cancelled super duper hard. Smash cut to the present and I just put out a new Gasoline Invertebrate album and I talk about this a lot (again with MoxieDame, the person that made everyone so mad) on her show and I think her intro really captures it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh0kUcq3gJk My wife left me because I quietly listened to the Daily Wire. My parents turned on me. I lost all my friends. I got dropped from every gig (including the big fancy international ones) I had lined up. I was banned from local clubs and had to move states. People were smashing my CDs and sending me pictures. All ‘cause I talked to someone on the internet for 30 minutes about old video games. Then I put out this new Gasoline album and people just went insane, especially over the track “Leftism Is Bad”: https://gasolineinvertebrate.bandcamp.com/album/crash-and-burn-and-burn-and-burn New single, too: https://gasolineinvertebrate.bandcamp.com/track/being-called-transphobic

On May 2nd, 2024, the Austin City Council considered and shamefully passed a toothless resolution in which they stated they intended to flout State Law and to support sterilization and mutilation of children. These were my remarks: "Good afternoon. My name is Keri Smith and I live in the great state of Texas. One of the purposes of law is to protect the most vulnerable among us from harm. As a society, we have ALWAYS recognized that children are not developmentally the same as adults. As such, our laws do not allow children to “consent” to sex with adults, to drinking, to smoking, to getting a tattoo, to driving a car or buying a gun. But somehow in the past few years, we have all collectively lost our minds and decided that children are capable of consenting to sterilizing themselves for life and to having their breasts and genitals cut off and mutilated. I encourage you to read and listen to ALL of the leaked WPATH files, where where the very doctors who are chemically castrating and genitally mutilating children are caught ON VIDEO admitting that these children are not capable of understanding what they are “consenting” to. The president of WPATH, Marci Bowers, is even on video admitting that 100% of little boys in Tanner Stage Two - that’s around age 11 - who they’ve given puberty blockers to are never able to achieve orgasm in adulthood. That’s 100%. You can watch her say this on camera. Chemically castrating puberty blockers are not reversible! I encourage you to listen to the voices of the mutilated children, some of whom were here today, voices of people like Chloe Cole and Layla Jane - both who had double mastectomies when they were children - who are now in young adulthood suing the butchers who did this to them when they were kids. Every single country that has done a systematic medical review of the evidence has banned this barbarism against children. And we are going to follow in the footsteps of progressive countries like the UK, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland and we’re gonna ban it in all 50 states here in the US. The Hippocratic Oath for doctors says to FIRST DO NO HARM. It is a LIE that sterilizing and mutilating children does no harm. In the words of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “Let the lie come into the world. Let it even prosper. But not through me.” I urge the Austin City Council not to be on the wrong side of history on this - the greatest medical scandal and atrocity against children in our lifetime. Let the lie come into the world. Let it even prosper. But not through Texas."

Join us for a very special LIVE #Deprogrammed with Keri Smith! I’ll be joined by the great Az ( @HeelvsBabyface ), one of the most entertaining pop culture and gaming commentators, to explain Gamergate 2.0 and this “narrative development” company Sweet Baby Inc, that gets hired to inject woke (Social Justice) ideology into games. These are programmers who program people through indoctrination in entertainment. Join us as we talk about woke in gaming, the new so-called Gamergate 2.0, DEI and ESG scores - AND how to maintain a healthy life in an increasingly toxic culture.

Join us for a special episode of #Deprogrammed on Friday, March 1st at 1pm CST as Keri Smith interviews Neil Shenvi and Pat Sawyer, authors of "Critical Dilemma: The Rise of Critical Theories and Social Justice Ideology - Implications for the Church and Society." GET the BOOK: https://criticaldilemma.com/ JOIN US FOR DEPROGRAMMED BOOK CLUB ON THURSDAY, MARCH 7TH AT 6PM Neil Shenvi has an AB in chemistry from Princeton and a PhD in theoretical chemistry from UC Berkeley. He is the author of Why Believe? A Reasoned Approach to Christianity and is widely recognized for his writing on critical theory which can be found in journals like Eikon and The Journal for Christian Legal Thought. He is married and has four children. Twitter/X: @NeilShenvi Pat Sawyer has a BA in psychology from UNC-Chapel Hill, an MA in communication studies from UNC-Greensboro, and a PhD in educational studies and cultural studies from UNC- Greensboro and is published in the academy and in various popular outlets. He is married and has three children. Twitter/X: @RealPatSawyer

Four decades of racist discrimination in college admissions was struck down by the Supreme Court last year in a case involving Harvard and UNC. The FAA is openly admitting thy are considering race, sex, sexuality and disability in hiring practices. Mark Cuban is openly defending DEI, racist and sexist hiring practices, and seems to be confused as to the definition of equity. Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak with Keri Smith on #Deprogrammed on Monday, February 5th at 1pm CST while we break down what exactly equity and DEI mean. How do they look in the workplace and academia? And what does it say about a society to openly embrace them?

Join us for Keri Smith's #Deprogrammed interview with Megan Leigh of @TheNoob_Reviews! Megan has a unique perspective on pop culture and faith, having been homeschooled and somewhat sheltered from "the world" for most of her childhood. We talk about the benefits of homeschooling, raising kids without devices, and working with children with autism. Megan was born and raised in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. Having grown up as a homeschooler and without a TV for most of her childhood, she now enjoys spending her time exploring pop culture, especially comic books and video games. She is the resident Noob and normie on the @GeeksandGamers team, and works on their anime channel @WeebsandWaifus. Follow Megan online: @meg_leighjay on IG @meg_an_leigh on Twitter

Join us on Wednesday, May 24th at 8pm CDT for a LIVE #PoppedCulture on #Deprogrammed with Keri Smith and Mystery Chris! We are delving into the emergence of Woke Advertising in the past 10 years, with a look at the motivators for such ideological messaging. Plus - do boycotts work?

Join us on Thursday, May 11th at 6pm CDT for the premiere of Keri Smith's #Deprogrammed interview with Allie Snyder! Allie is a woman, wife and mother, born and raised in CA. It was only in the last several years that she saw the harms and human rights violations perpetrated in the name of Gender Ideology. Last year, she began speaking out to raise awareness and was let go by her former employer for refusing to stay silent on the subject. She now spends most of her "free" time speaking at school board meetings, rallies, and at the state Capitol in Assembly and Senate Hearings. She works in partnership with Our Duty as well as with sponsorship from Mom's for Liberty of Yolo County, to put together several community events at the local level. Follow her on Twitter at @SnydeNotSnarky

Join us for a LIVE #PoppedCulture on #Deprogrammed with Keri Smith and Mystery Chris, Wednesday, May 10th at 8pm CDT. We're tracing the history of depictions of slavery in TV & Film.

Join us at 6pm CDT on Thursday, May 4th for a very special LIVE episode of #Deprogrammed with Keri Smith. Keri interviews Regan Keith, IN PERSON, about his generation, Gen Z, culture, politics and Christian Nationalism. Are the kids alright? Reagan Keith is the founder and editor-in-chief of truthanddiscourse.com. He is an up and coming young conservative who self identifies as a Christian Nationalist. Reagan is a Gen-Z conservative who believes in traditionalism, American exceptionalism, and Biblical liberty.

Join us for a LIVE #PoppedCulture on #Deprogrammed on Wednesday, May 3rd at 8pm CDT. Keri Smith and Mystery Chris will walk us through a What Are Furries 101 explainer and attempt to answer the question: Why?

Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak Unplugged on Friday, April 28th at 12pm CDT on #Deprogrammed with Keri Smith! We're talking about the skyrocketing rates of white women taking antidepressants and the increasing rate of women's unhappiness since the 1970s.

Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak with Keri Smith on Monday, April 24th at 12pm CDT!

Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak Unplugged with Keri Smith at 12pm CST on #Deprogrammed! We're discussing how the Woke War, the Culture War, is a War on Reality.

Join us on Wednesday, April 19th at 8pm CST for PART 2 of "That's Country My A**" - a LIVE #PoppedCulture with Keri Smith and Mystery Chris! We're talking about the attempted wokeification of country music and the evolution of the genre. Our title today comes from the explicitly COUNTRY song, "That's Country My *ss" by Mr. Dale Watson.

Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak with Keri Smith on Monday, April 17th at 12pm CST! After the MindsFest event, I am thinking again about how to talk with people who disagree with you. Let's discuss!

Join us on Thursday, April 13th at 6pm CST for Keri Smith's Deprogrammed conversation with BrahmaBull! This is a conversation running the gamut from politics, to faith (are there differences between new a longtime believers?), to bourbon. Come say hi! ____________ I am a small Rumbler/Youtuber, been at it for a little over a year. I am a Christian and a conservative. I love God, my family, my country and my bourbon. I was born into the strange partial generation in between true Gen X and Millennial, which is to say my childhood took outdoors whenever possible, but the internet came about during my teen years, so I grew up with some of its early influence. I do have a fulltime day job and being a creator/panelist is my hobby and my outlet. I am here to speak with people, continue to formulate my opinions from those conversations and change if I am wrong. You can find me on my show Bourbon and Boarding on my Rumble, as a panelist on @ComixDivision's shows Yelling at Parked Cars and Thursday Night Throwdown, frequently on @CultureCasino's Late Night Sunday show, and on @madchismo's ongoing series of videos, Movies with Mad.

Join us for a LIVE #PoppedCulture on Wednesday, April 12th at 8pm CST! We're talking about the attempted wokeification of country music and the evolution of the genre. Our title today comes from the explicitly COUNTRY song, "That's Country My *ss" by Mr. Dale Watson.

Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak Unplugged with Keri Smith on #Deprogrammed, Friday, April 7th at 12pm CST. We're talking about False Prophets.

Join Keri Smith and Mystery Chris for a LIVE #PoppedCulture on Wednesday, April 5th at 8pm CST on #Deprogrammed. We'll explore the opinion that video games like Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat contribute to violence in society and look at some studies to see if there is any truth to that at all. Gamers and Knittas welcome!

Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak with Keri Smith on Monday, April 3rd at 12pm CDT. We're discussing the news that disgraced Hillsong megapastor Carl Lentz has just been appointed to be a pastor at megachurch Transformation Church. As well as the Biblical qualifications for shepherds, and the meaning of marriage and infidelity.

Join us for the premiere of Keri Smith's interview with Mike Evans, the creator of @XRL7official! They talk about music, art, politics and the importance and joy of creating culture. Mike Evans is a UK-based musician and animator, best known for founding electronic rock project MiXE1 (pronounced Mix-ee-one) and most recently, as the creator of X-RL7 - a unique pixel art cyberpunk animation series and music project which follows the trials and tribulations of a fictional band of the same name in a dystopian world. The series is a mix of comedy, social commentary and original music featuring voice acting and musical cameos from members of the alternative/electronic/rock music scene such as Blue Stahli, Andy Cizek (Monuments), Daniel Graves (Aesthetic Perfection), Lauren Babic, Nyxx, Rob Kersey (Psychostick) and many more.

Join Keri Smith and Mystery Chris and friends and special guests for a One Year Celebration of Deprogrammed! Bring your kaffee, your booze of choice, your non-alcoholic fancy drink, but most of all, your party hat! Special Guests include Drunk3P0, Nina Infinity, Gary from Nerdrotic, Culture Casino, Sara Higdon, Mike Harlow, Deb Fillman, Peter Feliciano, Steph from My Nerdy Home, Epic Mike, Kieran White, Nick Weiser, Lila Hart, Martina Markota, Jack Buckby, Geno Bisconte, Lee Ann Star, Royce Lopez from Revenge of the Cis, Comix Division, Buck Angel, Chris Gore and Keri's husband, Anthony Garcia! More guests TBA! Thank all of you wrongthinkers, wrongknitters, wronggamers, wrongsitters and wrongspeakers for helping to make this a great year and for supporting Deprogrammed and helping me do something that brings me joy. You're the best.

Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak with Keri Smith on Monday, March 27th at 12pm CDT. We're discussing the shameful and violent assault of Posie Parker at the New Zealand "Let Women Speak" Rally.

Join us for a LIVE #KerfefeBreak with Keri Smith at 12pm CDT on Friday, March 24th on #Deprogrammed. We're talking about the unhinged far-left protest at Purdue University on March 23rd, 2023, at a Michael Knowles lecture. Plus - new documents reveal how the UK Scientific Community was advising the UK Government to use coercion and shame to manipulate people into treating one another like crap during the Coof Years.