Showing Up

Pizza is transformative. This episode looks at the effect pizza has had on several people's lives, including Long Islanders and New Yorkers. Discussion of regional variations of pizza are included, but the focus comes back to how involvement with pizza transforms one man's life and brings about business opportunities that he could only have barely imagined as a hard-working 15-year-old. The self-soothing nature and timelessness of two slices and a beverage of your choice are reaffirmed and offered up as a reminder of hope in tough times.

This episode considers the future as constructed by three sci-fi/dystopian fiction writers; myself (author of CONVERGENCE), Katie Delahanty (author of KEYSTONE), and educator/author Erika Kane (author of SELAH & THE BLOOD BARRENS). What's already come true? Why, and how, can a bleak future be written about when we're in the middle of a fairly bleak present-time? Should we all be writing comedies?
For more info:
KEYSTONE: https://www.katiedelahanty.com/
CONVERGENCE: https://rusa-ie.com/

13 days later, some reflections begin to come into focus. Regardless of your vote, there are real reasons to be concerned. It is time for all of us to turn into adults once again.

This is the second part of my interview with Don Lattin, author of a nonfiction "psychedelic trilogy" of books about San Francisco, Tim Leary, LSD, MDMA, Richard Alpert/Ram Dass, Aldous Huxley and the resurgent prospect of using psychedlic substances (legally) to assist psychotherapy.
Will "psychedelic psychotherapy" come into being as a mainstream, insurance-reimbursable reality within the next few years? Isn't changing consciousness at the heart of what is being attempted with anti-depressants? Or...maybe not.
Don writes about the intersection of the spirit, mind, body and consciousness....through the lens of his experience, and reporting about, the psychedelic substances that were heavily demonized in the "War on Drugs." As these come into serious study in the therapy field, now, a reconsideration of what was being attempted, on both the East Coast and the West Coast, in the 1960's is in order.
Don can be reached at http://www.donlattin.com/

A most hopeful discussion with the recently graduated senior class President of Warwick High School, in which experiences around racism, the intersection of conservative, libertarian and liberal democratic values and this country's history are factored in. (Oh yes; country music, too.) Vidar Hageman is a strongly positive voice for a generation of pandemic-graduating high schoolers. As he heads off to college, hear his thoughts re: a honest reckoning with American history, patriotism and the benefits of cutting across political divisions by finding what to respect -- and remind people of -- in all of us.