Lost Xplorers

For part two of our discussion of Michael Heizer's 'City,' Kris asks the question: what makes a city a city? Is the city's purpose tied into the "feel" of it? Are people the main component, or are cities built first, with the intention of herding people around? This is a great critique of Heizer's massive project, the first of its kind that I've ever seen. We also talk the origins of "beaver" as a...

Big episode today folks! Kris got to take a tour of the new Michael Heizer project 'City.' I start off by telling him about a trip I took to an estate sale (complete with a creepy "Christmas room") and from there we move into an absolutely fascinating look at this project 50 years in the making. We talk about accessibility of art, anticipation of experience, obsessive outsider artists, and exotic...

On this episode, we talk writing routines, positive and negative nodes of discourse, imaginary worlds, psychoarchaeology, utilizing A Voyage to the Moon to map the psyche of thinkers of the path, and perhaps to rewrite our own internal maps. Kris tasks David with developing a play about Darwin's theory of evolution...to be put on by a sixth-grade class. Authors who set out visions of the Moon and...

On this episode, Kris relates an amazing story about riding out a hurricane on the Isle of Pines and doing battle with mice, ants, and crabs. We then talk about the imaginary as a necessary component of the material, The Blazing World by Margaret Cavendish (the first work of science fiction by a woman, 1666), lost casinos, dreams of return, and the logical aspects of perception.

On this episode, Kris and I discuss the deeper mythological meaning of Atlantis. Kris weaves together Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Burroughs, and the story of Fordlândia to interrogate why this story holds such power. What if Atlantis was a sigil?

What happens when a point becomes a line?, the Atlantean Halls of Record, Atlantis as a Greek cautionary tale, the difference between a lost civilization and a lost tribe, the importance of ruins, the truth of Atlantis, the need for speculation, afrofuturism, the different thought processes between tribes and civilizations, and mapmaking.  Lots of Gus noise in this one! It was quite the experience...

Welcome to the 117th episode of No Country...or the 1st episode of "Lost Xplorers." The "E" has gone missing. Kris and I were chatting on the phone about a new book that he's working on called The Lost Xplorer's Handbook. That started lighting up parts of my brain. I've recently been getting back into esoteric stuff, archaeology, history, and anthropology, and I wondered, "What if we changed the n...

On this episode, we discuss: Nap: Interrupted, what would happen if you were shrunk to the size of an ant, the rise of the Sophists, the possibility of knowledge, the value of speculation, believing everything, thought-terminating clichés, rudeness, and how not being a dick is the most important goal in this day and age. Notes: Harold Budd The Voyage of the Beagle "Letter Concerning the Fire on th...

One of my favorite episodes, now. In this episode, Kris and I take Michael Heizer's recently-completed fifty-year art/architecture project "City" as a frame to talk about collaboration, ego, atomization, and communitarianism. Notes: Michael Heizer Land Art Movement Robert Smithson Michael Govan Basin and Range National Monument James Turrell Final Hot Desert Roden crater Christo Florence Goodenoug...

On this episode, we talk the realm of angels and saints, visits from the dead, baby DJs, not complaining, externalizing thought, Giordano Bruno, books as sacred objects, the roots of the word “tradition,” the humors, order and secrecy, the importance of worlding, symmetry, and bonds.   Henry Corbin - The History of Islamic Philosophy James Hillman - The Dream and the Underworld John Searle’s Chine...

On this episode, we talk about covid recovery, finding your focus, monetization, and how that idea relates to value and values. We also have an imaginative challenge about artworks conversing, and a dream of a public toilet.    David Blaine James Nestor The Woman in the Dunes by Kobo Abe

Sorry for the delay on this one. As we talk about in this episode, I've been a bit under the weather. On this episode, we talk about icons and heritage, and whether or not our youngest generations have any connection to time and history. Can we still have devotional practices when everyone has become atomized?

What does it mean to say that something is "on the record"? Who's keeping this record? Kris and I talk about moving away from community, becoming a stranger to old friends, and developing tribes instead. It's good to be a part of a tribe...not so much a mob. Also, David is tasked with making a billionaire believe that he lives in 1988.

On this episode, Kris and I continue our discussion of mental maps. We're getting really close to something here Sorry for the lateness, my cord broke on this one. TOO MANY MIKES.

On this episode, Kris and I discuss Marshall Islands stick charts (known as Mattang), and their relation to the maps we know and (no longer know how to) use. How do we construct maps in our minds? What is their relation to the territory? When is it good to trust a guide? Kris tasks me with inventing a scenario involving deals, and we tell each other our dreams. (Giant Hyenas!)

On this episode, Kris and I talk Roe v. Wade, gun control, big government vs. small, mutual aid societies, plumb bob 9/11, dogs with explosive diarrhea, non sequiturs, and a dream poem. Notes: Leonora Carrington Carlos Mérida Baker Hotel T.R.M. Howard Pootie Tang

Or, The Puppeteer Adjudicators Kris and I talk de-normalization, adding color to the wardrobe, and mitigating OCD. We then address our two “derangement syndromes,” ie the cultural debates that trigger us: COVID-19 and wokeness in academia. How do we inoculate ourselves against this allergic reaction to beliefs that we find distasteful? How do we just get on with the process of living? Should value...

On this episode, Kris and I recap the strange incident of the "lost" episode. Last week, we had a real banger recorded...but something had other plans. We go on to discuss this essay by The Convivial Society, "We are Not Living in a Simulation, We are Living in the Past." Is it accurate to say that the transparent, false nature of the internet is a function of it being a large archive? Can you be...

Alternate title: Turn Your Mirrors to the Wall in the House of the New Dead How do we reconcile our beliefs with stark reality? Why does this keep happening? On this episode, Kris and I discuss the sacredness of hobbies, young men gone wrong, incel gamers, car culture, private grieving, the pornography of the feed, and how art can act as a cure for the mind-melting wide-eyed Clockwork Orange-style...

We talk about the concept of wantok, the ability to hold two thoughts at once, engaging with ideas that you don't agree with, Christopher Hitchens, Jordan Peterson Derangement Syndrome, drug trips as ways to grapple with reality, cinema's unique ability to communicate psychedelic experience, and the necessity of love and hate in creating a public figure. The Trip Head The Northman Wolfman Jack

On this episode, Kris and I talk about the recent Roe v. Wade controversy. It leads to a reinvigorating idea about the ability to hold two thoughts at the same time. What ways can we look to indigenous thought styles to maintain (in)coherence?

On this episode, Kris and I ponder the various types of clothing people wear, constant messaging, and developing a Sherlock Holmes-style observational ability.

On this episode, Kris and I discuss new directions for the show, the difference between integration and imposition, and Kris relates a dream where an action figure is stuck in his chest.

On this episode, Kris and I talk about the ability to pause and rewind, filling in your own blanks, and psychosomatic illness. Kris tasks me with developing three intro questions for a psychological examination.

Kris recounts a disturbing conversation, and we discuss the value of having heroes. What does a hero look like? He also gives me the task of elaborating on a high-concept idea about tattoos. It's Gus's birthday today! The young man is one. Hope you are all doing well.