Browse Topics
Consciousness
When Living Is A Protest
My work is an attempt to show what it means to live in the struggle in places like South Carolina and Mississippi, and to document protests from Ferguson, Missouri, to New York City. I want to show the faces of those whose lives are spent in protest.
September 2020
Musings
A stink bug perches on the bristles of my toothbrush. I know more about ventilators than I should. This morning’s coffee tastes luxuriously of earth. As I run through the forest, pileated woodpeckers hammer and cackle from above. I’ve got an ache in the ball of my foot. Some things never give up.
September 2020Not So Different After All
Frans de Waal On Animal Intelligence And Emotions
With the coronavirus we have another interesting issue: how we eat wildlife. Ecologists and conservationists have been saying for fifty years that we shouldn’t be eating everything on the planet.
July 2020
Recipe For Strawberry Bliss
Learn the word ennui. Resolve to do something meaningful with your life. Do something selfish and stupid instead. Go to prison.
March 2020Intimacy With Fear
If we commit ourselves to staying right where we are, then our experience becomes very vivid. Things become very clear when there is nowhere to escape.
July 2018From Here To Eternity
William Richards On The Transformative Potential Of Psychedelics
I was outside of time. Awe, glory, and gratitude are the only words for what I experienced.
November 2017
November 2017
Featuring Pico Iyer, Starhawk, Sister Joan Chittister, Sparrow, Sy Safransky, and more.
November 2017Sunbeams
November 2017We live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality.
Hooked
Maia Szalavitz Debunks Myths About Addiction
As I said, maintenance treatment cuts the death rate for opioid addiction in half, which is better than any other method that’s been studied. If you went to a cancer center and weren’t even offered the treatment that reduced your risk of death the most, you would have grounds for a malpractice case. Yet most residential addiction-treatment centers do not offer maintenance treatment and, in fact, oppose it, saying it’s not “real” recovery.
June 2017
A Walk On The Wild Side
Joe Hutto’s Life With Animals
I’m no expert on consciousness, but I’ve observed consciousness in other creatures my entire life. If we describe it as a state of being awake, being aware, then when you look at an animal, you see true wakefulness. Humans have created a sophisticated culture that serves as an insulating bubble, separating and protecting us from the environment, allowing us to relax such that we don’t have to be totally conscious. Most animals have to be at the helm of their ship all the time, or they die. They have multiple opportunities to die every day. Because humans don’t have that tension, our senses have become dull. Probably the only time that a human being experiences an animal level of awareness is in combat, where every second you might be in the crosshairs of a sniper’s rifle.
May 2017
