Aliveness: Technology, love, money, sex, soul, governance

We project our anger onto those in power as if they were our parents constraining our freedom and failing us at every turn. In this short episode, I explore the emotional work of democracy: learning to see our leaders as human, to move from complaint to contribution, from projection to participation.

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This episode asks: how do we stay human inside each of the social media platforms?

I trace the ways some of the platforms undermine my values: from Meta and its documented harms, to TikTok’s dopamine machine, to Substack’s conflicted role in the attention economy. I bring in Shoshana Zuboff’s theory of surveillance capitalism, the story of Cambridge Analytica, teen suicides linked to Instagram, and a chilling case of a man’s fatal entanglement with a Meta AI.

This is an episode about radical ethics. It’s about what we consent to, what we refuse, and how we choose to connect in ways that don’t hollow us out. Mostly it's about responsibility. I walk through my decisions platform by platform, and why podcasting has become my chosen container.

• What “surveillance capitalism” means, and why it threatens democracy
• The blurred line between influence, manipulation, and consent online
• Meta’s record: Cambridge Analytica, teen mental health, and AI experiments gone wrong
• Why TikTok and reels destroy our dopamine balance
• Why Substack works for me—and where it fails on anti-censorship
• The lure and limits of LinkedIn, BlueSky, and YouTube
• Why podcasting is my chosen space: no ads, no algo, no intrusion
• Web3: I forgot to mention this in the podcast! Web3 social is an area of active research for me and while I’m not sharing my work on Forecaster or Base it’s in the works. This is where we own our work.

• 02:00 Why the container matters as much as the content
• 04:30 Surveillance capitalism (Shoshana Zuboff)
• 06:00 Not all data use is surveillance, but the line blurs
• 09:20 The escalation: clicks → biometrics → behaviour shaping
• 11:00 Substack as a model, but also its flaws
• 13:40 Meta’s record: misinformation, Cambridge Analytica, teen suicides
• 15:17 Meta AI harms: the New Jersey stroke patient case
• 19:00 X as cesspool, TikTok as dopamine hijack
• 25:00 Why feeds are different from algorithms
• 28:00 LinkedIn, Blue Sky, YouTube—different shadows
• 35:00 Substack’s anti-censorship stance and my conflict
• 42:00 Why podcasting: intimacy without intrusion
• 46:00 Closing: real life is local

• Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: Book link
• Cambridge Analytica scandal (Facebook fined $5B, 2019): Wikipedia
• Research on Instagram and teen mental health / suicide risk: Wall Street Journal coverage
• Meta AI and the New Jersey man’s death (stroke patient case): Reuters
• GenAI Content Risk Standards leak (Meta, 2025): Reuters
• On TikTok’s dopamine effects and algorithm design: Brown University
• Robert Reich’s Substack (“Coffee Klatch”): Robert Reich Substack
• Research on YouTube radicalization: Data & Society report

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Beauty in a Burning World: Taylor Swift and What the Showgirl Can’t Escape

A close look at Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl through the lens of archetype, fame, and feminine power. I explore why this album lands as both dissonant and revealing in a world on fire, and what it reveals about how women carry collective desire and projection.

I unpack the Ophelia archetype and how Taylor’s “saved by love” narrative mirrors an ancient pattern that still shapes women’s lives. I speak about compassion and concern, not judgment, and the artist’s responsibility in a time when visibility and influence reach billions.

This episode holds both love and critique. I look at how art meets history, how power is embodied, and how we can honour beauty without losing sight of reality.

What you will hear

The Fate of Ophelia and the shadow of the fragile feminine

Fame as both mirror and cage

The emotional tone of Showgirl in a violent global moment

Elizabeth Taylor and the courage of reinvention

Why female rivalry wounds us all

The artist’s moral dilemma: beauty or relevance

The call for women to stand together in strength and sanity

Timestamps

06:43 Reading of Article: Who can save us from the fate of Ophelia?

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A candid return at fifty, where I share addiction recovery, the cost of visibility, and a fresh public voice that braids soul, money, tech, and civic life.

I came back to the mic after two years, newly fifty and fiercely alive. This episode opens with a simple claim: love can be rational, love can lead, love can think clearly without letting the mind run the show.

I walk you through the realities of ketamine recovery, the stigma that trails addiction, and the relief of real healing. I name the risks of the personal growth industry, why regulated care matters, and how offline time, books, and steady presence rebuild a nervous system.

I share the moment the parts of my life clicked together, and how a cross-discipline voice emerged. Finance, psychotherapy, politics, tech, and the daily work of being human, held in one body. I speak about work, dignity, and the power structures that shape our days. I open a door to blockchain as a tool for more participation and less capture, distinct from the hype.

We finish with a call to daily practice. Slow thought, local life, better questions, and a commitment to speak with soul.

• Ketamine recovery, shame culture, and what healing took in real time
• Why I stepped away from selling transformation, and what integrity looks like for me now
• The campaign trail, respectability pressure, and the appetite for powerful feminine presence
• Money, corporations, government, and the costs we carry
• Blockchain, beyond hype, as a possible path to more participatory governance
• Books over feeds, offline over trance, local over spectacle
• A closing reading from Terence McKenna on courage and the feather bed

Timestamps

00:18 Coming back at fifty

05:20 Addiction, stigma, and recovery

09:30 Sex-positive work and public life

13:40 Holding all the parts, one voice

17:30 Politics, action, and living with paradox

21:28 Cross-discipline lens, money and meaning

26:10 Blockchain, participation, and hope

31:00 Daily publishing, books, and presence

34:10 McKenna reading and closing prayer

• How I went from psychedelic facilitator to ketamine addiction in 2 months, Part 2
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Since My Summer As A MILF was published I have been engaged in deep medicine and accompanying inner work and life has surprised me with a deep experience of intimacy that is both everything I have longed for and has also stirred some of my deepest pain. In this episode I talk about the recent experience that felt like the completion of all that has driven me forward and how it has changed how I relate to my work and my life and the ongoing challenge of opening to love without making another person responsible for my unfolding and my ability to give and receive love.

I recorded this in a very raw state. The video on youtube adds a lot.

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I dated younger men this summer and my experience was life-changing. Join me for a spicy and expansive conversation abut what happens when we follow desire and how important it is that each of us does this in our own way.

Read the article. Read more about sexual healing. Join my email list.

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Expand is a three month alchemical program to transform your current experience into a new chapter in your life.  

In Expand you will engage in deep mental, emotional and somatic work in a structured process so that you can fully step into your life in every way you desire. You will also have the opportunity to experience one full microdosing cycle combined with the inner work if you choose.  

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This is an update to Episode 29 - life has evolved and here we are! A personal context for my current work on sexuality.

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In Expand you will engage in deep mental, emotional and somatic work in a structured process so that you can fully step into your life in every way you desire. You will also have the opportunity to experience one full microdosing cycle combined with the inner work if you choose.  

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My recent Ayahuasca ceremonies prompted me to think and write more deeply about sexuality. Here is the result. More to come.

Questions for reflection:

What would your life look like if you were sexually free?

What do you most desire?

What does satisfaction mean to you?

What enlivens your body?

What are you creating?  What do you want to create?

What do you long for?

What does it look like for you to let go into the orgasmic nature of life?

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HOW TO MICRODOSE FOR TRANSFORMATION GUIDE

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APPLY FOR EXPAND TO STEP FULLY INTO THE LIFE YOU DESIRE

Expand is a three month alchemical program to transform your current experience into a new chapter in your life.  

In Expand you will engage in deep mental, emotional and somatic work in a structured process so that you can fully step into your life in every way you desire. You will also have the opportunity to experience one full microdosing cycle combined with the inner work if you choose.  

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"In order to discover a new land we have to lose sight of the shore for a very long time." - André Gide

I sound much more composed in this episode than I feel. Thanks for being along for the ride.

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HOW TO MICRODOSE FOR TRANSFORMATION GUIDE

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APPLY FOR EXPAND TO STEP FULLY INTO THE LIFE YOU DESIRE

Expand is a three month alchemical program to transform your current experience into a new chapter in your life.  

In Expand you will engage in deep mental, emotional and somatic work in a structured process so that you can fully step into your life in every way you desire. You will also have the opportunity to experience one full microdosing cycle combined with the inner work if you choose.  

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aka Increasing Life Force Sexual Energy Through Targeted Inner Work

This is a version of the talk I gave at the High Desert Human Design Conference in September 2023.

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HOW TO MICRODOSE FOR TRANSFORMATION GUIDE

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APPLY FOR EXPAND TO STEP FULLY INTO THE LIFE YOU DESIRE

Expand is a three month alchemical program to transform your current experience into a new chapter in your life.  

In Expand you will engage in deep mental, emotional and somatic work in a structured process so that you can fully step into your life in every way you desire. You will also have the opportunity to experience one full microdosing cycle combined with the inner work if you choose.  

Learn More and Apply for Expand

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