The Rich Roll Podcast

Bruce Wagner Writes Transgressive Novels About Tragedy & Transcendence

Jan 29, 2026
Bruce Wagner, novelist and former Carlos Castaneda student, author of fifteen books including Amputation. He uses Hollywood as a lab for human behavior. He talks about transgressive fiction that skewers vanity and searches for transcendence. He recounts spiritual influences, writing after the LA fires, inhabiting saints and monsters, and why language drives his work.
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INSIGHT

Hollywood As A Spiritual Laboratory

  • Bruce Wagner uses Hollywood as a laboratory to explore vanity, renown, poverty, and transcendence.
  • He blends satire with deep spiritual longing to probe human suffering and the quest for liberation.
INSIGHT

Sacred Longing Beneath Satire

  • Wagner layers Buddhist and Sufi parables into his dark Hollywood narratives to aim for transcendence.
  • He rejects mere laceration and seeks sacred meaning amid vanity and suffering.
INSIGHT

Three Modes Of Suffering

  • Wagner synthesizes three Buddhist modes of suffering: physical pain, mood fluctuation, and conditional/social suffering.
  • He uses these frames to examine impermanence and the human drive for attention.
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