I hope you’re doing well.
Yesterday, I had a conversation with one of my oldest and closest friends on my podcast. Dax published an essay, “A Letter to My White Male Friends of a Certain Age,” over the weekend. I’ll let his incredible work stand for itself—and you should read it.
Empathy is hard. If you haven’t walked in another person’s shoes, you’ll tend to doubt their experiences. That’s why my friendship with Dax is so valuable. In ‘99, I had a gun pointed at my head by an NYC cop on 140th and Broadway; about two dozen cops jumped out of two vans. After following us for an hour, they made their move. They were convinced I was buying drugs from Dax. They simply couldn’t believe a white guy and a black guy were hanging out together in Washington Heights, heading downtown to the UWS for dinner. After nearly strip-searching me in the middle of Broadway they let us go without an apology.
In St Thomas, the cop threatened to blow Dax’s head off. She didn’t like this “attitude.” Then there was the time we were pulled over twice within five miles on Route 17 in North Jersey. We were just trying to go hiking, something we’ve done together dozens of times. Both cops (different townships) said the cause was a Vanillaroma air freshener dangling from his rearview mirror (can’t make that up). Dax threw it out of the window after the second stop.
I’m fortunate to have not been heavily profiled in my life—a few times in college, but nothing like the above, and not for any of the reasons that our conversation details. But when you live through it, even second hand, you see things differently.
We’re not in new territory now—hell, Dax and I were part of a crew that blocked a highway marching to the Rutgers president’s house in ‘95 for his racist remarks. We’ve just reached a boiling point. Near the end of our talk, Dax offers actionable steps we can all take to help make this moment transformative.
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The last two EarthRise Podcast episodes featured my friends, Matthew Remski and Julian Walker. We discussed the weird emerging intersection of wellness communities and conspiracy theory-rich QAnon ideologues. We’ve decided to make it a weekly podcast. The link will bring you to all of the appropriate avenues: Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher, YouTube. Subscribe to your favorite delivery mechanism!
About Conspirituality
As the alt-right and New Age horseshoe toward each other in a blur of disinformation, well-intentioned discourse and honest debate are being smothered. Charismatic influencers exploit their followers by peddling dangerous conspiracy theories. In the process, spiritual beliefs that nurture creativity and meaning are transformed into memes of a quickly-globalizing paranoia.
Conspirituality attempts to bring clarity to this conversation. A journalist, cult researcher, and philosophical skeptic discuss the stories, cognitive dissonances, and cultic dynamics tearing through the yoga, wellness, and new spirituality worlds.
My third Zoom workshop will be this Sunday, June 7! You can sign up here. (Paying subscribers to this newsletter get free access.) These small-group workshops are a lot of fun, as my classes on YouTube (36 so far!) are great, but I don’t get to see anyone flowing along. Zoom workshops are recorded and hosted on a private link so attendees can take it again at their leisure.
Since we’re talking yoga, my EarthRise Yoga playlist is still updated weekly. As I don’t play music during the YouTube classes, I keep it fresh for your home experience. If you need something on the chiller side, my Greatest Savasana playlist features 10.5 hours (and always growing) of ambient songs perfect for chillaxing.
YouTube’s analytics brought this great 2016 performance by Digable Planets to my feed yesterday. I saw them live in 1992 and I must say, they’ve held up well. Until next time!