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2 episodes with positing
4 episodes with positing
Lords: * Andi * Casey Topics: * Lifehacks as communion with the divine * I decided to fire my computer * Winston is starting to forget things Microtopics: * A Star Trek watchalong podcast that doesn't exist yet. * Positing that what you said is no longer an NDA violation by the time this episode comes out. * Plugging a fake game that you worked on. * Astrobot. * Horror movie clinky noises that you can't hear over the PS4 fan noises. * Caffeine-infused mints with Tux the Penguin branding on Think Geek dot com. * The pre-eminent source for Life Hacks. * Using a hotel shower cap to bake bread. * Anime girls that are happy to see you. * That one time Film Crit Hulk broke character. * The joy of moving efficiently through the world. * More efficient ways to set the microwave timer. * Hotel rooms that you can bake bread in. * Whether bread should contain hair. * Tricking yourself into not being bored while doing something you have to do. * Reading 50 life hacks and applying none of them because. * Viral Life Hack that's killed 33 people. * A life hack that already had a body count in the double digits before someone made a TikTok about it. * Getting really fed up with computers. * Cryptographic signing processes that you can't participate in. * The HDCP certification board taking steps to ensure nobody can take a screen shot of their Crunchy Roll anime. * The analog hole. * Open source web browsers that can't see DRM content. * Microsoft-authenticated Linux installations. * Designing a circuit that solves a math problem. * Stamping a circuit onto your circuit clay. * An independent circuit re-implementation of video game hardware. * Should you use FPGA to do a thing? * Ridiculous multi-level memory caching systems. * Bootstrapping an FPGA design tool that runs on an FPGA device. * Every single circuit doing something on every single cycle. * Voltages going high and/or low. * Making a bunch of CPUs and testing them afterwards to see how many GHz they have. * Why the PS3 Cell processor had 7 SPUs * The industrial uses of the Cell processor. * A GLSL compiler that outputs FPGA circuits. * Mr. MiSTer. * Open-hardware laptops. * Inventing an open-source GPU. * Multics or Minix. * Writing a Breakout clone in Rust targeting the weird CPU your friend just invented. * Making a terrible first effort that is the right kind of good enough. * A laptop that has a FPGA where the CPU/GPU usually goes. * 1970s-era TV games. * The Epoch Cassette Vision. * A game console with interchangeable cartridges where the CPU is on the cartridge. * The Glasgow Interface Explorer. * Describing your FPGA circuit in Python. * Manufacturing homebrew Cassette Vision Homebrew cartridges for the audience of zero Cassette Vision owners. * Making art just for you, in the most overly elaborate and overly complicated way possible. * The programmer equivalent of going to swim with the dolphins. * Diagonal pixels. * Childhood amnesia. * Remembering your memories. * Using 10% of your brain. (And also the other 90%.) * Knowing things about stuff. * When one brother dies, the other brother gets their memories. * Memories that are formed before vs. after you learn to talk. * Being persecuted for being friends with a girl. * Rules of heteronormativity being enforced by three year olds. * Getting off of Wordpress.
From one of the world's leading historians comes the first substantial study of environmentalism set in any country outside the Euro-American world. By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, “too poor to be green.” In Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism (Yale UP, 2024), Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanization and industrialization. Positing the idea of what Guha calls “livelihood environmentalism” in contrast to the “full-stomach environmentalism” of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity's relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today. About the Author: Ramachandra Guha is the author of many books, including India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914–1948. Guha's awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, and the Fukuoka Prize for contributions to Asian studies. He lives in Bangalore. About the Host: Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
From one of the world's leading historians comes the first substantial study of environmentalism set in any country outside the Euro-American world. By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, “too poor to be green.” In Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism (Yale UP, 2024), Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanization and industrialization. Positing the idea of what Guha calls “livelihood environmentalism” in contrast to the “full-stomach environmentalism” of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity's relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today. About the Author: Ramachandra Guha is the author of many books, including India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914–1948. Guha's awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, and the Fukuoka Prize for contributions to Asian studies. He lives in Bangalore. About the Host: Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
From one of the world's leading historians comes the first substantial study of environmentalism set in any country outside the Euro-American world. By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, “too poor to be green.” In Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism (Yale UP, 2024), Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanization and industrialization. Positing the idea of what Guha calls “livelihood environmentalism” in contrast to the “full-stomach environmentalism” of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity's relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today. About the Author: Ramachandra Guha is the author of many books, including India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914–1948. Guha's awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, and the Fukuoka Prize for contributions to Asian studies. He lives in Bangalore. About the Host: Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/environmental-studies
From one of the world's leading historians comes the first substantial study of environmentalism set in any country outside the Euro-American world. By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, “too poor to be green.” In Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism (Yale UP, 2024), Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanization and industrialization. Positing the idea of what Guha calls “livelihood environmentalism” in contrast to the “full-stomach environmentalism” of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity's relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today. About the Author: Ramachandra Guha is the author of many books, including India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914–1948. Guha's awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, and the Fukuoka Prize for contributions to Asian studies. He lives in Bangalore. About the Host: Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
From one of the world's leading historians comes the first substantial study of environmentalism set in any country outside the Euro-American world. By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, “too poor to be green.” In Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism (Yale UP, 2024), Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanization and industrialization. Positing the idea of what Guha calls “livelihood environmentalism” in contrast to the “full-stomach environmentalism” of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity's relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today. About the Author: Ramachandra Guha is the author of many books, including India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy and Gandhi: The Years That Changed the World, 1914–1948. Guha's awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, and the Fukuoka Prize for contributions to Asian studies. He lives in Bangalore. About the Host: Stuti Roy has recently graduated with an MPhil in Modern South Asian Studies at the University of Oxford. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/south-asian-studies
By the canons of orthodox social science, countries like India are not supposed to have an environmental consciousness. They are, as it were, “too poor to be green.” In his new book, Speaking with Nature, Ramachandra Guha challenges this narrative by revealing a virtually unknown prehistory of the global movement set far outside Europe or America. Long before the publication of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and well before climate change, ten remarkable individuals wrote with deep insight about the dangers of environmental abuse from within an Indian context. In strikingly contemporary language, Rabindranath Tagore, Radhakamal Mukerjee, J. C. Kumarappa, Patrick Geddes, Albert and Gabrielle Howard, Mira, Verrier Elwin, K. M. Munshi, and M. Krishnan wrote about the forest and the wild, soil and water, urbanisation and industrialisation. Positing the idea of what Guha calls “livelihood environmentalism” in contrast to the “full stomach environmentalism” of the affluent world, these writers, activists, and scientists played a pioneering role in shaping global conversations about humanity's relationship with nature. Spanning more than a century of Indian history, and decidedly transnational in reference, this book offers rich resources for considering the threat of climate change today. In this episode of BIC Talks, Ramchandra Guha is in conversation with Harini Nagendra. This is an excerpt from a conversation that took place in the BIC premises in September 2024. Subscribe to the BIC Talks Podcast on your favorite podcast app! BIC Talks is available everywhere, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Castbox, Overcast, Audible, and Amazon Music.
In today's episode, I explore the different types of competitors you face and how you can position yourself against each of them. You will learn: * How different departments or groups in a company (e.g. sales, product development, etc.) view and define competitors differently. * The 3 types of competitors: (1) status quo competitors, (2) direct competitors, and (3) “do nothing” competitors.* Positioning yourself against status quo competitors requires nailing your value versus the status quo, and understanding a customer's pain of changing from the status quo over to you. * Positing yourself against direct competitors entails leaning into your differentiated value, as compared to your competition. * Positioning yourself against “do nothing” competitors involves understanding why customers evaluated you and your competitors, yet became indecisive and didn't pick any solution/product/service.—If you want to skip ahead: (4:36) Positioning against competitors in B2B sales. (9:59) Winning strategies for B2B sales, including disqualifying unqualified leads and addressing indecision in purchasing decisions. (14:45) Handling objections, increasing confidence in purchase decisions, and educating customers on trade-offs. (19:56) Ways to reduce customer indecision in sales deals. (24:53) Sales strategies for tech companies, focusing on positioning, best-fit customers, and risk mitigation. —Connect with April Dunford and learn about practical positioning that accelerates marketing and sales: Work with April: https://www.aprildunford.com/contact April's newsletter: https://aprildunford.substack.com/ April's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprildunford/ April's Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/aprildunford —Mentioned in this episode: * April Dunford's article/newsletter about this topic: https://aprildunford.substack.com/p/a-buyer-centric-approach-to-competitive * To get the free templates related to April Dunford's two books, go to https://www.aprildunford.com/books and sign up for the newsletter; then you'll receive an email to download the free templates. —Get April Dunford's books and audiobooks: “Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get It, Buy It, Love It.”“Sales Pitch: How to Craft a Story to Stand Out and Win.”Amazon US: https://amzn.to/49l0ZRY Amazon Canada: https://amzn.to/4ac9hgt Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3vosDzQ—The Positioning with April Dunford podcast: Want to make your product stand out in a crowded market? It all starts with great positioning. Using April's battle-tested methodology, she'll teach you the nitty-gritty of positioning so that you can unlock better marketing and sales performance.Podcast website: https://www.positioning.show/ Subscribe on Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3PFHcWx Subscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4aqyDqI Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@positioningshow —This episode was produced by Story On Media & Marketing: https://www.SuccessWithStories.com
The Richard Syrett Show, May 10th, 2024 Riot police dismantle anti-Israel encampment from U of C campus https://www.westernstandard.news/news/watch-riot-police-dismantle-anti-israel-encampment-from-u-of-c-campus/54460 Chair of Rockefeller International says Canada a leader in ‘breakdown nations' https://www.westernstandard.news/news/chair-of-rockefeller-international-says-canada-a-leader-in-breakdown-nations/54448 Jen Hodgson – The Western Standard www.westernstandard.news Tonight's “Cannibal” Solar Storm Could be Worst in 165 YEARS and Cause GPS and Power Outages https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-13404835/cannibal-solar-storm-gps-power-outage.html Paul A. Delaney, Professor Emeritus Department of Physics and Astronomy at York University THE LIMRIDDLER Queen's Knight Granting indulgence to do or to vary. Positing outcomes the future could carry. Queen's noble knight Queried zodiac light. Twenty-first touchdown by Earhart at Derry Pro-Life Hospice Group Launches “Do Not Euthanize” Registry to Protect Canadian Patients https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/pro-life-hospice-group-launches-do-not-euthanize-registry-to-protect-canadians-patients/?utm_source=most_recent&utm_campaign=catholic Angelina Ireland, Executive Director of the Delta Hospice Society To REGISTER for the Do Not Euthanize Registry go to deltahospicesociety.org THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE! Federal union executives yesterday protested a Treasury Board order that teleworking employees return to their jobsites at least three days weekly. https://www.blacklocks.ca/uproar-over-telework-order Greg Carrasco, Host of “The Greg Carrasco Show” Sauga 960 AM Saturday mornings 8-11am Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Matt Segall joins me to debate the relative merits of "anthroposophical" aproaches to addressing the meaning crisis, such as those adopted in the works of Steiner, Stein and Gafni, and, to some degree, Whitehead. 0:00 Introduction 4:15 Revisiting the Image of Nature: Revitalizing Romanticism? 12:00 Humans in a Cosmos or a Cosmos Known by Humans? 21:17 Is Mechanism Just a Part of the Process? Emergence All the Way Down 30:05 Advance or Regression? Thinking in Terms of Assimilation and Accomodation 38:13 Defining a "Mechanistic" Approach: The Minimal Need for Causality 41:17 Retrojecting Novelty into Primals? Positing "Prehension" 57:01 Upshot: So...Is the Universe Expanding or Not? 1:11:52 Against a Model--or ...Models? 1:17:13 What Does an "Emodied" Knowledge Entail? 1:25:25 Conclusion
Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia University Podcasts
In episode seven of the new season of the SOF/Heyman Bookshelf, host highlights To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Modernism and the Art of Appropriation by Annie Pfeifer. Positing a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, To the Collector Belong the Spoils traces the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past.
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To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Modernism and the Art of Appropriation (Cornell UP, 2023) rethinks collecting as an artistic, revolutionary, and appropriative modernist practice, which flourishes beyond institutions like museums or archives. Through a constellation of three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—Annie Pfeifer examines the relationship between literary modernism and twentieth-century practices of collecting objects. From James's paper hoarding to Einstein's mania for African art and Benjamin's obsession with old Russian toys, she shows how these authors' literary techniques of compiling, gleaning, and reassembling constitute a modernist style of collecting which that reimagines the relationship between author and text, source and medium. Placing Benjamin and Einstein in surprising conversation with James sharpens the contours of collecting as aesthetic and political praxis underpinned by dangerous passions. An apt figure for modernity, the collector is caught between preservation and transformation, order and chaos, the past and the future. Positing a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, To the Collector Belong the Spoils traces the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past. By despoiling and decontextualizing the work of others, these three authors engaged in a form of creative plunder that evokes collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest. As Pfeifer demonstrates, more than an archive or taxonomy, modernist collecting practices became a radical, creative endeavor—the artist as collector, the collector as artist. Jen Hoyer is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology and a volunteer at Interference Archive. Jen edits for Partnership Journal and organizes with the TPS Collective. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom and The Social Movement Archive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network
To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Modernism and the Art of Appropriation (Cornell UP, 2023) rethinks collecting as an artistic, revolutionary, and appropriative modernist practice, which flourishes beyond institutions like museums or archives. Through a constellation of three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—Annie Pfeifer examines the relationship between literary modernism and twentieth-century practices of collecting objects. From James's paper hoarding to Einstein's mania for African art and Benjamin's obsession with old Russian toys, she shows how these authors' literary techniques of compiling, gleaning, and reassembling constitute a modernist style of collecting which that reimagines the relationship between author and text, source and medium. Placing Benjamin and Einstein in surprising conversation with James sharpens the contours of collecting as aesthetic and political praxis underpinned by dangerous passions. An apt figure for modernity, the collector is caught between preservation and transformation, order and chaos, the past and the future. Positing a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, To the Collector Belong the Spoils traces the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past. By despoiling and decontextualizing the work of others, these three authors engaged in a form of creative plunder that evokes collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest. As Pfeifer demonstrates, more than an archive or taxonomy, modernist collecting practices became a radical, creative endeavor—the artist as collector, the collector as artist. Jen Hoyer is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology and a volunteer at Interference Archive. Jen edits for Partnership Journal and organizes with the TPS Collective. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom and The Social Movement Archive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history
To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Modernism and the Art of Appropriation (Cornell UP, 2023) rethinks collecting as an artistic, revolutionary, and appropriative modernist practice, which flourishes beyond institutions like museums or archives. Through a constellation of three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—Annie Pfeifer examines the relationship between literary modernism and twentieth-century practices of collecting objects. From James's paper hoarding to Einstein's mania for African art and Benjamin's obsession with old Russian toys, she shows how these authors' literary techniques of compiling, gleaning, and reassembling constitute a modernist style of collecting which that reimagines the relationship between author and text, source and medium. Placing Benjamin and Einstein in surprising conversation with James sharpens the contours of collecting as aesthetic and political praxis underpinned by dangerous passions. An apt figure for modernity, the collector is caught between preservation and transformation, order and chaos, the past and the future. Positing a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, To the Collector Belong the Spoils traces the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past. By despoiling and decontextualizing the work of others, these three authors engaged in a form of creative plunder that evokes collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest. As Pfeifer demonstrates, more than an archive or taxonomy, modernist collecting practices became a radical, creative endeavor—the artist as collector, the collector as artist. Jen Hoyer is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology and a volunteer at Interference Archive. Jen edits for Partnership Journal and organizes with the TPS Collective. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom and The Social Movement Archive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies
To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Modernism and the Art of Appropriation (Cornell UP, 2023) rethinks collecting as an artistic, revolutionary, and appropriative modernist practice, which flourishes beyond institutions like museums or archives. Through a constellation of three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—Annie Pfeifer examines the relationship between literary modernism and twentieth-century practices of collecting objects. From James's paper hoarding to Einstein's mania for African art and Benjamin's obsession with old Russian toys, she shows how these authors' literary techniques of compiling, gleaning, and reassembling constitute a modernist style of collecting which that reimagines the relationship between author and text, source and medium. Placing Benjamin and Einstein in surprising conversation with James sharpens the contours of collecting as aesthetic and political praxis underpinned by dangerous passions. An apt figure for modernity, the collector is caught between preservation and transformation, order and chaos, the past and the future. Positing a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, To the Collector Belong the Spoils traces the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past. By despoiling and decontextualizing the work of others, these three authors engaged in a form of creative plunder that evokes collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest. As Pfeifer demonstrates, more than an archive or taxonomy, modernist collecting practices became a radical, creative endeavor—the artist as collector, the collector as artist. Jen Hoyer is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology and a volunteer at Interference Archive. Jen edits for Partnership Journal and organizes with the TPS Collective. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom and The Social Movement Archive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/intellectual-history
To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Modernism and the Art of Appropriation (Cornell UP, 2023) rethinks collecting as an artistic, revolutionary, and appropriative modernist practice, which flourishes beyond institutions like museums or archives. Through a constellation of three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—Annie Pfeifer examines the relationship between literary modernism and twentieth-century practices of collecting objects. From James's paper hoarding to Einstein's mania for African art and Benjamin's obsession with old Russian toys, she shows how these authors' literary techniques of compiling, gleaning, and reassembling constitute a modernist style of collecting which that reimagines the relationship between author and text, source and medium. Placing Benjamin and Einstein in surprising conversation with James sharpens the contours of collecting as aesthetic and political praxis underpinned by dangerous passions. An apt figure for modernity, the collector is caught between preservation and transformation, order and chaos, the past and the future. Positing a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, To the Collector Belong the Spoils traces the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past. By despoiling and decontextualizing the work of others, these three authors engaged in a form of creative plunder that evokes collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest. As Pfeifer demonstrates, more than an archive or taxonomy, modernist collecting practices became a radical, creative endeavor—the artist as collector, the collector as artist. Jen Hoyer is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology and a volunteer at Interference Archive. Jen edits for Partnership Journal and organizes with the TPS Collective. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom and The Social Movement Archive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/art
To the Collector Belong the Spoils: Modernism and the Art of Appropriation (Cornell UP, 2023) rethinks collecting as an artistic, revolutionary, and appropriative modernist practice, which flourishes beyond institutions like museums or archives. Through a constellation of three author-collectors—Henry James, Walter Benjamin, and Carl Einstein—Annie Pfeifer examines the relationship between literary modernism and twentieth-century practices of collecting objects. From James's paper hoarding to Einstein's mania for African art and Benjamin's obsession with old Russian toys, she shows how these authors' literary techniques of compiling, gleaning, and reassembling constitute a modernist style of collecting which that reimagines the relationship between author and text, source and medium. Placing Benjamin and Einstein in surprising conversation with James sharpens the contours of collecting as aesthetic and political praxis underpinned by dangerous passions. An apt figure for modernity, the collector is caught between preservation and transformation, order and chaos, the past and the future. Positing a shadow history of modernism rooted in collection, citation, and paraphrase, To the Collector Belong the Spoils traces the movement's artistic innovation to its preoccupation with appropriating and rewriting the past. By despoiling and decontextualizing the work of others, these three authors engaged in a form of creative plunder that evokes collecting's long history in the spoils of war and conquest. As Pfeifer demonstrates, more than an archive or taxonomy, modernist collecting practices became a radical, creative endeavor—the artist as collector, the collector as artist. Jen Hoyer is Technical Services and Electronic Resources Librarian at CUNY New York City College of Technology and a volunteer at Interference Archive. Jen edits for Partnership Journal and organizes with the TPS Collective. She is co-author of What Primary Sources Teach: Lessons for Every Classroom and The Social Movement Archive. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
It is somewhat ironic, as the new Supreme Court Justice Jackson is being sworn in, I marvel that so few Americans know of the previous Justice Jackson of the Supreme Court. He was one of the more brilliant and insightful, and truly judicious individuals to have served in that capacity - Justice Robert H. Jackson. Justice Robert H. Jackson is the only individual to have served in all three of the highest levels of American Jurisprudence. He served as Solicitor General of United States, Attorney General of the United States, as Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and would have served as Chief Justice, but the political nature of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Administration and its positioning of the Court, precluded that final honor. Finally, at least to my thinking, Justice Jackson's single, greatest and most important position was his appointment to, as well as insistence on serving as, the chief American prosecutor in the Nuremberg trials. These trials underscored a basic principle of law and justice - that there is a higher law. Without recognizing the existence of a higher authority, a higher law, to which all earthly or posited laws must be compared, there can be no question of justice or injustice. There is only the raw use of position in power. “If I have the authority, then that entitles me to make any law I wish.” But, if that proposed, our posited law of “power” is in any way inequitable, we declare it deficient. It literally is an ‘unjust law.' And that is for a very simple reason - there is indeed a higher law, a true justice, reflected in the orderly universe in which we live. Justice Robert H. Jackson is frequently quoted not merely from his decisions, but often from his dissents, which were not fully understood at the time. Justice Jackson was the last Supreme Court justice to have never graduated from a law school! Perhaps more significantly, he never graduated from college - not as we view college that is! Nevertheless, his clarity, his insight, his commitment to the laws of nature and nature's God, helped to preserve and exult America's stalwart commitment to the truth and make it a shining light throughout the world, at a very dark moment in history. The program contains audio introduction from the Nuremberg trials, and several quotes from Justice Robert Jackson's thinking. As a matter of judicial temperament, the new Justice Jackson, Justice Ketanji Jackson reveals a diametrically different approach to legal reasoning. Sometimes called positivist law, the antipode of natural or higher law, these are laws which are simply created whole cloth by the lawmaker. While called ‘positivist', this is not a reference to electrical charge, or mathematical deductions, it refers to the fact that they are simply ‘posited' as a statement or suggestion, or usually a declared mandate. But as listeners to Life Matters already know, an assertion is not a fact. Declaring a statement is true, does not make it true. Positing a law, in particular an untested and unproven law supported only by verbiage and not actually demonstrably tested, is a recipe for cultural disaster. Ideas have consequences. Ideas are expressed in words. Ideas and words that are enforced, are laws. Laws can be very dangerous things if they are not carefully examined, and tested, and proven under the weight of higher principles and reason. These higher principles are demonstrable in the laws of nature and nature's God, both physical laws of science and mathematics, as well as ethical and moral laws, such as stealing and murder. There is an order to the universe and these higher laws are in escapable. But they must be sought out. We ignore the order of the universe to our own peril. At the hearings for Justice Ketanji Jackson, her view of the law is made quite clear. There is no commitment to objective facts. It is created, posited, declared ‘de facto' law that guides her thinking. Several minutes from her confirmation hearing are contained in the program. Senator Blackburn wisely examines definitive statements from Justice Jackson's past, her commitment to progressive ideology is examined, and the famous question of: “What is a woman?,” concludes a startling analysis of “facts” from the mind of a positivist, conjectural, Justice. The two Justices Jackson offer a stunning contrast between higher law and asserted or posited law. The United States of America was founded on the principles that there is an ordered universe and that there is a manner by which to determine just or higher laws.
As the two hosts and their guests move towards the end of the series they ask - How can we build sustainable digital infrastructure that is people centered and Africa centered? They reflect on indigenous data sovereignty, data stewardship and creative strategies towards collective care for digital data. Positing that digital collections are not a point of reversal to an idealized past but rather a point of departure towards a collectively imagined future. For wider accessibility of the podcast's subject matter, transcripts of the episodes are available in French and German through a free zine, which can be downloaded from the websites of Open Restitution Africa and Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss. This podcast is brought to you by the Open Restitution Africa project, a collaboration between African Digital Heritage and Andani.Africa. It is made possible with the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss as part of the 99 Questions Podcast. For more information, visit our websites: Open Restitution Africa 99 Questions at Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss Image © Open Restitution Africa
Dr. R.J. Matava, who was previously a Liddon Fellow at Oxford's Keble College, presented a talk titled “Conversion and Apologetics: Personal Vocation as a Key to the New Evangelization.” Positing that holiness of life is essential for apologetics, Matava treated the nature of apologetics through a theological and historical lens, looking at what it needs to be effective within the New Evangelization.“While the original evangelization generally brought the Gospel to the pagan world, the ‘new evangelization' must bring the Gospel to a world described by some as ‘post Christian,' and not least to people who are baptized but lack faith,” said Matava. “What then is the most urgent task of a new apologetics for the new evangelization? I would suggest that it is to cultivate in others, so far as we are able, the necessary dispositions to earnestly consider the reasons for the faith.”
A master weaver intersecting the past with the future, Brea Souders constructs visual analogies that expose the layered intermediaries of communication. Positing centuries-old existential questions, Souders discovers her own lexicon, creating a language built on correlation, random chance and fleeting reaction. In this book group, Brea Souders, discusses, among other things:How we experience images nowEstablishing an economy of means in image-makingAllowing other viewpoints to influence your creative decisionsAccidential observationScience influencing art by experimenting with an objectiveBeing in dialog with your workThe creative limbo when between bodies of workThe fluid intersections of analogy and digital processesThe iPhone as sketchbookReferenced in the episodeGoogle Photo SphereMillay Colony of the ArtsGood Pictures: A History of Popular Photo by Kim BeilPhotography is Magic by Charlotte CottonIna JangBruce Silverstein GalleryRachel de JoodeBlow UpBrea Souders Website | InstagramEngage with J. Sybylla Smith https://www.jsybyllasmith.com Instagram @jsybylla and Facebook @j.sybylla.smith
Hey boo hey Decided to do a podcast right before I host the " Pretty On Purpose " Beauty, Business, and Personal Branding" A discussion on your image, Business etiquette, professionalism, and mental health in the workplace. Today we are discussing Simone Biles, the American Gymnast who recently decided to take a mental health break in the middle of the world's largest athletic event. She is back now to complete and she has just received another bronze metal with her other 34 world champion records . Hell somebody!! And she's only 24. She is set to be the best athlete in the world. These are the questions we are discussing on the clubhouse community group so be sure to join us . After that discussion it had me thinking out how we position ourselves in our personal brands. As a black woman, watching other black women land deals , build communities and foster brand partnership deals by them authentically being themselves…. Feels great to see women owning their brand and voice especially in business . In this episode we discussed How Saweetie landed a McDonald's brand deal with her personal brand. Being authentic and building a brand on value How to find the right community and support who value you and who you are . As always thanks for listening and joining the conversation boo!! Listen girl you know I love to hear your feedback on personal branding, leadership, and staying focused… So please do me a favor and leave me your thoughts and advice for my audience at www. MakeYourBeautyMark.com I'll be paying your audio on the next show so be sure to leave Name Social Media Account Personal brand title and website or business website ( If you want us to mention it as we play your recording , you know we love to promote people
Positing good works as a means of justification is apostate moralism. Refusing to posit good works as an inescapable fruit of justification is apostate antinomianism.
Mark begins a new series moving towards pentecost: Rebuilding Hope. Positing that we are in a space between decline and renewal, he unpacks what it could look like to prepare and cry out for renewal in this grey zone space.
Mark begins a new series moving towards pentecost: Rebuilding Hope. Positing that we are in a space between decline and renewal, he unpacks what it could look like to prepare and cry out for renewal in this grey zone space.
Pastor Grasso looks at systemic racism again and shows how the gospel offers a better solution to racial tensions than the ideology that undergirds systemic racism. Positing systemic racism can only lead to greater racial divisions, whereas in Christ these divisions are healed.
Learn about the driving forces of your destiny. As human beings, we constantly question the concept of fate. Does it exist? Is it intentional? Is it responsible for the directions of our lives? Fortunately for us, acclaimed scholar and thinker Robert Wright has pondered these same questions and embarked on an ambitious quest to answer life’s seemingly unanswerable questions. Nonzero (2001) is the fruit of his labor. Positing that human morality has evolved for the better and that we have learned to shape our own destinies, Nonzero is a holistic look back through history. Do you want more free book summaries like this? Download our app for free at https://www.QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. DISCLAIMER: This book summary is meant as a preview and not a replacement for the original book. If you like this summary please consider purchasing the original book to get the full experience as the original author intended to. If you are the original author of any book on QuickRead and would like us to remove it, please contact us at hello@quickread.com
In our first episode we discuss Sophie and her family's recent encounter with COVID-19 and how this affected them and their young baby. We also ask, should Australia have implemented kids only coronavirus briefings in a language they understand? For more information about today's topics and any brands, business's or products discussed as well as our Auslan interpreted video's head to www.incommonprojects.com.au Follow us + join the conversation: Instagram Facebook Twitter Thank you for listening and finding out what we all have in common. We'd love to hear from you so if you enjoyed this episode please leave a review and don't forget to hit subscribe. Have a lovely day. More about the show: https://www.incommonprojects.com.au/ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
On this edition of GFA Live, Peter and Keithie talk about Best of the WWF, Volume 13 from Coliseum Video! (and some other stuff, of course!) Topics of discussion include: - The WrestleMania video game menu theme - Training programs for new WWF broadcasters - Rickey Henderson vs Tim Raines as base stealers - Did Ted DiBiase’s arrival help kill off Fabulous Moolah? - Trivia on Debbie Coombs - Halloween Havoc 1992 - Roddy Piper and possible alleged cocaine use - Positing the ideas of Haku winning the world title at age 62 at WrestleMania 37 - Fruit chew edibles - Dealing with video tracking issues as compared with buffering issues of today - The most controversial take on WrestleMania 3 ever uttered and immediately recanted - More Karate Kid 2 talk Lineup: 06/02/87 Hulk Hogan & Koko B. Ware vs. Kamala & Honkytonk Man – Buffalo NY 06/02/87 Ricky Steamboat vs. Honkytonk Man (Honkytonk wins WWF I-C Title) – Buffalo, NY 05/18/87 Debbie Combs vs. Fabulous Moolah – MSG 12/16/74 Joyce Grable vs. Fabulous Moolah – MSG 10/85 Roddy Piper Halloween skit 02/23/87 Demolition vs. The Islanders - MSG 06/14/87 Paul Roma & Jim Powers vs. The Islanders – MSG, 10/20/86 Bret Hart vs. Raymond Rougeau – MSG 12/10/86 Randy Savage vs. Tito Santana – Tucson, AZ Email: Greetingsfromallentown@gmail.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/GFAllentownPod
Learn about the driving forces of your destiny. As human beings, we constantly question the concept of fate. Does it exist? Is it intentional? Is it responsible for the directions of our lives? Fortunately for us, acclaimed scholar and thinker Robert Wright has pondered these same questions and embarked on an ambitious quest to answer life’s seemingly unanswerable questions. Nonzero (2001) is the fruit of his labor. Positing that human morality has evolved for the better and that we have learned to shape our own destinies, Nonzero is a holistic look back through history. *** Do you want more free audiobook summaries like this? Download our app for free at QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries.
Do you want more free audiobook summaries like this? Download our app for free at QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. The competing pressures of our daily lives often leave us little time to read, but by applying this life hack, you can improve your reading speed in under 10 days! Written for everyone who doesn’t have the time to read as much as they’d like or for those whose to-be-read pile has taken over their apartment, 10 Days to Faster Reading outlines why our inability to read quickly isn’t formed through overcommitment. Positing that bad habits and toxic mindsets prevent us reading effectively, the joint research of The Princeton Language Institute and author Abby Marks Beale offers practical solutions for tackling those setbacks and developing efficient reading habits.
Do you want more free audiobook summaries like this? Download our app for free at QuickRead.com/App and get access to hundreds of free book and audiobook summaries. Bored and Brilliant (2017) invites readers to embrace the unique power of a state that’s rarely viewed in a positive light: boredom. Positing that a healthy experience of boredom is vital to unlocking our creative potential, Bored and Brilliant illustrates the invaluable resources boredom can provide and encourages readers to disconnect from the busy distractions of modern life, especially email, social media, and our addiction to our smartphones. Arguing that disengaging from technology and giving our minds the freedom to be bored will help us boost our creativity, productivity, and potential for brilliant ideas, Manoush Zomorodi sets out to teach readers how to (effectively) be bored.
This episode contains the following (rough timestamps included);0.30 How Ian got a job at Kerrisdale5.00 Short-selling as a generalist7.30 What would he do more of if he stared all over again9.00 Sourcing short ideas through looking for longs13.00 What is the advantage of smaller short-sellers17.00 Timing and crowded trades18.00 Best and worst trade – Argentina24.30 Research focus and Twitter25.55 Shorting Solar in 201928.20 Shorting boring consumer stocks32.00 Ian’s current favourite short sector35.00 Gamestop and other ‘perennial long ideas’37.00 Timing in retail40.00 Antero Resource short46.30 Sourcing of ideas - Strange financing arrangements49.30 Blue Apron short53.00 Shorting fads – bitcoin example57.00 Accounting red flags – Adjusting EBITDA60.00 Ian’s favourite accounting gimmick62.00 Ian’s favourite fraud story64.00 Downside of being a perma-bear and short-only66.00 How this reflects in the short-selling funds68.00 US/Europe Governments reaction70.00 Positing a big short – financial crisisBelow you can find tickers of companies we discussed and are still trading;Antero Resource (AR)Blue Apron (APRN)Gamestop (GME)Procter & Gamble (PG)Sunrun (RUN)Vivint Solar (VSLR)Church & Dwight (CHD)Tesla (TSLA)Nova Lifestyle (NVFY)Finally here is Ian’s Seeking Alpha profile and Twitter.
Sting joins forces with fellow Horsemen Ric Flair and Arn Anderson for a red hot six man tag on the January 26, 1990 edition of NWA Power(rrrrrrrrrrrrr) Hour - The Tennessee crowd goes crazy for the short-lived incarnation of the Four Horsemen - Jim Cornette cracks on the taping site, which would change the course of wrestling history - Buzz Sawyer breaks the powerslam scale - Jim Cornette pitches an angle for Ranger Ross, while Jim Ross picks on the Italian Stallion - Terry Funk offers Sting some advice - Diminishing returns from the Samoan Savage - The mostly forgotten rap for WrestleWar ‘90 - Gordon Solie takes a dump on the Memphis territory Plus: - Weddings with accidental visits from mariachis - The story of a man named Savage (not Randy) - How the booking of Bud Bowls are kind of like recent vintage WWE - Reflecting on a big week in current wrestling - Positing an idea for a new Funk’s Grill set - Vinnie Vegas Corner for NFL week 6! - The return of YouTube Comment Theater! Email: Greetingsfromallentown@gmail.com Twitter: @GFAllentownPod Facebook.com/GreetingsFromAllentown
Sting joins forces with fellow Horsemen Ric Flair and Arn Anderson for a red hot six man tag on the January 26, 1990 edition of NWA Power(rrrrrrrrrrrrr) Hour - The eastern Tennessee crowd goes crazy for the short-lived incarnation of the Four Horsemen - Jim Cornette cracks on the taping site, which would change the course of wrestling history - Buzz Sawyer breaks the powerslam scale - Jim Cornette pitches an angle for Ranger Ross, while Jim Ross picks on the Italian Stallion - Terry Funk offers Sting some advice - Diminishing returns from the Samoan Savage - The mostly forgotten rap for WrestleWar ‘90 - Gordon Solie takes a dump on the Memphis territory Plus: - Weddings with accidental visits from mariachis - The story of a man named Savage (not Randy) - How the booking of Bud Bowls are kind of like recent vintage WWE - Reflecting on a big week in current wrestling - Positing an idea for a new Funk’s Grill set - Vinnie Vegas Corner for NFL week 6! - The return of YouTube Comment Theater! Email: Greetingsfromallentown@gmail.com Twitter: @GFAllentownPod Facebook.com/GreetingsFromAllentown
Why don't more big receivers convert to tight end? How much does a quarterback's handedness play into a defense's approach? Why don't they just fix the rookie wage scale? Plus, a discussion of the biggest (only?) snub in our entire position rankings series, as Andy and Gary open the mailbag again. Got a question for the next mailbag? @GGramling_SI, @Andy_Benoit or talkback@themmqb.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal is the author of The Bonobo and the Atheist, a ''tour de force'' (Nature) exploration of the biological roots of human morality found in primate social emotions, including empathy, reciprocity, and fairness. One of Time's 100 Most Influential People, de Waal is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences, directs the Living Links at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, and is the C. H. Candler Professor in Emory University's psychology department. Positing that humans are not the only species capable of love, hate, and everything in between, Mama's Last Hug explores the profound emotional lives of animals. (recorded 3/14/2019)
Podcast episodes – The Secret History of Western Esotericism Podcast (SHWEP)
After the final Pythagorean died, all was quiet. And then, suddenly, people started going around calling themselves Pythagoreans. Growing long beards. Hailing Pythagoras as an ancient magus-sage. Positing a monad as the ultimate source of reality. Welcome to Neopythagoreanism.
Every Thanksgiving, your strangely committed hosts watch six movies for something they call The MegaPod. For the third iteration, we drafted movies from franchises we thought we might otherwise not get to in the course of our normal episode selections. As always, our families just loved that we had to watch 12 hours of movies over the weekend. Check out the choices and timestamps below. 6:40 - "Jaws: The Revenge" - Positing that there's a psychological bond between a grieving widow and a shark, and streaming on Netflix. 22:30 - "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" - Thriving on the unintentional hilarity of those uber-detailed turtle suits, and streaming on Hulu. 32:50 - "Scream 2" - Losing itself in a tidal wave of self-awareness and blood, and streaming on HBO. 44:20 - "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" - Grappling with your 13-year-old sense of humor, and streaming on HBO. 59:50 - "Ocean's 12" - Watching powerlessly as those beautiful thieves hatch a plan so hair-brained it notoriously ruins the movie, and streaming on Amazon. 1:15:00 - "The Mighty Ducks" - Shooting on the net and wondering if a warm, childhood feeling is enough for a good-good, and streaming on Netflix.
After a technology-postponed one-week delay, Up Front And On Fire returns not only right out of the starting gate, but making a bit of a left-field turn by featuring NEPA-born aspiring country artist Dani-Elle Kleha (who goes solely by her first name professionally). Positing herself as “90’s country with a modern flair”– in other words, much closer to Terri Clark than to more recent sensations like Maren Morris and Kelsea Ballerini – the long-player on review here, 2012’s Dream Big, vaults between modern country and occasional traditional-sounding spots throughout the album’s ten tracks. There’s also seemingly unusual covers of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Belevin’”, John Fogerty’s “Bad Moon Rising”, and Aerosmith’s “Living On The Edge”. Watch Dani-Elle’s Facebook page, www.facebook.com/danisings/, for a special announcement planned for this week. It’s More About The Ride Once In A Blue Moon Livin’ On The Edge --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/luciaandglynn/support
In this sermon, guest preacher Rev. Michael Dowd explores the interrelated nature of science and religion. Positing that religion is about our relationship to reality and how to live in it, Rev. Dowd explains that God guides us through all forms of evidence, be it classical scripture or scientific fact, and that aggregating that evidence from all available sources helps us to live more Christ-like lives.
Drugs are another means toward this end. Some are illegal; some are stigmatized; some are dangerous—though, perversely, these sets only partially intersect. Some drugs of extraordinary power and utility, such as psilocybin (the active compound in “magic mushrooms”) and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), pose no apparent risk of addiction and are physically well-tolerated, and yet one can still be sent to prison for their use—whereas drugs such as tobacco and alcohol, which have ruined countless lives, are enjoyed ad libitum in almost every society on earth. There are other points on this continuum: MDMA, or Ecstasy, has remarkable therapeutic potential, but it is also susceptible to abuse, and some evidence suggests that it can be neurotoxic.[1] One of the great responsibilities we have as a society is to educate ourselves, along with the next generation, about which substances are worth ingesting and for what purpose and which are not. The problem, however, is that we refer to all biologically active compounds by a single term, drugs, making it nearly impossible to have an intelligent discussion about the psychological, medical, ethical, and legal issues surrounding their use. The poverty of our language has been only slightly eased by the introduction of the term psychedelics to differentiate certain visionary compounds, which can produce extraordinary insights, from narcotics and other classic agents of stupefaction and abuse. However, we should not be too quick to feel nostalgia for the counterculture of the 1960s. Yes, crucial breakthroughs were made, socially and psychologically, and drugs were central to the process, but one need only read accounts of the time, such as Joan Didion’s Slouching Towards Bethlehem, to see the problem with a society bent upon rapture at any cost. For every insight of lasting value produced by drugs, there was an army of zombies with flowers in their hair shuffling toward failure and regret. Turning on, tuning in, and dropping out is wise, or even benign, only if you can then drop into a mode of life that makes ethical and material sense and doesn’t leave your children wandering in traffic. Drug abuse and addiction are real problems, of course, the remedy for which is education and medical treatment, not incarceration. In fact, the most abused drugs in the United States now appear to be oxycodone and other prescription painkillers. Should these medicines be made illegal? Of course not. But people need to be informed about their hazards, and addicts need treatment. And all drugs—including alcohol, cigarettes, and aspirin—must be kept out of the hands of children. I discuss issues of drug policy in some detail in my first book, The End of Faith, and my thinking on the subject has not changed. The “war on drugs” has been lost and should never have been waged. I can think of no right more fundamental than the right to peacefully steward the contents of one’s own consciousness. The fact that we pointlessly ruin the lives of nonviolent drug users by incarcerating them, at enormous expense, constitutes one of the great moral failures of our time. (And the fact that we make room for them in our prisons by paroling murderers, rapists, and child molesters makes one wonder whether civilization isn’t simply doomed.) I have two daughters who will one day take drugs. Of course, I will do everything in my power to see that they choose their drugs wisely, but a life lived entirely without drugs is neither foreseeable nor, I think, desirable. I hope they someday enjoy a morning cup of tea or coffee as much as I do. If they drink alcohol as adults, as they probably will, I will encourage them to do it safely. If they choose to smoke marijuana, I will urge moderation.[2] Tobacco should be shunned, and I will do everything within the bounds of decent parenting to steer them away from it. Needless to say, if I knew that either of my daughters would eventually develop a fondness for methamphetamine or crack cocaine, I might never sleep again. But if they don’t try a psychedelic like psilocybin or LSD at least once in their adult lives, I will wonder whether they had missed one of the most important rites of passage a human being can experience. This is not to say that everyone should take psychedelics. As I will make clear below, these drugs pose certain dangers. Undoubtedly, some people cannot afford to give the anchor of sanity even the slightest tug. It has been many years since I took psychedelics myself, and my abstinence is born of a healthy respect for the risks involved. However, there was a period in my early twenties when I found psilocybin and LSD to be indispensable tools, and some of the most important hours of my life were spent under their influence. Without them, I might never have discovered that there was an inner landscape of mind worth exploring. There is no getting around the role of luck here. If you are lucky, and you take the right drug, you will know what it is to be enlightened (or to be close enough to persuade you that enlightenment is possible). If you are unlucky, you will know what it is to be clinically insane. While I do not recommend the latter experience, it does increase one’s respect for the tenuous condition of sanity, as well as one’s compassion for people who suffer from mental illness. Human beings have ingested plant-based psychedelics for millennia, but scientific research on these compounds did not begin until the 1950s. By 1965, a thousand studies had been published, primarily on psilocybin and LSD, many of which attested to the usefulness of psychedelics in the treatment of clinical depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, alcohol addiction, and the pain and anxiety associated with terminal cancer. Within a few years, however, this entire field of research was abolished in an effort to stem the spread of these drugs among the public. After a hiatus that lasted an entire generation, scientific research on the pharmacology and therapeutic value of psychedelics has quietly resumed. Psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, DMT, and mescaline all powerfully alter cognition, perception, and mood. Most seem to exert their influence through the serotonin system in the brain, primarily by binding to 5-HT2A receptors (though several have affinity for other receptors as well), leading to increased activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Although the PFC in turn modulates subcortical dopamine production—and certain of these compounds, such as LSD, bind directly to dopamine receptors—the effect of psychedelics seems to take place largely outside dopamine pathways, which could explain why these drugs are not habit-forming. The efficacy of psychedelics might seem to establish the material basis of mental and spiritual life beyond any doubt, for the introduction of these substances into the brain is the obvious cause of any numinous apocalypse that follows. It is possible, however, if not actually plausible, to seize this evidence from the other end and argue, as Aldous Huxley did in his classic The Doors of Perception, that the primary function of the brain may be eliminative: Its purpose may be to prevent a transpersonal dimension of mind from flooding consciousness, thereby allowing apes like ourselves to make their way in the world without being dazzled at every step by visionary phenomena that are irrelevant to their physical survival. Huxley thought of the brain as a kind of “reducing valve” for “Mind at Large.” In fact, the idea that the brain is a filter rather than the origin of mind goes back at least as far as Henri Bergson and William James. In Huxley’s view, this would explain the efficacy of psychedelics: They may simply be a material means of opening the tap. Huxley was operating under the assumption that psychedelics decrease brain activity. Some recent data have lent support to this view; for instance, a neuroimaging study of psilocybin suggests that the drug primarily reduces activity in the anterior cingulate cortex, a region involved in a wide variety of tasks related to self-monitoring. However, other studies have found that psychedelics increase activity throughout the brain. Whatever the case, the action of these drugs does not rule out dualism, or the existence of realms of mind beyond the brain—but then, nothing does. That is one of the problems with views of this kind: They appear to be unfalsifiable.[3] We have reason to be skeptical of the brain-as-barrier thesis. If the brain were merely a filter on the mind, damaging it should increase cognition. In fact, strategically damaging the brain should be the most reliable method of spiritual practice available to anyone. In almost every case, loss of brain should yield more mind. But that is not how the mind works. Some people try to get around this by suggesting that the brain may function more like a radio, a receiver of conscious states rather than a barrier to them. At first glance, this would appear to account for the deleterious effects of neurological injury and disease, for if one smashes a radio with a hammer, it will no longer function properly. There is a problem with this metaphor, however. Those who employ it invariably forget that we are the music, not the radio. If the brain were nothing more than a receiver of conscious states, it should be impossible to diminish a person’s experience of the cosmos by damaging her brain. She might seem unconscious from the outside—like a broken radio—but, subjectively speaking, the music would play on. Specific reductions in brain activity might benefit people in certain ways, unmasking memories or abilities that are being actively inhibited by the regions in question. But there is no reason to think that the pervasive destruction of the central nervous system would leave the mind unaffected (much less improved). Medications that reduce anxiety generally work by increasing the effect of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA, thereby diminishing neuronal activity in various parts of the brain. But the fact that dampening arousal in this way can make people feel better does not suggest that they would feel better still if they were drugged into a coma. Similarly, it would be unsurprising if psilocybin reduced brain activity in areas responsible for self-monitoring, because that might, in part, account for the experiences that are often associated with the drug. This does not give us any reason to believe that turning off the brain entirely would yield an increased awareness of spiritual realities. However, the brain does exclude an extraordinary amount of information from consciousness. And, like many who have taken psychedelics, I can attest that these compounds throw open the gates. Positing the existence of a Mind at Large is more tempting in some states of consciousness than in others. But these drugs can also produce mental states that are best viewed as forms of psychosis. As a general matter, I believe we should be very slow to draw conclusions about the nature of the cosmos on the basis of inner experiences—no matter how profound they may seem. One thing is certain: The mind is vaster and more fluid than our ordinary, waking consciousness suggests. And it is simply impossible to communicate the profundity (or seeming profundity) of psychedelic states to those who have never experienced them. Indeed, it is even difficult to remind oneself of the power of these states once they have passed. Many people wonder about the difference between meditation (and other contemplative practices) and psychedelics. Are these drugs a form of cheating, or are they the only means of authentic awakening? They are neither. All psychoactive drugs modulate the existing neurochemistry of the brain—either by mimicking specific neurotransmitters or by causing the neurotransmitters themselves to be more or less active. Everything that one can experience on a drug is, at some level, an expression of the brain’s potential. Hence, whatever one has seen or felt after ingesting LSD is likely to have been seen or felt by someone, somewhere, without it. However, it cannot be denied that psychedelics are a uniquely potent means of altering consciousness. Teach a person to meditate, pray, chant, or do yoga, and there is no guarantee that anything will happen. Depending upon his aptitude or interest, the only reward for his efforts may be boredom and a sore back. If, however, a person ingests 100 micrograms of LSD, what happens next will depend on a variety of factors, but there is no question that something will happen. And boredom is simply not in the cards. Within the hour, the significance of his existence will bear down upon him like an avalanche. As the late Terence McKenna[4] never tired of pointing out, this guarantee of profound effect, for better or worse, is what separates psychedelics from every other method of spiritual inquiry. Ingesting a powerful dose of a psychedelic drug is like strapping oneself to a rocket without a guidance system. One might wind up somewhere worth going, and, depending on the compound and one’s “set and setting,” certain trajectories are more likely than others. But however methodically one prepares for the voyage, one can still be hurled into states of mind so painful and confusing as to be indistinguishable from psychosis. Hence, the terms psychotomimetic and psychotogenic that are occasionally applied to these drugs. I have visited both extremes on the psychedelic continuum. The positive experiences were more sublime than I could ever have imagined or than I can now faithfully recall. These chemicals disclose layers of beauty that art is powerless to capture and for which the beauty of nature itself is a mere simulacrum. It is one thing to be awestruck by the sight of a giant redwood and amazed at the details of its history and underlying biology. It is quite another to spend an apparent eternity in egoless communion with it. Positive psychedelic experiences often reveal how wondrously at ease in the universe a human being can be—and for most of us, normal waking consciousness does not offer so much as a glimmer of those deeper possibilities. People generally come away from such experiences with a sense that conventional states of consciousness obscure and truncate sacred insights and emotions. If the patriarchs and matriarchs of the world’s religions experienced such states of mind, many of their claims about the nature of reality would make subjective sense. A beatific vision does not tell you anything about the birth of the cosmos, but it does reveal how utterly transfigured a mind can be by a full collision with the present moment. However, as the peaks are high, the valleys are deep. My “bad trips” were, without question, the most harrowing hours I have ever endured, and they make the notion of hell—as a metaphor if not an actual destination—seem perfectly apt. If nothing else, these excruciating experiences can become a source of compassion. I think it may be impossible to imagine what it is like to suffer from mental illness without having briefly touched its shores. At both ends of the continuum, time dilates in ways that cannot be described—apart from merely observing that these experiences can seem eternal. I have spent hours, both good and bad, in which any understanding that I had ingested a drug was lost, and all memories of my past along with it. Immersion in the present moment to this degree is synonymous with the feeling that one has always been and will always be in precisely this condition. Depending on the character of one’s experience at that point, notions of salvation or damnation may well apply. Blake’s line about beholding “eternity in an hour” neither promises nor threatens too much. In the beginning, my experiences with psilocybin and LSD were so positive that I did not see how a bad trip could be possible. Notions of “set and setting,” admittedly vague, seemed sufficient to account for my good luck. My mental set was exactly as it needed to be—I was a spiritually serious investigator of my own mind—and my setting was generally one of either natural beauty or secure solitude. I cannot account for why my adventures with psychedelics were uniformly pleasant until they weren’t, but once the doors to hell opened, they appeared to have been left permanently ajar. Thereafter, whether or not a trip was good in the aggregate, it generally entailed some excruciating detour on the path to sublimity. Have you ever traveled, beyond all mere metaphors, to the Mountain of Shame and stayed for a thousand years? I do not recommend it. On my first trip to Nepal, I took a rowboat out on Phewa Lake in Pokhara, which offers a stunning view of the Annapurna range. It was early morning, and I was alone. As the sun rose over the water, I ingested 400 micrograms of LSD. I was twenty years old and had taken the drug at least ten times previously. What could go wrong? Everything, as it turns out. Well, not everything—I didn’t drown. I have a vague memory of drifting ashore and being surrounded by a group of Nepali soldiers. After watching me for a while, as I ogled them over the gunwale like a lunatic, they seemed on the verge of deciding what to do with me. Some polite words of Esperanto and a few mad oar strokes, and I was offshore and into oblivion. I suppose that could have ended differently. But soon there was no lake or mountains or boat—and if I had fallen into the water, I am pretty sure there would have been no one to swim. For the next several hours my mind became a perfect instrument of self-torture. All that remained was a continuous shattering and terror for which I have no words. An encounter like that takes something out of you. Even if LSD and similar drugs are biologically safe, they have the potential to produce extremely unpleasant and destabilizing experiences. I believe I was positively affected by my good trips, and negatively affected by the bad ones, for weeks and months. Meditation can open the mind to a similar range of conscious states, but far less haphazardly. If LSD is like being strapped to a rocket, learning to meditate is like gently raising a sail. Yes, it is possible, even with guidance, to wind up someplace terrifying, and some people probably shouldn’t spend long periods in intensive practice. But the general effect of meditation training is of settling ever more fully into one’s own skin and suffering less there. As I discussed in The End of Faith, I view most psychedelic experiences as potentially misleading. Psychedelics do not guarantee wisdom or a clear recognition of the selfless nature of consciousness. They merely guarantee that the contents of consciousness will change. Such visionary experiences, considered in their totality, appear to me to be ethically neutral. Therefore, it seems that psychedelic ecstasies must be steered toward our personal and collective well-being by some other principle. As Daniel Pinchbeck pointed out in his highly entertaining book Breaking Open the Head, the fact that both the Mayans and the Aztecs used psychedelics, while being enthusiastic practitioners of human sacrifice, makes any idealistic connection between plant-based shamanism and an enlightened society seem terribly naïve. As I discuss elsewhere in my work, the form of transcendence that appears to link directly to ethical behavior and human well-being is that which occurs in the midst of ordinary waking life. It is by ceasing to cling to the contents of consciousness—to our thoughts, moods, and desires— that we make progress. This project does not in principle require that we experience more content.[5] The freedom from self that is both the goal and foundation of “spiritual” life is coincident with normal perception and cognition—though, admittedly, this can be difficult to realize. The power of psychedelics, however, is that they often reveal, in the span of a few hours, depths of awe and understanding that can otherwise elude us for a lifetime. William James said it about as well as anyone:[6] One conclusion was forced upon my mind at that time, and my impression of its truth has ever since remained unshaken. It is that our normal waking consciousness, rational consciousness as we call it, is but one special type of consciousness, whilst all about it, parted from it by the filmiest of screens, there lie potential forms of consciousness entirely different. We may go through life without suspecting their existence; but apply the requisite stimulus, and at a touch they are there in all their completeness, definite types of mentality which probably somewhere have their field of application and adaptation. No account of the universe in its totality can be final which leaves these other forms of consciousness quite disregarded. How to regard them is the question,—for they are so discontinuous with ordinary consciousness. Yet they may determine attitudes though they cannot furnish formulas, and open a region though they fail to give a map. At any rate, they forbid a premature closing of our accounts with reality. (The Varieties of Religious Experience, p. 388) I believe that psychedelics may be indispensable for some people—especially those who, like me, initially need convincing that profound changes in consciousness are possible. After that, it seems wise to find ways of practicing that do not present the same risks. Happily, such methods are widely available. Recommended Reading: Huxley, A. The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. McKenna, T. Food of the Gods: The Search for the Original Tree of Knowledge A Radical History of Plants, Drugs, and Human Evolution. McKenna, T. The Archaic Revival: Speculations on Psychedelic Mushrooms, the Amazon, Virtual Reality, UFOs, Evolution, Shamanism, the Rebirth of the Goddess, and the End of History. McKenna, T. True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author’s Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil’s Paradise. Pinchbeck, D. Breaking Open the Head: A Psychedelic Journey into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism. Stevens, J. Storming Heaven: LSD and the American Dream. Ratsch, C. The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants: Ethnopharmacology and Its Applications. Ott, J. Pharmacotheon: Entheogenic Drugs, Their Plant Sources and History. Strassman, R. DMT: The Spirit Molecule: A Doctor’s Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. Related article: What’s the Point of Transcendence? legacy-site/Pokhara.jpg
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