Episoder
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Alastair McIntosh is a human ecologist, theologian, activist, and writer known for his work on the interplay between community, ecology, and spirituality. Alastair is best known for his 2001, but still very timely book, Soil and Soul—part autobiography, part theology, part history.
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We talk about…
The concepts of psychohistory & cultural psychotherapy, and how our deep past, going back many generations, makes us who we are. Alastair’s travel/philosophy/theology book, Poacher’s Pilgrimage How the Scottish Clearances in the 1820s on the Isle of Lewis may be half-responsible for forming Donald Trump into who he is today. For more, read Alastair’s compelling article on the subject. Should Donald Trump pay an extended non-entrepreneurial (and non-golfing?) visit to the Hebrides? Read Alastair’s poem calling Trump to “come home.” The concept of “indigenousness” and if the term can apply to white folks. Ken tries out a big word: “ethnomasochism.” Are we all Calvinists without knowing it? Alastair defines Calvinism with “TULIP.” The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber A free PDF of Alastair’s Island SpiritualityAlastair recommends:
Alice Walker’s poetry—Horses Make A Landscape Look More Beautiful And Carmina Gadelica by Alexander Carmichael (get the volume that condenses the six volumes into one) -
Seth Kantner is an Alaskan photographer, hunter, fisherman and author. He’s written two of my favorite books: Ordinary Wolves, a fictional book about a boy growing up with the ways of his indigenous neighbors; and his latest book, A Thousand Trails Home, about Alaskan caribou and our relationship with them. Topics include…
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Ken thinks that couples in arctic cabins should be highly qualified to write marriage advice books. Seth splashes cold water on that idea, saying all they’re doing is avoiding conflict. Knitting, the first videogame? The drawbacks (face-blindness) of being homeschooled in a sod igloo. Middle school, is there a point? Kim Kardashian vs Seth Kantner. In the fight for cultural dominance, sadly Kim wins. The merits/necessity of slow writing. How it’s good to have a phobia of wasting somebody’s time. Plus, the fascinating topic of race relations in arctic Alaska. -
Manglende episoder?
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Jonathan Rauch is a senior fellow at The Brookings Institute and the author of eight books, including Kindly Inquisitors: the New Attacks on Free Thought and my favorite mini memoir, Denial: My 25 Years without a Soul. Jonathan is a friend, the father of the introvert liberation movement, and one of the reasons our country has expanded marriage rights to the LGBTQ community. I brought Jonathan on to talk about the 2024 election, one month later.
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Why voting makes us stupid Walking the Transgender Movement Away from the Extremists Star Trek and Sociopathy The Happiness CurveJonathan’s film recommendation: Network (1976)
Ken’s recommendation: Star Trek: The Next Generation, episode “The Inner Light”
Jonathan’s list of good Star Trek (1966-69) episodes
Devil in the Dark. Second episode to air, revolutionary in its day; inverts the usual story about monsters and aliens being the bad guys Balance of Terror. Two commanders struggle to out-psych each other and develop professional respect. (Based on a movie about WWII submarine battle Amok Time. Ultra-logical Spock has a dark side…as does civiliation (a recurrent theme). Written by Theodore Sturgeon, one of the sci-fi Golden Age greats The Doomsday Machine. Great performance by William Windom as Commodore Decker as the Enterprise confronts a planet-destroying robot The Ultimate Computer. Computerized warfare gets out of hand. Imagine this on network TV in 1968! The Enemy Within. Kirk can’t command without his sociopathic side. The Trouble with Tribbles. The lightest episode, a fan favorite. An alien species takes over the ship…but not the way you think The City on the Edge of Forever. By critical consensus, probably the greatest episode. Grapples with the contingent and tragic nature of history. Ends on a deeply ambivalent note (and includes TV’s first use of a cuss word, “hell”). Written by the sci-fi great Harlan Ellison. Again, amazing to imagine this on prime time in that era. (The guest star is young Joan Collins, no less.)Music by Duncan Barrett, who you can follow and listen to, here and here.
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Rob Twigger is a UK-based author of 16 books, many of which are travel. He and I discuss:
A book Rob admires: The Colossus of Maroussi
A travel book Ken admires: Big Dead Place
* Rob’s philosophical movements: Micromastery and Zenslackerism
* The Refusal of Work by David Frayne
* American listeners get a primer on what Guy Fawkes is.
* We make 2024 US presidential election predictions. (One of us is wrong, the other feels too inept to predict.)
* Rewilding Britain, yea or nay?
* Banter about toilets (Ken thinks British toilets are terrible; Rob questions very existence of toilets).
* Rob is addicted to South Korean TV dramas.
* How neither of us like that noodle-slurping sound.
* Yet more chatter on South Korean fertility rates. The lowest in the world!
* Suits, the TV Show, may have things to teach us about humanity.
* We discuss appraising prospective wives by watching how they get over a barbed-wire fence.
* Relationship expert, Dr. John Gottman, and his theory of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
* Gear recommendations: Rob likes Rovince’s anti-tick trousers. Ken likes super durable trash bags to keep backpacking gear dry inside backpack.
For more on Rob: his website and Substack page.
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Sarah was the personal essays editor at Salon, she’s a staff writer at the Dallas Morning News, and she hosts, with Nancy Rommelman, the Smoke Em if You Got Em Podcast. She is the author of "Blackout: Remembing the things I drank to forget."
Sarah and I talk about:
- Living within a memoir
- Vices (mine, videogames) (Sarah's, Lucky Strikes)
- Guilty pleasures (Howard Stern, MILF Manor, Love is Blind)
- Infertility -- crisis or opportunity(?)
kenilgunas.substack.com
