The B&P Realm

After an intro in which I describe my initial experiences in the Clubhouse app, some topics covered in this week’s rambler include: Masculine and feminine ways of perceiving; how we break things into dichotomies; is intuition really feminine?; dichotomies are fun but the ground is One; writing--feeling past the dichotomies and into our shared humanity; how a shadow side of identity politics is a r...

Today’s main topic today is grief. While it is a more emotional topic than some I’ve covered, I also think if you stick to the end, you’ll find there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. To tease that a bit, I’m finding that as I try to understand this period of massive transition, I keep coming back to my conclusion that the response to our challenges is to become more human and this means, as har...

This episode covers: Why my utopia isn't a cartopia; The positive side of pondering utopia; entering a world where sharing is wealth while leaving one where hoarding is wealth and how this relates to social media companies having one foot in both worlds; The future of social media: should Facebook pay us for our posts because we are the producers of content there? Should we create publicly owned s...

This week's episode is definitely a rambler as I had no topic in mind before I began but still managed to cover some serious ground. So, the topics covered include, but are not limited to: Loving the sound of running water, how it makes me feel both grounded and in flow; dealing with my Inner Critic about my lack of organization and sense of lack of accomplishment; appreciating my developing sense...

In this episode, I use a recent Rebel Wisdom video titled “The Q Anon Shaman and the Return of the Mythic” and my participation in a live Q and A with two of the guests in that video to dig into the topic of the rise of conspirituality in our culture.  To do this digging, I use a variety of tools, including an Integral Theory lens, and an overview of how the past twenty years of US media fail...

Episode 2 finds me rambling very broadly on the topic of censorship, where I try to put into context the recent actions of social media companies deleting accounts in the wake of the January 6th Storming of the Capitol event in Washington DC. I speak about how such purges are aimed at outsiders, not just people on one side of the political spectrum or the other, and why this concerns me. While I r...

Welcome to season two, everyone! After an introduction to the new format for 2021, this episode goes over my main New Year's Resolution--a commitment to health---my thoughts on the situation in the U.S. (aka the "Storming of the Capitol" and the " Night of the Short Fingers ," which is the name writer Cory Doctorow gave the ensuing social media crackdown/content moderation), the astrology of these...

Very impromptu episode recorded on a morning walk here in central Japan where I launch from a recent interview on the Joe Rogan show with a New York Times reporter about the response to COVID-19 and I discuss what I see as some of the blindspots in both our response to it as well as more broadly how these blindspots show up in current and historic events. I also use the movie "First Cow" as a disc...

Call it a Christmas present, call it  a "we-made-it-through-this crazy-fucking-year-of-2020" present, whatever you prefer, but this is a (long) short story from yours truly called "The Synchronicity Factory." It's a magical tale with nonsensical asides, trips into speculation about the nature of reality and how the concept of synchronicity may represent that we live in a world that is much mo...

This is a true free-form rambler in all of its worst and, hopefully, best aspects. Just me uncensored from the afternoon here in Japan, after polls closed all over the U.S. and the narrative of Election Day, 2020 in the U.S.---another shocker, still too close to call, but looking good for Trump---is over. If you don't want to hear my pontificating about the results and trying to tabulate them, go...

Yeah, it's been a while but I had to way in on the US election. It'd be a complete loss to civilization if I didn't. So I tell you why my vote went where it went, and remind you that the Iowa Caucus was a nightmare for a lot of reasons, including a really shady app and why I think that first election of the 2020 campaign foreshadows 2020's final election, I talk about some of my thoughts regarding...

This is a broad overview of some thoughts " Utopia Avenue ," a novel by my favorite contemporary author, David Mitchell, which was just released in mid-July 2020. The episode covers some of the basics of the book and then goes into some personal reflections on a few of the themes of the novel, including my mental health issues and struggles with addiction as well as some pondering about the role p...

Digging through my closet of papers two days ago, I found a poetry assignment I completed as 2018 became 2019, where I had to write a poem every night on the theme of Imagine the Possibilities. I had a lot of fun reading 'em out loud that day decided to read 'em all to you for the podcast. These are whimsical poems full of metaphysical pondering with a dollop or two of heartfelt questioning, quest...

Here is a sample episode of what I am dubbing an adventure cast, where basically I will go out on one of my bike rides and, depending on the experiences I have, the people I meet, the things I listen to,  etc., I'll record some snippets and make a podcast out of it. Today's episode sees me riff off an excellent conversation between Michael Moore and Pink Floyd's Roger Waters from Moore's Rumb...

That's right, folks. This is it! The last episode of this podcast! The purpose of the B&P Realm was to read my novel and to practice the art of podcasting. Well, this episode the novel, "The Teacher and the Tree Man ," concludes. And by concludes, I mean not only the final two chapters and the epilogue but the acknowledgments and the About the Author page, too. Before that, in the intro, in li...

Yes, this episode is about the fuzz. Events over the past week in the United States after the murder of George Lloyd by a thug police officer and his three partners have compelled me to dive into many difficult, important conversations around the topic of how a society should police itself because the way it's being done in our world, whether out on the streets of America or Hong Kong, or on-line...

Today's episode is on one of my favorite topics: The Near-Death Experience (NDE). After an intro, I share an NDE from a friend, and then a clip from hypnotherapist Dolores Cannon about the Life Review . Then, you get a chapter from the book The Purpose of Life, As revealed by near-death experiences around the world , which talks about how we can live in the face of concerns about a future that app...

So much trouble in the world, how can one not be pissed about it all?  Such are the questions Silvanus Douglas ponders in chapters 13 and 14 of book 4 of " The Teacher of the Tree Man " at the end of this episode, and such are the questions I ponder in this episode. The first clip is some frustration from yours truly inspired by a rant by KMO at the end of a recent episode of the C-Realm Podc...

How did I get here? How did we get here? And where the F am I going? Where are we going? These are the questions this episode of the podcast ponders as we take the metaphor that humanity is having a mid-life crisis and can either turn inward to develop further or make the mistake of continuing to project outwards. I read an essay I wrote and set it up with a clip from the late, great Alan Watts ,...

We're back with another episode focusing on bullshit because, well, we are talking about American politics here. In particular, Russiagate. This episode uses two pieces of media for its focus, both featuring the indomitable rabble-rousing journalist with a ton of integrity, Matt Taibbi. First, you will hear the voice of Aaron Mate, who is also an excellent journalist, as he appears on Taibbi and K...

Today’s episode is brought to you by me going outside. That’s right, this episode which focuses on environmentalism, the controversy over the Michael Moore-produced “ Planet of the Humans ”, and the need for our culture to move past its divisiveness, well, it was all recorded from the Great Outdoors. Not only do I touch on that movie, but I also reference an excellent episode of The C-Realm Podcas...

On today's episode, you'll hear a psychedelic-inspired essay where I ponder the deeper questions facing humanity today while at a Phish concert. Then, we lighten the mood with some comedy improv. That's right, it's "The Upside of Jeff Bezos." And last, as always, two more chapters from my 2015 novel, " The Teacher and the Tree Man ."

This episode focuses on the dangers of increasing censorship in the COVID-19 era, why I believe this is happening and what I think the solution is. We get clips from the Astrology Hub Podcast and the Useful Idiots Podcast where Matt Taibbi references a piece he wrote about a recent article in the Atlantic arguing that China actually has handled Internet freedom correctly and the West should learn...

Today we ponder the importance of staying human when it seems we are becoming ever more disconnected from Nature and how some of us seem to like it that way. This episode was inspired by a talk on a recent favorite podcast, the Astrology Hub Podcast , and this particular episode but before you get to the main rap, I borrow from another episode from that excellent podcast to offer some very interes...

Today's episode is on the topic of loss. We've all lost things during the past few months, I think. So I talk about the things I've lost and how I've dealt with that. After that, we get to hear a live version of the song "Friend" by Ghosts of the Forest, along with a reference to an interview that guitarist and songwriter Trey Anastasio did, and then a poem I will be publishing on my  Medium...