Tangentially Speaking With Dr. Christopher Ryan

Neil and I are joined by Marg, who helped raise Neil from a young age. We talk about music, books, what it was like to come to the US in 1968, and whether it was obvious that Neil was going to be a successful writer. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Hanging with Simon Rex is like being in a room full of people--all of them hyper-creative and funny as hell. He's an actor, comic, rapper, former model and VJ on MTV, has a massive following on social media, and makes a hell of a blueberry/kale smoothie. His Instagram feed is the most reliable source of hilarity I've come across in years. His show on Comedy Central, Typical Rick, is currently in production for its second season. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Go see Jake if you get the chance. He's a class act, except for when he's hanging out with me. Then he has no class at all. But that's my fault. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Michael Shermer is the Publisher of Skeptic magazine, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University. He is the author of The Believing Brain, Why People Believe Weird Things, Why Darwin Matters, and others. His latest book is The Moral Arc, now out in paperback. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

The anti-Valentine's Day episode. What is love? Should we have kids? What about a three-way marriage? Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Allan has enjoyed a long career as a standup comic and actor. You may have seen him in Mad Men, The Man in the High Castle, Hail Caesar!, and anywhere top notch comics are found. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

In which I rant about the usual: Carrie Fisher, Karl Marx, Matt Le Blanc, micro-aggressions, love, sex, passion, and despair. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Robert Clarke is one of the world's foremost cannabis experts and author, most recently, of Cannabis: Evolution and Ethnobotany (together with Mark D. Merlin). We met by chance in Hanoi in 2003 and have been friends ever since. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Patrick and Bryan are brothers who rode bicycles across the US, from Massachusetts to LA. Their trip is documented at livehigh.org. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Kelly is a postdoc at Stanford. She's using fMRI to investigate whether cognitive processes may help predict relapse after addiction treatment. But we talk about everything from free will to hallucinogens to how the brain generates the feeling of having a mind. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Elena is a graduate student at UBC in Vancouver. She spent four months researching sex workers in India, and is now focussed on the therapeutic potential of hallucinogens. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

A.J. walked away from a corner office on Wall Street because he realized that his life was inauthentic. Since then, he's been on a roll. He founded Misfit—one of the most enigmatic, admirable hunter-gatherer enterprises around. His life is full of travel, love, passion, and positive energy. Plus, he's brilliant, good-looking, and dances like a Cuban. F*ck that guy. Music: "Distinto," by Orishas; "Lekela Muadi," by Tshala Muana. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Suedfeld is a Holocaust survivor whose research is focused on how people experience extreme, unusual, challenging, and traumatic events and environments -- including arctic explorers, astronauts, and prisoners. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

A bit of a critical look at Adam Curtis's film, Hypernormalisation, and a few totally unqualified responses to listener's emails. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

World-famous Jake and I sit in his kitchen, talking about the importance of dicks and complaining about leaf blowers. And other stuff, too. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Neil Strauss is the author of 8 bestselling books and was music critic for Rolling Stone, the Village Voice, and the New York Times. We're chilling on his sofa. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Emails, most of the "should I stay or should I go" variety. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Professor of Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia and author of Trying Not to Try: The Power of Spontaneity, Slingerland has a uniquely informed perspective on the biggest questions we all face. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

I met Georgina on a plane. Long before the seatbelt sign had gone off, I knew I was going to enjoy chatting with her all the way to LA. Getting to know this smart, funny, candid, and quirky woman, the hours flew by. She agreed she'd appear on my podcast a few weeks down the road--once she'd finished shooting a film. I doubted she'd get around to it, but true to her word, she found some time for this wide-ranging conversation about fame, beauty, Hollywood, Australia, and what it's like to make a living pretending to be someone else. Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe

Wade Davis is an extraordinary guy. He's wandered into nearly every corner of this planet, published a slew of fantastic books (several of which have become films), studied hallucinogenic plants in the Amazon, explored voodoo rituals in Haiti, and tells the best s**t-knife story you'll ever hear.  Get full access to Tangentially Speaking with Chris Ryan at chrisryan.substack.com/subscribe