Dream Chasers and Eccentrics

This is an episode I published in February of 2024, and it is so good that I remastered it to remove background noise and improve sound quality. Even if you listened to it two years ago, it is well worth a second listen.

Dr. Emmett is a retired surgeon, sculptor, and author. He has a vast and unique knowledge of a level of consciousness that most of us don't perceive. We talk about self-image, the subconscious, intuitive knowledge, immortality, consciousness, meditation, telepathy, past lives, working with clairvoyants, the source of knowledge, the creator, history of religion, karma, the purpose of life, UFO's, near-death experiences, other dimensions, the power and importance of forgiveness, the energy field of creation and love (God), why we should be planting more forests, why we shouldn't get angry, how to be more forgiving, hypnosis and autohypnosis, Buddhism, and much more.

Links are on the podcast shownotes page

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Anthony Horowitz is a British novelist and screenwriter who has written over fifty books. He started with children's books and first found success with the Alex Rider seires, which has sold over 21 million copies and was made in to a TV series on Amazon. As his readers grew up, he began writing mysteries, including Magpie Murders, which initiated a series on BBC Television. He has also written for the Sherlock Holmes and 007 estates. He has written several television series including Foyle's War and Midsomer Murders. He was on this podcast in 2025 talking about his book "Marble Hall Murders." His latest book is "A Deadly Episode."

We talk about reader feedback, reviews, work and time spent working, swimming in the river Thames, blending fiction and reality, solving the crime in the book and how difficult the author wants this to be, scripts and adaptations, other books and authors, elaborate setting descriptions, settings and characters, immersion in the book and characters, writing with a pen vs a computer, fountain pens, writing a mystery within a mystery, word puzzles, keeping the mind active, poetry, social media and phones, keeping up the motivation to write before breaking out, self-publishing vs traditional publishing, mediocre writers and great writers and what separates them, a connection to something greater than us and cultivating it, his favorite of his own books, advice for writers, and more.

Links are on the podcast shownotes page

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Cornucopia is a short story about a mission to colonize another planet, written and narrated by Paul Trammell.

Subscribe to paultrammell.substack.com to get a freee short story in your mailbox on the first of each month.

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Phyllis E Leavitt graduated from Antioch University with a Masters' Degree in Psychology and Counseling in 1989. She co-directed a sexual abuse treatment program called Parents United in Santa Fe, New Mexico until 1991 and then went into private practice full time. As a psychotherapist, she treated children, families, couples, and individual adults for 34 years, and has worked extensively with abuse and dysfunctional family dynamics, their aftermath, and some of the most important elements for healing, including the intersection of emotional wellbeing and spiritual healing and connection. She has written three books, "A Light in the Darkness," "Into the Fire," and her latest book, "America in Therapy: A New Approach to Hope and Healing for a Nation in Crisis."

In this interview, we talk about visions of a divine love consciousness, finding a path to divine guidance, poetry, our souls and what they are doing here, operating as a soul-consciousness in our human bodies, receiving messages, moving away from an ego-consciousness, past lives and reincarnation, tuning in to our highest source, her books, injury to love and safe belonging, healing and shedding negative beliefs and coping mechanisms, family dynamics, the family of America and how it resmbles an abusive family, her book "America in Therapy," division in America, sobriety, and more.

Links are on the podcast shownotes page

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Phil Borges is a photographer and flimmaker dedicated to documenting the lives of indigenous cultures, and their shamans in particular.

His work is exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and his award winning books, which have been published in four languages, include Tibetan Portrait, Enduring Spirit, Women Empowered and Tibet: Culture on the Edge. He has hosted television documentaries on indigenous cultures for Discovery and National Geographic channels. Phil also lectures and teaches internationally.

During his work, he noticed similarities between shamans and the people we label as mentally ill - specifically schizophrenic or bipolar. His documentary Crazywise dives into this subject and focuses on two individuals in America who suffer from psychotic episodes and how they tried to deal with their mental difficulties. CRAZYWISE explores the relevance of Shamanic traditional practices and beliefs to those of us living in the modern world. CRAZYWISE centers around a young man struggling with his sanity, world renowned mental health professionals, and a gutsy survivor-led movement...all challenging a mental health system in crisis.

In this interview, we talk about growing up in the Haight-Ashbury, becoming an orthodontist, interviewing hippies on the street, becoming a photographer/interviewer, becoming a professional photographer, documenting tribal cultures, Tibet, watching the Dahlai Lama's kuten go into trance and channel an oracle, an interview with the kuten discussing how he got the job, things shamans have in common, schizophrenia, ego disolution, psychadelic experiences and the neuroscience behind them, what happens when our identity anchors are taken away, near-death experiences, our view of reality, making the film CRAZYWISE, Vipassana, pharmaceuticals, trauma, ayahuasca, psilocybin, how to talk to people having a psychotic episode or paranoid hallucinations, the stigma associated with psychotic diagnoses, advice for people with schizophrenic freinds, the importance of maintaining the relationship, and more.

links are on the podcast shownotes page

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Melvin Edwards is an author, journalist, and podcaster. His latest book is "Nuremberg Mississippi."

We talk about how laws affected blacks differently from whites and were used as tools of opression, such as not being able to use the front door of stores or to eat inside restaurants or for a black man to be driving with a white woman or to be black and in town after sunset in "sundown towns," segregation, the "Negro Motorist's Green Book," where racism comes from and how slavery started it and perpetuated it, why it's nearly impossible for Blacks to trace their ancenstors in the USA prior to emancipation, his book "Nuremberg Mississippi," how the current administration emboldened racism in America, racist organizations in America, why people join racist organizations, PTSD, what we can do to promote friendliness between races, Jim Crow - where the name came from and what it means, his podcast "Stories from Real Life," and more.

Links are on the podcast shownotes page

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Space Man is a short story by Paul Trammell, published April 1 on paultrammell.substack.com

The story is narrated by the author.

Links are on the podcast shownotes page

support the show through either substack, if you want more short stories, or Patreon

Amjad Tadros was CBS News' Middle East producer from 1990 to 2023, during which he managed regional coverage of transformative events, including Iraq's wars, the September 11 hijackers' backstories, the Arab Spring, and Syria's chemical attacks on civilians. His commitment to truth earned him four Emmy Awards, including for stories about Syria's chemical gas attacks (2016) and White Helmets (2017), a 2008 Peabody Award, and two Alfred I duPont Awards from Columbia Journalism School. He is also the author of the recently published book The Fixer: A Journalist's Accidental Journey Through the Middle East.

We talk about current events in the Middle East - including the war in Iran, the people and various cultures of the Middles East, how war can be prevented, Yemen, how the lies a spy told helped instigate the Iraq War, Islam, the actual meaning of "Jihad," why wars start, nuclear weapons, Qatar, the possibility of the war in Iran spreading, why war does not solve anything, the Epstein files, war journalism and what goes on behind the scenes, fake-news accusations and why they break his heart, meeting Osama Bin Laden's bodyguard, Bin Laden's objective, 9-11, what a "fixer" is in journalism, trustworthy news outlets, and more.

Eric Robinson was a Baptist pastor before becoming an FBI agent. He was a SWAT operator for 15 years, a tactical and firearms instructor, and worked in Human Intelligence, National Security, and most of the criminal offenses covered by the FBI. He recruited informants, dealt with teen prostitutes, interrogated terrorists, arrested drug dealers and peadophiles, and much more. Two of his cases won the Attorney General's Award. He is writing a book, not released yet, titled "Irreverend."

We talk about becoming an FBI agent, morals and ethics in work, why he left his ministry to join the FBI, similarities between the ministry and the FBI, interrogation, why torture happens (and shouldn't happen) in interrogations, the benefits of professional conduct, foiling mass shooters, why school shootings have become more common, lessons learned in the ministry that were useful in his FBI work, prostitution and how girls (and boys) fall into it, practical jokes, drug cartels, ripping off drug dealers, wiretaps and listening to suspects, crack dealers' phones, the Epstien files, how redactions should be done, peadophiles, ICE and how they have been conducting business under the current administration, the current FBI leadership, Antifa, Christian nationalism and white supremacy, and more.

links are on the podcast shownotes page

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J. R. Thornton was born in London and graduated from Harvard College in 2014, where he studied history, English, and Chinese. He later competed for Harvard as an internationally ranked junior tennis player on the men's professional circuit. Shortly after graduating from Harvard, J. R. published his first novel, Beautiful Country, loosely inspired by experiences he had living in Beijing as a teenager. The novel became a best-seller in China, and the film rights were subsequently purchased by WME/IMG.

J. R. returned to China in 2016 as a member of the inaugural class of Schwarzman Scholars, earning an M.A. from Tsinghua University. He lives in Milan, where he works for AC Milan. Lucien is his second novel.

Lucien is described as an incendiary literary work about a gifted artist on financial aid at Harvard who falls victim to the manipulative control of his wealthy, enigmatic roommate. Drawing inspiration from the true crime stories of Christian Gerhartsreiter (a.k.a. "Clark Rockefeller") and Adam Wheeler, Lucien is an immensely entertaining novel that will appeal to fans of The Secret History, The Incendiaries, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Saltburn. This is complicated, toxic friendship and dark academia at its best.

We talk about how he got started writing, lessons learned playing professional tennis, how he got his first agent, his writing routine, becoming immersed in his novel while writing it, maintaining discipline, writing in alternate places, where the idea for Lucien came from, developing the main character, publuishing, books and authors we love, cultivating creativity and curiosity, writing a screenplay, advice for writers, time travel, and we discuss I highlights I took from the book.

links are on the podcast shownotes page

support the show through Patreon