About JMK

My name is Johannes Mathijs Koenraadt and I am a metaphysician.

Summary

I was born in the low-lying Rhine delta of the Netherlands (1980). I graduated from Wageningen University, and later became a self-taught metaphysician, a philosopher who questions the nature of reality. I have authored various works and novels, and I offer geopolitical commentary. Due to my speaking on podcasts, I became known as a public intellectual. In 2024, I was made a political prisoner, persecuted for my beliefs by the state of the Netherlands.

Background

I descend from a family of sailors, farmers, millers, and pastoralists from the Catholic South of the Netherlands. Some of my relatives co-founded a cooperative bank (The Farmers’ Loan Bank, later absorbed into the Rabobank) and a hospital (Saint Ignatius, Breda). My great-uncle Willem Koenraadt was vicar general of the Diocese of Breda. His standard work on fair workers’ pay still influences Dutch society. He invented the national system of child benefits (“kinderbijslag”) to support working-class families.

Education

Having worked odd jobs in my youth—picking strawberries for my uncle, hauling crates of fruit at the local market, working the IT help desk at a theme park (De Efteling), and delivering mail (PostNL)—I graduated from the St.-Oelbert gymnasium (high school), and then enrolled at Wageningen University. I paid for tuition and housing by working evening jobs as a car parts magazine employee and as a freelance web designer. I obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Crop Sciences, with a thesis on leadership for innovation, and a Master of Science degree in Strategic Business Management with a thesis on the growth and development of biotechnology companies.

Further Studies

I have been a lifelong learner. Thanks to voracious reading, I became a generalist autodidact in many fields, ranging from philosophy and psychoanalysis to sociology, history, and geopolitics. Metaphysics became the particular field of interest, which led me to write books such as The Ignorant God: Thoughts about Time and Eternity (Koenraadt, 2017) on the nature of nothingness, and Eternal Struggle: Exposing the Scientific Worldview (Koenraadt, 2019) on the nature of reality. I participated in mass open online courses such as Duke University’s courses on reason and logic, and Harvard’s Justice. I attended lectures by Frits Bolkestein, Jordan Peterson, Francis Fukuyama, and Lawrence Krauss.

Languages

I speak Dutch, English, and German.

I can read and comprehend Afrikaans, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish.

Travels

After my studies, I became an unintentional cosmopolitan who found temporary homes in Munich, Amsterdam, Budapest, London, Stockholm, Berlin, New York City, and dozens of other places, totaling a good fifteen years abroad, three of which out of a backpack. In my twenties and thirties, I struggled intensely with the aftermath of teenage suicide attempts. Life had not given me a fair start. Traumatized, I struggled with homelessness for a few years in my late thirties, drifting between hostels while writing books such as Confusion: A Surrealistic Novella on the Struggle for Autonomy (Koenraadt, 2019).

Transformation

What lay dormant in my childhood came to fruition in adulthood. Soon, I could no longer hide my gift for thinking, writing, and speaking. I overcame trauma-induced adult selective mutism and developed a talent for speechwriting and public speaking. In my early forties, I transformed myself, marking a clear break with my troubled past—a process I described, starting with the enlightened A Man Becomes His Self: A Novella for Lost Souls (Koenraadt, 2018) and ending with dark fiction in Atonement for the Shadow: A Hiker’s Diary (Koenraadt, 2025).

Who Am I and What Do I Do?

I am a man of words. I am a philosopher at heart, and a speaker by nature. I advocate deindustrialization and propose the de-urbanization of the world. I oppose transhumanism and wish to protect a resilient humanity.

I am the founder of The Reaction, a pan-European reactionary movement for which I have laid the philosophical basis. I host The Great Johannes Podcast and have published several books. In my spare time, I like to produce electronic music as well as rare classical compositions for the full orchestra. To stay strong, I exercise weightlifting, boxing, rollerblading, ice skating, and occasional skiing. Currently, I am learning to play the (valve) trombone when I’m not too busy learning how to draw.

Persecution

In late September 2024, I was unexpectedly dragged out of my car at night and forced to spend 3 days in solitary police confinement plus 10 days in pre-trial detention. I was made a political prisoner. I was persecuted by the state of the Netherlands over views I had expressed in a TikTok video in early 2024. In it, I discussed what Dutch people should do in the hypothetical case that the government would be overthrown. I had dared to argue, for example, that young Dutch couples should be awarded free housing. Though I was acquitted of sedition (risking 5 years in prison), I was sentenced to 40 hours of community service for having insulted one Moroccan-Dutch politician. That politician had called for the destruction of half of all Dutch livestock in 2019 at a national farmers’ protest in The Hague.

Notable

• 2003 Top-100 finalist (out of 20,000+) of the Nyenrode Business University student IQ and EQ challenge

• 2006-2007 Finished the Paris and Vienna marathons

• 2011 Helped organize the TEDx Munich conference

• 2014 Speaker for KennisCafé at De Balie, Amsterdam, about Bitcoin

• 2015 Hiked Sweden’s Kungsleden trail

• 2024 Hike across Norway’s Hardangarvidda

Fun Fact

During a livestream discussion on TikTok near the end of 2023, I was the spontaneous originator of the “magic soil theory,” which spread like a meme and became a household concept of the online right.

The Great Johannes Podcast

• Collabs & Interviews (January 2022-today)

• Pre-Recorded Shows (August 2022-today)

• Briefings (December 2022-today)

• Livestream Replays (November 2023-today)

• The Reaction (September 2025-today)

Retired Series

• Johannes Tyrannis (110 episodes, August 2019-June 2022 †)