Tangentially Speaking with Dr. Christopher Ryan
In which we talk about our last days in LA, our impressions of the tenth Bombay Beach Biennale, our arrival back in Crestone, and the importance of choosing your discomforts wisely.
Jesse Bering is an award-winning science writer specializing in evolutionary psychology and human behaviour. He is the author of The Incredible Afterlives of Dr. Stevenson, about the world's leading reincarnation researcher.
Peter Michael Bauer is an internationally known leader in the cultural rewilding movement. For over 20 years he has written and taught about rewilding. He has served as an expert source in multiple academic articles and books on the subject. He is the founder and director of Rewild Portland, a trend setting community based nonprofit.
Tao is a magical man, living a magical life. Film director, musician, philosopher, bon-vivant, and all-around lovely human being. I’m thrilled to bring him back into our party again (for the fourth time?). Anya, Tao and I recorded this in our van at his recent 50th birthday celebration.
I got an email from a guy named Nick, who suggested I might like to meet his buddy, Ryley, who happened to be in Baja. I could sense the love and respect Nick felt for his friend. And then fate placed Ryley just a few miles down the coast from where we were camped out, so it all came together pretty organically.
Probably our last AROMA from Baja. This one comes to you from a campfire on the beach. We talk about education, the war in Iran, and the ones who walk away from Omelas, among other things.
In this one we talk about our reactions to “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” by Ursula K. LeGuin. Is there any walking away? What are we walking away from? Is there a way to live in this world without the stain of guilt and corruption? What does it mean to be in the world but not of it?
We figure out the framing a minute in. Thank you Nickalas Chisari, Bob Goldsmith, Dustin Fenster, Devin McManus, Raymundo Ortiz, and many others for tuning into our live video! Join us for my next live video in the app.
Barbara, Anya’s grandmother, has lived a full life of 91 years and going strong. She’s lived all over the world, raised two sons, studied Jungian psychology, loved and lost and loved some more.
Updates on our Mexico travels, my attempts to master the flip-flop, my dermatological disabilities, Anya’s thing for older men (and why older isn’t necessarily better), and the blessings and burdens of being recognized for who we really are (and the complicated role of the recognizer).
We respond to questions from listeners about therapy, whether shame fuels eroticism, why neither of us wants to have kids (or dogs), and whether we are in an “age inappropriate” relationship.