Reading Time: 4 minutes The documentary From Shock to Awe takes an intimate and raw look at the transformational journey of two combat veterans suffering from severe trauma as they abandon pharmaceuticals to seek relief through the mind-expanding world of psychedelics. In an online conversation with documentary co-creator Janine Sagert, we explored how the transformative power of psychedelics and meditation helped […]
trauma
Posted inLGBTQ
Adam and Steve: Queer artists repurpose Genesis as a gay love story
Reading Time: 7 minutes By “queering” Genesis with their music, Dorian Electra and Lil Nas X repurposed the Adam and Eve dynamic, turning it into a gay love story.
Posted inViolence
Why are AR-15-style rifles so wildly popular in America?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Why does the United States all-too-casually allow virtually anyone to buy an AR-15-style rifle, a fearsomely lethal weapon millions of American civilians have already joyfully acquired? I ask myself that question every time one of these awful weapons is used to kill many, many innocent people in a matter of minutes or even seconds—including the […]
Posted inFilm/TV
‘Memento Mori’: To live with the prospect of death (Strange New Worlds)
Reading Time: 9 minutes Like any self-respecting Trekkie, I learned the basics of gunpower from Star Trek: The Original Series. One of TOS‘s most memorable scenes comes from “Arena” (Season 1, Episode 18), when Captain Kirk, trapped on a planet with minimal resources, has to use his wits to survive an encounter with a brutish reptilian species called the […]
Posted inCulture
Wellness is systemic: A podcast episode for mental health
Reading Time: 4 minutes When I first recorded episodes for Global Humanist Shoptalk last year, I had no idea what 2022 was going to hold. I did suspect that far-right legislation would continue to pose problems, and that pandemic wouldn’t be over so easily after all. But I certainly wouldn’t have put money on a full-on war in Ukraine […]
Posted inCulture, General
The World Is a Vampire
Reading Time: 6 minutes …you know how the rest of the song goes, right? The title came to me when I was pondering the state of the world and all I could come up with is that everything is horrifying and I don’t know what to do about it.
Posted inEducation, General, Sex & Gender
I’m Quietly Disengaging from Sex Education
Reading Time: 4 minutes When I started embarking on a path to learn more about sex education & incorporate that into my career, I thought it’d become my haven from academia. I was wrong.
Posted inCulture, Education, General
You Cannot Teach Someone Who Feels Unsafe
Reading Time: 4 minutes I have a lot of thoughts on what happened yesterday, but I’m responding first in my capacity as an educator, to remind us that even when people’s positions are at best misinformed, we don’t stand much of a chance of correcting them when they feel unsafe.
Posted inGeneral
I’m Running Out of Ways to Politely Imply I’m Emotionally Dead Inside
Reading Time: 5 minutes As we near the end of 2020 and the first global pandemic I’ve lived through, I’m low on ideas for maintaining social and creative connections when I have no inner life.
Posted inEducation, General
Teaching and Trauma Recovery Are Both Fishtanks
Reading Time: 5 minutes I know the metaphor (a goldfish will grow to fill its tank) is flawed, but boy does it work well for activities like teaching and trying to recover from trauma. I’m sure we’ve all heard something like this: a goldfish will grow to the size of its tank (not quite true, but as ubiquitous an […]