Life is a Festival

If you were an international DJ sensation, how would you use your fame to change the world? The Canadian duo Vivie-Ann Bakos and Anstascia D'Elene Corniere created BLOND:ISH at a mid-week club night back in 2008. A decade later and after countless parties and festivals, they have parted ways with Viv carrying on the BLOND:ISH moniker and Anstascia performing under her own name. On the show we talk about the split as well as Viv’s tools for personal development from fire breath to toad poison. We discuss shEOS, an EOS block producer of which she is a co-founder and of course I ask her about her iconic top knot. The bulk of the conversation, however, focusses on Bye Bye Plastic, a new initiative to create a #plasticfreebooth in dance music, through an eco rider campaign and consultancy services. So long plastic! Links BLOND:ISH: https://soundcloud.com/blondish Bye Bye Plastic Documentary: https://muttfilm.com/blondish T.me/byebyeplastic on telegram Climate Neutral Group: https://www.climateneutralgroup.com/en/ The Nori Carbon Removal Marketplace: https://nori.com/ shEOS: https://sheos.org/ Daniel Schmachtenberger on Future Thinkers: https://futurethinkers.org/daniel-schmachtenberger/ Featured Track https://soundcloud.com/blondish/11-it-starts-now-welcome-to-the-present

Pranitan "Pete" Phornprapha, scion of Siam Motors Group, has created an innovation lab for sustainability… disguised as a festival. Wonderfruit is a celebration of art and music near Pattaya in Thailand, but more than a simple hedonic gala, the six year old festival is a celebration of Thai culture and experiments in environmentalism. On the podcast, Pete and I talk about his passion for meditation, community and the environment. We discuss some interesting prototypes from the festival including TREEcoin and the 2018 Empathy Experiment. We also talk about Thai culture from the resurgence of folk Molam music to the challenges of integrating locals and expats. You can produce a lot of carbon jet-setting to a destination festival like Wonderfruit which is why as of this podcast, I am committed to purchasing carbon offsets for all future travel! Wonderfruit has a calculator on their website, and I’ve also been recommended the Nori Carbon Removal Marketplace. Pete is such an affable fellow and you can hear his joy when he talks about making sustainability fun. Links Wonderfruit Festival: https://wonderfruit.co/ Wonderfruit’s emissions calculator: https://wonderfruit.co/emissions/ The Mae Fah Luang Foundation: http://www.maefahluang.org/?p=16 Nori Carbon Removal Marketplace: https://nori.com/

Can we “undrown” ourselves from painful loss through a celebration of death? From Jazz Funerals in New Orleans to dancing ghosts in Japan, there are many traditions that celebrate death. None is more famous than Día de Muertos, the Mexican Day of the Dead, which now exports marigolds, sugar skulls, and Catrina face paint throughout the world. On today’s podcast I’m in San Miguel de Allende with Klaudia Oliver, co-founder of La Calaca, a festival built on local traditions and modern participatory arts. During the conversation we explore what it means to dance with death from mourning to remembrance to humor. Klaudia explains how to create an ofrenda, a traditional Día de Muertos altar. We speak of tourism and appropriation from barbies to Coco. To close the podcast, I am honored to share the acoustic version of How Strange, a celebration of death and life by Feathered Sun. However painful, it is the impermanence which makes life profound. LINKS Klaudia: http://klaudia.mx/ La Calaca: https://lacalacafestival.com/ FEATHERED SUN - How Strange feat. Matanza (Acoustic Version): https://soundcloud.com/denature-records/feathered-sun-how-strange-feat

At Bass Coast, a beautiful boutique festival in the forests of British Columbia, everyone is a babe. What is a babe? A Bass Coast babe is a person of any gender who’s really feeling themselves. This party is so full of embodied bodies that it’s often affectionately referred to as “Babe Coast.” The festival is also famously run by women, Liz Thompson and today’s guest on the show, the beloved Andrea Graham, aka The Librarian. On the podcast, Andrea and I chat about the unique alchemy of safe, sexy, and silly that creates a liberated vibe. We get nuanced on feminine leadership, gender parity in festival lineups and the tedious questions posed to women who produce electronic music. Andrea also generously models a balanced life of adventure and does it with the coy humor that is iconic of both her and her festival. Also, at the end of the podcast we get a tasty bite of Andrea’s track Blue Tusk so stick around for the beats! Everyone can be a babe at Bass Coast and that’s an ethos we can all bring into our daily lives. Links The Librarian:https://thelibrarian.ca/ The Librarian on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/LibrarianMusic Bass Coast: https://basscoast.ca/ Bass Coast on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BassCoastFestival/ Bass Coast tickets:https://basscoast.ca/pages/ticket-info Blue Tusk: https://thelibrarian.fanlink.to/bluetusk Good Night Out Vancouver: https://www.goodnightoutvancouver.com/projects Evan Biddell fashion designer: https://www.evanbiddell.com/ TIMESTAMPS :06 - How Andrea manages her challenging schedule :11 - Where “The Librarian” comes from :13 - Western Canada’s festival scene and how Bass Coast evolved as a community :18 - How Bass Coast got it’s safe, sexy, and loose vibe :28 - Bass Coast was the first festival to ban Native American headdresses :32 - Does Bass Coast have “a woman’s touch?” :37 - Bass Coast’s sophisticated harm reduction program :42 - The conversation about women who produce electronic music :48 - Creating diversity in festival lineups :53 - We can all be babes :59 - Open-sourcing how Andrea created her awesome life 1:02 - Andrea’s advice if you want to be a DJ 1:09 - How being a DJ effects mental health 1:13 - What’s next for Bass Coast 1:19 - What carries on after a festival 1:21 - The Librarian track “Blue Tusk” 1:25 - How’d the podcast go?

Depression. In ancient Mesopotamia, they called it demonic possession. For Hippocrates it was an excess of black bile. In the Renaissance the culprit was witchcraft. In the Enlightenment it was a weakness in temperament. Abraham Lincoln had a tendency for melancholy. Georgia O’Keeffe often wept uncontrollably. For William James it was a crisis of meaning. For Winston Churchill it was a black dog. I too have suffered from spells of depression in my life and so it is an honor to offer this conversation with my very own doctor, David Rabin. Dr Rabin is a board-certified psychiatrist, a translational PhD neuroscientist, and an inventor. Dr. Rabin co-created Apollo, the first scientifically-validated wearable that improves focus, sleep, and access to meditative states. Along with Rael Cahn MD, PhD (USC), Ben Kelmendi MD (Yale), Joe Tafur MD, and MAPS, Dr Rabin is organizing the world’s largest psychedelic study: the Modern Spirit Epigenetics Project. On the podcast Dr. Rabin addresses any listener currently experiencing depression (:12). We talk about the myth of the “chemical imbalance” (:19) and how psychedelics interrupt neural pathways that associate depression with identity (:32). We cover preparation and integration (1:06), nutrition to support mood health (1:24) and finish with ways to help a loved one experiencing a mental health crisis (1:33). Dr Rabin is a psychiatrist and he’s my psychiatrist, however he is not your psychiatrist and so this episode is intended for entertainment purposes only. We hope you get something amazing and meaningful out of it but no podcast is a substitute for good therapy. If you are experiencing depression please reach out for support. Also it’s important to mention that while we tackle the myth of chemical imbalance and the overprescription of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) we are by no means saying that depression isn’t real. It is real and it can be terrifying. But there is always hope. If Life is a Festival, we have to learn to dance with the black dog sometimes. LINKS Dr David Rabin: https://www.drdave.io/ Apollo: https://shop.apolloneuro.com Modern Spirit study: https://modernspirit.org/ Rachel Yehuda, PhD: https://icahn.mssm.edu/profiles/rachel-yehuda Psychology Today: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us Zendo Project: https://zendoproject.org/ TIMESTAMPS :03 - Dr Rabin’s background  :09 - My background with depression :12 - Dr Rabin speaks directly to any listener experiencing depression emphasizing using breath to engage the parasympathetic nervous system :19 - The myth of a “chemical imbalance” and the difference between genetic and epigenetic factors for depression :32 - How psychedelic experiences interrupt depression :47 - Why Ketamine therapy is particularly efficacious for depression :52 - Modern Spirit’s massive study of psychedelics :53 - How the Zendo Project creates a safe space for psychedelic healing in public environments 1:06 - How to prepare for a psychedelic experience 1:16 - The Apollo wearable designed by Dr. Rabin 1:24 - What should we eat to support mental wellness 1:33 - How to support others who are going through an experience of depression

An ode to taking up space as boldly, colorfully, and radiantly as you want. This is a special podcast, first describing and then embodying the very philosophy of this show. Life is a festival when we keep saying yes to new adventures until we’re tumbling in the refreshing currents of serendipitous play. In this episode an unexpected conversation becomes a podcast. Lizzie Rose is a fashion and lifestyle photographer and an entrepreneur on a mission to add more celebration to each day. Recently she has been documenting artists in their homes and asked if she could photograph me. In order to get the perfect shot she invited me to share the philosophy of Life is a Festival, so of course I recorded it. However, after about 15 minutes, my monologue evolved into a beautiful conversation about body diversity, photography and all things purple, all things fuchsia and all things rainbow. Having captured people taking up space for so long, Lizzie decided the she deserved the same and that choice is having ripple effects throughout her community and the festival fashion industry. LINKS Lizzie Rose Media: https://www.lizzierosemedia.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LizzieRoseMedia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lizzierosemedia/

When the search for the Grail Castle becomes the prison of Hotel California, we need some tough love to wake the woke. Luckily Jamie Wheal is here with a midnight message for the 11th hour: Drop the digital narcissism and become a home grown human… before it’s too late. Jamie is the Executive Director of the Flow Genome Project and co-authored Stealing Fire in 2017. At the time, he saw the major threats to the Psychedelic Renaissance as primarily commercialism and militarization. Today, it might be hedonic narcissism that upends our collective awakening. Jamie’s message is tough love for those of us in the Ibiza-Bali bubble, but he also offers actionable advice including getting into a flow state for service, creating a hedonic calendar to reduce cognitive risk, and doing a 10-day Wilderness First Responder training for personal transformation. We can’t just wake up, we also have to grow up and show up! Which is why, after recording this podcast, I have personally committed to doing a Wilderness First Responder training so I that I can leverage my love of transformational experiences to become someone a little more useful to everyone else. LINKS Stealing Fire: http://www.stealingfirebook.com/ Flow Genome Project: https://www.flowgenomeproject.com/ Wilderness Medical Training with NOLS: https://www.nols.edu/en/about/wilderness-medicine/ MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST Alice Walker: Temple of my Familiar: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B005NY4QE4/ Alice Walker: Hard Times Require Furious Dancing: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E512148 Jesse Estrin: Explorations of intersectionality and healing https://jesselondonestrin.com/ Erik Davis: https://techgnosis.com/ Douglas Rushkoff: https://rushkoff.com/ Tim Wu: https://www.law.columbia.edu/faculty/timothy-wu Robert Anton Wilson: http://www.rawilson.com/ The Body Keeps the Score: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G3L1C2K/ The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Civilization in the Aftermath of a Cataclysm (Lewis Dartnell) https://www.amazon.com/Knowledge-Rebuild-Civilization-Aftermath-Cataclysm-ebook/dp/B00DMCV5YS Emergency: This Book Will Save Your Life (Neil Strauss) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001NLL9P0

Is Burning Man a “white people thing?” Radical inclusivity is one of Burning Man’s 10 Principles, but is it enough simply to say “all are welcome?” or should the burner community take proactive steps to make people of color feel welcome? JR Nexus Russ (he, him, his) is a black and Filipino-American, queer cisgender man, and in several ethically non-monogamous relationships. Nexus went to Burning Man in 2013, he started a DC Burners storytelling show at Capital Fringe, and was recently named one of the two new Regional Contacts for the DC Burning Man Community. Nexus and I are both musical theater kids so forgive the Pippin preamble. It gets juicy around the 20 minute mark where we go deep into identity, microaggressions and white fragility. These are sensitive topics no matter your identity and I am grateful to Nexus for educating me with generosity and patience. If Burning Man is about experiencing discomfort for the sake of personal growth, what could be more important than holding awareness of our privilege to Burn and dismantling the unconscious biases that limit the experience of others? LINKS
 Nexus on Twitter: https://twitter.com/awayoflife0 Nexus on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/awayoflife0/ DC Burners: https://dcburners.org/ Catharsis on the Mall: https://www.catharsisonthemall.com Radical Inclusion Must Mean Racial Inclusion by Favianna Rodriguez: https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/radical-inclusion-must-mean-racial-inclusion-make-burning-man-blacker Black Burner Project: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Community/Black-Burner-Project-311921496126595/

Stephen Brooks wants to change the world a thousand hectares at a time and I’ve never met someone more optimistic about our chances to pull it off! I first met Stephen as co-founder of Envision Festival in Costa Rica, now in its 10th year. I was struck by what a nourishing teaching school the event was. Stephen is also the founder of Punta Mona, a year-round permaculture ecoversity and intentional community as well as La Ecovilla, Alegría Village, and Tacotal all in Costa Rica. On the podcast we follow Stephen from his first taste of community as a deadhead to his plans to take a vegetable oil caravan from Burning Man to the 2020 Global Eclipse Gathering in South America (of which he is a collaborator). Stephen also gives the specific blueprint for 1000 hectares of “energy returned on energy invested” and clear steps for where to start no matter where you are. “If you plant it right, all you do is reap!” Links Stephen Brooks on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stephenrbrooks/?hl=en Punta Mona: https://www.puntamona.org/ La Ecovilla: https://www.laecovilla.com/ Alegría Village https://www.alegriavillage.com/ Tacotal: https://numundo.org/center/costa-rica/tacotal Envision Festival: https://envisionfestival.com/

Of Timelessness, Flow States, Psychedelics & Death The ancient Greeks had two words for time: Chronos (consensus time or mechanized time) and Kairos (archetypal time or dream time). Jason Silva, the host of Brain Games and the award winning creator of Shots of Awe has spent his life capturing and sharing the timeless. From his adolescent anxiety about transience to his sensational viral videos, Jason has always had an eye for collecting and souvenirs that he has lived. Jason and I met in that Mecca of Kairos, Black Rock City, a year ago and I am honored to share our rich musings with you today. On the podcast we discuss Burning Man as a timeless heterotopia. We go deep into Flow States, for which timelessness is key. We discuss psychedelics and whether Jason himself uses them. Finally, fittingly, we end with a conversation about death and impermanence. May death tremble to take you. Jason Silva: https://www.thisisjasonsilva.com/ Shots of Awe: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClYb9NpXnRemxYoWbcYANsA Brain Games: https://www.nationalgeographic.org/education/channel/brain-games/ Mentioned in the Podcast Ernest Becker “The Denial of Death” : https://www.amazon.com/Denial-Death-Ernest-Becker/dp/0684832402 Erik Davis previously on Life is a Festival: https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/erik-davis Stealing Fire: https://www.amazon.com/Stealing-Fire-Maverick-Scientists-Revolutionizing/dp/0062429663 Brain Pickings: https://www.brainpickings.org/ Martin Buber “I and Thou” : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_and_Thou Mr. X by Carl Sagan (Marihuana Reconsidered 1971): http://marijuana-uses.com/mr-x/ David Pierce “The Hedonistic Imperative” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Pearce_(philosopher) Allan Harrington “The Immortalist” https://www.amazon.com/Immortalist-Alan-Harrington/dp/0890871353 Time Stamps 7: Kairos & Cronus: Silva’s youth and trying to capture time and his anxious relationship to transience. 15: A home run podcast for Jason is to allow ourselves to find new reflections and counterintuitive ways of seeing ourselves 18: Heterotopia and why Burning Man is so full of beautiful synchronicities 22: What took Jason so long to get to Burning Man 30: How did Burning Man change Jason 38: Flow State, a state of conscious where you feel your best and you perform your best. 45: “I-Thou” relationships & “I-It” relationships 49: Jason Silva as celebrity philosopher and the commoditizing of art 58: What psychedelics has Jason Silva used? 1:17: Experiencing love without fear of loss 1:27: I invite Jason to do Ayahuasca 1:33: Raging against the dying of the light: How Jason understands death