Last Train

The crew discusses some of the scientific theories behind "tripping out" and also talk about the ways in which current forms of drug restriction policies are in fact censoring research and could be potentially damaging to patients with issues of mental health. They start off discussing the brain (04:20). Why are these drugs banned? (16:30). Julianna makes a brilliant statement that resonates with the crew (20:10). Tobi discusses David Nutt, the neuropsychopharmacologist (36:40). The crew try to remember their earliest memories (43:20). Iyanu talks about a psychedelic study mentioned in Rick Doblin's "The future of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy" Ted Talk (49:40). This episode, as always, ends with a question (1:00:20). For any feedback or questions, email us at [email protected]

At first glance, beauty seems to be a central guiding principle in our lives, a way in which we define our aesthetic experience with each other and the universe. It’s very much something thats brings people and communities together from things like dances and festivals of colors, to introspective films about the humans conditions and exhibitions of nature  But in an era where beauty is extremely commodified and perhaps economically manipulated, it begs the question of if we need to alter our notion of beauty or even doubt if beauty as we once understood it is on its way out. That is why we’ve decided to call this episode “Beauty is dead?”

I believe it was Oliver Sacks that once said that we live much of our childhoods in an arcadian state, and thus we spend the rest of our lives trying to recapture that state; even if it did not exist in the first place. And what a fitting tone to start an advanced conversation on the blissful ignorance we are at times seem to be searching for. However, perhaps going beyond just an arbitrary need from a break from adulthood once in a while,  Margret Herfernan’s theory of Willful Blindness represents a more elevated culture of ethical and social avoidance that not only causes us to voluntarily see less of the world as it truly is but also robs us of our own agency and creative and imaginative capacity to live a more free life. Thus this episode is called “Freedom and the Blissfully Ignorant”

There is a common notion that it is quite possible to be in a room otherwise filled with people yet still feel quite alone. And given the state of the world, and the increasing need for physical distancing from one another, it brings about a serious fear of an emergence of a kind of social rescission. However, even if many people find themselves struggling to deal with loneliness especially in these times, perhaps it's an even bigger opportunity to learn some things about who we are within our isolation; and maybe come to find out that we are in fact never truly alone. Thus this episode is titled “Loneliness and the Social Recession”

Perhaps one of the oddest feelings in this human life is that awkward feeling of familiarity when you’re in a seemingly new environment or place yet you feel as if you’re reliving a past experience. In other words there is this chilling sense as if you’ve seen this all before. Sort of like watching a movie you’ve sworn you've seen before. There is a word for that in our culture and that is the french term “Deja Vu” which means already seen.

After Obama was elected, people often affirmed that America was entering a “post race” era, but maybe this only a superficial understanding of the political climate. Maybe we are entering a new era of racial understanding; one that is characterized by the existence of a “post race” era but rather one based on the myth of a “post race” era.

Michel Foucault often said that we should understand society as it relates to various rotating seats of power and how power structures can be used as a form of social control through social institutions. Power is everywhere and in everything.

Andrea A Davis, an associate professor in the humanities department at York University, once said that the sheer belief in the fundamentals of a democratic and multicultural society makes people somewhat able to accept the fact that racism is not just still largely the act of a few morally flawed individuals and that its not ubiquitous. But it's perhaps it more important for people to accept that racism isn't just manifested through hate, but through things like apathy, silence, ignorance, and a refusal to challenge one's self to understand the reality of the racial other.

Michel Foucault often said that we should understand society as it relates to various rotating seats of power and how power structures can be used as a form of social control through social institutions.

In our struggle against the human condition the biggest question we find ourselves confronting is how to deal with the trauma of existing, but furthermore how to come to terms with who we are and in turn become masters of our own reality.

Does Wild n Out make you feel somehow connected to your blackness?

The Black Lives Movement is an ideal that stretches farther than its original organizers could have ever imagined as it challenges the majority within society (who do not experience racism as a part of their reality) to confront their privilege and its image as its contextualized within history and modern-day societal prejudice. It's about finding a way to take control and I also argue coping with Alienation.

Certain provinces pose a strange threat to Indigenous child care reform programs.

What was your best date memory, and describe your perfect date?

Apologies for the terrible audio.

Certain mayors in the United States are fighting for guaranteed income for struggling Americans with no strings attached and furthermore they are advocating for these types of wage supplement  policies nationwide. This was founded by the mayor of Stockton, California Micheal Tubbs, and includes the leaders of other cities such as Tacoma, Compton, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Newark and so on.

Trump attempts to push millions of Americans off Obamacare in the middle of the global health crisis.

How have you embarrassed yourself in front of a crush, and what would you tell your past self now?