On the Block Radio

This is a throwback to a project that host Andy Gurevich and producer Mike DiNapoli put together when creating a spin off podcast called POTCAST OREGON.  In solidarity of all our friends this Pride month it seemed like the right time to share this little nugget of podcast gold.  Can you Taste the Hate? 

Been a while since we've been with you, lovelies. The world continues to end. Or is it just continuing to transform itself? This show has always been about borders. About intersections. About the boundaries out on the edges of the Self where subject and object, self and other, start to blend. Now, it seems more than ever, we need to engage the great, maligned and feared "other" rather than succumbing to the constant barrage of media that seeks to make us minimize and simply dismiss that which isn't "Us." Our guest this episode is a person that seeks to change that orientation. Tom Krattenmaker is a writer specializing in religion in public life and author of the new book Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower (Convergent, 2016). His first book, Onward Christian Athletes (Rowman & Littlefield, 2009), examined Christianity in professional sports. The book was a winner in ForeWord Review’s 2009 book awards and a finalist in the Oregon Book Awards. Krattenmaker’s second book, The Evangelicals You Don’t Know (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013), on the “new evangelicals” in post-Christian America, was a winner in the best books competition of the Religion Newswriters Association in 2014. Krattenmaker writes regularly for USA Today’s op-ed page as a member of the newspaper’s editorial Board of Contributors. His column-writing was honored by the American Academy of Religion in its 2009 Journalism Awards program, receiving praise for challenging popular misconceptions about evangelicals “and showing that something new, something more complex and subtle is going on — a great goal for religion commentary.” His work has also appeared in recent years in the Washington Post, Religion News Service, and Huffington Post, among numerous other media outlets. Krattenmaker’s numerous media appearances include Fox & Friends, the documentary “Lord Save Us From Your Followers,” National Public Radio, the New York Times “Idea of the Day” website, ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” the Christian Broadcasting Network, The Nation, Christianity Today, Air America, the Michael Smerconish Show, the Michael Medved Show, Portland Monthly, and radio networks/stations including Fox, the Canadian Broadcasting Company, and numerous regional and local outlets. Named the 2009 Mendenhall Lecturer at DePauw University, Krattenmaker has also spoken at college campuses including Yale, Harvard, Georgetown, Baylor, Lewis & Clark, Willamette University Law School, the University of Portland, Portland State University, Missouri State University, and Springfield, Swarthmore, and Haverford, and Kilns colleges. He was a recipient of the 2009 “Friend of MET” award from the Portland-based Muslim Educational Trust and, in April 2013, was honored by Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon with its Hunderup Award for Religious Education. He resides with his wife in New Haven, Connecticut, and serves on the Board of Directors of the Yale Humanist Community. We recorded this episode a few months ago. Before the Trump era had fully taken hold. It is interesting to listen to the perspective of a cultural critic sitting on the front end of what was to come. We tend to avoid the overtly political here at OTBR. But in these times, even the exploration of consciousness seems to be a political enterprise (in that it involves people coming together to build consensus and mutual understanding). Tom is a great example of what a version of this understanding and mutuality might look like going forward. We were delighted to speak with him.

Joel David Bakst is a teaching rabbi and scholar of Talmud and Kabbalah who, while living in Jerusalem for 20 years, studied and taught in Orthodox yeshivot. Raised in a Southern California Conservative Jewish home, Joel became a ba'al teshuva (newly religious) at the age of 20 bringing full circle his lineage from a long line of rabbis. Both his grandfather and uncle were Orthodox rabbis, his great grandfather was chief rabbi of St. Louis, MO and his great, great grandparents made aliyato Eretz Yisrael and are buried on the Mount of Olives. He is the 8th generation of Rabbi Avraham Ragoler of Skhlov, the brother of Rabbi Eliyahu, the famed Gaon of Vilna, whose unique teachings and School of Kabbalah, have been a focus of Joel's esoteric studies. Joel's spiritual search through comparative religions led him to Israel in 1971 where, upon enrolling in a traditional Eastern European style yeshiva, he became part of the original Ba'al Teshuva movement, the initial great wave of assimilated Jews returning to traditional Judaism. For 10 years he pursued a path towards rabbinical ordination and studied Talmud, Halacha (Jewish Law) and mussar (Jewish Ethics). During the next 10 years, while continuing his Talmudic studies, he also began a search into Hassidic and Kabbalistic literature. He studied under Sephardic kabbalists (Moroccan and Tunisian) along with Ashkenazic teachers and colleagues versed in Kabbalah. Uncommonly, Joel has had the honor of having immersed in all four of the great rivers of Kabbalah that flow from the holy Arizal (Lurianic Kabbalah): 1) R. Yisrael Ba'al Shem Tov (the Besht), 2) R. Shalom Sharabi(the Rashash), 3) R. Moshe Chaim Luzzatto (the Ramchal), and 4) R. Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman, the Gaon of Vilna (the Gra). Joel continued his rabbinical education and continued on a path of intense Torah study and practice as well as teaching the traditions he received . He has lectured and taught in Israel, the United States and India. Joel is the author of numerous works on rabbinical methodology, esoteric Judaism, the prophetic confluence of Kabbalah with the new sciences and the messianic role of the maps and models pouring forth from modern technology.

Dan is many things including a radio host and the former voice behind “Sheila and Dan” in the morning at KINK.FM He's also an Emmy and Iris award winning television writer/producer/director who's working on SyFy's zombie hit Z Nation. Over the top, hilarious and scary, Z Nation is bringing fun and mercy to the zombie apocalypse with a fresh and surprisingly reflective approach to the current zombie craze. In 2009 Dan made his debut as a feature film director with the theatrical release of his documentary, Lord Save Us From Your Followers.The critically acclaimed film was the result of an amazing three-year journey behind the front lines of America's so-called Culture Wars. USA Today called Lord, Save Us… “Michael Moore-meets-Monty Python. A humorous and heartfelt examination of the culture wars.” Variety proclaimed: “Admirably bold…It would take a hard heart indeed not to be moved.” Besides being a producer and writer for Z Nation, Dan is also known for Lord, Save Us from Your Followers (2008) and Strange Frequency (2001). Dan's also a friend and a caring, transformative soul. He shows us that one doesn't have to choose between fun and faith. He is the embodiment of a necessary truth: anything is possible when we allow our creative forces to join together. With an open mind and a full heart, Dan Merchant is hungry to engage a dying world with his art, his passion and his perspective on our received wisdom.

Andrew Harvey is Founder Director of the Institute of Sacred Activism, an international organization focused on inviting concerned people to take up the challenge of our contemporary global crises by becoming inspired, effective, and practical agents of institutional and systemic change, in order to create peace and sustainability. Sacred Activism is a transforming force of compassion-in-action that is born of a fusion of deep spiritual knowledge, courage, love, and passion, with wise radical action in the world. The large-scale practice of Sacred Activism can become an essential force for preserving and healing the planet and its inhabitants. Andrew was born in south India in 1952, where he lived until he was nine years old. It is this early period that he credits with shaping his sense of the inner unity of all religions and providing him with a permanent and inspiring vision of a world infused with the sacred. He left India to attend private school in England and entered Oxford University in 1970 with a scholarship to study history. At the age of 21, he became the youngest person ever to be awarded a fellowship to All Soul's College, England's highest academic honor. By 1977, Harvey had become disillusioned with life at Oxford and returned to his native India, where a series of mystical experiences initiated his spiritual journey. Over the next thirty years he plunged into different mystical traditions to learn their secrets and practices. In 1978 he met a succession of Indian saints and sages and began his long study and practice of Hinduism. In 1983, in Ladakh, he met the great Tibetan adept, Thuksey Rinpoche, and undertook with him the Mahayana Buddhist Bodhisattva vows. Andrew's book about that experience, Journey in Ladakh, won the Christmas Humphries Award. In 1984, Andrew Harvey began a life-long exploration and explication of Rumi and Sufi mysticism in Paris with a group of French Sufis and under the guidance of Eva De Vitray-Meyerovitch, the magnificent translator of Rumi into French. Andrew has written three books on that subject: The Way of Passion, The Celebration of Rumiand Perfume of the Desert, an anthology of Sufi mysticism. With Llewellyn Baughn Lee, he founded the Sufi Conferences, which have played a prominent role in uniting Sufis of all persuasions during the past six years. He has close connections with great Sufi teachers in America, Africa, India and Pakistan, and a very clear, comprehensive grasp of the state of modern Sufism in both the west and the east. In 1990, he collaborated with Sogyal Rinpoche and Patrick Gaffney in the writing of The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. In 1992, he met Father Bede Griffiths in his ashram in south India near where Andrew had been born. It was this meeting that helped him synthesize the whole of his mystical explorations and reconcile eastern with western mysticism. Andrew has since lived in London, Paris, New York, and San Francisco, and has continued to study a variety of religions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity. He has written and edited over 30 books. Other honors he has received include the Benjamin Franklin Award and the Mind Body Spirit Award (both for Mary's Vineyard: Daily Readings, Meditations, and Revelations). Among Harvey's other well-known titles are: Dialogues with a Modern Mystic, Hidden Journey, The Essential Mystics, Son of Man, The Return of the Mother and The Direct Path.

Dr. Rick Strassman was born in Los Angeles, California in 1952 (although presumably he wasn't a doctor at that point, at least not a credentialed one). As an undergraduate, he majored in zoology before transferring to Stanford University, where he graduated with departmental honors in biological sciences in 1973. He attended the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University in New York, where he obtained his medical degree with honors in 1977. Dr. Strassman took his internship and general psychiatry residency at the University of California, Davis, Medical Center in Sacramento, and received the Sandoz Award for outstanding graduating resident in 1981. After graduating, he worked for a year in Fairbanks, Alaska in community mental health and private psychiatric practice. From 1982-1983, he obtained fellowship training in clinical psychopharmacology research at the University of California, San Diego's Veteran's Administration Medical Center. He then served on the clinical faculty in the department of psychiatry at UC Davis Medical Center, before taking a full-time academic position in the department of psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque in 1984. At UNM, Dr. Strassman performed clinical research investigating the function of the pineal hormone melatonin in which his research group documented the first known role of melatonin in humans. He also began the first new US government approved and funded clinical research with psychedelic drugs in over twenty years. Before leaving the University in 1995, he attained the rank of tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and received the UNM General Clinical Research Center's Research Scientist Award. He has published nearly thirty peer-reviewed scientific papers, and has served as a reviewer for several psychiatric research journals. He has been a consultant to the US Food and Drug Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Veteran's Administration Hospitals, Social Security Administration, and other state and local agencies. In 2007 he founded the Cottonwood Research Foundation, with Steve Barker and Andrew Stone,. From 1996 to 2000, while living in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, Dr. Strassman worked in community mental health centers for Washington State in Bellingham and Port Townsend. For the next four years, he had a solo private practice in Taos, New Mexico. After two years working on the edge of the Navajo Reservation in Gallup NM, he returned to northern New Mexico in 2006, where he served at a mental health center in Espanola. Since mid-2008, he has been writing full-time. And has completed THREE books and is working on another seven most likely. He currently is Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine.

John Voelz is a tamed rebel, artist, songwriter, painter, musician, writer, pastor, and aggravator. His love of all things creative in tandem with a severe angst towards mediocrity and religiosity has given him a unique platform as a voice in the church--local and worldwide. He is currently The pastor/curator at Lakeside Church in Folsom, California. He is also one of my oldest friends in the world. I have not known a man who is more invested in those riches which do not succumb to moth and rot than John. He is the embodiment of a supernatural grace that seeks to wrap the world in a relational embrace of sacrificial transformation. In other words, he loves fiercely and creatively because he feels we are all loved in this manner by the Ground of our individual and collective being. No matter where you stand on issues and ideology, I trust you will find a kind and kindred soul in his story...

Reema Zaman says this about her work: "Why else do we write or read but to invoke a loving voice in the dark, to alleviate our loneliness, to forge solidarity, to make sense of our inherent, stunning madness?" Reema was born in Bangladesh, raised in Hawaii and Thailand, and moved to the US to attend college. She has a BA in Women's Studies, a BA in Theater, and a minor in Religion. After graduation, she worked as an actress and model in New York for 8 years. Now, she writes narrative nonfiction, is a life-coach and writes for "Dear Reema," where she responds to letters sent in by readers. Her first memoir, I Am Yours, is written as though she's speaking to her imaginary best friend from childhood whom she never released. Some know their inner voice as God, a guardian angel, or a long deceased ancestor. Reema knows this as a presence she met when she was 3, a friend named "Love" - Love is her voice in the dark. "I Am Yours" is her story of stubborn perseverance through an unstable childhood, anorexia, disownment, rape, marriage, betrayal, divorce, the acting and modeling industry, racism, sexism, classism and more, with the help of ever loyal Love. For Reema, Life has not been simple but it has been full. I Am Yours is an intimate, comprehensive study in identity, loyalty, integrity, and authenticity. Zaman explore her past and present refracting selves: child, daughter, sister, wife, actress, Bangladeshi, immigrant, commodity, artist, woman. On Dear Reema, the main intention is to serve others. She ceases being the main character and focuses on the reader's journey. Reema sources from her own life to explore similar topics as those found in I Am Yours: our connective, collective trials, childhood wounds, addiction, ambition, body image, sex, dating, love, relationships, self-empowerment, ownership, spirituality, recovery, healing, humility, purpose. For her, writing is service. Writing alchemizes our pain into poetry. Through it all, her mission is to be a conduit of love, a voice for those without one, to inspire and empower others to fill into their truest, boldest, brightest self. Reema believes we are one story and that all we truly need, we hold within. "Pain, insecurity, trials, anger, confusion, the near-reckless desire to love and be loved deeply, these are our common specialties. Our fault-lines are where our paths intersect, where your shards align with mine. Reasons to never feel less or better than anyone. Reasons to never feel alone. How lovely that being human soothes the ache of being human.”

David Jay Brown holds a master's degree in psychobiology from New York University (1986), and a B.A. in psychology from the University of Southern California (1983). He is the author of two science fiction novels, Brainchild (New Falcon, 1988) andVirus (New Falcon, 1999), and is co-author of two volumes of interviews with leading-edge scientists and artists--Mavericks of the Mind (Crossing Press, 1993) and Voices from The Edge (Crossing Press, 1995). He is also the author of The New Science of Psychedelics: At the Nexus of Culture, Consciousness, and Spirituality . David's interviews have been translated into Japanese (Hachiman, 1995), Italian (Gruppo Futura, 1997), and Czechoslovakian (East Hauz, 1999). He was responsible for the California-based research in two of British biologist Rupert Sheldrake's books on unexplained phenomena in science: Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home (Crown, 1999), which was the bestselling science book in the world for several weeks in the Fall of 2000, and The Sense of Being Stared At (Crown, 2003). David has also made numerous contributions to other books, including having co-written a chapter in Terence McKenna's The Archaic Revival(Harper, 1992). He is currently working on two new books--a book with Annie Sprinkle about combining sex and drugs called Sex on Drugs, and a new book of interviews for St. Martin's Press entitled Renaissance of the Mind. David also teaches workshops with Annie Sprinkle on sex and drugs; to find out more visit:www.anniesprinkle.org

Argentina-born Fernando Viciconte came of age musically in L.A. fronting the popular hard rock band Monkey Paw. He moved to Portland, OR, in 1994 and released Season in Hell, a downbeat collection of country rock. Almost immediately, he became a Northwest musical institution. In 2001, Fernando founded his own label and released Dreams of the Sun and Sky, a gorgeous collection of gauzy, narcotic tracks with Latin and country-folk accents. The Oregonian named this album a top ten release of 2001. In 2006, Fernando returned from a hiatus from music and he delivered his most critically received record to date: Enter to Exit. For this project, Fernando teamed up with long time friends from the Eels, Jeff “Chet” Lyster (who also plays guitar for Lucinda Williams) and Derek Brown and Paul Brainard from Richmond Fontaine, Lewi Longmire and John Amadon to make what many critics called one of the best pop rock records of 2006. Magnet Magazine went as far as naming Fernando one of the best new artists of 2006 in their year end issue. The album also garnered glowing reviews from Billboard, Paste, Amplifier, No Depression, and MSNBC.com. Fast forward to 2015, with Fernando's most recent release, Leave The Radio On. Leave The Radio On features a virtual who's who of Portland's finest musicians, including Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey as well as members of M.Ward, Elliott Smith, Richmond Fontaine and The Delines. This is a new chapter in Fernando's ever-evolving musical trajectory, a career marked by creative integrity and an almost painful honesty which attracts fans that still believe in the redemptive power of rock and roll. Fernando was also be inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame in October of 2016. We have been following his career since it began and are so excited to finally have him on the program. A truly unique artist, he is a troubadour, a story teller, a traveling musical monk who reflects the grit, the devastation and the transformational beauty of a life lived in service of rhythm, harmony and the melodic sensations of our shared emergence. His music is familiar because it reminds us of deep, latent truth hidden in the storehouses of our collective experiences. He is a musical mirror for us to see ourselves in a new, yet utterly recognizable, manner. We hope you enjoy him as much as we do.

Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research and document women's history from an international perspective. She built a collection of 15,000 slides and 20,000 digital images, and has created 150 slideshows on female cultural heritages across human history. (For titles and descriptions, see the online catalog.) Read some of the enthusiastic responses to these dynamic presentations here. Her work bridges the gap between academia and grassroots education. It foregrounds indigenous women passed over by standard histories and highlights female spheres of power retained even in some patriarchal societies. For over 40 years, Max Dashu has presented hundreds of slide talks at universities, community centers, bookstores, schools, libraries, prisons, galleries, festivals and conferences around North America and in Mexico, Germany, Ireland, Britain, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Bulgaria, Australia, Belgium, and Austria. She has keynoted at conferences (Feminism in London, 2015;Women's Voices for a Change at Skidmore, 2013; Association for Women and Mythology, 2010; Pagan Studies at Claremont University, 2008, and Domestic Violence Conference at Rutgers, 2005). Dashu is known for her expertise on ancient female iconography in world archaeology, women shamans, witches and the witch hunts, mother-right cultures, patriarchies and the origins of domination.

Paul Devereux is: A Founding Co-editor of Time & Mind - Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture; A Research Affiliate at the Royal College of Art; A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts; A Senior Research Fellow at the International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL) group at Princeton; And an Honorary Member of the Scientific and Medical Network. He's also a friend and one of the world's leading researchers in the emerging field of archaeo-acoustics. But Paul started out as a painter, having a degree in Fine Art. He participated in numerous group exhibitions in Britain such as John Moores, Liverpool, and the Royal Academy Schools, plus travelling shows under the auspices of the Arts Council. He also exhibited in Germany. His painting became increasingly inspired by the geometry and numinosity of ancient monuments and this began to lead him deeper into an interest in archaeology. This resulted in him turning more toward writing and research with the consequence that he slowly shifted from painting and gradually relinquished his formal teaching of painting, drawing and photography. Paul's research interests in archaeology focus especially on “cognitive” aspects, trying to “get inside” the prehistoric mind, and this has broadened into the study of anthropological themes, especially what is known as “the anthropology of consciousness”. This in turn led him to become involved more generally in what is loosely termed “consciousness studies”. He has frequently combined these themes – such as writing a prehistory of the use of mind-altering substances, andexamining anomalous phenomena of various kinds, especially supposed psi phenomena. This mix of archaeological, anthropological and consciousness studies interests has led him to co-founding and co-editing a new peer-reviewed, academic publication, Time & Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture. For 20 years (1976-1996) he edited and published the legendary The Ley Hunter journal, eventually deconstructing the modern myth of “leylines”, for which he has not been forgiven in some quarters! But his authentic and documented research into spirit and death roads across archaic landscapes developed directly from his early ley interests (see SPIRIT ROADS in the On-line & Mail-order Book Sales pages). He has given a great many presentations on various aspects of his multidisciplinary range of subject matter to specialist, academic and general audiences in Britain, Ireland, the USA, Canada, Germany, Norway, Holland, Switzerland, Italy and France. Venues have ranged from Glastonbury New Age “fairs” to some of the most prestigious universities and institutions in England and America. His portfolio of written work includes 26 published English-language books (plus numerous foreign-language editions), many articles for popular and specialist magazines (including being archaeology columnist for Fortean Times magazine), plus a range of peer-reviewed academic papers. He has, additionally, conceived, co-produced, or appeared in television documentaries in the UK and the USA. He is currently a research affiliate with the Royal College of Art working on an audio-visual study of Mynydd Preseli, the source area in Wales of the Stonehenge bluestones (see the Landscape & Perception pages on this website). The world recently turned upside down. Regardless of what "side" you are on, the work Paul is doing helps to re-connect us to some longer, larger cycles of human activity. From this view, our differences fade into a rhythmic, shadowy dance of shamanic intuition and planetary consciousness. From Brexit to Trump, the old paradigms are starting to collapse. Perhaps we can look to even older models of human organization for some clues on how to move forward together with empathy, compassion and shared vision. One can only hope...

Well, well, well. What's been up in your lives, lately, America? Any news you'd like to discuss? This week, we bring you a conversation with the members of The Dinner and Bikes Tour. The Dinner & Bikes is a month-long tour of the U.S. to bring people together to eat delicious food and get inspired about bicycle transportation. Here's what happens at a Dinner and Bikes event: As the audience arrives, they serve themselves from chef Joshua Ploeg's seven-course gourmet vegan and gluten-free buffet spread. While the audience is eating, local advocates discuss their work and local issues and initiatives over the first fifteen minutes. Then, Elly Blue and Joe Biel co-present a new interactive discussion and presentation including eight short films about Groundswell movements, incidences where people demand better neighborhood conditions and successfully implemented them. Stories include how Reading, PA came to be 13th on the East Coast for bike commuting without any advocacy or government spending, former gang members riding bikes to raise awareness about gang violence, Mexico City's superhero of the streets, Peatonito, the story of the League of American Bicyclists' equity council, how the City of Portland's Sunday Parkways worked as a response to gentrification, and how cyclists are representing themselves and creating their own voices all over the world. Throughout the evening there are plenty of opportunities for discussion, questions, and browsing the Microcosm pop-up book and t-shirt store. Joe Biel is the co-producer/director of Groundswell, the director of the feature documentary Aftermass: Bicycling in a Post-Critical Mass Portland as well as over 100 short films. He is also the author of half a dozen books, including Good Trouble: Building a Successful Life & Business with Asperger's. He founded Microcosm Publishing in his bedroom closet in 1996 and has since published over 350 nonfiction books, zines, and movies. He lives in Portland, Oregon. Elly Blue is the co-producer/director of Groundswell and the author of Bikenomics: How Bicycling Can Save the Economy and Everyday Bicycling: How to Ride a Bicycle for Transportation (Whatever your Lifestyle). When she isn't writing, she is the marketing director of Microcosm Publishing, producing books and zines about all aspects of feminism, self-empowerment, and bicycle transportation. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Joshua Ploeg is the the traveling vegan chef. When not touring the world, he is a personal chef and delighter of secret cafe goers in Los Angeles. His eighth and newest cookbook is This Ain't No Picnic: Your Punk Rock Vegan Cookbook. He lives in California. As the country and the world move into unprecedented and scary territory, we are heartened by the kinds of young people that Joe, Elly and Joshua represent. They are not looking for a savior or a political party to make the world a better place for them. They are hitting the ground and making it better themselves. They are building community and empowering marginalized voices and advocating for a world that does not constantly run itself adrift under the weight of its own hubris and apathy.

As an independent scholar, speaker, radio show host, author, and social justice activist, Karen Tate's body of work blends her experiences of women-centered multiculturalism evident in archaeology, anthropology and mythology with her unique academic and literary talents and travel experience throughout the world. Her particular emphasis is on the roles of women and the study of comparative religions and ancient cultures in a modern or reconstructed context, bringing the ideals and awareness of the Sacred Feminine into the mainstream consciousness. Tate's work has been highlighted in the Los Angeles Times, Seattle Times and other major newspapers. She is interviewed regularly in print, on television and on national public radio and hosts her own show, Voices of the Sacred Feminine Radio considered a treasure trove of insight and wisdom for our time. Her published articles have appeared in both domestic and international publications since 1995. Karen can be seen in the 2015 documentary, Femme, Women Healing the World, produced by actress Sharon Stone and Emmanuel Itier of Wonderland Entertainment. Most recently she was honored with opportunity to moderate a panel and give a presentation at the prestigious Council for the Parliament of World Religions in Utah. Karen spends much of her time giving interviews, teaching, and lecturing at private and public educational and spiritual institutions, temples and churches such as Joseph Campbell Roundtables, The Gaia Festival, Loyola Marymont College and the American Academy of Religion. As an ordained minster, she guest ministers at Unitarian Universalist Churches, The Goddess Temple of Orange County and at the invitation of other groups. She has received acclaim for reviving the Cakes for the Queen of Heaven curriculum as well as the Rise UP and Call Her Name course. An associate with the Joseph Campbell Foundation, Dr. Tate currently sponsors Joseph Campbell Round Tables in Venice and Irvine to perpetuate continuing adult education in the genres of mythology, history, sociology, archaeology, psychology, religion, anthropology and the related sciences. She was also the first person to ever put me on the air and has been a leader not only in the women's empowerment movement but also in Internet radio, starting one of the first shows ever on Blog Talk Radio. She is a mentor, a friend and a visionary and compassionate leader with the wisdom of the ages to fill her sails. Karen reminds us that the #imwithher hashtag should be a rallying cry not for any one political party or candidate, but for our strong solidarity with the women, girls and non binary folks in our culture who have been subjected to a lopsided power sharing program for many millennia at this point. We were so delighted to have her on the program, especially this last weekend before the presidential election.

Emily Bingham is a writer, rope instructor, model, and professional pervert. As a writer she strives to weave fantasies that will turn-on her readers. As a rope instructor she works to bring new skills into the bedroom of her clients so they can make their fantasies come true. It's all about desire in both of the worlds she inhabits. Recently she combined her two greatest passions into one unique and exciting book: Diary of a Rope Slut. As a kinkster, teacher, model, and writer Emily's love affair with words has been going on since as long as she could hold a book in her hands. Along the way she realized she could make up her own stories about anything; this eventually turned to writing dirty tales. It was, and still is, a safe and exciting way for her to explore the boundaries of desire and sexuality. Emily particularly enjoys writing about characters or situations that aren't often depicted in sexy stories, so that people of all shapes, genders, interests and fetishes are represented. When she's not writing, Emily is a significant part of the rope community in Portland, Oregon where she teaches classes and facilitates monthly rope groups. Follow her at the usual fine social media outlets or friend her on Fetlife.

Caleb Stephens is a therapist and activist in Lawerence, Kansas. He is the founder of Identifight, which he describes as "created to exemplify self-identity, encouragement, resilience, mental-health, activism, value, Hope, Truth, Justice, and empowerment." Caleb has been an active participant in the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLM-LFK): protesting police brutality towards people of color and the rising tide of indifference among the larger population at these atrocities. Recently, he spoke at a City Council meeting in Lawrence, Kansas. And then his life got really interesting. He is a new kind of social justice warrior that is rewriting the script on how our intersections of race, gender, ability and class come together to make us who we are. Caleb is committed to bring the margins to the center. And to him, there is no neutral when it comes to creating a society that is safe, accessible and abundant with opportunity for all. In this conversation, we discuss the horrors of "C-Day" and the move towards "Indigenous Peoples' Day," the necessity of creating spaces for people to feel safe and validated, toxic masculinity and the myth of binary supremacy, and how Luke Cage is a step forward in rewriting the script on Black heroes and bulletproof dreams. We were so honored to have him on the program...

Dr. Catherine Svehla is a cultural mythologist, storyteller, artist, and activist with a PhD in Mythological Studies. She draws on her knowledge of mythology and psychology to bring the story to life and share insight into the contemporary meaning of the tale. She uses myths and stories as the catalyst for conversation, group discussion, and shared reflection. Her goal is to teach as well as entertain, and to provoke thought as well as laughter. Among other projects, she runs the Mythic Mojo project that seeks to create a mini-revolution in consciousness by helping individuals explore the mythic dimensions of their lives. She states, "I'm calling for a mini-revolution because I think the old images of big and loud and violent have outlived their usefulness. I think that's time for us to appreciate the quietly powerful, the tiny but significant, and the subversive nuance. As James Hillman says, “Think subtly, act simply.” Welcome to Mythic Mojo and the mini-revolution in consciousness." Here, we discuss the significance of myth in the modern world, how stories are templates for engaging authentic human experience, and the transformational power of mythological consciousness.

Playing drums since he was eleven years old, Chukinho has had sticks in his hands for over 40 years. A student of legendary jazz drummer, Hal Blaine, Chukinho was a grounding member in many garage bands in the early 60s. He founded the Virginia/North Carolina-based premiere jazz group “Heroes” in the late 70s. Moving to New Orleans in 1986, he co-founded “Casa Samba,” New Orleans' first Samba School. After many trips to Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, Bahia, to hone his skills, Chukinho was picked from a handful of non-Brazilian born “bateristias” to accompany the World Champion Brazilian Soccer Team on a world-tour as part of their Samba Band or “Bateria.” A student of legendary jazz drummer, Hal Blaine, Chuk Barber has had sticks in his hands for over 40 years. He's played with some of New Orleans greatest musicians and bands including: Dr. John, The Neville Brothers, Sun Ra, Michael Ray and the Cosmic Krewe, Anders Osbome, Big Al Carson, Kid Merv, Jand onas Risin. Since 1997, he has been the percussionist for the Platinum Recording group WAR, (aka the LowRider Band). He taught Brazilian Drum and Dance, Capoeira and, along with Baba Kenyatta Simon, created the Academy of African Culture at New Orleans Charter Middle School. Since moving to Portland, Chukinho, along with another New Orleans musician, Tom Sandahl, and 5 of Portland's finest, created the group Indigo, fusing Brazilian Bossa Nova with Jazz and funk. In 1997, Chukinho was called up to the “Big Leagues” to play alongside his musical heroes and is now a member of the 70's and 80's Funk/Soul Group WAR now called The Original Lowriders. Performing with The Lowrider Band He is a first time author and has written a wonderful story of strength and determination, entitled “Dear Xango.” In this conversation, we discuss how New Orleans changed for the worse after Katrina, how Gentrification in Portland continues to scrub the city of what little Black history and culture remains, and the importance of music in reclaiming identity for many young people of color.

Born and raised in Reno, Nevada, Willy Vlautin started playing guitar and writing songs as a teenager and quickly became immersed in music. It was a Paul Kelly song, based on Raymond Carver's Too Much Water So Close to Home that inspired him to start writing stories. Vlautin has published four novels: THE MOTEL LIFE (2007), NORTHLINE (2008), LEAN ON PETE (2010), and THE FREE (2014). He is the winner of multiple awards, including the Oregon Book Award and the Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. Vlautin founded the band Richmond Fontaine in 1994. The band has produced nine studio albums to date, plus a handful of live recordings and EPs. Driven by Vlautin's dark, story-like songwriting, the band has achieved critical acclaim at home and across Europe. 2014 will see the debut album from Vlautin's new band, The Delines, featuring vocalist Amy Boone (The Damnations). He came to speak and read at the college where we work last year. While he was here, Vlautin spoke with us about his life as a writer and musician, the allure of the Drifter archetype, and why he is so drawn to stories of working class people trying to find themselves in the chaos and oblivion of modern America. “Willy Vlautin is one of the bravest novelists writing. Murderers, cheats, sadists, showy examples of the banality of evil, are easy, but it takes real courage to write a novel about ordinary good people. They don't fit into the cynic's little boxes — they're way too big. The guy working two eight-hour jobs who still can't meet the mortgage but won't let his kids down, the hospital night nurse coping with her crazy mean father and trying to rescue a lost girl — common people, the ones who never get the breaks, the ones who need, and know, compassion. An unsentimental Steinbeck, a heartbroken Haruf, Willy Vlautin tells us who really lives now in our America, our city in ruins.” --Ursula K. Le Guin

Bruce Frederick Damer is a Canadian-American multi-disciplinary scientist, designer, and speaker. He works in evolutionary biology researching the question of the origin of life and the exploration and economic development of space. He also has a practice in the design of innovative software systems interfaces and a passion for collecting and curating historical archives in computing history and leading figures of the counter-culture. Dr. Damer performs as a storyteller on a range of subjects under the moniker science + vision = hope. He began performing in 2003 and is featured at venues such as Burning Man, and the Esalen Institute. He also performs at music and art festivals worldwide including Buddhafield, Symbiosis, Rainbow Serpent, Earth Frequency, and Lightning in a Bottle, covering topics ranging through science, space, deep evolutionary history, questions of origins, and the meaning and future of the human enterprise. Many of these talks many be found online through podcasts such as the Joe Rogan Experience, the Psychedelic Salon, the Biota Podcast, the Space Show, the Dr. Future Show, the C-Realm, the Midwest Real Podcast, and the Tink Tink Club. A good selection of Dr. Damer's talks and philosophy as well as conversations and featured guest speakers are collected together in his own Levity Zone podcast. In the late 1990s, Dr. Damer met the American philosopher and storyteller Terence McKenna and formed a collaboration investigating the connection between computer virtual worlds and the inner worlds experienced through alternative states of consciousness. Following McKenna's death in 2000 he worked with Lorenzo Hagerty to digitally remaster McKenna's talks and collect his last remaining papers. In 2006 he became an agent for the estate of Dr.Timothy Leary and received the remaining books, news archive, record collection, and ephemera from Leary's archives. Working with the Internet Archive he established several online libraries of historical materials: Psychedelia, which contains unique materials from counter-cultural figures and Archiving Virtual Worlds focused on the early history of virtual worlds, and games, built in collaboration with Dr. Henry Lowood of Stanford University. Dr. Damer is a follower of a scientific version of the philosophy of liminality occupying a liminal boundary between rational, reductionist, materialist approaches to reality but open to inspiration from alternative states of consciousness. He has built a practice of intentionally seeking visionary experiences through meditative states that can be grounded in scientific insights or guiding stories. He has refined this philosophy since childhood when he occupied himself entering imaginal worlds and expressing those worlds through his artwork. Dr. Damer is currently researching a book based on interviews with other practitioners of what he terms the "endo way", meaning insights sourced through endogenous methods who then pragmatically apply their insights to real world applications. Find Dr. Damer on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and videos on Vimeo and YouTube Some of Dr. Damer's scientific articles are listed on ResearchGate Google search on Bruce Damer

Pam Houston's most recent book is Contents May Have Shifted, published in 2012. She is also the author of two collections of linked short stories, Cowboys Are My Weakness and Waltzing the Cat, the novel, Sight Hound, and a collection of essays, A Little More About Me, all published by W.W. Norton. Her stories have been selected for volumes of Best American Short Stories, The O. Henry Awards, The 2013 Pushcart Prize, and Best American Short Stories of the Century. She is the winner of the Western States Book Award, the WILLA award for contemporary fiction, The Evil Companions Literary Award and multiple teaching awards. She directs the literary nonprofit Writing By Writers, is professor of English at UC Davis, teaches in The Institute of American Indian Art's Low-Rez MFA program, and at writer's conferences around the country and the world. She lives on a ranch at 9,000 feet in Colorado near the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

Robert Walter is an editor and an executive with several not-for-profit organizations. Most notably, he is the executive director and board president of the Joseph Campbell Foundation (JCF), an organization that he helped found in 1990 with choreographer Jean Erdman, Joseph Campbell's widow. In 1979, Bob began to work on several projects with Campbell, who subsequently named him editorial director of his Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Following Campbell's death in 1987, Bob served as literary executor of Campbell's estate, completing Volumes I and II of the Atlas and supervising its posthumous publication. With JCF publishing director David Kudler, he continues to oversee the publication of Campbell's oeuvre, including the video series Joseph Campbell's Mythos and the other works in the Collected Works of Joseph Campbell series, including the 2008 edition of The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Prior to his work in publishing, Walter was a founding faculty fellow at the California Institute of the Arts; lectured widely on experiential education; and pursued a professional theater career, working for a decade as a director, production manager, and playwright. He has taken the Joseph Campbell Foundation to some wonderful places since Campbell's death in 1987. Here, we talk about what it's like to be responsible for the legacy of an intellectual titan, how recent discoveries in fields ranging from anthropology to neuropsychology have filled the gaps in the foundation laid by Campbell and how myth can be seen as living story, both individually and collectively.

A Portland treasure and a voice of passion, wisdom and profound insight, Darlene Solomon-Rogers aka Blacque Butterfly is an entertainer, activist and event host. Her love for the arts has allowed her to explore several layers of her calling. Be it spoken word, motivational speaking, singing, theater or event promoting she has "allowed the Creator to use her ministry to inspire others to follow their calling." Blacque Butterfly is a native Oregonian, born and raised in NE Portland. She is the author of “Black girl can I comb your hair.” She has also released a spoken word CD entitled Collide -A - Scope. Currently she is working on her sophomore album slated to release by early 2017. Blacque Butterfly promotes and showcases local talent through her events “Blacque Butterfly Presents...” Butterfly mentors troubled youth and single mothers and facilitates a youth based theatre troupe, where she allows youth at risk to use the arts as a tool for social justice. She is a motivational speaker for women and men who are survivors of domestic violence. Blacque Butterfly believes in the philosophy that you can be the change that you want to see in the world. She assists homeless youth and displaced families in using the arts to empower themselves and share their stories with the world. Visit her at: www.wix.com/blacquebutterfly/BBPDX Artist site www.reverbnation.com/BlacqueButterfly Social networking sites https://www.facebook.com/BlacqueButterfly.pdx ⦁ http://www.myspace.com/blacquebutterflypdx ⦁ http://twitter.com/BlacqueBfly

everend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir is a New York City based radical performance community, with 50 performing members and a congregation in the thousands. They are wild anti-consumerist gospel shouters and Earth loving urban activists who have worked with communities on four continents defending community, life and imagination. Over the last 15 years of their "church," they describe the Devils that plague us as Consumerism and Militarism. In this time of the Earth's crisis - they are especially mindful of the extractive imperatives of global capital. Their activist performance and concert stage performance have always worked in parallel. The activism is content for the play. They have won an OBIE Award, the Alpert Award, The Dramalogue Award and The Historic Districts Council's Preservation Award (for leading demonstrations to save Manhattan's Poe House), and half of their singing activists have been jailed, most frequently during Occupy Wall Street. Reverend Billy has been arrested about 70 times. Reverend Billy and the SSC employ multiple strategies, including cash register exorcisms, retail interventions, and cell phone operas. Outdoors, they have performed in Redwood forests, between cars in traffic jams at the entrance to the Holland Tunnel, on the Staten Island Ferry, at Burning Man and Times Square and Coney Island, and on the roof of Carnegie Hall in a snowstorm. The Stop Shopping Choir is a diverse array of economic, ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds and has members from every continent except Antarctica, which they're working on. Among them are scientists, teachers, artists, therapists, welders, cyclists, builders, developers, hairdressers, dog walkers, actors, truck drivers, tech geeks, scholars and executives. The Choir has toured in Europe, Africa, South America and throughout North America. Here we discuss what drives the Reverend's tireless activism, the development of his persona and voice, and what it means to be an earth evangelist.

Born in Detroit, to a politically leftist Greek American family, Dimitri Mugianis began writing poetry, music, and also using drugs at a very early age. As a teenager, Dimitri formed a band called The Leisure Class. After several years of local success, the band moved to New York City in 1983. There, Dimitri found a home at the Chelsea Hotel, and quickly developed close friendships, notably Beat legends Herbert Huncke and Gregory Corso. His relationship with cocaine, heroin and methadone would last over 20 years. By 2002, Dimitri had a daily habit of $150-200 worth of heroin, plus cocaine and 100 milligrams of methadone. By forty, he was surrounded by death, including his pregnant, common-law wife. Resigned that his life was nearing an end, using the last of his will to survive, Dimitri turned to a radical solution: Ibogaine. In 2003, he sought out an Iboga treatment center in Europe. Initially he planned to visit his ancestral home in Greece to die after the treatment, but Bwiti and Iboga had other plans. Iboga ended his dependency to drugs (without withdrawal) and started him on a journey of spiritual and emotional recovery. Returning home with an evangelical zeal, Dimitri sought out and met the father of the Ibogaine movement, Howard Lotsof, who quickly became his mentor. In an effort to bring the medicine that healed him to those without access, he attended to approximately 500 underground Ibogaine ceremonies and traveled to Gabon, West Africa, to become initiated into the Bwiti. In 2011, Dimitri was arrested by the DEA in a sting operation using a paid informant. After a protracted legal battle he was convicted with reduced charges. This experience was the impetus for his co-founding of the Universalist Bwiti Society, a state-registered religious institution. After six visits to Gabon, Dimitri opened a center in Costa Rica, IbogaLife. In addition to his work as an Ibogaine Detox Facilitator, performing hundreds of ibogaine treatment-ceremonies with desperate people, he currently works as an outreach counselor at the New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE) in Harlem. His innovative group "We Are The Medicine" is propelling the conversation about spirituality and drug use. He also offers spiritual services and personal consultations with the culmination of his own training and practice. He is involved in numerous other projects including working on bringing Iboga to Afghanistan and Nepal. His is a story of profound transformation and recovery. The brokenness of addiction and the promise of the New Life that comes from an integrated, holistic healing model that is rooted in community, connection and deep spiritual practice are highlighted in his life and work. We are honored t have him on the program.

Futurist, scifi author and former Microsoft executive Ramez Naam has some definite ideas about where we are heading as a species. And it might be in a different direction than you think. Ramez was born in Cairo, Egypt, and came to the US at the age of 3. He's a computer scientist, futurist, angel investor, and award-winning author. He spent 13 years at Microsoft, where he led teams developing early versions of Microsoft Outlook, Internet Explorer, and the Bing search engine. His career has focused on bringing advanced collaboration, communication, and information retrieval capabilities to roughly one billion people around the world, and took him to the role of Partner and Director of Program Management within Microsoft, with deep experience leading teams working on cutting edge technologies such as machine learning, search, massive scale services, and artificial intelligence. Between stints at Microsoft, Ramez founded and ran Apex NanoTechnologies, the world's first company devoted entirely to software tools to accelerate molecular design. He holds 19 patents related to search engines, information retrieval, web browsing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Ramez is also the award-winning author of five books: Nexus, Crux, and Apex (fiction). This trilogy of philosophical science fiction thrillers look at the impact of an increasingly plausible technology that could link human minds, and the impact such a technology could have on society and on the human condition, for both good and ill. The Infinite Resource: The Power of Ideas on a Finite Planet (non-fiction), which looks at the environmental and natural resource challenges of climate change, energy, water, and food, and charts a course to meet those challenges by investing in the scientific and technological innovation needed to overcome them, and by changing our policies to encourage both conservation and critical innovations. More Than Human: Embracing the Promise of Biological Enhancement (non-fiction), which looks at the science of enhancing the human mind, body, and lifespan, and the effects that will have on society. Ramez was awarded the H.G. Wells Award for his work on More Than Human. Ramez lectures on energy, environment, and innovation at Singularity University. He's appeared on Sunday morning MSNBC, repeatedly on Yahoo! Finance, on China Cable Television, on BigThink, and Reuters.fm. His work has appeared in, or been reviewed by, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Business Week, Business Insider, Discover, Popular Science, Wired, and Scientific American. In his leisure, Ramez has climbed mountains, descended into icy crevasses, chased sharks through their native domain, backpacked through remote corners of China, and ridden his bicycle down hundreds of miles of the Vietnam coast. He lives in Seattle, where he writes and speaks full time.

Dorothy Allison grew up in Greenville, South Carolina, the first child of a fifteen-year-old unwed mother who worked as a waitress. Now living in Northern California with her partner Alix and her teenage son, Wolf Michael, she describes herself as a feminist, a working class story teller, a Southern expatriate, a sometime poet and a happily born-again Californian. The first member of her family to graduate from high school, Allison attended Florida Presbyterian college on a National Merit Scholarship and studied anthropology at the New School for Social Research. An award winning editor for Quest, Conditions, and Outlook—early feminist and Lesbian & Gay journals, Allison's chapbook of poetry, The Women Who Hate Me, was published with Long Haul Press in 1983. Her short story collection, Trash (1988) was published by Firebrand Books. Trash won two Lambda Literary Awards and the American Library Association Prize for Lesbian and Gay Writing. Allison says that the early Feminist movement changed her life. "It was like opening your eyes under water. It hurt, but suddenly everything that had been dark and mysterious became visible and open to change." However, she admits, she would never have begun to publish her stories if she hadn't gotten over her prejudices, and started talking to her mother and sisters again. Allison received mainstream recognition with her novel Bastard Out of Carolina, (1992) a finalist for the 1992 National Book Award. The novel won the Ferro Grumley prize, an ALA Award for Lesbian and Gay Writing, became a best seller, and an award-winning movie. It has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Cavedweller (1998) became a national bestseller, NY Times Notable book of the year, finalist for the Lillian Smith prize, and an ALA prize winner. Adapted for the stage by Kate Moira Ryan, the play was directed by Michael Greif, and featured music by Hedwig composer, Stephen Trask. In 2003, Lisa Cholendenko directed a movie version featuring Krya Sedwick. I spoke with Dorothy recently as part of my college's "Mouths of Others" creative arts speakers series. She is full of fire and story and looks right through you in that simple, razor sharp way that only Southerns can. I think you will dig this conversation. I know her writing will undo you. Transformation in a lightning bolt, presented for your enjoyment.

Kelly Carlin has always been curious about the big questions of life. Watching her father, George Carlin, be an iconoclastic comedy legend certainly didn't hurt too. Like him she loves to use humor to question the status quo, and she loves to seek out the unique angle into any subject she tackles. But unlike him, she brings a more personal and emotional tone to her work. With her personal story, pathos, emotion and psychological insight she reveals the joy and challenges that comes with trying to live an authentic life. As a child, Kelly explored her own creativity by writing skits and doing imitations (her Ethel Merman was quite good for an eight year old), but began her professional life in her teens working behind the scenes with her father and mother, Brenda, on various shows for HBO that continued into her twenties. In 1993, at the ripe age of 30, she graduated from UCLA, Magna Cum Laude, with a B.A. in Communications Studies. While at UCLA, Kelly discovered her voice as a writer, which led her to a career in writing for film and TV with her husband Robert McCall. After her mother's death in 1997, Kelly found her true calling – autobiographical storytelling– through her first one-woman show, “Driven To Distraction.” In 2001, Kelly wanted to explore the intersection of human storytelling and one's inner psychological life. She pursued her masters in Jungian Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate institute where she studied mythology, Jungian psychology and the nexus of art and the sacred. Kelly explores the big questions and the intricacies of being human in her many iterations. She is a public speaker, hosts both “The Kelly Carlin Show” on SiriusXM, and “Waking from the American Dream” on SModcast Network, tours her newest one-woman show, “A Carlin Home Companion,” and is now an author. Her memoir “A Carlin Home Companion,” was published by St. Martin's Press to great reviews and success. In this episode, we talk about her ever-changing relationship to her father and his legacy, her path to rebirth through the myth of Demeter and Persephone and how because of her last name, wannabe comedians like me are driven to try out their shoddy "material" on her to solicit a laugh from the family of comic royalty.

“I know a lot of people. A lot. And I ask a lot of prying questions. But I've never run into a more intriguing biography than Howard Bloom's in all my born days.” --Paul Solman, Business and Economics Correspondent, PBS NewsHour Howard Bloom has been called “next in a lineage of seminal thinkers that includes Newton, Darwin, Einstein,[and] Freud,” by Britain's Channel4 TV , “the next Stephen Hawking” by Gear Magazine, and “The Buckminster Fuller and Arthur C. Clarke of the new millennium” by Buckminster Fuller's archivist. Bloom is the author of The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition Into the Forces of History, Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass Mind from the Big Bang to the 21st Century, The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism, and The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Creates. And his book Global Brain was the subject of an Office of the Secretary of Defense symposium in 2010, with participants from the State Department, the Energy Department, DARPA, IBM, and MIT.

Barbara J. King is Chancellor Professor of Anthropology at the College of William & Mary. In addition to her new book on animal grief, she has authored Being With Animals (Doubleday 2010), Evolving God (Doubleday 2007), The Dynamic Dance (Harvard University Press 2004), and a number of other books. A reissue of Evolving God is due out in 2017. Dr. King has studied monkeys in Kenya and great apes in various captive settings in Africa and the US. Her research has advanced the thesis that humans and animals have deeper emotional relationships than previously thought. She takes the work of our friend and colleague Dr. Chris Ryan in the other direction, examining the ways our anthropomorphic tendencies have robbed our non-human relatives of their dignity, emotional complexity and moral agency. Barbara is a popular guest on interview programs and recently appeared on the Diane Rehm Show and National Geographic Radio. Previously, she has been interviewed on radio programs in Canada, Austria, Germany, and Australia. She is the recipient of numerous teaching awards from William & Mary and the state of Virginia. She is also associated with the Teaching Company which produces course material taught by America's leading professors. Together with her husband, she cares for and arranges to spay and neuter homeless cats in Virginia. In this episode, we discuss the danger of films like Finding Dory, the notion that the human religious experience is rooted in a primate sense of belonging, and how there are no Bonobo women.

Jennifer Pastiloff Taleghany, Beauty Hunter, Is The Founder Of The Manifest-Station, a website that uses writing, yoga, social media and activism to save and change lives. With millions of followers, Jen is a true champion of change, and a voice for compassionate transformation in a world that so desperately needs more of both. She is a writer and yoga teacher living with her husband in Los Angeles when she's not on an airplane. She travels the world with her unique workshop: The Manifestation Workshop: On Being Human-a hybrid of yoga, writing, sharing out loud, and occasionally a dance party. It's an experience that has been described as distinctly NOT "woo-woo," unpredictable, heart-mending and sometimes messy- just like life. You do not have to be a good yogi, or writer. Just a human being with a body. Jen has been featured on Good Morning America, New York Magazine, CBS News and more for her unique style of teaching. She's developed a massive and loyal following from her personal essays. She studied poetry and writing at NYU and Bucknell University and is currently finishing her first book. In this episode, we discuss how her hearing loss has taught her more about her deepest self than one would think possible, the joys and terrors of new motherhood, and how she went from being a waitress with a dream to one of the world's most vital and catalytic agents of the discipline of self-love...with an even bigger dream. We were delighted she took some time to speak with us.

You may have heard of Zach's dad. He almost single-handedly started a little thing called the counterculture. But here at OTBR, we are not star fuckers. We do not obsess over the cult of celebrity. We DO, however, want to know about engaging stories of creativity and transformation. We ask how people have taken the life they have been given and turned it into something meaningful and beautiful for themselves and for others. We are not our parents, but we are, in some sense, the collective experience, the collective victories AND failures, of our ancestors. We stand in a trajectory of light that reaches into infinity in both directions. We are the ancestors, for better or worse. We are responsible for our own becoming; our own transfiguration. And we are responsible for helping each other in love and light along the way. Zach Leary has certainly done that. In spades. Zach is the host of the “It's All Happening” podcast, an infrequent blogger/writer and a seasoned digital marketer and brand strategist. He is also a practitioner of bhakti yoga as taught through many of the vedantic systems of Northern India. Through the practice of bhakti yoga he has found keys that unlock doorways that allow the soul to experience it's true nature of being eternal, full of knowledge and full of bliss. In addition to bhakti yoga, Zach has been influenced by many different methods and traditions of consciousness exploration ranging from trans-humanism to buddhism and clinical psychology. Zach is also a frequent pundit on the political systems that are fueling societies economic systems and structures. At the core of all of Zach's work is the belief that we have been fused together by the adoption and collective practice of using technology, spirituality and mysticism to define the very nature of who we are. We were honored to have him on the program. Here we discuss the complexities of being a "legacy child," the transformative power of Bhakti yoga, and the politics of fear in the digital age.

Frank J Miles is a pandisciplinary artist based in New York City: a visual artist, an artistic philosopher, a social sculptor who studied at Columbia University, and a former speechwriter for President Bill Clinton. His work is about atheism, death, competition, bonding, density and utopia. The creator of Communitas, his next step is an MFA PhD program overseas in art and philosophy. Communitas is an essential part of his art practice. It is: a downtown Manhattan creative think tank and salon; a pandisciplinary arts collective; a future global arts movement and civilization Communitas is a symposium of the occurrent arts and social sculpture, captures the times we are moving toward – continuing the tradition of a Downtown Manhattan participatory social practice where the evolving ideas of society, culture, and New York City converge. This creative think tank is a salon which brings artists and audiences from many worlds of New York City and beyond to create what is the next vanguard for the city – welcoming a diverse spectrum of creative voices engaging in dialogical aesthetics and art intervention. Bringing people together to open more worlds, make beauty and magic, create peace and freedom, be more futurist than nostalgic, Communitas uses global art and its power to build a united tomorrow not equal but egalitarian. He is shot out of a canon and this is, without a doubt, one of the best conversations I have had on OTB. In this episode, we discuss racism in the gay community, the perils of Tinder, and how art can help us understand and ultimately transcend the many labels society tries to put on each of us.

Winner of the Media Ecology Association's first Neil Postman award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, Dr. Douglas Rushkoff is an author, teacher, and documentarian who focuses on the ways people, cultures, and institutions create, share, and influence each other's values. He is Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics at CUNY/Queens, technology and media commentator for CNN, digital literacy advocate for Codecademy.com and a lecturer on media, technology, culture and economics around the world. His new book, Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus: How Growth Became the Enemy of Prosperity, argues that we have failed to build the distributed economy that digital networks are capable of fostering, and instead doubled down on the industrial age mandate of growth above all. His previous best-selling books on media and popular culture have been translated to over thirty languages. They include Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now, Program or Be Programmed: Ten Commands for a Digital Age, a followup to his Frontline documentary, Digital Nation, and Life Inc, an analysis of the corporate spectacle, which was also made into a short, award-winning film. His other books include Cyberia, Media Virus, Playing the Future, Nothing Sacred: The Truth about Judaism, Get Back in the Box: Innovation from the Inside Out and Coercion, winner of the Marshall Mcluhan Award for best media book. Rushkoff also wrote the acclaimed novels Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy and graphic novel, Club Zero-G. He wrote the graphic novels Testament and A.D.D., for Vertigo. He has written and hosted three award-winning PBS Frontline documentaries – The Merchants of Cool looked at the influence of corporations on youth culture, The Persuaders, about the cluttered landscape of marketing, and new efforts to overcome consumer resistance, and Digital Nation, about life on the virtual frontier. Most recently, he made Generation Like, an exploration of teens, marketers, and social media. He has been awarded a Fullbright Scholarship, and Senior Fellowships by the Markle Foundation, the Center for Global Communications, and the International University of Japan. He served as an Advisor to the United Nations Commission on World Culture and regularly appears on TV shows from NBC Nightly News and Larry King to the Colbert Report and Bill Maher. He developed the Electronic Oracle software series for HarperCollins Interactive. In this episode, we talk about how he sees the purpose of Judaism is to help one transcend Judaism, the psycho-social peril of living in the digital now, and how the new media empires has failed to build the distributed economy that digital networks are capable of fostering, and instead doubled down on the industrial age mandate of growth above all. I got to talk to one of my heroes, and this show made it possible. Thanks, OTBR listeners. You make it all possible. Enjoy!

Bryan Rill is many things. He is the president of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness: a group of academics that study the nature of consciousness from an anthropological perspective. He is a leader in the field of conscious design. He also has ties in the worlds of robotics, biomimicry, quantum physics, shamanism, electronica and cultural anthropology. But this is not the primary reason we brought him on the show. Several years ago, Bryan suffered a horrible accident that left him without the ability to use most of his brain. He has, quite literally, rebuilt himself from the ground up. A walking model of physical, intellectual and psychic transformation, we thought his story would be perfect for the show. He credits a lot of things for his remarkable recovery, including his commitment to walking the path of Shugendo Buddhism that he learned under some pretty intense Japanese masters. It is a wide-ranging conversation that we hope you will enjoy!

Rios De La Luz is a force to be reckoned with. An outsider coming at you from the very center of her experience, she tells stories of her xicana heritage that are as wild and diverse as the day is long. Rios is a queer xicana/chapina living in Oregon. She is brown and proud. She is always working on decolonizing her mind and being louder. She is in love with her bruja/activist communities in LA, San Antonio and El Paso. She is the author of, The Pulse Between Dimensions and The Desert via Ladybox Books. Her work has been featured in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Entropy, The Fem Lit Magazine, World Literature Today and St. Sucia. Here we discuss her evolving relationship to her xicana identity, the Portland writing scene and the complexities of being embraced by predominantly white communities, and how time travel and Dr. Who are as much a part of her identity as is The Day of the Dead and her ancestral roots.

Kerry Cohen is a psychotherapist, specializing in sex and relationships, writing faculty at The Red Earth Low-Residency MFA, and the author of Loose Girl, Dirty Little Secrets, Seeing Ezra; the young adult novels Easy, The Good Girl, and It's Not You, It's Me; Spent, an anthology of 30 astounding essays concerning women and shopping; and The Truth of Memoir. Kerry has been featured on Dr. Phil, Good Morning America, the BBC Saturday Live, and many more television and radio shows. She has published in The New York Times Modern Love column, the Washington Post Outlook, Brevity.com, and many more journals and magazines; and she has essays in numerous anthologies. Kerry got to tell a story about her ‘loose girl' days in front of 3,000 people in the Moth, Main stage. She lives with her family in Portland, Oregon. Here we discuss her robust connection to her wild self, the significance of creating safe, liberated spaces for young girls to establish relationships to their own bodies, how autism is not one thing, and how the wisdom of mothers is often the basis for all emergence. Oh, and I was freaking out the entire interview. But that is for another time.

Garth Greenwell is the author of What Belongs to You. He is also the author of a novella, Mitko, which won the 2010 Miami University Press Novella Prize and was a finalist for the Edmund White Debut Fiction Prize and a Lambda Award. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, he holds graduate degrees from Harvard University and the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where he was an Arts Fellow. His short fiction has appeared in The Paris Review, A Public Space, StoryQuarterly, and VICE. He lives in Iowa City, where he holds the Richard E. Guthrie Memorial Fellowship at the University of Iowa. He is a pretty brilliant guy with a strong sense of his purpose as a writer: a gay writer standing in a tradition and engaging in a dialogue that challenges our deepest understandings of our relationships to our own bodies, and through them, to the rest of the world. Here, we discuss his embracing of the label "queer" author, the intense privilege and responsibility of writing one of the first novels to normalize homosexuality in Bulgaria, and how he sees novels as a technology for readers to engage a individual consciousness. We were proud to have him on the show.

Gurucharan Khalsa, PhD, LPC (khalsa@chapman.edu) Gurucharan is an expert in the design and delivery of applications of meditation and controlled breathing. He is the author of several texts on yoga and meditation including the recent “The 21 Stages of Meditation”- read and used as for meditation training worldwide. He is currently Research Professor in Contemplative Science and Transdisciplinary Dialogue at Chapman University. He works with the Fish Interfaith Center and the Institute of Quantum Studies to explore the nature of consciousness and human potential using meditation and the insights of science. He continues a broad based consulting and clinical counseling practice and co-authored The Psychospiritual Clinician's Handbook. Whether in his clinical psychology practice, his workshops on meditation, leadership or the nature of consciousness, his delight is in the application of simple, immediate and effective tools that elevate well-being and solve the daily challenges of modern life. He guides people and designs programs for intuitive decision making, personal and spiritual development, and all the challenges of stress and mood. Gurucharan has a distinctive ability to teach from 45 years of personal meditation experience while maintaining the pragmatic approach of a clinician and the skeptical approach of a researcher. His doctorate in counseling psychology, graduate studies in math and engineering and his immersion in the study and understanding of classical eastern techniques have both served his commitment to elevate people and bridge science and the human spirit. Gurucharan is the acknowledged expert in Kundalini Yoga and he worked with Yogi Bhajan to found the Kundalini Research Institute and was its Director of Training for many years. He co-authored Breathwalk and The Mind with Yogi Bhajan. He is known for his energetic, insightful and humorous presence that delivers experiences that hit the heart and stay with your soul. Dr Khalsa and his wife Genie Khalsa reside peacefully along the river in South Water Front in Portland, Oregon. To contact for consults, training or other inquiries: khalsa@chapman.edu We are proud to call him a friend of the show and an agent par excellence of creativity and transformation. Here, we discuss the quantum revolution and its implications for the understanding of consciousness, the scientific basis for practicing yoga and meditation, and how creativity is the bridge to the universal within ourselves.

Obo Addy was one of a kind. The Ghanaian master drummer, bandleader, and teacher who made Portland his home for over 30 years, passed away in 2012, but his influence in Portland and the Pacific Northwest continues. Having spawned a love for African music in musicians and listeners alike, Obo's greatest contribution was his tireless work in the region's schools --providing exposure to African music and culture for generations of children. By the time he died he had performed for over 1 1/2 million people in the United States. And taught tens of thousands of children about the beauty and significance of Ghanaian cultural traditions and music. Susan Addy continues her husbands important work through the Obo Addy Legacy Project. Addy was renowned as a leader, a teacher, an entertainer and an artist of numerous genres. Under his leadership and vision, the Obo Addy Legacy Project concentrated its efforts on producing major artistic performances, teaching in both K-12 schools and at the college level, and writing compositions. “Through his music and teaching, Obo affected hundreds of thousands of lives in the Pacific Northwest and beyond,” said Susan Addy, executive director of The Obo Addy Legacy Project. “His legacy is being written through his commitment to share his talent with young people around the country.” Founded by Obo and Susan Addy in 1986, Homowo African Arts & Cultures originally existed as a virtual cultural center with offerings in schools, parks, community centers and performance venues all over the country. The Obo Addy Legacy Project continues Homowo's valuable work of adding to the quality of life, the diversity and the creativity of the Northwest. “The organization's name has changed, but the vision of Homowo remains the same,” stated Susan Addy. “We will bring meaningful programs to communities encouraging cultural connections, providing a different view of the world and growing as a music and dance professional company as we reach world class status.” Obo Addy Legacy Project, based in the Northwest, provides the world with a non-profit organization which offers authentic experiences with the music and dance of Ghana, West Africa. We create cultural awareness and understanding through our educational offerings and performing groups that tour the world. Obo collaborated with many local, regional and national artists during his storied career, from Randy Weston to Kronos Quartet to Mic Crenshaw, and showed the world that though music and shared culture, we find the bridge back to our shared humanity. We are honored to celebrate his life, work and legacy. Find out more at: http://oboaddylegacyproject.org

A former National Book Award finalist and winner of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, Jess Walter is the author of six novels, one book of short stories and one nonfiction book. His work has been translated into 30 languages, and his essays, short fiction, criticism and journalism have been widely published, in Best American Short Stories, Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harper's, Esquire, McSweeney's, Byliner, Playboy, ESPN the Magazine, Details and many others. Jess came to Portland as part of my college's Mouths of Others literary reading series. We had a chance to sit down and talk about his unorthodox path to literary success, the perils of self-revelation in fiction, and how he sees writing as a way to break our hearts open by making us laugh at the ugly bits.

Domi J. Shoemaker is the creator and curator of the legendary Burnt Tonguereading series in Portland, Oregon which features some of the best writers in the region and highlights Tom Spanbauer's Dangerous Writing groups. Domi recently received their MFA from Pacifica University and is also an integral part of the creative team for Lidia Yuknavitch's Corporeal Writing workshops. Domi is also a gender-fluid, differently-abled, ball of wonder and spark and bite. They do not fit easily into any one box. Domi forces us to look as much at ourselves as we do at them for the answers to who we are and who we can bein a world that is often obsessed with forcing us into categories it can easily understand, manipulate and control. Mostly, Domi loves to write. And Domi loves it when you write. As long as it is honest. And good. They celebrate the craft as much as they do the transparency. Domi believes that writing holds the power to help us reinvent ourselves in ways that give us the control, give us the dignity, give us the reigns of our own becoming. We are so proud to know them. In this conversation, we talk about pronouns, Lidia the badass, "throwing like a boy," and about how Joseph Campbell gave them a template for exploring their own emerging self.

A native of Portland, Oregon, Mitchell Jackson is the author of The Residue Years, a novel set in inner northeast Portland neighborhoods in the 1990s. Based on Jackson's own life, the novel tells the story of Grace, a mother battling crack addiction, and Champ, her son, who sells the drug that has ravaged his family and his neighborhood. The Residue Years, which was Multnomah County Library's Everybody Reads selection for 2015, just won the prestigious Whiting Award, with a prize of $50,000. Jackson teaches at NYU and Columbia and is also the author of Oversoul, a collection of stories and essays. Mitchell now lives in Brooklyn, New York. He received an M.A. in writing from Portland State University and an M.F.A in Creative Writing from New York University. He has been the recipient of fellowships from TED, the Lannan Foundation, The Center For Fiction, and The Bread Loaf Writer's Conference. His novel also won The Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence and was a finalist for the Center For Fiction's Flaherty-Dunnan First novel prize, the PEN/ Hemingway award for first fiction, The Hurston / Wright Legacy Award for best fiction by a writer of African descent; it was long-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize for writing and the Chautauqua Prize, and named an “Honor Book” by the BCALA. Jackson has become a well-regarded speaker who was read and/or and lectured at institutions including Brown University, Columbia University, Yale University, Middlebury College, and UMASS; at events including The Brooklyn Book Festival, The Miami Book Festival, and the Sydney Writers' Festival; at various adult prisons and youth facilities; and for organizations including The Pathfinders of Oregon, The PEN / Faulkner Foundation, and The Volunteers of America. He serves on the faculty of New York University and Columbia University. In this conversation, a part of the MHCC Mouths of Others literary speaker series, Mitchell discusses his life growing up in "The Whitest City in America," the surprising links between the social constructs of "whiteness" and "blackness," the need to be visible when the culture wants to blank you, and how his story of transformation is one in which he is both a casualty and a survivor.

We met this guy at an academic conference two years ago and was blown away by his razor wit, deep insight, Buddha-like compassion and academic prowess. His presentations weave together cultural analysis, anthropological analysis, psychological insights and piercing humor to reveal deep truths about human nature and culture and the complex dialectic between the two. We sat down a while back to discuss his journey into the shadow and his emergence back into a world alive with spirit, meaning and truth. And how he is working to translate those realizations into his work as a psychologist and an academic. Dr. Justin Panneck is an assistant professor of Psychology at Colorado Technical University as well as an instructional designer for several Fortune 500 companies. He holds a MEd in Instructional Technology and a PhD in Health Psychology and is currently finishing a counseling degree. In addition to psychology, he has lectured and taught classes on such diverse subjects as organizational psychology, history of psychology, stress management, world history, American history, American culture and American diversity. He has also published a work of fiction entitled “The Knight of Dark Wood: The Last Tree Whisperer” which included themes of mythology and consciousness. He is currently researching consciousness, altered states, dreams, ethnopharmacology and plant medicines, shamanism, mythology and alchemy, spirituality, and behavioral health. His most recent research study involved the effects of ayahuasca on consciousness, spirituality and stress coping, which has been published as a book entitled “Ethnopharmacology and Stress Relief.” In his spare time, Justin does everything in his power to bend social mores and societal rules, including conducting humorous and uncomfortable skits in public that expose some hidden truth or another that the culture struggles to name or integrate. He is also an avid mushroom hunter and spends a good deal of time in the woods connecting with nature. As a cultural critic and researcher, he also spends time exploring important mysteries such as the Bigfoot phenomenon and UFOs, mostly examining the psychology of those who pursue these field and the cultural meanings behind their relevance. A self-proclaimed iconoclastic oneironic psychonaut, he also spends his time exploring his dreams and consciousness by experimenting with altered states, remote viewing, bi-location, active imagination, lucid dreaming and meditation. He lives in Portland, OR by day and somewhere near the fringes of Sloan's Wall by Night.

Happy Easter and Spring Equinox folks! We are so pleased with the way the Winter season went and are hard at work on Spring 2016! We have some amazing shows lined up for you in the coming months. For today, please enjoy this resurrected episode from our archives with the ineffable S. Renee Mitchell. See you again live next week! With over 25 years of experience as the most widely read newspaper columnist in the American West, S. Renee Mitchell left a successful career in journalism to pursue a calling as an artist, author, poet, playwright and community activist. Nominated twice for the Pulitzer, Renee left an indelible mark on the world of journalism before stepping out into this new phase of her life. She is a celebrated spoken word artist, a painter, an inspirational speaker, a woman's advocate and an all around tornado of art, creativity and activism. Renee has shared the stage with greats such as bell hooks, Erykah Badu, Danny Glover, pianist Tom Grant, Grammy Award winners Esperanza Spalding and Dr. Thara Memory, the late singer Linda Hornbuckle and many others. She has written a libretto, seven full plays, a children's book, a novel, two books of poetry and countless articles and short pieces. Renee has been described as a “Creative Revolutionist” who explores the issues of gender, race, poverty, art and identity in her diverse work. She has also been called a “creative healing griot, who nurtures hope, empowerment and inspiration.” I think she is an artistic doula who helps people give birth to their own creative power. In this episode, we discuss her 25 plus years as an award-winning journalist, what it's like to be the only person of color in a neighborhood, school or job, and what drives her to keep transforming suffering into beauty and art.

What can a single human being hope to achieve in one lifetime? How do know our lives have mattered? Is it in the work we do, the people we touch, the love we allow ourselves to experience? To write about an authentic life, to write dangerously, is to strip away the artifice and the pretense and get to the bloody, sinewy truth of it all. The rhythm we chase is that of our own songline: a beating heart, a sideways glance, an empty seat at the dinner table. All reveal the same spaces of fragility and transformation which make us who we are. But what is left when the scales fall away and some honest fiction or another has birthed a new version of ourselves into the world? Well, Tom Spanbauer is. Tom Spanbauer is the critically acclaimed author and founder of Dangerous Writing. As a writer he has explored issues of race, of sexual identity, of how we make a family for ourselves in order to surmount the limitations of the families into which we are born. His five published novels Faraway Places, The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon, In The City Of Shy Hunters, Now Is The Hour, and I Loved You More (Hawthorne Books, April 2014), are notable for their combination of a fresh and lyrical prose style with solid storytelling. As a teacher his innovative approach combines close attention to language with a large-hearted openness to what he calls 'the sore place'--that place within each of us that is the source for stories that no one else can tell. His introductory workshop is an underground legend among emerging writers in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. The community of writers that has formed around him is dedicated to the proposition that "Fiction is the lie that tells the truth truer." Tom lives, writes, and teaches in Portland Oregon. This episode is a love letter to a writer who has shown us how to stand strong in our own fragility. We hope you are encouraged to read Tom's work and to dive deep into the fabric of your own becoming. (This interview was originally recorded as part of the Mt Hood Community College Mouths of Others Literary Reading series.)

NOTE: This interview was recorded before the death and funeral of Nancy Reagan. So please give Patti Davis the privacy and respect she deserves during this difficult time. | The first child of Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Patti Davis, has lived anything but the conventional life of the child of a conservative political family. Throughout the 1970s, Patti rejected her parents' conservatism, living with a member of the rock band the Eagles and participating in the nuclear freeze movement. After years working as an actress, Patti tried her hand at writing. In 1986, she published A House of Secrets, an undeniably autobiographical novel about a liberal young writer whose conservative father is the governor of California and then the president of the United States, and whose mother is an exacting woman obsessed with appearances and propriety. A long estrangement between Patti and her parents followed. In recent years, Patti has voiced regret at some of her actions during this time period. But we wonder how many of us would have handled the burden of that legacy any differently? She and her parents reconciled in 1993, shortly before Reagan's diagnosis with Alzheimer's, while she was writing Angels Don't Die: My Father's Gift of Faith. Patti is an amazing author, journalist and screenwriter who, after 8 conventionally published books, chose to self-publish through Amazon's CreateSpace and KDP. Her first self-published novel is Till Human Voices Wake Us, a story of unexpected love between two sisters-in-law. It was reviewed well in People magazine, in InieReader, and by Amazon readers. Her second novel is The Blue Hour, a YAF ghost story that also will appeal to adults. Returning to conventional publishing, her latest book, The Earth Breaks in Colors, is a powerful and emotionally compelling story of race, redemption and transformation. The story centers around a racially fueled incident which exposes the fissures that sit beneath the surface of friendships and families. It is also a story about family secrets and how they can burn holes through us the size of an entire life. And how, if we stay true to ourselves, we can overcome these secrets and transform legacies of shame and indifference into those of love and profound connection. We were honored to have her on the show. This week's music was curated (unofficially) by Ani DiFranco. The songs speak directly to how we see the life and work of Patti Davis through the OTB lens. Special thanks to Celeste Gurevich for the music suggestions.

Tiffany Shlain is on a mission. The Emmy-nominated filmmaker, speaker, and Webby Awards founder has received over 70 awards and distinctions for her films and work, including being named by Newsweek as “one of the women shaping the 21st Century.” Shlain's films encourage us all to think about where we're headed in our increasingly connected world. Like future On the Block Radio guest Douglas Rushkoff, she explores how technology is shaping us in new, and often unexpected, ways. She has premiered four films at Sundance, including her acclaimed feature documentary Connected: An Autoblogography about Love, Death & Technology, which The New York Times hailed as “high-tech Terry Gilliam,” and “Examining Everything From the Big Bang to Twitter.” The US State Department has also selected three of Shlain's films including Connected to represent the U.S. at embassies around the world for their American Film Showcase. Her AOL Original series, The Future Starts Here was nominated for an Emmy in New Approaches: Arts, Lifestyle, Culture and has over 40 million views to date. Tiffany is a world-renowned speaker and has been featured at Google, Harvard, NASA, The Economist Ideas conference and was the closing speaker for TEDWomen and TEDMED. She was the on-air Internet expert on ABC's Good Morning America with Diane Sawyer, is a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute, is an advisor to The Institute for the Future, and was invited to advise then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about the Internet and technology. TED Conferences published her first book, Brain Power: From Neurons to Networks, and she has been writing a quarterly newsletter about ideas and culture since 1998 called Breakfast @ Tiffany's. She runs film studio + lab called The Moxie Institute and a nonprofit Let Ripple: Mobile Films for Global Change that makes free films for schools and creates global events to catalyze conversations around important topics. In this episode, we discuss how the Internet is like a child's brain, her work as a pioneering filmmaker and futurist, and how her father is one of the most important people in both of our lives.

Sean Davis is not a politician. But he is running to be the next mayor of Portland, Oregon. In a year of political outsiders and upside down campaign logic, he just might have a shot. Sean is an Iraqi War veteran, a Purple Heart recipient, and an accomplished author, artist and volunteer firefighter. He is also the Post Commander at the American Legion Post 134 in the Alberta Arts district in NE Portland. Sean believers art can save lives, because it helped to save his. The guy is a friggen' force of nature. Sean sees human need and suffering and throws himself into addressing it with such wild abandon; with little regard for his own personal safety. On the Block Radio usually stays away from politics. Our issues are more evergreen and touch on the eternal aspects of human consciousness and spiritual transformation. But at the end of the day, if we are not involved in changing our communities and limiting human suffering, we are on the sidelines of a struggle as old as civilization itself. Shout out to Matthew Robinson for help with the research and questions for this episode. Matthew is another flawless writer and veteran. Like we always say, look to the person to your right or left, often they will amaze you with their story and their talent.

Paul is a pioneer in the field of spiritual emergence, as well as an innovator in the field of dreaming (both night dreams as well as waking dreams). A Tibetan Buddhist practitioner for over 30 years, he has intimately studied with some of the greatest spiritual masters of Tibet and Burma. He is the author of The Madness of George Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis, as well as Dispelling Wetiko: Breaking the Curse. His newest book, Awakened By Darkness, is an exploration of his relationship with his abusive father and how it initiated the beginning of his shamanic shift in awareness. In 1993, after many years of struggling to contain and integrate his non-ordinary experiences, Paul started to openly share his insights about the dreamlike nature of reality. He began giving talks and facilitating groups based on how life is a shared waking dream that we are all co-creating and co-dreaming together. Paul has developed a unique and creative vehicle to introduce people to the dream-like nature of reality that he calls “The Dreaming Up Process,” which is based on the realization that the same dreaming mind that dreams our dreams at night is dreaming our life. He teaches this dreaming up process in “Awakening in the Dream Groups” where people who are awakening to the dream-like nature of reality come together and collaboratively help each other to wake up in the dream together. A wounded healer in private practice, he assists others who are also awakening to the dreamlike nature of reality. Here, we discuss the quantum nature of dreams, the psycho-spiritual virus that Paul believes has infected the majority of our species, and how sometimes our wounds reveal opportunities for us to expand beyond what we previously thought possible. I adore this man. You should too.

Happy Valentine's Day. Put down the box of Russell Stover candies and listen up. It's time to talk about death. There's no better way to celebrate love than to honor the fact that we eventually lose the ones we love. Or do we? On the Block Radio is a show about transformation. More specifically, we are a show about how people face intense experiences in their lives and transform them into meaning, beauty and purpose. There is no bigger transformation than that of death. To confront our own deaths, the sages of every religion teach, is the key to unlocking the eternal aspects within our consciousness and our bodies. There are few more basic human issues than the ever-ticking clock of our own mortality. It is what makes life tragic and glorious at the same time. And to help someone prepare for a beautiful death is to help a person fulfill their deepest potential as a human being. There is literally no higher calling. This is the calling Mellisa Dodson heard, and answered, on March 25, 2014. Melissa Dodson is a California girl who found her home in the trees of Portland, OR. She's a wife and mom, a writer and a Death Midwife. She writes about being a motherless daughter, grief, depression, vulnerability and the beauty of a messy life. She is a dream catcher, a grief warrior, a survivor, a book whore. Studying writing with Lidia Yuknavitch woke up all the broken pieces of her heart, and reminded her that words save. She now studies Dangerous Writing under the tutelage of Tom Spanbauer and the magic makers in the basement. Her work has been featured on The Manifest-Station, Rebelle Society, The Tattooed Buddha, behind-the-ink, Some Talk of You & Me, Breathe In. Breathe Out. Live, among other online publications. Since the March 25, 2014 death of her mother, her passions lie with grief, compassionate end-of-life planning, conscious death and dying, home death/home vigil/home funeral and natural/green burial. In 2015, she founded Grief Rites, a Facebook community to safely and openly talk about death and grief (website coming soon). She also curates the Grief Rites Readers Series, a literary event in NE Portland, to bring people together to hold sacred space for each other in their grief. The Readers Series meets the first Monday of each month at American Legion Post 134, and is free to all. Her next chapter includes turning Grief Rites into a 501c(3) non-profit organization. Funds raised through the Grief Rites Foundation will take the Readers Series on the road to broaden the reach of the grief safety net that she's created, and bring in renowned speakers and authors in the realm of death and grief. Additionally, there will be a fund to assist people with covering funeral and burial costs for green/natural burials. She is also continually studying, and offering her services though her Portland based business, Into the Light, LLC. Her offerings include compassionate end-of-life planning and education, death midwifery services, home funeral guidance, caregiver support and grief support.