To celebrate four years of Life is a Festival, today I’m sharing a conversation I had with my friend Ian MacKenzie about how to conduct a good interview. Whether you want to start a podcast or are simply interested in being a better conversationalist, I think you’ll find this helpful. On the show we go over how to research your guest so you can bring more to the party, how to create a roadmap for an engaging, spontaneous conversation, and how to make your guest feel safe to offer their most vulnerable storytelling. Ian and I share some of our favorite pre-recording rituals. We discuss how to offer precise, lean questions and find out what is most important to you. We end with a discussion of the creative spirit and how to cultivate your relationship with the Holy Ghost. Ian is a documentary filmmaker and host of the Mythic Masculine podcast. This conversation came from his Podcast Accelerator which is launching a new cohort in January. You can get sneak peak of Ian’s newest documentary Tamera, The Village of Lovers during their preview weekend: Reimagining Village, Dec 3 & 4, 2022. Links Ian MacKenzie: https://www.ianmack.com/ Ian’s Podcast Accelerator: https://www.ianmack.com/accelerator2022 Mythic Masculine Podcast: https://www.ianmack.com/mythicmasculine Tamera, The Village of Lovers: https://thevillageoflovers.com/ Reimagining Village, Dec 3 & 4: https://thevillageoflovers.com/reimagining-village Neil Pots interview: https://rolfpotts.com/podcast/tim-ferriss/ Tiimestamps :07 - Do good research so you have a lot to bring to the party :14 - Create a roadmap - not a list of questions :18 - Make your guest feel safe to create on their own terms :25 - Use pre-recording rituals :30 - Ask precise, lean questions that are important to you :38 - Practice your technique so you can let the Spirit move you

As Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act goes to voters, it's the perfect time to consider how powerful psychedelic molecules should enter mainstream consciousness. Today on Life is a Festival Ismail Lourido Ali, Director of Policy and Advocacy for the Multidisciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) explains the various pathways to legalization including the Decriminalization movement, medicalization, religious exception, and legal adult use. The first half of our conversation is dedicated to Ismail himself, whose life journey gives him a unique philosophy on ending prohibition and a toolkit for helping us get there. We open with Ismail’s cultural identity and his spiritual journey from Islam to the rave scene. We discuss Izzy’s exploration of queerness and gender identity and his work from Drug Policy Reform to becoming a lawyer for MAPS. Izzy clearly articulates the key paths to legalization and his philosophy around each. We discuss key pieces of legislation including California’s SB 519, Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act which goes to voters in this month, and Oregon’s Bill 109 which will legalize and regulate adult use of psilocybin in that state. We conclude our conversation with an invitation to psychedelic entrepreneurs and Izzy’s personal perspective on why Life is a Festival. As MAPS’ Director of Policy and Advocacy, Ismail advocates to eliminate barriers to psychedelic therapy and research, develops and implements legal and policy strategy, and supports MAPS’ governance, non-profit, and ethics work. Ismail earned his J.D. at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law in 2016, after receiving his bachelor’s in philosophy from California State University, Fresno. Ismail has previously worked for the ACLU of Northern California’s Criminal Justice & Drug Policy Project, and Berkeley Law’s International Human Rights Law Clinic. Ismail is licensed to practice law in the state of California, and is a founding board member of the Psychedelic Bar Association. He also currently serves on the board of the Sage Institute, contributes to Chacruna Institute’s Council for the Protection of Sacred Plants, and participates on the advisory council for the Ayahuasca Defense Fund. Ismail is passionate about setting sustainable groundwork for a just, equitable, and generative post-prohibition world. Links: Izzy’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sage_izzy/ Izzy Twitter: https://twitter.com/sage_izzy MAPS: https://maps.org/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MAPS Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mapsnews/ Psychedelic Science 2023: https://psychedelicscience.org/ Psychedelic Bar Association: https://thepsychedelicbar.org/ Chacruna Institute: https://chacruna.net/ Sage Institute: https://sageinst.org/ MAPS analysis regarding Oregon’s Measures 109 and 110 passed in Nov 2020. MAPS analysis regarding Colorado Proposition 122 MAPS analysis regarding our work on SB519 in CA to decriminalize the personal use of all psychedelics. Timestamps :09 - Blending cultural identities from religion to the rave scene :15 - Ismail’s updated view on Islam, the way of peace :22 - Queerness and Izzy’s personal gender conversation :33 - From drug policy reform advocate to lawyer for MAPS :40 - Experimenting with psychedelic legalization in different US States :52 - Paths to above ground use of psychedelics: Decriminalization :56 - Paths to above ground use of psychedelics: Medicalization :59 - Paths to above ground use of psychedelics: Religious Exemption 1:02 - Paths to above ground use of psychedelics: Adult Use 1:06 - California SB 519, Colorado’s Natural Medicine Health Act, and Oregon Bill 109, 1:14 - Izzy’s challenge to entrepreneurs who use psychedelics 1:20 - Life is a Festival

Mayan Warrior is one of the most iconic mutant vehicles at Burning Man and its impact goes far beyond the Playa. This week on Life is a Festival, founder Pablo González Vargas talks about gifting, Mayan culture, and the challenges of bringing an art car 8,000 kilometers to That Thing in the Desert. On the show Pablo shares his initiation into Burning Man culture and the difficulties the car faced in its first years. We talk about the physical, communal, and spiritual value of Burning Man. We explore gifting, Mayan culture, and collaboration. Finally we talk about how Mayan Warrior brings the best of Burning Man back to Mexico. Pablo is the founder and designer of the Mayan Warrior Mutant Vehicle, a collaborative project that has united artists, craftsmen, photographers, designers, technologists, architects and musicians from Mexico City and Northern California. He is the founder of Mexico’s Sr. Pago, one of Latin America’s leading e-payment platforms, Vargas as well as EXA Radio and TV. Director of multiple productions for the Dish/MVS TV network, Vargas remains a passionate supporter of the Visual and Performing Arts. Pablo is also a cofounder of the foundation Planet Buyback who’s mission is to inspire and motivate people around the world to take actions in their own communities that lead to a better quality of life and a healthier planet. You can catch the Mayan Warrior in LA for their Halloween party Sat, Oct 29, in San Francisco Sat, Nov 19, and at this year’s Art Basel in Miami. Links Mayan Warrior Halloween in Los Angeles, October 29: https://dice.fm/event/agog7-mayan-warrior-halloween-full-art-car-29th-oct-location-tba-los-angeles-los-angeles-tickets?lng=en-US Mayan Warrior in San Francisco, November 19th: https://dice.fm/event/bypqk-mayan-warrior-san-francisco-full-art-car-19th-nov-cow-palace-daly-city-tickets?lng=en-US Mayan Warrior: https://mayanwarrior.com/ Mayan Warrior Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_mayanwarrior_/?hl=en Pablo on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pablogv/ Planet Buyback: https://www.planetbuyback.com/ Timestamps :04 - Pablo’s early work in sound for parties :07 - The challenges of brining Mayan Warrior to Burning Man :12 - Three values of building at Burning Man - physical therapy, community, and spiritual :20 - Gifting & the cost of Mayan Warrior :31 - Mayan Warrior’s relationship to Mayan culture :41 - The intention of Mayan Warrior and bringing the playa back to Mexico :46 - The inspiration of Mayan Warrior’s collaborators :51 - Pablo taking his father to Burning Man

In the countryside of Ibiza there is a strange and challenging movement practice called Primal Moves. Founder Nick Brewer’s personal history is stranger still. Today on Life is a Festival, Nick shares his incredible life story from South American smuggler to yogi and the daily practice which became his refuge and his dharma. On the show, Nick shares his story from his time as an alpine skier, to smuggling cocaine in South America, to isolation in the bowels of an Argentinian prison. Nick talks about discovering yoga and building a daily practice in prison. He shares his deep insights from breakdown to breakthrough. Finally he describes developing the technique of primal movement and how the practice went global with the help of passionate burners. Nick Brewer is the Founder of the movement space ‘Primal Moves’ in Ibiza which has become home for a community of movers from an array of backgrounds around the world. This community is now spreading across the Americas and Europe. Professional Hand Balancers, performing Artists and Yogis, mums and dads have been enjoying the vast benefits that come from the practice. Links Primal Moves: https://primalmoves.com/ Primal Moves Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/primalmovesibiza/ Bhagavad Gita: https://www.amazon.in/Bhagavad-Gita-Original-English-As/dp/B07MDTX8BR Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: https://archive.org/details/yoga-sutras-of-patanjali Timestamps :06 - Depression leads to selling drugs in France :17 - Smuggling cocaine in South America :28 - The hell hole of an Argentinian prison :39 - Building a daily practice during four years in an isolation cell :55 - Breakdowns, breakthroughs and blueprints 1:13 - Building a yoga teaching practice after prison 1:21 - The methodology of Primal Moves 1:27 - How Primal Moves went global through passionate burners

If we want to actually live in our bodies, sexuality should be a daily practice. Today on Life is a Festival, Chloe Macintosh, founder and CEO of Kama, teaches us the importance of pleasure for healing and growth. On the show we talk about the importance of embodiment and the gap in adult sex education. We explore pornography addiction, erectile disfunction and the magical art of squirting. Chloe shares her four part daily practice and we finish our conversation diving into BDSM and polyamory. Chloe is the founder and CEO of Kama, a sexual wellness brand focusing on sex and pleasure education. She was the Chief Creative Officer for the Soho House Group and co-founded Made.com in 2010. Chloe is also a dear friend who recently interviewed me about kink at Burning Man. Links Chloe Macintosh: https://www.instagram.com/chloe_macintosh Kama: https://kama.co/ Kama Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kama.lab/ Life is a Festival #132: Eamon Armstrong with Chloe Macintosh (Live from Burning Man): https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/daddy Erotic Blueprints: https://missjaiya.com/ Timestamps * 06 - The importance of embodiment * 11 - The gap in adult sexual education * :19 - Sexuality as an experience for self-discovery * :29 - Pornography addiction and over indexing with eyesight * :33 - Chloe’s daily practice * :42 - Erectile dysfunction and somatic solutions * :50 - Get out of your head and squirt! * :59 - BDSM and embodiment * 1:04 - Opening relationships

Have you found yourself caught up in a never-ending healing journey? Are you rushing from workshop to ceremony to retreat trying to peal all the layers of your existential onion? Maybe what you need is healing from your healing! Today on Life is a Festival, Adam Andros Aronovich, creator of “Healing From Healing” offers us levity and a much needed reprieve from our hyper-individualistic personal development. On the show we discuss the fundamental importance of community in healing work. We talk about diminishing returns in chasing peak experiences. We review the modern preoccupation with trauma, the hero’s journey, and “cinematic epistemology.” Finally Adam helps us learn to serve with our full being without becoming narcissists and how joy and celebration are potent healing modalities. Adam is the creator of Healing from Healing, a social media platform that casts a critical, skeptical and humorous gaze at Healing Culture. He is a doctoral candidate at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Spain, focusing on Medical Anthropology and Cultural Psychiatry. He is an active member of the Medical Anthropology Research Center (MARC-URV) and part of the Ayahuasca Community Committee at the Chacruna Institute for Psychedelic Plant Medicines. Adam spent more than four years conducting research and extensive fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon, where he also facilitated Ayahuasca workshops in the context of shamanic and medical tourism. Adam also facilitates preparation and integration processes in private practice, and helps clients reframe “Healing” within relational and recreative frameworks and a secular, humanistic, grounded and open-ended interpretive and epistemic orientation. Links Healing From Healing: https://healingfromhealing.com/ Healing From Healing Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/healingfromhealing/ Articles on Memory Wars and Recovered Memories: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691619862306 https://www.psypost.org/2014/08/memory-wars-scientific-evidence-repressed-memories-27571 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2011-30132-001 Timestamps :11 - Adam’s research in the Amazon showed that ayahuasca healing was largely about community: Communitas :21 - Diminishing returns on perpetual peak experiences :31 - Preoccupation with trauma, memory wars, and narcissism :47 - Hero’s Journey, celebrity culture and cinematic epistemology :55 - How to serve without becoming narcissistic | Transformation happens both inward and outward 1:07 - Joy and celebration as healing modalities

Today on Life is a Festival in a talk recorded live at Burning Man, I share my personal kink journey and how I learned to alchemize adolescent sexual shame through the archetype of “Daddy.” I was interviewed by the brilliant Chloe Macintosh, founder of the sexual wellness app, Kama, who will be a guest on a forthcoming episode. On the show we discuss where kinks come from and how accepting, embracing, and embodying them can be healing for you and your lovers. We discuss creating safe containers in specific experiences and overall relationship dynamics. Finally we end with questions and a playful Daddy embodiment practice. Kink, like psychedelics and Burning Man itself, can be a powerful transformational technology, if used wisely. Links Life is a Festival #112 “Sex and Shamanic Shadow Hunting” https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/ista Life is a Festival #119 “I Kink, Therefore I Am: The Art of Liberating Desire”: https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/cat-meyer The Erotic Blueprint: https://missjaiya.com/ BDSMtest.org “The Erotic Mind: Unlocking the Inner Sources of Passion and Fulfillment” by Jack Morin: https://www.amazon.com/Erotic-Mind-Unlocking-Sources-Fulfillment/dp/0060984287 Ask a Sub: https://www.askasub.com/ Timestamps :10 - Where do kinks come from :21 - How expressing and integrating kinks leads to healing :27 - How your kinks can be healing for your lover :35 - How embodying my kinks has influenced my life beyond my sexuality :42 - Safe words and the stoplight system :46 - Audience questions about solving for unconscious material, shame, and creating a safe container 1:00 - Daddy Embodiment practice

For those about to Burn! I have procrastinating my own packing for That Thing in the Desert by making you this compilation of my best Black Rock City conversations. From asking the Big Meow Marian whether Burning Man is a festival, to fumbling towards inclusivity with activist Nexus, from Burners without Borders to the Nordic Borderland, these are some of my favorite BRC moments from Life is a Festival. I’ve also added a few PSAs including how to talk to cops (Don’t!), how to protect yourself and loved ones from fentanyl adulteration, and how to help someone having a difficult psychedelic experience. Serendipitously this journey also maps well to the 10 Principles, so you can beef up your cultural acumen on your way to the playa. May you pack all the things but waste nothing and I’ll see you soon in the dust! GIFTING (:09) Caveat Magister (Burning Man Philosophical Center) Episode #28: What's the Point of Burning Man? https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/caveat-magister RADICAL SELF-RELIANCE (:17) Marian Goodell (The Burning Man Project) Episode #79: That One Time We Saved Burning Man https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/marian-goodell RADICAL SELF-EXPRESSION (:23) Adah Parris Episode #68: Visions of an Afropunk Futurist Parrishttps://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/adah-parris CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY (:33) Gustaf Tadaa (The Borderland) Episode #2: Leaderless Leadership at the Nordic Burn https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/gustaftadaa SAFETY THIRD PSA (:40) How to Deal with Cops at Burning Man by Mark Atwood https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lFAWDVzbRLkTM43Y588-ffFxuH7BfXzFbQ8ms7XF_xw/edit HARM REDUCTION PSA (:51) Mitchell Gomez (Dancesafe) Episode #120: In the Age of Fentanyl, Test Your Drugs! https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/mitchell-gomez IMMEDIACY (1:00) Sara Gael (The Zendo Project) Episode #51: How to Help Someone Having a “Bad Trip" https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/sara-gael RADICAL INCLUSION (1:10) JR Nexus Russ Episode #32 Fumbling Towards Inclusivity https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/nexus DECOMMODIFICATION (1:15) Ashoka Finley Episode #83: Power & Privilege in Intentional Communities https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/ashoka-finley LEAVING NO TRACE (1:23) Jamie Wheal (Stealing Fire) Episode #80: Live From the Infinite Playa https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/infinite-playa COMMUNAL EFFORT (1:33) Christopher Breedlove (Burners Without Borders) Episode #50: Serve in the Way that Feeds You Most https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/christopher-breedlove PARTICIPATION (1:41) Life from BMIR (Burning Man Information Radio) Episode #29 It’s Better With You Here | Life is a Festival #29: Live From BMIR https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/bmir

The Wizard of Awe, Jason Silva, returns to Life is a Festival to discuss festival consciousness and how we, the refugees from the mundane, can unleash the brave and reckless Gods we really are at Burning Man and beyond. On the show we discuss freedom from self and expanded circles of moral concern. We talk about using avatars to explore and create our true selves. We touch on ontological and peak experience addiction. We explore the predictive brain theory and solving the problems of the world. We review flow state through the lens of festivals, bicycles, and cannabis. Finally we discuss festival consciousness and how we can grow through fun at Burning Man and Beyond. Jason Silva is an Emmy-nominated and world renown TV personality, storyteller, filmmaker, and sought-after keynote speaker and futurist. He is known for hosting 5 seasons of the Emmy-nominated, global hit TV series Brain Games and his inspirational videos, Shots of Awe, which have received over 100 million views on topics such as futurism, technology, creativity, the science of awe, disruptive innovation, relationships and mental health. Links Jason Silva’s Website: https://www.thisisjasonsilva.com/ Jason Silva’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonlsilva/ Shots of Awe: https://www.youtube.com/c/ShotsOfAwe “The Wizard of Awe Goes to Burning Man” Life is a Festival #30 with Jason Silva: https://www.eamonarmstrong.com/lifeisafestival/jason-silva Timestamps :07 - Liquid time, freedom from self concern, and expanded circles of moral concern :16 - Using avatars to unleash the brave reckless Gods we really are. :23 - Refugees from the mundane :28 - Ontological addition and experience junkies and freedom within boundaries :31 - Cultivating flow with festivals, bicycles, and cannabis. :40 - The predictive brain theory and how to make everything new :48 - How do we solve the problems of the world :54 - Festival Consciousness is a way to grow through fun

This podcast has highlighted many long-standing issues with New Age spirituality and the dark side of “good vibes only,” but according to today’s returning guest, rockstar philosopher Alex Ebert, dunking on the New Age has become boring and there is much that is still valuable and relevant from its perspective and rituals. On the show we begin with a review of the issues with spiritual communities from the dark side of manifestation to how toxic positivity functions like cancer. Alex explains how the critique of New Agism can become its own shtick. He shares his experience with meditation, heroin addiction and death rituals. We discuss the issue of the antifragile ego and how language is the raw material for subjective reality. Finally we end with an exploration of what is still valuable from New Age spirituality from psychedelics to new ideas of gender. Alex Ebert, famous troubadour from Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros now shares a philosophical substack called Bad Guru where he explore these and other timely topics. Notes: Alex Ebert: https://www.instagram.com/alex_ebert/?hl=en Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: https://www.edwardsharpeandthemagneticzeros.com/ Bad Guru: https://badguru.substack.com/ Jules Evans: https://www.philosophyforlife.org/ King Warrior Magician Lover: https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/f/king-warrior-magician-lover/38348343/ "Mindfulness can make you selfish” study: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/04/210414100147.htm Timestamps :09 - The dark side of personal manifestation :17 - How toxic positivity functions like cancer :23 - Dunking on New Age is boring now :29 - Alex’s experience with heroin addiction and death rituals :37 - Bringing back the boons to the community :42 - Dealing with an anti fragile ego :47 - Language as the raw material of subjective reality :59 - The best of New Age healing from psychedelics to therapy 1:10 - Spiritual Gender from King’s to Goddesses