Lost Xplorers

On this episode, Kris gives one of the best articulations of how memory actually works, relates a dream in which he is visited by gods with sea turtle heads, and we decide to stop equivocating so much with our pronouncements.

Abbreviation, Equivocation, Euphemism / Characters as Algebra / Hand Pan Drum Memory / The Wisdom of the Turtles

Torn Curtain

The Stonehenge Conspiracy

Hand Pan Drum

Ubik

Samuel Butler

Soylent Green

On this episode, Kris and I go back and forth on the issue of licensing potential parents. Does the world have enough space for more people? What is the value of freedom in a world that requires sacrifice?

Population Problem or Allocation Problem?/ Responsibility to Culture / Personal Authoritarianism

Michael Schellenberger

Buckminster Fuller

Food Insecurity for the Children of Third World Countries Due to COVID

Antinatalism

Thomas Ligotti

Bruno Bettelheim

Joseph Chilton Pearce

On the first part of this episode, Kris and I go over the distinction between values vs. goals, with a focus on cultivating an imagination and an appreciation for nature.

The Value of Imagination / Connection to Nature / The Importance of Commitment

In part 2, we talk about the strange vine-like nature of memories. Where are memories stored? Where do plants store memories? Is every memory we have the first time we have it?

The Metaphysics of Inspiration / Where Do Memories Come From / Bike Escape from Living Mannequins

Henri Bergson

Norman Vincent Peale

“A Neville Goddard Method for Creating Reality”

Mitch Horowitz

Charles Baudelaire

Heraclitus

Blaise Pascale

Jean Piaget

The Problem with Palm Oil

John Gould

National Audubon Society

The Lord of the Flies by William Golding

A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes

The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits by Charles Darwin

John Edmonstone

Imperial by William T. Vollmann

Plant Cognition

Homunculus

Boomtown

Quick note about the bonus section toward the end: JDO acknowledges that the planets do not revolve around the earth. It was very late.

On Part 1 of this episode, Kris and I begin to construct a framework for how to raise a child, with a focus on “how” to live rather than “what to achieve.” We discuss the influence of capitalism and economic prosperity on prior generations’ priorities.

On Part 2, we discuss characters as an antidote to individuality, integrating yourself with your tools, and how not all questions are answered with words. Have you ever received an answer to a problem with a smell?

Show Notes:

The Residents - “Infant Tango”

CocoMelon

Byung-Chul Han’s concept of “The Idiot”

Singapore Harbor

Writing by Drawing: When Language Seeks Its Other

Jean Dubuffet

Susan Miller

Edward Tufte

Zabriskie Point

Argonauts of the Western Pacific by Bronsilaw Melanowski

Kula Ceremony

Hermitix Podcast - Bob Dobbs

Lyceum Movement

Chautauqua Circuit

Japanese Surrogates

On this episode, Kris and I discuss initiation rites throughout the world, with an eye towards distinguishing childhood from adulthood in terms of agency when dealing with uncertainty.

We finish up with some practical questions: what’s the best way to know how many gumballs are in a gumball machine? Why are there so many large insects in the Solomon Islands? Does sex magic work?

We continue our quest to acquire new and interesting questions…

Part 1

Death Thinking / Initiation Rites/ Rumspringa / Bull Jumping

Part 2

Land Divers / Developing Agency in Uncertainty / Hieroglyphic Silence

Carpenter bee

Boeing CH-47 Chinook

Through the Valley of the Nest of Spiders by Samuel Delaney

François Rabelais

Breaking Bad

Better Call Saul

“Spiritual Politics of the Dead”

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Weird Studies

J.B.S. Haldane

Bar/Bat Mitzvah

Quinceñera

Rumspringa

Maasai Warrior Ritual

Hamar Bull Jumping

Pentecost Island Land Divers

Taschen Sale

Random Number Generators

William S. Burroughs Mini-Documentary

Brion Gysin

“Hieroglyphic Silence”

In Part 1 of this episode, Kris and I discuss the invention of childhood from the perspective of time and sexuality. Is being a child denoted strictly by preparing for adulthood? Is adulthood a prison?

In Part 2 we continue our discussion of archetypes and characters, with a deep dive into the quantum mechanics of the tarot and the aesthetic quality of nostalgia. Are we touching parallel worlds?

Kris also has a great recounting of his recent dream, which connects with a formative moment from my past.

Part 1:

Scientific Uncertainty / Prison of Adulthood / Algorithmic Control / Cultural Cognitive Dissonance

Part 2:

Verbing Nouns / Tarot as a Method for Concretizing the Past / The Aesthetic Quality of Nostalgia / The Nastronomer

“Observing Many Researchers Using the Same Data and Hypothesis Reveals a Hidden Universe of Uncertain”

Sensory deprivation tanks

The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis

Vernor Vinge

A Little Pretty Pocket-Book by John Newbery

John Locke

Georgij A. Krasinsky

New Thought

Time Tunnel

Claes Oldenburg

Part 1:

Ambient Noise / Thought Formulation / Getting Too Old for Pop Music / The Invention of Childhood

Part 2:

Everyday Archetypes / Oscillating Frequencies / Character as Process / Nailing Down Some Definitions / Tarot

Moog theremini

Phil Abrams

The Brotherhood of the Wolf

Casey Kasem

DaBaby - “Suge”

Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience by William Blake

Metallophone

Kalimba (thumb piano)

The Paris Review Interviews

“Blackberry Winter” by Robert Penn Warren

Oscillator

Norbert Weiner

Zeno’s Arrow

Edward T. Hall

Buckminster Fuller

Camelia Elias

e e cummings

This might be one of the most involved episodes we've recorded. We start out with a Gus Update, then move into discussions of lost civilizations, similarities in different mythologies, indecipherable languages, and dreams of green darkness.

Then, in part 2, we begin an incredibly ambitious and free-ranging conversation about language and the world of archetypes, how they might manifest both in characters and in human beings, and what a "choral reef" of lesser gods might look like. How might these beings interact through art?

This is pretty dense stuff, and one of my favorite conversations Kris and I have had so far. We're getting somewhere here, and really running up against the barriers of the language we have to describe it.

Part 1:

Maintenance Art / Black Phoenicians / The Handbags of the Gods / Strange Languages

Part 2:

Roko’s Basilisk / Archetypes as Psychic Resonances / The Etymology of “Character” / Lives of Archetypes

SHOW NOTES:

Drinking Blood

Mierle Laderman Ukeles’ Maintenance Art Manifesto

Colette's libretto for Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges

Are Neanderthals Trolls?

Black Etruscans/Phoenicians

In the Dark Places of Wisdom by Peter Kingsley

Rapa Nui Walking Statues

Gobekli Tepe

The Handbags of the Gods

Rongorongo

Dagon’s Pope Hat

Bam Margera’s Rap Language

Sir Joseph Banks

Pascal’s Wager

Roko’s Basilisk

The Corpus Hermeticum

Metaphors We Live By by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson

Key 23 from The Invisibles (Incorrectly referred to as “Key 6” in the episode)

Carl Dennis

Symptoms in the Mind by Andrew Sims

Harold Pinter

Edward Albee

David Mamet

On this episode we begin with a great piece of listener mail that asks the question: how does one avoid feeling like a ghost in the world? This leads to a discussion of Rilke’s poem “Turning-Point.”

In the second half, Kris and I elaborate on the Crystal Radio / Pirate Radio / Ghost Radio theory of Culture as a Force / Entity with Language as its medium. Why are eccentrics so important? How do we move on from expertisism? And how to we interact with the maps of our world to separate the signal from the noise?

Part 1:

Finding Better Ghosts / The Origin of Idioms / 3-Foot Elvis

Part 2:

Culture as Energy Field / Animism to Religion to Science to Scientism / Mutual Exploration / Living in Territory, Speaking with Maps

“Turning-Point” by Rainer Maria Rilke

Arthur Rimbaud

Lila by Robert M. Persig

Lewis Thomas

Jan Hus

Nazca Lines

Blythe Intaglios

Joseph Needham

Behaviorism

Newton’s Alchemy

Medicine from Midwife Magic

The Wright Brothers

Backwoods Witchcraft: Conjure & Folk Magic from Appalachia by Jake Richards

Raymond Lull’s Memory Wheels

The Presence of the Past by Rupert Sheldrake

Kris and I begin to develop a frame for a big theory of imagination, magic, and the paranormal.

Part 1:

Why Are Alien Encounters Violent? / Hypnotic Implanted Memories / David’s Alien Visitation / The Magic of Gypsies

Part 2:

Exclusive Excerpt / Where is the Signal Coming From? / Desert Radio at Night / Meinong’s Jungle

Show Notes:

Captivity Narratives

Care of the Feeble Minded and Insane in Texas

Communion by Whitley Strieber

Hellier

Herb Caen Archive

Milton H. Erickson (hypnotism)

False memory syndrome

The Family (Australian cult)

San Pedro cactus

Machine elves

Hephaestus

Modern Gypsies

Bourges (France)

Sète

Frontignan (festival)

Caravanserai

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

Eat Jellied Eels

Syncretism

Jung’s collective unconscious

How to Make a Crystal Radio

The Voice of the Pirate Nation

Ghost Radio

TempleOS

Coast to Coast AM

Harry Caray - The Sounds of Baseball

Mudcat Grant

Meinong’s Jungle

Tom Bombadil

I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon by Philp K. Dick