Midwest Real

The show is joined by filmmakers Spencer Chumbley and Erik Ljung. They've shot for a variety of organizations including VICE, Al Jazeera and more.  Head to midwestreal.net for a full write-up and links!

David W. Mathisen's latest work, The Undying Stars dances comfortably where traditional historians wouldn't dare tread. The book ties together ancient megalithic structures with star myths and a holographic, worldview that's oddly similar to what modern science is finding. Still not sexy enough? The Undying Stars also argues that this ancient wisdom was deliberately suppressed by forces who took over the Roman empire, which launched a ruthless campaign to eradicate this esoteric system of knowledge. We also talk about dolphins. For a full write-up and links, head to midwestreal.net 

Tom Campbell has had an impressive career in applied physics. He has worked in military intelligence, he has reverse-engineered the weapons technology of rival governments, he has worked in national missile defense, even on huge engineering projects for NASA— impressive stuff.    But what makes Tom an even more interesting and rare specimen is that he has also spent three decades researching the nature of consciousness and reality. He has done so by remaining open-minded about topics that many scientists and snopes frequenters would greet only with a scoff and a pompous finger wave— Out of body experiences, altered states of consciousness, the statistically measurable power of intent and a bunch of other stuff that sounds like it’s straight out of an episode of FRINGE.    Tom has chronicled has his experiences, findings and anecdotes in a three-part series of books- My Big Toe (Theory of Everything).   Spoiler- the sum total of Tom’s research can be summed up by saying that "reality" as we know it is basical

Randall finishes the brain melting he started in the second part of our conversation. Head to MidwestReal.net for the full write-up!

Every night we go to bed taking it for granted that tomorrow will come. Worst case scenario, our heart will give out and we won't wake up. But, what if that wasn't the worst case scenario? As we speak, massive chunks of instant extinction are flying by the vessel we inhabit at preposterous speeds. If one of them crosses the earth's path, it could easily be game over for the human race. As long as we've been aware of that inconvenient fact, it's been good for precisely one thing- apathy. That's because the ability to do anything about it was completely absent. Well, that's not the case anymore. We do have the technology and intelligence to do something about it. However, thus far, we've shown a complete and total lack of will to even discuss it seriously. What will it take to pay attention? A 9/11 scale tragedy? A Hiroshima scale tragedy? Worse? Unfortunately when you're talking about asteroids, all are very possible. If you know anything about my guest on this show, Randall Carlson, it's probably because he's

Liam Wilson is best known for playing bass in the spastic, technical, AMAZING progressive metal mainstay, Dillinger Escape Plan. If you're a fan of heavy music and you somehow haven't heard of them over the course of the last 15 or so years, I don't even know what to say.  If you're not so much into the metal, fear not, for this man is likely the opposite of what comes to mind when you imagine a guy with millions of head bangs under his belt. He's a voracious reader, a practitioner of Transcendental Meditation, a yogi, a psychonaut, a student of many philosophies, and a bunch of other things I can guarantee he'd never be comfortable calling himself.  Liam and I spent very little time hovering around the surface in this conversation. In fact, I think Liam might have been a little bit excited to be on a show that welcomes fare beyond his bass rig. Go give my new friend (and I do mean that) Liam some love on Twitter, Facebook and on some of his articles over at Talkhouse. If you want to see what his band is up t

Ancient languages like Hebrew had a numerical values embedded into every character. This added levels of meaning and allegory to the bible that gave people like Sir Isaac Newton and many other scholars a life-long headache. But, numerical value is totally absent from the English language... right? I don't know. But, Author and researcher Marty Leeds has some pretty god damn interesting thoughts, videos and books that argue for it. Head to midwestreal.net for links, and a full write-up!

I spoke with Closure in Moscow about their highly intelligent, psychedelic, satyrically lased new masterpiece of a record, Pink Lemonade. Go buy it right now on iTunes or your local record store.  See the full article at Midwest Real.

LISTEN People are evil, violent, greedy, hopeless bastards.  Even as a prepubescent flesh ball that would experience withdrawal symptoms if you took away his Super Nintendo controller for more than five seconds, I knew that.  How could I not?  Fear of the “bad guys” was embedded into roughly 99.9% of the mega-tons of media I consumed on a daily basis.  As a tyke I'd often lie in bed at night fearing a who’s who of boogie men with all manner of otherworldly weaponry that I could never hope to defeat.  But, thankfully, I somehow managed to survive the onslaught of demonic hordes that plagued my mind, the news, movies and the games I so eagerly devoured. I'd even argue that some of it made me a better person.    More recently, from firsthand evidence, I've learned that as scary as the world can be, it’s actually a pretty awesome, dare I say, cooperative place.  I buy shit on Craigslist. I get rides from Uber drivers. And you know what?  I’ve never once been shanked, scammed or raped by a devil worshipper masquer

LISTEN.      I remember it well- the first time I heard the phrase “Freemason”.  Sure, it came from an uneducated mouth at a college party, but it was enough to make me rush to Google for enlightenment.  My 20-year-old brain couldn’t believe what it had read.  Masons seemed to be a real-life shadowy cabal of powerful men linked to basically every major event that lead to the establishment of the United States.  It's well known that George Washington, Ben Franklin and and a slew of other founding fathers we worship were members of this secretive fraternal order shrouded in creepy symbols, weird phrases and secret handshakes.  How could I NOT have known this?  Then I came across the claims that masons were devil worshipers, prayed to idols and practiced black magic.                                                                         (OMG THEY'RE TOTES WATCHING US RIGHT NOW) After a couple of months of being sufficiently freaked out, I gained enough reliably sourced knowledge to see that the truth (as usual

LISTEN.    All comedy is not created equal.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m always ready for (and often partaking in) some cheap chuckles facilitated by potty humor, but I have a deeper appreciation for the type of biting satire and commentary that actually opens your mind, forcing you to think whilst giggling.     I’m no expert on the history of comedy, but there seems to be something more poignant stirring in the hearts of (some of) today’s comedians.  Maybe it was all made possible by trail-blazers like George Carlin and Bill Hicks.  Or, perhaps it’s a natural byproduct of the unbelievably troubled, yet amazing moment in history we dwell within.  Whatever the case, thank god for today’s satirists.  Their craft provides a truly valuable, yet digestible context for the crazy, revolution-ridden times we’re living in today.    Lee Camp is a part of this silver-tongued coterie of counterculture comedians.  In his early days behind the mic, he was doing just fine for himself with more traditional material, but as he w

LISTEN        This bag of meat we drive around sure is complicated.  We’ve had millions of years to figure it out, yet we still don’t know all the ins and outs of caring for this body we’ve got.  To make matters worse, it seems like every week there’s some new piece of medical or nutritional research that contradicts a long-held truth about what it is means to be healthy- Fat has gone from bad to good.  Many grains have gone from the cornerstone of a healthy diet, to something you should probably NEVER eat.  It almost seems like we have no idea what we're doing.    Of course, there’s a whole host of hugely important factors beyond nutrition like sleep, lifestyle, relationships, genetics, environment and roughly a million more things.  But, who has time to worry about all of that?  If there’s not a pill that fixes it, it’s probably too much trouble for the majority of us an our equally jiggly neighbors.     Dave Asprey himself was among the pilled-up, overweight, misguided masses for many years.  But, all tha

LISTEN.         Life can be a bastard.  It has a way of sucker-punching you in the nethers just when you least expect it, leaving you confused and scrambling for answers.  Life gets nasty, period.  Death, disease and trauma don’t wait until you’ve fortified yourself with a daily meditation routine, or had some sort of life-affirming existential breakthrough.  Most of us learn this truth the hard way- in lieu of a personal, transcendent experience that no one can take away, philosophies and religious creeds often amount to squat when life gets dark.  Enter Gabriel D. Roberts.  Raised a fundamentalist Christian, Gabriel’s religious identity was well-defined and static for decades.  But, intelligence and dogma have a way of repelling one another, and by his late twenties he rejected spirituality completely.  What followed, was an ugly period for Gabriel.  He devoted himself to more materialistic endeavors, all while self-medicating with harmful substances. Eventually, after finding his own transcendent experien

Bitcoin is immortal, so you might as well embrace it. LISTEN     New technologies almost always follow a predictable pattern.  They start off exclusive, expensive and as something that grants power to a privileged few, all while some lucky nerd sits atop an ever-growing pile of money at the top of the pyramid.  But eventually, those very same pieces of innovation become cheap, ubiquitous and totally standard until they’re replaced by the next big thing.  It’s happened so many times in the last couple of decades that it almost seems like a requirement.  But every now and then, something so disruptive and novel comes along that it transcends all convention- The PC, the Internet, email, cellular phones Napster- the list goes on.  Will the next addition to that list be Bitcoin? Spoiler: yes. In just a few years, Bitcoin went from a thought-provoking paper, to some clever coding worth a fraction of a penny, to “nerd money,” to disruptive technology worth billions, to the number one consumer of raw computing pow

LISTEN There’s a stupid old expression that says “time is the coin of life, be careful how you spend it.” I’m not sure if there’s a soul on Earth that reads that and thinks “yes, I’m definitely spending my time in the wisest way possible.”  After all, how can we?  Life requires us to have many obligations we don’t really want to deal with- school, debt, jobs, families- they just seem to keep piling up, burying us in a stinky heap of duty (pun fully intended).   But, every now and then someone manages to dig their way out of the rubble.  Mr. Greg Carlwood would be one of them. A couple of years ago, with nothing more than an idea, an anxious middle finger and a desire to better his life, Greg started his own show called The Higherside Chats.  The show now boasts thousands of listeners from all over the world and it’s quickly becoming one of the most popular destinations on the net for alternative media and conspiracy chatter.  Oh, and it also enabled him to quit his fulfilling, soul-sucking day job in retail

LISTEN Compared to the rest of the world, the west has reached a very cushy state, but things haven't always been all corn, beef and football.  Getting to this warm, chubby place required revolution, civil war and plenty of good old fashioned dissidence.  Indeed, many heads were bashed in the name of liberties we now take for granted.  Thankfully, most of us don’t have to take to the streets to fight for basic rights anymore, but there's still plenty of controversial, if not totally backwards, philosophies being preached on all sides of the political spectrum. The government can still chill dissent, ban firearms, give unfair tax breaks to giant conglomerates, spy on us, tell us who we can and can’t marry, what women can and can’t do with their bodies, even mandate what substances we can and can’t use to explore our own consciousnesses.  We all have our own opinions with respect to the ethical, ideological and political debates surrounding such subjects, yet there’s only one that regularly lands thousands of

LISTEN. SUBSCRIBE/REVIEW. We humans have an amazing amount of rational knowledge; painstakingly poking, prodding and measuring basically everything we can get our hands on for generations has brought us to some pretty concrete, indisputable truths about the way the world works.  The rational human mind has cured diseases, coded the human genome and begun mapping the billions of neurons in our own brains.  We have so much objective knowledge we forget that society is practically rotting under the weight of its own increasingly ill, obese, depressed mass.  Perhaps that’s because humanity’s quantifiable victories are rivaled only by the crushing defeat our subjective, inner-selves have suffered.  We give little credence to our, unique experiences, yet it’s they that truly define and satisfy us.  Indispensable, unquantifiable phenomena like our relationships with others, ourselves, and even the meaning we find in life itself are the things we will inevitably lay thinking about as we take our last breaths, still