Subversive Studies

This conversation with Nick Walker is focused around the notion of neuroqueering and neuroqueer fiction as an approach to subversion and transformation. We talk about cultural norms around gender, sexuality, and cognition; cognitive liberty; weird fiction; madness; the war on the imagination; how to embrace being flamingly weird; and why, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, “Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”

Nick Walker is an autistic genderqueer author, educator, and aikido teacher whose work explores the edges and intersections of embodiment, neurodiversity, gender, consciousness, and transformative practice.

Nick is a faculty member at California Institute of Integral Studies, and Managing Editor of the independent publishing house Autonomous Press. He holds a 6th degree black belt in aikido and is Senior Instructor at the Aikido Shusekai dojo in Berkeley, California.

Together with his longtime collaborator Andrew M. Reichart, Nick is the co-creator of an ever-growing body of intricately interconnected speculative fiction stories known as the Weird Luck Saga.

Show notes:

The Weird Luck website: https://weirdluck.org/

Spoon Knife 3: http://autpress.com/2018/10/whats-in-spoon-knife-3/

Spoon Knife 2: https://autonomous-press.myshopify.com/products/spoon-knife-2-test-chamber

Diverse Bodies, Diverse Practices: https://www.diversebodiesdiversepractices.com/

Autonomous Press: http://autpress.com/

The Aikido Shusekai dojo: http://aikiarts.com/

Neurocosmopolitanism blog: http://neurocosmopolitanism.com/

Nick on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nickwalkersensei/

Nick on Twitter: https://twitter.com/WalkerSensei

Author, screenwriter, and filmmaker JF Martel and I discuss weirdness, the surreal quality of experience, art arising from the primordial or from the imaginal realm, why society attempts to bury the weird or chaotic beneath normality and conventionality, Stranger Things, Twin Peaks, Jaws, the daimonic, dreams, and the ways that art can disrupt and awaken, in a conversation that centers around his book, Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice, which is about the nature and power of art.

JF hails from Ottawa, Ontario, and his screen work includes French and English-language documentary series and features focused on culture and the arts. J.F.'s writings on art, culture and philosophy have appeared in Reality Sandwich, Metapsychosis, The Finch, Disinfo, and other online magazines. He is the co-host of the Weird Studies podcast along with Phil Ford.

Cover art/logo design by Jeff Wolfe

Theme music: A1 Rogue by Poddington Bear

*Notes*

JF’s Work:

http://www.reclaimingart.com

Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice: A Treatise, Critique, and Call to Action - https://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Art-Age-Artifice-Manifesto/dp/1583945784

Reclaiming Art trailer: https://vimeo.com/118553863

Reality is Analog: Philosophizing with Stranger Things - https://www.metapsychosis.com/reality-is-analog-philosophizing-with-stranger-things-part-one/

How Symbols Matter - http://thefinch.net/2016/03/10/jf-martel-how-symbols-matter/

Consciousness in the Aesthetic Imagination - https://www.metapsychosis.com/consciousness-in-the-aesthetic-imagination/

Cicada (2013) - Short Film - https://vimeo.com/59824769

Sources mentioned:

Phil Ford’s piece on Weird Studies - https://dialmformusicology.com/category/weird-studies/

“On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetic Art” by C.G. Jung

-Decadents and Catholicism by Ellis Hanson

-Quentin Meillassoux

-Arcade Fire, “We Used to Wait” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nTjn1yJp0w

This is a short solo episode announcing a new direction for the podcast! Includes an homage to my favorite and most influential podcasts and an exploration of the term "subversive" as a living, breathing force or entity.

Notes:

Chambers, S. A., Carver, T. (2008). Judith Butler and Political Theory. London: Routledge.

Peterle, Astrid. 2009. Thinking through Subversion in the Time of Its Impossibility. In Human Ends and the Ends of Politics, eds. M. Black and K. McKillop, Vienna: IWM Junior Visiting Fellows’ Conferences, Vol. 23. http://www.iwm.at/publications/5-junior-visiting-fellows-conferences/vol-xxiii/astrid-peterle/

What is a "daimonic calling?" - https://danglenn.com/2017/01/07/the-pull-of-the-daimon

Theme music created by Podington Bear (http://www.podingtonbear.com)

This is a short solo episode announcing a new direction for the podcast! Includes an homage to my favorite and most influential podcasts and an exploration of the term "subversive" as a living, breathing force or entity.

Notes:

Chambers, S. A., Carver, T. (2008). Judith Butler and Political Theory. London: Routledge.

Peterle, Astrid. 2009. Thinking through Subversion in the Time of Its Impossibility. In Human Ends and the Ends of Politics, eds. M. Black and K. McKillop, Vienna: IWM Junior Visiting Fellows’ Conferences, Vol. 23. http://www.iwm.at/publications/5-junior-visiting-fellows-conferences/vol-xxiii/astrid-peterle/

What is a "daimonic calling?" - https://danglenn.com/2017/01/07/the-pull-of-the-daimon

Theme music created by Podington Bear (http://www.podingtonbear.com)

In this episode I'm joined by Vincent Brown, whose doctoral research research centers around The Work that Reconnects, a theoretical framework and workshop methodology for personal and social change developed by Joanna Macy, a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Vincent's dissertation study is on men's work in the context of The Work that Reconnects, which is the focus of our conversation. Our discussion contains a lot of personal reflection on what feels like a timely and challenging topic, in a time when the trauma that men have inflicted on others and on the planet is becoming increasingly clear and widely recognized.

-

Guiding Principles of The Work That Reconnects:

· This world, into which we are born and take our being, is alive.

· Our true nature is far more ancient and encompassing than the separate self-defined by habit and society.

· Our experience of the pain for the world springs from our connectivity with all beings, from which also arise our powers to act on their behalf.

· [Psychological] unblocking occurs when our pain for the world is not only acknowledged, but experienced.

· When we reconnect with life by choosing to bear our pain for it, the mind retrieves its natural clarity.

· The experience of reconnection with the Earth community arouses the urge to act on its behalf

(Macy & Brown, 2014, pp. 65-67).

http://workthatreconnects.org

In this episode I'm joined by Vincent Brown, whose doctoral research research centers around The Work that Reconnects, a theoretical framework and workshop methodology for personal and social change developed by Joanna Macy, a scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory, and deep ecology. Vincent's dissertation study is on men's work in the context of The Work that Reconnects, which is the focus of our conversation. Our discussion contains a lot of personal reflection on what feels like a timely and challenging topic, in a time when the trauma that men have inflicted on others and on the planet is becoming increasingly clear and widely recognized.

-

Guiding Principles of The Work That Reconnects:

· This world, into which we are born and take our being, is alive.

· Our true nature is far more ancient and encompassing than the separate self-defined by habit and society.

· Our experience of the pain for the world springs from our connectivity with all beings, from which also arise our powers to act on their behalf.

· [Psychological] unblocking occurs when our pain for the world is not only acknowledged, but experienced.

· When we reconnect with life by choosing to bear our pain for it, the mind retrieves its natural clarity.

· The experience of reconnection with the Earth community arouses the urge to act on its behalf

(Macy & Brown, 2014, pp. 65-67).

http://workthatreconnects.org

Eric Peterson joins us for a wide-ranging conversation based in his work as an outdoor adventure leader and scholar of all things ecological. We explore topics such as ecological consciousness; the interconnectedness of the socio-political, ecological, and psychological; ecolinguistics; ecopsychology; the importance of story; why an animist viewpoint is essential; the war on dreaming; and the problem with trying to "save" the planet.

About Eric Peterson: Over twenty-five years ago, Eric started working as an outdoor adventure leader in the southwestern Oregon and northern California area. He has guided trips in rafting, kayaking (rivers, lakes, and ocean), canoeing, fishing, biking, skiing, and hiking. He began his career as an outdoor adventure leader as a ski instructor and ski patroller at Mount Ashland, as well as a whitewater river guide on rivers like the Rogue, Klamath, North Umpqua, Scott, and California Salmon. At the age of twenty-six, he started a year-round adventure company in Ashland, Oregon, which he ran successfully for a few years before deciding to focus on teaching Swiftwater Rescue. At the age of forty, he returned to Southern Oregon University (SOU) where he earned Bachelor of Science degrees in anthropology, psychology, and a minor in Native American Studies. Eric graduated from California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) with an MA in Transformative Leadership and is continuing his inquiry at CIIS in the Doctoral Transformative Studies program (Ph.D., 2020). Eric’s passion is in the therapeutic and transformative powers of nature, and how humans relate to the more-than-human world. His current studies lie within the intersections of transformative leadership, social and environmental justice, and pedagogies and curriculums that nurture ecological consciousness. He utilizes a systems thinking approach to understanding how all our contemporary human problems are interrelated and interconnected and believes that outdoor adventure leaders hold potential great influence for positive socio-cultural transformation. Eric is looking at focusing his dissertation upon: A meta-synthesis of how the term "eco" is showing up in areas like: ecophilosophy, ecopsychology, ecotherapy, ecofeminism, ecoliteracy, and ecoleadership.

Eric's website: http://www.outdooradventureleader.com/

Show notes:

Frances Weller, grief and soul work: http://www.francisweller.net/

Allan (Leslie) Combs: https://www.ciis.edu/faculty-and-staff-directory/allan-combs

Apocalyptic Witchcraft by Peter Grey: https://scarletimprint.com/publications/apocalyptic-witchcraft

Eric Peterson joins us for a wide-ranging conversation based in his work as an outdoor adventure leader and scholar of all things ecological. We explore topics such as ecological consciousness; the interconnectedness of the socio-political, ecological, and psychological; ecolinguistics; ecopsychology; the importance of story; why an animist viewpoint is essential; the war on dreaming; and the problem with trying to "save" the planet.

About Eric Peterson: Over twenty-five years ago, Eric started working as an outdoor adventure leader in the southwestern Oregon and northern California area. He has guided trips in rafting, kayaking (rivers, lakes, and ocean), canoeing, fishing, biking, skiing, and hiking. He began his career as an outdoor adventure leader as a ski instructor and ski patroller at Mount Ashland, as well as a whitewater river guide on rivers like the Rogue, Klamath, North Umpqua, Scott, and California Salmon. At the age of twenty-six, he started a year-round adventure company in Ashland, Oregon, which he ran successfully for a few years before deciding to focus on teaching Swiftwater Rescue. At the age of forty, he returned to Southern Oregon University (SOU) where he earned Bachelor of Science degrees in anthropology, psychology, and a minor in Native American Studies. Eric graduated from California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) with an MA in Transformative Leadership and is continuing his inquiry at CIIS in the Doctoral Transformative Studies program (Ph.D., 2020). Eric’s passion is in the therapeutic and transformative powers of nature, and how humans relate to the more-than-human world. His current studies lie within the intersections of transformative leadership, social and environmental justice, and pedagogies and curriculums that nurture ecological consciousness. He utilizes a systems thinking approach to understanding how all our contemporary human problems are interrelated and interconnected and believes that outdoor adventure leaders hold potential great influence for positive socio-cultural transformation. Eric is looking at focusing his dissertation upon: A meta-synthesis of how the term "eco" is showing up in areas like: ecophilosophy, ecopsychology, ecotherapy, ecofeminism, ecoliteracy, and ecoleadership.

Eric's website: http://www.outdooradventureleader.com/

Show notes:

Frances Weller, grief and soul work: http://www.francisweller.net/

Allan (Leslie) Combs: https://www.ciis.edu/faculty-and-staff-directory/allan-combs

Apocalyptic Witchcraft by Peter Grey: https://www.amazon.com/Apocalyptic-Witchcraft-Peter-Grey/dp/0957449291

Dan and Dr. Adrian Mack have a wide-ranging discussion that includes film studies, media studies, cultural studies, fiction writing, the Black Arts Movement, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., disrupting "business as usual," the co-opting of social change and liberatory movements , and Christianity as a force for liberation.

Dr. Adrian Mack is the Director of Business Development for Social Impact at 3C Institute for Social Development and is an adjunct faculty member in Interdisciplinary Studies at Southern New Hampshire University. He has a PhD in Transformative Studies from CIIS, a MA in Christian Ministry from Liberty University, a MA in Christian Studies from Duke University, and a BA in History from the University of Virginia. His research focus is in cultural studies, media studies, and literary studies, and he enjoys writing fiction.

***

Adrian Mack's article, "The Black Arts Movement, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, & Cultural Discourse" will be published in a special issue for Comparative American Studies on the Black Arts Movement. We'll add the information on accessing it here once it is released.

Dan and Dr. Adrian Mack have a wide-ranging discussion that includes film studies, media studies, cultural studies, fiction writing, the Black Arts Movement, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., disrupting "business as usual," the co-opting of social change and liberatory movements , and Christianity as a force for liberation.

Dr. Adrian Mack is the Director of Business Development for Social Impact at 3C Institute for Social Development and is an adjunct faculty member in Interdisciplinary Studies at Southern New Hampshire University. He has a PhD in Transformative Studies from CIIS, a MA in Christian Ministry from Liberty University, a MA in Christian Studies from Duke University, and a BA in History from the University of Virginia. His research focus is in cultural studies, media studies, and literary studies, and he enjoys writing fiction.

***

Adrian Mack's article, "The Black Arts Movement, the Congress for Cultural Freedom, & Cultural Discourse" will be published in a special issue for Comparative American Studies on the Black Arts Movement. We'll add the information on accessing it here once it is released.