A New and Ancient Story: The Podcast

This was a delightful conversation. We hadn't intended to talk about race, but I'm glad we did, because Mellody shared some unique, unorthodox insights worthy of considering in our troubled times. The conversation ranged into the territory of psychedelic therapy, mysticism, and principles of personal and collective transformation. Her riff on spiritual bypass near the end is not to be missed! Mellody Hayes is a physician-writer, speaker, and spiritual teacher and the Executive Director of Ceremony Health, a faith-based psychedelic healing center. She is graduate of Harvard College and UCSF Medical School and Anesthesiology Residency, John Kenneth Galbraith Scholar, and a Voices of Our Nation Alum. Links: Mellody Hayes: https://www.mellodyhayes.com/ Refuge with Last Black Man in San Francisco: https://adelaidemagazine.org/nf_mellody_hayes33.html

Dr. Edith Ubuntu Chan has an unusual background -- studied mathematics at Harvard, became a Doctor of Oriental Medicine... Actually, nothing I could say about her can do justice to the stories she carries: about the soul's journey, the nature of life and death, illness and healing, and the vastness of human potential. I was on her podcast a couple months ago, and she has graciously returned the favor here. Also check out her new book, Super Wellness via http://www.superwellness.com/ Another podcast of Dr. Chan and Charles is available via http://www.dredithubuntu.com/thedreshow/our-great-initiation-into-the-more-beautiful-world-w-charles-eisenstein

Here I talk with Zach Bush, MD, a doctor with a background in endocrinology who "went holistic" and turned toward gut/brain health, the microbiome, and soil science. Our conversation covered a lot of ground: evolution, the importance of biological diversity for personal, social, and ecological health, the inventive fecundity of life, the role of viruses in sharing genetic information, and more. I expect this conversation will help expand people's horizons in trying to understand health and sickness in the Covid era. Del Bigtree podcast: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXI0UEmCsEw About Zach: https://zachbushmd.com/video/the-highwire/

This rich dialog treats the evolution of activism beyond us-versus-them thinking, with special reference to current events around race, the indigenous, and the Amazon rainforest. Alnoor Ladha’s work focuses on the intersection of political organizing, systems thinking and narrative work. He was the co-founder and Executive Director of The Rules (TR), a global network of activists, organizers, designers, coders, researchers, writers and others focused on changing the rules that create inequality, poverty and climate change. Currently, he is active with Cura Da Terra (#CuraDaTerra), a campaign of and for the indigenous of the Amazon in their role as healers of the earth. Alnoor comes from a Sufi lineage and explores/writes about the intersection between politics and spirituality in times of crisis. The Rules: https://therules.org/

Vivian Dittmar is a teacher, speaker, and writer, author of the book The Power of Feelings. In this conversation we talk about the collective global field of uncertainty, the dynamics of birth and death, and the opportunity that Covid offers to befriend fear and follow its evolutionary power. Here is a guided meditation she offers on accessing the power of fear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eqOXGUgBWY She also shares with the audience a chapter on the power of fear from her book: https://viviandittmar.net/wp-content/uploads/The-Power-of-Fear.pdf Vivian's book, The Power of Feelings is here: https://viviandittmar.net/en/books/the-power-of-feelings/ Her upcoming book, The Inner GPS is here: https://viviandittmar.net/en/books/your-inner-gps/

Rishi Kumar(https://farmerrishi.com), a former software engineer, is a gardening evangelist who uses gardening for personal, social, and ecological healing. We talk a lot about regeneration: how it is not just a set of techniques, but an orientation, a way of seeing, and a way of relating to the earth. We humans don't have to be outsiders to nature; we too are an organ of Gaia and can join the gift circle of life. I hope our conversation gives whomever listens a little extra encouragement to begin or to deepen their gardening, and to look at the nonprofit Rishi works with, Kiss the Ground (https://kisstheground.com).

Sayer Ji is a prominent holistic health researcher and the founder of one of the largest alternative health websites, greenmedinfo.com. We talk first and foremost about the coronavirus and the multiple fear narratives surrounding it, then venture into some other controversial topics: body ecology and the "virome," vaccines, internet censorship, science and its limitations, biological transmutation of elements, water bubble cavitation, and my favorite topic of late, ideological polarization and peace. Link to his new book, Regenerate: Unlocking Your Body's Radical Resilience through the New Biology:  https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/599585/regenerate-by-sayer-ji/  Other resource site: https://regenerateproject.com/

Luz Gonçalves Brito is a Brazilian anthropologist who brings academics and spirituality together in an exquisite way. Our conversation was like a meditation, touching on the inseparability of the spiritual from the ecological and political. For example: ecology, like spirituality, is ultimately a search for connection. Luz's research is not only scholarly -- you may feel chills as I did upon hearing her sing the song given to her by a river.

Julie Esterly is active in the death care movement, part of the reclamation of death as a culturally recognized part of life. We speak of our culture's death rituals, the necessity of realizing death in order to fully realize life, and the connection between the denial of death and the denial of life, which takes specific form in collective ecocide. Is this a depressing topic? No. See if you come a little more alive through this conversation. More about Julie Esterly at esterly.com and her work at naturaldeathcareinitiative.org

Julie Esterly is active in the death care movement, part of the reclamation of death as a culturally recognized part of life. We speak of our culture's death rituals, the necessity of realizing death in order to fully realize life, and the connection between the denial of death and the denial of life, which takes specific form in collective ecocide. Is this a depressing topic? No. See if you come a little more alive through this conversation. More about Julie Esterly at esterly.com and her work at naturaldeathcareinitiative.org