Read more

George Orwell, writing in 1943:

Read more

Are generations legit as a way to categorize people’s experiences and expectations of life? Is there a resonance between historic events and planetary transits? Will authenticity be valued more as AI sweeps away tangible reality? What does it mean to hope things crumble so that something better can emerge?

Read more

Mehran Seyed Emami is an Iranian therapist, podcaster, and founder of Ravannama (Persian Psychedelic Society), a community focused on psychedelic education, awareness, and harm reduction for Farsi speakers around the world.

He holds a master’s degree in Integral Counseling Psychology and completed training in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy at CIIS. His work is informed by lived experience, somatic psychology, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Compassionate Inquiry (developed by Dr. Gabor Maté), and other trauma-informed approaches.

The son of the late Iranian environmentalist and sociologist Dr. Kavous Seyed Emami, who died in custody in Tehran’s Evin Prison in 2018, Mehran brings personal and professional perspectives to conversations about trauma, healing, psychedelics, identity, and navigating uncertainty in a rapidly changing world.

https://www.mindbodyintegration.ca

https://www.instagram.com/mehran_soma

https://www.instagram.com/ravannamacommunity

https://www.youtube.com/@somapodcast

This has been another commercial-free podcast, financed by folks who toss a few bucks into the hat every month here. If you don’t want to subscribe, but would like to support this podcast with a one-time donation, please click here.

Intro music “Brightside of the Sun,” by Basin and Range. “Call from Kashan,” and “Through Your Eyes,” by Shahin & Sepahir.

If you buy from Amazon, my link is here. (You can click on it once, then bookmark that as your go-to Amazon link so it’ll always work.)

Buy some merch from my mom here.

Grab a copy of my books: Sex at Dawn, Civilized to Death, Tangentially Reading, Talking Drugs, and Talking Sex here.

Find other Tangentialistas around the world!

Instructions for getting the paid RSS feed in apps is here.

Read more

Ryan is an aspiring underachiever. He’s worked for NASA, planned and conducted his own scientific research at the CDC, and served as a foreign affairs analyst/speechwriter in the British Parliament; he’s founded four companies and sold three (most recently to OKCupid), and he’s published peer-reviewed scholarship in fancy-pants journals across two separate academic disciplines. All this misguided, insecure early-life ambition mostly just taught him how disappointing and anticlimactic status-driven accomplishments can be.

(This text was lifted from Ryan’s very amusing web page. Highly recommended.)

Well, there’s another commercial-free episode in the bag! Many thanks to those of you who make that possible by supporting the podcast to the tune of $5 a month or $50 per year via chrisryan.substack.com.

Intro music is called “Brightside of the Sun,” by Basin and Range. Check them out at basinandrange.bandcamp.com. “I.G.Y. (What a Wonderful World),” by Donald Fagan. “This is the Picture (Excellent Birds),” by Peter Gabriel.

You can always pick up some merch from my mom, including the super popular sad chimp Civilized to Death shirts and hoodies, as well as a bunch of other stuff at thatchrisryan.com.

Find other Tangentialistas using the map Riku set up at facilmap.org/tspeaking

Send emails and voice memos to me at thatchrisryan@gmail.com

Most new episodes and various other materials are available on my YouTube channel @thatchrisryan

And don’t forget to use my Amazon affiliate link to redirect some of that sweet, sweet cash from Jeff Bezos to support this little podcast! (You can find it in the show notes and on my web page: thatchrisryan.com).

Thanks for listening. Catch you next time.

We answer a listener’s question about our own addictive behaviors and addiction in general. How to engage with the inner voices. Why would one be sexual with a close friend? Why do some men prefer to scan the radio stations even if they don’t like the music very much? Upcoming Substack live about DTF St. Louis.

Read more

Given a full chance to act in his own interest, nothing but expediency will restrain [a man] from brutalizing, from maiming,from murdering—his brother, his mate, his parent, or his child. Scratch an “altruist” and watch a “hypocrite” bleed.

— Michael Ghiselin, The Economy of Nature and the Evolution of Sex

Conventional thinkers like Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins would have you believe that it’s only natural that megalomaniacs rise to positions of power. In one of the most underlined passages of one of the most influential nonfiction books of the past century (The Selfish Gene), Dawkins implores us to attempt to outwit what he sees as our deeply rooted, innate tendencies toward cruelty and dominance: “Let us try to teach­ generosity and altruism,” he writes, “because we are born selfish. Let us understand what our own selfish genes are up to, because we may then have a chance to upset their design, something which no other species has ever aspired to.”

Stirring rhetoric, but if genes are inherently selfish, and we share roughly 98 percent of ours with chimps and bonobos—and a slightly lower percentage with other mammals—how could our altruism be a triumph over our genetically programmed nature, while the altruism documented among ants, dolphins, bees, herd animals, and many primates is somehow congruent with their genetics? Selfishness is either innate or it isn’t.

Although Dawkins is probably the greatest living popularizer of Darwin’s work, Dawkins’s view of human nature appears to be worlds apart from Darwin’s take. Dawkins’s human exceptionalism contrasts with Darwin’s central conviction that “the difference in mind between man and the higher animals, great as it is, certainly is one of degree and not of kind.”

It’s tempting to think Dawkins meant it all metaphorically, but no. In The Selfish Gene, he clearly argues that the selfishness of humans is innate and encoded in our DNA. Dawkins views human beings as “survival machines—robot vehicles blindly programmed to preserve the selfish molecules known as genes,” and the world of those genes is one of “savage competition, ruthless exploitation, and deceit.” As goes the gene, so goes the man, because “this gene selfishness will usually give rise to selfishness in individual behaviour,” he asserts.

For Dawkins, “blindness to suffering is an inherent consequence of natural selection.”

But it’s clear that Darwin would have disagreed with this dire proclamation, as he believed that compassion and altruism conferred a clear evolutionary advantage on social animals. In his notebooks, Darwin observed, “Looking at Man, as a Naturalist would at any other mammiferous animal, it may be concluded that he has parental, conjugal and social instincts . . . these instincts consist of a feeling of love or benevolence to the object in question . . . such active sympathy that the individual forgets itself, and aids and defends and acts for others at his own expense.”

Darwin’s continued to celebrate our instinctive sympathy throughout his life, returning to it in The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, published eleven years before his death, where he tells the story of a zookeeper he met:

Several years ago a keeper at the Zoological Gardens showed me some deep and scarcely healed wounds on the nape of his own neck, inflicted on him whilst kneeling on the floor, by a fierce baboon. The little American monkey who was a warm friend of this keeper, lived in the same compartment, and was dreadfully afraid of the great baboon. Nevertheless, as soon as he saw his friend in peril, he rushed to the rescue, and by screams and bites so distracted the baboon that the man was able to escape.

For Darwin, this cross-species selflessness was no aberration, but an expression of something fundamental in social mammals.

Many a civilized man who never before risked his life for another, but full of courage and sympathy, has disregarded the instinct of self-preservation and plunged at once into a torrent to save a drowning man, though a stranger. In this case man is impelled by the same instinctive motive, which made the heroic little American monkey, formerly described, save his keeper by attacking the great and dreadful baboon.

But for Dawkins, Pinker and other neo-Hobbesian thinkers, evolutionary advantage goes not to the altruists, but to the “selfish rebels” who cleverly take advantage of the open-hearted chumps.

Read more

Guustaaf Damave is a Dutch technologist and writer based in Taiwan. He spent decades building software, an activity he loved until AI became better at it than he was, at which point he became a supervisor and found the transition entirely acceptable.

He has been writing a weekly newsletter about AI, culture, and the future since 2023. You can read it at guustaaf.substack.com. He is also the author of The Minimum You Need to Do Before AI Changes Your Life: A No-Panic Checklist for Normal People in an Abnormal Moment. Learn more about the situation we all face here.

This has been another commercial-free podcast, financed by folks who toss a few bucks into the hat every month here. If you don’t want to subscribe, but would like to support this podcast with a one-time donation, please click here.

Intro music “Brightside of the Sun,” by Basin and Range. “Life Upside Down,” by Brett Newski. Outro: “Games Without Frontiers,” by Peter Gabriel.

If you buy from Amazon, my link is here. (You can click on it once, then bookmark that as your go-to Amazon link so it’ll always work.)

Buy some merch from my mom here.

Grab a copy of my books: Sex at Dawn, Civilized to Death, Tangentially Reading, Talking Drugs, and Talking Sex here.

Find other Tangentialistas around the world!

Instructions for getting the paid RSS feed in apps is here.

Read more

Hey. The last time you got one of these was two months ago. I was writing from a place called Cabo Pulmo, down Mexico way. Seems like forever ago. Travel will do that, I guess. March was a heat wave in Baja, so after an intense mini-summer down there, we headed back to Crestone, where we are in a typically indecisive mountain springtime. It’s sixty-something out there today, but snow is predicted for Thursday. We’re still lighting a fire in the mornings and opening the windows to cool down by afternoon.

Like you, I’m sure, we’re watching in disbelief as one crazy, nonsensical thing after another goes down in a world spinning faster and faster. Hard to make sense of it all, and the helplessness feels as debilitating as the senselessness — leaving us all feeling dazed and confused. Action, they say, absorbs anxiety, so I’m coping by building a small solar system out in the shed, which will give us a source of minimal backup power, but mostly, it’s to educate myself with an eye toward building something bigger in the next year or so. Seems like having some energy redundancy might be a good idea — kinda like strapping on that life preserver as you’re pulled into the rapids.

I hope your waters are flowing as smoothly as possible, and if not, that you’re at least trying to enjoy the ride. Nobody can say we live in boring times! At least we have that.

CPR

P.S. If you use Amazon, please consider using this link (on a web browser) so that a little of what you spend will bounce back to support the podcast. And if you’d like to order some merch (shirts, beer coozies, signed books, etc.) from my mom, Julie, please go here. I keep forgetting to mention Mom’s merch on the podcast, so hopefully this will drum up some sales for her!

A listener put together this video with me reading one of my favorite passages from Carlos Casteneda.

Author, historian, professor, podcaster, father, partner, son, funny and smart dude. Daniele is a man of many dimensions. We just bullshit for an hour or so, but I’d like to think it’s Grade A Prime bullshit. After this, Daniele and his partner, Savannah, invited us to some excellent Thai food. Wish you’d been there.

This has been another commercial-free podcast, financed by folks who toss a few bucks into the hat every month here. If you don’t want to subscribe, but would like to support this podcast with a one-time donation, please click here.

Intro music “Brightside of the Sun,” by Basin and Range. “Senza Trucco,” by Traccia Mista.

If you buy from Amazon, my link is here. (You can click on it once, then bookmark that as your go-to Amazon link so it’ll always work.)

Buy some merch from my mom here.

Grab a copy of my books: Sex at Dawn, Civilized to Death, Tangentially Reading, Talking Drugs, and Talking Sex here.

Find other Tangentialistas around the world!

Instructions for getting the paid RSS feed in apps is here.

Isabella (Daniele’s daughter) performing “Bella Ciao.”

(What follows is an updated revision of something I posted here four years ago. I think it’s more relevant now than it was then.)

Revolutions are like dogs. The small ones make the most noise. Bombs explode, crowds chant, leaders proclaim, sirens wail, helicopters hover. But these loud revolutions don’t often result in real change. “Meet the new boss -- same as the old boss.”

But quiet revolutions, like truly dangerous dogs, don’t announce their arrival. They sneak up on you. They come in all nonchalant and tsunami unstoppable. By the time you notice that something’s happening, it’s already happening.

We live in a time that’s begging for revolution. The old world is dead, and it’s high time we buried the stinking corpse. The playright Arthur Miller once said, “An era can be considered over when its basic illusions have been exhausted.” Look around. Our basic illusions lie sprawled around us like spent marathon runners just past the finish line.

Wall Street is a safe place for your retirement fund. Ha!

AI is going to usher in an era of abundance for everyone! STFU.

The Supreme Court are disinterested, non-political judges. Say what?

A university education is a ticket to prosperity. Right.

Modern medicine makes us all healthier. Please.

Government? Real-estate? Religion? Consumerism? The American Dream?

Wake the fuck up already.

The invention of the printing press in 1440 resulted in the unprecedented spread of subversive ideas. This quiet technological tweak changed the world far more dramatically (and lastingly) than any number of bloody revolutions punctuated by screams, explosions, and angry speeches.

Well aware of my biases, I still suspect that podcasting may one day be seen as equally revolutionary in its impact on the path of civilization — if not more so. While books are still somewhat expensive to produce and distribute almost 600 years later, podcasts cost nearly nothing — and distribution is effortless and immediate.

I’ve been making my podcast for well over a decade now, and I’m still amazed by the unobtrusive power of the process. I sit down, turn on a microphone, push a few buttons. After an hour or two I push another button and it’s done. Within a few days, the equivalent of a small stadium-full of people may have listened. Big-shot podcasters like Dan Carlin, Joe Rogan, and Scott Galloway may be talking to the equivalent of entire towns, cities, or small nations. And because every episode is archived online, there’s no telling how many future minds will ultimately tune into these conversations.

This reach is nearly free for the producer as well as the audience. All my podcasting gear cost me less than $1,000, plus the computer, which I already had. A hosting service runs about $20/month, or free, if you host it on Substack. No studio to rent. No technicians turning things on and off. No producers, assistants, or publicists. Just me, some microphones, a laptop, and often, a guest. And because this process is so cheap, there’s no need for big corporations to get involved, looking over my shoulder, telling me to avoid this word, skirt that issue, or disinvite a potentially controversial guest. My goal is simply to have a conversation that’s as organic as possible with anyone who interests me. 

As for the listener, most podcasts force you to deal with ads. I’ve chosen not to allow that particular form of psychological toxin into my process. Those who can afford it bring a bottle of wine to the party and those who can’t are welcome to come and have a drink anyway. Since my overhead is so low, I can afford to avoid advertising money and keep it real.

In addition to being simple, podcasting is mobile. I’ve recorded episodes in Mexico, Thailand, South Africa, Botswana, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Canada, Holland, Spain, and probably a few more countries I’m forgetting. I spend most summers in “Scarlett Jovannson,” my big red Sprinter van, cruising around the western U.S. I’ve uploaded episodes from cafes, libraries, restaurants, churches and anyplace else who would let me use their wifi — and as of a couple of months ago, I have a Starlink mini roaming setup, so I don’t even need to head to town, looking for wifi. I can post directly from anywhere with access to the sky.

Tangentially Speaking has revolutionized my own life. A lot of people seem to think of me as a writer, but I don’t really love to write. As with most writers, I love having written.

But I love doing the podcast. I love the process. I love having a reason to turn off the phones and focus on the simple, essential joy of sharing physical and cognitive space with my guest. Their eyes and body language hint at where the conversation can flow most naturally. There’s an intimacy in good conversation. Maybe that’s why a lot of guests have become close friends, ranging from (actor/comedian) Simon Rex, to (“The Iceman”) Wim Hof, to big-wave surfer Kyle Thiermann, to Callie Russell, who survived 92 days alone in the arctic, to my wife, Anya Kaats.

When he heard me talking about how I’d like to get a van, Oliver, an auto mechanic, reached out to offer his help in finding/outfitting it. Now, he and his wife Cheryl are among my closest pals.

On my first summer trip in the van, with Erin (on the left) in 2016, Jonathan, Jillyn, and their pal Connor invited me to float down Montana’s Flathead river with them. We’ve been friends ever since.

Tom and Judy invited me to use their washing machine in Bend, Oregon that summer. We ended up going to Burning Man together that year, and are still good pals.

I’ve met some of you in bars, supermarkets, gas stations, airports, walking down the street. Hell, backpackers stopped to say hi in a little town called Pai, in northern Thailand! If it sounds like my tiny taste of fame has gone to my head, please forgive me. I’m just mystified by it. And I’m immensely grateful for it, too, because all the people I’ve met have been fantastic. What could be more enriching than something that brings a steady flow of quality people into our lives? So, while I wouldn’t presume to say exactly what listeners get from the podcast, I can tell you that I get a hell of a lot from it.

Will podcasting add up to anything on a global scale? I don’t know. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the question in the comments. In any case, it’s clear that many of us are making radical changes in how we live on this planet, how we envision “success,” and how we build and maintain community. Western civilization is overdue for a cleansing, renewing revolution, and I’m convinced that the deepest revolutions sound a lot like unscripted, uncensored, uninhibited conversation. Here’s hoping.

If you would like to support this little corner of the revolution, I hope you’ll consider a paid subscription.

Is violence ever justified? Is structural violence different from interpersonal? What about violence against property? What about when property is violent against us? Is the US/world approaching a tipping point? Deep issues considered from a shallow bathtub.

https://warehousefire.watch/

Read more

Read more

Well, there’s another commercial-free episode in the bag! Many thanks to those of you who make that possible by supporting the podcast to the tune of $5 a month or $50 per year via chrisryan.substack.com.

Intro music is called “Brightside of the Sun,” by Basin and Range. Check them out at basinandrange.bandcamp.com. Outro: “Global House,” by Øystein Sevåg.

You can always pick up some merch from my mom, including the super popular sad chimp Civilized to Death shirts and hoodies, as well as a bunch of other stuff at thatchrisryan.com.

Find other Tangentialistas using the map Riku set up at facilmap.org/tspeaking

Send emails and voice memos to me at thatchrisryan@gmail.com

Most new episodes and various other materials are available on my YouTube channel @thatchrisryan

And don’t forget to use my Amazon affiliate link to redirect some of that sw eet, sweet cash from Jeff Bezos to support this little podcast! (You can find it in the show notes and on my web page: thatchrisryan.com).

Thanks for listening. Catch you next time.

On this AROMA, we ruminate on a listener’s question about whether non-monogamy is an expression of a desire for escapism, fantasy, and a lack of commitment — a perpetual state of discontent. We talk about the nature of falling in love, projection, and what our longing can teach us if we engage with it intentionally. We also discuss the puer aeturnus arc…

Read more

Andy grew up in the UK, but a series of events led him to drop his life there fly off to a place where he knew no one (although he was born there). As you’ll hear, that gutsy decision paid off very well. Andy as spent his career as a fire fighter, rising to prominence as Senior Manager, Emergency and Protective Services of the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) in BC, Canada where he was responsible for the overall management and implementation of the regional emergency management program, fire protection, and 911 regional telecommunications system to ensure the safety and well-being of residents, first responders and property within the district.

He is a qualified trainer and assessor in first aid, fire investigation, trauma care, water rescue, and confined space. Andy is the recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, as well as several commendations for bravery. Plus, he’s just a really good-hearted, solid dude.

This has been another commercial-free podcast, financed by folks who toss a few bucks into the hat every month here. If you don’t want to subscribe, but would like to support this podcast with a one-time donation, please click here.

Intro music “Brightside of the Sun,” by Basin and Range. Outro: “Days of Fire,” by Nitin Sawhney - feat. Natty.

If you buy from Amazon, my link is here. (You can click on it once, then bookmark that as your go-to Amazon link so it’ll always work.)

Buy some merch from my mom here.

Grab a copy of my books: Sex at Dawn, Civilized to Death, Tangentially Reading, Talking Drugs, and Talking Sex here.

Find other Tangentialistas around the world!

Instructions for getting the paid RSS feed in apps is here.

Anya and I recorded our eighth AROMA back on our couch in Crestone. We talk about our last days in LA and our journey back from Baja, our impression of the tenth Bombay Beach Biennale, what it means to choose our discomforts wisely, whether Anya thinks she’s autistic, and what our choices are when we recognize that we’re living in a cage with the door w…

Read more