Tangentially Speaking with Christopher Ryan

I caught up with Oscar-nominated director Josh Fox in New Orleans (Gasland, How to Let Go of the World and Love All The Things Climate Can't Change), where he's doing his Josh Fox things: writing, organizing political protests against a fracked gas power plant, playing music, creating art (paintings), and eating a lot of crawfish. His cat Sandy joins us to rub her face on the microphones. This is...

Diana is the founder of a boutique LGBTQ family law and mediation firm based in New York City and Frankfurt, Germany, serving primarily same-sex couples and non-nuclear families. Diana is about supporting  healthy, stable families, whether between same-sex couples, platonic co-parents, polyamorous families, or different-sex couples, by facilitating conversations that support the creation of clear...

Like millions of people, I first became aware of Jeff Leach when I read about his attempt to transfer a hunter/gatherer's fecal matter to his own colon as a way to study the human microbiome. Little did I know I'd find myself sitting at the table with him in rural Texas a few years later or that he'd agree to share his insights with me on a podcast. Jeff's published in Science , Nature and everywh...

Cassie and I met John Duarte at a highway rest stop in Dateland, AZ. He was riding his bike from El Paso to San Diego, which is a short "training run" for him. Join us for this spontaneous conversation in the van. #vanthropology2018 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Mike has been my best-buddy since I was 15 years old. The Mr. Spock to my Captain Kirk, he's kept me marginally out of trouble for 40 years now. Mike's a talented musician, speaks several languages fluently, and comes out of a confluence of culture and history. There's nobody quite like him. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episo...

Zhana is a NYC-based sex researcher, writer, and educator. She has a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Cornell University, where she studied how different aspects of sexuality (especially casual sex/promiscuity and mostly heterosexuality) are linked to health and well-being. Currently an adjunct professor at the NYU Psychology department, Zhana teaches the first Human Sexuality course this depa...

Bruce Damer is a Canadian-American multi-disciplinary scientist, designer, and author. He collaborates with colleagues developing and testing a new model for the origin of life on Earth and in the design of spacecraft architectures to provide a viable path for expansion of human civilization beyond the Earth. He began his career in the 1980s developing some of the earliest user interfaces for pers...

Johann is the author of Chasing the Scream and Lost Connections -- both of which are largely about the traumas created by trying to live in a pathogenic society. He's a brilliant writer and conversationalist. In the first part of this podcast, we're in his hotel room in Beverly Hills (Thanks, Rupert Murdock!). The second part is in my car, headed south on the 405. I had a great time hanging with J...

Steve Silberman is an award-winning science writer whose articles have appeared in  Wired , the  New York Times , the  New Yorker , the  Financial Times , the  Boston Globe , the  MIT Technology Review ,  Nature ,  Salon ,  Shambhala Sun , and many other publications. He is the author of  NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity  (Avery 2015), which Oliver Sacks called a...

Host of the Michael Brooks Show , and contributing host for the four time award winning independent political talk show,  The Majority Report,  Michael appears regularly as a political and cultural analyst on outlets including Huffpost Live, SirusXM, AlJazeera English, CCTV and France 24. His writing has appeared in  Al Monitor , Al Jazeera, the Washington Post, among others, and he has blogged fo...

Jamie was a prominent stand-up comic before he drifted into political commentary, eventually becoming a leading voice among the social justice warrior crowd, with his radio show (Citizen Radio). That ended when he was accused of "inappropriate behavior" and he suddenly found himself the target of the same kinds of uncritical condemnation he'd directed at others. It's been a wild ride, but he's bac...

David Stansfield has spent many years studying Arabic and the cultures of the Middle East. Together with his partner and wife of 42 years, Denise Boiteau, he has produced documentaries for television and written several books. He's a sophisticated, kind, and fascinating man. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisr...

David Beckingham is a Canadian musician who drove down to Oregon to catch the eclipse with me this summer. Afterwards, we hung out in the woods and on the slopes of Mount Hood for a few days, where we recorded this podcast. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Charlotte McKinney is a sweet, kind, smart young woman who happens to occupy the sort of body that many men would sell their soul to get close to. To say that's been a mixed blessing for her is to put it mildly. She's been featured in Super Bowl commercials, on the cover of GQ, in a slew of ads for Guess, and everywhere else sexy women's images are used to sell stuff. In this conversation, we get...

Dr. Michael Shermer is the Publisher of Skepticmagazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. He is the author of  Why People Believe Weird Things ,  Why Darwin Matters ,  The Science of Good and Evil , and  The Moral Arc . His new book is  Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality...

Just a quick message, wishing you a smooth transition to 2018. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Kyle Thiermann is a professional big wave surfer, Patagonia surf ambassador, documentarian, journalist, and pal of mine. We took a drive down to Baja to get some work done and hang out. As a correspondent for Discovery Digital Networks, Kyle Thiermann covered important issues ranging from a little-known indigenous conflict in Southern Chile, to the impact wild pigs have on Hawaii's coral reefs. Th...

Just a few dudes talking. @simonrex415 @cultureschlock This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Reza is a bestselling author, most recently of God: A Human History .  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Micah and a friend had been traveling for a year in Africa when she met a Samburu herdsman and quickly fell in love. Her memoir of that voyage is called The Keepers of The Story . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Spent 4 hours today in the studio with these two beautiful maniacs. We talked about everything from DMT to the #metoo movement, to the size of Jeff Sessions's schlong. To call it a "wide-ranging" conversation would be an understatement. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Simon Rex (aka Dirt Nasty) joined me for a ride down the 405 to visit with Stanley Krippner. Hop in and come along! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Kelly Brogan, M.D. is a Manhattan-based holistic women’s health psychiatrist, author of the NY Times Bestselling book,  A Mind of Your Own , and co-editor of the landmark textbook,  Integrative Therapies for Depression . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

An addendum for a guy who's a little worried about traveling for the first time. Advice on how to puke, and why anything that's in our gut is kind of outside our body already.  This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Am I an angry aging hippie? Why do we emulate billionaires instead of real geniuses and visionaries? This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe