Plutopia News Network

In this episode of the Plutopia News Network podcast, Jon talks to Joe Verona, a certified professional hypnotist specializing in brainwave entrainment (BWE) and biofeedback. The original neurohacker, Joe has explored hypnosis, meditation, energy practices, lucid dreaming and out of body experience as well as clinical uses for brainwave entrainment. Joe has been on a mission to not only learn all...

This episode’s guest, Sam McChesney (aka Sam the Fungi ) is dedicated to ending mycophobia, changing mycostigma and connecting people through the power of mycelium. Sam joins Jon and Scoop for a wide-ranging talk about all things fungi. Sam on Sam… I discovered my affinity for fungi when I got over-stressed around my 18th year in the existence of this body. I was unable to eat many of...

Singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Kevin Russell joins Jon and Scoop in this episode of the Plutopia Podcast. Kevin talks about his days with The Gourds and his current band: Shinyribs .  We also talk about violence at music venues, streaming music, Covid’s impact on the music business and a possible Gourds reunion. Stick around for the end of our session — Kevin plays a bit of mus...

Jasmina Tešanović – “I thought it was a temporary state of mind, but the more that time goes by, especially now with the more the system is broken of information… and I really tried to read between the lines in the press, in different languages, and now I have the Spanish language and French – I know many languages, you know… but I am more and more an idiot. If somebo...

Plutopia goes on a ride along… our friend Spike Gillespie was literally on the road when she spoke to Jon and Scoop for this week’s Plutopia podcast. Spike takes us on a free-wheeling tour of her ranch, her businesses, and Bastrop County, Texas. We also talk about her new restaurant in Smithville, small town Texas and fitting in, glamping, weddings, creating happy communities and much...

Former political consultant, current mixed martial arts blogger , editor of SB Nations’s Bloody Elbow, and host of the “Let It Roll” podcast Nate Wilcox joins the Plutopian crew for a verbal cage match about politics. He takes a break from blogging about mixed martial arts to take a few swings and kicks at politics and politicians. Jon and Scoop get in a few sucker punches, in a...

In this week’s Plutopia podcast, Jon and Scoop make a deep dive into death… also Halloween, sex, pagan celebrations, and Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead). “Everyone is a beginner when it comes to death.” – Sallie Jiko Tisdale, “Everything Dies” in Lion’s Roar We don’t like to think about death in mainstream America. We hide it, and when we...

Just in time for Halloween – scary stories from the world of big tech!! Thanks to our friends at EFF-Austin, we present a session with author and tech veteran Vahid Razavi. He shares some of his personal experiences – many of them bad – from his time working for some well-known tech giants. He also shares the most important question to ask a hiring manager before accepting a job...

Hugo award-winning author Pat Cadigan joins Jon and Scoop to discuss her novelization of William Gibson’s first screenplay for Alien 3, the third movie in the Alien franchise. The final film wasn’t based on Gibson’s version, which had been discarded in rounds of rewriting and re-visioning. Sadly, critical response to the film was not good. Pat has created a novelization of Gibson...

This time, we dig deep into the archives for a flashback to the final episode published prior to our seven-year “sabbatical”. “Miller is as quirky and delightful as ever, treating the Southwest as a vast midden from which he plucks many odorous but tasty treasures. The fun, as usual, comes from watching Tom digest.” – Larry McMurtry Based out of Tucson, Arizona, Tom Miller has traveled...

Stephanie Vale, the pen name of a longtime WELL member, is a semi-retired attorney and part-time university instructor in the US Pacific Northwest.   She has loved Jane Austen for more than 40 years, and has been reading and enjoying Austenesque fiction since 2008. In 2017 she finally became inspired to attempt writing her own JAFF or Jane Austen Fan Fiction. Her first book, THE COLONEL’S BR...

Johannes Grenzfurthner is a happily subversive artist, filmmaker, author, and performer. He’s based in Vienna, Austria. He’s founder and director of monochrom, an international art and theory collective. He’ll be premiering his latest film, “Masking Threshold,” at Fantastic Fest in Austin (coming soon to a brainstem near you!). In this interview, we discuss nerd cultu...

Chris Zappone works as a foreign news editor in Australian media. Chris has written about geopolitics, space, technology, ideology, and the future. He has consulted with universities, think tanks and businesses in the area of tech disruption, information war, and cryptocurrencies. And he has an interest in history and utopia (and Plutopia!). Chris Zappone: “I think part of the issue with the...

Suzanne Stefanac, aka Zorca, is an interactive media consultant and former journalist. As a journalist, she wrote about digital issues for Wired, Macworld, New York Times and Rolling Stone, among others. With the launch of MSNBC in 1996, Stefanac was executive producer for The Site, an hour-long, nightly television program and website that explored how technology impacts modern life. Lately she&#8...

Rock and roll! Plutopia News Network cohosts Scoop and Jon talk about their internet radio show, Radio Free Plutopia. They also discuss their lifetime love of rock and roll, vinyl records, digital music, record shops, album covers, and much more!

Artist Eliza Evans returns with an update on her activist art project, “All the Way to Hell.” We also talk about fracking, the oil industry, nonprofit organizations, hybrid art forms, and much more. Eliza Evans: “When I launched the project last fall, not quite a year ago, I had this I thought crazy reach goal of giving away mineral rights to a 3 acre Oklahoma property – gi...

Tom Jennings joins Plutopians for a free-range, grass-fed conversation about programming and software, Afghanistan, racism, the Civil War, Tom’s FrankenRambler, and much more. Tom is a Los Angeles-based artist, tech, and AMC Rambler aficionado. He is known for his work on FidoNet, the first message and file networking system for BBSes. He’s also known for his work at Phoenix Technologi...

Climate scientist Michael Tobis returns to the Plutopia podcast. He discusses the conflict of fascism vs. internationalism, the right wing co-opting of the anti-vax movement, conservative resistance to climate science, and virtue signaling on social media. Also wondering if democracy can survive the right’s fascination with fascism. Michael is interested in the interface between science and...

In this episode of the Plutopia News Network podcast, Jon and Scoop follow up our January 2021 interview with Sandy Stone. In this episode, we discuss her experience working as part of the Olivia Records collective, her authorship of “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto,” her role in originating the Transgender Studies discipline, and her experience establishing the Ad...

Jon and Scoop have a conversation with author and consultant John Hagel about his new book, The Journey Beyond Fear , which explores the psychology of change, the passion of the explorer, and how to identify, face, and move beyond your fears to focus on opportunities and realize your full potential. John has more than 40 years’ experience as a management consultant, author, speaker and entrepreneu...

Rancher, author, activist and punk rock knitter Spike Gillespie joins Plutopians Maggie Duval, Scoop Sweeney and Jon Lebkowsky to talk about the challenge of small town politics in the crazy polarized 2020s. Spike has been raising hell since she was born with her fist raised in the air. She is, among other things, an author, influencer, secular minister, provocateur, serial entrepreneur, social ju...

Nate Wilcox manages Combat Sports properties for Vox Media | SB Nation, running four of the most popular web properties covering MMA/UFC, boxing and pro wrestling. He also hosts the rock and roll podcast “Let It Roll.” In a past life, he was a political consultant. He joins Plutopians Jon and Scoop for a deep dive into politics. This session was originally broadcast live on our Yo...

David Gans is a musician, author, and radio producer based in Oakland, California. David writes and performs his own music. He also had a career writing about music, particularly the music of the Grateful Dead. He’s published 4 books about the Dead, and produced the nationally syndicated Grateful Dead Hour. In this Plutopian conversation, David discusses his music career, his long-running ra...

Scoop and Jon talk about the news! We start by talking about link rot and content evaporation on the Internet, referencing Jonathan Zittrain’s Atlantic piece. We talk about Dead Media, content filtering, algorithmic curation and filter bubbles, information anxiety, newsreaders, cancel culture, political classifications, racism, power, corruption, and the Alamo.

Writer and technology critic Paulina Borsook has written for Wired, Mother Jones, and Suck.com. She is perhaps best known for her 2000 book Cyberselfish: A Critical Romp Through the Terribly Libertarian Culture of High Tech She’s also an artist, with projects like “My Life as a Ghost” and “The Hindsight Institute.” In our Plutopia News Network interview, we discuss he...