LIAF 111: “Queer is Questioning” From Spaces Between Podcast with Al Jeffery

What does it mean to call yourself queer? Today on Life is a Festival, I’m honored to share an interview I did on Al Jeffery’s brilliant show, “Spaces Between,” discussing queerness as a form of radical curiosity.

We open with a comparison of vulnerability and openness, and how to use embodiment to support good mental health. We discuss what it means to “queer” something and how psychedelics and identity-expanding practices are in and of themselves queer. We talk about temperament, attachment style, character and identity and how you can release your own personal mythology by getting down to basic physiology. We close with learning to love the questions themselves, which in our binary culture can be the most difficult love, and yet the most rewarding.

Al is a facilitator, community-designer, Top 30 Under 30 entrepreneur, keynote speaker, author and leadership virtuoso. He is dedicated to understanding disconnection and restoring connection in our lives, leadership and communities. Al hosts the "Spaces Between" Podcast, an open-inquiry into restoring community in the 21st Century, which I highly recommend.

Timestamps

:13 - Courageous vulnerability vs. social media openness

:23 - Embodiment and mental health

:35 - What it means to “queer” something

:44 - Focusing on physiology and releasing your personal mythology

:55 - Temperament, attachment personality, character, and identity

1:03 - Can you queer your depression?

1:08 - Masturbation and digital sex addiction

1:08 - Learn to love the questions themselves

Links

Al Jeffery: https://aljeffery.com/

Inside by Bo Burnham (Netflix show): https://www.boburnham.com/

Finite and Infinite Games (book): https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/1476731713?

Sacred Sons (podcast): https://open.spotify.com/show/13MNzScptw2xqgkCTrgAEJ?si=a4700281b7c746bd&nd=1

Tara Brach Podcast (podcast): https://open.spotify.com/show/37McjD0j2cdu4GExcFQgm0?si=dcc3018f51b248b9&nd=1

Your Brain on Porn (website): https://www.yourbrainonporn.com/

Johari’s Window: https://www.communicationtheory.org/the-johari-window-model/

What started as a festival bringing together elders from around the world has become a platform of superheroes! Aniwa is a movement to amplify the voices of Indigenous leaders and today’s guests founders Vivien Vilela & Rudy Randa share what that means in the time of Covid.

We start with Vivian and Rudy’s initial awakenings, which started like many of ours. at outdoor dance parties. We discuss what is known as the Rainbow Prophecy and how that gave birth to the Aniwa Gathering. We talk about some of the Indigenous leaders they represent like Benki Piyãko, Mona Polacca, and the mysterious Mamos of the Sierra Nevadas. Finally we explore how we might transmit elder knowledge to a Western context and how we could scale Indigenous wisdom in our modern world.

The Aniwa Gathering is a non-profit event produced by The Boa Foundation bringing together 40 of the world's most respected indigenous leaders and elders to share their wisdom over 4 days of cultural exchange and sacred ceremonies.

Links

Aniwa: https://www.aniwa.co/

The Boa Foundation: https://www.theboafoundation.org/

Brazil: Reject Anti-Indigenous Rights Bill: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/08/24/brazil-reject-anti-indigenous-rights-bill

Aniwa on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aniwa.co/?hl=en

Boa Foundation on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theboafoundation/?hl=en

Timestamps

:07 - Vivian and Rudy both first opened up through outdoor parties

:18 - The Rainbow Prophecy and the Aniwa Festival of Indigenous wisdom

:29 - A superhero team of indigenous elders

:47 - Transmitting elder wisdom to a Western context

:59 - Scaling access to indigenous wisdom

The 2021 Renegade Burn was a marvel of self-organization. Today on Life is a Festival I share my own reflections and a collection of interviews from drone artists to temple builders.

The show begins with my own experience. I answer questions, share my philosophy of why we Burn, respond to criticisms, and report on the vibe. Then I interview Nathan Rolshoven, a young, passionate burner and an amateur historian of Burning Man culture. Following that I discuss swarm dynamics with Ralph Nauta of Studio Drift who put on three breathtaking drone shows. Next, we hear from four organizers of the Plan B Facebook group: Howard Davis, Joel Briggs, Mike Lee, and Lofax. Then I share the touching friendship between veteran volunteer Ranger Maverick and Happy Mutant, an EMT with Guardian Elite Medical Services (GEMS). Our final interview is with Monera Mason, a lead organizer of the Temple. To top it off I include a snippet of my rant about burning man philosophy at sunrise on playa with music and culture journalist Katie Bain for her Billboard Magazine article.

This podcast is dedicated to Kamp KISS and of all my amazing campmates who gave me a home on the playa and helped make this podcast happen.

Links

Studio Drift: https://www.studiodrift.com/

Black Rock Plan B Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/368518897848763

“The Temple of Constaints: by Monera Mason: https://moneram.medium.com/temple-of-constraints-cdbb7913f35d

Katie Bain Billboard article: https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/9626976/burning-man-free-burn-unofficial-nevada/

Timestamps

:02 - My reflections on the Renegade Burn

:26 - Nathan Rolshoven

:47 - Ralph Nauta of Studio Drift at 47 Minutes

1:12 - Plan B including Howard David, Joel Briggs, Mike Lee, and Fayadas Lofax

1:48 - Maverick, Volunteer Ranger, & Happy Mutant, EMT with Guardian Elite Medical Services

2:17 - Monera Mason, one of the temple leads

2:44 - My short interview with music and culture journalist Katie Bain

With the rapid fall of Afghanistan, veterans in our communities need our care and support now more than ever. So I called up Army Ranger Jesse Gould who supports psychedelic healing for soldiers to talk about his experience and what we can do to help.

On the podcast Jesse explains the complex reactions veterans are feeling about the end of operations in Afghanistan. We discuss PTSD and why both the causes and healing of trauma are more complex than many realize. Jesse explains how ayahuasca and other psychedelics help to repattern hyper vigilance and an overactive nervous systems in soldiers returning from war. We discuss his nonprofit, Heroic Hearts, which takes veterans to ayahuasca ceremonies for healing. Finally we discuss how serving communities makes life more like a festival.

Jesse holds an important voice for military veterans in the psychedelic community and beyond. A former Army Ranger with three tours of duty in Afghanistan, he is the Founder and President of the Heroic Hearts Project, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit pioneering psychedelic therapies for veterans. Jesse works to spread awareness of plant medicine as a therapeutic method and has spoken globally about psychedelics and mental health. He is best known for his own inspiring battle with PTSD and his recovery through psychedelic therapy.

Links:

Heroic Hearts Project: https://www.heroicheartsproject.org/

Heroic Hearts on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heroicheartsproject/?hl=en

Timestamps:

:10 - The veteran response to the fall of Afghanistan is complex

:17 - Jesse’s history in the military

:28 - PTSD in the context of a war setting

:40 - How Ayahuasca repatterns hypervigilence

:47 - How Jesse learned to integrate his ayahuasca ceremonies

:53 - How serving community makes life like a festival

1:00 - The model of the nonprofit Heroic Hearts

What is our responsibility for kinship and reciprocity as we explore the healing power of plant medicine? Sutton King of the Menominee and Oneida Nations, Head of Impact at the psychedelic drug development company Journey Colab, can show us the way.

On the show we explore Sutton’s commitment to healing and service from her early days dancing jingle dress to her work with the Urban Indigenous Collective in New York. Sutton explains her perspective on kinship and the Seven Generations Principle. We discuss Journey Colab, the psychedelic startup that is developing mescaline for treating alcoholism. Finally we review the responsibilities of psychedelic entrepreneurs as well as individual psychonauts to be in right relation with the honorable harvest.

A descendant of the Menominee and Oneida Nations of Wisconsin, Sutton King is a nationally recognized indigenous heath advocate, researcher, and social entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and President of Urban Indigenous Collective, a nonprofit advocating on the behalf of Urban Natives in the tri-state area, she is Head of Impact at Journey Colab, a start-up led by Sam Altman and Jeeshan Chowdhury developing psychedelic treatments for mental health, and she is the Co-Founder of ShockTalk, a culturally tailored telemental health platform that facilitates culturally appropriate patient-provider relationships.

With psychedelic exploration booming, we need leaders like Sutton King to make sure our transformational self-inquiry and healing doesn’t simple become another kind of hedonic consumption.

Links

Sutton King on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sutton.king

Sutton King on Twitter: https://twitter.com/suttonking_

Urban Indigenous Collective: https://urbanindigenouscollective.org/

Journey Colab: https://www.journeycolab.com/

ShockTalk: https://www.shocktalk.io/

Decolonizing Wealth: https://decolonizingwealth.com/

Braiding Sweetgrass: https://milkweed.org/book/braiding-sweetgrass

Transcript

:10 - A day in the life of a psychedelic activist

:15 - Dancing Jingle Dress as a calling to help heal her people

:24 - Kinship and the Seven Generations principle

:32 - Peyote, Journey Colab, and the Indigenous Reciprocity Trust

:39 - Cheif Oshkosh, and Menominee sustainability

:44 - Right psychedelic entrepreneurship from the Nagoya Protocol to “Free, Prior, and Informed Consent”

:53 - Urban Indigenous Collective

:59 - Reciprocity on an individual level

Recently, in the bouldered desert outside of San Diego, I joined the Embodied Masculine Experience created by Sacred Sons. Today on the podcast, I’m honored to bring you the co-founder and the voice of Sacred Sons, Adam Jackson, for a deep dive on modern mens work.

On the show we discuss the need for embodied masculinity and the evolution of Sacred Sons from the Mythopoetic Men's Movement and the Mankind Project to today. Adam describes men's work and the philosophy behind the organization. Then we get into my experience at the gathering from ritual connection in a cave to ritual combat in the “Brotherdome.” We finish our conversation with the Father’s Circle and how to integrate this work.

Adam is the Director of Operations & Co-Founder as well as the host of the Sacred Sons podcast. His spiritual background includes Inipi (Sweat Lodge), men’s circles, plant medicine ceremonies, and transformational gatherings. He is fittingly known by his brothers as Lionheart

Sacred Sons is offering a series of gatherings across the United States in the month of September if you or a man you love are interested.

Links

Events Calendar: https://www.sacredsons.com/events-calendar

Sacred Sons: https://www.sacredsons.com/

Adam Jackson on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adam___jackson/?hl=en

Sacred Sons and the Rise of the Embodied Masculine by Ian MacKenzie: https://ianmack.medium.com/sacredsons-5cf03070b28d

Timestamps

:08 - All of you is welcome, inclusivity in mens work

:15 - Brotherhood is the medicine, what is the sickness?

:23 - Why Adam is called LionHeart

:27 - The origins of Sacred Sons from Adam’s life to the Mankind Project

:37 - What is men’s work?

:46 - My story of ritual connection at Sacred Sons

:54 - Ritual combat in the Brotherdome

1:01 - The Father’s Council

1:05 - How to integrate

Today we welcome back the mighty Tony Moss for a deep dive on ayahuasca healing for ancestral trauma and post traumatic slave syndrome.

On the show we discuss Tony’s first experiences with ayahuasca over 20 years ago through the Santo Daime church. Tony shares his own experience healing ancestral trauma in ceremony. We talk about epigenetics and the current understanding of ancestral healing from indigenous to modern worldviews. Tony describes his first experience leading an all-Black ceremony and finally we discuss the state of race in America today.

Tony Moss is a musician, artist, and founder of I.AM.LIFE, a non-profit event production project focused on interconnectivity. He has been working with ayahuasca for 20 years in jurisdictions where it is legal and is a public advocate for the decriminalization and responsible use of all plant medicines. Tony is passionate about the synthesis of indigenous and modern world views.

Links

Tony Moss: TonyMoss.me

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mosstony/?hl=en

Rachel Yehuda: Studying the Science of Psychedelics and PTSD: https://www.mayahealth.com/podcast/dr-rachel-yehuda

Timestamps

:07 - When you first discovered ayahuasca?

:13 - The Judeo-Christian ayahuasca tradition of Santo Daime

:23 - How Tony discovered his own ancestral trauma

:33 - Epigenetic and healing ancestral trauma

:47 - Tony’s experience leading all-Black ayahuasca ceremonies

:57 - Ayahuasca and the state of race in America

“Stay awake, build stuff, and help out.” Jamie Wheal’s masterful new book Recapture the Rapture is a wokeup call for all of us hedonistic Lizard Brain Fuck Monkeys who need to get our shit together and save the world.

On the show we talk about the Pareto effect for peak experiences; protocols for a global nervous system reboot; the unintentional outcomes of intentional communities; designing vibrant anti-fragile transformative culture; the sexual yoga of becoming homegrown humans; and a DNA Jesus fish. Above all this is a conversation about building an open-source operating system for transformational culture.

Jamie is the best-selling co-author of the 2017 hit Stealing Fire and founder of the Flow Genome project. He is a dear friend of the show and also taught me how to wakeboard for the first time. His new book Recapture the Rapture: Rethinking God, Sex, and Death in a World That's Lost Its Mind is a must read for anyone who wants to optimize their psychedelic journey or start an intentional community.


Links

Recapture the Rapture: https://www.recapturetherapture.com/

Stealing Fire: http://stealingfirebook.com/

Flow Genome Project: https://www.flowgenomeproject.com/

Timestamps

:08 - Who is this book for?

:14 - The Pareto Effect for peak experiences

:22 - Practices for a global nervous system reboot

:35 - Stay Awake, Build Stuff, and Help Out

:45 - Unintentional outcomes for intentional communities

:58 - Designing vibrant, anti-fragile transformational culture

1:08 - Sexual Yoga of Becoming

1:18 - Homegrown humans and a DNA Jesus fish

1:35 - Building an open source operating system for transformational consciousness and culture

1:47 - Book clubs and shared vernacular

I first experienced the actor Adrian Grenier, like many of us did, as the charismatic boy prince Vincent Chase on the show Entourage. We met in person at a masculinity talk at Burning Man as a man going through a profound spiritual journey, which is the subject of today’s podcast.

On the show we look at Adrian’s life through an archetypal lens from the puer aeternus (the boy who won’t grow up) to the four mature masculine archetypes outlined in the book King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. We discuss his time on the set of Entourage and how life imitates art. Adrian explains his own trail of ashes, the portal to growing up, and some of the specific tools, like embodiment, that Adrian used to catalyze his growth. Finally we discuss his new community project outside of Austin, Texas named Kintsugi after the Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold.

Adrian is an actor, director, producer, musician, environmentalist and now, a farmer. He is best known for his starring role in the HBO series Entourage and has appeared in films such as Drive Me Crazy and The Devil Wears Prada. He serves as a United Nations Environment Goodwill Ambassador.

A Note: Discussions of gender are incredibly nuanced, especially now. There is no one size fits all way of looking at gender polarities in ourselves and our culture. Neither Adrian or I are gender theorists and so we endeavor to share our own experiences. Whether you identify as a man or woman or any other beautiful constellation of gender identity, I hope you find something in today’s episode that gives you greater insight in how to expand the width of your own being.

Links

Shot in the Dark (film): https://www.amazon.com/Shot-Dark-Adrian-Grenier/dp/B00SR38NTC

King, Warrior, Magician, Lover: Rediscovering the Archetypes of the Mature Masculine:

by Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=king+warrior+magician+lover

Iron John: A Book about Men by Robert Bly https://www.amazon.com/King-Warrior-Magician-Lover-Rediscovering/dp/0062506064

Elana Meta (Intimacy Specialist): https://www.elanameta.com/menswork

Teenage Paparazzo (film): https://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Paparazzo-Adrian-Grenier/dp/B004U8VWOQ

Lonely Whale: https://www.lonelywhale.org/

Timestamps

:06 - The adolescent desire to take risks in order to live an epic story

:14 - The Father wound and The Warrior’s healthy anger in service of boundaries

:23 - Cultivating your own dangerous nature to be a good protector

:30 - Entourage and becoming the archetype of immature masculinity

:39 - The Trail of Ashes

:47 - Embodiment, seamen retention and other tools for navigating the underworld

1:00 - Adrian’s community project in Texas and the opportunity for humble service.

Feeling a little nervous about post-pandemic gatherings? You’re not alone. Luckily we have a master community builder, Radha Agrawal of the sober morning dance party Daybreaker, to give us some wise words and a gentle nudge back to IRL connection.

Our show starts with Radha’s own experience intentionally crafting a new group of friends in her 30s. She shares some social alchemy techniques from her book Belong including the C.R.A.W.L. method and the Four Phases of Community. We discuss what she learned when Daybreaker went digital during the pandemic. Finally we explore reintegrating into in-person experiences for both attendees and producers.

Radha Agrawal is the co-Founder, CEO and Chief Community Architect of Daybreaker, the sober morning dance party vibing on five continents with almost half a million people. Her book Belong is a blueprint for building community. Radha is currently teaching joy practices on D.O.S.E., Daybreaker’s science backed platform, which supports members on their journey to joy. She is also busy pioneering the field of Functional Happiness and writing her next book, The Joy Ride.

Radha’s Website: https://www.radhaagrawal.com/

Daybreaker: https://www.daybreaker.com/

Radha’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/love.radha/

Belong: Find Your People, Create Community, and Live a More Connected Life: https://www.amazon.com/Belong-People-Create-Community-Connected-ebook/dp/B075G4W7MV

Greater Good Science Center: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/

Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words by David Whyte https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00VUE2QJS

Timestamps

:07 - How Radha learned to be intentional about choosing her friends

:17: - Radha’s CRAWL method for community building starting

:22 - Women’s safety and leadership at events

:36 - How being forced online by the pandemic brought Daybreaker into people’s homes

:41 - Using Radha’s Four Phases of Community to reconnect post-COVID

:48 - How to find a sense of safety resocializing

:53 - Ways of stimulating your happy chemicals dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin and endorphins (D.O.S.E.)